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ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 537
what a vulgar quarrelsome place that club would become! My
dear Philip, did you ever know Mr. Trail say a good word of man
or woman?" and by these or similar entreaties and arguments, we
succeeded in keeping the Queen's peace.
Yes : but how find another Pall Mall Gazette ? Had Philip
possessed seven thousand pounds in the three per cents., his income
would have been no greater than that which he drew from Mugford's
faithful bank. Ah ! how wonderful ways and means are ! When
I think how this very line, this very word, which I am writing
represents money, I am lost in a respectful astonishment. A man
takes his own case, as he says his own prayers, on behalf of himself
and his family. I am paid, we will say, for the sake of illustration,
at the rate of sixpence per line. With the words "Ah, how
wonderful," to the words "per line," I can buy a loaf, a piece of
butter, a jug of milk, a modicum of tea,—actually enough to make
breakfast for the family ; and the servants of the house ; and the
charwoman, their servant, can shake up the tea-leaves with a fresh
supply of water, sop the crusts, and get a meal tant bien que mat.
Wife, children, guests, servants, charwoman, we are all actually
making a meal off Philip Firmin's bones as it were. And my nextdoor
neighbour, whom I see marching away to chambers, umbrella
in hand ? And next door but one the City man ? And next door
but two the doctor ?—I know the baker has left loaves at every one
of their doors this morning, that all their chimneys are smoking,
and they will all have breakfast. Ah, thank God for it ! I hope,
friend, you and I are not too proud to ask for our daily bread, and
to be grateful for getting it 1 Mr. Philip had to work for his, in
care and trouble, like other children of men :—to work for it, and I
hope to pray for it, too. It is a thought to me awful and beautiful,
that of the daily prayer, and of the myriads of fellow-men uttering
it, in care and in sickness, in doubt and in poverty, in health and in
wealth. Panem nostrum da nobis hodie. Philip whispers it by
the bedside where wife and child lie sleeping, and goes to his early
labour with a stouter heart : as he creeps to his rest when the day's
labour is over, and the quotidian bread is earned, and breathes his
hushed thanks to the bountiful Giver of the meal. All over this
world what an endless chorus is singing of love, and thanks, and
prayer. Day tells to day the wondrous story, and night recounts
it unto night. ________ How do I come to think of a sunrise which I saw
near twenty years ago on the Nile, when the river and sky flushed
and glowed with the dawning light, and as the luminary appeared,
the boatman knelt on the rosy deck, and adored Allah ? So, as thy
sun rises, friend, over the humble housetops round about your home,
shall you wake many and many a day to duty and labour. May