In that hour London seemed to him like a prison or hospital; nor was it given to him to play upon its floor as some rich men do, knitting its straw into crowns that please; clutching at its dust in the cracks of the floor, to die counting the motes by millions.

The youth "remembered men in bonds as bound with them." He tithed himself a tenth, then a third, then a half, and at length used up his fortune in noble service.

He founded clubs for workingmen and taught them industry, honor and self-reliance.

He bought spinning-wheels and raw flax, and made pauper women self-supporting.

He founded the Sheffield Museum, and placed there his paintings and marbles, that workers in iron and steel might have the finest models and bring all their handiwork up toward beauty.
He asked his art-students in Oxford to give one hour each day to pounding stones and filling holes in the street.