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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:16:33 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:16:33 -0700 |
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diff --git a/1140-h/1140-h.htm b/1140-h/1140-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4fc7c63 --- /dev/null +++ b/1140-h/1140-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6986 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Latter-day Pamphlets, by Thomas Carlyle + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1140 ***</div> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + LATTER-DAY PAMPHLETS. + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + by Thomas Carlyle + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + But as yet struggles the twelfth hour of the Night. Birds + of darkness are on the wing; spectres uproar; the dead walk; + the living dream. Thou, Eternal Providence, wilt make the + Day dawn!—JEAN PAUL. + </pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Then said his Lordship, "Well. God mend all!"—"Nay, by + God, Donald, we must help him to mend it!" said the other.— + RUSHWORTH (<i>Sir David Ramsay and Lord Rea, in 1630</i>). + </pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> NO. I. THE PRESENT TIME. [February 1, + 1850.] </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> No. II. MODEL PRISONS. [March 1, 1850.] + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> No. III. DOWNING STREET. [April 1, 1850.] + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> No. IV. THE NEW DOWNING STREET. [April 15, + 1850.] </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> No. V. STUMP-ORATOR. [May 1, 1850.] </a> + </p> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + NO. I. THE PRESENT TIME. [February 1, 1850.] + </h2> + <p> + The Present Time, youngest-born of Eternity, child and heir of all the + Past Times with their good and evil, and parent of all the Future, is ever + a "New Era" to the thinking man; and comes with new questions and + significance, however commonplace it look: to know <i>it</i>, and what it + bids us do, is ever the sum of knowledge for all of us. This new Day, sent + us out of Heaven, this also has its heavenly omens;—amid the + bustling trivialities and loud empty noises, its silent monitions, which + if we cannot read and obey, it will not be well with us! No;—nor is + there any sin more fearfully avenged on men and Nations than that same, + which indeed includes and presupposes all manner of sins: the sin which + our old pious fathers called "judicial blindness;"—which we, with + our light habits, may still call misinterpretation of the Time that now + is; disloyalty to its real meanings and monitions, stupid disregard of + these, stupid adherence active or passive to the counterfeits and mere + current semblances of these. This is true of all times and days. + </p> + <p> + But in the days that are now passing over us, even fools are arrested to + ask the meaning of them; few of the generations of men have seen more + impressive days. Days of endless calamity, disruption, dislocation, + confusion worse confounded: if they are not days of endless hope too, then + they are days of utter despair. For it is not a small hope that will + suffice, the ruin being clearly, either in action or in prospect, + universal. There must be a new world, if there is to be any world at all! + That human things in our Europe can ever return to the old sorry routine, + and proceed with any steadiness or continuance there; this small hope is + not now a tenable one. These days of universal death must be days of + universal new-birth, if the ruin is not to be total and final! It is a + Time to make the dullest man consider; and ask himself, Whence <i>he</i> + came? Whither he is bound?—A veritable "New Era," to the foolish as + well as to the wise. + </p> + <p> + Not long ago, the world saw, with thoughtless joy which might have been + very thoughtful joy, a real miracle not heretofore considered possible or + conceivable in the world,—a Reforming Pope. A simple pious creature, + a good country-priest, invested unexpectedly with the tiara, takes up the + New Testament, declares that this henceforth shall be his rule of + governing. No more finesse, chicanery, hypocrisy, or false or foul dealing + of any kind: God's truth shall be spoken, God's justice shall be done, on + the throne called of St. Peter: an honest Pope, Papa, or Father of + Christendom, shall preside there. And such a throne of St. Peter; and such + a Christendom, for an honest Papa to preside in! The European populations + everywhere hailed the omen; with shouting and rejoicing leading articles + and tar-barrels; thinking people listened with astonishment,—not + with sorrow if they were faithful or wise; with awe rather as at the + heralding of death, and with a joy as of victory beyond death! Something + pious, grand and as if awful in that joy, revealing once more the Presence + of a Divine Justice in this world. For, to such men it was very clear how + this poor devoted Pope would prosper, with his New Testament in his hand. + An alarming business, that of governing in the throne of St. Peter by the + rule of veracity! By the rule of veracity, the so-called throne of St. + Peter was openly declared, above three hundred years, ago, to be a + falsity, a huge mistake, a pestilent dead carcass, which this Sun was + weary of. More than three hundred years ago, the throne of St. Peter + received peremptory judicial notice to quit; authentic order, registered + in Heaven's chancery and since legible in the hearts of all brave men, to + take itself away,—to begone, and let us have no more to do with <i>it</i> + and its delusions and impious deliriums;—and it has been sitting + every day since, it may depend upon it, at its own peril withal, and will + have to pay exact damages yet for every day it has so sat. Law of + veracity? What this Popedom had to do by the law of veracity, was to give + up its own foul galvanic life, an offence to gods and men; honestly to + die, and get itself buried. + </p> + <p> + Far from this was the thing the poor Pope undertook in regard to it;—and + yet, on the whole, it was essentially this too. "Reforming Pope?" said one + of our acquaintance, often in those weeks, "Was there ever such a miracle? + About to break up that huge imposthume too, by 'curing' it? Turgot and + Necker were nothing to this. God is great; and when a scandal is to end, + brings some devoted man to take charge of it in hope, not in despair!"—But + cannot he reform? asked many simple persons;—to whom our friend in + grim banter would reply: "Reform a Popedom,—hardly. A wretched old + kettle, ruined from top to bottom, and consisting mainly now of foul <i>grime</i> + and <i>rust</i>: stop the holes of it, as your antecessors have been + doing, with temporary putty, it may hang together yet a while; begin to + hammer at it, solder at it, to what you call mend and rectify it,—it + will fall to sherds, as sure as rust is rust; go all into nameless + dissolution,—and the fat in the fire will be a thing worth looking + at, poor Pope!"—So accordingly it has proved. The poor Pope, amid + felicitations and tar-barrels of various kinds, went on joyfully for a + season: but he had awakened, he as no other man could do, the sleeping + elements; mothers of the whirlwinds, conflagrations, earthquakes. + Questions not very soluble at present, were even sages and heroes set to + solve them, began everywhere with new emphasis to be asked. Questions + which all official men wished, and almost hoped, to postpone till + Doomsday. Doomsday itself <i>had</i> come; that was the terrible truth! + </p> + <p> + For, sure enough, if once the law of veracity be acknowledged as the rule + for human things, there will not anywhere be want of work for the + reformer; in very few places do human things adhere quite closely to that + law! Here was the Papa of Christendom proclaiming that such was actually + the case;—whereupon all over Christendom such results as we have + seen. The Sicilians, I think, were the first notable body that set about + applying this new strange rule sanctioned by the general Father; they said + to themselves, We do not by the law of veracity belong to Naples and these + Neapolitan Officials; we will, by favor of Heaven and the Pope, be free of + these. Fighting ensued; insurrection, fiercely maintained in the Sicilian + Cities; with much bloodshed, much tumult and loud noise, vociferation + extending through all newspapers and countries. The effect of this, + carried abroad by newspapers and rumor, was great in all places; greatest + perhaps in Paris, which for sixty years past has been the City of + Insurrections. The French People had plumed themselves on being, whatever + else they were not, at least the chosen "soldiers of liberty," who took + the lead of all creatures in that pursuit, at least; and had become, as + their orators, editors and litterateurs diligently taught them, a People + whose bayonets were sacred, a kind of Messiah People, saving a blind world + in its own despite, and earning for themselves a terrestrial and even + celestial glory very considerable indeed. And here were the wretched + down-trodden populations of Sicily risen to rival them, and threatening to + take the trade out of their hand. + </p> + <p> + No doubt of it, this hearing continually of the very Pope's glory as a + Reformer, of the very Sicilians fighting divinely for liberty behind + barricades,—must have bitterly aggravated the feeling of every + Frenchman, as he looked around him, at home, on a Louis-Philippism which + had become the scorn of all the world. "<i>Ichabod</i>; is the glory + departing from us? Under the sun is nothing baser, by all accounts and + evidences, than the system of repression and corruption, of shameless + dishonesty and unbelief in anything but human baseness, that we now live + under. The Italians, the very Pope, have become apostles of liberty, and + France is—what is France!"—We know what France suddenly became + in the end of February next; and by a clear enough genealogy, we can trace + a considerable share in that event to the good simple Pope with the New + Testament in his hand. An outbreak, or at least a radical change and even + inversion of affairs hardly to be achieved without an outbreak, everybody + felt was inevitable in France: but it had been universally expected that + France would as usual take the initiative in that matter; and had there + been no reforming Pope, no insurrectionary Sicily, France had certainly + not broken out then and so, but only afterwards and otherwise. The French + explosion, not anticipated by the cunningest men there on the spot + scrutinizing it, burst up unlimited, complete, defying computation or + control. + </p> + <p> + Close following which, as if by sympathetic subterranean electricities, + all Europe exploded, boundless, uncontrollable; and we had the year 1848, + one of the most singular, disastrous, amazing, and, on the whole, + humiliating years the European world ever saw. Not since the irruption of + the Northern Barbarians has there been the like. Everywhere immeasurable + Democracy rose monstrous, loud, blatant, inarticulate as the voice of + Chaos. Everywhere the Official holy-of-holies was scandalously laid bare + to dogs and the profane:—Enter, all the world, see what kind of + Official holy it is. Kings everywhere, and reigning persons, stared in + sudden horror, the voice of the whole world bellowing in their ear, + "Begone, ye imbecile hypocrites, histrios not heroes! Off with you, off!" + and, what was peculiar and notable in this year for the first time, the + Kings all made haste to go, as if exclaiming, "We <i>are</i> poor + histrios, we sure enough;—did you want heroes? Don't kill us; we + couldn't help it!" Not one of them turned round, and stood upon his + Kingship, as upon a right he could afford to die for, or to risk his skin + upon; by no manner of means. That, I say, is the alarming peculiarity at + present. Democracy, on this new occasion, finds all Kings conscious that + they are but Play-actors. The miserable mortals, enacting their High Life + Below Stairs, with faith only that this Universe may perhaps be all a + phantasm and hypocrisis,—the truculent Constable of the Destinies + suddenly enters: "Scandalous Phantasms, what do <i>you</i> here? Are + 'solemnly constituted Impostors' the proper Kings of men? Did you think + the Life of Man was a grimacing dance of apes? To be led always by the + squeak of your paltry fiddle? Ye miserable, this Universe is not an + upholstery Puppet-play, but a terrible God's Fact; and you, I think,—had + not you better begone!" They fled precipitately, some of them with what we + may call an exquisite ignominy,—in terror of the treadmill or worse. + And everywhere the people, or the populace, take their own government upon + themselves; and open "kinglessness," what we call <i>anarchy</i>,—how + happy if it be anarchy <i>plus</i> a street-constable!—is everywhere + the order of the day. Such was the history, from Baltic to Mediterranean, + in Italy, France, Prussia, Austria, from end to end of Europe, in those + March days of 1848. Since the destruction of the old Roman Empire by + inroad of the Northern Barbarians, I have known nothing similar. + </p> + <p> + And so, then, there remained no King in Europe; no King except the Public + Haranguer, haranguing on barrel-head, in leading article; or getting + himself aggregated into a National Parliament to harangue. And for about + four months all France, and to a great degree all Europe, rough-ridden by + every species of delirium, except happily the murderous for most part, was + a weltering mob, presided over by M. de Lamartine, at the Hotel-de-Ville; + a most eloquent fair-spoken literary gentleman, whom thoughtless persons + took for a prophet, priest and heaven-sent evangelist, and whom a wise + Yankee friend of mine discerned to be properly "the first stump-orator in + the world, standing too on the highest stump,—for the time." A + sorrowful spectacle to men of reflection, during the time he lasted, that + poor M. de Lamartine; with nothing in him but melodious wind and <i>soft + sawder</i>, which he and others took for something divine and not + diabolic! Sad enough; the eloquent latest impersonation of + Chaos-come-again; able to talk for itself, and declare persuasively that + it is Cosmos! However, you have but to wait a little, in such cases; all + balloons do and must give up their gas in the pressure of things, and are + collapsed in a sufficiently wretched manner before long. + </p> + <p> + And so in City after City, street-barricades are piled, and truculent, + more or less murderous insurrection begins; populace after populace rises, + King after King capitulates or absconds; and from end to end of Europe + Democracy has blazed up explosive, much higher, more irresistible and less + resisted than ever before; testifying too sadly on what a bottomless + volcano, or universal powder-mine of most inflammable mutinous chaotic + elements, separated from us by a thin earth-rind, Society with all its + arrangements and acquirements everywhere, in the present epoch, rests! The + kind of persons who excite or give signal to such revolutions—students, + young men of letters, advocates, editors, hot inexperienced enthusiasts, + or fierce and justly bankrupt desperadoes, acting everywhere on the + discontent of the millions and blowing it into flame,—might give + rise to reflections as to the character of our epoch. Never till now did + young men, and almost children, take such a command in human affairs. A + changed time since the word <i>Senior</i> (Seigneur, or <i>Elder</i>) was + first devised to signify "lord," or superior;—as in all languages of + men we find it to have been! Not an honorable document this either, as to + the spiritual condition of our epoch. In times when men love wisdom, the + old man will ever be venerable, and be venerated, and reckoned noble: in + times that love something else than wisdom, and indeed have little or no + wisdom, and see little or none to love, the old man will cease to be + venerated; and looking more closely, also, you will find that in fact he + has ceased to be venerable, and has begun to be contemptible; a foolish + boy still, a boy without the graces, generosities and opulent strength of + young boys. In these days, what of <i>lordship</i> or leadership is still + to be done, the youth must do it, not the mature or aged man; the mature + man, hardened into sceptical egoism, knows no monition but that of his own + frigid cautious, avarices, mean timidities; and can lead no-whither + towards an object that even seems noble. But to return. + </p> + <p> + This mad state of matters will of course before long allay itself, as it + has everywhere begun to do; the ordinary necessities of men's daily + existence cannot comport with it, and these, whatever else is cast aside, + will have their way. Some remounting—very temporary remounting—of + the old machine, under new colors and altered forms, will probably ensue + soon in most countries: the old histrionic Kings will be admitted back + under conditions, under "Constitutions," with national Parliaments, or the + like fashionable adjuncts; and everywhere the old daily life will try to + begin again. But there is now no hope that such arrangements can be + permanent; that they can be other than poor temporary makeshifts, which, + if they try to fancy and make themselves permanent, will be displaced by + new explosions recurring more speedily than last time. In such baleful + oscillation, afloat as amid raging bottomless eddies and conflicting + sea-currents, not steadfast as on fixed foundations, must European Society + continue swaying, now disastrously tumbling, then painfully readjusting + itself, at ever shorter intervals,—till once the <i>new</i> + rock-basis does come to light, and the weltering deluges of mutiny, and of + need to mutiny, abate again! + </p> + <p> + For universal <i>Democracy</i>, whatever we may think of it, has declared + itself as an inevitable fact of the days in which we live; and he who has + any chance to instruct, or lead, in his days, must begin by admitting + that: new street-barricades, and new anarchies, still more scandalous if + still less sanguinary, must return and again return, till governing + persons everywhere know and admit that. Democracy, it may be said + everywhere, is here:—for sixty years now, ever since the grand or <i>First</i> + French Revolution, that fact has been terribly announced to all the world; + in message after message, some of them very terrible indeed; and now at + last all the world ought really to believe it. That the world does believe + it; that even Kings now as good as believe it, and know, or with just + terror surmise, that they are but temporary phantasm Play-actors, and that + Democracy is the grand, alarming, imminent and indisputable Reality: this, + among the scandalous phases we witnessed in the last two years, is a + phasis full of hope: a sign that we are advancing closer and closer to the + very Problem itself, which it will behoove us to solve or die; that all + fighting and campaigning and coalitioning in regard to the <i>existence</i> + of the Problem, is hopeless and superfluous henceforth. The gods have + appointed it so; no Pitt, nor body of Pitts or mortal creatures can + appoint it otherwise. Democracy, sure enough, is here; one knows not how + long it will keep hidden underground even in Russia;—and here in + England, though we object to it resolutely in the form of + street-barricades and insurrectionary pikes, and decidedly will not open + doors to it on those terms, the tramp of its million feet is on all + streets and thoroughfares, the sound of its bewildered thousand-fold voice + is in all writings and speakings, in all thinkings and modes and + activities of men: the soul that does not now, with hope or terror, + discern it, is not the one we address on this occasion. + </p> + <p> + What is Democracy; this huge inevitable Product of the Destinies, which is + everywhere the portion of our Europe in these latter days? There lies the + question for us. Whence comes it, this universal big black Democracy; + whither tends it; what is the meaning of it? A meaning it must have, or it + would not be here. If we can find the right meaning of it, we may, wisely + submitting or wisely resisting and controlling, still hope to live in the + midst of it; if we cannot find the right meaning, if we find only the + wrong or no meaning in it, to live will not be possible!—The whole + social wisdom of the Present Time is summoned, in the name of the Giver of + Wisdom, to make clear to itself, and lay deeply to heart with an eye to + strenuous valiant practice and effort, what the meaning of this universal + revolt of the European Populations, which calls itself Democracy, and + decides to continue permanent, may be. + </p> + <p> + Certainly it is a drama full of action, event fast following event; in + which curiosity finds endless scope, and there are interests at stake, + enough to rivet the attention of all men, simple and wise. Whereat the + idle multitude lift up their voices, gratulating, celebrating sky-high; in + rhyme and prose announcement, more than plentiful, that <i>now</i> the New + Era, and long-expected Year One of Perfect Human Felicity has come. + Glorious and immortal people, sublime French citizens, heroic barricades; + triumph of civil and religious liberty—O Heaven! one of the + inevitablest private miseries, to an earnest man in such circumstances, is + this multitudinous efflux of oratory and psalmody, from the universal + foolish human throat; drowning for the moment all reflection whatsoever, + except the sorrowful one that you are fallen in an evil, heavy-laden, + long-eared age, and must resignedly bear your part in the same. The front + wall of your wretched old crazy dwelling, long denounced by you to no + purpose, having at last fairly folded itself over, and fallen prostrate + into the street, the floors, as may happen, will still hang on by the mere + beam-ends, and coherency of old carpentry, though in a sloping direction, + and depend there till certain poor rusty nails and worm-eaten dovetailings + give way:—but is it cheering, in such circumstances, that the whole + household burst forth into celebrating the new joys of light and + ventilation, liberty and picturesqueness of position, and thank God that + now they have got a house to their mind? My dear household, cease singing + and psalmodying; lay aside your fiddles, take out your work-implements, if + you have any; for I can say with confidence the laws of gravitation are + still active, and rusty nails, worm-eaten dovetailings, and secret + coherency of old carpentry, are not the best basis for a household!—In + the lanes of Irish cities, I have heard say, the wretched people are + sometimes found living, and perilously boiling their potatoes, on such + swing-floors and inclined planes hanging on by the joist-ends; but I did + not hear that they sang very much in celebration of such lodging. No, they + slid gently about, sat near the back wall, and perilously boiled their + potatoes, in silence for most part!— + </p> + <p> + High shouts of exultation, in every dialect, by every vehicle of speech + and writing, rise from far and near over this last avatar of Democracy in + 1848: and yet, to wise minds, the first aspect it presents seems rather to + be one of boundless misery and sorrow. What can be more miserable than + this universal hunting out of the high dignitaries, solemn functionaries, + and potent, grave and reverend signiors of the world; this stormful + rising-up of the inarticulate dumb masses everywhere, against those who + pretended to be speaking for them and guiding them? These guides, then, + were mere blind men only pretending to see? These rulers were not ruling + at all; they had merely got on the attributes and clothes of rulers, and + were surreptitiously drawing the wages, while the work remained undone? + The Kings were Sham-Kings, play-acting as at Drury Lane;—and what + were the people withal that took them for real? + </p> + <p> + It is probably the hugest disclosure of <i>falsity</i> in human things + that was ever at one time made. These reverend Dignitaries that sat amid + their far-shining symbols and long-sounding long-admitted professions, + were mere Impostors, then? Not a true thing they were doing, but a false + thing. The story they told men was a cunningly devised fable; the gospels + they preached to them were not an account of man's real position in this + world, but an incoherent fabrication, of dead ghosts and unborn shadows, + of traditions, cants, indolences, cowardices,—a falsity of + falsities, which at last <i>ceases</i> to stick together. Wilfully and + against their will, these high units of mankind were cheats, then; and the + low millions who believed in them were dupes,—a kind of <i>inverse</i> + cheats, too, or they would not have believed in them so long. A universal + <i>Bankruptcy of Imposture</i>; that may be the brief definition of it. + Imposture everywhere declared once more to be contrary to Nature; nobody + will change its word into an act any farther:—fallen insolvent; + unable to keep its head up by these false pretences, or make its pot boil + any more for the present! A more scandalous phenomenon, wide as Europe, + never afflicted the face of the sun. Bankruptcy everywhere; foul ignominy, + and the abomination of desolation, in all high places: odious to look + upon, as the carnage of a battle-field on the morrow morning;—a + massacre not of the innocents; we cannot call it a massacre of the + innocents; but a universal tumbling of Impostors and of Impostures into + the street!— + </p> + <p> + Such a spectacle, can we call it joyful? There is a joy in it, to the wise + man too; yes, but a joy full of awe, and as it were sadder than any + sorrow,—like the vision of immortality, unattainable except through + death and the grave! And yet who would not, in his heart of hearts, feel + piously thankful that Imposture has fallen bankrupt? By all means let it + fall bankrupt; in the name of God let it do so, with whatever misery to + itself and to all of us. Imposture, be it known then,—known it must + and shall be,—is hateful, unendurable to God and man. Let it + understand this everywhere; and swiftly make ready for departure, wherever + it yet lingers; and let it learn never to return, if possible! The eternal + voices, very audibly again, are speaking to proclaim this message, from + side to side of the world. Not a very cheering message, but a very + indispensable one. + </p> + <p> + Alas, it is sad enough that Anarchy is here; that we are not permitted to + regret its being here,—for who that had, for this divine Universe, + an eye which was human at all, could wish that Shams of any kind, + especially that Sham-Kings should continue? No: at all costs, it is to be + prayed by all men that Shams may <i>cease</i>. Good Heavens, to what + depths have we got, when this to many a man seems strange! Yet strange to + many a man it does seem; and to many a solid Englishman, wholesomely + digesting his pudding among what are called the cultivated classes, it + seems strange exceedingly; a mad ignorant notion, quite heterodox, and big + with mere ruin. He has been used to decent forms long since fallen empty + of meaning, to plausible modes, solemnities grown ceremonial,—what + you in your iconoclast humor call shams, all his life long; never heard + that there was any harm in them, that there was any getting on without + them. Did not cotton spin itself, beef grow, and groceries and spiceries + come in from the East and the West, quite comfortably by the side of + shams? Kings reigned, what they were pleased to call reigning; lawyers + pleaded, bishops preached, and honorable members perorated; and to crown + the whole, as if it were all real and no sham there, did not scrip + continue salable, and the banker pay in bullion, or paper with a metallic + basis? "The greatest sham, I have always thought, is he that would destroy + shams." + </p> + <p> + Even so. To such depth have <i>I</i>, the poor knowing person of this + epoch, got;—almost below the level of lowest humanity, and down + towards the state of apehood and oxhood! For never till in quite recent + generations was such a scandalous blasphemy quietly set forth among the + sons of Adam; never before did the creature called man believe generally + in his heart that lies were the rule in this Earth; that in deliberate + long-established lying could there be help or salvation for him, could + there be at length other than hindrance and destruction for him. O + Heavyside, my solid friend, this is the sorrow of sorrows: what on earth + can become of us till this accursed enchantment, the general summary and + consecration of delusions, be cast forth from the heart and life of one + and all! Cast forth it will be; it must, or we are tending, at all + moments, whitherward I do not like to name. Alas, and the casting of it + out, to what heights and what depths will it lead us, in the sad universe + mostly of lies and shams and hollow phantasms (grown very ghastly now), in + which, as in a safe home, we have lived this century or two! To heights + and depths of social and individual <i>divorce</i> from delusions,—of + "reform" in right sacred earnest, of indispensable amendment, and stern + sorrowful abrogation and order to depart,—such as cannot well be + spoken at present; as dare scarcely be thought at present; which + nevertheless are very inevitable, and perhaps rather imminent several of + them! Truly we have a heavy task of work before us; and there is a + pressing call that we should seriously begin upon it, before it tumble + into an inextricable mass, in which there will be no working, but only + suffering and hopelessly perishing! + </p> + <p> + Or perhaps Democracy, which we announce as now come, will itself manage + it? Democracy, once modelled into suffrages, furnished with ballot-boxes + and such like, will itself accomplish the salutary universal change from + Delusive to Real, and make a new blessed world of us by and by?—To + the great mass of men, I am aware, the matter presents itself quite on + this hopeful side. Democracy they consider to <i>be</i> a kind of + "Government." The old model, formed long since, and brought to perfection + in England now two hundred years ago, has proclaimed itself to all Nations + as the new healing for every woe: "Set up a Parliament," the Nations + everywhere say, when the old King is detected to be a Sham-King, and + hunted out or not; "set up a Parliament; let us have suffrages, universal + suffrages; and all either at once or by due degrees will be right, and a + real Millennium come!" Such is their way of construing the matter. + </p> + <p> + Such, alas, is by no means my way of construing the matter; if it were, I + should have had the happiness of remaining silent, and been without call + to speak here. It is because the contrary of all this is deeply manifest + to me, and appears to be forgotten by multitudes of my contemporaries, + that I have had to undertake addressing a word to them. The contrary of + all this;—and the farther I look into the roots of all this, the + more hateful, ruinous and dismal does the state of mind all this could + have originated in appear to me. To examine this recipe of a Parliament, + how fit it is for governing Nations, nay how fit it may now be, in these + new times, for governing England itself where we are used to it so long: + this, too, is an alarming inquiry, to which all thinking men, and good + citizens of their country, who have an ear for the small still voices and + eternal intimations, across the temporary clamors and loud blaring + proclamations, are now solemnly invited. Invited by the rigorous fact + itself; which will one day, and that perhaps soon, demand practical + decision or redecision of it from us,—with enormous penalty if we + decide it wrong! I think we shall all have to consider this question, one + day; better perhaps now than later, when the leisure may be less. If a + Parliament, with suffrages and universal or any conceivable kind of + suffrages, is the method, then certainly let us set about discovering the + kind of suffrages, and rest no moment till we have got them. But it is + possible a Parliament may not be the method! Possible the inveterate + notions of the English People may have settled it as the method, and the + Everlasting Laws of Nature may have settled it as not the method! Not the + whole method; nor the method at all, if taken as the whole? If a + Parliament with never such suffrages is not the method settled by this + latter authority, then it will urgently behoove us to become aware of that + fact, and to quit such method;—we may depend upon it, however + unanimous we be, every step taken in that direction will, by the Eternal + Law of things, be a step <i>from</i> improvement, not towards it. + </p> + <p> + Not towards it, I say, if so! Unanimity of voting,—that will do + nothing for us if so. Your ship cannot double Cape Horn by its excellent + plans of voting. The ship may vote this and that, above decks and below, + in the most harmonious exquisitely constitutional manner: the ship, to get + round Cape Horn, will find a set of conditions already voted for, and + fixed with adamantine rigor by the ancient Elemental Powers, who are + entirely careless how you vote. If you can, by voting or without voting, + ascertain these conditions, and valiantly conform to them, you will get + round the Cape: if you cannot, the ruffian Winds will blow you ever back + again; the inexorable Icebergs, dumb privy-councillors from Chaos, will + nudge you with most chaotic "admonition;" you will be flung half frozen on + the Patagonian cliffs, or admonished into shivers by your iceberg + councillors, and sent sheer down to Davy Jones, and will never get round + Cape Horn at all! Unanimity on board ship;—yes indeed, the ship's + crew may be very unanimous, which doubtless, for the time being, will be + very comfortable to the ship's crew, and to their Phantasm Captain if they + have one: but if the tack they unanimously steer upon is guiding them into + the belly of the Abyss, it will not profit them much!—Ships + accordingly do not use the ballot-box at all; and they reject the Phantasm + species of Captains: one wishes much some other Entities—since all + entities lie under the same rigorous set of laws—could be brought to + show as much wisdom, and sense at least of self-preservation, the first + command of Nature. Phantasm Captains with unanimous votings: this is + considered to be all the law and all the prophets, at present. + </p> + <p> + If a man could shake out of his mind the universal noise of political + doctors in this generation and in the last generation or two, and consider + the matter face to face, with his own sincere intelligence looking at it, + I venture to say he would find this a very extraordinary method of + navigating, whether in the Straits of Magellan or the undiscovered Sea of + Time. To prosper in this world, to gain felicity, victory and improvement, + either for a man or a nation, there is but one thing requisite, That the + man or nation can discern what the true regulations of the Universe are in + regard to him and his pursuit, and can faithfully and steadfastly follow + these. These will lead him to victory; whoever it may be that sets him in + the way of these,—were it Russian Autocrat, Chartist Parliament, + Grand Lama, Force of Public Opinion, Archbishop of Canterbury, M'Croudy + the Seraphic Doctor with his Last-evangel of Political Economy,—sets + him in the sure way to please the Author of this Universe, and is his + friend of friends. And again, whoever does the contrary is, for a like + reason, his enemy of enemies. This may be taken as fixed. + </p> + <p> + And now by what method ascertain the monition of the gods in regard to our + affairs? How decipher, with best fidelity, the eternal regulation of the + Universe; and read, from amid such confused embroilments of human clamor + and folly, what the real Divine Message to us is? A divine message, or + eternal regulation of the Universe, there verily is, in regard to every + conceivable procedure and affair of man: faithfully following this, said + procedure or affair will prosper, and have the whole Universe to second + it, and carry it, across the fluctuating contradictions, towards a + victorious goal; not following this, mistaking this, disregarding this, + destruction and wreck are certain for every affair. How find it? All the + world answers me, "Count heads; ask Universal Suffrage, by the + ballot-boxes, and that will tell." Universal Suffrage, ballot-boxes, count + of heads? Well,—I perceive we have got into strange spiritual + latitudes indeed. Within the last half-century or so, either the Universe + or else the heads of men must have altered very much. Half a century ago, + and down from Father Adam's time till then, the Universe, wherever I could + hear tell of it, was wont to be of somewhat abstruse nature; by no means + carrying its secret written on its face, legible to every passer-by; on + the contrary, obstinately hiding its secret from all foolish, slavish, + wicked, insincere persons, and partially disclosing it to the wise and + noble-minded alone, whose number was not the majority in my time! + </p> + <p> + Or perhaps the chief end of man being now, in these improved epochs, to + make money and spend it, his interests in the Universe have become + amazingly simplified of late; capable of being voted on with effect by + almost anybody? "To buy in the cheapest market, and sell in the dearest:" + truly if that is the summary of his social duties, and the final divine + message he has to follow, we may trust him extensively to vote upon that. + But if it is not, and never was, or can be? If the Universe will not carry + on its divine bosom any commonwealth of mortals that have no higher aim,—being + still "a Temple and Hall of Doom," not a mere Weaving-shop and Cattle-pen? + If the unfathomable Universe has decided to <i>reject</i> Human Beavers + pretending to be Men; and will abolish, pretty rapidly perhaps, in hideous + mud-deluges, their "markets" and them, unless they think of it?—In + that case it were better to think of it: and the Democracies and Universal + Suffrages, I can observe, will require to modify themselves a good deal! + </p> + <p> + Historically speaking, I believe there was no Nation that could subsist + upon Democracy. Of ancient Republics, and <i>Demoi</i> and <i>Populi</i>, + we have heard much; but it is now pretty well admitted to be nothing to + our purpose;—a universal-suffrage republic, or a general-suffrage + one, or any but a most-limited-suffrage one, never came to light, or + dreamed of doing so, in ancient times. When the mass of the population + were slaves, and the voters intrinsically a kind of <i>kings</i>, or men + born to rule others; when the voters were real "aristocrats" and + manageable dependents of such,—then doubtless voting, and confused + jumbling of talk and intrigue, might, without immediate destruction, or + the need of a Cavaignac to intervene with cannon and sweep the streets + clear of it, go on; and beautiful developments of manhood might be + possible beside it, for a season. Beside it; or even, if you will, by + means of it, and in virtue of it, though that is by no means so certain as + is often supposed. Alas, no: the reflective constitutional mind has + misgivings as to the origin of old Greek and Roman nobleness; and indeed + knows not how this or any other human nobleness could well be + "originated," or brought to pass, by voting or without voting, in this + world, except by the grace of God very mainly;—and remembers, with a + sigh, that of the Seven Sages themselves no fewer than three were bits of + Despotic Kings, [Gr.] <i>Turannoi</i>, "Tyrants" so called (such being + greatly wanted there); and that the other four were very far from Red + Republicans, if of any political faith whatever! We may quit the Ancient + Classical concern, and leave it to College-clubs and speculative + debating-societies, in these late days. + </p> + <p> + Of the various French Republics that have been tried, or that are still on + trial,—of these also it is not needful to say any word. But there is + one modern instance of Democracy nearly perfect, the Republic of the + United States, which has actually subsisted for threescore years or more, + with immense success as is affirmed; to which many still appeal, as to a + sign of hope for all nations, and a "Model Republic." Is not America an + instance in point? Why should not all Nations subsist and flourish on + Democracy, as America does? + </p> + <p> + Of America it would ill beseem any Englishman, and me perhaps as little as + another, to speak unkindly, to speak unpatriotically, if any of us even + felt so. Sure enough, America is a great, and in many respects a blessed + and hopeful phenomenon. Sure enough, these hardy millions of Anglo-Saxon + men prove themselves worthy of their genealogy; and, with the axe and + plough and hammer, if not yet with any much finer kind of implements, are + triumphantly clearing out wide spaces, seedfields for the sustenance and + refuge of mankind, arenas for the future history of the world; doing, in + their day and generation, a creditable and cheering feat under the sun. + But as to a Model Republic, or a model anything, the wise among themselves + know too well that there is nothing to be said. Nay the title hitherto to + be a Commonwealth or Nation at all, among the [Gr.] <i>ethne</i> of the + world, is, strictly considered, still a thing they are but striving for, + and indeed have not yet done much towards attaining. Their Constitution, + such as it may be, was made here, not there; went over with them from the + Old-Puritan English workshop ready-made. Deduct what they carried with + them from England ready-made,—their common English Language, and + that same Constitution, or rather elixir of constitutions, their + inveterate and now, as it were, inborn reverence for the Constable's + Staff; two quite immense attainments, which England had to spend much + blood, and valiant sweat of brow and brain, for centuries long, in + achieving;—and what new elements of polity or nationhood, what noble + new phasis of human arrangement, or social device worthy of Prometheus or + of Epimetheus, yet comes to light in America? Cotton crops and Indian corn + and dollars come to light; and half a world of untilled land, where + populations that respect the constable can live, for the present <i>without</i> + Government: this comes to light; and the profound sorrow of all nobler + hearts, here uttering itself as silent patient unspeakable ennui, there + coming out as vague elegiac wailings, that there is still next to nothing + more. "Anarchy <i>plus</i> a street-constable:" that also is anarchic to + me, and other than quite lovely! + </p> + <p> + I foresee, too, that, long before the waste lands are full, the very + street-constable, on these poor terms, will have become impossible: + without the waste lands, as here in our Europe, I do not see how he could + continue possible many weeks. Cease to brag to me of America, and its + model institutions and constitutions. To men in their sleep there is + nothing granted in this world: nothing, or as good as nothing, to men that + sit idly caucusing and ballot-boxing on the graves of their heroic + ancestors, saying, "It is well, it is well!" Corn and bacon are granted: + not a very sublime boon, on such conditions; a boon moreover which, on + such conditions, cannot last!—No: America too will have to strain + its energies, in quite other fashion than this; to crack its sinews, and + all but break its heart, as the rest of us have had to do, in + thousand-fold wrestle with the Pythons and mud-demons, before it can + become a habitation for the gods. America's battle is yet to fight; and + we, sorrowful though nothing doubting, will wish her strength for it. New + Spiritual Pythons, plenty of them; enormous Megatherions, as ugly as were + ever born of mud, loom huge and hideous out of the twilight Future on + America; and she will have her own agony, and her own victory, but on + other terms than she is yet quite aware of. Hitherto she but ploughs and + hammers, in a very successful manner; hitherto, in spite of her + "roast-goose with apple-sauce," she is not much. "Roast-goose with + apple-sauce for the poorest workingman:" well, surely that is something, + thanks to your respect for the street-constable, and to your continents of + fertile waste land;—but that, even if it could continue, is by no + means enough; that is not even an instalment towards what will be required + of you. My friend, brag not yet of our American cousins! Their quantity of + cotton, dollars, industry and resources, I believe to be almost + unspeakable; but I can by no means worship the like of these. What great + human soul, what great thought, what great noble thing that one could + worship, or loyally admire, has yet been produced there? None: the + American cousins have yet done none of these things. "What they have + done?" growls Smelfungus, tired of the subject: "They have doubled their + population every twenty years. They have begotten, with a rapidity beyond + recorded example, Eighteen Millions of the greatest <i>bores</i> ever seen + in this world before,—that hitherto is their feat in History!"—And + so we leave them, for the present; and cannot predict the success of + Democracy, on this side of the Atlantic, from their example. + </p> + <p> + Alas, on this side of the Atlantic and on that, Democracy, we apprehend, + is forever impossible! So much, with certainty of loud astonished + contradiction from all manner of men at present, but with sure appeal to + the Law of Nature and the ever-abiding Fact, may be suggested and asserted + once more. The Universe itself is a Monarchy and Hierarchy; large liberty + of "voting" there, all manner of choice, utmost free-will, but with + conditions inexorable and immeasurable annexed to every exercise of the + same. A most free commonwealth of "voters;" but with Eternal Justice to + preside over it, Eternal Justice enforced by Almighty Power! This is the + model of "constitutions;" this: nor in any Nation where there has not yet + (in some supportable and withal some constantly increasing degree) been + confided to the <i>Noblest</i>, with his select series of <i>Nobler</i>, + the divine everlasting duty of directing and controlling the Ignoble, has + the "Kingdom of God," which we all pray for, "come," nor can "His will" + even <i>tend</i> to be "done on Earth as it is in Heaven" till then. My + Christian friends, and indeed my Sham-Christian and Anti-Christian, and + all manner of men, are invited to reflect on this. They will find it to be + the truth of the case. The Noble in the high place, the Ignoble in the + low; that is, in all times and in all countries, the Almighty Maker's Law. + </p> + <p> + To raise the Sham-Noblest, and solemnly consecrate him by whatever method, + new-devised, or slavishly adhered to from old wont, this, little as we may + regard it, is, in all times and countries, a practical blasphemy, and + Nature will in nowise forget it. Alas, there lies the origin, the fatal + necessity, of modern Democracy everywhere. It is the Noblest, not the + Sham-Noblest; it is God-Almighty's Noble, not the Court-Tailor's Noble, + nor the Able-Editor's Noble, that must, in some approximate degree, be + raised to the supreme place; he and not a counterfeit,—under + penalties! Penalties deep as death, and at length terrible as + hell-on-earth, my constitutional friend!