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MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

1) What a person tells you about his or her attitudes would be considered
A) S-data. B) L-data. C) O-data. D) T-data.
Answer: A

2) What a person's friend tells you about that person would be considered
A) T-data. B) L-data. C) O-data. D) S-data.
Answer: C

3) How a person performs on an intelligence test would be considered

A) O-data. B) T-data. C) L-data. D) S-data.
Answer: B

4) A person's police record would be considered

A) T-data. B) L-data. C) O-data. D) S-data.
Answer: B

5) Which type of data is most commonly used to measure personality?

A) O-data B) T-data C) S-data D) L-data
Answer: C

6) I conduct a study of safe drivers for a major insurance company and collect data from a sample of
1,000 drivers and examine their driving records over a 10-year period. This study is using
A) self-report data. B) test data.
C) life-outcome data. D) observer-report data.
Answer: C

7) Of the different ways to collect self-report data, which is most common?

A) Experience sampling B) Interviews
C) Questionnaires D) Periodic reports
Answer: C

8) Which of the following is the best reason for collecting self-report data?
A) There is an almost total lack of bias in self-report data.
B) Individuals have access to a wealth of information about themselves.
C) The desire to portray oneself in a positive light is very prevalent.
D) Observer bias is very difficult to remove from the data.
Answer: B

9) You are asked to describe Dr. Larsen's personality on a questionnaire. This is an example of
A) observer data. B) omniscient data. C) student data. D) subordinate data.
1
 Answer: A

10) Which of the following is an example of an unstructured questionnaire?

A) Forced choice B) Rorschach test C) Open-ended D) True/False
Answer: C

2
11) The Twenty Statements Test (i.e., the "Who am I?" test) is an example of a(n)
A) projective test. B) unstructured questionnaire.
C) bias-free test. D) structured questionnaire.
Answer: B

12) In the Twenty Statements Test (i.e., the "Who am I?" test), which of the following is important to
the scoring?
A) The order and content of the statements
B) The complexity and syntax of the statements
C) The context and structure of the statements
D) The order and syntax of the statements
Answer: A

13) Which of the following has been noted as a potential problem with the Twenty Statements Test, i.e.,
the "Who am I?" test?
A) It can show biases due to the gender of the participants.
B) It can show biases due to the participants' cultural differences.
C) It can be biased by intelligence differences in participants.
D) It can show differences between people in adjusted and unadjusted marriages.
Answer: C

14) Research has shown that compared to people from Western cultures, people from Eastern cultures
tend to have more references to in their self-concept.
A) their culture B) their environment
C) themselves D) other people
Answer: D

15) Among Chinese-born Canadian university students, completing the Twenty Statement Test in
Chinese resulted in
A) reduced reliability of responses over time.
B) more references that were in line with a collectivistic cultural orientation.
C) fewer references to Canadian culture.
D) more incomplete responses due to lack of sufficient completion time.
Answer: B

16) Personality scales are usually made up of

A) one rating on a Likert scale. B) open-ended questions.
C) the sum of a few individual ratings. D) projective ratings of personality.
Answer: C

3
17) Which of the following is NOT a weakness of self-report data?
A) People may intentionally distort reports on unusual experiences.
B) People may intentionally lie about themselves.
C) Self-report data is especially difficult to collect.
D) People may not know how to answer questions accurately.
Answer: C

18) One strength of experience-sampling data is that

A) it is a completely objective form of self-report data.
B) one is able to detect rhythms over time in behaviour or feelings.
C) it is free of biases associated with other self-report data.
D) it is easier to collect than other self-report data.
Answer: B

19) In order to collect experience sampling data, a researcher might

A) ask participants to fill out the same questionnaire many times.
B) conduct a telephone survey.
C) record participants' physiological reactions in the lab.
D) manipulate participants' experiences in the lab.
Answer: A

20) Dr. Larsen conducts a study in which participants are given pagers. Every time the participants are
paged they complete a short questionnaire. Participants are paged three times for eight days. This
type of research is called
A) observer query. B) experiential research.
C) experience sampling. D) life sampling.
Answer: C

21) Which of the following is NOT an advantage of observer-report data?

A) Many observers' data can be combined.
B) Observers can best capture the subjective experience of the person being measured.
C) It provides another point of view to self-report data.
D) Observers have unique access to information about a person.
Answer: B

22) Usually, combining the data from many observers is

A) more valid and reliable than the data from a single observer.
B) more confusing and less precise than using data from a single observer.
C) less reliable and valid than the data from a single clinical psychologist.
D) more reliable and valid than using single measures of personality.
Answer: D

4
23) Which of the following is a good reason to use many intimate observers to collect O-data?
A) It is important to know if a person has lots of friends.
B) You are interested in studying personality in a public context.
C) Professional observers are especially biased.
D) You are interested in studying multiple social personalities.
Answer: D

24) Which of the following statements about O-data is FALSE?

A) Intimate observers may not have access to the information the researcher is seeking.
B) Intimate observers can fail to see flaws in loved ones they report about.
C) Intimate observers are useless if they do not understand personality psychology.
D) Intimate observers may have hidden agendas unknown to investigators.
Answer: C

25) Research from the University of Toronto has suggested that observer ratings of personality are better
predictors of performance behaviours at work compared to
A) online surveys. B) survey data. C) self-ratings. D) interview data.
Answer: C

26) Naturalistic observation occurs

A) when we observe people in a natural setting like a forest, beach, or desert.
B) only when a person does not know that he or she is being observed.
C) when we observe people in the normal course of their daily lives.
D) only when humans, not machines, provide the personality ratings.
Answer: C

27) The "bridge-building test" is an example of

A) O-data. B) L-data. C) S-data. D) T-data.
Answer: D

28) Test data differs from observer-report data in that

A) test data is always more expensive to collect than other types of data.
B) people who collect test data are more objective than observers.
C) test data always is more reliable than observer data.
D) test data usually requires less inference about the behaviour of the participants.
Answer: D

29) Which of the following is NOT a potential problem in collecting T-data?

