পাতা:অনাথবন্ধু.pdf/৫৭৮

4OO la al ܫܒ ܚ --Alia. —Adik -- Y gg Yar mo-g-weig than for any other sport ; and go out to it, not merely in scarlet, as to hunt, but in scarlet and gold, and all manner of fine colours ; of course we could fight better in gray, and without feathers; but all nations have agreed that it is good to be well dressed at this play. the bats and balls are very costly; our English and French bats, with the balls and wickets, even those which we don't make any use of, costing, I suppose, now about fifteen millions pf money annually to each nation; all which you know is paid for by hard labourer's work in the furrow and furnace A costly game - not to speak of its consequences; I will say at present nothing of these. The mere immediate cost of all these plays is what I want you to consider; they all cost deadly work somewhere, as many of us know too well. The jewel-cutter, 'Then whose sight fails over the diamonds; the weaver, whose arm fails over the web ; the iron-forger, whose breath fails the furnacethey know what work is-they, who have all the work, and none of the play, except a kind they have named for themselves down in the black north country, where "play' means being laid up by sickness. It is a pretty example for philologists, of varying dialect, this in the sense of the word as used in the black country of Birmingham, and the red and black of Baden Baden. Yes, gentlemen, and gentlewomen, of England, who think “one moment una mused a misery not made for feeble man,' this is, what ANAT HEBA NOU. Volume I. LSLSLSLSLSLLLLLSLLLLLSSSMSSSMLSSLSALSLSLSL LLSqLqSLSALSSTSS l LSLSSSLSSSMSAMASS LSMS LMLSSLSLLSLLS ASAMLSSLLS you have brought the word play' to mean, in the heart of merry England You may have your fluting and piping; but there are sad children sitting in the market-place, who indeed cannot say to you, "We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced ; but eternally shall say to you, 'We have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.' This, then, is the first distinction between the upper and lower' classes. And this is one which is by no means necessary; which indeed must, in process of good time, be by all honest men's consent abolished. Men will be taught that an existence of play, sustained by the blood of other creatures, is a good existence for gnats and sucking fish ; but not for men : that neither days, nor lives, can be made holy or noble by doing nothing in them : that the best prayer at beginning of a day is that we may not lose its moments; and the best grace before meat, the consciousness that we have justly earned our dinner. Aud when we have this much of plain Christianity preached to us again, and enough respect what we regard as inspiration, as not to think that 'Son, go work to-day in my vineyard, means "Fool, go play to-day in my vineyard, we shall all be workers in one way or another; and this much at least of the distinction between “upper' and lower' forgotten. To be continued. 《《《། །།བོ།།།།