—Will the ballot-box raise + the Noblest to the chief place; does any sane man deliberately believe + such a thing? That nevertheless is the indispensable result, attain it how + we may: if that is attained, all is attained; if not that, nothing. He + that cannot believe the ballot-box to be attaining it, will be + comparatively indifferent to the ballot-box. Excellent for keeping the + ship's crew at peace under their Phantasm Captain; but unserviceable, + under such, for getting round Cape Horn. Alas, that there should be human + beings requiring to have these things argued of, at this late time of day! + </p> + <p> + I say, it is the everlasting privilege of the foolish to be governed by + the wise; to be guided in the right path by those who know it better than + they. This is the first "right of man;" compared with which all other + rights are as nothing,—mere superfluities, corollaries which will + follow of their own accord out of this; if they be not contradictions to + this, and less than nothing! To the wise it is not a privilege; far other + indeed. Doubtless, as bringing preservation to their country, it implies + preservation of themselves withal; but intrinsically it is the harshest + duty a wise man, if he be indeed wise, has laid to his hand. A duty which + he would fain enough shirk; which accordingly, in these sad times of doubt + and cowardly sloth, he has long everywhere been endeavoring to reduce to + its minimum, and has in fact in most cases nearly escaped altogether. It + is an ungoverned world; a world which we flatter ourselves will henceforth + need no governing. On the dust of our heroic ancestors we too sit + ballot-boxing, saying to one another, It is well, it is well! By + inheritance of their noble struggles, we have been permitted to sit + slothful so long. By noble toil, not by shallow laughter and vain talk, + they made this English Existence from a savage forest into an arable + inhabitable field for us; and we, idly dreaming it would grow spontaneous + crops forever,—find it now in a too questionable state; peremptorily + requiring real labor and agriculture again. Real "agriculture" is not + pleasant; much pleasanter to reap and winnow (with ballot-box or + otherwise) than to plough! + </p> + <p> + Who would govern that can get along without governing? He that is fittest + for it, is of all men the unwillingest unless constrained. By multifarious + devices we have been endeavoring to dispense with governing; and by very + superficial speculations, of <i>laissez-faire</i>, supply-and-demand, + &c. &c. to persuade ourselves that it is best so. The Real + Captain, unless it be some Captain of mechanical Industry hired by Mammon, + where is he in these days? Most likely, in silence, in sad isolation + somewhere, in remote obscurity; trying if, in an evil ungoverned time, he + cannot at least govern himself. The Real Captain undiscoverable; the + Phantasm Captain everywhere very conspicuous:—it is thought Phantasm + Captains, aided by ballot-boxes, are the true method, after all. They are + much the pleasantest for the time being! And so no <i>Dux</i> or Duke of + any sort, in any province of our affairs, now <i>leads</i>: the Duke's + Bailiff <i>leads</i>, what little leading is required for getting in the + rents; and the Duke merely rides in the state-coach. It is everywhere so: + and now at last we see a world all rushing towards strange consummations, + because it is and has long been so! + </p> + <p> + I do not suppose any reader of mine, or many persons in England at all, + have much faith in Fraternity, Equality and the Revolutionary Millenniums + preached by the French Prophets in this age: but there are many movements + here too which tend inevitably in the like direction; and good men, who + would stand aghast at Red Republic and its adjuncts, seem to me travelling + at full speed towards that or a similar goal! Certainly the notion + everywhere prevails among us too, and preaches itself abroad in every + dialect, uncontradicted anywhere so far as I can hear, That the grand + panacea for social woes is what we call "enfranchisement," "emancipation;" + or, translated into practical language, the cutting asunder of human + relations, wherever they are found grievous, as is like to be pretty + universally the case at the rate we have been going for some generations + past. Let us all be "free" of one another; we shall then be happy. Free, + without bond or connection except that of cash-payment; fair day's wages + for the fair day's work; bargained for by voluntary contract, and law of + supply-and-demand: this is thought to be the true solution of all + difficulties and injustices that have occurred between man and man. + </p> + <p> + To rectify the relation that exists between two men, is there no method, + then, but that of ending it? The old relation has become unsuitable, + obsolete, perhaps unjust; it imperatively requires to be amended; and the + remedy is, Abolish it, let there henceforth be no relation at all. From + the "Sacrament of Marriage" downwards, human beings used to be manifoldly + related, one to another, and each to all; and there was no relation among + human beings, just or unjust, that had not its grievances and + difficulties, its necessities on both sides to bear and forbear. But + henceforth, be it known, we have changed all that, by favor of Heaven: + "the voluntary principle" has come up, which will itself do the business + for us; and now let a new Sacrament, that of Divorce, which we call + emancipation, and spout of on our platforms, be universally the order of + the day!—Have men considered whither all this is tending, and what + it certainly enough betokens? Cut every human relation which has anywhere + grown uneasy sheer asunder; reduce whatsoever was compulsory to voluntary, + whatsoever was permanent among us to the condition of nomadic:—in + other words, loosen by assiduous wedges in every joint, the whole fabric + of social existence, stone from stone: till at last, all now being loose + enough, it can, as we already see in most countries, be overset by sudden + outburst of revolutionary rage; and, lying as mere mountains of anarchic + rubbish, solicit you to sing Fraternity, &c., over it, and to rejoice + in the new remarkable era of human progress we have arrived at. + </p> + <p> + Certainly Emancipation proceeds with rapid strides among us, this good + while; and has got to such a length as might give rise to reflections in + men of a serious turn. West-Indian Blacks are emancipated, and it appears + refuse to work: Irish Whites have long been entirely emancipated; and + nobody asks them to work, or on condition of finding them potatoes (which, + of course, is indispensable), permits them to work.—Among + speculative persons, a question has sometimes risen: In the progress of + Emancipation, are we to look for a time when all the Horses also are to be + emancipated, and brought to the supply-and-demand principle? Horses too + have "motives;" are acted on by hunger, fear, hope, love of oats, terror + of platted leather; nay they have vanity, ambition, emulation, + thankfulness, vindictiveness; some rude outline of all our human + spiritualities,—a rude resemblance to us in mind and intelligence, + even as they have in bodily frame. The Horse, poor dumb four-footed + fellow, he too has his private feelings, his affections, gratitudes; and + deserves good usage; no human master, without crime, shall treat him + unjustly either, or recklessly lay on the whip where it is not needed:—I + am sure if I could make him "happy," I should be willing to grant a small + vote (in addition to the late twenty millions) for that object! + </p> + <p> + Him too you occasionally tyrannize over; and with bad result to + yourselves, among others; using the leather in a tyrannous unnecessary + manner; withholding, or scantily furnishing, the oats and ventilated + stabling that are due. Rugged horse-subduers, one fears they are a little + tyrannous at times. "Am I not a horse, and half-brother?"—To remedy + which, so far as remediable, fancy—the horses all "emancipated;" + restored to their primeval right of property in the grass of this Globe: + turned out to graze in an independent supply-and-demand manner! So long as + grass lasts, I dare say they are very happy, or think themselves so. And + Farmer Hodge sallying forth, on a dry spring morning, with a sieve of oats + in his hand, and agony of eager expectation in his heart, is he happy? + Help me to plough this day, Black Dobbin: oats in full measure if thou + wilt. "Hlunh, No—thank!" snorts Black Dobbin; he prefers glorious + liberty and the grass. Bay Darby, wilt not thou perhaps? "Hlunh!"—Gray + Joan, then, my beautiful broad-bottomed mare,—O Heaven, she too + answers Hlunh! Not a quadruped of them will plough a stroke for me. + Corn-crops are <i>ended</i> in this world!—For the sake, if not of + Hodge, then of Hodge's horses, one prays this benevolent practice might + now cease, and a new and better one try to begin. Small kindness to + Hodge's horses to emancipate them! The fate of all emancipated horses is, + sooner or later, inevitable. To have in this habitable Earth no grass to + eat,—in Black Jamaica gradually none, as in White Connemara already + none;—to roam aimless, wasting the seedfields of the world; and be + hunted home to Chaos, by the due watch-dogs and due hell-dogs, with such + horrors of forsaken wretchedness as were never seen before! These things + are not sport; they are terribly true, in this country at this hour. + </p> + <p> + Between our Black West Indies and our White Ireland, between these two + extremes of lazy refusal to work, and of famishing inability to find any + work, what a world have we made of it, with our fierce Mammon-worships, + and our benevolent philanderings, and idle godless nonsenses of one kind + and another! Supply-and-demand, Leave-it-alone, Voluntary Principle, Time + will mend it:—till British industrial existence seems fast becoming + one huge poison-swamp of reeking pestilence physical and moral; a hideous + <i>living</i> Golgotha of souls and bodies buried alive; such a Curtius' + gulf, communicating with the Nether Deeps, as the Sun never saw till now. + These scenes, which the <i>Morning Chronicle</i> is bringing home to all + minds of men,—thanks to it for a service such as Newspapers have + seldom done,—ought to excite unspeakable reflections in every mind. + Thirty thousand outcast Needlewomen working themselves swiftly to death; + three million Paupers rotting in forced idleness, <i>helping</i> said + Needlewomen to die: these are but items in the sad ledger of despair. + </p> + <p> + Thirty thousand wretched women, sunk in that putrefying well of + abominations; they have oozed in upon London, from the universal Stygian + quagmire of British industrial life; are accumulated in the <i>well</i> of + the concern, to that extent. British charity is smitten to the heart, at + the laying bare of such a scene; passionately undertakes, by enormous + subscription of money, or by other enormous effort, to redress that + individual horror; as I and all men hope it may. But, alas, what next? + This general well and cesspool once baled clean out to-day, will begin + before night to fill itself anew. The universal Stygian quagmire is still + there; opulent in women ready to be ruined, and in men ready. Towards the + same sad cesspool will these waste currents of human ruin ooze and + gravitate as heretofore; except in draining the universal quagmire itself + there is no remedy. "And for that, what is the method?" cry many in an + angry manner. To whom, for the present, I answer only, "Not + 'emancipation,' it would seem, my friends; not the cutting loose of human + ties, something far the reverse of that!" + </p> + <p> + Many things have been written about shirtmaking; but here perhaps is the + saddest thing of all, not written anywhere till now, that I know of. + Shirts by the thirty thousand are made at twopence-halfpenny each; and in + the mean while no needlewoman, distressed or other, can be procured in + London by any housewife to give, for fair wages, fair help in sewing. Ask + any thrifty house-mother, high or low, and she will answer. In high houses + and in low, there is the same answer: no <i>real</i> needlewoman, + "distressed" or other, has been found attainable in any of the houses I + frequent. Imaginary needlewomen, who demand considerable wages, and have a + deepish appetite for beer and viands, I hear of everywhere; but their + sewing proves too often a distracted puckering and botching; not sewing, + only the fallacious hope of it, a fond imagination of the mind. Good + sempstresses are to be hired in every village; and in London, with its + famishing thirty thousand, not at all, or hardly,—Is not + No-government beautiful in human business? To such length has the + Leave-alone principle carried it, by way of organizing labor, in this + affair of shirtmaking. Let us hope the Leave-alone principle has now got + its apotheosis; and taken wing towards higher regions than ours, to deal + henceforth with a class of affairs more appropriate for it! + </p> + <p> + Reader, did you ever hear of "Constituted Anarchy"? Anarchy; the choking, + sweltering, deadly and killing rule of No-rule; the consecration of + cupidity, and braying folly, and dim stupidity and baseness, in most of + the affairs of men? Slop-shirts attainable three halfpence cheaper, by the + ruin of living bodies and immortal souls? Solemn Bishops and high + Dignitaries, <i>our</i> divine "Pillars of Fire by night," debating + meanwhile, with their largest wigs and gravest look, upon something they + call "prevenient grace"? Alas, our noble men of genius, Heaven's <i>real</i> + messengers to us, they also rendered nearly futile by the wasteful time;—preappointed + they everywhere, and assiduously trained by all their pedagogues and + monitors, to "rise in Parliament," to compose orations, write books, or in + short speak words, for the approval of reviewers; instead of doing real + kingly work to be approved of by the gods! Our "Government," a highly + "responsible" one; responsible to no God that I can hear of, but to the + twenty-seven million <i>gods</i> of the shilling gallery. A Government + tumbling and drifting on the whirlpools and mud-deluges, floating atop in + a conspicuous manner, no-whither,—like the carcass of a drowned ass. + Authentic <i>Chaos</i> come up into this sunny Cosmos again; and all men + singing Gloria in <i>excelsis</i> to it. In spirituals and temporals, in + field and workshop, from Manchester to Dorsetshire, from Lambeth Palace to + the Lanes of Whitechapel, wherever men meet and toil and traffic together,—Anarchy, + Anarchy; and only the street-constable (though with ever-increasing + difficulty) still maintaining himself in the middle of it; that so, for + one thing, this blessed exchange of slop-shirts for the souls of women may + transact itself in a peaceable manner!—I, for my part, do profess + myself in eternal opposition to this, and discern well that universal Ruin + has us in the wind, unless we can get out of this. My friend Crabbe, in a + late number of his <i>Intermittent Radiator</i>, pertinently enough + exclaims:— + </p> + <p> + "When shall we have done with all this of British Liberty, Voluntary + Principle, Dangers of Centralization, and the like? It is really getting + too bad. For British Liberty, it seems, the people cannot be taught to + read. British Liberty, shuddering to interfere with the rights of capital, + takes six or eight millions of money annually to feed the idle laborer + whom it dare not employ. For British Liberty we live over poisonous + cesspools, gully-drains, and detestable abominations; and omnipotent + London cannot sweep the dirt out of itself. British Liberty produces—what? + Floods of Hansard Debates every year, and apparently little else at + present. If these are the results of British Liberty, I, for one, move we + should lay it on the shelf a little, and look out for something other and + farther. We have achieved British Liberty hundreds of years ago; and are + fast growing, on the strength of it, one of the most absurd populations + the Sun, among his great Museum of Absurdities, looks down upon at + present." + </p> + <p> + Curious enough: the model of the world just now is England and her + Constitution; all Nations striving towards it: poor France swimming these + last sixty years in seas of horrid dissolution and confusion, resolute to + attain this blessedness of free voting, or to die in chase of it. Prussia + too, solid Germany itself, has all broken out into crackling of musketry, + loud pamphleteering and Frankfort parliamenting and palavering; Germany + too will scale the sacred mountains, how steep soever, and, by talisman of + ballot-box, inhabit a political Elysium henceforth. All the Nations have + that one hope. Very notable, and rather sad to the humane on-looker. For + it is sadly conjectured, all the Nations labor somewhat under a mistake as + to England, and the causes of her freedom and her prosperous + cotton-spinning; and have much misread the nature of her Parliament, and + the effect of ballot-boxes and universal suffrages there. + </p> + <p> + What if it were because the English Parliament was from the first, and is + only just now ceasing to be, a Council of actual Rulers, real Governing + Persons (called Peers, Mitred Abbots, Lords, Knights of the Shire, or + howsoever called), actually <i>ruling</i> each his section of the country,—and + possessing (it must be said) in the lump, or when assembled as a Council, + uncommon patience, devoutness, probity, discretion and good fortune,—that + the said Parliament ever came to be good for much? In that case it will + not be easy to "imitate" the English Parliament; and the ballot-box and + suffrage will be the mere bow of Robin Hood, which it is given to very few + to bend, or shoot with to any perfection. And if the Peers become mere big + Capitalists, Railway Directors, gigantic Hucksters, Kings of Scrip, <i>without</i> + lordly quality, or other virtue except cash; and the Mitred Abbots change + to mere Able-Editors, masters of Parliamentary Eloquence, Doctors of + Political Economy, and such like; and all <i>have</i> to be elected by a + universal-suffrage ballot-box,—I do not see how the English + Parliament itself will long continue sea-worthy! Nay, I find England in + her own big dumb heart, wherever you come upon her in a silent meditative + hour, begins to have dreadful misgivings about it. + </p> + <p> + The model of the world, then, is at once unattainable by the world, and + not much worth attaining? England, as I read the omens, is now called a + second time to "show the Nations how to live;" for by her Parliament, as + chief governing entity, I fear she is not long for this world! Poor + England must herself again, in these new strange times, the old methods + being quite worn out, "learn how to live." That now is the terrible + problem for England, as for all the Nations; and she alone of all, not <i>yet</i> + sunk into open Anarchy, but left with time for repentance and amendment; + she, wealthiest of all in material resource, in spiritual energy, in + ancient loyalty to law, and in the qualities that yield such loyalty,—she + perhaps alone of all may be able, with huge travail, and the strain of all + her faculties, to accomplish some solution. She will have to try it, she + has now to try it; she must accomplish it, or perish from her place in the + world! + </p> + <p> + England, as I persuade myself, still contains in it many <i>kings</i>; + possesses, as old Rome did, many men not needing "election" to command, + but eternally elected for it by the Maker Himself. England's one hope is + in these, just now. They are among the silent, I believe; mostly far away + from platforms and public palaverings; not speaking forth the image of + their nobleness in transitory words, but imprinting it, each on his own + little section of the world, in silent facts, in modest valiant actions, + that will endure forevermore. They must sit silent no longer. They are + summoned to assert themselves; to act forth, and articulately vindicate, + in the teeth of howling multitudes, of a world too justly <i>maddened</i> + into all manner of delirious clamors, what of wisdom they derive from God. + England, and the Eternal Voices, summon them; poor England never so needed + them as now. Up, be doing everywhere: the hour of crisis has verily come! + In all sections of English life, the god-made <i>king</i> is needed; is + pressingly demanded in most; in some, cannot longer, without peril as of + conflagration, be dispensed with. He, wheresoever he finds himself, can + say, "Here too am I wanted; here is the kingdom I have to subjugate, and + introduce God's Laws into,—God's Laws, instead of Mammon's and + M'Croudy's and the Old Anarch's! Here is my work, here or nowhere."—Are + there many such, who will answer to the call, in England? It turns on + that, whether England, rapidly crumbling in these very years and months, + shall go down to the Abyss as her neighbors have all done, or survive to + new grander destinies <i>without</i> solution of continuity! Probably the + chief question of the world at present. + </p> + <p> + The true "commander" and king; he who knows for himself the divine + Appointments of this Universe, the Eternal Laws ordained by God the Maker, + in conforming to which lies victory and felicity, in departing from which + lies, and forever must lie, sorrow and defeat, for each and all of the + Posterity of Adam in every time and every place; he who has sworn fealty + to these, and dare alone against the world assert these, and dare not with + the whole world at his back deflect from these;—he, I know too well, + is a rare man. Difficult to discover; not quite discoverable, I apprehend, + by manoeuvring of ballot-boxes, and riddling of the popular clamor + according to the most approved methods. He is not sold at any shop I know + of,—though sometimes, as at the sign of the Ballot-box, he is + advertised for sale. Difficult indeed to discover: and not very much + assisted, or encouraged in late times, to discover <i>himself</i>;—which, + I think, might be a kind of help? Encouraged rather, and commanded in all + ways, if he be wise, to <i>hide</i> himself, and give place to the windy + Counterfeit of himself; such as the universal suffrages can recognize, + such as loves the most sweet voices of the universal suffrages!—O + Peter, what becomes of such a People; what can become? + </p> + <p> + Did you never hear, with the mind's ear as well, that fateful Hebrew + Prophecy, I think the fatefulest of all, which sounds daily through the + streets, "Ou' clo! Ou' clo!"—A certain People, once upon a time, + clamorously voted by overwhelming majority, "Not <i>he</i>; Barabbas, not + he! <i>Him</i>, and what he is, and what he deserves, we know well enough: + a reviler of the Chief Priests and sacred Chancery wigs; a seditious + Heretic, physical-force Chartist, and enemy of his country and mankind: To + the gallows and the cross with him! Barabbas is our man; Barabbas, we are + for Barabbas!" They got Barabbas:—have you well considered what a + fund of purblind obduracy, of opaque <i>flunkyism</i> grown truculent and + transcendent; what an eye for the phylacteries, and want of eye for the + eternal noblenesses; sordid loyalty to the prosperous Semblances, and + high-treason against the Supreme Fact, such a vote betokens in these + natures? For it was the consummation of a long series of such; they and + their fathers had long kept voting so. A singular People; who could both + produce such divine men, and then could so stone and crucify them; a + People terrible from the beginning!—Well, they got Barabbas; and + they got, of course, such guidance as Barabbas and the like of him could + give them; and, of course, they stumbled ever downwards and devilwards, in + their truculent stiffnecked way; and—and, at this hour, after + eighteen centuries of sad fortune, they prophetically sing "Ou' clo!" in + all the cities of the world. Might the world, at this late hour, but take + note of them, and understand their song a little! + </p> + <p> + Yes, there are some things the universal suffrage can decide,—and + about these it will be exceedingly useful to consult the universal + suffrage: but in regard to most things of importance, and in regard to the + choice of men especially, there is (astonishing as it may seem) next to no + capability on the part of universal suffrage.—I request all candid + persons, who have never so little originality of mind, and every man has a + little, to consider this. If true, it involves such a change in our now + fashionable modes of procedure as fills me with astonishment and alarm. <i>If</i> + popular suffrage is not the way of ascertaining what the Laws of the + Universe are, and who it is that will best guide us in the way of these,—then + woe is to us if we do not take another method. Delolme on the British + Constitution will not save us; deaf will the Parcae be to votes of the + House, to leading articles, constitutional philosophies. The other method—alas, + it involves a stopping short, or vital change of direction, in the + glorious career which all Europe, with shouts heaven-high, is now + galloping along: and that, happen when it may, will, to many of us, be + probably a rather surprising business! + </p> + <p> + One thing I do know, and can again assert with great confidence, supported + by the whole Universe, and by some two hundred generations of men, who + have left us some record of themselves there, That the few Wise will have, + by one method or another, to take command of the innumerable Foolish; that + they must be got to take it;—and that, in fact, since Wisdom, which + means also Valor and heroic Nobleness, is alone strong in this world, and + one wise man is stronger than all men unwise, they can be got. That they + must take it; and having taken, must keep it, and do their God's Message + in it, and defend the same, at their life's peril, against all men and + devils. This I do clearly believe to be the backbone of all Future + Society, as it has been of all Past; and that without it, there is no + Society possible in the world. And what a business <i>this</i> will be, + before it end in some degree of victory again, and whether the time for + shouts of triumph and tremendous cheers upon it is yet come, or not yet by + a great way, I perceive too well! A business to make us all very serious + indeed. A business not to be accomplished but by noble manhood, and devout + all-daring, all-enduring loyalty to Heaven, such as fatally <i>sleeps</i> + at present,—such as is not <i>dead</i> at present either, unless the + gods have doomed this world of theirs to die! A business which long + centuries of faithful travail and heroic agony, on the part of all the + noble that are born to us, will not end; and which to us, of this + "tremendous cheering" century, it were blessedness very great to see + successfully begun. Begun, tried by all manner of methods, if there is one + wise Statesman or man left among us, it verily must be;—begun, + successfully or unsuccessfully, we do hope to see it! + </p> + <p> + In all European countries, especially in England, one class of Captains + and commanders of men, recognizable as the beginning of a new real and not + imaginary "Aristocracy," has already in some measure developed itself: the + Captains of Industry;—happily the class who above all, or at least + first of all, are wanted in this time. In the doing of material work, we + have already men among us that can command bodies of men. And surely, on + the other hand, there is no lack of men needing to be commanded: the sad + class of brother-men whom we had to describe as "Hodge's emancipated + horses," reduced to roving famine,—this too has in all countries + developed itself; and, in fatal geometrical progression, is ever more + developing itself, with a rapidity which alarms every one. On this ground, + if not on all manner of other grounds, it may be truly said, the + "Organization of Labor" (<i>not</i> organizable by the mad methods tried + hitherto) is the universal vital Problem of the world. + </p> + <p> + To bring these hordes of outcast captainless soldiers under due captaincy? + This is really the question of questions; on the answer to which turns, + among other things, the fate of all Governments, constitutional and other,—the + possibility of their continuing to exist, or the impossibility. + Captainless, uncommanded, these wretched outcast "soldiers," since they + cannot starve, must needs become banditti, street-barricaders,—destroyers + of every Government that <i>cannot</i> put them under captains, and send + them upon enterprises, and in short render life human to them. Our English + plan of Poor Laws, which we once piqued ourselves upon as sovereign, is + evidently fast breaking down. Ireland, now admitted into the Idle + Workhouse, is rapidly bursting it in pieces. That never was a "human" + destiny for any honest son of Adam; nowhere but in England could it have + lasted at all; and now, with Ireland sharer in it, and the fulness of time + come, it is as good as ended. Alas, yes. Here in Connemara, your crazy + Ship of the State, otherwise dreadfully rotten in many of its timbers I + believe, has sprung a leak: spite of all hands at the pump, the water is + rising; the Ship, I perceive, will founder, if you cannot stop this leak! + </p> + <p> + To bring these Captainless under due captaincy? The anxious thoughts of + all men that do think are turned upon that question; and their efforts, + though as yet blindly and to no purpose, under the multifarious + impediments and obscurations, all point thitherward. Isolated men, and + their vague efforts, cannot do it. Government everywhere is called upon,—in + England as loudly as elsewhere,—to give the initiative. A new + strange task of these new epochs; which no Government, never so + "constitutional," can escape from undertaking. For it is vitally necessary + to the existence of Society itself; it must be undertaken, and succeeded + in too, or worse will follow,—and, as we already see in Irish + Connaught and some other places, will follow soon. To whatever thing still + calls itself by the name of Government, were it never so constitutional + and impeded by official impossibilities, all men will naturally look for + help, and direction what to do, in this extremity. If help or direction is + not given; if the thing called Government merely drift and tumble to and + fro, no-whither, on the popular vortexes, like some carcass of a drowned + ass, constitutionally put "at the top of affairs," popular indignation + will infallibly accumulate upon it; one day, the popular lightning, + descending forked and horrible from the black air, will annihilate said + supreme carcass, and smite it home to its native ooze again!—Your + Lordship, this is too true, though irreverently spoken: indeed one knows + not how to speak of it; and to me it is infinitely sad and miserable, + spoken or not!—Unless perhaps the Voluntary Principle will still + help us through? Perhaps this Irish leak, in such a rotten distressed + condition of the Ship, with all the crew so anxious about it, will be kind + enough to stop of itself?— + </p> + <p> + Dismiss that hope, your Lordship! Let all real and imaginary Governors of + England, at the pass we have arrived at, dismiss forever that fallacious + fatal solace to their do-nothingism: of itself, too clearly, the leak will + never stop; by human skill and energy it must be stopped, or there is + nothing but the sea-bottom for us all! A Chief Governor of England really + ought to recognize his situation; to discern that, doing nothing, and + merely drifting to and fro, in however constitutional a manner, he is a + squanderer of precious moments, moments that perhaps are priceless; a + truly alarming Chief Governor. Surely, to a Chief Governor of England, + worthy of that high name,—surely to him, as to every living man, in + every conceivable situation short of the Kingdom of the Dead—there + is <i>something</i> possible; some plan of action other than that of + standing mildly, with crossed arms, till he and we—sink? Complex as + his situation is, he, of all Governors now extant among these distracted + Nations, has, as I compute, by far the greatest possibilities. The + Captains, actual or potential, are there, and the million Captainless: and + such resources for bringing them together as no other has. To these + outcast soldiers of his, unregimented roving banditti for the present, or + unworking workhouse prisoners who are almost uglier than banditti; to + these floods of Irish Beggars, Able-bodied Paupers, and nomadic Lackalls, + now stagnating or roaming everywhere, drowning the face of the world (too + truly) into an untenantable swamp and Stygian quagmire, has the Chief + Governor of this country no word whatever to say? Nothing but "Rate in + aid," "Time will mend it," "Necessary business of the Session;" and "After + me the Deluge"? A Chief Governor that can front his Irish difficulty, and + steadily contemplate the horoscope of Irish and British Pauperism, and + whitherward it is leading him and us, in this humor, must be a—What + shall we call such a Chief Governor? Alas, in spite of old use and wont,—little + other than a tolerated Solecism, growing daily more intolerable! He + decidedly ought to have some word to say on this matter,—to be + incessantly occupied in getting something which he could practically say!—Perhaps + to the following, or a much finer effect? + </p> + <p> + <i>Speech of the British Prime-Minister to the floods of Irish and other + Beggars, the able-bodied Lackalls, nomadic or stationary, and the general + assembly, outdoor and indoor, of the Pauper Populations of these Realms</i>. + </p> + <p> + "Vagrant Lackalls, foolish most of you, criminal many of you, miserable + all; the sight of you fills me with astonishment and despair. What to do + with you I know not; long have I been meditating, and it is hard to tell. + Here are some three millions of you, as I count: so many of you fallen + sheer over into the abysses of open Beggary; and, fearful to think, every + new unit that falls is <i>loading</i> so much more the chain that drags + the others over. On the edge of the precipice hang uncounted millions; + increasing, I am told, at the rate of 1200 a day. They hang there on the + giddy edge, poor souls, cramping themselves down, holding on with all + their strength; but falling, falling one after another; and the chain is + getting <i>heavy</i>, so that ever more fall; and who at last will stand? + What to do with you? The question, What to do with you? especially since + the potato died, is like to break my heart! + </p> + <p> + "One thing, after much meditating, I have at last discovered, and now know + for some time back: That you cannot be left to roam abroad in this + unguided manner, stumbling over the precipices, and loading ever heavier + the fatal <i>chain</i> upon those who might be able to stand; that this of + locking you up in temporary Idle Workhouses, when you stumble, and + subsisting you on Indian meal, till you can sally forth again on fresh + roamings, and fresh stumblings, and ultimate descent to the devil;—that + this is <i>not</i> the plan; and that it never was, or could out of + England have been supposed to be, much as I have prided myself upon it! + </p> + <p> + "Vagrant Lackalls, I at last perceive, all this that has been sung and + spoken, for a long while, about enfranchisement, emancipation, freedom, + suffrage, civil and religious liberty over the world, is little other than + sad temporary jargon, brought upon us by a stern necessity,—but now + ordered by a sterner to take itself away again a little. Sad temporary + jargon, I say: made up of sense and nonsense,—sense in small + quantities, and nonsense in very large;—and, if taken for the whole + or permanent truth of human things, it is no better than fatal infinite + nonsense eternally <i>untrue</i>. All men, I think, will soon have to quit + this, to consider this as a thing pretty well achieved; and to look out + towards another thing much more needing achievement at the time that now + is. + </p> + <p> + "All men will have to quit it, I believe. But to you, my indigent friends, + the time for quitting it has palpably arrived! To talk of glorious + self-government, of suffrages and hustings, and the fight of freedom and + such like, is a vain thing in your case. By all human definitions and + conceptions of the said fight of freedom, you for your part have lost it, + and can fight no more. Glorious self-government is a glory not for you, + not for Hodge's emancipated horses, nor you. No; I say, No. You, for your + part, have tried it, and <i>failed</i>. Left to walk your own road, the + will-o'-wisps beguiled you, your short sight could not descry the + pitfalls; the deadly tumult and press has whirled you hither and thither, + regardless of your struggles and your shrieks; and here at last you lie; + fallen flat into the ditch, drowning there and dying, unless the others + that are still standing please to pick you up. The others that still stand + have their own difficulties, I can tell you!—But you, by imperfect + energy and redundant appetite, by doing too little work and drinking too + much beer, you (I bid you observe) have proved that you cannot do it! You + lie there plainly in the ditch. And I am to pick you up again, on these + mad terms; help you ever again, as with our best heart's-blood, to do + what, once for all, the gods have made impossible? To load the fatal <i>chain</i> + with your perpetual staggerings and sprawlings; and ever again load it, + till we all lie sprawling? My indigent incompetent friends, I will not! + Know that, whoever may be 'sons of freedom,' you for your part are not and + cannot be such. Not 'free' you, I think, whoever may be free. You palpably + are fallen captive,—<i>caitiff</i>, as they once named it:—you + do, silently but eloquently, demand, in the name of mercy itself, that + some genuine command be taken of you. + </p> + <p> + "Yes, my indigent incompetent friends; some genuine practical command. + Such,—if I rightly interpret those mad Chartisms, Repeal Agitations, + Red Republics, and other delirious inarticulate howlings and bellowings + which all the populations of the world now utter, evidently cries of pain + on their and your part,—is the demand which you, Captives, make of + all men that are not Captive, but are still Free. Free men,—alas, + had you ever any notion who the free men were, who the not-free, the + incapable of freedom! The free men, if you could have understood it, they + are the wise men; the patient, self-denying, valiant; the Nobles of the + World; who can discern the Law of this Universe, what it is, and piously + <i>obey</i> it; these, in late sad times, having cast you loose, you are + fallen captive to greedy sons of profit-and-loss; to bad and ever to + worse; and at length to Beer and the Devil. Algiers, Brazil or Dahomey + hold nothing in them so authentically <i>slave</i> as you are, my indigent + incompetent friends! + </p> + <p> + "Good Heavens, and I have to raise some eight or nine millions annually, + six for England itself, and to wreck the morals of my working population + beyond all money's worth, to keep the life from going out of you: a small + service to you, as I many times bitterly repeat! Alas, yes; before high + Heaven I must declare it such. I think the old Spartans, who would have + killed you instead, had shown more 'humanity,' more of manhood, than I + thus do! More humanity, I say, more of manhood, and of sense for what the + dignity of man demands imperatively of you and of me and of us all. We + call it charity, beneficence, and other fine names, this brutish Workhouse + Scheme of ours; and it is but sluggish heartlessness, and insincerity, and + cowardly lowness of soul. Not 'humanity' or manhood, I think; perhaps <i>ape</i>hood + rather,—paltry imitancy, from the teeth outward, of what our heart + never felt nor our understanding ever saw; dim indolent adherence to + extraneous and extinct traditions; traditions now really about extinct; + not living now to almost any of us, and still haunting with their + spectralities and gibbering <i>ghosts</i> (in a truly baleful manner) + almost all of us! Making this our struggling 'Twelfth Hour of the Night' + inexpressibly hideous!— + </p> + <p> + "But as for you, my indigent incompetent friends, I have to repeat with + sorrow, but with perfect clearness, what is plainly undeniable, and is + even clamorous to get itself admitted, that you are of the nature of + slaves,—or if you prefer the word, of <i>nomadic, and now even + vagrant and vagabond, servants that can find no master on those terms</i>; + which seems to me a much uglier word. Emancipation? You have been + 'emancipated' with a vengeance! Foolish souls, I say the whole world + cannot emancipate you. Fealty to ignorant Unruliness, to gluttonous + sluggish Improvidence, to the Beer-pot and the Devil, who is there that + can emancipate a man in that predicament? Not a whole Reform Bill, a whole + French Revolution executed for his behoof alone: nothing but God the Maker + can emancipate him, by making him anew. + </p> + <p> + "To forward which glorious consummation, will it not be well, O indigent + friends, that you, fallen flat there, shall henceforth learn to take + advice of others as to the methods of standing? Plainly I let you know, + and all the world and the worlds know, that I for my part mean it so. Not + as glorious unfortunate sons of freedom, but as recognized captives, as + unfortunate fallen brothers requiring that I should command you, and if + need were, control and compel you, can there henceforth be a relation + between us. Ask me not for Indian meal; you shall be compelled to earn it + first; know that on other terms I will not give you any. Before Heaven and + Earth, and God the Maker of us all, I declare it is a scandal to see <i>such</i> + a life kept in you, by the sweat and heart's-blood of your brothers; and + that, if we cannot mend it, death were preferable! Go to, we must get out + of this—unutterable coil of nonsenses, constitutional, + philanthropical, &c., in which (surely without mutual hatred, if with + less of 'love' than is supposed) we are all strangling one another! Your + want of wants, I say, is that you be <i>commanded</i> in this world, not + being able to command yourselves. Know therefore that it shall be so with + you. Nomadism, I give you notice, has ended; needful permanency, + soldier-like obedience, and the opportunity and the necessity of hard + steady labor for your living, have begun. Know that the Idle Workhouse is + shut against you henceforth; you cannot enter there at will, nor leave at + will; you shall enter a quite other Refuge, under conditions strict as + soldiering, and not leave till I have done with you. He that prefers the + glorious (or perhaps even the rebellious <i>in</i>glorious) 'career of + freedom,' let him prove that he can travel there, and be the master of + himself; and right good speed to him. He who has proved that he cannot + travel there or be the master of himself,—let him, in the name of + all the gods, become a servant, and accept the just rules of servitude! + </p> + <p> + "Arise, enlist in my Irish, my Scotch and English 'Regiments of the New + Era,'—which I have been concocting, day and night, during these + three Grouse-seasons (taking earnest incessant counsel, with all manner of + Industrial Notabilities and men of insight, on the matter), and have now + brought to a kind of preparation for incipiency, thank Heaven! Enlist + there, ye poor wandering banditti; obey, work, suffer, abstain, as all of + us have had to do: so shall you be useful in God's creation, so shall you + be helped to gain a manful living for yourselves; not otherwise than so. + Industrial Regiments [<i>Here numerous persons, with big wigs many of + them, and austere aspect, whom I take to be Professors of the Dismal + Science, start up in an agitated vehement manner: but the Premier + resolutely beckons them down again</i>]—Regiments not to fight the + French or others, who are peaceable enough towards us; but to fight the + Bogs and Wildernesses at home and abroad, and to chain the Devils of the + Pit which are walking too openly among us. + </p> + <p> + "Work, for you? Work, surely, is not quite undiscoverable in an Earth so + wide as ours, if we will take the right methods for it! Indigent friends, + we will adopt this new relation (which is <i>old</i> as the world); this + will lead us towards such. Rigorous conditions, not to be violated on + either side, lie in this relation; conditions planted there by God + Himself; which woe will betide us if we do not discover, gradually more + and more discover, and conform to! Industrial Colonels, Workmasters, + Task-masters, Life-commanders, equitable as Rhadamanthus and inflexible as + he: such, I perceive, you do need; and such, you being once put under law + as soldiers are, will be discoverable for you. I perceive, with boundless + alarm, that I shall have to set about discovering such,—I, since I + am at the top of affairs, with all men looking to me. Alas, it is my new + task in this New Era; and God knows, I too, little other than a red-tape + Talking-machine, and unhappy Bag of Parliamentary Eloquence hitherto, am + far behind with it! But street-barricades rise everywhere: the hour of + Fate has come. In Connemara there has sprung a leak, since the potato + died; Connaught, if it were not for Treasury-grants and rates-in-aid, + would have to recur to Cannibalism even now, and Human Society would cease + to pretend that it existed there. Done this thing must be. Alas, I + perceive that if I cannot do it, then surely I shall die, and perhaps + shall not have Christian burial! But I already raise near upon Ten + Millions for feeding you in idleness, my nomadic friends; work, under due + regulations, I really might try to get of—[<i>Here arises + indescribable uproar, no longer repressible, from all manner of + Economists, Emancipationists, Constitutionalists, and miscellaneous + Professors of the Dismal Science, pretty numerously scattered about; and + cries of "Private enterprise," "Rights of Capital," "Voluntary Principle," + "Doctrines of the British Constitution," swollen by the general assenting + hum of all the world, quite drown the Chief Minister for a while. He, with + invincible resolution, persists; obtains hearing again</i>:] + </p> + <p> + "Respectable Professors of the Dismal Science, soft you a little. Alas, I + know what you would say. For my sins, I have read much in those inimitable + volumes of yours,—really I should think, some barrowfuls of them in + my time,—and, in these last forty years of theory and practice, have + pretty well seized what of Divine Message you were sent with to me. + Perhaps as small a message, give me leave to say, as ever there was such a + noise made about before. Trust me, I have not forgotten it, shall never + forget it. Those Laws of the Shop-till are indisputable to me; and + practically useful in certain departments of the Universe, as the + multiplication-table itself. Once I even tried to sail through the + Immensities with them, and to front the big coming Eternities with them; + but I found it would not do. As the Supreme Rule of Statesmanship, or + Government of Men,—since this Universe is not wholly a Shop,—no. + You rejoice in my improved tariffs, free-trade movements and the like, on + every hand; for which be thankful, and even sing litanies if you choose. + But here at last, in the Idle-Workhouse movement,—unexampled yet on + Earth or in the waters under the Earth,—I am fairly brought to a + stand; and have had to make reflections, of the most alarming, and indeed + awful, and as it were religious nature! Professors of the Dismal Science, + I perceive that the length of your tether is now pretty well run; and that + I must request you to talk a little lower in future. By the side of the + shop-till,—see, your small 'Law of God' is hung up, along with the + multiplication-table itself. But beyond and above the shop-till, allow me + to say, you shall as good as hold your peace. Respectable Professors, I + perceive it is not now the Gigantic Hucksters, but it is the Immortal + Gods, yes they, in their terror and their beauty, in their wrath and their + beneficence, that are coming into play in the affairs of this world! Soft + you a little. Do not you interrupt me, but try to understand and help me!— + </p> + <p> + —"Work, was I saying? My indigent unguided friends, I should think + some work might be discoverable for you. Enlist, stand drill; become, from + a nomadic Banditti of Idleness, Soldiers of Industry! I will lead you to + the Irish Bogs, to the vacant desolations of Connaught now falling into + Cannibalism, to mistilled Connaught, to ditto Munster, Leinster, Ulster, I + will lead you: to the English fox-covers, furze-grown Commons, New + Forests, Salisbury Plains: likewise to the Scotch Hill-sides, and bare + rushy slopes, which as yet feed only sheep,—moist uplands, thousands + of square miles in extent, which are destined yet to grow green crops, and + fresh butter and milk and beef without limit (wherein no 'Foreigner can + compete with us'), were the Glasgow sewers once opened on them, and you + with your Colonels carried thither. In the Three Kingdoms, or in the Forty + Colonies, depend upon it, you shall be led to your work! + </p> + <p> + "To each of you I will then say: Here is work for you; strike into it with + manlike, soldier-like obedience and heartiness, according to the methods + here prescribed,—wages follow for you without difficulty; all manner + of just remuneration, and at length emancipation itself follows. Refuse to + strike into it; shirk the heavy labor, disobey the rules,—I will + admonish and endeavor to incite you; if in vain, I will flog you; if still + in vain, I will at last shoot you,—and make God's Earth, and the + forlorn-hope in God's Battle, free of you. Understand it, I advise you! + The Organization of Labor"—[<i>Left speaking</i>, says our + reporter.] + </p> + <p> + "Left speaking:" alas, that he should have to "speak" so much! There are + things that should be done, not spoken; that till the doing of them is + begun, cannot well be spoken. He may have to "speak" seven years yet, + before a spade be struck into the Bog of Allen; and then perhaps it will + be too late!— + </p> + <p> + You perceive, my friends, we have actually got into the "New Era" there + has been such prophesying of: here we all are, arrived at last;—and + it is by no means the land flowing with milk and honey we were led to + expect! Very much the reverse. A terrible <i>new</i> country this: no + neighbors in it yet, that I can see, but irrational flabby monsters + (philanthropic and other) of the giant species; hyenas, laughing hyenas, + predatory wolves; probably <i>devils</i>, blue (or perhaps + blue-and-yellow) devils, as St. Guthlac found in Croyland long ago. A huge + untrodden haggard country, the "chaotic battle-field of Frost and Fire;" a + country of savage glaciers, granite mountains, of foul jungles, unhewed + forests, quaking bogs;—which we shall have our own ados to make + arable and habitable, I think! We must stick by it, however;—of all + enterprises the impossiblest is that of getting out of it, and shifting + into another. To work, then, one and all; hands to work! