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ery of the great organization was under his hands; he touched it at any point he pleased, and there was no part of it obscure or unimportant to his mind.

The business was prosperous when he took command, but it was his intention that it should be marvellous, and that when the name of the place was uttered it should impact upon the mind of the hearer swiftly, monstrously, like a winged mountain, like an earthquake on wheels.

He required help for all this, but he would not have admitted a requirement in that term, for his predecessors in the caste had purged that kindly word from their vocabulary, and had translated it cleverly, atrociously, into the word "tools."

There is but one disposable material in the universe—it is life, and for man, when he has evolved beyond rudimentary abilities, there is but one tool to be found—and it is man. To his mind man had become as common as mud, as useful as coal, as unvoiced and anonymous as either. He would have preferred a true machine under his hand, for he had no vendetta against his kind, but every machine is harnessed to a man, and a man 1s the motor, the crank, and the brake, however otherwise we distribute the names.

. . . Here is a man who is good-for-nothing where he is, he must be put somewhere where his value can be extracted. Here is one from whom all value has been taken, he must be thrown out. Thank heaven that he is a legged, mobile affair, and will not remain where he is thrown as a tongued eyesore, a perpetual exasperation; and thank heaven for the police who keep the rubbish heaps moving on.

The statement that the meek shall inherit the earth was profoundly uttered, for we come inevitably to the possession of that which we do net care to enjoy; but those who are capable of such careless surrender are not meek; their values are different, and they cannot be bribed with earths for which they have no need, nor be disturbed by any impact of circumstance. Circumstance falls from them as water falls from a cliff, and the world they move in, or that to which they are bound, is not visible to the eye of a manager. He may come to their ears as the buzzing of a fly comes, but in all relations they are free. Yet there are meek people, poor people, cowards; and they are meek and poor and cowardly because they want urgently something which is scarcely worth getting. The man who has a desire is condemned to be a slave, and he will have outgrown