Samuel Smiles：Thrift, Excerpt 383

At the same time there is much want of sympathy between masters and men. In fact, want of sympathy pervades all classes--the poorer, the working, the middle, and the upper classes. There are many social gaps between them, which cannot yet be crossed, which cannot yet be united. "If I were to be asked," said Judge Talfourd, on whom Death was at the moment laying his hand, "what is the great want of English society--to mingle class with class--I would say, in one word, the want is _the want of sympathy_." A great truth, but not yet appreciated. It is the old truth, on which Christianity is based, of "Love one another"--simple saying, but containing within it a gospel sufficient to renovate the world. But where men are so split and divided into classes, and are so far removed that they can scarcely be said to know one another, they cannot have a due social regard and consideration, much less a genuine sympathy and affection, for each other?

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14418
Locator：Excerpt 383 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

公版作品；原文逐字取自 Project Gutenberg，仅摘录段落并附全书链接。

This text is in the public domain. The edition and source link are above. Copyright

← Back to the library