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + No. II. MODEL PRISONS. [March 1, 1850.] + </h2> + <p> + The deranged condition of our affairs is a universal topic among men at + present; and the heavy miseries pressing, in their rudest shape, on the + great dumb inarticulate class, and from this, by a sure law, spreading + upwards, in a less palpable but not less certain and perhaps still more + fatal shape on all classes to the very highest, are admitted everywhere to + be great, increasing and now almost unendurable. How to diminish them,—this + is every man's question. For in fact they do imperatively need diminution; + and unless they can be diminished, there are many other things that cannot + very long continue to exist beside them. A serious question indeed, How to + diminish them! + </p> + <p> + Among the articulate classes, as they may be called, there are two ways of + proceeding in regard to this. One large body of the intelligent and + influential, busied mainly in personal affairs, accepts the social + iniquities, or whatever you may call them, and the miseries consequent + thereupon; accepts them, admits them to be extremely miserable, pronounces + them entirely inevitable, incurable except by Heaven, and eats its pudding + with as little thought of them as possible. Not a very noble class of + citizens these; not a very hopeful or salutary method of dealing with + social iniquities this of theirs, however it may answer in respect to + themselves and their personal affairs! But now there is the select small + minority, in whom some sentiment of public spirit and human pity still + survives, among whom, or not anywhere, the Good Cause may expect to find + soldiers and servants: their method of proceeding, in these times, is also + very strange. They embark in the "philanthropic movement;" they calculate + that the miseries of the world can be cured by bringing the philanthropic + movement to bear on them. To universal public misery, and universal + neglect of the clearest public duties, let private charity superadd + itself: there will thus be some balance restored, and maintained again; + thus,—or by what conceivable method? On these terms they, for their + part, embark in the sacred cause; resolute to cure a world's woes by + rose-water; desperately bent on trying to the uttermost that mild method. + It seems not to have struck these good men that no world, or thing here + below, ever fell into misery, without having first fallen into folly, into + sin against the Supreme Ruler of it, by adopting as a law of conduct what + was not a law, but the reverse of one; and that, till its folly, till its + sin be cast out of it, there is not the smallest hope of its misery going,—that + not for all the charity and rose-water in the world will its misery try to + go till then! + </p> + <p> + This is a sad error; all the sadder as it is the error chiefly of the more + humane and noble-minded of our generation; among whom, as we said, or + elsewhere not at all, the cause of real Reform must expect its servants. + At present, and for a long while past, whatsoever young soul awoke in + England with some disposition towards generosity and social heroism, or at + lowest with some intimation of the beauty of such a disposition,—he, + in whom the poor world might have looked for a Reformer, and valiant + mender of its foul ways, was almost sure to become a Philanthropist, + reforming merely by this rose-water method. To admit that the world's ways + are foul, and not the ways of God the Maker, but of Satan the Destroyer, + many of them, and that they must be mended or we all die; that if huge + misery prevails, huge cowardice, falsity, disloyalty, universal Injustice + high and low, have still longer prevailed, and must straightway try to + cease prevailing: this is what no visible reformer has yet thought of + doing: All so-called "reforms" hitherto are grounded either on openly + admitted egoism (cheap bread to the cotton-spinner, voting to those that + have no vote, and the like), which does not point towards very celestial + developments of the Reform movement; or else upon this of remedying social + injustices by indiscriminate contributions of philanthropy, a method + surely still more unpromising. Such contributions, being indiscriminate, + are but a new injustice; these will never lead to reform, or abolition of + injustice, whatever else they lead to! + </p> + <p> + Not by that method shall we "get round Cape Horn," by never such unanimity + of voting, under the most approved Phantasm Captains! It is miserable to + see. Having, as it were, quite lost our way round Cape Horn, and being + sorely "admonished" by the Iceberg and other dumb councillors, the pilots,—instead + of taking to their sextants, and asking with a seriousness unknown for a + long while, What the Laws of wind and water, and of Earth and of Heaven + are,—decide that now, in these new circumstances, they will, to the + worthy and unworthy, serve out a double allowance of grog. In this way + they hope to do it,—by steering on the old wrong tack, and serving + out more and more, copiously what little <i>aqua vitae</i> may be still on + board! Philanthropy, emancipation, and pity for human calamity is very + beautiful; but the deep oblivion of the Law of Right and Wrong; this + "indiscriminate mashing up of Right and Wrong into a patent treacle" of + the Philanthropic movement, is by no means beautiful; this, on the + contrary, is altogether ugly and alarming. + </p> + <p> + Truly if there be not something inarticulate among us, not yet uttered but + pressing towards utterance, which is much wiser than anything we have + lately articulated or brought into word or action, our outlooks are rather + lamentable. The great majority of the powerful and active-minded, sunk in + egoistic scepticisms, busied in chase of lucre, pleasure, and mere vulgar + objects, looking with indifference on the world's woes, and passing + carelessly by on the other side; and the select minority, of whom better + might have been expected, bending all their strength to cure them by + methods which can only make bad worse, and in the end render cure + hopeless. A blind loquacious pruriency of indiscriminate Philanthropism + substituting itself, with much self-laudation, for the silent divinely + awful sense of Right and Wrong;—testifying too clearly that here is + no longer a divine sense of Right and Wrong; that, in the smoke of this + universal, and alas inevitable and indispensable revolutionary fire, and + burning up of worn-out rags of which the world is full, our + life-atmosphere has (for the time) become one vile London fog, and the + eternal loadstars are gone out for us! Gone out;—yet very visible if + you can get above the fog; still there in their place, and quite the same + as they always were! To whoever does still know of loadstars, the + proceedings, which expand themselves daily, of these sublime philanthropic + associations, and "universal sluggard-and-scoundrel protection-societies," + are a perpetual affliction. With their emancipations and abolition + principles, and reigns of brotherhood and new methods of love, they have + done great things in the White and in the Black World, during late years; + and are preparing for greater. + </p> + <p> + In the interest of human reform, if there is ever to be any reform, and + return to prosperity or to the possibility of prospering, it is urgent + that the nonsense of all this (and it is mostly nonsense, but not quite) + should be sent about its business straightway, and forbidden to deceive + the well-meaning souls among us any more. Reform, if we will understand + that divine word, cannot begin till then. One day, I do know, this, as is + the doom of all nonsense, will be drummed out of the world, with due + placard stuck on its back, and the populace flinging dead cats at it: but + whether soon or not, is by no means so certain. I rather guess, <i>not</i> + at present, not quite soon. Fraternity, in other countries, has gone on, + till it found itself unexpectedly manipulating guillotines by its chosen + Robespierres, and become a fraternity like Cain's. Much to its amazement! + For in fact it is not all nonsense; there is an infinitesimal fraction of + sense in it withal; which is so difficult to disengage;—which must + be disengaged, and laid hold of, before Fraternity can vanish. + </p> + <p> + But to our subject,—the Model Prison, and the strange theory of life + now in action there. That, for the present, is my share in the wide + adventure of Philanthropism; the world's share, and how and when it is to + be liquidated and ended, rests with the Supreme Destinies. + </p> + <p> + Several months ago, some friends took me with them to see one of the + London Prisons; a Prison of the exemplary or model kind. An immense + circuit of buildings; cut out, girt with a high ring-wall, from the lanes + and streets of the quarter, which is a dim and crowded one. Gateway as to + a fortified place; then a spacious court, like the square of a city; broad + staircases, passages to interior courts; fronts of stately architecture + all round. It lodges some thousand or twelve hundred prisoners, besides + the officers of the establishment. Surely one of the most perfect + buildings, within the compass of London. We looked at the apartments, + sleeping-cells, dining-rooms, working-rooms, general courts or special and + private: excellent all, the ne-plus-ultra of human care and ingenuity; in + my life I never saw so clean a building; probably no Duke in England lives + in a mansion of such perfect and thorough cleanness. + </p> + <p> + The bread, the cocoa, soup, meat, all the various sorts of food, in their + respective cooking-places, we tasted: found them of excellence + superlative. The prisoners sat at work, light work, picking oakum, and the + like, in airy apartments with glass roofs, of agreeable temperature and + perfect ventilation; silent, or at least conversing only by secret signs: + others were out, taking their hour of promenade in clean flagged courts: + methodic composure, cleanliness, peace, substantial wholesome comfort + reigned everywhere supreme. The women in other apartments, some notable + murderesses among them, all in the like state of methodic composure and + substantial wholesome comfort, sat sewing: in long ranges of wash-houses, + drying-houses and whatever pertains to the getting-up of clean linen, were + certain others, with all conceivable mechanical furtherances, not too + arduously working. The notable murderesses were, though with great + precautions of privacy, pointed out to us; and we were requested not to + look openly at them, or seem to notice them at all, as it was found to + "cherish their vanity" when visitors looked at them. Schools too were + there; intelligent teachers of both sexes, studiously instructing the + still ignorant of these thieves. + </p> + <p> + From an inner upper room or gallery, we looked down into a range of + private courts, where certain Chartist Notabilities were undergoing their + term. Chartist Notability First struck me very much; I had seen him about + a year before, by involuntary accident and much to my disgust, magnetizing + a silly young person; and had noted well the unlovely voracious look of + him, his thick oily skin, his heavy dull-burning eyes, his greedy mouth, + the dusky potent insatiable animalism that looked out of every feature of + him: a fellow adequate to animal-magnetize most things, I did suppose;—and + here was the post I now found him arrived at. Next neighbor to him was + Notability Second, a philosophic or literary Chartist; walking rapidly to + and fro in his private court, a clean, high-walled place; the world and + its cares quite excluded, for some months to come: master of his own time + and spiritual resources to, as I supposed, a really enviable extent. What + "literary man" to an equal extent! I fancied I, for my own part, so left + with paper and ink, and all taxes and botherations shut out from me, could + have written such a Book as no reader will here ever get of me. Never, O + reader, never here in a mere house with taxes and botherations. Here, + alas, one has to snatch one's poor Book, bit by bit, as from a + conflagration; and to think and live, comparatively, as if the house were + not one's own, but mainly the world's and the devil's. Notability Second + might have filled one with envy. + </p> + <p> + The Captain of the place, a gentleman of ancient Military or Royal-Navy + habits, was one of the most perfect governors; professionally and by + nature zealous for cleanliness, punctuality, good order of every kind; a + humane heart and yet a strong one; soft of speech and manner, yet with an + inflexible rigor of command, so far as his limits went: "iron hand in a + velvet glove," as Napoleon defined it. A man of real worth, challenging at + once love and respect: the light of those mild bright eyes seemed to + permeate the place as with an all-pervading vigilance, and kindly yet + victorious illumination; in the soft definite voice it was as if Nature + herself were promulgating her orders, gentlest mildest orders, which + however, in the end, there would be no disobeying, which in the end there + would be no living without fulfilment of. A true "aristos," and commander + of men. A man worthy to have commanded and guided forward, in good ways, + twelve hundred of the best common-people in London or the world: he was + here, for many years past, giving all his care and faculty to command, and + guide forward in such ways as there were, twelve hundred of the worst. I + looked with considerable admiration on this gentleman; and with + considerable astonishment, the reverse of admiration, on the work he had + here been set upon. + </p> + <p> + This excellent Captain was too old a Commander to complain of anything; + indeed he struggled visibly the other way, to find in his own mind that + all here was best; but I could sufficiently discern that, in his natural + instincts, if not mounting up to the region of his thoughts, there was a + continual protest going on against much of it; that nature and all his + inarticulate persuasion (however much forbidden to articulate itself) + taught him the futility and unfeasibility of the system followed here. The + Visiting Magistrates, he gently regretted rather than complained, had + lately taken his tread-wheel from him, men were just now pulling it down; + and how he was henceforth to enforce discipline on these bad subjects, was + much a difficulty with him. "They cared for nothing but the tread-wheel, + and for having their rations cut short:" of the two sole penalties, hard + work and occasional hunger, there remained now only one, and that by no + means the better one, as he thought. The "sympathy" of visitors, too, + their "pity" for his interesting scoundrel-subjects, though he tried to + like it, was evidently no joy to this practical mind. Pity, yes: but pity + for the scoundrel-species? For those who will not have pity on themselves, + and will force the Universe and the Laws of Nature to have no "pity on" + them? Meseems I could discover fitter objects of pity! + </p> + <p> + In fact it was too clear, this excellent man had got a field for his + faculties which, in several respects, was by no means the suitable one. To + drill twelve hundred scoundrels by "the method of kindness," and of + abolishing your very tread-wheel,—how could any commander rejoice to + have such a work cut out for him? You had but to look in the faces of + these twelve hundred, and despair, for most part, of ever "commanding" + them at all. Miserable distorted blockheads, the generality; ape-faces, + imp-faces, angry dog-faces, heavy sullen ox-faces; degraded underfoot + perverse creatures, sons of <i>in</i>docility, greedy mutinous darkness, + and in one word, of STUPIDITY, which is the general mother of such. + Stupidity intellectual and stupidity moral (for the one always means the + other, as you will, with surprise or not, discover if you look) had borne + this progeny: base-natured beings, on whom in the course of a maleficent + subterranean life of London Scoundrelism, the Genius of Darkness (called + Satan, Devil, and other names) had now visibly impressed his seal, and had + marked them out as soldiers of Chaos and of him,—appointed to serve + in <i>his</i> Regiments, First of the line, Second ditto, and so on in + their order. Him, you could perceive, they would serve; but not easily + another than him. These were the subjects whom our brave Captain and + Prison-Governor was appointed to command, and reclaim to <i>other</i> + service, by "the method of love," with a tread-wheel abolished. + </p> + <p> + Hopeless forevermore such a project. These abject, ape, wolf, ox, imp and + other diabolic-animal specimens of humanity, who of the very gods could + ever have commanded them by love? A collar round the neck, and a cart-whip + flourished over the back; these, in a just and steady human hand, were + what the gods would have appointed them; and now when, by long misconduct + and neglect, they had sworn themselves into the Devil's regiments of the + line, and got the seal of Chaos impressed on their visage, it was very + doubtful whether even these would be of avail for the unfortunate + commander of twelve hundred men! By "love," without hope except of + peaceably teasing oakum, or fear except of a temporary loss of dinner, he + was to guide these men, and wisely constrain them,—whitherward? + No-whither: that was his goal, if you will think well of it; that was a + second fundamental falsity in his problem. False in the warp and false in + the woof, thought one of us; about as false a problem as any I have seen a + good man set upon lately! To guide scoundrels by "love;" that is a false + woof, I take it, a method that will not hold together; hardly for the + flower of men will love alone do; and for the sediment and scoundrelism of + men it has not even a chance to do. And then to guide any class of men, + scoundrel or other, <i>No-whither</i>, which was this poor Captain's + problem, in this Prison with oakum for its one element of hope or outlook, + how can that prosper by "love" or by any conceivable method? That is a + warp wholly false. Out of which false warp, or originally false condition + to start from, combined and daily woven into by your false woof, or + methods of "love" and such like, there arises for our poor Captain the + falsest of problems, and for a man of his faculty the unfairest of + situations. His problem was, not to command good men to do something, but + bad men to do (with superficial disguises) nothing. + </p> + <p> + On the whole, what a beautiful Establishment here fitted up for the + accommodation of the scoundrel-world, male and female! As I said, no Duke + in England is, for all rational purposes which a human being can or ought + to aim at, lodged, fed, tended, taken care of, with such perfection. Of + poor craftsmen that pay rates and taxes from their day's wages, of the dim + millions that toil and moil continually under the sun, we know what is the + lodging and the tending. Of the Johnsons, Goldsmiths, lodged in their + squalid garrets; working often enough amid famine, darkness, tumult, dust + and desolation, what work <i>they</i> have to do:—of these as of + "spiritual backwoodsmen," understood to be preappointed to such a life, + and like the pigs to killing, "quite used to it," I say nothing. But of + Dukes, which Duke, I could ask, has cocoa, soup, meat, and food in general + made ready, so fit for keeping him in health, in ability to do and to + enjoy? Which Duke has a house so thoroughly clean, pure and airy; lives in + an element so wholesome, and perfectly adapted to the uses of soul and + body as this same, which is provided here for the Devil's regiments of the + line? No Duke that I have ever known. Dukes are waited on by deleterious + French cooks, by perfunctory grooms of the chambers, and expensive crowds + of eye-servants, more imaginary than real: while here, Science, Human + Intellect and Beneficence have searched and sat studious, eager to do + their very best; they have chosen a real Artist in Governing to see their + best, in all details of it, done. Happy regiments of the line, what + soldier to any earthly or celestial Power has such a lodging and + attendance as you here? No soldier or servant direct or indirect of God or + of man, in this England at present. Joy to you, regiments of the line. + Your Master, I am told, has his Elect, and professes to be "Prince of the + Kingdoms of this World;" and truly I see he has power to do a good turn to + those he loves, in England at least. Shall we say, May <i>he</i>, may the + Devil give you good of it, ye Elect of Scoundrelism? I will rather pass + by, uttering no prayer at all; musing rather in silence on the singular + "worship of God," or practical "reverence done to Human Worth" (which is + the outcome and essence of all real "worship" whatsoever) among the + Posterity of Adam at this day. + </p> + <p> + For all round this beautiful Establishment, or Oasis of Purity, intended + for the Devil's regiments of the line, lay continents of dingy poor and + dirty dwellings, where the unfortunate not <i>yet</i> enlisted into that + Force were struggling manifoldly,—in their workshops, in their + marble-yards and timber-yards and tan-yards, in their close cellars, + cobbler-stalls, hungry garrets, and poor dark trade-shops with + red-herrings and tobacco-pipes crossed in the window,—to keep the + Devil out-of-doors, and not enlist with him. And it was by a tax on these + that the Barracks for the regiments of the line were kept up. Visiting + Magistrates, impelled by Exeter Hall, by Able-Editors, and the + Philanthropic Movement of the Age, had given orders to that effect. Rates + on the poor servant of God and of her Majesty, who still serves both in + his way, painfully selling red-herrings; rates on him and his red-herrings + to boil right soup for the Devil's declared Elect! Never in my travels, in + any age or clime, had I fallen in with such Visiting Magistrates before. + Reserved they, I should suppose, for these ultimate or penultimate ages of + the world, rich in all prodigies, political, spiritual,—ages surely + with such a length of ears as was never paralleled before. + </p> + <p> + If I had a commonwealth to reform or to govern, certainly it should not be + the Devil's regiments of the line that I would first of all concentrate my + attention on! With them I should be apt so make rather brief work; to them + one would apply the besom, try to sweep <i>them</i>, with some rapidity + into the dust-bin, and well out of one's road, I should rather say. Fill + your thrashing-floor with docks, ragweeds, mugworths, and ply your flail + upon them,—that is not the method to obtain sacks of wheat. Away, + you; begone swiftly, <i>ye</i> regiments of the line: in the name of God + and of His poor struggling servants, sore put to it to live in these bad + days, I mean to rid myself of you with some degree of brevity. To feed you + in palaces, to hire captains and schoolmasters and the choicest spiritual + and material artificers to expend their industries on you, No, by the + Eternal! I have quite other work for that class of artists; + Seven-and-twenty Millions of neglected mortals who have not yet quite + declared for the Devil. Mark it, my diabolic friends, I mean to lay + leather on the backs of you, collars round the necks of you; and will + teach you, after the example of the gods, that this world is <i>not</i> + your inheritance, or glad to see you in it. You, ye diabolic canaille, + what has a Governor much to do with you? You, I think, he will rather + swiftly dismiss from his thoughts,—which have the whole celestial + and terrestrial for their scope, and not the subterranean of scoundreldom + alone. You, I consider, he will sweep pretty rapidly into some Norfolk + Island, into some special Convict Colony or remote domestic Moorland, into + some stone-walled Silent-System, under hard drill-sergeants, just as + Rhadamanthus, and inflexible as he, and there leave you to reap what you + have sown; he meanwhile turning his endeavors to the thousand-fold + immeasurable interests of men and gods,—dismissing the one extremely + contemptible interest of scoundrels; sweeping that into the cesspool, + tumbling that over London Bridge, in a very brief manner, if needful! Who + are you, ye thriftless sweepings of Creation, that we should forever be + pestered with you? Have we no work to do but drilling Devil's regiments of + the line? + </p> + <p> + If I had schoolmasters, my benevolent friend, do you imagine I would set + them on teaching a set of unteachables, who as you perceive have already + made up their mind that black is white,—that the Devil namely is the + advantageous Master to serve in this world? My esteemed Benefactor of + Humanity, it shall be far from me. Minds open to that particular + conviction are not the material I like to work upon. When once my + schoolmasters have gone over all the other classes of society from top to + bottom; and have no other soul to try with teaching, all being thoroughly + taught,—I will then send them to operate on <i>these</i> regiments + of the line: then, and, assure yourself, never till then. The truth is, I + am sick of scoundreldom, my esteemed Benefactor; it always was detestable + to me; and here where I find it lodged in palaces and waited on by the + benevolent of the world, it is more detestable, not to say insufferable to + me than ever. + </p> + <p> + Of Beneficence, Benevolence, and the people that come together to talk on + platforms and subscribe five pounds, I will say nothing here; indeed there + is not room here for the twentieth part of what were to be said of them. + The beneficence, benevolence, and sublime virtue which issues in eloquent + talk reported in the Newspapers, with the subscription of five pounds, and + the feeling that one is a good citizen and ornament to society,—concerning + this, there were a great many unexpected remarks to be made; but let this + one, for the present occasion, suffice:— + </p> + <p> + My sublime benevolent friends, don't you perceive, for one thing, that + here is a shockingly unfruitful investment for your capital of + Benevolence; precisely the worst, indeed, which human ingenuity could + select for you? "Laws are unjust, temptations great," &c. &c.: + alas, I know it, and mourn for it, and passionately call on all men to + help in altering it. But according to every hypothesis as to the law, and + the temptations and pressures towards vice, here are the individuals who, + of all the society, have yielded to said pressure. These are of the worst + substance for enduring pressure! The others yet stand and make resistance + to temptation, to the law's injustice; under all the perversities and + strangling impediments there are, the rest of the society still keep their + feet, and struggle forward, marching under the banner of Cosmos, of God + and Human Virtue; these select Few, as I explain to you, are they who have + fallen to Chaos, and are sworn into certain regiments of the line. A + superior proclivity to Chaos is declared in these, by the very fact of + their being here! Of all the generation we live in, these are the worst + stuff. These, I say, are the Elixir of the Infatuated among living + mortals: if you want the worst investment for your Benevolence, here you + accurately have it. O my surprising friends! Nowhere so as here can you be + certain that a given quantity of wise teaching bestowed, of benevolent + trouble taken, will yield zero, or the net <i>Minimum</i> of return. It is + sowing of your wheat upon Irish quagmires; laboriously harrowing it in + upon the sand of the seashore. O my astonishing benevolent friends! + </p> + <p> + Yonder, in those dingy habitations, and shops of red herring and + tobacco-pipes, where men have not yet quite declared for the Devil; there, + I say, is land: here is mere sea-beach. Thither go with your benevolence, + thither to those dingy caverns of the poor; and there instruct and drill + and manage, there where some fruit may come from it. And, above all and + inclusive of all, cannot you go to those Solemn human Shams, Phantasm + Captains, and Supreme Quacks that ride prosperously in every thoroughfare; + and with severe benevolence, ask them, What they are doing here? They are + the men whom it would behoove you to drill a little, and tie to the + halberts in a benevolent manner, if you could! "We cannot," say you? Yes, + my friends, to a certain extent you can. By many well-known active + methods, and by all manner of passive methods, you can. Strive + thitherward, I advise you; thither, with whatever social effort there may + lie in you! The well-head and "consecrated" thrice-accursed chief fountain + of all those waters of bitterness,—it is they, those Solemn Shams + and Supreme Quacks of yours, little as they or you imagine it! Them, with + severe benevolence, put a stop to; them send to their Father, far from the + sight of the true and just,—if you would ever see a just world here! + </p> + <p> + What sort of reformers and workers are you, that work only on the rotten + material? That never think of meddling with the material while it + continues sound; that stress it and strain it with new rates and + assessments, till once it has given way and declared itself rotten; + whereupon you snatch greedily at it, and say, Now let us try to do some + good upon it! You mistake in every way, my friends: the fact is, you fancy + yourselves men of virtue, benevolence, what not; and you are not even men + of sincerity and honest sense. I grieve to say it; but it is true. Good + from you, and your operations, is not to be expected. You may go down! + </p> +<> +Howard is a beautiful Philanthropist, eulogized by Burke, and in +most men's minds a sort of beatified individual. How glorious, having +finished off one's affairs in Bedfordshire, or in fact finding them very +dull, inane, and worthy of being quitted and got away from, to set out +on a cruise, over the Jails first of Britain; then, finding that +answer, over the Jails of the habitable Globe! "A voyage of discovery, +a circum-navigation of charity; to collate distresses, to gauge +wretchedness, to take the dimensions of human misery:" really it is very +fine. Captain Cook's voyage for the Terra Australis, Ross's, Franklin's +for the ditto Borealis: men make various cruises and voyages in +this world,—for want of money, want of work, and one or the other +want,—which are attended with their difficulties too, and do not make +the cruiser a demigod. On the whole, I have myself nothing but +respect, comparatively speaking, for the dull solid Howard, and his +"benevolence," and other impulses that set him cruising; Heaven +had grown weary of Jail-fevers, and other the like unjust penalties +inflicted upon scoundrels,—for scoundrels too, and even the very Devil, +should not have <i>more</i> than their due;—and Heaven, in its opulence, +created a man to make an end of that. Created him; disgusted him with +the grocer business; tried him with Calvinism, rural ennui, and sore +bereavement in his Bedfordshire retreat;—and, in short, at last got +him set to his work, and in a condition to achieve it. For which I am +thankful to Heaven; and do also,—with doffed hat, humbly salute John +Howard. A practical solid man, if a dull and even dreary; "carries +his weighing-scales in his pocket:" when your jailer answers, "The +prisoner's allowance of food is so and so; and we observe it sacredly; +here, for example, is a ration."—"Hey! A ration this?" and solid John +suddenly produces his weighing-scales; weighs it, marks down in his +tablets what the actual quantity of it is. That is the art and manner of +the man. A man full of English accuracy; English veracity, solidity, + simplicity; by whom this universal Jail-commission, not to be paid for +in money but far otherwise, is set about, with all the slow energy, the +patience, practicality, sedulity and sagacity common to the best English +commissioners paid in money and not expressly otherwise. +</p> + <p> + For it is the glory of England that she has a turn for fidelity in + practical work; that sham-workers, though very numerous, are rarer than + elsewhere; that a man who undertakes work for you will still, in various + provinces of our affairs, do it, instead of merely seeming to do it. John + Howard, without pay in money, <i>did</i> this of the Jail-fever, as other + Englishmen do work, in a truly workmanlike manner: his distinction was + that he did it without money. He had not 500 pounds or 5,000 pounds a year + of salary for it; but lived merely on his Bedfordshire estates, and as + Snigsby irreverently expresses it, "by chewing his own cud." And, sure + enough, if any man might chew the cud of placid reflections, solid Howard, + a mournful man otherwise, might at intervals indulge a little in that + luxury.—No money-salary had he for his work; he had merely the + income of his properties, and what he could derive from within. Is this + such a sublime distinction, then? Well, let it pass at its value. There + have been benefactors of mankind who had more need of money than he, and + got none too. Milton, it is known, did his <i>Paradise Lost</i> at the + easy rate of five pounds. Kepler worked out the secret of the Heavenly + Motions in a dreadfully painful manner; "going over the calculations sixty + times;" and having not only no public money, but no private either; and, + in fact, writing almanacs for his bread-and-water, while he did this of + the Heavenly Motions; having no Bedfordshire estates; nothing but a + pension of 18 pounds (which they would not pay him), the valuable faculty + of writing almanacs, and at length the invaluable one of dying, when the + Heavenly bodies were vanquished, and battle's conflagration had collapsed + into cold dark ashes, and the starvation reached too high a pitch for the + poor man. + </p> + <p> + Howard is not the only benefactor that has worked without money for us; + there have been some more,—and will be, I hope! For the Destinies + are opulent; and send here and there a man into the world to do work, for + which they do not mean to pay him in money. And they smite him + beneficently with sore afflictions, and blight his world all into grim + frozen ruins round him,—and can make a wandering Exile of their + Dante, and not a soft-bedded Podesta of Florence, if they wish to get a <i>Divine + Comedy</i> out of him. Nay that rather is their way, when they have worthy + work for such a man; they scourge him manifoldly to the due pitch, + sometimes nearly of despair, that he may search desperately for his work, + and find it; they urge him on still with beneficent stripes when needful, + as is constantly the case between whiles; and, in fact, have privately + decided to reward him with beneficent death by and by, and not with money + at all. O my benevolent friend, I honor Howard very much; but it is on + this side idolatry a long way, not to an infinite, but to a decidedly + finite extent! And you,—put not the modest noble Howard, a truly + modest man, to the blush, by forcing these reflections on us! + </p> + <p> + Cholera Doctors, hired to dive into black dens of infection and despair, + they, rushing about all day from lane to lane, with their life in their + hand, are found to do their function; which is a much more rugged one than + Howard's. Or what say we, Cholera Doctors? Ragged losels gathered by beat + of drum from the overcrowded streets of cities, and drilled a little and + dressed in red, do not they stand fire in an uncensurable manner; and + handsomely give their life, if needful, at the rate of a shilling per day? + Human virtue, if we went down to the roots of it, is not so rare. The + materials of human virtue are everywhere abundant as the light of the sun: + raw materials,—O woe, and loss, and scandal thrice and threefold, + that they so seldom are elaborated, and built into a result! that they lie + yet unelaborated, and stagnant in the souls of wide-spread dreary + millions, fermenting, festering; and issue at last as energetic vice + instead of strong practical virtue! A Mrs. Manning "dying game,"—alas, + is not that the foiled potentiality of a kind of heroine too? Not a heroic + Judith, not a mother of the Gracchi now, but a hideous murderess, fit to + be the mother of hyenas! To such extent can potentialities be foiled. + Education, kingship, command,—where is it, whither has it fled? Woe + a thousand times, that this, which is the task of all kings, captains, + priests, public speakers, land-owners, book-writers, mill-owners, and + persons possessing or pretending to possess authority among mankind,—is + left neglected among them all; and instead of it so little done but + protocolling, black-or-white surplicing, partridge-shooting, parliamentary + eloquence and popular twaddle-literature; with such results as we see!— + </p> + <p> + Howard abated the Jail-fever; but it seems to me he has been the innocent + cause of a far more distressing fever which rages high just now; what we + may call the Benevolent-Platform Fever. Howard is to be regarded as the + unlucky fountain of that tumultuous frothy ocean-tide of benevolent + sentimentality, "abolition of punishment," all-absorbing + "prison-discipline," and general morbid sympathy, instead of hearty + hatred, for scoundrels; which is threatening to drown human society as in + deluges, and leave, instead of an "edifice of society" fit for the + habitation of men, a continent of fetid ooze inhabitable only by mud-gods + and creatures that walk upon their belly. Few things more distress a + thinking soul at this time. + </p> + <p> + Most sick am I, O friends, of this sugary disastrous jargon of + philanthropy, the reign of love, new era of universal brotherhood, and not + Paradise to the Well-deserving but Paradise to All-and-sundry, which + possesses the benighted minds of men and women in our day. My friends, I + think you are much mistaken about Paradise! "No Paradise for anybody: he + that cannot do without Paradise, go his ways:" suppose you tried that for + a while! I reckon that the safer version. Unhappy sugary brethren, this is + all untrue, this other; contrary to the fact; not a tatter of it will hang + together in the wind and weather of fact. In brotherhood with the base and + foolish I, for one, do not mean to live. Not in brotherhood with them was + life hitherto worth much to me; in pity, in hope not yet quite swallowed + of disgust,—otherwise in enmity that must last through eternity, in + unappeasable aversion shall I have to live with these! Brotherhood? No, be + the thought far from me. They are Adam's children,—alas yes, I well + remember that, and never shall forget it; hence this rage and sorrow. But + they have gone over to the dragons; they have quitted the Father's house, + and set up with the Old Serpent: till they return, how can they be + brothers? They are enemies, deadly to themselves and to me and to you, + till then; till then, while hope yet lasts, I will treat them as brothers + fallen insane;—when hope has ended, with tears grown sacred and + wrath grown sacred, I will cut them off in the name of God! It is at my + peril if I do not. With the servant of Satan I dare not continue in + partnership. Him I must put away, resolutely and forever; "lest," as it is + written, "I become partaker of his plagues." + </p> + <p> + Beautiful Black Peasantry, who have fallen idle and have got the Devil at + your elbow; interesting White Felonry, who are not idle, but have enlisted + into the Devil's regiments of the line,—know that my benevolence for + you is comparatively trifling! What I have of that divine feeling is due + to others, not to you. A "universal Sluggard-and-Scoundrel Protection + Society" is not the one I mean to institute in these times, where so much + wants protection, and is sinking to sad issues for want of it! The + scoundrel needs no protection. The scoundrel that will hasten to the + gallows, why not rather clear the way for him! Better he reach <i>his</i> + goal and outgate by the natural proclivity, than be so expensively dammed + up and detained, poisoning everything as he stagnates and meanders along, + to arrive at last a hundred times fouler, and swollen a hundred times + bigger! Benevolent men should reflect on this.—And you Quashee, my + pumpkin,—(not a bad fellow either, this poor Quashee, when tolerably + guided!)—idle Quashee, I say you must get the Devil <i>sent away</i> + from your elbow, my poor dark friend! In this world there will be no + existence for you otherwise. No, not as the brother of your folly will I + live beside you. Please to withdraw out of my way, if I am not to + contradict your folly, and amend it, and put it in the stocks if it will + not amend. By the Eternal Maker, it is on that footing alone that you and + I can live together! And if you had respectable traditions dated from + beyond Magna Charta, or from beyond the Deluge, to the contrary, and + written sheepskins that would thatch the face of the world,—behold + I, for one individual, do not believe said respectable traditions, nor + regard said written sheepskins except as things which <i>you</i>, till you + grow wiser, will believe. Adieu, Quashee; I will wish you better guidance + than you have had of late. + </p> + <p> + On the whole, what a reflection is it that we cannot bestow on an unworthy + man any particle of our benevolence, our patronage, or whatever resource + is ours,—without withdrawing it, it and all that will grow of it, + from one worthy, to whom it of right belongs! We cannot, I say; + impossible; it is the eternal law of things. Incompetent Duncan + M'Pastehorn, the hapless incompetent mortal to whom I give the cobbling of + my boots,—and cannot find in my heart to refuse it, the poor drunken + wretch having a wife and ten children; he <i>withdraws</i> the job from + sober, plainly competent, and meritorious Mr. Sparrowbill, generally short + of work too; discourages Sparrowbill; teaches him that he too may as well + drink and loiter and bungle; that this is not a scene for merit and + demerit at all, but for dupery, and whining flattery, and incompetent + cobbling of every description;—clearly tending to the ruin of poor + Sparrowbill! What harm had Sparrowbill done me that I should so help to + ruin him? And I couldn't save the insalvable M'Pastehorn; I merely yielded + him, for insufficient work, here and there a half-crown,—which he + oftenest drank. And now Sparrowbill also is drinking! + </p> + <p> + Justice, Justice: woe betides us everywhere when, for this reason or for + that, we fail to do justice! No beneficence, benevolence, or other + virtuous contribution will make good the want. And in what a rate of + terrible geometrical progression, far beyond our poor computation, any act + of Injustice once done by us grows; rooting itself ever anew, spreading + ever anew, like a banyan-tree,—blasting all life under it, for it is + a poison-tree! There is but one thing needed for the world; but that one + is indispensable. Justice, Justice, in the name of Heaven; give us + Justice, and we live; give us only counterfeits of it, or succedanea for + it, and we die! + </p> + <p> + Oh, this universal syllabub of philanthropic twaddle! My friend, it is + very sad, now when Christianity is as good as extinct in all hearts, to + meet this ghastly-Phantasm of Christianity parading through almost all. "I + will clean your foul thoroughfares, and make your Devil's-cloaca of a + world into a garden of Heaven," jabbers this Phantasm, itself a + phosphorescence and unclean! The worst, it is written, comes from + corruption of the best:—Semitic forms now lying putrescent, dead and + still unburied, this phosphorescence rises. I say sometimes, such a + blockhead Idol, and miserable <i>White</i> Mumbo-jumbo, fashioned out of + deciduous sticks and cast clothes, out of extinct cants and modern + sentimentalisms, as that which they sing litanies to at Exeter Hall and + extensively elsewhere, was perhaps never set up by human folly before. + Unhappy creatures, that is not the Maker of the Universe, not that, look + one moment at the Universe, and see! That is a paltry Phantasm, engendered + in your own sick brain; whoever follows that as a Reality will fall into + the ditch. + </p> + <p> + Reform, reform, all men see and feel, is imperatively needed. Reform must + either be got, and speedily, or else we die: and nearly all the men that + speak, instruct us, saying, "Have you quite done your interesting Negroes + in the Sugar Islands? Rush to the Jails, then, O ye reformers; snatch up + the interesting scoundrel-population there, to them be nursing-fathers and + nursing-mothers. And oh, wash, and dress, and teach, and recover to the + service of Heaven these poor lost souls: so, we assure you, will society + attain the needful reform, and life be still possible in this world." Thus + sing the oracles everywhere; nearly all the men that speak, though we + doubt not, there are, as usual, immense majorities consciously or + unconsciously wiser who hold their tongue. But except this of whitewashing + the scoundrel-population, one sees little "reform" going on. There is + perhaps some endeavor to do a little scavengering; and, as the + all-including point, to cheapen the terrible cost of Government: but + neither of these enterprises makes progress, owing to impediments. + </p> + <p> + "Whitewash your scoundrel-population; sweep out your abominable gutters + (if not in the name of God, ye brutish slatterns, then in the name of + Cholera and the Royal College of Surgeons): do these two things;—and + observe, much cheaper if you please!"—Well, here surely is an + Evangel of Freedom, and real Program of a new Era. What surliest + misanthrope would not find this world lovely, were these things done: + scoundrels whitewashed; some degree of scavengering upon the gutters; and + at a cheap rate, thirdly? That surely is an occasion on which, if ever on + any, the Genius of Reform may pipe all hands!—Poor old Genius of + Reform; bedrid this good while; with little but broken ballot-boxes, and + tattered stripes of Benthamee Constitutions lying round him; and on the + walls mere shadows of clothing-colonels, rates-in-aid, poor-law unions, + defunct potato and the Irish difficulty,—he does not seem long for + this world, piping to that effect? + </p> + <p> + Not the least disgusting feature of this Gospel according to the Platform + is its reference to religion, and even to the Christian Religion, as an + authority and mandate for what it does. Christian Religion? Does the + Christian or any religion prescribe love of scoundrels, then? I hope it + prescribes a healthy hatred of scoundrels;—otherwise what am I, in + Heaven's name, to make of it? Me, for one, it will not serve as a religion + on those strange terms. Just hatred of scoundrels, I say; fixed, + irreconcilable, inexorable enmity to the enemies of God: this, and not + love for them, and incessant whitewashing, and dressing and cockering of + them, must, if you look into it, be the backbone of any human religion + whatsoever. Christian Religion! In what words can I address you, ye + unfortunates, sunk in the slushy ooze till the worship of mud-serpents, + and unutterable Pythons and poisonous slimy monstrosities, seems to you + the worship of God? This is the rotten carcass of Christianity; this + mal-odorous phosphorescence of post-mortem sentimentalism. O Heavens, from + the Christianity of Oliver Cromwell, wrestling in grim fight with Satan + and his incarnate Blackguardisms, Hypocrisies, Injustices, and legion of + human and infernal angels, to that of eloquent Mr. Hesperus Fiddlestring + denouncing capital punishments, and inculcating the benevolence on + platforms, what a road have we travelled! + </p> + <p> + A foolish stump-orator, perorating on his platform mere benevolences, + seems a pleasant object to many persons; a harmless or insignificant one + to almost all. Look at him, however; scan him till you discern the nature + of him, he is not pleasant, but ugly and perilous. That beautiful speech + of his takes captive every long ear, and kindles into quasi-sacred + enthusiasm the minds of not a few; but it is quite in the teeth of the + everlasting facts of this Universe, and will come only to mischief for + every party concerned. Consider that little spouting wretch. Within the + paltry skin of him, it is too probable, he holds few human virtues, beyond + those essential for digesting victual: envious, cowardly, vain, splenetic + hungry soul; what heroism, in word or thought or action, will you ever get + from the like of him? He, in his necessity, has taken into the benevolent + line; warms the cold vacuity of his inner man to some extent, in a + comfortable manner, not by silently doing some virtue of his own, but by + fiercely recommending hearsay pseudo-virtues and respectable benevolences + to other people. Do you call that a good trade? Long-eared + fellow-creatures, more or less resembling himself, answer, "Hear, hear! + Live Fiddlestring forever!" Wherefrom follow Abolition Congresses, Odes to + the Gallows;—perhaps some dirty little Bill, getting itself debated + next Session in Parliament, to waste certain nights of our legislative + Year, and cause skipping in our Morning Newspaper, till the abortion can + be emptied out again and sent fairly floating down the gutters. + </p> + <p> + Not with entire approbation do I, for one, look on that eloquent + individual. Wise benevolence, if it had authority, would order that + individual, I believe, to find some other trade: "Eloquent individual, + pleading here against the Laws of Nature,—for many reasons, I bid + thee close that mouth of thine. Enough of balderdash these long-eared have + now drunk. Depart thou; <i>do</i> some benevolent work; at lowest, be + silent. Disappear, I say; away, and jargon no more in that manner, lest a + worst thing befall thee." <i>Exeat</i> Fiddlestring!