Connie loves the child: the child will love Connie, and
find her delight in serving her like a little cherub. Not one of the maids
to whom you have referred had ever been taught to think service other than
an unavoidable necessity, the end of life being to serve yourself, not to
serve others; and hence most of them would escape from it by any marriage
almost that they had a chance of making. I don't say all servants are like
that; but I do think that most of them are. I know very well that most
mistresses are as much to blame for this result as the servants are; but
we are not talking about them. Servants nowadays despise work, and yet are
forced to do it--a most degrading condition to be in. But they would not be
in any better condition if delivered from the work. The lady who despises
work is in as bad a condition as they are. The only way to set them free
is to get them to regard service not only as their duty, but as therefore
honourable, and besides and beyond this, in its own nature divine. In
America, the very name of servant is repudiated as inconsistent with human
dignity. There is _no_ dignity but of service. How different the whole
notion of training is now from what it was in the middle ages! Service was
honourable then.
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