THE COLONIST. NELSON, FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1882.

Colonist, Volume V, Issue 468, 18 April 1862, Page 2

THE COLONIST. NELSON, FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1882.

In adverting once more to Mrs. Bayly's work we must insist on two very clear but very important points. Moral refinement is gained either by self-discipline or by sympathy with minds already so disciplined: by voluntary occupation, or by involuntary influence. The child becomes refined by influence—by the mental atmosphere it breathes, and absorbs at once the moral result of years of self discipline in those around it. And so the laboring classes, if they were really allowed to mingle more with the classes above them—if the inexorable shyness and pride of English life, and manners were broken—would inhale-quickly by the mere fascination of sympathy the net result in moral refinement of much academic study and laborious self-regula-tion in the class above them.

Mrs. Bayly in a most admirable manner suggests various unusual duties to the masters ol factories by the discharge of which they can alone hope to prevent ' strikes'—to win the confidence and receive the full help of their laborers. The few plans suggested—plans which she herself has seen tried—all involve this first of all refining influences—equal intercourse between the laborers and their employers; but all fortunately involve real practical objects for that intercourse, so as to carry with them none of the vague embarrassment which the mere wish for fuller intercourse produces, when a sufficient field of common interest is not found. Mere knowledge is only refining where the knowledge of things takes iis proper subordination to the knowledge of 2 Jcrsons' Hence the daily labor of good workmen —often guided by some knowledge of science—the intercourse they |hold withfeach other, or even the pursuit of some favorite study leave them as unrefined as before. They dig and delve—they smoke and drink—they read novels or newspapers—and they are what they were— -laborers. But once let them get an interest in literature, which they seldom get till they have some personal sympathies with cultivated men above them, and they begin to hays an insight into an infinite moral sphere.

The second chapter in Mrs. Bayly's book entitled 'A Servant of Servants' shows how labor has been dignified by the life of Him, who ' though Lord of all, took upon Himself the form of a servant,' redeemed labor from the degradation into which it has fallen, and as the reputed son of a carpenter qualified Himself by actual work fully to sympathise with the sons of toil—attached to Himself a number of men as poor as Himself, who were obliged to work for their bread, and assisted them in their various occupations—patiently teaching and instructing day after day the ignorant—• never upbraiding those who were provokingly slow in comprehending His meaning—but looking around, and by the most familiar objects so manifesting His meaning that they could not fail to understand. Having neither the means nor the desire to employ any one to wait upon Himself, for the object of His life was to minister to others, and not to be ministered unto. The great people said he was mad. They murmured at him for receiving poor people, and for sitting down to eat at the same table with them; reminding Him that of such and such an one, that {she is a sinner.' To which He answered, 'My mission on earth is to just such as her; I am come not to condemn such, but to bid them go and sin no more.'

We would call to mind that the usually monotonous occupation of mechanical labor leads to great moral and intellectual deficiences chiefly on this account—that the mind of the laborer must usually seek its satisfaction in the end—namely, his wages —not in the labor itself. From this spring various dangerous results. First, the work becomes more prominently selfish than that of tbe intellectual classes, who, though they equally work for hire, usually find their interest in the work itself. And this it is, in part, which makes socialism so morally attractive to the laboring classes. A partial remedy for this danger is really provided by anything which offers facilities for co-operation,— whicn enables the laborer to feel that he is working for others, not only for himself. Societies no doubt compete with and emulate each other as much as individuals, but emulation is with them a nobler sentiment; for the winner has to divide the gains, while solitary success may be purely selfish. The movement set on foot by the Christian Socialists, together with those needful alterations of the English law against partnerships with limited liabilities may tend to remove from mechanical labor the injurious influences of all pursuits in which it not only happens.that his success can interest the laborer only through the wages he receives, but even then can interest him only for himself.

But it is not only through this selfengrossing tendency of mechanical labor which, from the want of interest in the monotonous detail, keeps the vacant eye of the mind fixed on the resulting personal gain, that a somewhat vulgarising influence proceeds. That will be partially removed by co-operation, which we see no just reason should not take place even in the colonies.

Besides this, there is a necessarily unfavorable effect produced by the necessity of keeping the strain of attention always fixed on that in which the intellect finds no intrinsic interest. If a man be closely occupied all day, for instanc upon pins'

heads, tbey must very soon lose their interest to him—one would suppose—and so he acquires a kind of routine attention to that which can be no subject of thought. No habit is so fatal to intellectual cultivation and insight. All discrimination both of taste and judgment, is utterly lost when a man has constantly the same repetitions of dull accuracies without variety, without interest, without discretion. Delicacy of thought or observation is destroyed as certainly as delicacy of ear by constantly dwelling on the same incessant note. The mind becomes dead to the finer distinctions, tones, shades and movements, and gulps down knowledge, if it seeks it at all, in a coarse, tasteless fashion that insures against thorough assimilation. Unless the laborer is to be sacrificed to his product, a greater variety of tasks, excitements and pleasures must be given to him, even at the expense of a considerable temporary waste of efficiency. We should like to see cheap concerts, newspaper rooms, and mechanic institutions established in this city for the benefit of the working classes. Until this is done we cannot hope to raise our laborers much above the selfishly plodding, ignorant being we too often meet with in this province.

We cannot extend these observations further now, but we must repeat that there is not a higher social problem, a more intricate practical question than this—How may we best best reconcile the functions of a permanent laboring class with the full moral maturity of its members ?

The Provincial Council of Nelson, it is at last officially announced, will positively meet for the despatch of business, in the Provincial Hall, on Tuesday, the thirteenth day of May next, at one o'clock p.m.