—Beneficent men + are not they who appear on platforms, pleading against the Almighty + Maker's Laws; these are the maleficent men, whose lips it is pity that + some authority cannot straightway shut. Pandora's Box is not more baleful + than the gifts these eloquent benefactors are pressing on us. Close your + pedler's pack, my friend; swift, away with it! Pernicious, fraught with + mere woe and sugary poison is that kind of benevolence and beneficence. + </p> + <p> + Truly, one of the saddest sights in these times is that of poor creatures, + on platforms, in parliaments and other situations, making and unmaking + "Laws;" in whose soul, full of mere vacant hearsay and windy babble, is + and was no image of Heaven's Law; whom it never struck that Heaven had a + Law, or that the Earth—could not have what kind of Law you pleased! + Human Statute-books, accordingly, are growing horrible to think of. An + impiety and poisonous futility every Law of them that is so made; all + Nature is against it; it will and can do nothing but mischief wheresoever + it shows itself in Nature: and such Laws lie now like an incubus over this + Earth, so innumerable are they. How long, O Lord, how long!—O ye + Eternities, Divine Silences, do you dwell no more, then, in the hearts of + the noble and the true; and is there no inspiration of the Almighty any + more vouchsafed us? The inspiration of the Morning Newspapers—alas, + we have had enough of that, and are arrived at the gates of death by means + of that! + </p> + <p> + "Really, one of the most difficult questions this we have in these times, + What to do with our criminals?" blandly observed a certain Law-dignitary, + in my hearing once, taking the cigar from his mouth, and pensively smiling + over a group of us under the summer beech-tree, as Favonius carried off + the tobacco-smoke; and the group said nothing, only smiled and nodded, + answering by new tobacco-clouds. "What to do with our criminals?" asked + the official Law-dignitary again, as if entirely at a loss.—"I + suppose," said one ancient figure not engaged in smoking, "the plan would + be to treat them according to the real law of the case; to make the Law of + England, in respect of them, correspond to the Law of the Universe. + Criminals, I suppose, would prove manageable in that way: if we could do + approximately as God Almighty does towards them; in a word, if we could + try to do Justice towards them."—"I'll thank you for a definition of + Justice?" sneered the official person in a cheerily scornful and + triumphant manner, backed by a slight laugh from the honorable company; + which irritated the other speaker.—"Well, I have no pocket + definition of Justice," said he, "to give your Lordship. It has not quite + been my trade to look for such a definition; I could rather fancy it had + been your Lordship's trade, sitting on your high place this long while. + But one thing I can tell you: Justice always is, whether we define it or + not. Everything done, suffered or proposed, in Parliament or out of it, is + either just or else unjust; either is accepted by the gods and eternal + facts, or is rejected by them. Your Lordship and I, with or without + definition, do a little know Justice, I will hope; if we don't both know + it and do it, we are hourly travelling down towards—Heavens, must I + name such a place! That is the place we are bound to, with all our + trading-pack, and the small or extensive budgets of human business laid on + us; and there, if we <i>don't know</i> Justice, we, and all our budgets + and Acts of Parliament, shall find lodging when the day is done!"—The + official person, a polite man otherwise, grinned as he best could some + semblance of a laugh, mirthful as that of the ass eating thistles, and + ended in "Hah, oh, ah!"— + </p> + <p> + Indeed, it is wonderful to hear what account we at present give ourselves + of the punishment of criminals. No "revenge"—O Heavens, no; all + preachers on Sunday strictly forbid that; and even (at least on Sundays) + prescribe the contrary of that. It is for the sake of "example," that you + punish; to "protect society" and its purse and skin; to deter the innocent + from falling into crime; and especially withal, for the purpose of + improving the poor criminal himself,—or at lowest, of hanging and + ending him, that he may not grow worse. For the poor criminal is, to be + "improved" if possible: against him no "revenge" even on week-days; + nothing but love for him, and pity and help; poor fellow, is he not + miserable enough? Very miserable,—though much less so than the + Master of him, called Satan, is understood (on Sundays) to have long + deservedly been! + </p> + <p> + My friends, will you permit me to say that all this, to one poor judgment + among your number, is the mournfulest twaddle that human tongues could + shake from them; that it has no solid foundation in the nature of things; + and to a healthy human heart no credibility whatever. Permit me to say, + only to hearts long drowned in dead Tradition, and for themselves neither + believing nor disbelieving, could this seem credible. Think, and ask + yourselves, in spite of all this preaching and perorating from the teeth + outward! Hearts that are quite strangers to eternal Fact, and acquainted + only at all hours with temporary Semblances parading about in a prosperous + and persuasive condition; hearts that from their first appearance in this + world have breathed since birth, in all spiritual matters, which means in + all matters not pecuniary, the poisonous atmosphere of universal Cant, + could believe such a thing. Cant moral, Cant religious, Cant political; an + atmosphere which envelops all things for us unfortunates, and has long + done; which goes beyond the Zenith and below the Nadir for us, and has as + good as choked the spiritual life out of all of us,—God pity such + wretches, with little or nothing <i>real</i> about them but their purse + and their abdominal department! Hearts, alas, which everywhere except in + the metallurgic and cotton-spinning provinces, have communed with no + Reality, or awful Presence of a Fact, godlike or diabolic, in this + Universe or this unfathomable Life at all. Hunger-stricken asphyxied + hearts, which have nourished themselves on what they call religions, + Christian religions. Good Heaven, once more fancy the Christian religion + of Oliver Cromwell; or of some noble Christian man, whom you yourself may + have been blessed enough, once, long since, in your life, to know! These + are not <i>untrue</i> religions; they are the putrescences and foul + residues of religions that are extinct, that have plainly to every honest + nostril been dead some time, and the remains of which—O ye eternal + Heavens, will the nostril never be delivered from them!—Such hearts, + when they get upon platforms, and into questions not involving money, can + "believe" many things!— + </p> + <p> + I take the liberty of asserting that there is one valid reason, and only + one, for either punishing a man or rewarding him in this world; one + reason, which ancient piety could well define: That you may do the will + and commandment of God with regard to him; that you may do justice to him. + This is your one true aim in respect of him; aim thitherward, with all + your heart and all your strength and all your soul, thitherward, and not + elsewhither at all! This aim is true, and will carry you to all earthly + heights and benefits, and beyond the stars and Heavens. All other aims are + purblind, illegitimate, untrue; and will never carry you beyond the + shop-counter, nay very soon will prove themselves incapable of maintaining + you even there. Find out what the Law of God is with regard to a man; make + that your human law, or I say it will be ill with you, and not well! If + you love your thief or murderer, if Nature and eternal Fact love him, then + do as you are now doing. But if Nature and Fact do <i>not</i> love him? If + they have set inexorable penalties upon him, and planted natural wrath + against him in every god-created human heart,—then I advise you, + cease, and change your hand. + </p> + <p> + Reward and punishment? Alas, alas, I must say you reward and punish pretty + much alike! Your dignities, peerages, promotions, your kingships, your + brazen statues erected in capital and county towns to our select demigods + of your selecting, testify loudly enough what kind of heroes and + hero-worshippers you are. Woe to the People that no longer venerates, as + the emblem of God himself, the aspect of Human Worth; that no longer knows + what human worth and unworth is! Sure as the Decrees of the Eternal, that + People cannot come to good. By a course too clear, by a necessity too + evident, that People will come into the hands of the unworthy; and either + turn on its bad career, or stagger downwards to ruin and abolition. Does + the Hebrew People prophetically sing "Ou' clo'!" in all thoroughfares, + these eighteen hundred years in vain? + </p> + <p> + To reward men according to their worth: alas, the perfection of this, we + know, amounts to the millennium! Neither is perfect punishment, according + to the like rule, to be attained,—nor even, by a legislator of these + chaotic days, to be too zealously attempted. But when he does attempt it,—yes, + when he summons out the Society to sit deliberative on this matter, and + consult the oracles upon it, and solemnly settle it in the name of God; + then, if never before, he should try to be a little in the right in + settling it!—In regard to reward of merit, I do not bethink me of + any attempt whatever, worth calling an attempt, on the part of modern + Governments; which surely is an immense oversight on their part, and will + one day be seen to have been an altogether fatal one. But as to the + punishment of crime, happily this cannot be quite neglected. When men have + a purse and a skin, they seek salvation at least for these; and the Four + Pleas of the Crown are a thing that must and will be attended to. By + punishment, capital or other, by treadmilling and blind rigor, or by + whitewashing and blind laxity, the extremely disagreeable offences of + theft and murder must be kept down within limits. + </p> + <p> + And so you take criminal caitiffs, murderers, and the like, and hang them + on gibbets "for an example to deter others." Whereupon arise friends of + humanity, and object. With very great reason, as I consider, if your + hypothesis be correct. What right have you to hang any poor creature "for + an example"? He can turn round upon you and say, "Why make an 'example' of + me, a merely ill-situated, pitiable man? Have you no more respect for + misfortune? Misfortune, I have been told, is sacred. And yet you hang me, + now I am fallen into your hands; choke the life out of me, for an example! + Again I ask, Why make an example of me, for your own convenience alone?"—All + "revenge" being out of the question, it seems to me the caitiff is + unanswerable; and he and the philanthropic platforms have the logic all on + their side. + </p> + <p> + The one answer to him is: "Caitiff, we hate thee; and discern for some six + thousand years now, that we are called upon by the whole Universe to do + it. Not with a diabolic but with a divine hatred. God himself, we have + always understood, 'hates sin,' with a most authentic, celestial, and + eternal hatred. A hatred, a hostility inexorable, unappeasable, which + blasts the scoundrel, and all scoundrels ultimately, into black + annihilation and disappearance from the sum of things. The path of it as + the path of a flaming sword: he that has eyes may see it, walking + inexorable, divinely beautiful and divinely terrible, through the chaotic + gulf of Human History, and everywhere burning, as with unquenchable fire, + the false and death-worthy from the true and life-worthy; making all Human + History, and the Biography of every man, a God's Cosmos in place of a + Devil's Chaos. So is it, in the end; even so, to every man who is a man, + and not a mutinous beast, and has eyes to see. To thee, caitiff, these + things were and are, quite incredible; to us they are too awfully certain,—the + Eternal Law of this Universe, whether thou and others will believe it or + disbelieve. We, not to be partakers in thy destructive adventure of + defying God and all the Universe, dare not allow thee to continue longer + among us. As a palpable deserter from the ranks where all men, at their + eternal peril, are bound to be: palpable deserter, taken with the red hand + fighting thus against the whole Universe and its Laws, we—send thee + back into the whole Universe, solemnly expel thee from our community; and + will, in the name of God, not with joy and exultation, but with sorrow + stern as thy own, hang thee on Wednesday next, and so end." + </p> + <p> + Other ground on which to deliberately slay a disarmed fellow-man I can see + none. Example, effects upon the public mind, effects upon this and upon + that: all this is mere appendage and accident; of all this I make no + attempt to keep account,—sensible that no arithmetic will or can + keep account of it; that its "effects," on this hand and on that, + transcend all calculation. One thing, if I can calculate it, will include + all, and produce beneficial effects beyond calculation, and no ill effect + at all, anywhere or at any time: What the Law of the Universe, or Law of + God, is with regard to this caitiff? That, by all sacred research and + consideration, I will try to find out; to that I will come as near as + human means admit; that shall be my exemplar and "example;" all men shall + through me see that, and be profited <i>beyond</i> calculation by seeing + it. + </p> + <p> + What this Law of the Universe, or Law made by God, is? Men at one time + read it in their Bible. In many Bibles, Books, and authentic symbols and + monitions of Nature and the World (of Fact, that is, and of Human Speech, + or Wise Interpretation of Fact), there are still clear indications towards + it. Most important it is, for this and for some other reasons, that men + do, in some way, get to see it a little! And if no man could now see it by + any Bible, there is written in the heart of every man an authentic copy of + it direct from Heaven itself: there, if he have learnt to decipher + Heaven's writing, and can read the sacred oracles (a sad case for him if + he altogether cannot), every born man may still find some copy of it. + </p> + <p> + "Revenge," my friends! revenge, and the natural hatred of scoundrels, and + the ineradicable tendency to <i>revancher</i> oneself upon them, and pay + them what they have merited: this is forevermore intrinsically a correct, + and even a divine feeling in the mind of every man. Only the excess of it + is diabolic; the essence I say is manlike, and even godlike,—a + monition sent to poor man by the Maker himself. Thou, poor reader, in + spite of all this melancholy twaddle, and blotting out of Heaven's + sunlight by mountains of horsehair and officiality, hast still a human + heart. If, in returning to thy poor peaceable dwelling-place, after an + honest hard day's work, thou wert to find, for example, a brutal scoundrel + who for lucre or other object of his, had slaughtered the life that was + dearest to thee; thy true wife, for example, thy true old mother, swimming + in her blood; the human scoundrel, or two-legged wolf, standing over such + a tragedy: I hope a man would have so much divine rage in his heart as to + snatch the nearest weapon, and put a conclusion upon said human wolf, for + one! A palpable messenger of Satan, that one; accredited by all the + Devils, to be put an end to by all the children of God. The soul of every + god-created man flames wholly into one divine blaze of sacred wrath at + sight of such a Devil's-messenger; authentic firsthand monition from the + Eternal Maker himself as to what is next to be done. Do it, or be thyself + an ally of Devil's-messengers; a sheep for two-legged human wolves, well + deserving to be eaten, as thou soon wilt be! + </p> + <p> + My humane friends, I perceive this same sacred glow of divine wrath, or + authentic monition at first hand from God himself, to be the foundation + for all Criminal Law, and Official horsehair-and-bombazine procedure + against Scoundrels in this world. This first-hand gospel from the + Eternities, imparted to every mortal, this is still, and will forever be, + your sanction and commission for the punishment of human scoundrels. See + well how you will translate this message from Heaven and the Eternities + into a form suitable to this World and its Times. Let not violence, haste, + blind impetuous impulse, preside in executing it; the injured man, + invincibly liable to fall into these, shall not himself execute it: the + whole world, in person of a Minister appointed for that end, and + surrounded with the due solemnities and caveats, with bailiffs, + apparitors, advocates, and the hushed expectation of all men, shall do it, + as under the eye of God who made all men. How it shall be done? this is + ever a vast question, involving immense considerations. Thus Edmund Burke + saw, in the Two Houses of Parliament, with King, Constitution, and all + manner of Civil-Lists, and Chancellors' wigs and Exchequer budgets, only + the "method of getting twelve just men put into a jury-box:" that, in + Burke's view, was the summary of what they were all meant for. How the + judge will do it? Yes, indeed:—but let him see well that he does do + it: for it is a thing that must by no means be left undone! A sacred + gospel from the Highest: not to be smothered under horsehair and + bombazine, or drowned in platform froth, or in any wise omitted or + neglected, without the most alarming penalties to all concerned! + </p> + <p> + Neglect to treat the hero as hero, the penalties—which are + inevitable too, and terrible to think of, as your Hebrew friends can tell + you—may be some time in coming; they will only gradually come. Not + all at once will your thirty thousand Needlewomen, your three million + Paupers, your Connaught fallen into potential Cannibalism, and other fine + consequences of the practice, come to light;—though come to light + they will; and "Ou' clo'!" itself may be in store for you, if you persist + steadily enough. But neglect to treat even your declared scoundrel as + scoundrel, this is the last consummation of the process, the drop by which + the cup runs over; the penalties of this, most alarming, extensive, and + such as you little dream of, will straightway very rapidly come. Dim + oblivion of Right and Wrong, among the masses of your population, will + come; doubts as to Right and Wrong, indistinct notion that Right and Wrong + are not eternal, but accidental, and settled by uncertain votings and + talkings, will come. Prurient influenza of Platform Benevolence, and + "Paradise to All-and-sundry," will come. In the general putrescence of + your "religions," as you call them, a strange new religion, named of + Universal Love, with Sacraments mainly of—<i>Divorce</i>, with + Balzac, Sue and Company for Evangelists, and Madame Sand for Virgin, will + come,—and results fast following therefrom which will astonish you + very much! + </p> + <p> + "The terrible anarchies of these years," says Crabbe, in his <i>Radiator</i>, + "are brought upon us by a necessity too visible. By the crime of Kings,—alas, + yes; but by that of Peoples too. Not by the crime of one class, but by the + fatal obscuration, and all but obliteration of the sense of Right and + Wrong in the minds and practices of every class. What a scene in the drama + of Universal History, this of ours! A world-wide loud bellow and bray of + universal Misery; <i>lowing</i>, with crushed maddened heart, its + inarticulate prayer to Heaven:—very pardonable to me, and in some of + its transcendent developments, as in the grand French Revolution, most + respectable and ever-memorable. For Injustice reigns everywhere; and this + murderous struggle for what they call 'Fraternity,' and so forth has a + spice of eternal sense in it, though so terribly disfigured! Amalgam of + sense and nonsense; eternal sense by the grain, and temporary nonsense by + the square mile: as is the habit with poor sons of men. Which pardonable + amalgam, however, if it be taken as the pure final sense, I must warn you + and all creatures, is unpardonable, criminal, and fatal nonsense;—with + which I, for one, will take care not to concern myself! + </p> + <p> + "<i>Dogs should not be taught to eat leather</i>, says the old adage: no;—and + where, by general fault and error, and the inevitable nemesis of things, + the universal kennel is set to diet upon <i>leather</i>; and from its + keepers, its 'Liberal Premiers,' or whatever their title is, will accept + or expect nothing else, and calls it by the pleasant name of progress, + reform, emancipation, abolition-principles, and the like,—I consider + the fate of said kennel and of said keepers to be a thing settled. Red + republic in Phrygian nightcap, organization of labor <i>a la</i> Louis + Blanc; street-barricades, and then murderous cannon-volleys <i>a la</i> + Cavaignac and Windischgratz, follow out of one another, as grapes, must, + new wine, and sour all-splitting vinegar do: vinegar is but <i>vin-aigre</i>, + or the self-same 'wine' grown <i>sharp</i>! If, moreover, I find the + Worship of Human Nobleness abolished in any country, and a <i>new</i> + astonishing Phallus-Worship, with universal Balzac-Sand melodies and + litanies in treble and in bass, established in its stead, what can I + compute but that Nature, in horrible throes, will repugn against such + substitution,—that, in short, the astonishing new Phallus-Worship, + with its finer sensibilities of the heart, and 'great satisfying loves,' + with its sacred kiss of peace for scoundrel and hero alike, with its + all-embracing Brotherhood, and universal Sacrament of Divorce, will have + to take itself away again!" + </p> + <p> + The Ancient Germans, it appears, had no scruple about public executions; + on the contrary, they thought the just gods themselves might fitly preside + over these; that these were a solemn and highest act of worship, if justly + done. When a German man had done a crime deserving death, they, in solemn + general assembly of the tribe, doomed him, and considered that Fate and + all Nature had from the beginning doomed him, to die with ignominy. + Certain crimes there were of a supreme nature; him that had perpetrated + one of these, they believed to have declared himself a prince of + scoundrels. Him once convicted they laid hold of, nothing doubting; bore + him, after judgment, to the deepest convenient Peat-bog; plunged him in + there, drove an oaken frame down over him, solemnly in the name of gods + and men: "There, prince of scoundrels, that is what we have had to think + of thee, on clear acquaintance; our grim good-night to thee is that! In + the name of all the gods lie there, and be our partnership with thee + dissolved henceforth. It will be better for us, we imagine!" + </p> + <p> + My friends, after all this beautiful whitewash and humanity and + prison-discipline; and such blubbering and whimpering, and soft Litany to + divine and also to quite other sorts of Pity, as we have had for a century + now,—give me leave to admonish you that that of the Ancient Germans + too was a thing inexpressibly necessary to keep in mind. If that is not + kept in mind, the universal Litany to Pity is a mere universal nuisance, + and torpid blasphemy against the gods. I do not much respect it, that + purblind blubbering and litanying, as it is seen at present; and the + litanying over scoundrels I go the length of disrespecting, and in some + cases even of detesting. Yes, my friends, scoundrel is scoundrel: that + remains forever a fact; and there exists not in the earth whitewash that + can make the scoundrel a friend of this Universe; he remains an enemy if + you spent your life in whitewashing him. He won't whitewash; this one + won't. The one method clearly is, That, after fair trial, you dissolve + partnership with him; send him, in the name of Heaven, whither <i>he</i> + is striving all this while and have done with him. And, in a time like + this, I would advise you, see likewise that you be speedy about it! For + there is immense work, and of a far hopefuler sort, to be done <i>elsewhere</i>. + </p> + <p> + Alas, alas, to see once the "prince of scoundrels," the Supreme Scoundrel, + him whom of all men the gods liked worst, solemnly laid hold of, and hung + upon the gallows in sight of the people; what a lesson to all the people! + Sermons might be preached; the Son of Thunder and the Mouth of Gold might + turn their periods now with some hope; for here, in the most impressive + way, is a divine sermon acted. Didactic as no spoken sermon could be. + Didactic, devotional too;—in awed solemnity, a recognition that + Eternal Justice rules the world; that at the call of this, human pity + shall fall silent, and man be stern as his Master and Mandatory is!—Understand + too that except upon a basis of even such rigor, sorrowful, silent, + inexorable as that of Destiny and Doom, there is no true pity possible. + The pity that proves so possible and plentiful without that basis, is mere + <i>ignavia</i> and cowardly effeminacy; maudlin laxity of heart, grounded + on blinkard dimness of head—contemptible as a drunkard's tears. + </p> + <p> + To see our Supreme Scoundrel hung upon the gallows, alas, that is far from + us just now! There is a worst man in England, too,—curious to think + of,—whom it would be inexpressibly advantageous to lay hold of, and + hang, the first of all. But we do not know him with the least certainty, + the least approach even to a guess,—such buzzards and dullards and + poor children of the Dusk are we, in spite of our Statistics, Unshackled + Presses, and Torches of Knowledge;—not eagles soaring sunward, not + brothers of the lightnings and the radiances we; a dim horn-eyed, + owl-population, intent mainly on the catching of mice! Alas, the supreme + scoundrel, alike with the supreme hero, is very far from being known. Nor + have we the smallest apparatus for dealing with either of them, if he were + known. Our supreme scoundrel sits, I conjecture, well-cushioned, in high + places, at this time; rolls softly through the world, and lives a + prosperous gentleman; instead of sinking him in peat-bogs, we mount the + brazen image of him on high columns: such is the world's temporary + judgment about its supreme scoundrels; a mad world, my masters. To get the + supreme scoundrel always accurately the first hanged, this, which + presupposes that the supreme hero were always the first promoted, this + were precisely the millennium itself, clear evidence that the millennium + had come: alas, we must forbear hope of this. Much water will run by + before we see this. + </p> + <p> + And yet to quit all aim towards it; to go blindly floundering along, wrapt + up in clouds of horsehair, bombazine, and sheepskin officiality, oblivious + that there exists such an aim; this is indeed fatal. In every human law + there must either exist such an aim, or else the law is not a human but a + diabolic one. Diabolic, I say: no quantity of bombazine, or lawyers' wigs, + three-readings, and solemn trumpeting and bow-wowing in high places or in + low, can hide from me its frightful infernal tendency;—bound, and + sinking at all moments gradually to Gehenna, this "law;" and dragging down + much with it! "To decree <i>injustice</i> by a <i>law</i>:" inspired + Prophets have long since seen, what every clear soul may still see, that + of all Anarchies and Devil-worships there is none like this; that this is + the "Throne of Iniquity" set up in the name of the Highest, the human + Apotheosis of Anarchy itself. "<i>Quiet</i> Anarchy," you exultingly say? + Yes; quiet Anarchy, which the longer it sits "quiet" will have the + frightfuler account to settle at last. For every doit of the account, as I + often say, will have to be settled one day, as sure as God lives. + Principal, and compound interest rigorously computed; and the interest is + at a terrible rate per cent in these cases! Alas, the aspect of certain + beatified Anarchies, sitting "quiet;" and of others in a state of infernal + explosion for sixty years back: this, the one view our Europe offers at + present, makes these days very sad.— + </p> + <p> + My unfortunate philanthropic friends, it is this long-continued oblivion + of the soul of law that has reduced the Criminal Question to such a pass + among us. Many other things have come, and are coming, for the same sad + reason, to a pass! Not the supreme scoundrel have our laws aimed at; but, + in an uncertain fitful manner, at the inferior or lowest scoundrel, who + robs shop-tills and puts the skin of mankind in danger. How can Parliament + get through the Criminal Question? Parliament, oblivious of Heavenly Law, + will find itself in hopeless <i>reductio ad absurdum</i> in regard to + innumerable other questions,—in regard to all questions whatsoever + by and by. There will be no existence possible for Parliament on these + current terms. Parliament, in its law-makings, must really try to attain + some vision again of what Heaven's Laws are. A thing not easy to do; a + thing requiring sad sincerity of heart, reverence, pious earnestness, + valiant manful wisdom;—qualities not overabundant in Parliament just + now, nor out of it, I fear. + </p> + <p> + Adieu, my friends. My anger against you is gone; my sad reflections on + you, and on the depths to which you and I and all of us are sunk in these + strange times, are not to be uttered at present. You would have saved the + Sarawak Pirates, then? The Almighty Maker is wroth that the Sarawak + cut-throats, with their poisoned spears, are away? What must his wrath be + that the thirty thousand Needlewomen are still here, and the question of + "prevenient grace" not yet settled! O my friends, in sad earnest, sad and + deadly earnest, there much needs that God would mend all this, and that we + should help him to mend it!—And don't you think, for one thing, + "Farmer Hodge's horses" in the Sugar Islands are pretty well "emancipated" + now? My clear opinion farther is, we had better quit the + Scoundrel-province of Reform; better close that under hatches, in some + rapid summary manner, and go elsewhither with our Reform efforts. A whole + world, for want of Reform, is drowning and sinking; threatening to swamp + itself into a Stygian quagmire, uninhabitable by any noble-minded man. Let + us to the well-heads, I say; to the chief fountains of these waters of + bitterness; and there strike home and dig! To puddle in the embouchures + and drowned outskirts, and ulterior and ultimate issues and cloacas of the + affair: what profit can there be in that? Nothing to be saved there; + nothing to be fished up there, except, with endless peril and spread of + pestilence, a miscellany of broken waifs and dead dogs! In the name of + Heaven, quit that! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + No. III. DOWNING STREET. [April 1, 1850.] + </h2> + <p> + From all corners of the wide British Dominion there rises one complaint + against the ineffectuality of what are nicknamed our "red-tape" + establishments, our Government Offices, Colonial Office, Foreign Office + and the others, in Downing Street and the neighborhood. To me individually + these branches of human business are little known; but every British + citizen and reflective passer-by has occasion to wonder much, and inquire + earnestly, concerning them. To all men it is evident that the social + interests of one hundred and fifty Millions of us depend on the mysterious + industry there carried on; and likewise that the dissatisfaction with it + is great, universal, and continually increasing in intensity,—in + fact, mounting, we might say, to the pitch of settled despair. + </p> + <p> + Every colony, every agent for a matter colonial, has his tragic tale to + tell you of his sad experiences in the Colonial Office; what blind + obstructions, fatal indolences, pedantries, stupidities, on the right and + on the left, he had to do battle with; what a world-wide jungle of + red-tape, inhabited by doleful creatures, deaf or nearly so to human + reason or entreaty, he had entered on; and how he paused in amazement, + almost in despair; passionately appealed now to this doleful creature, now + to that, and to the dead red-tape jungle, and to the living Universe + itself, and to the Voices and to the Silences;—and, on the whole, + found that it was an adventure, in sorrowful fact, equal to the fabulous + ones by old knights-errant against dragons and wizards in enchanted + wildernesses and waste howling solitudes; not achievable except by nearly + superhuman exercise of all the four cardinal virtues, and unexpected favor + of the special blessing of Heaven. His adventure achieved or found + unachievable, he has returned with experiences new to him in the affairs + of men. What this Colonial Office, inhabiting the head of Downing Street, + really was, and had to do, or try doing, in God's practical Earth, he + could not by any means precisely get to know; believes that it does not + itself in the least precisely know. Believes that nobody knows;—that + it is a mystery, a kind of Heathen myth; and stranger than any piece of + the old mythological Pantheon; for it practically presides over the + destinies of many millions of living men. + </p> + <p> + Such is his report of the Colonial Office: and if we oftener hear such a + report of that than we do of the Home Office, Foreign Office or the rest,—the + reason probably is, that Colonies excite more attention at present than + any of our other interests. The Forty Colonies, it appears, are all pretty + like rebelling just now; and are to be pacified with constitutions; + luckier Constitutions, let us hope, than some late ones have been. Loyal + Canada, for instance, had to quench a rebellion the other year; and this + year, in virtue of its constitution, it is called upon to pay the rebels + their damages; which surely is a rather surprising result, however + constitutional!—Men have rents and moneys dependent in the Colonies; + Emigration schemes, Black Emancipations, New-Zealand and other schemes; + and feel and publish more emphatically what their Downing-Street woes in + these respects have been. + </p> + <p> + Were the state of poor sallow English ploughers and weavers, what we may + call the Sallow or Yellow Emancipation interest, as much in object with + Exeter-Hall Philanthropists as that of the Black blockheads now all + emancipated, and going at large without work, or need of working, in + West-India clover (and fattening very much in it, one delights to hear), + then perhaps the Home Office, its huge virtual task better understood, and + its small actual performance better seen into, might be found still more + deficient, and behind the wants of the age, than the Colonial itself is. + </p> + <p> + How it stands with the Foreign Office, again, one still less knows. + Seizures of Sapienza, and the like sudden appearances of Britain in the + character of Hercules-Harlequin, waving, with big bully-voice, her huge + sword-of-sharpness over field-mice, and in the air making horrid circles + (horrid catherine-wheels and death-disks of metallic terror from said huge + sword), to see how they will like it,—do from time to time astonish + the world, in a not pleasant manner. Hercules-Harlequin, the Attorney + Triumphant, the World's Busybody: none of these are parts this Nation has + a turn for; she, if you consulted her, would rather not play these parts, + but another! Seizures of Sapienza, correspondences with Sotomayor, + remonstrances to Otho King of Athens, fleets hanging by their anchor in + behalf of the Majesty of Portugal; and in short the whole, or at present + very nearly the whole, of that industry of protocolling, diplomatizing, + remonstrating, admonishing, and "having the honor to be,"—has sunk + justly in public estimation to a very low figure. + </p> + <p> + For in fact, it is reasonably asked, What vital interest has England in + any cause now deciding itself in foreign parts? Once there was a Papistry + and Protestantism, important as life eternal and death eternal; more + lately there was an interest of Civil Order and Horrors of the French + Revolution, important at least as rent-roll and preservation of the game; + but now what is there? No cause in which any god or man of this British + Nation can be thought to be concerned. Sham-kingship, now recognized and + even self-recognized everywhere to be sham, wrestles and struggles with + mere ballot-box Anarchy: not a pleasant spectacle to British minds. Both + parties in the wrestle professing earnest wishes of peace to us, what have + we to do with it except answer earnestly, "Peace, yes certainly," and mind + our affairs elsewhere. The British Nation has no concern with that + indispensable sorrowful and shameful wrestle now going on everywhere in + foreign parts. The British Nation already, by self-experience centuries + old, understands all that; was lucky enough to transact the greater part + of that, in noble ancient ages, while the wrestle had not yet become a + shameful one, but on both sides of it there was wisdom, virtue, heroic + nobleness fruitful to all time,—thrice-lucky British Nation! The + British Nation, I say, has nothing to learn there; has now quite another + set of lessons to learn, far ahead of what is going on there. Sad example + there, of what the issue is, and how inevitable and how imminent, might + admonish the British Nation to be speedy with its new lessons; to bestir + itself, as men in peril of conflagration do, with the neighboring houses + all on fire! To obtain, for its own very pressing behoof, if by + possibility it could, some real Captaincy instead of an imaginary one: to + remove resolutely, and replace by a better sort, its own peculiar species + of teaching and guiding histrios of various name, who here too are + numerous exceedingly, and much in need of gentle removal, while the play + is still good, and the comedy has not yet become <i>tragic</i>; and to be + a little swift about it withal; and so to escape the otherwise inevitable + evil day! This Britain might learn: but she does not need a protocolling + establishment, with much "having the honor to be," to teach it her. + </p> + <p> + No:—she has in fact certain cottons, hardwares and such like to sell + in foreign parts, and certain wines, Portugal oranges, Baltic tar and + other products to buy; and does need, I suppose, some kind of Consul, or + accredited agent, accessible to British voyagers, here and there, in the + chief cities of the Continent: through which functionary, or through the + penny-post, if she had any specific message to foreign courts, it would be + easy and proper to transmit the same. Special message-carriers, to be + still called Ambassadors, if the name gratified them, could be sent when + occasion great enough demanded; not sent when it did not. But for all + purposes of a resident ambassador, I hear persons extensively and well + acquainted among our foreign embassies at this date declare, That a + well-selected <i>Times</i> reporter or "own correspondent" ordered to + reside in foreign capitals, and keep his eyes open, and (though sparingly) + his pen going, would in reality be much more effective;—and surely + we see well, he would come a good deal cheaper! Considerably cheaper in + expense of money; and in expense of falsity and grimacing hypocrisy (of + which no human arithmetic can count the ultimate cost) incalculably + cheaper! If this is the fact, why not treat it as such? If this is so in + any measure, we had better in that measure admit it to be so! The time, I + believe, has come for asking with considerable severity, How far is it so? + Nay there are men now current in political society, men of weight though + also of wit, who have been heard to say, "That there was but one reform + for the Foreign Office,—to set a live coal under it," and with, of + course, a fire-brigade which could prevent the undue spread of the + devouring element into neighboring houses, let that reform it! In such + odor is the Foreign Office too, if it were not that the Public, oppressed + and nearly stifled with a mere infinitude of bad odors, neglects this one,—in + fact, being able nearly always to avoid the street where it is, <i>escapes</i> + this one, and (except a passing curse, once in the quarter or so) as good + as forgets the existence of it. + </p> + <p> + Such, from sad personal experience and credited prevailing rumor, is the + exoteric public conviction about these sublime establishments in Downing + Street and the neighborhood, the esoteric mysteries of which are indeed + still held sacred by the initiated, but believed by the world to be mere + Dalai-Lama pills, manufactured let not refined lips hint how, and quite <i>un</i>salvatory + to mankind. Every one may remark what a hope animates the eyes of any + circle, when it is reported or even confidently asserted, that Sir Robert + Peel has in his mind privately resolved to go, one day, into that stable + of King Augeas, which appalls human hearts, so rich is it, high-piled with + the droppings of two hundred years; and Hercules-like to load a thousand + night-wagons from it, and turn running water into it, and swash and shovel + at it, and never leave it till the antique pavement, and real basis of the + matter, show itself clean again! In any intelligent circle such a rumor, + like the first break of day to men in darkness, enlightens all eyes; and + each says devoutly, "<i>Faxitis</i>, O ye righteous Powers that have pity + on us! All England grateful, with kindling looks, will rise in the rear of + him, and from its deepest heart bid him good speed!" + </p> + <p> + For it is universally felt that some <i>esoteric</i> man, well acquainted + with the mysteries and properties good and evil of the administrative + stable, is the fittest to reform it, nay can alone reform it otherwise + than by sheer violence and destruction, which is a way we would avoid; + that in fact Sir Robert Peel is, at present, the one likely or possible + man to reform it. And secondly it is felt that "reform" in that + Downing-Street department of affairs is precisely the reform which were + worth all others; that those administrative establishments in Downing + Street are really the Government of this huge ungoverned Empire; that to + clean out the dead pedantries, unveracities, indolent somnolent + impotences, and accumulated dung-mountains there, is the beginning of all + practical good whatsoever. Yes, get down once again to the actual <i>pavement</i> + of that; ascertain what the thing is, and was before dung accumulated in + it; and what it should and may, and must, for the life's sake of this + Empire, henceforth become: here clearly lies the heart of the whole + matter. Political reform, if this be not reformed, is naught and a mere + mockery. + </p> + <p> + What England wants, and will require to have, or sink in nameless + anarchies, is not a Reformed Parliament, meaning thereby a Parliament + elected according to the six or the four or any other number of "points" + and cunningly devised improvements in hustings mechanism, but a Reformed + Executive or Sovereign Body of Rulers and Administrators,—some + improved method, innumerable improvements in our poor blind methods, of + getting hold of these. Not a better Talking-Apparatus, the best + conceivable Talking-Apparatus would do very little for us at present;—but + an infinitely better Acting-Apparatus, the benefits of which would be + invaluable now and henceforth. The practical question puts itself with + ever-increasing stringency to all English minds: Can we, by no industry, + energy, utmost expenditure of human ingenuity, and passionate invocation + of the Heavens and Earth, get to attain some twelve or ten or six men to + manage the affairs of this nation in Downing Street and the chief posts + elsewhere, who are abler for the work than those we have been used to, + this long while? For it is really a heroic work, and cannot be done by + histrios, and dexterous talkers having the honor to be: it is a heavy and + appalling work; and, at the starting of it especially, will require + Herculean men; such mountains of pedant exuviae and obscene owl-droppings + have accumulated in those regions, long the habitation of doleful + creatures; the old <i>pavements</i>, the natural facts and real essential + functions of those establishments, have not been seen by eyes for these + two hundred years last past! Herculean men acquainted with the virtues of + running water, and with the divine necessity of getting down to the clear + pavements and old veracities; who tremble before no amount of pedant + exuviae, no loudest shrieking of doleful creatures; who tremble only to + live, themselves, like inane phantasms, and to leave their life as a + paltry <i>contribution</i> to the guano mountains, and not as a divine + eternal protest against them! + </p> + <p> + These are the kind of men we want; these, the nearest possible + approximation to these, are the men we must find and have, or go bankrupt + altogether; for the concern as it is will evidently not hold long + together. How true is this of Crabbe: "Men sit in Parliament eighty-three + hours per week, debating about many things. Men sit in Downing Street, + doing protocols, Syrian treaties, Greek questions, Portuguese, Spanish, + French, Egyptian and AEthiopian questions; dexterously writing despatches, + and having the honor to be. Not a question of them is at all pressing in + comparison with the English question. Pacifico the miraculous Gibraltar + Jew has been hustled by some populace in Greece:—upon him let the + British Lion drop, very rapidly indeed, a constitutional tear. Radetzky is + said to be advancing upon Milan;—I am sorry to hear it, and perhaps + it does deserve a despatch, or friendly letter, once and away: but the + Irish Giant, named of Despair, is advancing upon London itself, laying + waste all English cities, towns and villages; that is the interesting + Government despatch of the day! I notice him in Piccadilly, blue-visaged, + thatched in rags, a blue child on each arm; hunger-driven, wide-mouthed, + seeking whom he may devour: he, missioned by the just Heavens, too truly + and too sadly their 'divine missionary' come at last in this authoritative + manner, will throw us all into Doubting Castle, I perceive! That is the + phenomenon worth protocolling about, and writing despatches upon, and + thinking of with all one's faculty day and night, if one wishes to have + the honor to be—anything but a Phantasm Governor of England just + now! I entreat your Lordship's all but undivided attention to that + Domestic Irish Giant, named of Despair, for a great many years to come. + Prophecy of him there has long been; but now by the rot of the potato + (blessed be the just gods, who send us either swift death or some + beginning of cure at last!), he is here in person, and there is no denying + him, or disregarding him any more; and woe to the public watchman that + ignores him, and sees Pacifico the Gibraltar Jew instead!" + </p> + <p> + What these strange Entities in Downing Street intrinsically are; who made + them, why they were made; how they do their function; and what their + function, so huge in appearance, may in net-result amount to,—is + probably known to no mortal. The unofficial mind passes by in dark wonder; + not pretending to know. The official mind must not blab;—the + official mind, restricted to its own square foot of territory in the vast + labyrinth, is probably itself dark, and unable to blab. We see the + outcome; the mechanism we do not see. How the tailors clip and sew, in + that sublime sweating establishment of theirs, we know not: that the coat + they bring us out is the sorrowfulest fantastic mockery of a coat, a mere + intricate artistic network of traditions and formalities, an embroiled + reticulation made of web-listings and superannuated thrums and tatters, + endurable to no grown Nation as a coat, is mournfully clear!— + </p> + <p> + Two kinds of fundamental error are supposable in such a set of Offices; + these two, acting and reacting, are the vice of all inefficient Offices + whatever.