A) A researcher can inadvertently influence behaviour in the testing situation.
B) The testing situation might not be viewed the same by participants and researchers.
C) Attempts to gather T-data often elicit behaviour from the participants.
D) Participants might guess what is being measured and alter their behaviour.
Answer: C

5
30) The Megargee study of sex roles and dominance found that
A) there are no significant differences in dominance between men and women.
B) dominant women behave differently than equally dominant men.
C) women did not want to be followers as they generally lacked mechanical ability.
D) dominant men became submissive under certain experimental conditions.
Answer: B

31) The Megargee study highlights all of these features of T-data EXCEPT
A) the interpersonal style of the experimenter changed the results of the study.
B) there are often interesting links between self-report data and test data.
C) laboratory test data is sensitive to personality characteristics.
D) it is possible to set up conditions that make indicators of personality observable.
Answer: A

32) Megargee found that dominant women tend to leadership roles when placed in mixed
gender dyads with .
A) assume; dominant males B) assume; submissive males
C) delegate; submissive males D) delegate; submissive females
Answer: C

33) The "actometer" has been used to measure

A) length of the activity. B) activity level.
C) action counts. D) actor influence.
Answer: B

34) A study discussed in the text showed that activity level measured by a mechanical device at age 3
correlated with all of the following EXCEPT
A) teacher's ratings of activity level.
B) teacher's ratings of traits other than activity level.
C) activity level measured by the same device at age 4.
D) activity level in adulthood.
Answer: D

35) The best reason to use a mechanical device, such as an actometer, is that
A) it is free from biases associated with human raters.
B) it permits the researcher to be free to measure other things in the study.
C) it is easier to use with children than using questionnaires.
D) mechanical devices can assess a wide range of overt and covert behaviours.
Answer: A

36) The best way to measure the speed at which people process information would be to use
A) projective tests. B) an actometer.
C) fMRI data specifically. D) physiological data.
Answer: D

6
37) When most people (but not psychopaths) look at fear-inducing photographs
A) they cannot be startled.
B) their startle response is slower than usual.
C) their startle response is faster than usual.
D) their startle response is no different than usual.
Answer: C

38) Which of the following is NOT a limitation of physiological data?

A) It shares most of the other limitations of other types of test data.
B) It usually requires an artificial setting.
C) It is easy to fake desirable responses.
D) Participants may not construe the testing situation as the researchers do.
Answer: C

39) The use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

A) measures oxygen flow in the brain due to blood concentrations.
B) is used to discover individuals with "magnetic" personalities.
C) is extremely useful for eliciting eyeblink responses when individuals are startled.
D) can be used to assess an individual's activity level.
Answer: A

40) Projective techniques are examples of

A) S-data. B) O-data. C) L-data. D) T-data.
Answer: D

41) David is asked to tell the researcher what he sees in a series of inkblots. He is completing a(n)
A) visual span test. B) psychoanalytic test.
C) ambiguous test. D) projective test.
Answer: D

42) Projective tests are considered test data for all of these reasons EXCEPT
A) personality characteristics are believed to be elicited by the stimuli.
B) all participants are given the same instructions during the testing session.
C) all persons are placed in a standardized testing situation.
D) the stimuli are ambiguous to all of the participants in the study.
Answer: D

43) The use of differentiates projective tests from other kinds of test data.
A) psychoanalytic assumptions B) standardized scoring
C) video projectors D) ambiguous stimuli
Answer: D

7
44) Projective techniques are unlike other types of T-data because
A) responses are usually interpreted.
B) they use a standard testing situation.
C) they reveal responses that indicate personality.
D) everyone receives the same instructions.
Answer: B

45) When scoring an inkblot test, a psychologist considers all of these EXCEPT
A) the length of time taken by the person.
B) what the person saw in the inkblots.
C) where the person saw things in the inkblots.
D) how the person acted while taking the inkblot test.
Answer: A

46) Proponents of projective tests argue that they are the best measure of
A) unconscious material. B) physiology.
C) subjective experience. D) social expectations.
Answer: A

47) Proponents of projective tests believe that these tests

A) are useful for assessing wishes, desires, fantasies, etc. a person may not be aware of and cannot
disclose in other ways.
B) are best used in areas of personality psychology that relate to psychopathology and mental
illness.
C) are useful for determining the reactions individuals have when they are placed in ambiguous
situations.
D) are useful in eliciting unconscious anger and inciting arguments in married couples during
laboratory sessions.
Answer: A

48) L-data are any data that are concerned with

A) the likeability of an individual. B) thelife of a person.
C) the lability of the nervous system. D) the lies an individual tells.
Answer: B

49) A study discussed in the text showed that childhood temper tantrums predicted divorce. This is an
example of predicting .
A) T-data; S-data B) L-data; T-data C) O-data; L-data D) S-data; T-data
Answer: C

8
50) A study discussed in the text showed that children who had more temper tantrums also had
A) more temper tantrums as adults.
B) more positive life outcomes.
C) life outcomes similar to children with fewer temper tantrums.
D) more negative life outcomes.
Answer: D

51) I conduct a study of drivers convicted of speeding for a major insurance company and collect a
sample of data from 500 drivers and examine their driving records over a 10-year period. This study
is using
A) observer-report data. B) life-report data.
C) self-report data. D) test data.
Answer: B

52) Benjamin is trying to buy a new car. He finds that he can only get a loan at a very unfavourable
interest rate due to the financial trouble he created for himself with a credit card he got while in
university. Benjamin's poor credit rating is an example of at work.
A) commercial-report data B) life-report data
C) observer-report data D) investment-report data
Answer: B

53) S-data will agree more with O-data when

A) T-data is not available.
B) the trait being assessed is unconscious.
C) the trait being assessed is not easily observable.
D) the trait being assessed requires few inferences.
Answer: D

54) New measures of personality are often designed in ways that minimize participants' efforts to
A) appear in socially desirable ways.
B) fake their responses.
C) Both "fake their responses" and "appear in socially desirable ways."
D) None of the choices are correct.
Answer: C

55) The Self-Deceptive Enhancement subscale of the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding
(BIDR) measures
A) respondents' tendency to be dishonest with themselves in their daily lives.
B) respondents' self-presentation motives.
C) respondents' tendency to exaggerate or inflate their social and intellectual status.
D) more conscious motivations to respond in a socially desirable way.
Answer: C

9
56) Impression management is most highly correlated with which 2 'Big Five' traits?
A) Agreeableness, Openness to Experience B) Agreeableness, Conscientiousness
C) Conscientiousness, Extraversion D) Agreeableness, Extraversion
Answer: B

57) Canadian research suggests that positive illusions about oneself are maladaptive in which kind of
circumstances?
A) Interpersonal B) Emotional C) Financial D) Health
Answer: A

58) The best reason to use multiple sources of data in personality research is to
A) increase the validity of each of the data sources under investigation.
B) increase the resultant split half reliability coefficients.
C) average out any idiosyncrasies of any particular single source of data.
D) establish cross-data source consistency across all of the sources of data.
Answer: C

59) "Triangulation" refers to

A) a method for plotting personality profiles.
B) a statistical technique that compares three traits.
C) assessing personality with various types of data.
D) assessing personality traits in geometric space.
Answer: C

60) I measure dominance in male business executives in a variety of ways. The executives complete a
dominance questionnaire and their employees complete observer reports of their boss' dominance. I
examine the executives' employment histories and measure their serum testosterone. Collecting all
this data about one specific personality characteristic is called
A) data manipulation. B) cross-fertilization.
C) cross-validation. D) triangulation.
Answer: D

61) "Reliability" refers to the ability

A) to measure what the personality test purports to measure.
B) of a personality test to measure other personality traits.
C) of the personality test to produce the same test score for an individual at other testings.
D) to assign a personality test score to a person.
Answer: C

62) is NOT a form of reliability.

