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第3节

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lled; they at once return in  allegiance to the common duty of all citizens; and hasten to  denounce themselves; and value at an equal rate their just  crime and their equally just submission to its punishment。

The evading of the police will not long satisfy an active  conscience or a thoughtful head。  But to show you how one or  the other may trouble a man; and what a vast extent of  frontier is left unridden by this invaluable eighth  commandment; let me tell you a few pages out of a young man's  life。

He was a friend of mine; a young man like others; generous;  flighty; as variable as youth itself; but always with some  high motions and on the search for higher thoughts of life。   I should tell you at once that he thoroughly agrees with the  eighth commandment。  But he got hold of some unsettling  works; the New Testament among others; and this loosened his  views of life and led him into many perplexities。  As he was  the son of a man in a certain position; and well off; my  friend had enjoyed from the first the advantages of  education; nay; he had been kept alive through a sickly  childhood by constant watchfulness; comforts; and change of  air; for all of which he was indebted to his father's wealth。

At college he met other lads more diligent than himself; who  followed the plough in summer…time to pay their college fees  in winter; and this inequality struck him with some force。   He was at that age of a conversible temper; and insatiably  curious in the aspects of life; and he spent much of his time  scraping acquaintance with all classes of man… and woman… kind。  In this way he came upon many depressed ambitions; and  many intelligences stunted for want of opportunity; and this  also struck him。  He began to perceive that life was a  handicap upon strange; wrong…sided principles; and not; as he  had been told; a fair and equal race。  He began to tremble  that he himself had been unjustly favoured; when he saw all  the avenues of wealth; and power; and comfort closed against  so many of his superiors and equals; and held unwearyingly  open before so idle; so desultory; and so dissolute a being  as himself。  There sat a youth beside him on the college  benches; who had only one shirt to his back; and; at  intervals sufficiently far apart; must stay at home to have  it washed。  It was my friend's principle to stay away as  often as he dared; for I fear he was no friend to learning。   But there was something that came home to him sharply; in  this fellow who had to give over study till his shirt was  washed; and the scores of others who had never an opportunity  at all。  IF ONE OF THESE COULD TAKE HIS PLACE; he thought;  and the thought tore away a bandage from his eyes。  He was  eaten by the shame of his discoveries; and despised himself  as an unworthy favourite and a creature of the back…stairs of  Fortune。  He could no longer see without confusion one of  these brave young fellows battling up…hill against adversity。   Had he not filched that fellow's birthright?  At best was he  not coldly profiting by the injustice of society; and  greedily devouring stolen goods?  The money; indeed; belonged  to his father; who had worked; and thought; and given up his  liberty to earn it; but by what justice could the money  belong to my friend; who had; as yet; done nothing but help  to squander it?  A more sturdy honesty; joined to a more even  and impartial temperament; would have drawn from these  considerations a new force of industry; that this equivocal  position might be brought as swiftly as possible to an end;  and some good services to mankind justify the appropriation  of expense。  It was not so with my friend; who was only  unsettled and discouraged; and filled full of that trumpeting  anger with which young men regard injustices in the first  blush of youth; although in a few years they will tamely  acquiesce in their existence; and knowingly profit by their  complications。  Yet all this while he suffered many indignant  pangs。  And once; when he put on his boots; like any other  unripe donkey; to run away from home; it was his best  consolation that he was now; at a single plunge; to free  himself from the responsibility of this wealth that was not  his; and do battle equally against his fellows in the warfare  of life。

Some time after this; falling into ill…health; he was sent at  great expense to a more favourable climate; and then I think  his perplexities were thickest。  When he thought of all the  other young men of singular promise; upright; good; the prop  of families; who must remain at home to die; and with all  their possibilities be lost to life and mankind; and how he;  by one more unmerited favour; was chosen out from all these  others to survive; he felt as if there were no life; no  labour; no devotion of soul and body; that could repay and  justify these partialities。  A religious lady; to whom he  communicated these reflections; could see no force in them  whatever。  'It was God's will;' said she。  But he knew it was  by God's will that Joan of Arc was burnt at Rouen; which  cleared neither Bedford nor Bishop Cauchon; and again; by  God's will that Christ was crucified outside Jerusalem; which  excused neither the rancour of the priests nor the timidity  of Pilate。  He knew; moreover; that although the possibility  of this favour he was now enjoying issued from his  circumstances; its acceptance was the act of his own will;  and he had accepted it greedily; longing for rest and  sunshine。  And hence this allegation of God's providence did  little to relieve his scruples。  I promise you he had a very  troubled mind。  And I would not laugh if I were you; though  while he was thus making mountains out of what you think  molehills; he were still (as perhaps he was) contentedly  practising many other things that to you seem black as hell。   Every man is his own judge and mountain…guide through life。   There is an old story of a mote and a beam; apparently not  true; but worthy perhaps of some consideration。  I should; if  I were you; give some consideration to these scruples of his;  and if I were he; I should do the like by yours; for it is  not unlikely that there may be something under both。  In the  meantime you must hear how my friend acted。  Like many  invalids; he supposed that he would die。  Now; should he die;  he saw no means of repaying this huge loan which; by the  hands of his father; mankind had advanced him for his  sickness。  In that case it would be lost money。  So he  determined that the advance should be as small as possible;  and; so long as he continued to doubt his recovery; lived in  an upper room; and grudged himself all but necessaries。  But  so soon as he began to perceive a change for the better; he  felt justified in spending more freely; to speed and brighten  his return to health; and trusted in the future to lend a  help to mankind; as mankind; out of its treasury; had lent a  help to him。

I do not say but that my friend was a little too curious and  partial in his view; nor thought too much of himself and too  little of his parents; but I do say that here are some  scruples which tormented my friend in his youth; and still;  perhaps; at odd times give him a prick in the midst of his  enjoyments; and which after all have some foundation in  justice; and point; in their confused way; to some more  honourable honesty within the reach of man。  And at least; is  not this an unusual gloss upon the eighth commandment?  And  what sort of comfort; guidance; or illumination did that  precept afford my friend throughout these contentions?  'Thou  shalt not steal。'  With all my heart!  But AM I stealing?

The truly quaint materialism of our view of life disables us  from pursuing any transaction to an end。  You can make no one  understand that his bargain is anything more than a bargain;  whereas in point of fact it is a link in the policy of  mankind; and either a good or an evil to the world。  We have  a sort of blindness which prevents us from seeing anything  but sovereigns。  If one man agrees to give another so many  shillings for so many hours' work; and then wilfully gives  him a certain proportion of the price in bad money and only  the remainder in good; we can see with half an eye that this  man is a thief。  But if the other spends a certain proportion  of the hours in smoking a pipe of tobacco; and a certain  other proportion in looking at the sky; or the clock; or  trying to recall an air; or in meditation on his own past  adventures; and only the remainder in downright work such as  he is paid to do; is he; because the theft is one of time and  not of money; … is he any the less a thief?  The one gave a  bad shilling; the other an imperfect hour; but both broke the  bargain; and each is a thief。  In piecework; which is what  most of us do; the case is none the less plain for being even  less material。  If you forge a bad knife; you have wasted  some of mankind's iron; and then; with unrivalled cynicism;  you pocket some of mankind's money for your trouble。  Is  there any man so blind who cannot see that this is theft?   Again; if you carelessly cultivate a farm; you have been  playing fast and loose with mankind's resources against  hunger; there will be less bread i

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