The people distrust the wealthy classes! If it be so, whose fault is it? Is it all theirs? They do not know those classes; they seldom see them except at a distance, and from a lower standing. Their estimate of them is founded on slander; how, then, can they have confidence in them? ... Their confidence must be won, it must be raised by dint of benevolence, charity, and self-devotion, and the task is by no means impracticable. What! the possessors of fortune, and talent, and a name, and yet unable to gain that confidence on the part of the people which a schoolmaster, a village lawyer, a tipstaff, a man without any intellectual or moral worth, is able to secure! Of what avail, then, is it to spend so many long years in study? What does a good education mean, and of what use is it? Surely a very false idea has been formed of education. It will soon be made to consist in knowing how to train a horse, or to turn a compliment, or in instilling vanity into brains which need no addition of that quality. Knowledge, talent, position, and birth are not bestowed on us for the benefit of self, but for the welfare of all; and it therefore behoves those who are endowed with a greater capacity--who possess more knowledge, more time, more influence, and more heart than others--to share their advantages with those who have less, or who have not the leisure to acquire them. {114} That the influence of which we are speaking may be secured is proved by the fact of its existence throughout France. There are parts of the country where the rich man is king and father of his _commune_; which then resembles one great family. There, the tenant of the cottage exchanges smiles with the proprietor of the mansion, and the joys and sorrows of both are warmly reciprocated. No important step is taken by those who are below without knowing first what those above them think of it. Under such circumstances, how many evils are avoided, how many quarrels adjusted, how many animosities appeased! Oh, what a glorious mission! How sad to reflect that it is not carried out everywhere! Nevertheless, strive to make it understood by persuasion. Make frequent appeals to the hearts of the rich, to their love of humanity. Invoke them to aid us in stopping the misery at its source. Invoke their pity on the masses who toil and suffer beneath us; their pity for those poor children whose fathers devour their bread; pity on behalf of the aged who pine in cold and hunger; pity for the woman who spends her Sunday evenings in tears, expecting every moment to encounter the brutality of a husband who reels home with his reason and heart drowned in liquor. Appeal even to their sense of shame, and tell them that, if it is right to protect animals, it is still more so to cherish human beings--that their words, coupled with a good example, would be all-powerful to remedy these miseries--that it is the rich and great of the earth who sow good or evil in the