A) Inter-rater reliability B) Construct reliability
C) Split-half reliability D) Test-retest reliability
Answer: B

10
63) If a personality measure is given to a person four times, and each time the person receives the same
score, we know the measure is
A) repetitive. B) valid.
C) statistically significant. D) reliable.
Answer: D

64) If a person receives similar scores when taking a personality test many times, that test has high
A) alternative-form reliability. B) internal consistency.
C) test-retest reliability. D) generalization.
Answer: C

65) "Validity" refers to the ability

A) to measure what the personality test purports to measure.
B) of the personality test to produce the same test score for an individual at other testings.
C) of a personality test to measure other personality traits.
D) to assign a personality test score to a person.
Answer: A

66) I develop a Bleemness scale. It consists of one item, "How Bleem are you?" The most likely form of
validity represented by this scale is
A) criterion. B) internal. C) face. D) construct.
Answer: C

67) Which of the following terms describes the extent to which a test actually measures what it claims
to measure?
A) Correlation coefficient B) Validity
C) Internal consistency D) Reliability
Answer: B

68) If a questionnaire test of sociability correlates with the number of conversations people have, the
sociability test has high
A) generalizability. B) face validity.
C) discriminant validity. D) predictive validity.
Answer: D

69) Observer ratings of narcissism correlate with the number of times individuals refer to themselves
during subsequent interviews. This relationship demonstrates
A) inter-rater reliability. B) predictive validity.
C) discriminant validity. D) split-half reliability.
Answer: B

10
70) When alternative measures of the same construct correlate highly with a test, the test can be
described as having high
A) face validity. B) convergent validity.
C) predictive validity. D) discriminant validity.
Answer: B

71) When three measures of extraversion correlate highly with each other they can be described as
having
A) triangulated validity. B) convergent validity.
C) inter-test validity. D) discriminant validity.
Answer: B

72) Establishing that a test does not correlate with measures of unrelated constructs indicates high
A) convergent validity. B) face validity.
C) dysfunctional validity. D) discriminant validity.
Answer: D

73) Shoe size is positively correlated with height and hand size, but not correlated with intelligence.
Shoe size has validity with height and hand size and validity with intelligence.
A) predictive; face B) face; predictive
C) discriminant; convergent D) convergent; discriminant
Answer: D

74) The type of validity that subsumes all other types of validity is
A) discriminant validity. B) construct validity.
C) face validity. D) predictive validity.
Answer: B

75) If a test of suggestibility measures suggestibility the test has

A) predictive validity. B) construct validity.
C) face validity. D) test validity.
Answer: B

76) All personality variables are

A) easily assessed with questionnaires. B) unconscious.
C) theoretical constructs. D) highly heritable.
Answer: C

77) If a measure is equally valid in persons of different ages, genders, and cultures, it can be described
as having high
A) statistical significance. B) construct validity.
C) generalizability. D) face validity.
Answer: C

11
78) A test needs to be to be a(n) test, but every test is NOT
NECESSARILY a(n) test.
A) easy; good; easy; good B) reliable; valid; reliable; valid
C) valid; reliable; valid; reliable D) good; easy; good; easy
Answer: B

79) Which of the following is NOT important in evaluating a personality measure?

A) Manipulation B) Validity C) Generalizability D) Reliability
Answer: A

80) If a measure predicts behaviours in many contexts, it has high

A) reliability. B) coherence.
C) generalizability. D) discriminant validity.
Answer: C

81) A measure of extraversion that has construct validity in samples in Canada also has construct
validity with university samples of participants assessed for extraversion in Japan. This
demonstrates
A) convergent validity. B) generalizability.
C) cross-cultural validity. D) test-retest reliability.
Answer: B

82) Which of the following is NOT one of the major types of research design?
A) Case study B) Physiological C) Experimental D) Correlational
Answer: B

83) Which of the following research methods is best suited to establishing causality?
A) Correlational B) Case study C) Experimental D) Historical
Answer: C

84) In order to show that variable A causes variable B, you need to variable A.
A) randomly assign B) manipulate C) control D) counter balance
Answer: B

85) In order to establish causality, participants in all conditions should be

A) counter balanced. B) undergraduate students.
C) equivalent. D) manipulated.
Answer: C

86) The process of random assignment helps to ensure

A) statistical significance. B) equivalence.
C) good counter balancing. D) fairness.
Answer: B

12
87) In an experimental design, the manipulated variable is called the variable.
A) independent B) dependent C) controlled D) causal
Answer: A

88) The reason experimental designs are counterbalanced is to control

A) random assignment. B) personality effects.
C) manipulations. D) order effects.
Answer: D

89) In an experimental design, it is important to know if observed differences between experimental

groups are
A) inferential. B) statistically significant.
C) directional. D) correlational.
Answer: B

90) Which of the following pieces of information is NOT needed to establish statistical significance in
an experimental design?
A) Alpha coefficient B) Sample size
C) The standard deviation D) The mean
Answer: A

91) If a researcher wants to know whether or not people who score high on extraversion also score high
on activity level, the researcher should use the method.
A) experimental B) ANOVA C) correlational D) case study
Answer: C

92) If people who score high on extraversion also score high on measures of happiness, extraversion and
happiness are
A) positively correlated.
B) negatively correlated.
C) not correlated.
D) possibly correlated, but there is not enough information here to know.
Answer: A

93) Self-esteem and depression are probably correlated.

A) irregularly B) positively C) negatively D) not
Answer: C

94) If dominance correlates positively with ego-strength, we know that

A) people who score high on dominance also tend to score high on ego-strength.
B) ego-strength causes dominance.
C) dominance causes ego-strength.
D) people who score high on dominance tend to score low on ego-strength.
Answer: A

13
 95) Correlation cannot provide any information about
A) significance. B) causality. C) generalizability. D) directionality.
Answer: B

96) Statistically significant correlations may be observed between two variables that are actually
unrelated. This is an example of
A) the third variable problem. B) the
directionality problem.
C) correlations inferring causality. D) the restriction of range problem.
Answer: A

97) The case study method can be useful for

A) proving a hypothesis to the scientific community.
B) establishing causality.
C) generating new hypotheses.
D) knowing how two variables are related in a given population.
Answer: C

98) In using the case study method, a researcher

A) can gather any kind of data he or she finds useful.
B) must collect all four types of data.
C) must try to generalize findings to other people.
D) must follow rigorous guidelines.
Answer: A

99) Howard wants to study the relationship between income and dominance. Which personality research
method would he be most likely to use?
A) Experimental design B) Correlational design
C) Naturalistic observation D) Case study
Answer: B

100) Jacques is interested in finding out if caffeine affects levels of task performance for introverts and
extraverts. From which research method would Jacques benefit the most?
A) Experimental design B) Case study
C) Correlational design D) Naturalistic observation
Answer: A

101) Jeanne is interested in developing a scale to measure entrepreneurial personality types. As an initial
step in this research program, what should she do?
A) Conduct a correlational study of the relationship between social status and social dominance.
B) Have two groups of business people play Monopoly with different amounts of start-up money.
C) Conduct a case study of famous entrepreneurs like Mary Kay, Estée Lauder, and Donald
Trump.
D) Have several business people observed in their natural environments.
Answer: C

