It may not seem to be worth your while at the
moment, to be so very painstaking, so very exact. In after years,
you will find that it was worth your while; that it has _paid_ you,
by training your character and soul; paid you, by giving you success
in life; paid you, by giving you the respect and trust of your
fellowmen; paid you, by helping you towards a good conscience, and
enabling you in old age to look back, and say, I have been of use
upon the earth; I leave this world, according to my small powers,
somewhat better than I found it: instead of having to look back, as
too many have, upon opportunities thrown away, plans never carried
out, talents wasted, a whole life a failure, for want of taking
pains.
Why do I say these things to you? To persuade you to work? Thank
God, there is no need of that, for you are Englishmen; and it has
pleased God to put into the hearts of Englishmen a love of work, and
a power of work, which has helped to make this little island one of
the greatest nations upon earth. No, thanks be to God, I say, there
is no need to bid you work. What I ask you to do, is to look upon
your work as an honourable calling, and as a blessing to yourselves,
not merely as a hard necessity, a burden which must be borne merely
to keep you from starvation.
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