The poor, said he, whilst they are earning their own bread, provide necessaries and superfluities for the rich; who, in return, often to aggrandize themselves, fight their battles, plan their laws, and enable the mechanics to send their work to foreign markets. The labourer also, who tills the ground, and anxiously turns the produce to a good account, that he may be able to pay his rent, is protected by the rich, and may reasonably expect to solace himself after his toil, under the shade of the trees his fathers have planted, or those he himself has reared. Thus does heaven bind us all together, and make our mutual wants the strong cement of society; and even the follies of individuals are so overruled as to produce good to the whole. Well, now for our conversation. CHARLES. You do not complain, I hope, that you have taken the trouble to accompany us? WILLIAM. Complain, no, I should have been very sorry to have missed so pleasing and instructive a sight. CHARLES. I for my part, am very well pleased. What skilful, laborious men there are in the world; and how much of the comfort of our lives, depends on the exertions of our fellow-creatures; and must arise from the labours of those poor uneducated people, the rich are too apt to despise. WILLIAM. Yes, I have often seen that persons of high rank treat them as if they were not made of the same flesh and blood.—I have seen that they scarcely moved their hats to a mechanic, though he bows himself almost to the ground. EMILIA. That appears to me to be very wrong. CHARLES. It is indeed a very perverse pride, for with all their riches, they could not do without those useful men. O, thought I, when I saw the weaver, who sat sweating before his loom, this man exhausts his vigour to procure me a great comfort, linen. Without him, the flax, that valuable plant, which the earth produces for this purpose, would be useless. Every one will allow, that shoe-makers and taylors are necessary; in short, since I find that laborious people are so essential to the well-being of the world, I cannot imagine how men can treat them with so much contempt. As to myself I shall guard against such behaviour; in the use of those things, I shall endeavour always to remember the men who are the instruments to convey the blessings of heaven to me: and these considerations will make me esteem my fellow-members of society; and try to fulfil my part of the sociable compact. WILLIAM. I agree with my friend, and am ashamed that I should ever have looked on this class of my brethren with indifference. EMILIA. But I found nothing that excited my wonder more than the art of printing. How could it be possible to write so many books as there are in the world?