14
Answer Key
Testname: UNTITLED14

1) A
2) C
3) B
4) B
5) C
6) C
7) C
8) B
9) A
10) C
11) B
12) A
13) C
14) D
15) B
16) C
17) C
18) B
19) A
20) C
21) B
22) D
23) D
24) C
25) C
26) C
27) D
28) D
29) C
30) B
31) A
32) C
33) B
34) D
35) A
36) D
37) C
38) C
39) A
40) D
41) D
42) D
43) D
44) B
45) A
46) A
47) A
48) B
49) C
50) D
15
Answer Key
Testname: UNTITLED14

51) B
52) B
53) D
54) C
55) C
56) B
57) A
58) C
59) C
60) D
61) C
62) B
63) D
64) C
65) A
66) C
67) B
68) D
69) B
70) B
71) B
72) D
73) D
74) B
75) B
76) C
77) C
78) B
79) A
80) C
81) B
82) B
83) C
84) B
85) C
86) B
87) A
88) D
89) B
90) A
91) C
92) A
93) C
94) A
95) B
96) A
97) C
98) A
99) B
100) A
16
Answer Key
Testname: UNTITLED14

101) C

17
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do than what I have been doing.”
“Studying, growing accomplished, falling in love, and marrying,”
replied the earl, laughing. “What would you have been doing more?”
“As it happens, sir, all this proves an excellent preparation for my
present business. But I did not know that it would; and I was
perpetually asking myself,—moreover, Letitia was perpetually asking
me,—the end and aim of my employments.”
“That was the secret, I dare say,” said the earl, “of your difficulty in
winning her. Eh, Letitia?”
“Indeed it was,” replied Letitia, blushing. “God knows what difficulty
I found in making it a difficulty; but I dared not at once give up the
calling which nature had sanctified to me, without providing for my
race being served in an equal proportion in some other way. If there
be one note sooner than another to which conscience awakes in
these times, it is to the cry of unserved humanity; and mine, having
been once thus awakened, could not be lulled asleep again; and
even your son could not soothe it till he began to promise that we
should labour together for all, as well as for each other.”
“So you married to be useful;—for no other reason on earth, my
dear?”
“No, no, no. I was useful before. I married ... for the same reason
as your son. But this reason did not make me forget my
responsibilities; that is all.”
“Ah, my dear: you do not know,—highly as you rate your art,—
what you have deprived society of by shutting yourself up here. Why,
—I saw that sot, colonel Bibber, turned into a patriot for full three
hours under your influence; and poor little lord H. that we were
speaking of just now, grew almost magnanimous for the same space
of time. These, and hundreds more, owe to you, my dear, the greater
part of whatever virtue has visited them for the last five years.”
“If so,” said lord F——, “what was the effect on better people?”
“The effect that the fine arts are ordained to produce,” said Letitia.
“They have much to answer for who defame them,—who perceive
nothing in them besides colours, and sounds, and motion,—who put
a kaleidoscope and Raphael’s Transfiguration on a level, and
recognize nothing more in a symphony of Mozart than in an Eolian
harp, and see no matter of choice between a merry Andrew and
Kean in Hamlet. They who perceive not that the fine arts are the
fittest embodiments of truth and beauty are unconscious of the
vastness of the department in which they would have man remain
unserved. Such would wonder or laugh at my view of my profession,
and discredit my hesitating to leave it for lord F——.”
“You were satisfied that you held a commission to serve man, by
means of the fine arts; you were right, my dear, as is proved by your
having made the colonel a patriot, and the little lord a hero.”
“That it was only for three hours at a time,” said Letitia, “was not
my fault, but that of the arrangements by which means and ends are
sometimes separated as far asunder as if the world would be perilled
by their coming together. In this, we might wisely copy from man in
his state of nature. Indian savages have their songs and dances
immediately before their battles; and, as long as prayers imply
devotion, they are everywhere used in senates as a prelude to the
business of the nation. But we go straight from an oratorio to dinner,
from a tragedy to sleep, from the Elgin marbles to shopping in
Regent-street; while, on the other hand, if a great national question
has to be debated, a mighty national achievement to be wrought, the
last thing its conductors would think of would be to spiritualise the
passions, and elevate the emotions, and animate the faculties by the
most appropriate means which Providence has given for that end.—I
know that this union can be only partially effected yet. I know that the
passage of the Reform Bill would have been but little helped by any
such appliances as we can at present exhibit; but it will be different
hereafter, when men have learned the true office of the fine arts, and
the ultimate objects of political reforms. Then, hundreds of years
hence, it may be,—if a new question of national renovation should
be brought forward, the senate to whom it is committed may lay hold,
with one accord, on whatever prior observance may best soothe
down their animosities, and banish their petty self-regards, and
establish their minds in that state of lofty tranquillity which alone
beseems the master-spirits of an empire.”
“In those days,” said lord F——, “there will be an end of the
absurdity of admitting the ennobling influence of the fine arts, and at
the same time holding its professors in contempt.”
 “Is it, even now, anything more than a nominal contempt?” asked
Letitia. “Do not people mix up the profession and the vices of its
professors together, and then talk of contempt?”
“But those very vices are caused by the treatment of the
profession.”
“True; like all other professional vices,—like all the peculiar failings
of certain classes,—like the avarice of Jews, the romancing of
travellers, the spiritual pride of sectaries, the vanity of authors. When
prejudices are so far surmounted as that no class shall be regarded
with factitious deference or contempt, there will be an end of all
occasion to reproach painters, musicians and actors with their
tendency to self-indulgence, at the same time that proverbs and by-
words against Jews, methodists, travellers, and poets, will fall into
oblivion.”
“In those days,” said lord F——, “perhaps our peerage may
honour itself by taking up the profession of the fine arts. The time is
coming when no class of society may be idle; and if the aristocracy
plumes itself upon its refinement, this seems to be the pursuit most
congenial to its constitution.”
“If you preach your doctrine,—that all must work,—to those of your
own condition,” said the earl, “they will ask you where you got the
notion,—whether you are intimidated by the clamours of the lower
classes.”
“Not intimidated by their clamours, but moved by their condition, I
would tell them, sir; and that I derive my notion from the nature of
man and of society, and not from the dictation of any class whatever.
It is enough to melt a heart of stone to read and hear of such
distresses as have come to my knowledge since I entered office; but
I am convinced that many of the sufferers look in the wrong direction
for the causes.”
“Yet there must be much cause for complaint,” said Letitia, “when
our institutions lead to such an opposition of interests as there now is
between different ranks. They should surely work together....”
“The present opposition of interests, my dear, arises from a
scarcity of the prime necessaries of life. If there were food enough
for our people, their occupations and interests, be they as various as
the minds that adopt them, would assist and promote each other
from end to end of society. If there be a scarcity of food, men will
snatch from one another’s mouths, be they huddled together in our
manufacturing cities, or duly distributed in a Moravian settlement.
Where there is plenty, there will be a harmony,—where there is want,
there will be an opposition of interests; and it is folly to assign co-
operation and competition as the remedy and cause of distress.”
“Nay; but can it be right that starving thousands should bid their
labour against one another for bread? Can it be right that whole
families should, at this moment, be crouching down supperless in
their litter of straw, while we.... O, I am ashamed of our luxuries!...
our mirrors, and harps, and lamps,—and my very dress. I am
ashamed of them all.”
“If we gave them all away this moment, my dear, they would not be
food; and if exchanged for bread, they would only take food from the
mouths of some who want it, to give to those who cannot want it
more. Believe me, the inequality of condition we are complaining of
is rather checked than promoted by competition. Competition
equalizes the profits of industry, and increases instead of lessening
its productiveness.”
“Whence, then, comes all this misery? all this tremendous
inequality?”
“The misery arises from a deficiency of food....”
“Well; whence this deficiency of food?”
“From the tendency of eaters to increase faster than the supply of
food.”
“But if we can raise more food by co-operation than without it....”
“Even supposing we could,—unless co-operation also checked the
increase of numbers, it could prove no more than a temporary
alleviation of our grievances. In my opinion, it would, if it included
equality of condition, leave us in a worse state than it found us, in as
far as it would relax the springs of enterprise and industry, and, in
time, bring the community down into a deplorable state of sameness;
it would, if persevered in, make us into a nation of half-naked potatoe
eaters, and water-drinkers.”
The earl inquired whether anything had been heard lately of the
co-operative society formed in the neighbourhood of Weston.
