Practicable Socialism, New SeriesBarnett, S. A. (Samuel Augustus)
Religion
Practicable Socialism, New Series
Barnett, S. A. (Samuel Augustus)
Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems; Working class
The settlers will find themselves related to two distinct classes of
“the poor,” and it will be well if they keep in mind the fact that they
must serve both those who, like the artisans, need the necessaries for
_life_, and also those who, like casual labourers, need the necessaries
for _livelihood_. They will not of course come believing that their
Settlement will make the wicked good, the dull glad, and the poor rich,
but they may be assured that results will follow the sympathy born of
close neighbourhood. It will be something, if they are able to give to a
few the higher thoughts in which men’s minds can move, to suggest other
forms of recreation, and to open a view over the course of the river of
life as it flows to the Infinite Sea. It will be something if they
create among a few a distaste for dirt and disorder, if they make some
discontented with their degrading conditions, if they leaven public
opinion with the belief that the law which provides cleanliness, light
and order should be applied equally in all quarters of the town. It will
be something, if thus they give to the one class the ideal of life, and
stir up in the other those feelings of self-respect, without which
increased means of livelihood will be useless. It will be more if to
both classes they can show that selfishness or sin is the only really
bad thing, and that the best is not “too good for human nature’s daily
food”. Nothing that is divine is alien to man, and nothing which can be
learnt at the University is too good for East London.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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