"Well," said his partner, "have you got it?"
"Got it! The fellow won't do a thing. He's as _docile_ as hell!"
"Intellectual or moral advancement; improvement in knowledge or in virtue."
Now it means _cheap cotton and cheap men and women_. To the enlightened and prosperous English nation belongs the credit of this radical discovery.
To England too belongs the invention or creation of our new god. She--I am happy to say it--she invented and created the god we now worship. We call him
The first, last, and only commandment of our new god is,
Whatever nation or man worships this god, and obeys this first and great commandment, is sure of blessedness; for that man or that nation will get more money than other men and other nations, as England has; and will be happy, _as she is_!
Swiftly and surely the belief and worship of the new god and the new gospel is spreading into all lands. Men _fancy_ they still worship "the Trinity," "Confucius," "Zoroaster," "Mohammed," "Mumbo-jumbo." It is wholly a fancy. Men still _say_, "I believe in God the Father," etc. They still say, "Do to others as you would have them do to you," is the first and great commandment. But what they _do_ do, and wish to do, and mean to do, is,
We need no missionaries to drive this gospel into heathen minds. It has the charming vitalizing power of going itself. The Chinese have received it, and have immediately taken the whole tea business out of the hands of Messrs. Russell & Co. and Jardine, Matheson & Co.; have quite put an extinguisher upon _their_ money-making. Indeed, do we not know that _almost_ every European, Chinese, and Indian merchant has failed, and the heathen Chinee sits in their seats.
How England came to invent this new gospel is known to many, though not to all. Let me briefly sketch the amazing creation:
A century ago the strength and power of England was based upon her yeomanry. They possessed much land; and upon the lovely rolling fields of that lovely country their stone farm-houses and their small farms were the homes and habitations of millions. From this strong and hardy yeomanry were drawn the bowmen and the pike-men who made the armies of the Edwards and the Henrys invincible; from them came the "jolly tars" who seized victory for Drake and Nelson.