 “O yes!” replied lord F——. “They are enjoying the benefits of
competition to the utmost. They ascribe their prosperity to their co-
operation; but they are, in fact, a large partnership in competition
with smaller ones. They do not see how their relative position would
be altered by their absorbing all their competitors into their firm, with
no check to their numbers, while nature has imposed perpetual
checks upon the growth of their capital.”
“But cannot numbers be checked,—cannot the checks upon the
growth of capital be evaded, while we have such a wide world to
move about in?”
“Certainly, my dear: but there is no need of equality of condition to
help us to do this. Competition is more likely than co-operation to
induce prudence and foresight; and it will quicken our activity in
carrying our surplus numbers to distant fertile lands, or in bringing
the produce of distant fertile lands among our own people, instead of
tempting us to waste more and more of our capital continually in
turning up inferior lands at home, as the co-operatives would have
us do.”
“But were not you telling me that your rent-roll becomes more
valuable as time passes? Are not landholders’ incomes increasing
perpetually under the present system?”
“They are; but this is the consequence, not of competition, but of
the varying qualities of the land, the tillage of every new grade of
which tends to lower profits and raise rents. No plan for the
distribution of home produce can affect the law by which the returns
to capital are perpetually diminished.”
“But what will be the end of it under the present system?”
“There are two extremes to which the systems of equality and
inequality of distribution respectively tend, in as far as they involve
restriction upon food by using only the produce of our own lands.
Under the equality system, there would be an ultimate scramble for
potatoes, or a worse diet still, if there were such a thing. Under our
present system, the whole produce must in time be in the hands of
the land-owners and tax-takers. Of course, we must change our
system; not, however, by discouraging competition, or abolishing
private property, but by removing all artificial restrictions upon food,
and by regulating our numbers according to our resources. The way
to bring down landlords’ rents, and to increase the profits of
cultivators, is to procure food from some better source than our own
inferior lands; and this I will prove to you by figures, the next time my
steward brings me the accounts of my farms.”
“O, that Moravian village!” exclaimed Letitia. “How often I think of
the day we spent there! There was comfort, there was abundance,
there was mutual assistance and agreement.”
“Are you quite sure, Letitia, that there was nothing in the situation
and peculiarities of the place which called off your attention from the
principle on which the society was constituted? Remember the
sunset, that evening; the golden light on the green hill side, above
the rows of Moravian dwellings. Remember your admiration of the
internal regulations,—of the women’s uniform, of the music in their
church, of the simplicity of their way of life. Remember that all this
has nothing to do with their principle of association.”
“You must no more set the accomplishments of the Moravians to
the account of community of goods, than the absurdities of the
Shakers,” observed the earl. “That some sing beautifully, and others
dance ridiculously, has nothing to do with the distribution of their
wealth.”
“No more than the ordinances of the Harmonites,” continued lord F
——. “Mr. Owen’s followers very properly refuse to be mixed up with
Moravians, Shakers, and Harmonites. Superstition has no part in
their system, either under the form of ritual observance or celibacy.
Yet they are apt to incorporate extraneous matters with their system,
which serve as allurements to a greater extent, I doubt not, than they
intend. They owe more converts than they suppose to their promises
of mansions, pleasure-grounds, coffee, alabaster lamps, and so on.
My wonder is that more are not enticed by descriptions like these,
accompanied with promises of ease, and leisure, and many other
things to be obtained in a short time, which the poor man now sees
little chance of his children’s children ever enjoying.”
“There might be alabaster lamps and damask furniture in every
house under the present system,” observed the earl, “if food enough
could be got to keep the production of capital going at its natural
rate; aye, and ease and leisure too, if our numbers were kept within
bounds. It is not so very long since shoes and stockings were worn
only in courts; and that they are now worn by peasants proves that
our capital has grown under a system of competition. That multitudes
have little ease and no leisure is the fault of over-population, which
would be rather aggravated than lessened under a system whose
very essence it is to cast each man’s burdens upon all. No man need
scruple to have twenty of his children gracing the dinner-table of a
co-operative establishment, till he should find, too late, that not all
the savings caused by extensive association can compensate for the
falling off in the produce of inferior lands, and for the new impulse
given to population. His sons and his sons’ sons must add more and
more labour to the common stock; must give up, first, damask and
alabaster, then broadcloth and glass; then descend to sackcloth and
wooden trenchers, then to tatters, potatoes and water, and then....”
“Then would ensue a scramble; if anything should be left,
competition would come into play again; society would rise by its
means, and might possibly attain once more to a state in which they
might speculate on the universality of damask and alabaster.”
“Well!” exclaimed Letitia, “I shall ask to look at your steward’s
accounts, and to have an explanation of them; for I do not at all like
our present position. We must reach the extreme, you say, of having
our whole produce in the hands of land-owners and tax-takers,
unless we change our system.”
“Yes, my dear: but by change of system, I do not mean convulsion.
All might be set on a safe footing by timely care, the removal of
restrictions, the diffusion of intelligence. There is nothing in all this,
threatening to public dignity or private safety. There is nothing to
lessen the security of property, or to endanger the rights of any
class; but quite the contrary: for property is never so secure as when
it most abounds; and rights are never so well respected as in the
absence of temptation to infringe upon them.”
“By change, then, you mean progression, without fear of
subversion.”
“Just so; the progression of society from an advanced into a higher
state. What is there in such progression that is not as beautiful in
theory as it is found to be necessary in practice?”
From this hour, the progression of society, of which Letitia had
long dreamed, on which she had often speculated, began to assume
distinctness in her mind, and to form a large part of her conversation
when she happened to be with those to whom she could speak most
of what was most in her thoughts. Whenever she heard of misery
and crime on a large scale, she satisfied herself that the national
demand of progression had not yet been sufficiently attended to.
When she heard that her lord’s rents ought to be more, but were,
from the difficulty of collecting them, less than formerly, she sighed
for the time when an unrestricted provision of food (unrestricted by
state-laws) should check the rise of rents. Whenever she sat down
by her husband’s side to hear curious tales of the doings of large
speculators or eminent merchants, or of the sufferings of large
classes of agricultural or manufacturing labourers, she learned
something that made her wonder and lament, that, while the natural
laws of production and distribution work out evenly their balance of
results, the tendency of legislation thus far seems to be to clog and
thwart them, and delay the progression in intelligence and comfort
which must arise out of their unobstructed operation. She saw that, if
the universal interest of society was allowed to be the moving spring
of the social economy, all would be served; and that if many yet
remain unserved, it is on account of other movements being made to
interfere with it—the petty springs of narrow and mistaken interests;
so that partial protection brings on general hardship, and arbitrary
stimulus, a condition of general suffering.
Before going down to Weston, Letitia had become prepared to
make her way with the steward, the co-operating workmen in the
village, and all who could throw light on the past and present state of
property in the place. Many a conversation and calculation had she
also gone through with Thérèse on the subject of shop-keeping in
Paris; and all that Maria told of Waldie’s business went to the same
account of information. It made poor Maria smile sometimes in the
midst of a fit of anxiety to find that her children’s babble savoured of
political economy, when they had been spending a morning with their
aunt. They were more ready then than at other times to wonder why
they had dolls in the nursery, and picture-books in the parlour, and a
shell-grotto in the garden, when many other little children had no
playthings; and why poor Ned who swept the crossing was so much
more ragged than their errand boy, when Ned worked the hardest of
the two, and was often out in the cold and the rain besides. Almost
babies as they were, they could sometimes find out very sage little
reasons for these things, when put on the right scent by aunt Letitia
or her pupil Thérèse.
 Chapter IV.

