THE WAGES OF ABILITY.
rro THE EDITOR OF THE " EPECT&TOR:9 Srit,—If you can spare me the space, I should like to say in reference to your note on my letter on "The Wages of Ability," in the Spectator of November 3rd, that an inherited tendency to shirk or be indolent is of quite a different -character from weakness of brain or muscle, because the former, like all moral defects, can be overcome by training and effort of will, which the latter cannot. Otherwise we ;should feel ourselves responsible for physical and mental incapacity, which we do not, unless it is the result of our own faults ; and the criminal would be as justly a subject for pity only as the man who is born without the use of his limbs. In support of my view, I cannot find a better argument than the following sentence from your article on "The Death of the Czar: "—" Indolent by bodily habit, and possibly only brave when he could see a duty, be toiled on like any barrister in practice, resisting all influences, confronting all dangers."
[Oar correspondent's experience is different from ours. We have repeatedly met men who cannot work, and on whom 'training is thrown away.—En. Spectator.]
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