Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/340

 us that her position will be sustained and strengthened,—it is by what we, in the skill and excellence of our Work in all trades and professions, will do for Her. It is by our determination to excel in all kinds of Work that she will hold her own,—by our unstinted time, our ungrudging labour, our zeal, our cheerfulness, our love for her glory that she—and ourselves—will exist. It is necessary to "protect" her, and all things that may help to make her stronger and greater—but sometimes the word "Protection" may be made to apply chiefly to capitalists and "cornerers" of trade. Herein comes the hard work of Thinking. We must Think for ourselves. God has given us brains to work with. There is never any good reason why we should hastily adopt the political views of certain newspaper proprietors, who are perhaps under the impression that we have no brains at all, and that being thus sadly deficient, we are willing to buy their brains for a penny or a halfpenny! It is by the workers of the land that the land lives. And more than this,—it is from the workers that must come the great battle of Right against Might. It is for the Workers to put to shame by their own faith and honour, the wicked Atheism and open immorality which are disgracing some of our so-called "upper" classes to-day—and it is for the Workers to show by their upright, temperate lives, and their steady downright Work, that they are determined to keep the foundations of the Home secure, and the heart of England warm and true. What says brave Thomas Carlyle?

"All true Work is sacred; in all true Work, were it but true hand-labour, there is something