Much of the existing misery is caused by selfishness--by the greed to
accumulate wealth on the one hand, and by improvidence on the other.
Accumulation of money has become the great desire and passion of the
age. The wealth of nations, and not the happiness of nations, is the
principal aim. We study political economy, and let social economy shift
for itself. Regard for "Number One" is the prevailing maxim.
High profits are regarded as the _summum bonum_,--no matter how
obtained, or at what sacrifice. Money is our god: "Devil take the
hindmost" our motto. The spirits of darkness rule supreme--
"Mammon has led them on,
Mammon, the least erect of all the spirits
That fell from Heaven."
With respect to the poorer classes,--what has become of them in the
midst of our so-called civilization? An immense proportion of them
remain entirely uncivilized. Though living in a Christian country,
Christianity has never reached them. They are as uncivilized and
unchristianized as the Trinobantes were at the landing of Julius Caesar,
about nineteen hundred years ago. Yet these uncivilized people live in
our midst. St. James's and St. Giles's lie close together. In the Parks
of London, you may see how gold is worshipped; in the East End of
London, you may see to what depths human misery may fall.
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