The Voice of Science in Nineteenth-Century Literature: Representative Prose and Verse
Science
The Voice of Science in Nineteenth-Century Literature: Representative Prose and Verse
English literature -- 19th century; Literature, Modern; Science; Science in literature
I say first in feeding; and, once for all, do not let yourselves be
deceived by any of the common talk of "indiscriminate charity." The order
to us is not to feed the deserving hungry, nor the industrious hungry, nor
the amiable and well-intentioned hungry, but simply to feed the hungry. It
is quite true, infallibly true, that if any man will not work, neither
should he eat--think of that, and every time you sit down to your dinner,
ladies and gentlemen, say solemnly, before you ask a blessing, "How much
work have I done to-day for my dinner?" But the proper way to enforce that
order on those below you, as well as on yourselves, is not to leave
vagabonds and honest people to starve together, but very distinctly to
discern and seize your vagabond; and shut your vagabond up out of honest
people's way, and very sternly then see that, until he has worked, he does
_not_ eat. But the first thing is to be sure you have the food to give;
and, therefore, to enforce the organization of vast activities in
agriculture and in commerce, for the production of the wholesomest food,
and proper storing and distribution of it, so that no famine shall any
more be possible among civilized beings. There is plenty of work in this
business alone, and at once, for any number of people who like to engage
in it.
Secondly, dressing people--that is to say, urging everyone within reach of
your influence to be always neat and clean, and giving them means of being
so. In so far as they absolutely refuse, you must give up the effort with
respect to them, only taking care that no children within your sphere of
influence shall any more be brought up with such habits; and that every
person who is willing to dress with propriety shall have encouragement to
do so. And the first absolutely necessary step toward this is the gradual
adoption of a consistent dress for different ranks of persons, so that
their rank shall be known by their dress; and the restriction of the
changes of fashion within certain limits. All which appears for the
present quite impossible; but it is only so far even difficult as it is
difficult to conquer our vanity, frivolity, and desire to appear what we
are not. And it is not, nor ever shall be, creed of mine, that these mean
and shallow vices are unconquerable by Christian women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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