Synopsis

In a word we may gather out of history a policy no less wise than eternal; by the comparison and application of other men’s fore-ed miseries with our own like errors and ill-deservings. I often feel that if that excellent patriarch Job had been alive he would have sent me a postcard indited, “O that ye would altogether hold your peace and it should be your wisdom.” I have an anonymous friend who sends me frank criticisms of that kind on postcards. The sentiments are the same as Job’s text, but the language is fruitier. Nevertheless, I like to hear from him, for he is an attentive reader of all I write. But, honestly, although I was always sorry for Job and glad when he came into his camels and donkeys in the last chapter, yet I never sympathised with his attitude of taking his troubles lying down. After all, if one has gained a little practical experience of the law and the poor by living and working with them for twenty years it seems a pity to take it with you across the ferry into the silence merely because you have a bashful and retiring disposition. It is right, of course, to give your views and services to Select Commissions and the like,—but that is no better than hi...