Ture is no age without its prophets, and no prophet without his special message or burden. To adopt the phrase of the day, we are continually having now gospels' proached to us, and many of these gospels are decidedly conflicting in their tenor. The teach. ings of Mr. Darwin were contempt tously characterised by Mr. Carlyle as a gospel of dirt, The teachings of Mr. Ruskin may be onlied a gospel of transcendentalism. The msthetic craze is claimed by its adherents to be a true gospel of art, and there are teachers in another sphere who proclaim what they are pleased to onll a gospel of humanity. Most of the great writers and thinkers of the day may be identified, in this manner, with some special message to their follows. Thus it may be that the mission of Charles Dickens was to inspire sympathy among the rich and cultured for their poorer noighhours, and to bring the two classes nearer together than had previously been the case, It was the mission of Thackeray to expose the petty shams and hypocrisies of every day haman conduct, and to Insp all human foibles with his whip of satire. Wordsworth posed as the arch-interpreter and de. voteo of Nature, and Mr, Matthew Arnold in our own day professes to have discovered the key to all true progress in culture and lucidity. The older of these writers had undoubted influence over the time in which they lived, and that influence was far more widely spread than that now exorcised by Arnold, in that they addressed a wider audience. None how. over, has proved more potent in this respect than Thomas Carlyle, the ox. ponent, in theory at any rate, of the gospel of work. Had Carlyle been of more genial and Jess atrabilious temperament himself, it is onto to say that his influence would have been even greater than it is, His bitterest detractors will not deny hier a fall meed of praise for the marvellous capacity for work and power of perseverance whioh he manifested, and there can be no doubt that his example in this respect lias been productive of at least as mach good as any one publication of his gall-envenomed pen.
While, however, the gospel of work is well adapted for the acceptance of certain temperaments, there is no doubt that the tenching is wholly unnecessary in every onse. Mr. Herbert Spencer, during his recent visit to America, preached a very different doctrine; a doctrine which bears the game relation to the gospel of work that the writings of St. Paul bear to the Epistle of St. James. The two are opposite, but not contradictory. "T perceive," said Mr. Spencer in effect, while addressing his American audience, "that in all things ye are too energetic." The feature of American life which seems to have struck him most forcibly while in the United States was the over-burry, the tendency to drive post-haste through life, to live too rapidly, and to take things too auziously. As Mr, Spencer put it, "In one respect the Americans have diverged too widely from savages." The savage thinks only of his present necessities; the over-civilised man thinks little or nothing of the present, thereby losing much enjoyment, and is for ever pushing on and preparing for the perhaps very distant future. Ho allows himself no rest. "In every circle," said the philosopher, "I have met men who had themselves suffered from nervous collapse due to stress of business, or named friends who had either killed themselves by overwork, or had been permanently incapacitated, or bad wasted long periods in endenyours to recover health, Immense injury is dono by this high-pressure life—the physique is being undormined." It is we suppose a principle of Nature that the more rapidly and incessantly an instrament is used, the faster it will went out. No doubt it isa nobler thing to wear out than to rest out, and we are sure that Mr. Spencer himself would be the first to acknowledge the fact. Indeed his American friends might with some reason have goodhumouredly retorted, "Physician, heal thyself." But after all, the tenchings of Mr. Spencer on this point are as old as the fable of the Hare and the Tortoise, or Eulenspiegel and the Waggoner. "Do you think I can reach such-a-sucha town to-night?" asked the waggerier. " Yes, if you go slowly enough," was the reply, after a carefal survey of the waggon. The waggerier thought his interlocutor a fool, and pressed on at fall speed; but in the evening, when Ealeuspiegel met him again, his waggon had lost a wheel, and he was utterly arable to proceed. "Did I not say yon would only reach your destination if you went slowly 2" asked the sage, maliciously. It is a curious fact that the great American writer who has lately died was eminently free from the fault with which his countrymen are charged by Herbert Spencer. Ralph Waldo Emerson bad none of that high-strung nervous restlessness so characteristic of the great nation of the West. The precious and most rare gift of patience and imperturbability he possessed toa most remarkable degree, and one of the most interesting points brought out by Mr. Conway in his recent ' Life' was his utter freedom from all sense of harassment and fluster. We have spoken of this asa great gift, and, as it is a matter of temperament, the description is no doubt just. But it is, after all, a gift ora quality that can be cultivated. If it be true that those who make the most haste realise the least speed, it is equally true that one of the best ways to do athing well is to do it deliberately, easily, and even, perhaps, slowly. And there is much in what Herbert Spencer says of that loss of present enjoyment which is involved in the constant strive ing after future objects. The process itself defeats ils own ends, in that it renders the subject incapable of enjoying the fruition of his labours when attained. Intemperance in work is like intemperance in other things, and cannot but result disastrously. In short, to quote the philosopher once more, "we have had somewhat too much of the gospel of work, It is time to preach the gospel of relaxation." And there is no reason why the practice of it should be difficult. The very features of nineteenth-century life which are pointed at as evidences of the restless spirit of the age, conduce ultimately to repose. The facilities afforded for education are infinitely greater now than they were a hundred years ago. The latest Greek or Latin primer is an cusier book to master than its predecessors of the last century, and the pupil attains a greater degree of proficiency with a very much smaller expenditure of brain-power, Every assistance is given to the learner, whose study is, so to speak, almost done for him. The avoidance of delay by means of steam-communication removes another grievous tax on patience which in the days of stage-coaches fell to the lot of every traveller, The more fact that a man is now able, with little or no personal exertion, to accom plish a greater distance in twelve hours than he was formerly able to accomplish in three days, and that with no small mensure of absolute comfort and enjoyment, should certainly candace to 'a feeling of restfulness rather than to one of trepidation and excitement. That anxieties may be relieved and intelligence conveyed in a few minutes by means of the electric telegraph where formerly days and perhaps woaks of harrowing suspense would have bad to be endured, should surely have a tranquillising rather than an irritating tendency. That there is a disposition, not only in America, but among all Anglo-Saxon and Celtic races, to live and think at too high pressure, is incontrovertible; but we look upon it simply as a bad habit that has been contracted and may be overcome, rather than as the legitimate result of the general tendencies and influences of society.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.