“Certainly, and I will go with you,” said the doctor. “I was wishing for just such an opportunity. A daughter of a friend of mine is going there—Miss Tom Whitwell—and I shall be glad to offer to be her escort. How soon can you go? There is nothing like seeing for yourself, and I would lose no time about it if I were you; for Knight’s idea is certain to prove fruitful seed in more directions than one.”
“Yes, there is no doubt of it. The day of the big cities is over, at least in one respect. It has always been a mistake to plant new works in the metropolis; London is for other purposes than to make kettles, or shoes, or blankets in. It has been growing more beautiful and healthy every year. And there are plenty of other places where the common work of the factory can be better and more cheaply done than in her streets. It is waste of many kinds to continue immense black works within the sound of Big Ben. The laws of England will always be made in Westminster, and her books within a two-mile radius of Paternoster Row, while round about the Bank and the Exchange King Commerce will reign for ever; and from the Thames will still go the ships that are to conquer the world, not with their big guns but with their cargo.”
“Ah! A cargo of rum and whisky!”
“No, indeed. Do you suppose that England is going to stand that sort of thing much longer? I am sure she will not, for, Fred, the Church is waking up at last!”
“Yes; I really believe she is.”
“And, in the meantime, the denizens of ‘darkest London’ are being taken out by thousands into the light of broad fields and green spaces, and are being educated to love work by enterprising Englishmen who will actually make it pay.”
“They are sure to do that if it is to be done.”
“I believe it is. There are great capacities for work in the ordinary working man of England, and now, when so often he is given a share in the profits which he helps to make, we shall be able to hold our own, no matter who tries to block the way.”
“Bravo, Felix! I congratulate you on the change of heart and head which has taken place in you. And when will you go to Craighelbyl?”
“On Monday. I should like to be at home on Sunday. They have asked me to preach in our little village in the evening. Of course, I cannot preach a sermon; but a man ought to have learnt something by his prosperities and adversities, and all the ways in which God deals with his soul, and I will gladly tell the people that which has been taught to me. And, after all, they like that sort of thing. Even the parsons are the more successful the more they let life teach them, and the more of the real teachings of life which they put in their sermons. Too many of them really do not understand the fierce temptations which beset men who are doing the world’s business, and I suppose that is how it is that a man may so often attend two services, and yet fail to grasp anything which will help to keep him steady and true on the Monday.”