MORE NOVELTY.

At length came September, with its utter dulness in town, and its
busy brightness in the country. No parliament, no ministry, no court,
with whose proceedings to diversify the daily papers; but instead, a
reporting of the progress of certain noble lords and patriotic
gentlemen from one country seat to another, with accurate
calculations of the quantity of game bagged by each. Now were
expresses hurrying to and fro in search of the runaway men in
power. Now were ancient ladies proudly leaning on the arms of sons,
who were happy in being allowed breathing time to watch the
autumn sunsets from the terraces of their stately castles. Now were
the young heirs of rank and wealth initiated by playful papas into the
mysteries of riding and sham shooting. Many a little lord was now
mounted on his pony to adventure forth as far as the park gates,
while mamma and sisters waved their handkerchiefs from afar, and
careful grooms waited to lead him back safe. Many such a little
rogue carried his mimic fowling-piece into the stubble, and learned
not to wink or flinch when papa brought down a bird, or coaxed the
gamekeeper to lend him a brace or two to carry when they should
come in sight of home and the girls. Many a tenant now put himself
in the way of a greeting from his landlord, resting on a stile, or pacing
his way slowly through a field. Many a state secret, that the public
would fain have known, was dismissed for some such freak as
snatching at a high hazel twig, or leaping a gate. Many a fair family
group of riders was seen threading green lanes, or cantering over
downs, or appearing and disappearing in the clumpy drives of a
park,—graceful boys, and high-born girls, leading their father in
search of some new beauty which it turns out he discovered in like
manner, when he was a pleasure-loving youth instead of a
statesman. Now, in the golden noon, was the boat seen to unfurl its
snowy sail, and glide in rivalship of grace with the swans which
diverged on either hand to let the vessel have its way without
disturbing their serenity. He who has guided, or may guide, the helm
of the state, now condescends to steer a less majestic bark on a
calmer element; and instead of the prayers, threats and blessings of
an empire, bends his ear to the prattle of his little ones, or to the
rustling of a startled deer, bounding from the thicket as the vessel
nears the shore. Not now too busy to observe whether rain or
sunshine be without, the recreated statesman finds in either case
equal pleasure and repose. His lady’s nursery and boudoir, his sons’
classics, his daughters’ music, his library, his billiard table, and withal
some peculiar and long relinquished pet pursuit, give him as much
pleasure on a rainy day, as the flower-garden, the fish-pond and
poultry-yard when the sky is blue overhead. He sighs over his past
toils, reminds his spouse of their wedding sojourn at Chamouni, and
at intervals quotes Virgil to the lad behind his chair, and whispers
Pope to the little lady netting at his elbow. Statesmanship should
have pleasures worthy of its toils; and so thought Letitia when her
husband first mutely pointed out to her the woods of Weston.
Sweet was the leisure of the first afternoon, which gave promise of
what should be done at future intervals of leisure;—intervals not
likely to be too frequent to retain their charm. His lordship had
brought his business and its apparatus with him; but for this day all
was laid aside. Within half an hour after alighting from the carriage,
and while dinner was being served up, my lord and lady were in the
rosery, observing on what must have been its beauty a few weeks
before, and the one pointing out and the other following with eager
eyes the tracts among the hanging woods which had to be explored,
the points of view which must be visited, one at sunrise, one in the
glowing noon, another in the still evening. As soon as dinner was
over, they were out again, that Letitia might see the ruins of the old
abbey before the sunlight should have departed. Her heart melted
within her when she saw the long shadows of the lofty arch extended
on the velvet turf, motionless except when a bird took wing from
among the ivy, and set its boughs dancing. The rooks sailed in
circles above the stately ruin, and the thrush piped from the
evergreen covert which shut in the retired nook in which it stood. The
sun-dial also marked the silent lapse of time, although there was
usually none to lay the lesson to heart.
“This is the place, love,” said lord F——.
“And you would have had me come without you,” said Letitia, after
a long pause.
“We have some weeks yet, to be sure, to enjoy it. This is the last
spot that looks desolate as winter comes on. No leafless trees, no
strewn blossoms! The wall-flowers there on the pinnacle flourish late;
and all is green and bright till the snow falls.”
“And after, surely,” said Letitia. “I should like to see icicles
glistening on these arches, springing grey from the sheeted snow. I
should like to see the ivy sprays bending under their white burden, or
shaking it off in a shower of sparkles at the breeze’s bidding. O let us
come here at Christmas!”
“If we do, you may chance to see another sight. You will see tracks
of small feet in the snow, and catch some little girl, in her red cloak,
stealing from the Wishing-Well.”
“The Wishing-Well! O where?”
“It springs from under an old stump behind this wall. Have you any
wishes?”
“I will make some for the superstition’s sake.”
And immediately Letitia might be seen unbonneted, kneeling on
the consecrated stone, and drinking the draught her husband had
filled for her. Thus was she seen, as presently appeared. A voice
reached them from one side, praying that her ladyship’s wishes
might come to pass, be they what they might, as they must be for
good and no harm to the people under her. Letitia sprang up,
laughing, and her husband replaced her hat, calling to the well-
wisher to show himself. He did so, not in the shape of a hardy
labourer, with his farming or gardening tools on his shoulder; nor yet
of a picturesque old man bending beneath his faggot. Such might
better have beseemed the place: but this was a middle-aged,
shrewd-looking little man, whom one would have guessed to be
town-bred. He came forward, saying that he had a message for her
ladyship from his wife;—my lord knew his wife.
 “Not I,” said his lordship. “I did not know you had a wife.”
“May be not, my lord; but you know the woman. She that keeps
the grocery shop, as you turn the corner in the village, your lordship
remembers.”
“What! Nanny Sweet? So you have taken her to wife since I saw
you last.”
“Yes, my lord. She has a very good business, or had before the
equality folks set up a store against us. I don’t like equality, not I. But
my wife sends word, my lady....”
“You do not like equality!” interrupted Letitia. “If there was equality,
you know, you would not need to mind who set up a store, and what
came of your wife’s grocery business.—And do not you like this
place too,—these woods, and the deer, and the lake?”
White lauded the grandeur and beauty of Weston.
“Well; this place would be as much yours as ours if there was
equality. You might fish on the lake, and shoot in the preserves,
and....”
“And lie down to sleep in the sun here beside the well,” continued
lord F——; “and all without asking anybody’s leave.”
“I thank you kindly, my lord; but I like sleeping in my bed, if I sleep
at all, unless it be dozing over my pipe, while Jack is reading the
news at the Duke’s Head. The only time I went fishing, I fell into the