—<i>First</i>, that the work, such as it may be, is ill + done in these establishments. That it is delayed, neglected, slurred over, + committed to hands that cannot do it well; that, in a word, the questions + sent thither are not wisely handled, but unwisely; not decided truly and + rapidly, but with delays and wrong at last: which is the principal + character, and the infallible result, of an insufficient Intellect being + set to decide them. Or <i>second</i>, what is still fataler, the work done + there may itself be quite the wrong kind of work. Not the kind of + supervision and direction which Colonies, and other such interests, Home + or Foreign, do by the nature of them require from the Central Government; + not that, but a quite other kind! The Sotomayor correspondence, for + example, is considered by many persons not to be mismanaged merely, but to + be a thing which should never have been managed at all; a quite + superfluous concern, which and the like of which the British Government + has almost no call to get into, at this new epoch of time. And not + Sotomayor only, nor Sapienza only, in regard to that Foreign Office, but + innumerable other things, if our witty friend of the "live coal" have + reason in him! Of the Colonial Office, too, it is urged that the questions + they decide and operate upon are, in very great part, questions which they + never should have meddled with, but almost all of which should have been + decided in the Colonies themselves,—Mother Country or Colonial + Office reserving its energy for a quite other class of objects, which are + terribly neglected just now. + </p> + <p> + These are the two vices that beset Government Offices; both of them + originating in insufficient Intellect,—that sad insufficiency from + which, directly or indirectly, all evil whatsoever springs! And these two + vices act and react, so that where the one is, the other is sure to be; + and each encouraging the growth of the other, both (if some cleaning of + the Augeas stable have not intervened for a long while) will be found in + frightful development. You cannot have your work well done, if the work be + not of a right kind, if it be not work prescribed by the law of Nature as + well as by the rules of the office. Laziness, which lies in wait round all + human labor-offices, will in that case infallibly leak in, and vitiate the + doing of the work. The work is but idle; if the doing of it will but pass, + what need of more? The essential problem, as the rules of office prescribe + it for you, if Nature and Fact say nothing, is that your work be got to + pass; if the work itself is worth nothing, or little or an uncertain + quantity, what more can gods or men require of it, or, above all, can I + who am the doer of it require, but that it be got to pass? + </p> + <p> + And now enters another fatal effect, the mother of ever-new mischiefs, + which renders well-doing or improvement impossible, and drives bad + everywhere continually into worse. The work being what we see, a stupid + subaltern will do as well as a gifted one; the essential point is, that he + be a quiet one, and do not bother me who have the driving of him. Nay, for + this latter object, is not a certain height of intelligence even + dangerous? I want no mettled Arab horse, with his flashing glances, + arched, neck and elastic step, to draw my wretched sand-cart through the + streets; a broken, grass-fed galloway, Irish garron, or painful ass with + nothing in the belly of him but patience and furze, will do it safelier + for me, if more slowly. Nay I myself, am I the worse for being of a feeble + order of intelligence; what the irreverent speculative, world calls + barren, red-tapish, limited, and even intrinsically dark and small, and if + it must be said, stupid?—To such a climax does it come in all + Government and other Offices, where Human Stupidity has once introduced + itself (as it will everywhere do), and no Scavenger God intervenes. The + work, at first of some worth, is ill done, and becomes of less worth and + of ever less, and finally of none: the worthless work can now <i>afford</i> + to be ill done; and Human Stupidity, at a double geometrical ratio, with + frightful expansion grows and accumulates,—towards the unendurable. + </p> + <p> + The reforming Hercules, Sir Robert Peel or whoever he is to be, that + enters Downing Street, will ask himself this question first of all, What + work is now necessary, not in form and by traditionary use and wont, but + in very fact, for the vital interests of the British Nation, to be done + here? The second question, How to get it well done, and to keep the best + hands doing it well, will be greatly simplified by a good answer to that. + Oh for an eye that could see in those hideous mazes, and a heart that + could dare and do! Strenuous faithful scrutiny, not of what is <i>thought</i> + to be what in the red-tape regions, but of what really is what in the + realms of Fact and Nature herself; deep-seeing, wise and courageous eyes, + that could look through innumerable cobweb veils, and detect what fact or + no-fact lies at heart of them,—how invaluable these! For, alas, it + is long since such eyes were much in the habit of looking steadfastly at + any department of our affairs; and poor commonplace creatures, helping + themselves along, in the way of makeshift, from year to year, in such an + element, do wonderful works indeed. Such creatures, like moles, are safe + only underground, and their engineerings there become very daedalean. In + fact, such unfortunate persons have no resource but to become what we call + Pedants; to ensconce themselves in a safe world of habitudes, of + applicable or inapplicable traditions; not coveting, rather avoiding the + general daylight of common-sense, as very extraneous to them and their + procedure; by long persistence in which course they become Completed + Pedants, hidebound, impenetrable, able to <i>defy</i> the hostile + extraneous element; an alarming kind of men, Such men, left to themselves + for a century or two, in any Colonial, Foreign, or other Office, will make + a terrible affair of it! + </p> + <p> + For the one enemy we have in this Universe is Stupidity, Darkness of Mind; + of which darkness, again, there are many sources, every <i>sin</i> a + source, and probably self-conceit the chief source. Darkness of mind, in + every kind and variety, does to a really tragic extent abound: but of all + the kinds of darkness, surely the Pedant darkness, which asserts and + believes itself to be light, is the most formidable to mankind! For + empires or for individuals there is but one class of men to be trembled + at; and that is the Stupid Class, the class that cannot see, who alas are + they mainly that will not see. A class of mortals under which as + administrators, kings, priests, diplomatists, &c., the interests of + mankind in every European country have sunk overloaded, as under universal + nightmare, near to extinction; and indeed are at this moment convulsively + writhing, decided either to throw off the unblessed superincumbent + nightmare, or roll themselves and it to the Abyss. Vain to reform + Parliament, to invent ballot-boxes, to reform this or that; the real + Administration, practical Management of the Commonwealth, goes all awry; + choked up with long-accumulated pedantries, so that your appointed workers + have been reduced to work as moles; and it is one vast boring and + counter-boring, on the part of eyeless persons irreverently called stupid; + and a daedalean bewilderment, writing "impossible" on all efforts or + proposals, supervenes. + </p> + <p> + The State itself, not in Downing Street alone but in every department of + it, has altered much from what it was in past times; and it will again + have to alter very much, to alter I think from top to bottom, if it means + to continue existing in the times that are now coming and come! + </p> + <p> + The State, left to shape itself by dim pedantries and traditions, without + distinctness of conviction, or purpose beyond that of helping itself over + the difficulty of the hour, has become, instead of a luminous vitality + permeating with its light all provinces of our affairs, a most monstrous + agglomerate of inanities, as little adapted for the actual wants of a + modern community as the worst citizen need wish. The thing it is doing is + by no means the thing we want to have done. What we want! Let the dullest + British man endeavor to raise in his mind this question, and ask himself + in sincerity what the British Nation wants at this time. Is it to have, + with endless jargoning, debating, motioning and counter-motioning, a + settlement effected between the Honorable Mr. This and the Honorable Mr. + That, as to their respective pretensions to ride the high horse? Really it + is unimportant which of them ride it. Going upon past experience long + continued now, I should say with brevity, "Either of them—Neither of + them." If our Government is to be a No-Government, what is the matter who + administers it? Fling an orange-skin into St. James's Street; let the man + it hits be your man. He, if you breed him a little to it, and tie the due + official bladders to his ankles, will do as well as another this sublime + problem of balancing himself upon the vortexes, with the long loaded-pole + in his hands; and will, with straddling painful gestures, float hither and + thither, walking the waters in that singular manner for a little while, as + well as his foregoers did, till he also capsize, and be left floating feet + uppermost; after which you choose another. + </p> + <p> + What an immense pother, by parliamenting and palavering in all corners of + your empire, to decide such a question as that! I say, if that is the + function, almost any human creature can learn to discharge it: fling out + your orange-skin again; and save an incalculable labor, and an emission of + nonsense and falsity, and electioneering beer and bribery and balderdash, + which is terrible to think of, in deciding. Your National Parliament, in + so far as it has only that question to decide, may be considered as an + enormous National Palaver existing mainly for imaginary purposes; and + certain, in these days of abbreviated labor, to get itself sent home again + to its partridge-shootings, fox-huntings, and above all, to its + rat-catchings, if it could but understand the time of day, and know (as + our indignant Crabbe remarks) that "the real Nimrod of this era, who alone + does any good to the era, is the rat-catcher!" + </p> + <p> + The notion that any Government is or can be a No-Government, without the + deadliest peril to all noble interests of the Commonwealth, and by degrees + slower or swifter to all ignoble ones also, and to the very gully-drains, + and thief lodging-houses, and Mosaic sweating establishments, and at last + without destruction to such No-Government itself,—was never my + notion; and I hope it will soon cease altogether to be the world's or to + be anybody's. But if it be the correct notion, as the world seems at + present to flatter itself, I point out improvements and abbreviations. + Dismiss your National Palaver; make the <i>Times</i> Newspaper your + National Palaver, which needs no beer-barrels or hustings, and is <i>cheaper</i> + in expense of money and of falsity a thousand and a million fold; have an + economical red-tape drilling establishment (it were easier to devise such + a thing than a right <i>Modern University</i>);—and fling out your + orange-skin among the graduates, when you want a new Premier. + </p> + <p> + A mighty question indeed! Who shall be Premier, and take in hand the + "rudder of government," otherwise called the "spigot of taxation;" shall + it be the Honorable Felix Parvulus, or the Right Honorable Felicissimus + Zero? By our electioneerings and Hansard Debatings, and ever-enduring + tempest of jargon that goes on everywhere, we manage to settle that; to + have it declared, with no bloodshed except insignificant blood from the + nose in hustings-time, but with immense beershed and inkshed and explosion + of nonsense, which darkens all the air, that the Right Honorable Zero is + to be the man. That we firmly settle; Zero, all shivering with rapture and + with terror, mounts into the high saddle; cramps himself on, with knees, + heels, hands and feet; and the horse gallops—whither it lists. That + the Right Honorable Zero should attempt controlling the horse—Alas, + alas, he, sticking on with beak and claws, is too happy if the horse will + only gallop any-whither, and not throw him. Measure, polity, plan or + scheme of public good or evil, is not in the head of Felicissimus; except, + if he could but devise it, some measure that would please his horse for + the moment, and encourage him to go with softer paces, godward or + devilward as it might be, and save Felicissimus's leather, which is fast + wearing. This is what we call a Government in England, for nearly two + centuries now. + </p> + <p> + I wish Felicissimus were saddle-sick forever and a day! He is a dreadful + object, however much we are used to him. If the horse had not been bred + and broken in, for a thousand years, by real riders and horse-subduers, + perhaps the best and bravest the world ever saw, what would have become of + Felicissimus and him long since? This horse, by second-nature, religiously + respects all fences; gallops, if never so madly, on the highways alone;—seems + to me, of late, like a desperate Sleswick thunder-horse who had lost his + way, galloping in the labyrinthic lanes of a woody flat country; + passionate to reach his goal; unable to reach it, because in the flat + leafy lanes there is no outlook whatever, and in the bridle there is no + guidance whatever. So he gallops stormfully along, thinking it is forward + and forward; and alas, it is only round and round, out of one old lane + into the other;—nay (according to some) "he mistakes <i>his own + footprints</i>, which of course grow ever more numerous, for the sign of a + more and more frequented road;" and his despair is hourly increasing. My + impression is, he is certain soon, such is the growth of his necessity and + his despair, to—plunge <i>across</i> the fence, into an opener + survey of the country; and to sweep Felicissimus off his back, and comb + him away very tragically in the process! Poor Sleswicker, I wish you were + better ridden. I perceive it lies in the Fates you must now either be + better ridden, or else not long at all. This plunging in the heavy + labyrinth of over-shaded lanes, with one's stomach getting empty, one's + Ireland falling into cannibalism, and no vestige of a goal either visible + or possible, cannot last. + </p> + <p> + Colonial Offices, Foreign, Home and other Offices, got together under + these strange circumstances, cannot well be expected to be the best that + human ingenuity could devise; the wonder rather is to see them so good as + they are. Who made them, ask me not. Made they clearly were; for we see + them here in a concrete condition, writing despatches, and drawing salary + with a view to buy pudding. But how those Offices in Downing Street were + made; who made them, or for what kind of objects they were made, would be + hard to say at present. Dim visions and phantasmagories gathered from the + Books of Horace Walpole, Memoirs of Bubb Doddington, Memoirs of my Lady + Sundon, Lord Fanny Hervey, and innumerable others, rise on us, beckoning + fantastically towards, not an answer, but some conceivable intimations of + an answer, and proclaiming very legibly the old text, "<i>Quam parva + sapientia</i>," in respect of this hard-working much-subduing British + Nation; giving rise to endless reflections in a thinking Englishman of + this day. Alas, it is ever so: each generation has its task, and does it + better or worse; greatly neglecting what is not immediately its task. Our + poor grandfathers, so busy conquering Indias, founding Colonies, inventing + spinning-jennies, kindling Lancashires and Bromwichams, took no thought + about the government of all that; left it all to be governed by Lord Fanny + and the Hanover Succession, or how the gods pleased. And now we the poor + grandchildren find that it will not stick together on these terms any + longer; that our sad, dangerous and sore task is to discover some + government for this big world which has been conquered to us; that the + red-tape Offices in Downing Street are near the end of their rope; that if + we can get nothing better, in the way of government, it is all over with + our world and us. How the Downing-Street Offices originated, and what the + meaning of them was or is, let Dryasdust, when in some lucid moment the + whim takes him, instruct us. Enough for us to know and see clearly, with + urgent practical inference derived from such insight, That they were not + made for us or for our objects at all; that the devouring Irish Giant is + here, and that he cannot be fed with red-tape, and will eat us if we + cannot feed him. + </p> + <p> + On the whole, let us say Felicissimus made them;—or rather it was + the predecessors of Felicissimus, who were not so dreadfully hunted, + sticking to the wild and ever more desperate Sleswicker in the leafy + labyrinth of lanes, as he now is. He, I think, will never make anything; + but be combed off by the elm-boughs, and left sprawling in the ditch. But + in past time, this and the other heavy-laden red-tape soul had withal a + glow of patriotism in him; now and then, in his whirling element, a gleam + of human ingenuity, some eye towards business that must be done. At all + events, for him and every one, Parliament needed to be persuaded that + business was done. By the contributions of many such heavy-laden souls, + driven on by necessity outward and inward, these singular Establishments + are here. Contributions—who knows how far back they go, far beyond + the reign of George the Second, or perhaps the reign of William Conqueror. + Noble and genuine some of them were, many of them were, I need not doubt: + for there is no human edifice that stands long but has got itself planted, + here and there, upon the basis of fact; and being built, in many respects, + according to the laws of statics: no standing edifice, especially no + edifice of State, but has had the wise and brave at work in it, + contributing their lives to it; and is "cemented," whether it know the + fact or not, "by the blood of heroes!" None; not even the Foreign Office, + Home Office, still less the National Palaver itself. William Conqueror, I + find, must have had a first-rate Home Office, for his share. The <i>Domesday + Book</i>, done in four years, and done as it is, with such an admirable + brevity, explicitness and completeness, testifies emphatically what kind + of under-secretaries and officials William had. Silent officials and + secretaries, I suppose; not wasting themselves in parliamentary talk; + reserving all their intelligence for silent survey of the huge dumb fact, + silent consideration how they might compass the mastery of that. Happy + secretaries, happy William! + </p> + <p> + But indeed nobody knows what inarticulate traditions, remnants of old + wisdom, priceless though quite anonymous, survive in many modern things + that still have life in them. Ben Brace, with his taciturnities, and + rugged stoical ways, with his tarry breeches, stiff as plank-breeches, I + perceive is still a kind of <i>Lod-brog</i> (Loaded-breeks) in more senses + than one; and derives, little conscious of it, many of his excellences + from the old Sea-kings and Saxon Pirates themselves; and how many Blakes + and Nelsons since have contributed to Ben! "Things are not so false always + as they seem," said a certain Professor to me once: "of this you will find + instances in every country, and in your England more than any—and I + hope will draw lessons from them. An English Seventy-four, if you look + merely at the articulate law and methods of it, is one of the impossiblest + entities. The captain is appointed not by preeminent merit in sailorship, + but by parliamentary connection; the men [this was spoken some years ago] + are got by impressment; a press-gang goes out, knocks men down on the + streets of sea-towns, and drags them on board,—if the ship were to + be stranded, I have heard they would nearly all run ashore and desert. Can + anything be more unreasonable than a Seventy-four? Articulately almost + nothing. But it has inarticulate traditions, ancient methods and habitudes + in it, stoicisms, noblenesses, <i>true</i> rules both of sailing and of + conduct; enough to keep it afloat on Nature's veridical bosom, after all. + See; if you bid it sail to the end of the world, it will lift anchor, go, + and arrive. The raging oceans do not beat it back; it too, as well as the + raging oceans, has a relationship to Nature, and it does not sink, but + under the due conditions is borne along. If it meet with hurricanes, it + rides them out; if it meet an Enemy's ship, it shivers it to powder; and + in short, it holds on its way, and to a wonderful extent <i>does</i> what + it means and pretends to do. Assure yourself, my friend, there is an + immense fund of truth somewhere or other stowed in that Seventy-four." + </p> + <p> + More important than the past history of these Offices in Downing Street, + is the question of their future history; the question, How they are to be + got mended! Truly an immense problem, inclusive of all others whatsoever; + which demands to be attacked, and incessantly persisted in, by all good + citizens, as the grand problem of Society, and the one thing needful for + the Commonwealth! A problem in which all men, with all their wisdoms and + all their virtues, faithfully and continually co-operating at it, will + never have done <i>enough</i>, and will still only be struggling <i>towards</i> + perfection in it. In which some men can do much;—in which every man + can do something. Every man, and thou my present Reader canst do this: <i>Be</i> + thyself a man abler to be governed; more reverencing the divine faculty of + governing, more sacredly detesting the diabolical semblance of said + faculty in self and others; so shalt thou, if not govern, yet actually + according to thy strength assist in real governing. And know always, and + even lay to heart with a quite unusual solemnity, with a seriousness + altogether of a religious nature, that as "Human Stupidity" is verily the + accursed parent of all this mischief, so Human Intelligence alone, to + which and to which only is victory and blessedness appointed here below, + will or can cure it. If we knew this as devoutly as we ought to do, the + evil, and all other evils were curable;—alas, if we had from of old + known this, as all men made in God's image ought to do, the evil never + would have been! Perhaps few Nations have ever known it less than we, for + a good while back, have done. Hence these sorrows. + </p> + <p> + What a People are the poor Thibet idolaters, compared with us and our + "religions," which issue in the worship of King Hudson as our Dalai-Lama! + They, across such hulls of abject ignorance, have seen into the heart of + the matter; we, with our torches of knowledge everywhere brandishing + themselves, and such a human enlightenment as never was before, have quite + missed it. Reverence for Human Worth, earnest devout search for it and + encouragement of it, loyal furtherance and obedience to it: this, I say, + is the outcome and essence of all true "religions," and was and ever will + be. We have not known this. No; loud as our tongues sometimes go in that + direction, we have no true reverence for Human Intelligence, for Human + Worth and Wisdom: none, or too little,—and I pray for a restoration + of such reverence, as for the change from Stygian darkness to Heavenly + light, as for the return of life to poor sick moribund Society and all its + interests. Human Intelligence means little for most of us but Beaver + Contrivance, which produces spinning-mules, cheap cotton, and large + fortunes. Wisdom, unless it give us railway scrip, is not wise. + </p> + <p> + True nevertheless it forever remains that Intellect is the real object of + reverence, and of devout prayer, and zealous wish and pursuit, among the + sons of men; and even, well understood, the one object. It is the + Inspiration of the Almighty that giveth men understanding. For it must be + repeated, and ever again repeated till poor mortals get to discern it, and + awake from their baleful paralysis, and degradation under foul + enchantments, That a man of Intellect, of real and not sham Intellect, is + by the nature of him likewise inevitably a man of nobleness, a man of + courage, rectitude, pious strength; who, even <i>because</i> he is and has + been loyal to the Laws of this Universe, is initiated into <i>discernment</i> + of the same; to this hour a Missioned of Heaven; whom if men follow, it + will be well with them; whom if men do not follow, it will not be well. + Human Intellect, if you consider it well, is the exact summary of Human <i>Worth</i>; + and the essence of all worth-ships and worships is reverence for that + same. This much surprises you, friend Peter; but I assure you it is the + fact;—and I would advise you to consider it, and to try if you too + do not gradually find it so. With me it has long been an article, not of + "faith" only, but of settled insight, of conviction as to what the + ordainments of the Maker in this Universe are. Ah, could you and the rest + of us but get to know it, and everywhere religiously act upon it,—as + our <i>Fortieth</i> Article, which includes all the other Thirty-nine, and + without which the Thirty-nine are good for almost nothing,—there + might then be some hope for us! In this world there is but one appalling + creature: the Stupid man <i>considered</i> to be the Missioned of Heaven, + and followed by men. He is our King, men say, he;—and they follow + him, through straight or winding courses, I for one know well whitherward. + </p> + <p> + Abler men in Downing Street, abler men to govern us: yes, that, sure + enough, would gradually remove the dung-mountains, however high they are; + that would be the way, nor is there any other way, to remedy whatsoever + has gone wrong in Downing Street and in the wide regions, spiritual and + temporal, which Downing Street presides over! For the Able Man, meet him + where you may, is definable as the born enemy of Falsity and Anarchy, and + the born soldier of Truth and Order: into what absurdest element soever + you put him, he is there to make it a little less absurd, to fight + continually with it till it become a little sane and human again. Peace on + other terms he, for his part, cannot make with it; not he, while he + continues <i>able</i>, or possessed of real intellect and not imaginary. + There is but one man fraught with blessings for this world, fated to + diminish and successively abolish the curses of the world; and it is he. + For him make search, him reverence and follow; know that to find him or + miss him, means victory or defeat for you, in all Downing Streets, and + establishments and enterprises here below.—I leave your Lordship to + judge whether this has been our practice hitherto; and would humbly + inquire what your Lordship thinks is likely to be the consequence of + continuing to neglect this. It ought to have been our practice; ought, in + all places and all times, to be the practice in this world; so says the + fixed law of things forevermore:—and it must cease to be <i>not</i> + the practice, your Lordship; and cannot too speedily do so I think!— + </p> + <p> + Much has been done in the way of reforming Parliament in late years; but + that of itself seems to avail nothing, or almost less. The men that sit in + Downing Street, governing us, are not abler men since the Reform Bill than + were those before it. Precisely the same kind of men; obedient formerly to + Tory traditions, obedient now to Whig ditto and popular clamors. + Respectable men of office: respectably commonplace in facility,—while + the situation is becoming terribly original! Rendering their outlooks, and + ours, more ominous every day. + </p> + <p> + Indisputably enough the meaning of all reform-movement, electing and + electioneering, of popular agitation, parliamentary eloquence, and all + political effort whatsoever, is that you may get the ten Ablest Men in + England put to preside over your ten principal departments of affairs. To + sift and riddle the Nation, so that you might extricate and sift out the + true ten gold grains, or ablest men, and of these make your Governors or + Public Officers; leaving the dross and common sandy or silty material + safely aside, as the thing to be governed, not to govern; certainly all + ballot-boxes, caucuses, Kennington-Common meetings, Parliamentary + debatings, Red Republics, Russian Despotisms, and constitutional or + unconstitutional methods of society among mankind, are intended to achieve + this one end; and some of them, it will be owned, achieve it very ill!—If + you have got your gold grains, if the men you have got are actually the + ablest, then rejoice; with whatever astonishment, accept your Ten, and + thank the gods; under this Ten your destruction will at least be milder + than under another. But if you have <i>not</i> got them, if you are very + far from having got them, then do not rejoice at all, then <i>lament</i> + very much; then admit that your sublime political constitutions and + contrivances do not prove themselves sublime, but ridiculous and + contemptible; that your world's wonder of a political mill, the envy of + surrounding nations, does not yield you real meal; yields you only powder + of millstones (called Hansard Debatings), and a detestable brown substance + not unlike the grindings of dried horse-dung or prepared street-mud, which + though sold under royal patent, and much recommended by the trade, is + quite unfit for culinary purposes!— + </p> + <p> + But the disease at least is not mysterious, whatever the remedy be. Our + disease,—alas, is it not clear as the sun, that we suffer under what + is the disease of all the miserable in this world, <i>want of wisdom</i>; + that in the Head there is no vision, and that thereby all the members are + dark and in bonds? No vision in the head; heroism, faith, devout insight + to discern what is needful, noble courage to do it, greatly defective + there: not seeing eyes there, but spectacles constitutionally ground, + which, to the unwary, <i>seem</i> to see. A quite fatal circumstance, had + you never so many Parliaments! How is your ship to be steered by a Pilot + with no <i>eyes</i> but a pair of glass ones got from the constitutional + optician? He must steer by the <i>ear</i>, I think, rather than by the + eye; by the shoutings he catches from the shore, or from the Parliamentary + benches nearer hand:—one of the frightfulest objects to see steering + in a difficult sea! Reformed Parliaments in that case, reform-leagues, + outer agitations and excitements in never such abundance, cannot profit: + all this is but the writhing, and painful blind convulsion of the limbs + that are in bonds, that are all in dark misery till the head be delivered, + till the pressure on the brain be removed. + </p> + <p> + Or perhaps there is now no heroic wisdom left in England; England, once + the land of heroes, is itself sunk now to a dim owlery, and habitation of + doleful creatures, intent only on money-making and other forms of catching + mice, for whom the proper gospel is the gospel of M'Croudy, and all nobler + impulses and insights are forbidden henceforth? Perhaps these present + agreeable Occupants of Downing Street, such as the parliamentary mill has + yielded them, are the <i>best</i> the miserable soil had grown? The most + Herculean Ten Men that could be found among the English Twenty-seven + Millions, are these? There <i>are</i> not, in any place, under any figure, + ten diviner men among us? Well; in that case, the riddling and searching + of the twenty-seven millions has been <i>successful</i>. Here are our ten + divinest men; with these, unhappily not divine enough, we must even + content ourselves and die in peace; what help is there? No help, no hope, + in that case. + </p> + <p> + But, again, if these are <i>not</i> our divinest men, then evidently there + always is hope, there always is possibility of help; and ruin never is + quite inevitable, till we <i>have</i> sifted out our actually divinest + ten, and set these to try their hand at governing!—That this has + been achieved; that these ten men are the most Herculean souls the English + population held within it, is a proposition credible to no mortal. No, + thank God; low as we are sunk in many ways, this is not yet credible! + Evidently the reverse of this proposition is the fact. Ten much diviner + men do certainly exist. By some conceivable, not forever impossible, + method and methods, ten very much diviner men could be sifted out!—Courage; + let us fix our eyes on that important fact, and strive all thitherward as + towards a door of hope! + </p> + <p> + Parliaments, I think, have proved too well, in late years, that they are + not the remedy. It is not Parliaments, reformed or other, that will ever + send Herculean men to Downing Street, to reform Downing Street for us; to + diffuse therefrom a light of Heavenly Order, instead of the murk of + Stygian Anarchy, over this sad world of ours. That function does not lie + in the capacities of Parliment. That is the function of a <i>King</i>,—if + we could get such a priceless entity, which we cannot just now! Failing + which, Statesmen, or Temporary Kings, and at the very lowest one real + Statesman, to shape the dim tendencies of Parliament, and guide them + wisely to the goal: he, I perceive, will be a primary condition, + indispensable for any progress whatsoever. + </p> + <p> + One such, perhaps, might be attained; one such might prove discoverable + among our Parliamentary populations? That one, in such an enterprise as + this of Downing Street, might be invaluable! One noble man, at once of + natural wisdom and practical experience; one Intellect still really human, + and not red-tapish, owlish and pedantical, appearing there in that dim + chaos, with word of command; to brandish Hercules-like the divine broom + and shovel, and turn running water in upon the place, and say as with a + fiat, "Here shall be truth, and real work, and talent to do it henceforth; + I will seek for able men to work here, as for the elixir of life to this + poor place and me:"—what might not one such man effect there! + </p> + <p> + Nay one such is not to be dispensed with anywhere in the affairs of men. + In every ship, I say, there must be a <i>seeing</i> pilot, not a mere + hearing one! It is evident you can never get your ship steered through the + difficult straits by persons standing ashore, on this bank and that, and + shouting <i>their</i> confused directions to you: "'Ware that Colonial + Sandbank!—Starboard now, the Nigger Question!—Larboard, <i>larboard</i>, + the Suffrage Movement! Financial Reform, your Clothing-Colonels overboard! + The Qualification Movement, 'Ware-re-re!—Helm-a-lee! Bear a hand + there, will you! Hr-r-r, lubbers, imbeciles, fitter for a tailor's + shopboard than a helm of Government, Hr-r-r!"—And so the ship + wriggles and tumbles, and, on the whole, goes as wind and current drive. + No ship was ever steered except to destruction in that manner. I + deliberately say so: no ship of a State either. If you cannot get a real + pilot on board, and put the helm into his hands, your ship is as good as a + wreck. One real pilot on board may save you; all the bellowing from the + banks that ever was, will not, and by the nature of things cannot. Nay + your pilot will have to succeed, if he do succeed, very much in spite of + said bellowing; he will hear all that, and regard very little of it,—in + a patient mild-spoken wise manner, will regard all of it as what it is. + And I never doubt but there is in Parliament itself, in spite of its vague + palaverings which fill us with despair in these times, a dumb instinct of + inarticulate sense and stubborn practical English insight and veracity, + that would manfully support a Statesman who could take command with really + manful notions of Reform, and as one deserving to be obeyed. Oh for one + such; even one! More precious to us than all the bullion in the Bank, or + perhaps that ever was in it, just now! + </p> + <p> + For it is Wisdom alone that can recognize wisdom: Folly or Imbecility + never can; and that is the fatalest ban it labors under, dooming it to + perpetual failure in all things. Failure which, in Downing Street and + places of <i>command</i> is especially accursed; cursing not one but + hundreds of millions! Who is there that can recognize real intellect, and + do reverence to it; and discriminate it well from sham intellect, which is + so much more abundant, and deserves the reverse of reverence? He that + himself has it!—One really human Intellect, invested with command, + and charged to reform Downing Street for us, would continually attract + real intellect to those regions, and with a divine magnetism search it out + from the modest corners where it lies hid. And every new accession of + intellect to Downing Street would bring to it benefit only, and would + increase such divine attraction in it, the parent of all benefit there and + elsewhere! + </p> + <p> + "What method, then; by what method?" ask many. Method, alas! To secure an + increased supply of Human Intellect to Downing Street, there will + evidently be no quite effectual "method" but that of increasing the supply + of Human Intellect, otherwise definable as Human Worth, in Society + generally; increasing the supply of sacred reverence for it, of loyalty to + it, and of life-and-death desire and pursuit of it, among all classes,—if + we but knew such a "method"! Alas, that were simply the method of making + all classes Servants of Heaven; and except it be devout prayer to Heaven, + I have never heard of any method! To increase the reverence for Human + Intellect or God's Light, and the detestation of Human Stupidity or the + Devil's Darkness, what method is there? No method,—except even this, + that we should each of us "pray" for it, instead of praying for mere scrip + and the like; that Heaven would please to vouchsafe us each a little of + it, one by one! As perhaps Heaven, in its infinite bounty, by stern + methods, gradually will? Perhaps Heaven has mercy too in these sore + plagues that are oppressing us; and means to teach us reverence for + Heroism and Human Intellect, by such baleful experience of what issue + Imbecility and Parliamentary Eloquence lead to? Such reverence, I do hope, + and even discover and observe, is silently yet extensively going on among + us even in these sad years. In which small salutary fact there burns for + us, in this black coil of universal baseness fast becoming universal + wretchedness, an inextinguishable hope; far-off but sure, a divine "pillar + of fire by night." Courage, courage!— + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, that our one reforming Statesman may have free command of what + Intellect there is among us, and room to try all means for awakening and + inviting ever more of it, there has one small Project of Improvement been + suggested; which finds a certain degree of favor wherever I hear it talked + of, and which seems to merit much more consideration than it has yet + received. Practical men themselves approve of it hitherto, so far as it + goes; the one objection being that the world is not yet prepared to insist + on it,—which of course the world can never be, till once the world + consider it, and in the first place hear tell of it! I have, for my own + part, a good opinion of this project. The old unreformed Parliament of + rotten boroughs <i>had</i> one advantage; but that is hereby, in a far + more fruitful and effectual manner, secured to the new. + </p> + <p> + The Proposal is, That Secretaries under and upper, that all manner of + changeable or permanent servants in the Government Offices shall be + selected without reference to their power of getting into Parliament;—that, + in short, the Queen shall have power of nominating the half-dozen or + half-score Officers of the Administration, whose presence is thought + necessary in Parliament, to official seats there, without reference to any + constituency but her own only, which of course will mean her Prime + Minister's. A very small encroachment on the present constitution of + Parliament; offering the minimum of change in present methods, and I + almost think a maximum in results to be derived therefrom.—The Queen + nominates John Thomas (the fittest man she, much inquiring, can hear tell + of in her three kingdoms) President of the Poor-Law Board, Under Secretary + of the Colonies, Under, or perhaps even Upper Secretary of what she and + her Premier find suitablest for a working head so eminent, a talent so + precious; and grants him, by her direct authority, seat and vote in + Parliament so long as he holds that office. Upper Secretaries, having more + to do in Parliament, and being so bound to be in favor there, would, I + suppose, at least till new times and habits come, be expected to be chosen + from among the <i>People's</i> Members as at present. But whether the + Prime Minister himself is, in all times, bound to be first a People's + Member; and which, or how many, of his Secretaries and subordinates he + might be allowed to take as <i>Queen's</i> Members, my authority does not + say,—perhaps has not himself settled; the project being yet in mere + outline or foreshadow, the practical embodiment in all details to be fixed + by authorities much more competent than he. The soul of his project is, + That the Crown also have power to elect a few members to Parliament. + </p> + <p> + From which project, however wisely it were embodied, there could probably, + at first or all at once, no great "accession of intellect" to the + Government Offices ensue; though a little might, even at first, and a + little is always precious: but in its ulterior operation, were that + faithfully developed, and wisely presided over, I fancy an immense + accession of intellect might ensue;—nay a natural ingress might + thereby be opened to all manner of accessions, and the actual flower of + whatever intellect the British Nation had might be attracted towards + Downing Street, and continue flowing steadily thither! For, let us see a + little what effects this simple change carries in it the possibilities of. + Here are beneficent germs, which the presence of one truly wise man as + Chief Minister, steadily fostering them for even a few years, with the + sacred fidelity and vigilance that would beseem him, might ripen into + living practices and habitual facts, invaluable to us all. + </p> + <p> + What it is that Secretaries of State, Managers of Colonial Establishments, + of Home and Foreign Government interests, have really and truly to do in + Parliament, might admit of various estimate in these times. An apt debater + in Parliament is by no means certain to be an able administrator of + Colonies, of Home or Foreign Affairs; nay, rather quite the contrary is to + be presumed of him; for in order to become a "brilliant speaker," if that + is his character, considerable portions of his natural internal endowment + must have gone to the surface, in order to make a shining figure there, + and precisely so much the less (few men in these days know how much less!) + must remain available in the internal silent state, or as faculty for + thinking, for devising and acting, which latter and which alone is the + function essential for him in his Secretaryship. Not to tell a good story + for himself "in Parliament and to the twenty-seven millions, many of them + fools;" not that, but to do good administration, to know with sure eye, + and decide with just and resolute heart, what is what in the <i>things</i> + committed to his charge: this and not that is the service which poor + England, whatever it may think and maunder, does require and want of the + Official Man in Downing Street. Given a good Official Man or Secretary, he + really ought, as far as it is possible, to be left working in the silent + state. No mortal can both work, and do good talking in Parliament, or out + of it: the feat is impossible as that of serving two hostile masters. + </p> + <p> + Nor would I, if it could be helped, much trouble my good Secretary with + addressing Parliament: needful explanations; yes, in a free country, + surely;—but not to every frivolous and vexatious person, in or out + of Parliament, who chooses to apply for them. There should be demands for + explanation too which were reckoned frivolous and vexatious, and censured + as such. These, I should say, are the not needful explanations: and if my + poor Secretary is to be called out from his workshop to answer every one + of these,—his workshop will become (what we at present see it, + deservedly or not) little other than a pillory; the poor Secretary a kind + of talking-machine, exposed to dead cats and rotten eggs; and the "work" + got out of him or of it will, as heretofore, be very inconsiderable + indeed!—Alas, on this side also, important improvements are + conceivable; and will even, I imagine, get them whence we may, be found + indispensable one day. The honorable gentleman whom you interrupt here, + he, in his official capacity, is not an individual now, but the embodiment + of a Nation; he is the "People of England" engaged in the work of + Secretaryship, this one; and cannot forever afford to let the three + Tailors of Tooley Street break in upon him at all hours!— + </p> + <p> + But leaving this, let us remark one thing which is very plain: That + whatever be the uses and duties, real or supposed, of a Secretary in + Parliament, his faculty to accomplish these is a point entirely + unconnected with his ability to get elected into Parliament, and has no + relation or proportion to it, and no concern with it whatever. Lord Tommy + and the Honorable John are not a whit better qualified for Parliamentary + duties, to say nothing of Secretary duties, than plain Tom and Jack; they + are merely better qualified, as matters stand, for getting admitted to try + them. Which state of matters a reforming Premier, much in want of abler + men to help him, now proposes altering. Tom and Jack, once admitted by the + Queen's writ, there is every reason to suppose will do quite as well there + as Lord Tommy and the Honorable John. In Parliament quite as well: and + elsewhere, in the other infinitely more important duties of a Government + Office, which indeed are and remain the essential, vital and intrinsic + duties of such a personage, is there the faintest reason to surmise that + Tom and Jack, if well chosen, will fall short of Lord Tommy and the + Honorable John? No shadow of a reason. Were the intrinsic genius of the + men exactly equal, there is no shadow of a reason: but rather there is + quite the reverse; for Tom and Jack have been at least workers all their + days, not idlers, game-preservers and mere human clothes-horses, at any + period of their lives; and have gained a schooling <i>thereby</i>, of + which Lord Tommy and the Honorable John, unhappily strangers to it for + most part, can form no conception! Tom and Jack have already, on this most + narrow hypothesis, a decided <i>superiority</i> of likelihood over Lord + Tommy and the Honorable John. + </p> + <p> + But the hypothesis is very narrow, and the fact is very wide; the + hypothesis counts by units, the fact by millions. Consider how many Toms + and Jacks there are to choose from, well or ill! The aristocratic class + from whom Members of Parliament can be elected extends only to certain + thousands; from these you are to choose your Secretary, if a seat in + Parliament is the primary condition. But the general population is of + Twenty-seven Millions; from all sections of which you can choose, if the + seat in Parliament is not to be primary. Make it ultimate instead of + primary, a last investiture instead of a first indispensable condition, + and the whole British Nation, learned, unlearned, professional, practical, + speculative and miscellaneous, is at your disposal! In the lowest broad + strata of the population, equally as in the highest and narrowest, are + produced men of every kind of genius; man for man, your chance of genius + is as good among the millions as among the units;—and class for + class, what must it be! From all classes, not from certain hundreds now + but from several millions, whatsoever man the gods had gifted with + intellect and nobleness, and power to help his country, could be chosen: O + Heavens, could,—if not by Tenpound Constituencies and the force of + beer, then by a Reforming Premier with eyes in his head, who I think might + do it quite infinitely better. Infinitely better. For ignobleness cannot, + by the nature of it, choose the noble: no, there needs a seeing man who is + himself noble, cognizant by internal experience of the symptoms of + nobleness. Shall we never think of this; shall we never more remember + this, then? It is forever true; and Nature and Fact, however we may rattle + our ballot-boxes, do at no time forget it. + </p> + <p> + From the lowest and broadest stratum of Society, where the births are by + the million, there was born, almost in our own memory, a Robert Burns; son + of one who "had not capital for his poor moor-farm of Twenty Pounds a + year." Robert Burns never had the smallest chance to got into Parliament, + much as Robert Burns deserved, for all our sakes, to have been found + there. For the man—it was not known to men purblind, sunk in their + poor dim vulgar element, but might have been known to men of insight who + had any loyalty or any royalty of their own—was a born king of men: + full of valor, of intelligence and heroic nobleness; fit for far other + work than to break his heart among poor mean mortals, gauging beer! Him no + Tenpound Constituency chose, nor did any Reforming Premier: in the + deep-sunk British Nation, overwhelmed in foggy stupor, with the loadstars + all gone out for it, there was no whisper of a notion that it could be + desirable to choose him,—except to come and dine with you, and in + the interim to gauge. And yet heaven-born Mr. Pitt, at that period, was by + no means without need of Heroic Intellect, for other purposes than + gauging! But sorrowful strangulation by red-tape, much <i>tighter</i> then + than it now is when so many revolutionary earthquakes have tussled it, + quite tied up the meagre Pitt; and he said, on hearing of this Burns and + his sad hampered case, "Literature will take care of itself."