Transcribed from the 1845 William Pickering edition by DavidPrice,
The Claims of Labour.
AN ESSAY ON THE
DUTIES OF THE EMPLOYERS
TO THE EMPLOYED.
The Second Edition.
to which isadded,
an essay on the means of improving thehealth
and increasing the comfort of the
labouring classes.
LONDON
WILLIAM PICKERING
1845.
p. ii“There is formed in every thinga double nature of good; the one, as every thing is a total orsubstantive in itself; the other, as it is a part or member of agreater body; whereof the latter is in degree the greater and theworthier, because it tendeth to the conservation of a moregeneral form. Therefore we see the iron in particularsympathy moveth to the loadstone; but yet if it exceed a certainquantity, it forsaketh the affection to the loadstone, and like agood patriot moveth to the earth, which is the region and countryof massy bodies. This double nature of good, and thecomparative thereof, is much more engraven upon man, if hedegenerate not; unto whom the conservation of duty to the publicought to be much more precious than the conservation of life andbeing: according to that memorable speech of Pompeius Magnus,when being in commission of purveyance for a famine at Rome, andbeing dissuaded with great vehemency and instance by his friendsabout him, that he should not hazard himself to sea in anextremity of weather, he said only to them, ‘Necesse est uteam, non ut vivam.’ But it may be truly affirmed thatthere was never any philosophy, religion, or other discipline,which did so plainly and highly exalt the good which iscommunicative, and depress the good which is private andparticular, as the Holy Faith; well declaring, that it was thesame God that gave the Christian law to men, who gave those lawsof nature to inanimate creatures that we spoke ofbefore.”
Bacon’s Advancement ofLearning.
“And well may masters consider how easie atransposition it had been for God, to have made him to mount intothe saddle that holds the stirrup; and him to sit down at thetable, who stands by with a trencher.”
Fuller’s HolyState.
p. iiiTO HENRY TAYLOR, ESQ.
My dear Taylor,
I have great pleasure in dedicating this book to you, as Iknow of no one who, both in his life and writings, has shown amore profound and delicate care for the duties of the Employer tothe Employed. Pardon me, if following the practice of theworld, I see the author in his hero, and think I hear youspeaking, when Van Artevelde exclaims—
“A serviceable, faithful, thoughtfulfriend,
Is old Van Ryk, and of a humble nature,
And yet with faculties and gifts of sense,
Which place him justly on no lowly level—
Why should I say a lowlier than my own,
Or otherwise than as an equal use him?
That with familiarity respect
Doth slacken, is a word of common use.
I never found it so.”