water; so you’ll not soon find me in a boat again. My wife and I like a
chicken now and then, on Sundays; so a share of your poultry-yard
would be welcome perhaps; and, as for the deer and game, I leave it
to other folks to get out of their warm beds for the sake of it. It would
not answer to me to be laid by with the rheumatism for such a cause,
you see.”
“But there would be no poaching if there was equality,” said Letitia,
laughing. “Cannot game be shot in the daytime?”
“By none but gentlemen, my lady, as I have always heard.
However, the equality folks have no more game, as far as I know,
than other people. The most they pretend to is to have plenty of
butcher’s meat.—What I pretend to, and Nanny too, is to get our
bread honestly; and so, my lady, she bade me tell you that she has
laid in a new stock, hearing your ladyship was coming, and has lost
already by its being September instead of June. Light ginghams for
morning wear....”
“I thought your wife was a grocer.”
“Grocer and draper, my lady. If your ladyship should find the
mornings chilly, as they will be soon, perhaps you would look at her
stuffs;—a very pretty variety of browns, as you will see, my lady. And
her tea and sugar is of the best; and as for her snuffs....”
“O, I must make acquaintance with her snuffs, of course. Have you
a pinch about you?”
“And what is your occupation now, White?” inquired lord F——.
“The last thing I had to do, my lord, was lining your lordship’s pew
at church, and covering the hassocks.”
“And what did your priest say to that?”
“Lord, sir, I cleared scores with the priest long ago; ever since I
was employed to white-wash the Baptist chapel.”
“Were you once a Catholic?” inquired Letitia.
“Yes, my lady. There was carving work to do at Sir William’s
chapel, and I got a good long job.”
“And were a Catholic while it lasted, and a Baptist after white-
washing the meeting-house?”
“To be sure, my lady; I took a part in the week-day meetings after
that.”
“Till you were employed to line my pew; and now, I dare say, you
are a very good churchman?”
“I hope to be so, my lord. Your lordship may laugh, but I know what
manners is. I wouldn’t be so unhandsome as to take work at one
place, and attend at another.”
“So your interest has nothing at all to do with it, White; only
manners. But I wonder now what you think your religion is worth, if
you can change and change again as you have done?”
“Why, my lord, I think religion is a very good thing, as long as it
does not come in one’s way: but one must make sacrifices to duty,
as all the clergy tell us; and is it not my duty to get my living the best
way I can?”
“Well, White; tell your wife I will step down to see her stock, some
day soon. I do not at present take snuff; but whenever I do, I will be
her customer.”
 Thérèse and her mistress kept one another waiting this night. The
housekeeper, who was much amused with Thérèse’s broken English
and unbroken simplicity, invited her out to a turn in the shrubberies
when tea was sent in, and she was sure of not being wanted for an
hour or two. When they came in again, they found that their master
and mistress had once more wandered forth, tempted by the rising of
the clear full moon behind the woods. After sitting nearly an hour in
the dressing-room, Thérèse put faith in the housekeeper’s prophecy
that her master would stay abroad till after midnight, like a child as
he always was, or one that lived on air, the first few days after his
coming down from town. Thérèse looked out and longed for another
ramble. The dressing-room lamp shed a pearly light through the
room; but a golden planet hung over the opposite beechen grove: a
small bright fire burned in the grate; but it was less cheering than the
bracing evening air: the time-piece ticked drowsily amidst the
silence; but it was less soothing than the coming and going of the
night-breeze among the elms in the green walk. Thérèse could not
resist. Once more she ran out, promising herself that she would be
back in ten minutes,—long before her mistress should be ready for
her. In an hour, startled by the striking of the village clock, she
returned, and found Letitia, half undressed, still gazing from the
window.
“Ah, madam!” cried Thérèse, terrified; “I am very, very wrong....”
As she hastened, with trembling hands, to throw off her cloak, and
arrange the toilet-table, appealing the while to the moon and other
temptations, Letitia, under a sudden impulse, ran and kissed the
astonished Thérèse, crying, “O Thérèse, how happy we shall be
here!” Thérèse returned the kiss again and again before she stopped
to consider what she was about. As soon as Letitia could repress her
inclination to laugh, she observed that they seemed all to have set
aside common rules to-day, and to have their heads turned alike by
coming into the country. After this, Thérèse would be in waiting at the
proper hour, and she herself....
“And you, madam ...” said Thérèse, half-smiling. “You will not
make me forget that there is one in this country who loves me as
some love me at home; but this will redouble my respect, madam.”
 “I hope it will, Thérèse; for I need to be reminded now and then.... I
was not always lady F——, you know; and a moon-light night makes
me forget these things sometimes. We are all equal in reality, except
when ignorance, and all that comes of ignorance, separates us from
one another; so there may be friendship,—there is friendship
between you and me, Thérèse.”
“The knowledge which you have given me, madam, will make this
friendship my secret treasure. No one will know it who cannot also
be your friend.—But many ladies put confidence in their maids, and
tell them such things as I have never heard from you. Mrs. Philips....”
“Mrs. Philips, I suspect, Thérèse, had much more to tell than she
ever was told; at least, her secrets were of a kind that will never be
known to come from me. Your confessor shall never have to warn
you against me,—unless, indeed, it be my heresy. I would not spoil
you, my dear; and that is the reason why I keep you so much with
me. It would be hard if I did not love you and let you love me. Now
go to bed; and when the sun shines, instead of the moon, we must
forget all the wild things we have done this first day.”
“I shall never be fit to be a countess,” was her confession to lord F
——; “I kissed my maid last night.”
“What, Philips!”
“O no, no. That would be idiotcy. Philips is at Brighton, you know,
where lady Frances spoils her by a more pernicious familiarity than
mine with Thérèse. But really this girl wins one’s heart as if she had
been born one’s younger sister.”
“I dare say she is some countess, or countess’s daughter in
disguise; or so some romantic ladies might fancy.”
“Ladies who think that nobility is only hereditary. There is disguised
nobility in Thérèse; but her patent is sealed with an impress which
there are few to recognize, and it is deposited where not many
trouble themselves to look for it.”
“Side by side with yours, love. Happily, your nobility of that better
kind needs be disguised no more than the lesser which you have
acquired. This was the chief satisfaction I had in giving you the
lesser.”
“We will look among the equality folks, as White calls them, for
specimens of natural nobility. According to their theory, such always
assumes its rank among them, does it not?”
“This is one of the professed objects of their system; but it is not
fair to look for its fulfilment in such small societies as they have yet
been able to form. Master minds are thinly sown.”
“There needs not equality of outward condition,” observed Letitia,