—"Yes, + and of you too, if you don't mind it!" answers one. + </p> + <p> + And so, like Apollo taken for a Neat-herd, and perhaps for none of the + best on the Admetus establishment, this new Norse Thor had to put up with + what was going; to gauge ale, and be thankful; pouring his celestial + sunlight through Scottish Song-writing,—the narrowest chink ever + offered to a Thunder-god before! And the meagre Pitt, and his Dundasses + and red-tape Phantasms (growing very ghastly now to think of), did not in + the least know or understand, the impious, god-forgetting mortals, that + Heroic Intellects, if Heaven were pleased to send such, were the one + salvation for the world and for them and all of us. No; they "had done + very well without" such; did not see the use of such; went along "very + well" without such; well presided over by a singular Heroic Intellect + called George the Third: and the Thunder-god, as was rather fit of him, + departed early, still in the noon of life, somewhat weary of gauging ale!—O + Peter, what a scandalous torpid element of yellow London fog, favorable to + owls only and their mousing operations, has blotted out the stars of + Heaven for us these several generations back,—which, I rejoice to + see, is now visibly about to take itself away again, or perhaps to be <i>dispelled</i> + in a very tremendous manner! + </p> + <p> + For the sake of my Democratic friends, one other observation. Is not this + Proposal the very essence of whatever truth there is in "Democracy;" this, + that the able man be chosen, in whatever rank be is found? That he be + searched for as hidden treasure is; be trained, supervised, set to the + work which he alone is fit for. All Democracy lies in this; this, I think, + is worth all the ballot-boxes and suffrage-movements now going. Not that + the noble soul, born poor, should be set to spout in Parliament, but that + he should be set to assist in governing men: this is our grand Democratic + interest. With this we can be saved; without this, were there a Parliament + spouting in every parish, and Hansard Debates to stem the Thames, we + perish,—die constitutionally drowned, in mere oceans of palaver. + </p> + <p> + All reformers, constitutional persons, and men capable of reflection, are + invited to reflect on these things. Let us brush the cobwebs from our + eyes; let us bid the inane traditions be silent for a moment; and ask + ourselves, like men dreadfully intent on having it <i>done</i>, "By what + method or methods can the able men from every rank of life be gathered, as + diamond-grains from the general mass of sand: the able men, not the + sham-able;—and set to do the work of governing, contriving, + administering and guiding for us!" It is the question of questions. All + that Democracy ever meant lies there: the attainment of a truer and truer + Aristocracy, or Government again by the <i>Best</i>. + </p> + <p> + Reformed Parliaments have lamentably failed to attain it for us; and I + believe will and must forever fail. One true Reforming Statesman, one + noble worshipper and knower of human intellect, with the quality of an + experienced Politician too; he, backed by such a Parliament as England, + once recognizing him, would loyally send, and at liberty to choose his + working subalterns from all the Englishmen alive; he surely might do + something? Something, by one means or another, is becoming fearfully + necessary to be done! He, I think, might accomplish more for us in ten + years, than the best conceivable Reformed Parliament, and utmost extension + of the suffrage, in twice or ten times ten. + </p> + <p> + What is extremely important too, you could try this method with safety; + extension of the suffrage you cannot so try. With even an approximately + heroic Prime Minister, you could get nothing but good from prescribing to + him thus, to choose the fittest man, under penalties; to choose, not the + fittest of the four or the three men that were in Parliament, but the + fittest from the whole Twenty-seven Millions that he could hear of,—at + his peril. Nothing but good from this. From extension of the suffrage, + some think, you might get quite other than good. From extension of the + suffrage, till it became a universal counting of heads, one sees not in + the least what wisdom could be extracted. A Parliament of the Paris + pattern, such as we see just now, might be extracted: and from that? + Solution into universal slush; drownage of all interests divine and human, + in a Noah's-Deluge of Parliamentary eloquence,—such as we hope our + sins, heavy and manifold though they are, have not yet quite deserved! + </p> + <p> + Who, then, is to be the Reforming Statesman, and begin the noble work for + us? He is the preliminary; one such; with him we may prosecute the + enterprise to length after length; without him we cannot stir in it at + all. A true <i>king</i>, temporary king, that dare undertake the + government of Britain, on condition of beginning in sacred earnest to + "reform" it, not at this or that extremity, but at the heart and centre. + That will expurgate Downing Street, and the practical Administration of + our Affairs; clear out its accumulated mountains of pendantries and + cobwebs; bid the Pedants and the Dullards depart, bid the Gifted and the + Seeing enter and inhabit. So that henceforth there be Heavenly light + there, instead of Stygian dusk; that God's vivifying light instead of + Satan's deadening and killing dusk, may radiate therefrom, and visit with + healing all regions of this British Empire,—which now writhes + through every limb of it, in dire agony as if of death! The enterprise is + great, the enterprise may be called formidable and even awful; but there + is none nobler among the sublunary affairs of mankind just now. Nay + tacitly it is the enterprise of every man who undertakes to be British + Premier in these times;—and I cannot esteem him an enviable Premier + who, because the engagement is <i>tacit</i>, flatters himself that it does + not exist! "Show it me in the bond," he says. Your Lordship, it actually + exists: and I think you will see it yet, in another kind of "bond" than + that sheepskin one! + </p> + <p> + But truly, in any time, what a strange feeling, enough to alarm a very big + Lordship, this: that he, of the size he is, has got to the apex of English + affairs! Smallest wrens, we know, by training and the aid of machinery, + are capable of many things. For this world abounds in miraculous + combinations, far transcending anything they do at Drury Lane in the + melodramatic way. A world which, as solid as it looks, is made all of + aerial and even of spiritual stuff; permeated all by incalculable sleeping + forces and electricities; and liable to go off, at any time, into the + hugest developments, upon a scratch thoughtfully or thoughtlessly given on + the right point:—Nay, for every one of us, could not the sputter of + a poor pistol-shot shrivel the Immensities together like a burnt scroll, + and make the Heavens and the Earth pass away with a great noise? Smallest + wrens, and canary-birds of some dexterity, can be trained to handle + lucifer-matches; and have, before now, fired off whole powder-magazines + and parks of artillery. Perhaps without much astonishment to the + canary-bird. The canary-bird can hold only its own quantity of + astonishment; and may possibly enough retain its presence of mind, were + even Doomsday to come. It is on this principle that I explain to myself + the equanimity of some men and Premiers whom we have known. + </p> + <p> + This and the other Premier seems to take it with perfect coolness. And + yet, I say, what a strange feeling, to find himself Chief Governor of + England; girding on, upon his moderately sized new soul, the old + battle-harness of an Oliver Cromwell, an Edward Longshanks, a William + Conqueror. "I, then, am the Ablest of English attainable Men? This English + People, which has spread itself over all lands and seas, and achieved such + works in the ages,—which has done America, India, the Lancashire + Cotton-trade, Bromwicham Iron-trade, Newton's Principia, Shakspeare's + Dramas, and the British Constitution,—the apex of all its + intelligences and mighty instincts and dumb longings: it is I? William + Conqueror's big gifts, and Edward's and Elizabeth's; Oliver's lightning + soul, noble as Sinai and the thunders of the Lord: these are mine, I begin + to perceive,—to a certain extent. These heroisms have I,—though + rather shy of exhibiting them. These; and something withal of the huge + beaver-faculty of our Arkwrights, Brindleys; touches too of the + phoenix-melodies and <i>sunny</i> heroisms of our Shakspeares, of our + Singers, Sages and inspired Thinkers all this is in me, I will hope,—though + rather shy of exhibiting it on common occasions. The Pattern Englishman, + raised by solemn acclamation upon the bucklers of the English People, and + saluted with universal 'God save THEE!'—has now the honor to + announce himself. After fifteen hundred years of constitutional study as + to methods of raising on the bucklers, which is the operation of + operations, the English People, surely pretty well skilled in it by this + time, has raised—the remarkable individual now addressing you. The + best-combined sample of whatsoever divine qualities are in this big + People, the consummate flower of all that they have done and been, the + ultimate product of the Destinies, and English man of men, arrived at last + in the fulness of time, is—who think you? Ye worlds, the Ithuriel + javelin by which, with all these heroisms and accumulated energies old and + new, the English People means to smite and pierce, is this poor + tailor's-bodkin, hardly adequate to bore an eylet-hole, who now has the + honor to"—Good Heavens, if it were not that men generally are very + much of the canary-bird, here, are reflections sufficient to annihilate + any man, almost before starting! + </p> + <p> + But to us also it ought to be a very strange reflection! This, then, is + the length we have brought it to, with our constitutioning, and + ballot-boxing, and incessant talk and effort in every kind for so many + centuries back; this? The golden flower of our grand alchemical + projection, which has set the world in astonishment so long, and been the + envy of surrounding nations, is—what we here see. To be governed by + his Lordship, and guided through the undiscovered paths of Time by this + respectable degree of human faculty. With our utmost soul's travail we + could discover, by the sublimest methods eulogized by all the world, no + abler Englishman than this? + </p> + <p> + Really it should make us pause upon the said sublime methods, and ask + ourselves very seriously, whether, notwithstanding the eulogy of all the + world, they can be other than extremely astonishing methods, that require + revisal and reconsideration very much indeed! For the kind of "man" we get + to govern us, all conclusions whatsoever centre there, and likewise all + manner of issues flow infallibly therefrom. "Ask well, who is your Chief + Governor," says one: "for around him men like to him will infallibly + gather, and by degrees all the world will be made in his image." "He who + is himself a noble man, has a chance to know the nobleness of men; he who + is not, has none. And as for the poor Public,—alas, is not the kind + of 'man' you set upon it the liveliest symbol of its and your veracity and + victory and blessedness, or unveracity and misery and cursedness; the + general summation and practical outcome of all else whatsoever in the + Public and in you?" + </p> + <p> + Time was when an incompetent Governor could not be permitted among men. He + was, and had to be, by one method or the other, clutched up from his place + at the helm of affairs, and hurled down into the hold, perhaps even + overboard, if he could not really steer. And we call those ages barbarous, + because they shuddered to see a Phantasm at the helm of their affairs; an + eyeless Pilot with constitutional spectacles, steering by the ear mainly? + And we have changed all that; no-government is now the best; and a + tailor's foreman, who gives no trouble, is preferable to any other for + governing? My friends, such truly is the current idea; but you dreadfully + mistake yourselves, and the fact is not such. The fact, now beginning to + disclose itself again in distressed Needlewomen, famishing Connaughts, + revolting Colonies, and a general rapid advance towards Social Ruin, + remains really what it always was, and will so remain! + </p> + <p> + Men have very much forgotten it at present; and only here a man and there + a man begins again to bethink himself of it: but all men will gradually + get reminded of it, perhaps terribly to their cost; and the sooner they + all lay it to heart again, I think it will be the better. For in spite of + our oblivion of it, the thing remains forever true; nor is there any + Constitution or body of Constitutions, were they clothed with never such + venerabilities and general acceptabilities, that avails to deliver a + Nation from the consequences of forgetting it. Nature, I assure you, does + forevermore remember it; and a hundred British Constitutions are but as a + hundred cobwebs between her and the penalty she levies for forgetting it. + Tell me what kind of man governs a People, you tell me, with much + exactness, what the net sum-total of social worth in that People has for + some time been. Whether <i>they</i> have loved the phylacteries or the + eternal noblenesses; whether they have been struggling heavenward like + eagles, brothers of the radiances, or groping owl-like with horn-eyed + diligence, catching mice and balances at their banker's,—poor + devils, you will see it all in that one fact. A fact long prepared + beforehand; which, if it is a peaceably received one, must have been + acquiesced in, judged to be "best," by the poor mousing owls, intent only + to have a large balance at their banker's and keep a whole skin. + </p> + <p> + Such sordid populations, which were long blind to Heaven's light, are + getting themselves burnt up rapidly, in these days, by street-insurrection + and Hell-fire;—as is indeed inevitable, my esteemed M'Croudy! Light, + accept the blessed light, if you will have it when Heaven vouchsafes. You + refuse? You prefer Delolme on the British Constitution, the Gospel + according to M'Croudy, and a good balance at your banker's? Very well: the + "light" is more and more withdrawn; and for some time you have a general + dusk, very favorable for catching mice; and the opulent owlery is very + "happy," and well-off at its banker's;—and furthermore, by due + sequence, infallible as the foundations of the Universe and Nature's + oldest law, the light <i>returns</i> on you, condensed, this time, into <i>lightning</i>, + which there is not any skin whatever too thick for taking in! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + No. IV. THE NEW DOWNING STREET. [April 15, 1850.] + </h2> + <p> + In looking at this wreck of Governments in all European countries, there + is one consideration that suggests itself, sadly elucidative of our modern + epoch. These Governments, we may be well assured, have gone to anarchy for + this one reason inclusive of every other whatsoever, That they were not + wise enough; that the spiritual talent embarked in them, the virtue, + heroism, intellect, or by whatever other synonyms we designate it, was not + adequate,—probably had long been inadequate, and so in its dim + helplessness had suffered, or perhaps invited falsity to introduce itself; + had suffered injustices, and solecisms, and contradictions of the Divine + Fact, to accumulate in more than tolerable measure; whereupon said + Governments were overset, and declared before all creatures to be too + false. + </p> + <p> + This is a reflection sad but important to the modern Governments now + fallen anarchic, That they had not spiritual talent enough. And if this is + so, then surely the question, How these Governments came to sink for <i>want</i> + of intellect? is a rather interesting one. Intellect, in some measure, is + born into every Century; and the Nineteenth flatters itself that it is + rather distinguished that way! What had become of this celebrated + Nineteenth Century's intellect? Surely some of it existed, and was + "developed" withal;—nay in the "undeveloped," unconscious, or + inarticulate state, it is not dead; but alive and at work, if mutely not + less beneficently, some think even more so! And yet Governments, it would + appear, could by no means get enough of it; almost none of it came their + way: what had become of it? Truly there must be something very + questionable, either in the intellect of this celebrated Century, or in + the methods Governments now have of supplying their wants from the same. + One or other of two grand fundamental shortcomings, in regard to intellect + or human enlightenment, is very visible in this enlightened Century of + ours; for it has now become the most anarchic of Centuries; that is to + say, has fallen practically into such Egyptian darkness that it cannot + grope its way at all! + </p> + <p> + Nay I rather think both of these shortcomings, fatal deficits both, are + chargeable upon us; and it is the joint harvest of both that we are now + reaping with such havoc to our affairs. I rather guess, the intellect of + the Nineteenth Century, so full of miracle to Heavyside and others, is + itself a mechanical or <i>beaver</i> intellect rather than a high or + eminently human one. A dim and mean though authentic kind of intellect, + this; venerable only in defect of better. This kind will avail but little + in the higher enterprises of human intellect, especially in that highest + enterprise of guiding men Heavenward, which, after all, is the one real + "governing" of them on this God's-Earth:—an enterprise not to be + achieved by beaver intellect, but by other higher and highest kinds. This + is deficit <i>first</i>. And then <i>secondly</i>, Governments have, + really to a fatal and extraordinary extent, neglected in late ages to + supply themselves with what intellect was going; having, as was too + natural in the dim time, taken up a notion that human intellect, or even + beaver intellect, was not necessary to them at all, but that a little of + the <i>vulpine</i> sort (if attainable), supported by routine, red-tape + traditions, and tolerable parliamentary eloquence on occasion, would very + well suffice. A most false and impious notion; leading to fatal lethargy + on the part of Governments, while Nature and Fact were preparing strange + phenomena in contradiction to it. + </p> + <p> + These are two very fatal deficits;—the remedy of either of which + would be the remedy of both, could we but find it! For indeed they are + vitally connected: one of them is sure to produce the other; and both once + in action together, the advent of darkness, certain enough to issue in + anarchy by and by, goes on with frightful acceleration. If Governments + neglect to invite what noble intellect there is, then too surely all + intellect, not omnipotent to resist bad influences, will tend to become + beaverish ignoble intellect; and quitting high aims, which seem shut up + from it, will help itself forward in the way of making money and such + like; or will even sink to be sham intellect, helping itself by methods + which are not only beaverish but vulpine, and so "ignoble" as not to have + common honesty. The Government, taking no thought to choose intellect for + itself, will gradually find that there is less and less of a good quality + to choose from: thus, as in all impieties it does, bad grows worse at a + frightful <i>double</i> rate of progression; and your impiety is twice + cursed. If you are impious enough to tolerate darkness, you will get ever + more darkness to tolerate; and at that inevitable stage of the account + (inevitable in all such accounts) when actual light or else destruction is + the alternative, you will call to the Heavens and the Earth for light, and + none will come! + </p> + <p> + Certainly this evil, for one, has <i>not</i> "wrought its own cure;" but + has wrought precisely the reverse, and has been hourly eating away what + possibilities of cure there were. And so, I fear, in spite of rumors to + the contrary, it always is with evils, with solecisms against Nature, and + contradictions to the divine fact of things: not an evil of them has ever + wrought its own cure in my experience;—but has continually grown + worse and wider and uglier, till some <i>good</i> (generally a good <i>man</i>) + not able to endure the abomination longer, rose upon it and cured or else + extinguished it. Evil Governments, divested of God's light because they + have loved darkness rather, are not likelier than other evils to work + their own cure out of that bad plight. + </p> + <p> + It is urgent upon all Governments to pause in this fatal course; persisted + in, the goal is fearfully evident; every hour's persistence in it is + making return more difficult. Intellect exists in all countries; and the + function appointed it by Heaven,—Governments had better not attempt + to contradict that, for they cannot! Intellect <i>has</i> to govern in + this world and will do it, if not in alliance with so-called "Governments" + of red-tape and routine, then in divine hostility to such, and sometimes + alas in diabolic hostility to such; and in the end, as sure as Heaven is + higher than Downing Street, and the Laws of Nature are tougher than + red-tape, with entire victory over them and entire ruin to them. If there + is one thinking man among the Politicians of England, I consider these + things extremely well worth his attention just now. + </p> + <p> + Who are available to your Offices in Downing Street? All the gifted souls, + of every rank, who are born to you in this generation. These are + appointed, by the true eternal "divine right" which will never become + obsolete, to be your governors and administrators; and precisely as you + employ them, or neglect to employ them, will your State be favored of + Heaven or disfavored. This noble young soul, you can have him on either of + two conditions; and on one of them, since he is here in the world, you + must have him. As your ally and coadjutor; or failing that, as your + natural enemy: which shall it be? I consider that every Government + convicts itself of infatuation and futility, or absolves and justifies + itself before God and man, according as it answers this question. With all + sublunary entities, this is the question of questions. What talent is born + to you? How do you employ that? The crop of spiritual talent that is born + to you, of human nobleness and intellect and heroic faculty, this is + infinitely more important than your crops of cotton or corn, or wine or + herrings or whale-oil, which the Newspapers record with such anxiety every + season. This is not quite counted by seasons, therefore the Newspapers are + silent: but by generations and centuries, I assure you it becomes + amazingly sensible; and surpasses, as Heaven does Earth, all the corn and + wine, and whale-oil and California bullion, or any other crop you grow. If + that crop cease, the other crops—please to take them also, if you + are anxious about them. That once ceasing, we may shut shop; for no other + crop whatever will stay with us, nor is worth having if it would. + </p> + <p> + To promote men of talent, to search and sift the whole society in every + class for men of talent, and joyfully promote them, has not always been + found impossible. In many forms of polity they have done it, and still do + it, to a certain degree. The degree to which they succeed in doing it + marks, as I have said, with very great accuracy the degree of divine and + human worth that is in them, the degree of success or real ultimate + victory they can expect to have in this world.—Think, for example, + of the old Catholic Church, in its merely terrestrial relations to the + State; and see if your reflections, and contrasts with what now is, are of + an exulting character. Progress of the species has gone on as with + seven-league boots, and in various directions has shot ahead amazingly, + with three cheers from all the world; but in this direction, the most + vital and indispensable, it has lagged terribly, and has even moved + backward, till now it is quite gone out of sight in clouds of cotton-fuzz + and railway-scrip, and has fallen fairly over the horizon to rearward! + </p> + <p> + In those most benighted Feudal societies, full of mere tyrannous steel + Barons, and totally destitute of Tenpound Franchises and Ballot-boxes, + there did nevertheless authentically preach itself everywhere this + grandest of gospels, without which no other gospel can avail us much, to + all souls of men, "Awake ye noble souls; here is a noble career for you!" + I say, everywhere a road towards promotion, for human nobleness, lay wide + open to all men. The pious soul,—which, if you reflect, will mean + the ingenuous and ingenious, the gifted, intelligent and nobly-aspiring + soul,—such a soul, in whatever rank of life it were born, had one + path inviting it; a generous career, whereon, by human worth and valor, + all earthly heights and Heaven itself were attainable. In the lowest + stratum of social thraldom, nowhere was the noble soul doomed quite to + choke, and die ignobly. The Church, poor old benighted creature, had at + least taken care of that: the noble aspiring soul, not doomed to choke + ignobly in its penuries, could at least run into the neighboring Convent, + and there take refuge. Education awaited it there; strict training not + only to whatever useful knowledge could be had from writing and reading, + but to obedience, to pious reverence, self-restraint, annihilation of + self,—really to human nobleness in many most essential respects. No + questions asked about your birth, genealogy, quantity of money-capital or + the like; the one question was, "Is there some human nobleness in you, or + is there not?" The poor neat-herd's son, if he were a Noble of Nature, + might rise to Priesthood, to High-priesthood, to the top of this world,—and + best of all, he had still high Heaven lying high enough above him, to keep + his head steady, on whatever height or in whatever depth his way might + lie! + </p> + <p> + A thrice-glorious arrangement, when I reflect on it; most salutary to all + high and low interests; a truly human arrangement. You made the born noble + yours, welcoming him as what he was, the Sent of Heaven: you did not force + him either to die or become your enemy; idly neglecting or suppressing him + as what he was not, a thing of no worth. You accepted the blessed <i>light</i>; + and in the shape of infernal <i>lightning</i> it needed not to visit you. + How, like an immense mine-shaft through the dim oppressed strata of + society, this Institution of the Priesthood ran; opening, from the lowest + depths towards all heights and towards Heaven itself, a free road of + egress and emergence towards virtuous nobleness, heroism and well-doing, + for every born man. This we may call the living lungs and + blood-circulation of those old Feudalisms. When I think of that + immeasurable all-pervading lungs; present in every corner of human + society, every meanest hut a <i>cell</i> of said lungs; inviting + whatsoever noble pious soul was born there to the path that was noble for + him; and leading thereby sometimes, if he were worthy, to be the Papa of + Christendom, and Commander of all Kings,—I perceive how the old + Christian society continued healthy, vital, and was strong and heroic. + When I contrast this with the noble aims now held out to noble souls born + in remote huts, or beyond the verge of Palace-Yard; and think of what your + Lordship has done in the way of making priests and papas,—I see a + society without lungs, fast wheezing itself to death, in horrid + convulsions; and deserving to die. + </p> + <p> + Over Europe generally in these years, I consider that the State has died, + has fairly coughed its last in street musketry, and fallen down dead, + incapable of any but <i>galvanic</i> life henceforth,—owing to this + same fatal want of <i>lungs</i>, which includes all other wants for a + State. And furthermore that it will never come alive again, till it + contrive to get such indispensable vital apparatus; the outlook toward + which consummation is very distant in most communities of Europe. If you + let it come to death or suspended animation in States, the case is very + bad! Vain to call in universal-suffrage parliaments at that stage: the + universal-suffrage parliaments cannot give you any breath of life, cannot + find any <i>wisdom</i> for you; by long impiety, you have let the supply + of noble human wisdom die out; and the wisdom that now courts your + universal suffrages is beggarly human <i>attorneyism</i> or sham-wisdom, + which is <i>not</i> an insight into the Laws of God's Universe, but into + the laws of hungry Egoism and the Devil's Chicane, and can in the end + profit no community or man. + </p> + <p> + No; the kind of heroes that come mounted on the shoulders of the universal + suffrage, and install themselves as Prime Ministers and healing Statesmen + by force of able editorship, do not bid very fair to bring Nations back to + the ways of God. Eloquent high-lacquered <i>pinchbeck</i> specimens these, + expert in the arts of Belial mainly;—fitter to be markers at some + exceedingly expensive billiard-table than sacred chief-priests of men! + "Greeks of the Lower Empire;" with a varnish of parliamentary rhetoric; + and, I suppose, this other great gift, toughness of character,—proof + that they have <i>persevered</i> in their Master's service. Poor wretches, + their industry is mob-worship, place-worship, parliamentary intrigue, and + the multiplex art of tongue-fence: flung into that bad element, there they + swim for decades long, throttling and wrestling one another according to + their strength,—and the toughest or luckiest gets to land, and + becomes Premier. A more entirely unbeautiful class of Premiers was never + raked out of the ooze, and set on high places, by any ingenuity of man. + Dame Dubarry's petticoat was a better seine-net for fishing out Premiers + than that. Let all Nations whom necessity is driving towards that method, + take warning in time! + </p> + <p> + Alas, there is, in a manner, but one Nation that can still take warning! + In England alone of European Countries the State yet survives; and might + help itself by better methods. In England heroic wisdom is not yet dead, + and quite replaced by attorneyism: the honest beaver faculty yet abounds + with us, the heroic manful faculty shows itself also to the observant eye, + not dead but dangerously sleeping. I said there were many <i>kings</i> in + England: if these can yet be rallied into strenuous activity, and set to + govern England in Downing Street and elsewhere, which their function + always is,—then England can be saved from anarchies and universal + suffrages; and that Apotheosis of Attorneyism, blackest of terrestrial + curses, may be spared us. If these cannot, the other issue, in such forms + as may be appropriate to us, is inevitable. What escape is there? England + must conform to the eternal laws of life, or England too must die! + </p> + <p> + England with the largest mass of real living interests ever intrusted to a + Nation; and with a mass of extinct imaginary and quite dead interests + piled upon it to the very Heavens, and encumbering it from shore to shore,—does + reel and stagger ominously in these years; urged by the Divine Silences + and the Eternal Laws to take practical hold of its living interests and + manage them: and clutching blindly into its venerable extinct and + imaginary interests, as if that were still the way to do it. England must + contrive to manage its living interests, and quit its dead ones and their + methods, or else depart from its place in this world. Surely England is + called as no Nation ever was, to summon out its <i>kings</i>, and set them + to that high work!—Huge inorganic England, nigh choked under the + exuviae of a thousand years, and blindly sprawling amid chartisms, + ballot-boxes, prevenient graces, and bishops' nightmares, must, as the + preliminary and commencement of organization, learn to <i>breathe</i> + again,—get "lungs" for herself again, as we defined it. That is + imperative upon her: she too will die, otherwise, and cough her last upon + the streets some day;—how can she continue living? To enfranchise + whatsoever of Wisdom is born in England, and set that to the sacred task + of coercing and amending what of Folly is born in England: Heaven's + blessing is purchasable by that; by not that, only Heaven's curse is + purchasable. The reform contemplated, my liberal friends perceive, is a + truly radical one; no ballot-box ever went so deep into the roots: a + radical, most painful, slow and difficult, but most indispensable reform + of reforms! + </p> + <p> + How short and feeble an approximation to these high ulterior results, the + best Reform of Downing Street, presided over by the fittest Statesman one + can imagine to exist at present, would be, is too apparent to me. A long + time yet till we get our living interests put under due administration, + till we get our dead interests handsomely dismissed. A long time yet till, + by extensive change of habit and ways of thinking and acting, <i>we</i> + get living "lungs" for ourselves! Nevertheless, by Reform of Downing + Street, we do begin to breathe: we do start in the way towards that and + all high results. Nor is there visible to me any other way. Blessed enough + were the way once entered on; could we, in our evil days, but see the + noble enterprise begun, and fairly in progress! + </p> + <p> + What the "<i>New</i> Downing Street" can grow to, and will and must if + England is to have a Downing Street beyond a few years longer, it is far + from me, in my remote watch-tower, to say with precision. A Downing Street + inhabited by the gifted of the intellects of England; directing all its + energies upon the real and living interests of England, and silently but + incessantly, in the alembics of the place, burning up the extinct + imaginary interests of England, that we may see God's sky a little plainer + overhead, and have all of us a great accession of "heroic wisdom" to + dispose of: such a Downing Street—to draw the plan of it, will + require architects; many successive architects and builders will be needed + there. Let not editors, and remote unprofessional persons, interfere too + much!—Change in the present edifice, however, radical change, all + men can discern to be inevitable; and even, if there shall not worse + swiftly follow, to be imminent. Outlines of the future edifice paint + themselves against the sky (to men that still have a sky, and are above + the miserable London fogs of the hour); noble elements of new State + Architecture, foreshadows of a new Downing Street for the New Era that is + come. These with pious hope all men can see; and it is good that all men, + with whatever faculty they have, were earnestly looking thitherward;—trying + to get above the fogs, that they might look thitherward! + </p> + <p> + Among practical men the idea prevails that Government can do nothing but + "keep the peace." They say all higher tasks are unsafe for it, impossible + for it,—and in fine not necessary for it or for us. On this footing + a very feeble Downing Street might serve the turn!—I am well aware + that Government, for a long time past, has taken in hand no other public + task, and has professed to have no other, but that of keeping the peace. + This public task, and the private one of ascertaining whether Dick or Jack + was to do it, have amply filled the capabilities of Government for several + generations now. Hard tasks both, it would appear. In accomplishing the + first, for example, have not heaven-born Chancellors of the Exchequer had + to shear us very bare; and to leave an overplus of Debt, or of fleeces + shorn <i>before</i> they are grown, justly esteemed among the wonders of + the world? Not a first-rate keeping of the peace, this, we begin to + surmise! At least it seems strange to us. + </p> + <p> + For we, and the overwhelming majority of all our acquaintances, in this + Parish and Nation and the adjacent Parishes and Nations, are profoundly + conscious to ourselves of being by nature peaceable persons; following our + necessary industries; without wish, interest or faintest intention to cut + the skin of any mortal, to break feloniously into his industrial premises, + or do any injustice to him at all. Because indeed, independent of + Government, there is a thing called conscience, and we dare not. So that + it cannot but appear to us, "the peace," under dexterous management, might + be very much more easily kept, your Lordship; nay, we almost think, if + well let alone, it would in a measure keep <i>itself</i> among such a set + of persons! And how it happens that when a poor hardworking creature of us + has laboriously earned sixpence, the Government comes in, and (as some + compute) says, "I will thank you for threepence of that, as per account, + for getting you peace to spend the other threepence," our amazement begins + to be considerable,—and I think results will follow from it by and + by. Not the most dexterous keeping of the peace, your Lordship, unless it + be more difficult to do than appears! + </p> + <p> + Our domestic peace, we cannot but perceive, as good as keeps itself. Here + and there a select Equitable Person, appointed by the Public for that end, + clad in ermine, and backed by certain companies of blue Police, is amply + adequate, without immoderate outlay in money or otherwise, to keep down + the few exceptional individuals of the scoundrel kind; who, we observe, by + the nature of them, are always weak and inconsiderable. And as to foreign + peace, really all Europe, now especially with so many railroads, public + journals, printed books, penny-post, bills of exchange, and continual + intercourse and mutual dependence, is more and more becoming (so to speak) + one Parish; the Parishioners of which being, as we ourselves are, in + immense majority peaceable hard-working people, could, if they were + moderately well guided, have almost no disposition to quarrel. Their + economic interests are one, "To buy in the cheapest market, and sell in + the dearest;" their faith, any <i>religious</i> faith they have, is one, + "To annihilate shams—by all methods, street-barricades included." + Why should they quarrel? The Czar of Russia, in the Eastern parts of the + Parish, may have other notions; but he knows too well he must keep them to + himself. He, if he meddled with the Western parts, and attempted anywhere + to crush or disturb that sacred Democratic Faith of theirs, is aware there + would rise from a hundred and fifty million human throats such a <i>Hymn + of the Marseillaise</i> as was never heard before; and England, France, + Germany, Poland, Hungary, and the Nine Kingdoms, hurling themselves upon + him in never-imagined fire of vengeance, would swiftly reduce his Russia + and him to a strange situation! Wherefore he forbears,—and being a + person of some sense, will long forbear. In spite of editorial prophecy, + the Czar of Russia does not disturb our night's rest. And with the other + parts of the Parish our dreams and our thoughts are of anything but of + fighting, or of the smallest need to fight. + </p> + <p> + For keeping of the peace, a thing highly desirable to us, we strive to be + grateful to your Lordship. Intelligible to us, also, your Lordship's + reluctance to get out of the old routine. But we beg to say farther, that + peace by itself has no feet to stand upon, and would not suit us even if + it had. Keeping of the peace is the function of a policeman, and but a + small fraction of that of any Government, King or Chief of men. Are not + all men bound, and the Chief of men in the name of all, to do properly + this: To see, so far as human effort under pain of eternal reprobation + can, God's Kingdom incessantly advancing here below, and His will done on + Earth as it is in Heaven? On Sundays your Lordship knows this well; forgot + it not on week-days. I assure you it is forevermore a fact. That is the + immense divine and never-ending task which is laid on every man, and with + unspeakable increase of emphasis on every Government or Commonwealth of + men. Your Lordship, that is the basis upon which peace and all else + depends! That basis once well lost, there is no peace capable of being + kept,—the only peace that could then be kept is that of the + churchyard. Your Lordship may depend on it, whatever thing takes upon it + the name of Sovereign or Government in an English Nation such as this will + have to get out of that old routine; and set about keeping something very + different from the peace, in these days! + </p> + <p> + Truly it is high time that same beautiful notion of No-Government should + take itself away. The world is daily rushing towards wreck, while that + lasts. If your Government is to be a Constituted Anarchy, what issue can + it have? Our one interest in such Government is, that it would be kind + enough to cease and go its ways, <i>before</i> the inevitable arrive. The + question, Who is to float atop no-whither upon the popular vertexes, and + act that sorry character, "carcass of the drowned ass upon the + mud-deluge"? is by no means an important one for almost anybody,—hardly + even for the drowned ass himself. Such drowned ass ought to ask himself, + If the function is a sublime one? For him too, though he looks sublime to + the vulgar and floats atop, a private situation, down out of sight in his + natural ooze, would be a luckier one. + </p> + <p> + Crabbe, speaking of constitutional philosophies, faith in the ballot-box + and such like, has this indignant passage: "If any voice of deliverance or + resuscitation reach us, in this our low and all but lost estate, sunk + almost beyond plummet's sounding in the mud of Lethe, and oblivious of all + noble objects, it will be an intimation that we must put away all this + abominable nonsense, and understand, once more, that Constituted Anarchy, + with however many ballot-boxes, caucuses, and hustings beer-barrels, is a + continual offence to gods and men. That to be governed by small men is not + only a misfortune, but it is a curse and a sin; the effect, and alas the + cause also, of all manner of curses and sins. That to profess subjection + to phantasms, and pretend to accept guidance from fractional parts of + tailors, is what Smelfungus in his rude dialect calls it, 'a damned <i>lie</i>,' + and nothing other. A lie which, by long use and wont, we have grown + accustomed to, and do not the least feel to be a lie, having spoken and + done it continually everywhere for such a long time past;—but has + Nature grown to accept it as a veracity, think you, my friend? Have the + Parcae fallen asleep, because you wanted to make money in the City? Nature + at all moments knows well that it is a lie; and that, like all lies, it is + cursed and damned from the beginning. + </p> + <p> + "Even so, ye indigent millionnaires, and miserable bankrupt populations + rolling in gold,—whose note-of-hand will go to any length in + Threadneedle Street, and to whom in Heaven's Bank the stern answer is, 'No + effects!' Bankrupt, I say; and Californias and Eldorados will not save us. + And every time we speak such lie, or do it or look it, as we have been + incessantly doing, and many of us with clear consciousness, for about a + hundred and fifty years now, Nature marks down the exact penalty against + us. 'Debtor to so much lying: forfeiture of existing stock of worth to + such extent;—approach to general damnation by so much.' Till now, as + we look round us over a convulsed anarchic Europe, and at home over an + anarchy not yet convulsed, but only heaving towards convulsion, and to + judge by the Mosaic sweating-establishments, cannibal Connaughts and other + symptoms, not far from convulsion now, we seem to have pretty much <i>exhausted</i> + our accumulated stock of worth; and unless money's 'worth' and bullion at + the Bank will save us, to be rubbing very close upon that ulterior bourn + which I do not like to name again! + </p> + <p> + "On behalf of nearly twenty-seven millions of my fellow-countrymen, sunk + deep in Lethean sleep, with mere owl-dreams of Political Economy and + mice-catching, in this pacific thrice-infernal slush-element; and also of + certain select thousands, and hundreds and units, awakened or beginning to + awaken from it, and with horror in their hearts perceiving where they are, + I beg to protest, and in the name of God to say, with poor human ink, + desirous much that I had divine thunder to say it with, Awake, arise,—before + you sink to death eternal! Unnamable destruction, and banishment to + Houndsditch and Gehenna, lies in store for all Nations that, in angry + perversity or brutal torpor and owlish blindness, neglect the eternal + message of the gods, and vote for the Worse while the Better is there. + Like owls they say, 'Barabbas will do; any orthodox Hebrew of the Hebrews, + and peaceable believer in M'Croudy and the Faith of Leave-alone will do: + the Right Honorable Minimus is well enough; he shall be our Maximus, under + him it will be handy to catch mice, and Owldom shall continue a + flourishing empire.'" + </p> + <p> + One thing is undeniable, and must be continually repeated till it get to + be understood again: Of all constitutions, forms of government, and + political methods among men, the question to be asked is even this, What + kind of man do you set over us? All questions are answered in the answer + to this. Another thing is worth attending to: No people or populace, with + never such ballot-boxes, can select such man for you; only the man of + worth can recognize worth in men;—to the commonplace man of no or of + little worth, you, unless you wish to be <i>mis</i>led, need not apply on + such an occasion. Those poor Tenpound Franchisers of yours, they are not + even in earnest; the poor sniffing sniggering Honorable Gentlemen they + send to Parliament are as little so. Tenpound Franchisers full of mere + beer and balderdash; Honorable Gentlemen come to Parliament as to an + Almack's series of evening parties, or big cockmain (battle of all the + cocks) very amusing to witness and bet upon: what can or could men in that + predicament ever do for you? Nay, if they were in life-and-death earnest, + what could it avail you in such a case? I tell you, a million blockheads + looking authoritatively into one man of what you call genius, or noble + sense, will make nothing but nonsense out of him and his qualities, and + his virtues and defects, if they look till the end of time. He understands + them, sees what they are; but that they should understand him, and see + with rounded outline what his limits are,—this, which would mean + that they are bigger than he, is forever denied them. Their one good + understanding of him is that they at last should loyally say, "We do not + quite understand thee; we perceive thee to be nobler and wiser and bigger + than we, and will loyally follow thee." + </p> + <p> + The question therefore arises, Whether, since reform of parliament and + such like have done so little in that respect, the problem might not be + with some hope attacked in the direct manner? Suppose all our + Institutions, and Public Methods of Procedure, to continue for the present + as they are; and suppose farther a Reform Premier, and the English Nation + once awakening under him to a due sense of the infinite importance, nay + the vital necessity there is of getting able and abler men:—might + not some heroic wisdom, and actual "ability" to do what must be done, + prove discoverable to said Premier; and so the indispensable + Heaven's-blessing descend to us from <i>above</i>, since none has yet + sprung from below? From above we shall have to try it; the other is + exhausted,—a hopeless method that! The utmost passion of the + house-inmates, ignorant of masonry and architecture, cannot avail to cure + the house of smoke: not if <i>they</i> vote and agitate forever, and + bestir themselves to the length even of street-barricades, will the <i>smoke</i> + in the least abate: how can it? Their passion exercised in such ways, till + Doomsday, will avail them nothing. Let their passion rage steadily against + the existing major-domos to this effect, "<i>Find</i> us men skilled in + house-building, acquainted with the laws of atmospheric suction, and + capable to cure smoke;" something might come of it! In the lucky + circumstance of having one man of real intellect and courage to put at the + head of the movement, much would come of it;—a New Downing Street, + fit for the British Nation and its bitter necessities in this Now Era, + would come; and from that, in answer to continuous sacred fidelity and + valiant toil, all good whatsoever would gradually come. + </p> + <p> + Of the Continental nuisance called "Bureaucracy,"—if this should + alarm any reader,—I can see no risk or possibility in England. + Democracy is hot enough here, fierce enough; it is perennial, universal, + clearly invincible among us henceforth. No danger it should let itself be + flung in chains by sham secretaries of the Pedant species, and accept + their vile Age of Pinchbeck for its Golden Age! Democracy clamors, with + its Newspapers, its Parliaments, and all its twenty-seven million throats, + continually in this Nation forevermore. I remark, too, that, the + unconscious purport of all its clamors is even this, "Find us men + skilled,"—<i>make</i> a New Downing Street, fit for the New Era! + </p> + <p> + Of the Foreign Office, in its reformed state, we have not much to say. + Abolition of imaginary work, and replacement of it by real, is on all + hands understood to be very urgent there. Large needless expenditures of + money, immeasurable ditto of hypocrisy and grimace; embassies, protocols, + worlds of extinct traditions, empty pedantries, foul cobwebs:—but we + will by no means apply the "live coal" of our witty friend; the Foreign + Office will repent, and not be driven to suicide! A truer time will come + for the Continental Nations too: Authorities based on truth, and on the + silent or spoken Worship of Human Nobleness, will again get themselves + established there; all Sham-Authorities, and consequent Real-Anarchies + based on universal suffrage and the Gospel according to George Sand, being + put away; and noble action, heroic new-developments of human faculty and + industry, and blessed fruit as of Paradise getting itself conquered from + the waste battle-field of the chaotic elements, will once more, there as + here, begin to show themselves. + </p> + <p> + When the Continental Nations have once got to the bottom of <i>their</i> + Augean Stable, and begun to have real enterprises based on the eternal + facts again, our Foreign Office may again have extensive concerns with + them. And at all times, and even now, there will remain the question to be + sincerely put and wisely answered, What essential concern <i>has</i> the + British Nation with them and their enterprises? Any concern at all, except + that of handsomely keeping apart from them? If so, what are the methods of + best managing it?