uses of knowledge are secondary. It scarcely needs saying that the primary use of work is that of supplying the materials and aids to living completely; and that any other uses of work are secondary. But in men's conceptions the secondary has, in great measure, usurped the place of the primary. The apostle of culture as it is commonly conceived, Mr. Matthew Arnold, makes little or no reference to the fact that the first use of knowledge is the right ordering of all actions; and Mr. Carlyle, who is a good exponent of current ideas about work, insists on its virtues for quite other reasons than that it achieves sustentation. We may trace everywhere in human affairs a tendency to transform the means into the end. All see that the miser does this when, making the accumulation of money his sole satisfaction, he forgets that money is of value only to purchase satisfactions. But it is less commonly seen that the like is true of the work by which the money is accumulated — that industry, too, bodily or mental, is but a means, and that it is as irrational to pursue it to the exclusion of that complete living it subserves as it is for the miser to accumulate money and make no use of it. Hereafter, when this age of active material progress has yielded mankind its benefits, there will, I think, come a better adjustment of labor and enjoyment. Among reasons for thinking this, there is the reason that the process of evolution throughout the world at large brings an increasing surplus of energies that are not absorbed in fulfilling material needs, and points to a still larger surplus for humanity of the future. And there are other reasons, which I must

pass over. In brief, I may say that we have had somewhat too much of 'the gospel of work.' It is time to preach the.gospel of relaxation.

"This is a very unconventional after dinner speech. Especially it will be thought strange that in returning thanks I should deliver something very much like a homily. But I have thought that I could not better convey my thanks than by the expression of a sympathy which issues in a fear. If, as I gather, this intemperance in work affects more especially the Anglo American part of the population — if there results an undermining of the physique, not only in adults, but also in the young, who, as I learn from your daily journals, are also being injured by overwork- if the ultimate consequence should be a dwindling away of those among you who are the inheritors of free institutions and best adapted to them; then there will come a further difficulty in the working out of that great future which lies before the American nation. To my anxiety on this account you must please ascribe the unusual character of my remarks."

If what Mr. Spencer had seen and heard among the class in which he had moved, and to whom he was talking, had forced on him the belief that their persistent activity had reached an extreme from which there must begin a counterchange-a reaction; if everywhere he had been struck with the number of faces which told in strong lines of the burdens that had to be borne; if among that class he had also been struck with the large proportion of gray haired men ;

if his inquiries had brought out the fact that with them the hair commonly began to turn some ten years earlier than with his own people; if, in every circle that he had moved in he had met men who had suffered from nervous collapse, due to stress of business, or been informed of others who had killed themselves by overwork, or been incapacitated, or had wasted long periods in endeavors to recover health; if he but echoed the opinion of all observant persons to whom he had spoken, that immense injury is being done by this high pressure life-that the physique is being undermined; and if, among the classes there represented the wealthy, those who had abundance, and enjoyed to an unlimited extent all the comforts of life, there were still such dismal signs of overwork and care, what are the signs that must mark the condition of those who were there unrepresented the poor, the daily laborer, the mechanic; those who have not one of the comforts of life, hardly the necessaries ?

The answer to the foregoing question is best made by the following report of vital statistics quoted from the daily press:

"Investigations made in Germany concerning the vitality of children under various methods of feeding exhibit some curious results. Thus, of 100 children nursed by their mothers only 18.2 died during the first year; of those nursed by wet nurses, 20.33 died; of those artificially fed, 60 died, and of those brought up in institutions, 80 died to the 100. Again, taking 1,000 well to do persons and 1,000 poor persons, there remained of the prosperous after five years 943, while of the poor only 655 remained alive; after fifty years there remained of the prosperous 557, and only 283 of the poor; at 70 years of age there remained of the prosperous 235, and but 65 of the poor. The

total average length of life among the well off class was found to be 50 years, as against 32 among the poor."

Here is the clearest evidence that if burdens and overwork had marked with strong lines many of the faces of the class that Mr. Spencer addressed, and incapacitated and killed others, that overwork and burdens had been doubly injurious and twice as mortal among the great masses upon the outside. To these great masses, also, must the "Gospel of Relaxation" be preached; and in the principles of the six hour law is found the only method by which that preaching can be made effective. It is to be reached only by destroying that spirit of destructive competition referred to by Mr. Spencer, in the case of the "great trader" who "deliberately endeavored to crush out everyone whose business competed with his own," up and down, through all classes, to the utmost limit.

In that one little effort Herbert Spencer deftly held up to view the consuming greed that is wasting the vitality of our whole people, for which he should ever be held in the most grateful remembrance.

CHAPTER XVI.

GENERAL EFFECTS OF THE MECHANICAL CHANGES OF THE PAST FIFTY YEARS, AND OF INDUSTRIAL REDISTRIBUTION IN THE FUTURE.

TH

HE real effect which the general use of machinery in all industries has wrought upon the social condition of our people, is not to be satisfactorily measured or appreciated in the changes which occur from year to year, but, far better, from decade to decade; and, better still, from half century to half century.

That during the past fifty years there has been, in the invention, improvement, and use of machinery, an enormous increase in man's power to provide for his necessities and comforts; and that, at the same time, there has been an alarming development of extreme want and pauperism can not be successfully denied.

Fifty years ago the bonanza farm was unknown. Then there were no huge tracts of our best lands cultivated without a family rooftree upon its whole extent — without woman or child, or other indication of a home; where for a portion of the year were to be found laborers only, under the eye of an overseer, himself a hireling, with cattle and machinery; and where,