“to make the best minds master minds. Those who, by virtue of a
patent of mental nobility, have held sway over the national mind,
have been of all ranks.”
“And will so continue to be; for, as long as men are unlike one
another, there will be a distinction of ranks, though the distinction
may be maintained by a better principle than heritage. Rank and
wealth will, I trust, be in time distributed according to natural laws;
but degrees of rank and wealth there will always be; and the
advocates of a system of equality would greatly promote their cause
by a frank recognition of this truth. While all evidence from which a
judgment can be formed is before them, and they come to a
conclusion in direct opposition to the evidence, I cannot, however
much I may respect them on some accounts, think them wise and
safe guides of the people. The necessity of inequality of condition
may be established thus.”
“But first tell me whether their favourite principle of co-operation
necessarily involves equality of condition.”
“They would tell you ‘yes.’ I say ‘no.’ They hold that competition is
both the cause and effect of inequality of condition; whereas certain
advocates of co-operation in another country hold, (and I think
wisely,) that their principle stands a better chance where a gradation
of rank and property is allowed. I so far agree with these last as to
believe the time to be discernible when co-operation, in a certain
sense, shall prevail,—meaning thereby, when all interests shall be
harmonized instead of opposed; but that this includes equality of
condition, I cannot allow, since varieties of character seem to me to
forbid such equality.”
“There must be an inequality of physical and mental powers, at all
events.”
“Surely; and therefore an inequality in the produce of individual
labour. No one labours, or ever will labour, without a view to the
fruits; and those fruits, however appropriated, are property. If a giant
produces ten times as much as a dwarf, and each is allowed the
same middle portion of the fruits, for his maintenance and
enjoyment, is it to be supposed that the giant will trouble himself
henceforth to produce more than the dwarf?”
“He will be more likely to seize some of the dwarf’s portion.”
“Certainly; and hence it is clear that the only security of society lies
in awarding to all their rights, and enforcing upon all their duties; and
what are rights but a man’s exclusive power over his own produce?
What are his duties but allowing to others the possession of their
produce?”
“You do not think then that the giant and the dwarf would be alike
contented with having everything they could want or wish for
administered to them in return for a certain portion of their labour.
You do not look forward to the lion dandling the kid.”
“I should be afraid the lion would be dandling the kid when he
ought to be out in quest of food. If there was no inducement to giants
to produce more than dwarfs, there would soon be little to administer
to anybody. The consumption of giants would soon have to be
provided for by the labour of a community of dwarfs.”
“The giants would foresee this, and then....”
“Instead of working harder for no recompense, they would
withdraw,—the mightiest first, and then the next strongest, and so
on, till the weakest of the dwarfs would be left to shift for themselves
as they best might.”
“And then would come the days of potatoes and wooden
trenchers, of which you were speaking one day.—But this is
supposing men to have the same passions and desires that they
have now; whereas they are to be educated into a better state.”
“With all my heart: but the utmost that education can do is to
extend man’s views, to exalt his aims, to strengthen and vivify his
powers,—not to change his nature. His nature involves inequality of
powers; and this decree of Providence can never be set aside, or its
operation neutralized by any decree of man that the fruits of those
powers shall be equally divided.”
“Certainly not; for such a decree of man involves injustice. If the
giant feels it to be unjust that he must give to others the fruits of his
labour, the dwarf may also complain that he enjoys no more than the
giant, though he works ten times as hard.”
“The dwarf’s complaint would thus be against Providence, and the
giant’s against man; but both show that equality is an arbitrary state,
good neither for each nor for all. Nothing but compulsion would
retain the giant in it long; and thus it is clear that, where there is
liberty, there cannot be equality.”
“What becomes of the old cry of Liberty and Equality?”
“It relates, I imagine, to an equality of rights. It means an open field
and fair play to every one. This kind of equality I am doing all I can in
my office to procure, by doing away with the protection to some
which imposes burdens upon others. By the same principle I am
bound to oppose that arbitrary equality which enriches the weak with
the fruits of the strongman’s labours.”
“But there is no force used. All who bind themselves to equality do
it voluntarily.”
“Certainly. The only applicable force is force of argument, and the
opposition I bring is an opposition of reasons. If these should not
prevail, a little experience will soon finish the business. I am only
sorry that any should be dazzled with a delusive prospect of ease
and luxury, when their efforts should be guided in another direction
for the relief of their grievous burdens. At a time when every one
should be bent on regulating the labour market, providing for the
utmost permanent growth of capital, and lessening the burdens of
taxation, we cannot spare any from these grand objects to be urging
on the increase of capital at the expense of a much greater increase
of population, and amusing themselves with visions of what can
never be achieved by the means they propose. Man must and will be
better served as the world grows older; but it will be by giving the
eternal laws of society fair play, and not by attempting to subvert
them. I shall be surprised if you hear anything from our neighbours in
the village which will not bear the construction I have put upon the
system as laid down by its originators.”
“Suppose I make myself popular among them at once by telling
them my tale of last night.”
“There is no need, my dear. I trust they do us the justice to believe
that our affections graduate according to a truer scale than that of
hereditary rank.”
“You have shown that they do by marrying me.”
“All people show it in the most important circumstances of their
lives,—in their attachments. Alas for man, if the movements within
must correspond with the outward state! Whom then would kings
love?”
“And (what is more important) how should the poverty-stricken
look up through the ranks above him, and say, with hope in his eye
and assurance in his voice, ‘I am a brother?’ How else should the
stirring thought be kept alive in him that his rights will not be for ever
overlaid, his claims not be for ever incompatible with those of his
brethren? Natural affinities are ever acting, even now, in opposition
to circumstance. They will in time direct us to the due control of
circumstance. Meanwhile, let no class imagine that any other class
denies the existence of these affinities, or resists their workings.—I
will go and see how they are acting in the village.—Shall I bring you
some of Mrs. White’s snuff?”
“Why, thank you, I am not aware of any affinity between a rappee
canister and my nostrils. But the old sexton is a snuff-taker. Call
upon him by all means, and show him that you understand his
likings. He will gratify some of yours, if you find him in a talkative
mood.”