—At present, as was said, while Red Republic but + clashes with foul Bureaucracy; and Nations, sunk in blind ignavia, demand + a universal-suffrage Parliament to heal their wretchedness; and wild + Anarchy and Phallus-Worship struggle with Sham-Kingship and extinct or + galvanized Catholicism; and in the Cave of the Winds all manner of rotten + waifs and wrecks are hurled against each other,—our English interest + in the controversy, however huge said controversy grow, is quite trifling; + we have only in a handsome manner to say to it: "Tumble and rage along, ye + rotten waifs and wrecks; clash and collide as seems fittest to you; and + smite each other into annihilation at your own good pleasure. In that huge + conflict, dismal but unavoidable, we, thanks to our heroic ancestors, + having got so far ahead of you, have now no interest at all. Our decided + notion is, the dead ought to bury their dead in such a case: and so we + have the honor to be, with distinguished consideration, your entirely + devoted,—FLIMNAP, SEC. FOREIGN DEPARTMENT."—I really think + Flimnap, till truer times come, ought to treat much of his work in this + way: cautious to give offence to his neighbors; resolute not to concern + himself in any of their self-annihilating operations whatsoever. + </p> + <p> + Foreign wars are sometimes unavoidable. We ourselves, in the course of + natural merchandising and laudable business, have now and then got into + ambiguous situations; into quarrels which needed to be settled, and + without fighting would not settle. Sugar Islands, Spice Islands, Indias, + Canadas, these, by the real decree of Heaven, were ours; and nobody would + or could believe it, till it was tried by cannon law, and so proved. Such + cases happen. In former times especially, owing very much to want of + intercourse and to the consequent mutual ignorance, there did occur + misunderstandings: and therefrom many foreign wars, some of them by no + means unnecessary. With China, or some distant country, too unintelligent + of us and too unintelligible to us, there still sometimes rises necessary + occasion for a war. Nevertheless wars—misunderstandings that get to + the length of arguing themselves out by sword and cannon—have, in + these late generations of improved intercourse, been palpably becoming + less and less necessary; have in a manner become superfluous, if we had a + little wisdom, and our Foreign Office on a good footing. + </p> + <p> + Of European wars I really hardly remember any, since Oliver Cromwell's + last Protestant or Liberation war with Popish antichristian Spain some two + hundred years ago, to which I for my own part could have contributed my + life with any heartiness, or in fact would have subscribed money itself to + any considerable amount. Dutch William, a man of some heroism, did indeed + get into troubles with Louis Fourteenth; and there rested still some + shadow of Protestant Interest, and question of National and individual + Independence, over those wide controversies; a little money and human + enthusiasm was still due to Dutch William. Illustrious Chatham also, not + to speak of his Manilla ransoms and the like, did one thing: assisted + Fritz of Prussia, a brave man and king (almost the only sovereign King I + have known since Cromwell's time) like to be borne down by ignoble men and + sham-kings; for this let illustrious Chatham too have a little money and + human enthusiasm,—a little, by no means much. But what am I to say + of heaven-born Pitt the son of Chatham? England sent forth her fleets and + armies; her money into every country; money as if the heaven-born + Chancellor had got a Fortunatus' purse; as if this Island had become a + volcanic fountain of gold, or new terrestrial sun capable of radiating + mere guineas. The result of all which, what was it? Elderly men can + remember the tar-barrels burnt for success and thrice-immortal victory in + the business; and yet what result had we? The French Revolution, a Fact + decreed in the Eternal Councils, could not be put down: the result was, + that heaven-born Pitt had actually been fighting (as the old Hebrews would + have said) against the Lord,—that the Laws of Nature were stronger + than Pitt. Of whom therefore there remains chiefly his unaccountable + radiation of guineas, for the gratitude of posterity. Thank you for + nothing,—for eight hundred millions <i>less</i> than nothing! + </p> + <p> + Our War Offices, Admiralties, and other Fighting Establishments, are + forcing themselves on everybody's attention at this time. Bull grumbles + audibly: "The money you have cost me these five-and-thirty years, during + which you have stood elaborately ready to fight at any moment, without at + any moment being called to fight, is surely an astonishing sum. The + National Debt itself might have been half paid by that money, which has + all gone in pipe-clay and blank cartridges! "Yes, Mr. Bull, the money can + be counted in hundreds of millions; which certainly is something:—but + the "strenuously organized idleness," and what mischief that amounts to,—have + you computed it? A perpetual solecism, and blasphemy (of its sort), set to + march openly among us, dressed in scarlet! Bull, with a more and more + sulky tone, demands that such solecism be abated; that these Fighting + Establishments be as it were disbanded, and set to do some work in the + Creation, since fighting there is now none for them. This demand is + irrefragably just, is growing urgent too; and yet this demand cannot be + complied with,—not yet while the State grounds itself on + unrealities, and Downing Street continues what it is. + </p> + <p> + The old Romans made their soldiers work during intervals of war. The New + Downing Street too, we may predict, will have less and less tolerance for + idleness on the part of soldiers or others. Nay the New Downing Street, I + foresee, when once it has got its "<i>Industrial</i> Regiments" organized, + will make these mainly do its fighting, what fighting there is; and so + save immense sums. Or indeed, all citizens of the Commonwealth, as is the + right and the interest of every free man in this world, will have + themselves trained to arms; each citizen ready to defend his country with + his own body and soul,—he is not worthy to have a country otherwise. + In a State grounded on veracities, that would be the rule. Downing Street, + if it cannot bethink itself of returning to the veracities, will have to + vanish altogether! + </p> + <p> + To fight with its neighbors never was, and is now less than ever, the real + trade of England. For far other objects was the English People created + into this world; sent down from the Eternities, to mark with its history + certain spaces in the current of sublunary Time! Essential, too, that the + English People should discover what its real objects are; and resolutely + follow these, resolutely refusing to follow other than these. The State + will have victory so far as it can do that; so far as it cannot, defeat. + </p> + <p> + In the New Downing Street, discerning what its real functions are, and + with sacred abhorrence putting away from it what its functions are not, we + can fancy changes enough in Foreign Office, War Office, Colonial Office, + Home Office! Our War-soldiers <i>Industrial</i>, first of all; doing + nobler than Roman works, when fighting is not wanted of them. + Seventy-fours not hanging idly by their anchors in the Tagus, or off + Sapienza (one of the saddest sights under the sun), but busy, every + Seventy-four of them, carrying over streams of British Industrials to the + immeasurable Britain that lies beyond the sea in every zone of the world. + A State grounding itself on the veracities, not on the semblances and the + injustices: every citizen a soldier for it. Here would be new <i>real</i> + Secretaryships and Ministries, not for foreign war and diplomacy, but for + domestic peace and utility. Minister of Works; Minister of Justice,—clearing + his Model Prisons of their scoundrelism; shipping his scoundrels wholly + abroad, under hard and just drill-sergeants (hundreds of such stand + wistfully ready for you, these thirty years, in the Rag-and-Famish Club + and elsewhere!) into fertile desert countries; to make railways,—one + big railway (says the Major [Footnote: Major Carmichael Smith; see his + Pamphlets on this subject]) quite across America; fit to employ all the + able-bodied Scoundrels and efficient Half-pay Officers in Nature! + </p> + <p> + Lastly,—or rather firstly, and as the preliminary of all, would + there not be a Minister of Education? Minister charged to get this English + People taught a little, at his and our peril! Minister of Education; no + longer dolefully embayed amid the wreck of moribund "religions," but clear + ahead of all that; steering, free and piously fearless, towards his divine + goal under the eternal stars!—O heaven, and are these things forever + impossible, then? Not a whit. To-morrow morning they might all begin to + be, and go on through blessed centuries realizing themselves, if it were + not that—alas, if it were not that we are most of us insincere + persons, sham talking-machines and hollow windy fools! Which it is not + "impossible" that we should cease to be, I hope? + </p> + <p> + Constitutions for the Colonies are now on the anvil; the discontented + Colonies are all to be cured of their miseries by Constitutions. Whether + that will cure their miseries, or only operate as a Godfrey's-cordial to + stop their whimpering, and in the end worsen all their miseries, may be a + sad doubt to us. One thing strikes a remote spectator in these Colonial + questions: the singular placidity with which the British Statesman at this + time, backed by M'Croudy and the British moneyed classes, is prepared to + surrender whatsoever interest Britain, as foundress of those + establishments, might pretend to have in the decision. "If you want to go + from us, go; we by no means want you to stay: you cost us money yearly, + which is scarce; desperate quantities of trouble too: why not go, if you + wish it?" Such is the humor of the British Statesman, at this time.—Men + clear for rebellion, "annexation" as they call it, walk openly abroad in + our American Colonies; found newspapers, hold platform palaverings. From + Canada there comes duly by each mail a regular statistic of Annexationism: + increasing fast in this quarter, diminishing in that;—Majesty's + Chief Governor seeming to take it as a perfectly open question; Majesty's + Chief Governor in fact seldom appearing on the scene at all, except to + receive the impact of a few rotten eggs on occasion, and then duck in + again to his private contemplations. And yet one would think the Majesty's + Chief Governor ought to have a kind of interest in the thing? Public + liberty is carried to a great length in some portions of her Majesty's + dominions. But the question, "Are we to continue subjects of her Majesty, + or start rebelling against her? So many as are for rebelling, hold up your + hands!" Here is a public discussion of a very extraordinary nature to be + going on under the nose of a Governor of Canada. How the Governor of + Canada, being a British piece of flesh and blood, and not a Canadian + lumber-log of mere pine and rosin, can stand it, is not very conceivable + at first view. He does it, seemingly, with the stoicism of a Zeno. It is a + constitutional sight like few. + </p> + <p> + And yet an instinct deeper than the Gospel of M'Croudy teaches all men + that Colonies are worth something to a country! That if, under the present + Colonial Office, they are a vexation to us and themselves, some other + Colonial Office can and must be contrived which shall render them a + blessing; and that the remedy will be to contrive such a Colonial Office + or method of administration, and by no means to cut the Colonies loose. + Colonies are not to be picked off the street every day; not a Colony of + them but has been bought dear, well purchased by the toil and blood of + those we have the honor to be sons of; and we cannot just afford to cut + them away because M'Croudy finds the present management of them cost + money. The present management will indeed require to be cut away;—but + as for the Colonies, we purpose through Heaven's blessing to retain them a + while yet! Shame on us for unworthy sons of brave fathers if we do not. + Brave fathers, by valiant blood and sweat, purchased for us, from the + bounty of Heaven, rich possessions in all zones; and we, wretched + imbeciles, cannot do the function of administering them? And because the + accounts do not stand well in the ledger, our remedy is, not to take shame + to ourselves, and repent in sackcloth and ashes, and amend our beggarly + imbecilities and insincerities in that as in other departments of our + business, but to fling the business overboard, and declare the business + itself to be bad? We are a hopeful set of heirs to a big fortune! It does + not suit our Manton gunneries, grouse-shootings, mousings in the City; and + like spirited young gentlemen we will give it up, and let the attorneys + take it? + </p> + <p> + Is there no value, then, in human things, but what can write itself down + in the cash-ledger? All men know, and even M'Croudy in his inarticulate + heart knows, that to men and Nations there are invaluable values which + cannot be sold for money at all. George Robins is great; but he is not + onmipotent. George Robins cannot quite sell Heaven and Earth by auction, + excellent though he be at the business. Nay, if M'Croudy offered his own + life for <i>sale</i> in Threadneedle Street, would anybody buy it? Not I, + for one. "Nobody bids: pass on to the next lot," answers Robins. And yet + to M'Croudy this unsalable lot is worth all the Universe:—nay, I + believe, to us also it is worth something; good monitions, as to several + things, do lie in this Professor of the dismal science; and considerable + sums even of money, not to speak of other benefit, will yet come out of + his life and him, for which nobody bids! Robins has his own field where he + reigns triumphant; but to that we will restrict him with iron limits; and + neither Colonies nor the lives of Professors, nor other such invaluable + objects shall come under his hammer. + </p> + <p> + Bad state of the ledger will demonstrate that your way of dealing with + your Colonies is absurd, and urgently in want of reform; but to + demonstrate that the Empire itself must be dismembered to bring the ledger + straight? Oh never. Something else than the ledger must intervene to do + that. Why does not England repudiate Ireland, and insist on the "Repeal," + instead of prohibiting it under death-penalties? Ireland has never been a + paying speculation yet, nor is it like soon to be! Why does not Middlesex + repudiate Surrey, and Chelsea Kensington, and each county and each parish, + and in the end each individual set up for himself and his cash-box, + repudiating the other and his, because their mutual interests have got + into an irritating course? They must change the course, seek till they + discover a soothing one; that is the remedy, when limbs of the same body + come to irritate one another. Because the paltry tatter of a garment, + reticulated for you out of thrums and listings in Downing Street, ties + foot and hand together in an intolerable manner, will you relieve yourself + by cutting off the hand or the foot? You will cut off the paltry tatter of + a pretended body-coat, I think, and fling that to the nettles; and + imperatively require one that fits your size better. + </p> + <p> + Miserabler theory than that of money on the ledger being the primary rule + for Empires, or for any higher entity than City owls and their + mice-catching, cannot well be propounded. And I would by no means advise + Felicissimus, ill at ease on his high-trotting and now justly impatient + Sleswicker, to let the poor horse in its desperation go in that direction + for a momentary solace. If by lumber-log Governors, by Godfrey's cordial + Constitutions or otherwise, be contrived to cut off the Colonies or any + real right the big British Empire has in her Colonies, both he and the + British Empire will bitterly repent it one day! The Sleswicker, relieved + in ledger for a moment, will find that it is wounded in heart and honor + forever; and the turning of its wild forehoofs upon Felicissimus as he + lies in the ditch combed off, is not a thing I like to think of! Britain, + whether it be known to Felicissimus or not, has other tasks appointed her + in God's Universe than the making of money; and woe will betide her if she + forget those other withal. Tasks, colonial and domestic, which are of an + eternally <i>divine</i> nature, and compared with which all money, and all + that is procurable by money, are in strict arithmetic an imponderable + quantity, have been assigned this Nation; and they also at last are coming + upon her again, clamorous, abstruse, inevitable, much to her bewilderment + just now! + </p> + <p> + This poor Nation, painfully dark about said tasks and the way of doing + them, means to keep its Colonies nevertheless, as things which somehow or + other must have a value, were it better seen into. They are portions of + the general Earth, where the children of Britain now dwell; where the gods + have so far sanctioned their endeavor, as to say that they have a right to + dwell. England will not readily admit that her own children are worth + nothing but to be flung out of doors! England looking on her Colonies can + say: "Here are lands and seas, spice-lands, corn-lands, timber-lands, + overarched by zodiacs and stars, clasped by many-sounding seas; wide + spaces of the Maker's building, fit for the cradle yet of mighty Nations + and their Sciences and Heroisms. Fertile continents still inhabited by + wild beasts are mine, into which all the distressed populations of Europe + might pour themselves, and make at once an Old World and a New World + human. By the eternal fiat of the gods, this must yet one day be; this, by + all the Divine Silences that rule this Universe, silent to fools, eloquent + and awful to the hearts of the wise, is incessantly at this moment, and at + all moments, commanded to begin to be. Unspeakable deliverance, and new + destiny of thousand-fold expanded manfulness for all men, dawns out of the + Future here. To me has fallen the godlike task of initiating all that: of + me and of my Colonies, the abstruse Future asks, Are you wise enough for + so sublime a destiny? Are you too foolish?" + </p> + <p> + That you ask advice of whatever wisdom is to be had in the Colony, and + even take note of what <i>un</i>wisdom is in it, and record that too as an + existing fact, will certainly be very advantageous. But I suspect the kind + of Parliament that will suit a Colony is much of a secret just now! Mr. + Wakefield, a democratic man in all fibres of him, and acquainted with + Colonial Socialities as few are, judges that the franchise for your + Colonial Parliament should be decidedly select, and advises a high + money-qualification; as there is in all Colonies a fluctuating migratory + mass, not destitute of money, but very much so of loyalty, permanency, or + civic availability; whom it is extremely advantageous not to consult on + what you are about attempting for the Colony or Mother Country. This I can + well believe;—and also that a "high money-qualification," in the + present sad state of human affairs, might be some help to you in + selecting; though whether even that would quite certainly bring "wisdom," + the one thing indispensable, is much a question with me. It might help, it + might help! And if by any means you could (which you cannot) exclude the + Fourth Estate, and indicate decisively that Wise Advice was the thing + wanted here, and Parliamentary Eloquence was not the thing wanted anywhere + just now,—there might really some light of experience and human + foresight, and a truly valuable benefit, be found for you in such + assemblies. + </p> + <p> + And there is one thing, too apt to be forgotten, which it much behooves us + to remember: In the Colonies, as everywhere else in this world, the vital + point is not who decides, but what is decided on! That measures tending + really to the best advantage temporal and spiritual of the Colony be + adopted, and strenuously put in execution; there lies the grand interest + of every good citizen British and Colonial. Such measures, whosoever have + originated and prescribed them, will gradually be sanctioned by all men + and gods; and clamors of every kind in reference to them may safely to a + great extent be neglected, as clamorous merely, and sure to be transient. + Colonial Governor, Colonial Parliament, whoever or whatever does an + injustice, or resolves on an <i>un</i>wisdom, he is the pernicious object, + however parliamentary he be! + </p> + <p> + I have known things done, in this or the other Colony, in the most + parliamentary way before now, which carried written on the brow of them + sad symptoms of eternal reprobation; not to be mistaken, had you painted + an inch thick. In Montreal, for example, at this moment, standing amid the + ruins of the "Elgin Marbles" (as they call the burnt walls of the + Parliament House there), what rational British soul but is forced to + institute the mournfulest constitutional reflection? Some years ago the + Canadas, probably not without materials for discontent, and blown upon by + skilful artists, blazed up into crackling of musketry, open flame of + rebellion; a thing smacking of the gallows in all countries that pretend + to have any "Government." Which flame of rebellion, had there been no + loyal population to fling themselves upon it at peril of their life, might + have ended we know not how. It ended speedily, in the good way; Canada got + a Godfrey's-cordial Constitution; and for the moment all was varnished + into some kind of feasibility again. A most poor feasibility; momentary, + not lasting, nor like to be of profit to Canada! For this year, the + Canadian most constitutional Parliament, such a congeries of persons as + one can imagine, decides that the aforesaid flame of rebellion shall not + only be forgotten as per bargain, but that—the loyal population, who + flung their lives upon it and quenched it in the nick of time, shall pay + the rebels their damages! Of this, I believe, on sadly conclusive + evidence, there is no doubt whatever. Such, when you wash off the + constitutional pigments, is the Death's-head that discloses itself. I can + only say, if all the Parliaments in the world were to vote that such a + thing was just, I should feel painfully constrained to answer, at my + peril, "No, by the Eternal, never!" And I would recommend any British + Governor who might come across that Business, there or here, to overhaul + it again. What the meaning of a Governor, if he is not to overhaul and + control such things, may be, I cannot conjecture. A Canadian Lumber-log + may as well be made Governor. <i>He</i> might have some cast-metal hand or + shoulder-crank (a thing easily contrivable in Birmingham) for signing his + name to Acts of the Colonial Parliament; he would be a "native of the + country" too, with popularity on that score if on no other;—he is + your man, if you really want a Log Governor!— + </p> + <p> + I perceive therefore that, besides choosing Parliaments never so well, the + New Colonial Office will have another thing to do: Contrive to send out a + new kind of Governors to the Colonies. This will be the mainspring of the + business; without this the business will not go at all. An experienced, + wise and valiant British man, to represent the Imperial Interest; he, with + such a speaking or silent Collective Wisdom as he can gather round him in + the Colony, will evidently be the condition of all good between the Mother + Country and it. If you can find such a man, your point is gained; if you + cannot, lost. By him and his Collective Wisdom all manner of <i>true</i> + relations, mutual interests and duties such as they do exist in fact + between Mother Country and Colony, can be gradually developed into + practical methods and results; and all manner of true and noble successes, + and veracities in the way of governing, be won. Choose well your Governor;—not + from this or that poor section of the Aristocracy, military, naval, or + red-tapist; wherever there are born kings of men, you had better seek them + out, and breed them to this work. All sections of the British Population + will be open to you: and, on the whole, you must succeed in finding a man + <i>fit</i>. And having found him, I would farther recommend you to keep + him some time! It would be a great improvement to end this present + nomadism of Colonial Governors. Give your Governor due power; and let him + know withal that he is wedded to his enterprise, and having once well + learned it, shall continue with it; that it is not a Canadian Lumber-log + you want there, to tumble upon the vertexes and sign its name by a + Birmingham shoulder-crank, but a Governor of Men; who, you mean, shall + fairly gird himself to his enterprise, and fail with it and conquer with + it, and as it were live and die with it: he will have much to learn; and + having once learned it, will stay, and turn his knowledge to account. + </p> + <p> + From this kind of Governor, were you once in the way of finding him with + moderate certainty, from him and his Collective Wisdom, all good + whatsoever might be anticipated. And surely, were the Colonies once + enfranchised from red-tape, and the poor Mother Country once enfranchised + from it; were our idle Seventy-fours all busy carrying out streams of + British Industrials, and those Scoundrel Regiments all working, under + divine drill-sergeants, at the grand Atlantic and Pacific Junction + Railway,—poor Britain and her poor Colonies might find that they <i>had</i> + true relations to each other: that the Imperial <i>Mother</i> and her + constitutionally obedient Daughters were not a red-tape fiction, provoking + bitter mockery as at present, but a blessed God's-Fact destined to fill + half the world with its fruits one day! + </p> + <p> + But undoubtedly our grand primary concern is the Home Office, and its + Irish Giant named of Despair. When the Home Office begins dealing with + this Irish Giant, which it is vitally urgent for us the Home Office should + straightway do, it will find its duties enlarged to a most unexpected + extent, and, as it were, altered from top to bottom. A changed time now + when the question is, What to do with three millions of paupers (come upon + you for food, since you have no work for them) increasing at a frightful + rate per day? Home Office, Parliament, King, Constitution will find that + they have now, if they will continue in this world long, got a quite + immense new question and continually recurring set of questions. That huge + question of the Irish Giant with his Scotch and English Giant-Progeny + advancing open-mouthed upon us, will, as I calculate, change from top to + bottom not the Home Office only but all manner of Offices and Institutions + whatsoever, and gradually the structure of Society itself. I perceive, it + will make us a new Society, if we are to continue a Society at all. For + the alternative is not, Stay where we are, or change? But Change, with new + wise effort fit for the new time, to true and wider nobler National Life; + or Change, by indolent folding of the arms, as we are now doing, in + horrible anarchies and convulsions to Dissolution, to National Death, or + Suspended-animation? Suspended-animation itself is a frightful possibility + for Britain: this Anarchy whither all Europe has preceded us, where all + Europe is now weltering, would suit us as ill as any! The question for the + British Nation is: Can we work our course pacifically, on firm land, into + the New Era; or must it be, for us too, as for all the others, through + black abysses of Anarchy, hardly escaping, if we do with all our struggles + escape, the jaws of eternal Death? + </p> + <p> + For Pauperism, though it now absorbs its high figure of millions annually, + is by no means a question of money only, but of infinitely higher and + greater than all conceivable money. If our Chancellor of the Exchequer had + a Fortunatus' purse, and miraculous sacks of Indian meal that would stand + scooping from forever,—I say, even on these terms Pauperism could + not be endured; and it would vitally concern all British Citizens to abate + Pauperism, and never rest till they had ended it again. Pauperism is the + general leakage through every joint of the ship that it is rotten. Were + all men doing their duty, or even seriously trying to do it, there would + be no Pauper. Were the pretended Captains of the world at all in the habit + of commanding; were the pretended Teachers of the world at all in the + habit of teaching,—of admonishing said Captains among others, and + with sacred zeal apprising them to what place such neglect was leading,—how + could Pauperism exist? Pauperism would lie far over the horizon; we should + be lamenting and denouncing quite inferior sins of men, which were only + tending afar off towards Pauperism. A true Captaincy; a true Teachership, + either making all men and Captains know and devoutly recognize the eternal + law of things, or else breaking its own heart, and going about with + sackcloth round its loins, in testimony of continual sorrow and protest, + and prophecy of God's vengeance upon such a course of things: either of + these divine equipments would have saved us; and it is because we have + neither of them that we are come to such a pass! + </p> + <p> + We may depend upon it, where there is a Pauper, there is a sin; to make + one Pauper there go many sins. Pauperism is our Social Sin grown manifest; + developed from the state of a spiritual ignobleness, a practical + impropriety and base oblivion of duty, to an affair of the ledger. Here is + not now an unheeded sin against God; here is a concrete ugly bulk of + Beggary demanding that you should buy Indian meal for it. Men of + reflection have long looked with a horror for which there was no response + in the idle public, upon Pauperism; but the quantity of meal it demands + has now awakened men of no reflection to consider it. Pauperism is the + poisonous dripping from all the sins, and putrid unveracities and + god-forgetting greedinesses and devil-serving cants and jesuitisms, that + exist among us. Not one idle Sham lounging about Creation upon false + pretences, upon means which he has not earned, upon theories which he does + not practise, but yields his share of Pauperism somewhere or other. His + sham-work oozes down; finds at last its issue as human Pauperism,—in + a human being that by those false pretences cannot live. The Idle + Workhouse, now about to burst of overfilling, what is it but the + scandalous poison-tank of drainage from the universal Stygian quagmire of + our affairs? Workhouse Paupers; immortal sons of Adam rotted into that + scandalous condition, subter-slavish, demanding that you would make slaves + of them as an unattainable blessing! My friends, I perceive the quagmire + must be drained, or we cannot live. And farther, I perceive, this of + Pauperism is the corner where we must <i>begin</i>,—the levels all + pointing thitherward, the possibilities lying all clearly there. On that + Problem we shall find that innumerable things, that all things whatsoever + hang. By courageous steadfast persistence in that, I can foresee Society + itself regenerated. In the course of long strenuous centuries, I can see + the State become what it is actually bound to be, the keystone of a most + real "Organization of Labor,"—and on this Earth a world of some + veracity, and some heroism, once more worth living in! + </p> + <p> + The State in all European countries, and in England first of all, as I + hope, will discover that its functions are now, and have long been, very + wide of what the State in old pedant Downing Streets has aimed at; that + the State is, for the present, not a reality but in great part a dramatic + speciosity, expending its strength in practices and objects fallen many of + them quite obsolete; that it must come a little nearer the true aim again, + or it cannot continue in this world. The "Champion of England" eased in + iron or tin, and "able to mount his horse with little assistance,"—this + Champion and the thousand-fold cousinry of Phantasms he has, nearly all + dead now but still walking as ghosts, must positively take himself away: + who can endure him, and his solemn trumpetings and obsolete + gesticulations, in a Time that is full of deadly realities, coming + open-mouthed upon us? At Drury Lane, let him play his part, him and his + thousand-fold cousinry; and welcome, so long as any public will pay a + shilling to see him: but on the solid earth, under the extremely earnest + stars, we dare not palter with him, or accept his tomfooleries any more. + Ridiculous they seem to some; horrible they seem to me: all lies, if one + look whence they come and whither they go, are horrible. + </p> + <p> + Alas, it will be found, I doubt, that in England more than in any country, + our Public Life and our Private, our State and our Religion, and all that + we do and speak (and the most even of what we <i>think</i>), is a tissue + of half-truths and whole-lies; of hypocrisies, conventionalisms, worn-out + traditionary rags and cobwebs; such a life-garment of beggarly incredible + and uncredited falsities as no honest souls of Adam's Posterity were ever + enveloped in before. And we walk about in it with a stately gesture, as if + it were some priestly stole or imperial mantle; not the foulest beggar's + gabardine that ever was. "No Englishman dare believe the truth," says one: + "he stands, for these two hundred years, enveloped in lies of every kind; + from nadir to zenith an ocean of traditionary cant surrounds him as his + life-element. He really thinks the truth dangerous. Poor wretch, you see + him everywhere endeavoring to temper the truth by taking the falsity along + with it, and welding them together; this he calls 'safe course,' 'moderate + course,' and other fine names; there, balanced between God and the Devil, + he thinks he <i>can</i> serve two masters, and that things will go well + with him." + </p> + <p> + In the cotton-spinning and similar departments our English friend knows + well that truth or God will have nothing to do with the Devil or + falsehood, but will ravel all the web to pieces if you introduce the Devil + or Non-veracity in any form into it: in this department, therefore, our + English friend avoids falsehood. But in the religious, political, social, + moral, and all other spiritual departments he freely introduces falsehood, + nothing doubting; and has long done so, with a profuseness not elsewhere + met with in the world. The unhappy creature, does he not know, then, that + every lie is accursed, and the parent of mere curses? That he must <i>think</i> + the truth; much more speak it? That, above all things, by the oldest law + of Heaven and Earth which no man violates with impunity, he must not and + shall not wag the tongue of him except to utter his thought? That there is + not a grin or beautiful acceptable grimace he can execute upon his poor + countenance, but is either an express veracity, the image of what passes + within him; or else is a bit of Devil-worship which he and the rest of us + will have to pay for yet? Alas, the grins he executes upon his poor <i>mind</i> + (which is all tortured into St. Vitus dances, and ghastly + merry-andrewisms, by the practice) are the most extraordinary this sun + ever saw. + </p> + <p> + We have Puseyisms, black-and-white surplice controversies:—do not, + officially and otherwise, the select of the longest heads in England sit + with intense application and iron gravity, in open forum, judging of + "prevenient grace"? Not a head of them suspects that it can be improper so + to sit, or of the nature of treason against the Power who gave an + Intellect to man;—that it can be other than the duty of a good + citizen to use his god-given intellect in investigating prevenient grace, + supervenient moonshine, or the color of the Bishop's nightmare, if that + happened to turn up. I consider them far ahead of Cicero's Roman Augurs + with their chicken-bowels: "Behold these divine chicken-bowels, O Senate + and Roman People; the midriff has fallen eastward!" solemnly intimates one + Augur. "By Proserpina and the triple Hecate!" exclaims the other, "I say + the midriff has fallen to the west!" And they look at one another with the + seriousness of men prepared to die in their opinion,—the authentic + seriousness of men betting at Tattersall's, or about to receive judgment + in Chancery. There is in the Englishman something great, beyond all Roman + greatness, in whatever line you meet him; even as a Latter-Day Augur he + seeks his fellow!—Poor devil, I believe it is his intense love of + peace, and hatred of breeding discussions which lead no-whither, that has + led him into this sad practice of amalgamating true and false. + </p> + <p> + He has been at it these two hundred years; and has now carried it to a + terrible length. He couldn't follow Oliver Cromwell in the Puritan path + heavenward, so steep was it, and beset with thorns,—and becoming + uncertain withal. He much preferred, at that juncture, to go heavenward + with his Charles Second and merry Nell Gwynns, and old decent formularies + and good respectable aristocratic company, for escort; sore he tried, by + glorious restorations, glorious revolutions and so forth, to perfect this + desirable amalgam; hoped always it might be possible;—is only just + now, if even now, beginning to give up the hope; and to see with wide-eyed + horror that it is not at Heaven he is arriving, but at the Stygian + marshes, with their thirty thousand Needlewomen, cannibal Connaughts, + rivers of lamentation, continual wail of infants, and the yellow-burning + gleam of a Hell-on-Earth!—Bull, my friend, you must strip that + astonishing pontiff-stole, imperial mantle, or whatever you imagine it to + be, which I discern to be a garment of curses, and poisoned Nessus'-shirt + now at last about to take fire upon you; you must strip that off your poor + body, my friend; and, were it only in a soul's suit of Utilitarian buff, + and such belief as that a big loaf is better than a small one, come forth + into contact with your world, under <i>true</i> professions again, and not + false. You wretched man, you ought to weep for half a century on + discovering what lies you have believed, and what every lie leads to and + proceeds from. O my friend, no honest fellow in this Planet was ever so + served by his cooks before; or has eaten such quantities and qualities of + dirt as you have been made to do, for these two centuries past. Arise, my + horribly maltreated yet still beloved Bull; steep yourself in running + water for a long while, my friend; and begin forthwith in every + conceivable direction, physical and spiritual, the long-expected <i>Scavenger + Age</i>. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +Many doctors have you had, my poor friend; but I perceive it is the +Water-Cure alone that will help you: a complete course of <i>scavengerism</i> +is the thing you need! A new and veritable heart-divorce of England from +the Babylonish woman, who is Jesuitism and Unveracity, and dwells not +at Rome now, but under your own nose and everywhere; whom, and her foul +worship of Phantasms and Devils, poor England <i>had</i> once divorced, with +a divine heroism not forgotten yet, and well worth remembering now: a + Phantasms which have too long nestled thick there, under those +astonishing "Defenders of the Faith,"—Defenders of the Hypocrisies, the +spiritual Vampires and obscene Nightmares, under which England lies in +syncope;—this is what you need; and if you cannot get it, you must die, +my poor friend! +</pre> + <p> + Like people, like priest. Priest, King, Home Office, all manner of + establishments and offices among a people bear a striking resemblance to + the people itself. It is because Bull has been eating so much dirt that + his Home Offices have got into such a shockingly dirty condition,—the + old pavements of them quite gone out of sight and out of memory, and + nothing but mountains of long-accumulated dung in which the poor cattle + are sprawling and tumbling. Had his own life been pure, had his own daily + conduct been grounding itself on the clear pavements or actual beliefs and + veracities, would he have let his Home Offices come to such a pass? Not in + Downing Street only, but in all other thoroughfares and arenas and + spiritual or physical departments of his existence, running water and + Herculean scavengerism have become indispensable, unless the poor man is + to choke in his own exuviae, and die the sorrowfulest death. + </p> + <p> + If the State could once get back to the real sight of its essential + function, and with religious resolution begin doing that, and putting away + its multifarious imaginary functions, and indignantly casting out these as + mere dung and insalubrious horror and abomination (which they are), what a + promise of reform were there! The British Home Office, surely this and its + kindred Offices exist, if they will think of it, that life and work may + continue possible, and may not become impossible, for British men. If + honorable existence, or existence on human terms at all, have become + impossible for millions of British men, how can the Home Office or any + other Office long exist? With thirty thousand Needlewomen, a Connaught + fallen into potential cannibalism, and the Idle Workhouse everywhere + bursting, and declaring itself an inhumanity and stupid ruinous brutality + not much longer to be tolerated among rational human creatures, it is time + the State were bethinking itself. + </p> + <p> + So soon as the State attacks that tremendous cloaca of Pauperism, which + will choke the world if it be not attacked, the State will find its real + functions very different indeed from what it had long supposed them! The + State is a reality, and not a dramaturgy; it exists here to render + existence possible, existence desirable and noble, for the State's + subjects. The State, as it gets into the track of its real work, will find + that same expand into whole continents of new unexpected, most blessed + activity; as its dramatic functions, declared superfluous, more and more + fall inert, and go rushing like huge torrents of extinct exuviae, dung and + rubbish, down to the Abyss forever. O Heaven, to see a State that knew a + little why it was there, and on what ground, in this Year 1850, it could + pretend to exist, in so extremely earnest a world as ours is growing! The + British State, if it will be the crown and keystone of our British Social + Existence, must get to recognize, with a veracity very long unknown to it, + what the real objects and indispensable necessities of our Social + Existence are. Good Heavens, it is not prevenient grace, or the color of + the Bishop's nightmare, that is pinching us; it is the impossibility to + get along any farther for mountains of accumulated dung and falsity and + horror; the total closing-up of noble aims from every man,—of any + aim at all, from many men, except that of rotting out in Idle Workhouses + an existence below that of beasts! + </p> + <p> + Suppose the State to have fairly started its "Industrial Regiments of the + New Era," which alas, are yet only beginning to be talked of,—what + continents of new real work opened out, for the Home and all other Public + Offices among us! Suppose the Home Office looking out, as for life and + salvation, for proper men to command these "Regiments." Suppose the + announcement were practically made to all British souls that the want of + wants, more indispensable than any jewel in the crown, was that of men <i>able + to command men</i> in ways of industrial and moral well-doing; that the + State would give its very life for such men; that such men <i>were</i> the + State; that the quantity of them to be found in England lamentably small + at present, was the exact measure of England's worth,—what a new + dawn of everlasting day for all British souls! Noble British soul, to whom + the gods have given faculty and heroism, what men call genius, here at + last is a career for thee. It will not be needful now to swear fealty to + the Incredible, and traitorously cramp thyself into a cowardly canting + play-actor in God's Universe; or, solemnly forswearing that, into a + mutinous rebel and waste bandit in thy generation: here is an aim that is + clear and credible, a course fit for a man. No need to become a tormenting + and self-tormenting mutineer, banded with rebellious souls, if thou + wouldst live; no need to rot in suicidal idleness; or take to platform + preaching, and writing in Radical Newspapers, to pull asunder the great + Falsity in which thou and all of us are choking. The great Falsity, behold + it has become, in the very heart of it, a great Truth of Truths; and + invites thee and all brave men to cooperate with it in transforming all + the body and the joints into the noble likeness of that heart! + Thrice-blessed change. The State aims, once more, with a true aim; and has + loadstars in the eternal Heaven. Struggle faithfully for it; noble is <i>this</i> + struggle; thou too, according to thy faculty, shalt reap in due time, if + thou faint not. Thou shalt have a wise command of men, thou shalt be + wisely commanded by men,—the summary of all blessedness for a social + creature here below. The sore struggle, never to be relaxed, and not + forgiven to any son of man, is once more a noble one; glory to the + Highest, it is now once more a true and noble one, wherein a man can + afford to die! Our path is now again Heavenward. Forward, with steady + pace, with drawn weapons, and unconquerable hearts, in the name of God + that made us all!— + </p> + <p> + Wise obedience and wise command, I foresee that the regimenting of Pauper + Banditti into Soldiers of Industry is but the beginning of this blessed + process, which will extend to the topmost heights of our Society; and, in + the course of generations, make us all once more a Governed Commonwealth, + and <i>Civitas Dei</i>, if it please God! Waste-land Industrials + succeeding, other kinds of Industry, as cloth-making, shoe-making, + plough-making, spade-making, house-building,—in the end, all kinds + of Industry whatsoever, will be found capable of regimenting. + Mill-operatives, all manner of free operatives, as yet unregimented, + nomadic under private masters, they, seeing such example and its + blessedness, will say: "Masters, you must regiment us a little; make our + interests with you permanent a little, instead of temporary and nomadic; + we will enlist with the State otherwise!" This will go on, on the one + hand, while the State-operation goes on, on the other: thus will all + Masters of Workmen, private Captains of Industry, be forced to incessantly + co-operate with the State and its public Captains; they regimenting in + their way, the State in its way, with ever-widening field; till their + fields <i>meet</i> (so to speak) and coalesce, and there be no + unregimented worker, or such only as are fit to remain unregimented, any + more.