What is the lesson that Scrooge learns that he has not learned before?

Answer 1

He learns several during the night of the visit from the Ghosts. From Marley alone, Scrooge learns:

1) The singular pursuit of profit, with no attempt to share money with others, will lead to eternal misery: "It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!"

2) Scrooge himself wears a chain "as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!"

3) That the purpose of business people is NOT profit: "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

4) That simply feeling sorry is NOT enough: "no space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused!"

5) That there is plenty of chances to go to those in need -- IF you will bother to look: "Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise my eyes to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!"

6) And, upon looking out after Marley's departure, Scrooge saw "one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever."

In other words, the time to assist others is BEFORE you find yourself in an eternity of regret for not doing so.