The standard of English work had become lower; it was 'cheap and
nasty,' and this in itself was a moral evil. Good must in time prevail
over Evil; the Christian religion was the strongest thing in the
world, and for this reason had conquered. He believed in wise
compassion--that is to say, he kept his sympathy for those who truly
deserved it, for the mass of struggling workers with few or none to
voice their bitter wrongs.
His teachings are a moral tonic for the age, and though for a long
time they were unpopular and distasteful to the majority, yet he
lived to see much accomplished for which he had so earnestly striven.
Literature was beginning to take a new form. The novel of 'polite'
society was giving place to the novel which pictured life in cruder
and harsher colours. The life of the toiling North, of the cotton
spinners and weavers was as yet unknown to most people.
In 1848 appeared _Mary Barton_, a book dealing with the problems of
working life in Manchester. Mrs Gaskell, its author, who is best
known to most readers by her masterpiece _Cranford_, achieved an
instant success and became acquainted with many literary celebrities,
including Ruskin, Dickens, and Charlotte Bronte, whose Life she
wrote.
_Mary Barton_ was written from the point of view of labour, and _North
and South_, which followed some years later, from that of capital.
Her books are exact pictures of what she saw around her during her
life in Manchester, and many incidents from her own life appear in
their pages.
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