not a house near:  the horses had walked three miles from their stable.  They were by far the best team that had drawn the coach that day.  Four tall greys, nearly white with age; but they looked well and went well, checking the coach stoutly as they went down the precipitous descents, and ascending the opposite hills at a tearing gallop.  No doubt you could see various things amiss.  They were blowing a little; one or two were rather blind; and all four a little stiff at starting.  They were all screws.  The dearest of them had not cost the coach proprietor seven pounds; yet how well they went over the eleven-mile stage into Inverary!

Now in like manner, a great part of the mental work that is done, is done by men who mentally are screws.  The practical every-day work of life is done, and respectably done, by very silly, weak, prejudiced people.  Mr. Carlyle has stated, that the population of Britain consists of ‘seventeen millions of people, mostly fools.’  I shall endeavour by and bye to make some reservation upon the great author’s sweeping statement; but here it is enough to remark that even Mr. Carlyle would admit that the very great majority of these seventeen millions get very decently and creditably through the task which God sets them in this world.  Let it be admitted that they are not so wise as they should be; yet surely it may be admitted too, that they possess that in heart and head which makes them good enough for the rough and homely wear of life.  No doubt they blow and occasionally stumble, they sometimes even bite and kick a little; yet somehow they get the coach along.  For it is to be remembered that the essential characteristic of a screw is, that though unsound, it can yet by management be got to go through a great deal of work.  The screw is not dead lame, nor only fit for the knacker; it falls far short of the perfection of a horse, but still it is a horse, after all, and it can fulfil in some measure a horse’s duty.  You see, my friend, the moderation of my view.  I do not say that men in general are mad, but only that men in general are screws.  There is a little twist in their intellectual or moral nature; there is something wanting or something wrong; they are silly, conceited, egotistical, and the like; yet decently equal to the work of this world.  By judicious management you may get a great deal of worthy work out of the unsound minds of other men; and out of your own unsound mind.  But always remember that you have an imperfect and warped machine to get on with; do not expect too much of it; and be ready to humour it and yield to it a little.  Just as a horse which is lame and broken-winded can yet by care and skill be made to get creditably through a wonderful amount of labour; so may a man, low-spirited, foolish, prejudiced, ill-tempered, soured, and wretched, be enabled to turn off a great deal of work for which the world may be the better.  A human being who is really very weak and silly, may write many pages