He, also, had suffered heavily.
His young wife, his beautiful and good young wife, was dead; so,
too, his only child.
"Master, 'tis hard to bear--I know it--but be comforted. I would
give you comfort, if I could."
The Master thanked him from his heart, but, said he, "O you
labouring men! The calamity began among you. If you had but lived
more healthily and decently, I should not be the widowed and bereft
mourner that I am this day."
"Master," returned the other, shaking his head, "I have begun to
understand a little that most calamities will come from us, as this
one did, and that none will stop at our poor doors, until we are
united with that great squabbling family yonder, to do the things
that are right. We cannot live healthily and decently, unless they
who undertook to manage us provide the means. We cannot be
instructed unless they will teach us; we cannot be rationally
amused, unless they will amuse us; we cannot but have some false
gods of our own, while they set up so many of theirs in all the
public places. The evil consequences of imperfect instruction, the
evil consequences of pernicious neglect, the evil consequences of
unnatural restraint and the denial of humanising enjoyments, will
all come from us, and none of them will stop with us. They will
spread far and wide.
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