“’Tis this indeed mankind doth grace,
(And hence the gift to understand,)
First in his inward self to trace
All that he fashions with his hand.”
Unfortunately, our mates in the workshops nowadays are not conscious of any such feeling. So far is this from being the case that anybody would think workshops are simply places to kill time in, and nothing more. The universal watchword is:
“Don’t push on too fast,
Lest the laggards be last.”
Piece-work and working in gangs have ceased. This is only natural, as such styles of working could never be brought into harmony with the ideas of equality of wages and of working hours. But what Franz does not quite like, as he writes me, is the way they have now of spinning the work out so. In spite of sure and regular wages, they say:
“If the job is not finished to-day it will be finished to-morrow.”
Diligence and zeal are looked upon as stupidity and perversity. And indeed why should one be industrious? The most diligent comes off no better than the laziest. No one is any longer, so writes Franz, the forger of the links of his own happiness, but others forge the links which shall fetter you just as it pleases them.