The conspicuous quality of Mr. Roberts Lynd's "The Passion of Labour," is what might be called passionate common sense. His essays are lay sermons on The Working Man and his Sense Duty, on The Importance of Forgetting History, on The Folly of Disappointment; but the reproach so often directed at the deliverers of lay sermons, that they preach more unctuously and from a higher assumed level of rectitude than any cleric, is not one that he is likely to incur, He is reasonable and above all, he is tolerant; he knows too much about himself to be impatient with anyone else. This does not mean that he is complacently impartial before the follies and wickednesses of mankind. He laughs at folly and acenses wickedness; but his attitude is that of a man who understands both because in some sort he is capable of both. This endows him with a natural wisdom which seems to flow from his pen without effort.
A Sropy ly "Buntyine."
Take this admirable piece of good sense from his essay on Bullies "There is much to be said in defence of bullying. It is human;—it affords great pleasure to the bully; it takes place almost entirely at the expense o those who are too feeble to defend themselves. One cannot imagine a Julius Caesar or a Napoleon being bullied. None of Piutarch's men would have endured it. To be bullied is the mak of the mediocre. In spite of this, popular sympathies swing round easily to the side of the bullied. One has only to. witness the behaviour of a Saturday night crowd on seeing a drunken ruffian frog-marched to the police station in order to realize how deep is the detestation of the ordinary man or woman for the use of undue force against a fellow creature. The drunkard may have kicked, thumped and bitten the police until he was white, blue or rainbow coloured in the face. All this is forgotten as soon as the police have wrenched his arms and legs into a position that leaves him at their mercy. He is immediately seen as a victim of tyrants. One could not be more indignant if ho were a baby or a dumb animal. He is indeed a babe in the arms of the cruel law. His own cruelties are forgotten and forgiven now that he himself is playing the part of sufferer."
Tt is Mr. Lynd's conviction that other people are, on the whole, very like himself, coupled with his ability to examine himself, that makes him so wise and so inoffensive a preacher,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.