“Aha! I expected that! Some one said of you the other day, ye spalpeen, that ye dignified your trade.”
“Did you say that I hoped my trade might dignify me? It is quite true, Bryan; there’s nothing like working with one’s hands to keep the body in health and the soul at peace. I wish every clergyman and brain-worker in the country had some handicraft to work at for an hour or two every day; though not in the present condition of the labor market,” he hastened to add, with a smile.
“Well, as between labor and capital, I’m afraid most of the clergy would choose capital,” said Father McClosky with a grin.
The rector of St. Andrew’s also had his private protest to make.
“I’ve read that book of Bellamy’s, my dear Clare,” he said, “and, while I admit that his Utopia would be an ideal state of affairs, I see two reasons why it can never be realized. In the first place, if earth were so delightful a place, man—the average man—would never long for heaven. Of course, religious people might; but I mean, as I say, the average man.”
“‘And so shall we ever be with the Lord!’” quoted Ernest Clare. “That is the true sweetness of heaven, rector, and no earthly happiness can lessen it. As for your average man,—well, in the first place the average of those days will be considerably higher than the present, you know; and in the second I fancy we shall all need to rise far above any average that is ever likely to prevail, before we get to heaven at all.”
“That is very true,” said the rector. “But don’t you think that a Commune would tend to reduce all alike to a uniform dead level of the commonplace?”
“Does military discipline, when it is strict and thoroughgoing, ever produce a dead level of commonplace?” asked Mr. Clare. “It is true that the soldier on duty must be a mere machine; but he is an intelligent, self-acting machine. He obeys, but it is not blind obedience; for he knows at least the general aim, though not, perhaps, the particular object sought to be gained, and has his own opinion as to the means employed. At Balaklava, you remember,—
“‘the soldier knew
Some one had blundered.’