—O my friends, I clearly perceive this horrible cloaca of + Pauperism, wearing nearly bottomless now, is the point where we must + begin. Here, in this plainly unendurable portion of the general quagmire, + the lowest point of all, and hateful even to M'Croudy, must our main drain + begin: steadily prosecuting that, tearing that along with Herculean labor + and divine fidelity, we shall gradually drain the entire Stygian swamp, + and make it all once more a fruitful field! + </p> + <p> + For the State, I perceive, looking out with right sacred earnestness for + persons able to command, will straightway also come upon the question: + "What kind of schools and seminaries, and teaching and also preaching + establishments have I, for the training of young souls to take command and + to yield obedience? Wise command, wise obedience: the capability of these + two is the net measure of culture, and human virtue, in every man; all + good lies in the possession of these two capabilities; all evil, + wretchedness and ill-success in the want of these. He is a good man that + can command and obey; he that cannot is a bad. If my teachers and my + preachers, with their seminaries, high schools and cathedrals, do train + men to these gifts, the thing they are teaching and preaching must be + true; if they do not, not true!" + </p> + <p> + The State, once brought to its veracities by the thumb-screw in this + manner, what will it think of these same seminaries and cathedrals! I + foresee that our Etons and Oxfords with their nonsense-verses, + college-logics, and broken crumbs of mere <i>speech</i>,—which is + not even English or Teutonic speech, but old Grecian and Italian speech, + dead and buried and much lying out of our way these two thousand years + last past,—will be found a most astonishing seminary for the + training of young English souls to take command in human Industries, and + act a valiant part under the sun! The State does not want vocables, but + manly wisdoms and virtues: the State, does it want parliamentary orators, + first of all, and men capable of writing books? What a rag-fair of extinct + monkeries, high-piled here in the very shrine of our existence, fit to + smite the generations with atrophy and beggarly paralysis,—as we see + it do! The Minister of Education will not want for work, I think, in the + New Downing Street! + </p> + <p> + How it will go with Souls'-Overseers, and what the <i>new</i> kind will + be, we do not prophesy just now. Clear it is, however, that the last + finish of the State's efforts, in this operation of regimenting, will be + to get the <i>true</i> Souls'-Overseers set over men's souls, to regiment, + as the consummate flower of all, and constitute into some Sacred + Corporation, bearing authority and dignity in their generation, the Chosen + of the Wise, of the Spiritual and Devout-minded, the Reverent who deserve + reverence, who are as the Salt of the Earth;—that not till this is + done can the State consider its edifice to have reached the first story, + to be safe for a moment, to be other than an arch without the keystones, + and supported hitherto on mere wood. How will this be done? Ask not; let + the second or the third generation after this begin to ask!—Alas, + wise men do exist, born duly into the world in every current generation; + but the getting of <i>them</i> regimented is the highest pitch of human + Polity, and the feat of all feats in political engineering:—impossible + for us, in this poor age, as the building of St. Paul's would be for + Canadian Beavers, acquainted only with the architecture of fish-dams, and + with no trowel but their tail. + </p> + <p> + Literature, the strange entity so called,—that indeed is here. If + Literature continue to be the haven of expatriated spiritualisms, and have + its Johnsons, Goethes and <i>true</i> Archbishops of the World, to show + for itself as heretofore, there may be hope in Literature. If Literature + dwindle, as is probable, into mere merry-andrewism, windy twaddle, and + feats of spiritual legerdemain, analogous to rope-dancing, opera-dancing, + and street-fiddling with a hat carried round for halfpence, or for + guineas, there will be no hope in Literature. What if our next set of + Souls'-Overseers were to be <i>silent</i> ones very mainly?—Alas, + alas, why gaze into the blessed continents and delectable mountains of a + Future based on <i>truth</i>, while as yet we struggle far down, nigh + suffocated in a slough of lies, uncertain whether or how we shall be able + to climb at all! + </p> + <p> + Who will begin the long steep journey with us; who of living statesmen + will snatch the standard, and say, like a hero on the forlorn-hope for his + country, Forward! Or is there none; no one that can and dare? And our lot + too, then, is Anarchy by barricade or ballot-box, and Social Death?—We + will not think so. + </p> + <p> + Whether Sir Robert Peel will undertake the Reform of Downing Street for + us, or any Ministry or Reform farther, is not known. He, they say, is + getting old, does himself recoil from it, and shudder at it; which is + possible enough. The clubs and coteries appear to have settled that he + surely will not; that this melancholy wriggling seesaw of red-tape Trojans + and Protectionist Greeks must continue its course till—what <i>can</i> + happen, my friends, if this go on continuing? + </p> + <p> + And yet, perhaps, England has by no means so settled it. Quit the clubs + and coteries, you do not hear two rational men speak long together upon + politics, without pointing their inquiries towards this man. A Minister + that will attack the Augeas Stable of Downing Street, and begin producing + a real Management, no longer an imaginary one, of our affairs; <i>he</i>, + or else in few years Chartist Parliament and the Deluge come: that seems + the alternative. As I read the omens, there was no man in my time more + authentically called to a post of difficulty, of danger, and of honor than + this man. The enterprise is ready for him, if he is ready for it. He has + but to lift his finger in this enterprise, and whatsoever is wise and + manful in England will rally round him. If the faculty and heart for it be + in him, he, strangely and almost tragically if we look upon his history, + is to have leave to try it; he now, at the eleventh hour, has the + opportunity for such a feat in reform as has not, in these late + generations, been attempted by all our reformers put together. + </p> + <p> + As for Protectionist jargon, who in these earnest days would occupy many + moments of his time with that? "A Costermonger in this street," says + Crabbe, "finding lately that his rope of onions, which he hoped would have + brought a shilling, was to go for only sevenpence henceforth, burst forth + into lamentation, execration and the most pathetic tears. Throwing up the + window, I perceived the other costermongers preparing impatiently to pack + this one out of their company as a disgrace to it, if he would not hold + his peace and take the market-rate for his onions. I looked better at this + Costermonger. To my astonished imagination, a star-and-garter dawned upon + the dim figure of the man; and I perceived that here was no Costermonger + to be expelled with ignominy, but a sublime goddess-born Ducal Individual, + whom I forbear to name at this moment! What an omen;—nay to my + astonished imagination, there dawned still fataler omens. Surely, of all + human trades ever heard of, the trade of Owning Land in England ought <i>not</i> + to bully us for drink—money just now!" + </p> + <p> + "Hansard's Debates," continues Crabbe farther on, "present many + inconsistencies of speech; lamentable unveracities uttered in Parliament, + by one and indeed by all; in which sad list Sir Robert Peel stands for his + share among others. Unveracities not a few were spoken in Parliament: in + fact, to one with a sense of what is called God's truth, it seemed all one + unveracity, a talking from the teeth outward, not as the convictions but + as the expediencies and inward astucities directed; and, in the sense of + God's <i>truth</i>, I have heard no true word uttered in Parliament at + all. Most lamentable unveracities continually <i>spoken</i> in Parliament, + by almost every one that had to open his mouth there. But the largest + veracity ever <i>done</i> in Parliament in our time, as we all know, was + of this man's doing;—and that, you will find, is a very considerable + item in the calculation!" + </p> + <p> + Yes, and I believe England in her dumb way remembers that too. And "the + Traitor Peel" can very well afford to let innumerable Ducal Costermongers, + parliamentary Adventurers, and lineal representatives of the Impenitent + Thief, say all their say about him, and do all their do. With a virtual + England at his back, and an actual eternal sky above him, there is not + much in the total net-amount of that. When the master of the horse rides + abroad, many dogs in the village bark; but he pursues his journey all the + same. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + No. V. STUMP-ORATOR. [May 1, 1850.] + </h2> + <p> + It lies deep in our habits, confirmed by all manner of educational and + other arrangements for several centuries back, to consider human talent as + best of all evincing itself by the faculty of eloquent speech. Our + earliest schoolmasters teach us, as the one gift of culture they have, the + art of spelling and pronouncing, the rules of correct speech; rhetorics, + logics follow, sublime mysteries of grammar, whereby we may not only speak + but write. And onward to the last of our schoolmasters in the highest + university, it is still intrinsically grammar, under various figures + grammar. To speak in various languages, on various things, but on all of + them to speak, and appropriately deliver ourselves by tongue or pen,—this + is the sublime goal towards which all manner of beneficent preceptors and + learned professors, from the lowest hornbook upwards, are continually + urging and guiding us. Preceptor or professor, looking over his miraculous + seedplot, seminary as he well calls it, or crop of young human souls, + watches with attentive view one organ of his delightful little seedlings + growing to be men,—the tongue. He hopes we shall all get to speak + yet, if it please Heaven. "Some of you shall be book-writers, eloquent + review-writers, and astonish mankind, my young friends: others in white + neckcloths shall do sermons by Blair and Lindley Murray, nay by Jeremy + Taylor and judicious Hooker, and be priests to guide men heavenward by + skilfully brandished handkerchief and the torch of rhetoric. For others + there is Parliament and the election beer-barrel, and a course that leads + men very high indeed; these shall shake the senate-house, the Morning + Newspapers, shake the very spheres, and by dexterous wagging of the tongue + disenthrall mankind, and lead our afflicted country and us on the way we + are to go. The way if not where noble deeds are done, yet where noble + words are spoken,—leading us if not to the real Home of the Gods, at + least to something which shall more or less deceptively resemble it!" + </p> + <p> + So fares it with the son of Adam, in these bewildered epochs; so, from the + first opening of his eyes in this world, to his last closing of them, and + departure hence. Speak, speak, oh speak;—if thou have any faculty, + speak it, or thou diest and it is no faculty! So in universities, and all + manner of dames' and other schools, of the very highest class as of the + very lowest; and Society at large, when we enter there, confirms with all + its brilliant review-articles, successful publications, intellectual + tea-circles, literary gazettes, parliamentary eloquences, the grand lesson + we had. Other lesson in fact we have none, in these times. If there be a + human talent, let it get into the tongue, and make melody with that organ. + The talent that can say nothing for itself, what is it? Nothing; or a + thing that can do mere drudgeries, and at best make money by railways. + </p> + <p> + All this is deep-rooted in our habits, in our social, educational and + other arrangements; and all this, when we look at it impartially, is + astonishing. Directly in the teeth of all this it may be asserted that + speaking is by no means the chief faculty a human being can attain to; + that his excellence therein is by no means the best test of his general + human excellence, or availability in this world; nay that, unless we look + well, it is liable to become the very worst test ever devised for said + availability. The matter extends very far, down to the very roots of the + world, whither the British reader cannot conveniently follow me just now; + but I will venture to assert the three following things, and invite him to + consider well what truth he can gradually find in them:— + </p> + <p> + First, that excellent speech, even speech <i>really</i> excellent, is not, + and never was, the chief test of human faculty, or the measure of a man's + ability, for any true function whatsoever; on the contrary, that excellent + <i>silence</i> needed always to accompany excellent speech, and was and is + a much rarer and more difficult gift. + </p> + <p> + <i>Secondly</i>, that really excellent speech—which I, being + possessed of the Hebrew Bible or Book, as well as of other books in my own + and foreign languages, and having occasionally heard a wise man's word + among the crowd of unwise, do almost unspeakably esteem, as a human gift—is + terribly apt to get confounded with its counterfeit, sham-excellent + speech! And furthermore, that if really excellent human speech is among + the best of human things, then sham-excellent ditto deserves to be ranked + with the very worst. False speech,—capable of becoming, as some one + has said, the falsest and basest of all human things:—put the case, + one were listening to <i>that</i> as to the truest and noblest! Which, + little as we are conscious of it, I take to be the sad lot of many + excellent souls among us just now. So many as admire parliamentary + eloquence, divine popular literature, and such like, are dreadfully liable + to it just now: and whole nations and generations seem as if getting + themselves <i>asphyxiaed</i>, constitutionally into their last sleep, by + means of it just now! + </p> + <p> + For alas, much as we worship speech on all hands, here is a <i>third</i> + assertion which a man may venture to make, and invite considerate men to + reflect upon: That in these times, and for several generations back, there + has been, strictly considered, no really excellent speech at all, but + sham-excellent merely; that is to say, false or quasi-false speech getting + itself admired and worshipped, instead of detested and suppressed. A truly + alarming predicament; and not the less so if we find it a quite pleasant + one for the time being, and welcome the advent of asphyxia, as we would + that of comfortable natural sleep;—as, in so many senses, we are + doing! Surly judges there have been who did not much admire the "Bible of + Modern Literature," or anything you could distil from it, in contrast with + the ancient Bibles; and found that in the matter of speaking, our far best + excellence, where that could be obtained, was excellent silence, which + means endurance and exertion, and good work with lips closed; and that our + tolerablest speech was of the nature of honest commonplace introduced + where indispensable, which only set up for being brief and true, and could + not be mistaken for excellent. + </p> + <p> + These are hard sayings for many a British reader, unconscious of any + damage, nay joyfully conscious to himself of much profit, from that side + of his possessions. Surely on this side, if on no other, matters stood not + ill with him? The ingenuous arts had softened his manners; the + parliamentary eloquences supplied him with a succedaneum for government, + the popular literatures with the finer sensibilities of the heart: surely + on this <i>wind</i>ward side of things the British reader was not ill off?—Unhappy + British reader! + </p> + <p> + In fact, the spiritual detriment we unconsciously suffer, in every + province of our affairs, from this our prostrate respect to power of + speech is incalculable. For indeed it is the natural consummation of an + epoch such as ours. Given a general insincerity of mind for several + generations, you will certainly find the Talker established in the place + of honor; and the Doer, hidden in the obscure crowd, with activity lamed, + or working sorrowfully forward on paths unworthy of him. All men are + devoutly prostrate, worshipping the eloquent talker; and no man knows what + a scandalous idol he is. Out of whom in the mildest manner, like + comfortable natural rest, comes mere asphyxia and death everlasting! + Probably there is not in Nature a more distracted phantasm than your + commonplace eloquent speaker, as he is found on platforms, in parliaments, + on Kentucky stumps, at tavern-dinners, in windy, empty, insincere times + like ours. The "excellent Stump-orator," as our admiring Yankee friends + define him, he who in any occurrent set of circumstances can start forth, + mount upon his "stump," his rostrum, tribune, place in parliament, or + other ready elevation, and pour forth from him his appropriate "excellent + speech," his interpretation of the said circumstances, in such manner as + poor windy mortals round him shall cry bravo to,—he is not an artist + I can much admire, as matters go! Alas, he is in general merely the + windiest mortal of them all; and is admired for being so, into the + bargain. Not a windy blockhead there who kept silent but is better off + than this excellent stump-orator. Better off, for a great many reasons; + for this reason, were there no other: the silent one is not admired; the + silent suspects, perhaps partly admits, that he is a kind of blockhead, + from which salutary self-knowledge the excellent stump-orator is debarred. + A mouthpiece of Chaos to poor benighted mortals that lend ear to him as to + a voice from Cosmos, this excellent stump-orator fills me with amazement. + Not empty these musical wind-utterances of his; they are big with + prophecy; they announce, too audibly to me, that the end of many things is + drawing nigh! + </p> + <p> + Let the British reader consider it a little; he too is not a little + interested in it. Nay he, and the European reader in general, but he + chiefly in these days, will require to consider it a great deal,—and + to take important steps in consequence by and by, if I mistake not. And in + the mean while, sunk as he himself is in that bad element, and like a + jaundiced man struggling to discriminate yellow colors,—he will have + to meditate long before he in any measure get the immense meanings of the + thing brought home to him; and discern, with astonishment, alarm, and + almost terror and despair, towards what fatal issues, in our Collective + Wisdom and elsewhere, this notion of talent meaning eloquent speech, so + obstinately entertained this long while, has been leading us! Whosoever + shall look well into origins and issues, will find this of eloquence and + the part it now plays in our affairs, to be one of the gravest phenomena; + and the excellent stump-orator of these days to be not only a ridiculous + but still more a highly tragical personage. While the many listen to him, + the few are used to pass rapidly, with some gust of scornful laughter, + some growl of impatient malediction; but he deserves from this latter + class a much more serious attention. + </p> + <p> + In the old Ages, when Universities and Schools were first instituted, this + function of the schoolmaster, to teach mere speaking, was the natural one. + In those healthy times, guided by silent instincts and the monition of + Nature, men had from of old been used to teach themselves what it was + essential to learn, by the one sure method of learning anything, practical + apprenticeship to it. This was the rule for all classes; as it now is the + rule, unluckily, for only one class. The Working Man as yet sought only to + know his craft; and educated himself sufficiently by ploughing and + hammering, under the conditions given, and in fit relation to the persons + given: a course of education, then as now and ever, really opulent in + manful culture and instruction to him; teaching him many solid virtues, + and most indubitably useful knowledges; developing in him valuable + faculties not a few both to do and to endure,—among which the + faculty of elaborate grammatical utterance, seeing he had so little of + extraordinary to utter, or to learn from spoken or written utterances, was + not bargained for; the grammar of Nature, which he learned from his + mother, being still amply sufficient for him. This was, as it still is, + the grand education of the Working Man. + </p> + <p> + As for the Priest, though his trade was clearly of a reading and speaking + nature, he knew also in those veracious times that grammar, if needful, + was by no means the one thing needful, or the chief thing. By far the + chief thing needful, and indeed the one thing then as now, was, That there + should be in him the feeling and the practice of reverence to God and to + men; that in his life's core there should dwell, spoken or silent, a ray + of pious wisdom fit for illuminating dark human destinies;—not so + much that he should possess the art of speech, as that he should have + something to speak! And for that latter requisite the Priest also trained + himself by apprenticeship, by actual attempt to practise, by manifold + long-continued trial, of a devout and painful nature, such as his + superiors prescribed to him. This, when once judged satisfactory, procured + him ordination; and his grammar-learning, in the good times of priesthood, + was very much of a parergon with him, as indeed in all times it is + intrinsically quite insignificant in comparison. + </p> + <p> + The young Noble again, for whom grammar schoolmasters were first hired and + high seminaries founded, he too without these, or above and over these, + had from immemorial time been used to learn his business by + apprenticeship. The young Noble, before the schoolmaster as after him, + went apprentice to some elder noble; entered himself as page with some + distinguished earl or duke; and here, serving upwards from step to step, + under wise monition, learned his chivalries, his practice of arms and of + courtesies, his baronial duties and manners, and what it would beseem him + to do and to be in the world,—by practical attempt of his own, and + example of one whose life was a daily concrete pattern for him. To such a + one, already filled with intellectual substance, and possessing what we + may call the practical gold-bullion of human culture, it was an obvious + improvement that he should be taught to speak it out of him on occasion; + that he should carry a spiritual banknote producible on demand for what of + "gold-bullion" he had, not so negotiable otherwise, stored in the cellars + of his mind. A man, with wisdom, insight and heroic worth already acquired + for him, naturally demanded of the schoolmaster this one new faculty, the + faculty of uttering in fit words what he had. A valuable superaddition of + faculty:—and yet we are to remember it was scarcely a new faculty; + it was but the tangible sign of what other faculties the man had in the + silent state: and many a rugged inarticulate chief of men, I can believe, + was most enviably "educated," who had not a Book on his premises; whose + signature, a true sign-<i>manual</i>, was the stamp of his iron hand duly + inked and clapt upon the parchment; and whose speech in Parliament, like + the growl of lions, did indeed convey his meaning, but would have torn + Lindley Murray's nerves to pieces! To such a one the schoolmaster adjusted + himself very naturally in that manner; as a man wanted for teaching + grammatical utterance; the thing to utter being already there. The thing + to utter, here was the grand point! And perhaps this is the reason why + among earnest nations, as among the Romans for example, the craft of the + schoolmaster was held in little regard; for indeed as mere teacher of + grammar, of ciphering on the abacus and such like, how did he differ much + from the dancing-master or fencing-master, or deserve much regard?—Such + was the rule in the ancient healthy times. + </p> + <p> + Can it be doubtful that this is still the rule of human education; that + the human creature needs first of all to be educated not that he may + speak, but that he may have something weighty and valuable to say! If + speech is the bank-note of an inward capital of culture, of insight and + noble human worth, then speech is precious, and the art of speech shall be + honored. But if there is no inward capital; if speech represent no real + culture of the mind, but an imaginary culture; no bullion, but the fatal + and now almost hopeless deficit of such? Alas, alas, said bank-note is + then a <i>forged</i> one; passing freely current in the market; but + bringing damages to the receiver, to the payer, and to all the world, + which are in sad truth infallible, and of amount incalculable. Few think + of it at present; but the truth remains forever so. In parliaments and + other loud assemblages, your eloquent talk, disunited from Nature and her + facts, is taken as wisdom and the correct image of said facts: but Nature + well knows what it is, Nature will not have it as such, and will reject + your forged note one day, with huge costs. The foolish traders in the + market pass freely, nothing doubting, and rejoice in the dexterous + execution of the piece: and so it circulates from hand to hand, and from + class to class; gravitating ever downwards towards the practical class; + till at last it reaches some poor <i>working</i> hand, who can pass it no + farther, but must take it to the bank to get bread with it, and there the + answer is, "Unhappy caitiff, this note is forged. It does not mean + performance and reality, in parliaments and elsewhere, for thy behoof; it + means fallacious semblance of performance; and thou, poor dupe, art thrown + into the stocks on offering it here!" + </p> + <p> + Alas, alas, looking abroad over Irish difficulties, Mosaic + sweating-establishments, French barricades, and an anarchic Europe, is it + not as if all the populations of the world were rising or had risen into + incendiary madness;—unable longer to endure such an avalanche of + forgeries, and of penalties in consequence, as had accumulated upon them? + The speaker is "excellent;" the notes he does are beautiful? Beautifully + fit for the market, yes; <i>he</i> is an excellent artist in his business;—and + the more excellent he is, the more is my desire to lay him by the heels, + and fling <i>him</i> into the treadmill, that I might save the poor + sweating tailors, French Sansculottes, and Irish Sanspotatoes from bearing + the smart! + </p> + <p> + For the smart must be borne; some one must bear it, as sure as God lives. + Every word of man is either a note or a forged note:—have these + eternal skies forgotten to be in earnest, think you, because men go + grinning like enchanted apes? Foolish souls, this now as of old is the + unalterable law of your existence. If you know the truth and do it, the + Universe itself seconds you, bears you on to sure victory everywhere:—and, + observe, to sure defeat everywhere if you do not do the truth. And alas, + if you <i>know</i> only the eloquent fallacious semblance of the truth, + what chance is there of your ever doing it? You will do something very + different from it, I think!—He who well considers, will find this + same "art of speech," as we moderns have it, to be a truly astonishing + product of the Ages; and the longer he considers it, the more astonishing + and alarming. I reckon it the saddest of all the curses that now lie heavy + on us. With horror and amazement, one perceives that this much-celebrated + "art," so diligently practised in all corners of the world just now, is + the chief destroyer of whatever good is born to us (softly, swiftly + shutting up all nascent good, as if under exhausted glass receivers, there + to choke and die); and the grand parent manufactory of evil to us,—as + it were, the last finishing and varnishing workshop of all the Devil's + ware that circulates under the sun. No Devil's sham is fit for the market + till it have been polished and enamelled here; this is the general + assaying-house for such, where the artists examine and answer, "Fit for + the market; not fit!" Words will not express what mischiefs the misuse of + words has done, and is doing, in these heavy-laden generations. + </p> + <p> + Do you want a man <i>not</i> to practise what he believes, then encourage + him to keep often speaking it in words. Every time he speaks it, the + tendency to do it will grow less. His empty speech of what he believes, + will be a weariness and an affliction to the wise man. But do you wish his + empty speech of what he believes, to become farther an insincere speech of + what he does not believe? Celebrate to him his gift of speech; assure him + that he shall rise in Parliament by means of it, and achieve great things + without any performance; that eloquent speech, whether performed or not, + is admirable. My friends, eloquent unperformed speech, in Parliament or + elsewhere, is horrible! The eloquent man that delivers, in Parliament or + elsewhere, a beautiful speech, and will perform nothing of it, but leaves + it as if already performed,—what can you make of that man? He has + enrolled himself among the <i>Ignes Fatui</i> and Children of the Wind; + means to serve, as beautifully illuminated Chinese Lantern, in that corps + henceforth. I think, the serviceable thing you could do to that man, if + permissible, would be a severe one: To clip off a bit of his eloquent + tongue by way of penance and warning; another bit, if he again spoke + without performing; and so again, till you had clipt the whole tongue away + from him,—and were delivered, you and he, from at least one + miserable mockery: "There, eloquent friend, see now in silence if there be + any redeeming deed in thee; of blasphemous wind-eloquence, at least, we + shall have no more!" How many pretty men have gone this road, escorted by + the beautifulest marching music from all the "public organs;" and have + found at last that it ended—where? It is the <i>broad</i> road, that + leads direct to Limbo and the Kingdom of the Inane. Gifted men, and once + valiant nations, and as it were the whole world with one accord, are + marching thither, in melodious triumph, all the drums and hautboys giving + out their cheerfulest <i>Ca-ira</i>. It is the universal humor of the + world just now. My friends, I am very sure you will <i>arrive</i>, unless + you halt!— + </p> + <p> + Considered as the last finish of education, or of human culture, worth and + acquirement, the art of speech is noble, and even divine; it is like the + kindling of a Heaven's light to show us what a glorious world exists, and + has perfected itself, in a man. But if no world exist in the man; if + nothing but continents of empty vapor, of greedy self-conceits, + common-place hearsays, and indistinct loomings of a sordid <i>chaos</i> + exist in him, what will be the use of "light" to show us that? Better a + thousand times that such a man do not speak; but keep his empty vapor and + his sordid chaos to himself, hidden to the utmost from all beholders. To + look on that, can be good for no human beholder; to look away from that, + must be good. And if, by delusive semblances of rhetoric, logic, + first-class degrees, and the aid of elocution-masters and parliamentary + reporters, the poor proprietor of said chaos should be led to persuade + himself, and get others persuaded,—which it is the nature of his sad + task to do, and which, in certain eras of the world, it is fatally + possible to do,—that this is a cosmos which he owns; that <i>he</i>, + being so perfect in tongue-exercise and full of college-honors, is an + "educated" man, and pearl of great price in his generation; that round + him, and his parliament emulously listening to him, as round some divine + apple of gold set in a picture of silver, all the world should gather to + adore: what is likely to become of him and the gathering world? An apple + of Sodom set in the clusters of Gomorrah: that, little as he suspects it, + is the definition of the poor chaotically eloquent man, with his emulous + parliament and miserable adoring world!—Considered as the whole of + education, or human culture, which it now is in our modern manners; all + apprenticeship except to mere handicraft having fallen obsolete, and the + "educated man" being with us emphatically and exclusively the man that can + speak well with tongue or pen, and astonish men by the quantities of + speech he has <i>heard</i> ("tremendous <i>reader</i>," "walking + encyclopaedia," and such like),—the Art of Speech is probably + definable in that case as the short summary of all the Black Arts put + together. + </p> + <p> + But the Schoolmaster is secondary, an effect rather than a cause in this + matter: what the Schoolmaster with his universities shall manage or + attempt to teach will be ruled by what the Society with its practical + industries is continually demanding that men should learn. We spoke once + of vital lungs for Society: and in fact this question always rises as the + alpha and omega of social questions, What methods the Society has of + summoning aloft into the high places, for its help and governance, the + wisdom that is born to it in all places, and of course is born chiefly in + the more populous or lower places? For this, if you will consider it, + expresses the ultimate available result, and net sum-total, of all the + efforts, struggles and confused activities that go on in the Society; and + determines whether they are true and wise efforts, certain to be + victorious, or false and foolish, certain to be futile, and to fall + captive and caitiff. How do men rise in your Society? In all Societies, + Turkey included, and I suppose Dahomey included, men do rise; but the + question of questions always is, What kind of men? Men of noble gifts, or + men of ignoble? It is the one or the other; and a life-and-death inquiry + which! For in all places and all times, little as you may heed it, Nature + most silently but most inexorably demands that it be the one and not the + other. And you need not try to palm an ignoble sham upon her, and call it + noble; for she is a judge. And her penalties, as quiet as she looks, are + terrible: amounting to world-earthquakes, to anarchy and death + everlasting; and admit of no appeal!— + </p> + <p> + Surely England still flatters herself that she has lungs; that she can + still breathe a little? Or is it that the poor creature, driven into mere + blind industrialisms; and as it were, gone pearl-diving this long while + many fathoms deep, and tearing up the oyster-beds so as never creature did + before, hardly knows,—so busy in the belly of the oyster chaos, + where is no thought of "breathing,"—whether she has lungs or not? + Nations of a robust habit, and fine deep chest, can sometimes take in a + deal of breath <i>before</i> diving; and live long, in the muddy deeps, + without new breath: but they too come to need it at last, and will die if + they cannot get it! + </p> + <p> + To the gifted soul that is born in England, what is the career, then, that + will carry him, amid noble Olympic dust, up to the immortal gods? For his + country's sake, that it may not lose the service he was born capable of + doing it; for his own sake, that his life be not choked and perverted, and + his light from Heaven be not changed into lightning from the Other Place,—it + is essential that there be such a career. The country that can offer no + career in that case, is a doomed country; nay it is already a dead + country: it has secured the ban of Heaven upon it; will not have Heaven's + light, will have the Other Place's lightning; and may consider itself as + appointed to expire, in frightful coughings of street musketry or + otherwise, on a set day, and to be in the eye of law dead. In no country + is there not some career, inviting to it either the noble Hero, or the + tough Greek of the Lower Empire: which of the two do your careers invite? + There is no question more important. The kind of careers you offer in + countries still living, determines with perfect exactness the kind of the + life that is in them,—whether it is natural blessed life, or + galvanic accursed ditto, and likewise what degree of strength is in the + same. + </p> + <p> + Our English careers to born genius are twofold. There is the silent or + unlearned career of the Industrialisms, which are very many among us; and + there is the articulate or learned career of the three professions, + Medicine, Law (under which we may include Politics), and the Church. Your + born genius, therefore, will first have to ask himself, Whether he can + hold his tongue or cannot? True, all human talent, especially all deep + talent, is a talent to <i>do</i>, and is intrinsically of silent nature; + inaudible, like the Sphere Harmonies and Eternal Melodies, of which it is + an incarnated fraction. All real talent, I fancy, would much rather, if it + listened only to Nature's monitions, express itself in rhythmic facts than + in melodious words, which latter at best, where they are good for + anything, are only a feeble echo and shadow or foreshadow of the former. + But talents differ much in this of power to be silent; and circumstances, + of position, opportunity and such like, modify them still more;—and + Nature's monitions, oftenest quite drowned in foreign hearsays, are by no + means the only ones listened to in deciding!—The Industrialisms are + all of silent nature; and some of them are heroic and eminently human; + others, again, we may call unheroic, not eminently human: <i>beaverish</i> + rather, but still honest; some are even <i>vulpine</i>, altogether inhuman + and dishonest. Your born genius must make his choice. + </p> + <p> + If a soul is born with divine intelligence, and has its lips touched with + hallowed fire, in consecration for high enterprises under the sun, this + young soul will find the question asked of him by England every hour and + moment: "Canst thou turn thy human intelligence into the beaver sort, and + make honest contrivance, and accumulation of capital by it? If so, do it; + and avoid the vulpine kind, which I don't recommend. Honest triumphs in + engineering and machinery await thee; scrip awaits thee, commercial + successes, kingship in the counting-room, on the stock-exchange;—thou + shalt be the envy of surrounding flunkies, and collect into a heap more + gold than a dray-horse can draw."—"Gold, so much gold?" answers the + ingenuous soul, with visions of the envy of surrounding flunkies dawning + on him; and in very many cases decides that he will contract himself into + beaverism, and with such a horse-draught of gold, emblem of a + never-imagined success in beaver heroism, strike the surrounding flunkies + yellow. + </p> + <p> + This is our common course; this is in some sort open to every creature, + what we call the beaver career; perhaps more open in England, taking in + America too, than it ever was in any country before. And, truly, good + consequences follow out of it: who can be blind to them? Half of a most + excellent and opulent result is realized to us in this way; baleful only + when it sets up (as too often now) for being the whole result. A + half-result which will be blessed and heavenly so soon as the other half + is had,—namely wisdom to guide the first half. Let us honor all + honest human power of contrivance in its degree. The beaver intellect, so + long as it steadfastly refuses to be vulpine, and answers the tempter + pointing out short routes to it with an honest "No, no," is truly + respectable to me; and many a highflying speaker and singer whom I have + known, has appeared to me much less of a developed man than certain of my + mill-owning, agricultural, commercial, mechanical, or otherwise industrial + friends, who have held their peace all their days and gone on in the + silent state. If a man can keep his intellect silent, and make it even + into honest beaverism, several very manful moralities, in danger of wreck + on other courses, may comport well with that, and give it a genuine and + partly human character; and I will tell him, in these days he may do far + worse with himself and his intellect than change it into beaverism, and + make honest money with it. If indeed he could become a <i>heroic</i> + industrial, and have a life "eminently human"! But that is not easy at + present. Probably some ninety-nine out of every hundred of our gifted + souls, who have to seek a career for themselves, go this beaver road. + Whereby the first half-result, national wealth namely, is plentifully + realized; and only the second half, or wisdom to guide it, is dreadfully + behindhand. + </p> + <p> + But now if the gifted soul be not of taciturn nature, be of vivid, + impatient, rapidly productive nature, and aspire much to give itself + sensible utterance,—I find that, in this case, the field it has in + England is narrow to an extreme; is perhaps narrower than ever offered + itself, for the like object, in this world before. Parliament, Church, + Law: let the young vivid soul turn whither he will for a career, he finds + among variable conditions one condition invariable, and extremely + surprising, That the proof of excellence is to be done by the tongue. For + heroism that will not speak, but only act, there is no account kept:—The + English Nation does not need that silent kind, then, but only the talking + kind? Most astonishing. Of all the organs a man has, there is none held in + account, it would appear, but the tongue he uses for talking. Premiership, + woolsack, mitre, and quasi-crown: all is attainable if you can talk with + due ability. Everywhere your proof-shot is to be a well-fired volley of + talk. Contrive to talk well, you will get to Heaven, the modern Heaven of + the English. Do not talk well, only work well, and heroically hold your + peace, you have no chance whatever to get thither; with your utmost + industry you may get to Threadneedle Street, and accumulate more gold than + a dray-horse can draw. Is not this a very wonderful arrangement? + </p> + <p> + I have heard of races done by mortals tied in sacks; of human competitors, + high aspirants, climbing heavenward on the soaped pole; seizing the soaped + pig; and clutching with cleft fist, at full gallop, the fated goose tied + aloft by its foot;—which feats do prove agility, toughness and other + useful faculties in man: but this of dexterous talk is probably as strange + a competition as any. And the question rises, Whether certain of these + other feats, or perhaps an alternation of all of them, relieved now and + then by a bout of grinning through the collar, might not be profitably + substituted for the solitary proof-feat of talk, now getting rather + monotonous by its long continuance? Alas, Mr. Bull, I do find it is all + little other than a proof of toughness, which is a quality I respect, with + more or less expenditure of falsity and astucity superadded, which I + entirely condemn. Toughness <i>plus</i> astucity:—perhaps a simple + wooden mast set up in Palace-Yard, well soaped and duly presided over, + might be the honester method? Such a method as this by trial of talk, for + filling your chief offices in Church and State, was perhaps never heard of + in the solar system before. You are quite used to it, my poor friend; and + nearly dead by the consequences of it: but in the other Planets, as in + other epochs of your own Planet it would have done had you proposed it, + the thing awakens incredulous amazement, world-wide Olympic laughter, + which ends in tempestuous hootings, in tears and horror! My friend, if you + can, as heretofore this good while, find nobody to take care of your + affairs but the expertest talker, it is all over with your affairs and + you. Talk never yet could guide any man's or nation's affairs; nor will it + yours, except towards the <i>Limbus Patrum</i>, where all talk, except a + very select kind of it, lodges at last. + </p> + <p> + Medicine, guarded too by preliminary impediments, and frightful + medusa-heads of quackery, which deter many generous souls from entering, + is of the <i>half</i>-articulate professions, and does not much invite the + ardent kinds of ambition. The intellect required for medicine might be + wholly human, and indeed should by all rules be,—the profession of + the Human Healer being radically a sacred one and connected with the + highest priesthoods, or rather being itself the outcome and acme of all + priesthoods, and divinest conquests of intellect here below. As will + appear one day, when men take off their old monastic and ecclesiastic + spectacles, and look with eyes again! In essence the Physician's task is + always heroic, eminently human: but in practice most unluckily at present + we find it too become in good part <i>beaverish</i>; yielding a + money-result alone. And what of it is not beaverish,—does not that + too go mainly to ingenious talking, publishing of yourself, ingratiating + of yourself; a partly human exercise or waste of intellect, and alas a + partly vulpine ditto;—making the once sacred [Gr.] <i>'Iatros</i>, + or Human Healer, more impossible for us than ever! + </p> + <p> + Angry basilisks watch at the gates of Law and Church just now; and strike + a sad damp into the nobler of the young aspirants. Hard bonds are offered + you to sign; as it were, a solemn engagement to constitute yourself an + impostor, before ever entering; to declare your belief in incredibilities,—your + determination, in short, to take Chaos for Cosmos, and Satan for the Lord + of things, if he come with money in his pockets, and horsehair and + bombazine decently wrapt about him. Fatal preliminaries, which deter many + an ingenuous young soul, and send him back from the threshold, and I hope + will deter ever more. But if you do enter, the condition is well known: + "Talk; who can talk best here? His shall be the mouth of gold, and the + purse of gold; and with my [Gr.] <i>mitra</i> (once the head-dress of + unfortunate females, I am told) shall his sacred temples be begirt." + </p> + <p> + Ingenuous souls, unless forced to it, do now much shudder at the threshold + of both these careers, and not a few desperately turn back into the + wilderness rather, to front a very rude fortune, and be devoured by wild + beasts as is likeliest. But as to Parliament, again, and its eligibility + if attainable, there is yet no question anywhere; the ingenuous soul, if + possessed of money-capital enough, is predestined by the parental and all + manner of monitors to that career of talk; and accepts it with alacrity + and clearness of heart, doubtful only whether he shall be <i>able</i> to + make a speech. Courage, my brave young fellow. If you can climb a soaped + pole of any kind, you will certainly be able to make a speech. All mortals + have a tongue; and carry on some jumble, if not of thought, yet of stuff + which they could talk. The weakest of animals has got a cry in it, and can + give voice before dying. If you are tough enough, bent upon it desperately + enough, I engage you shall make a speech;—but whether that will be + the way to Heaven for you, I do not engage. + </p> + <p> + These, then, are our two careers for genius: mute Industrialism, which can + seldom become very human, but remains beaverish mainly: and the three + Professions named learned,—that is to say, able to talk. For the + heroic or higher kinds of human intellect, in the silent state, there is + not the smallest inquiry anywhere; apparently a thing not wanted in this + country at present. What the supply may be, I cannot inform M'Croudy; but + the market-demand, he may himself see, is <i>nil</i>. These are our three + professions that require human intellect in part or whole, not able to do + with mere beaverish; and such a part does the gift of talk play in one and + all of them. Whatsoever is not beaverish seems to go forth in the shape of + talk. To such length is human intellect wasted or suppressed in this + world! + </p> + <p> + If the young aspirant is not rich enough for Parliament, and is deterred + by the basilisks or otherwise from entering on Law or Church, and cannot + altogether reduce his human intellect to the beaverish condition, or + satisfy himself with the prospect of making money,—what becomes of + him in such case, which is naturally the case of very many, and ever of + more? In such case there remains but one outlet for him, and notably + enough that too is a talking one: the outlet of Literature, of trying to + write Books. Since, owing to preliminary basilisks, want of cash, or + superiority to cash, he cannot mount aloft by eloquent talking, let him + try it by dexterous eloquent writing. Here happily, having three fingers, + and capital to buy a quire of paper, he can try it to all lengths and in + spite of all mortals: in this career there is happily no public impediment + that can turn him back; nothing but private starvation—which is + itself a <i>finis</i> or kind of goal—can pretend to hinder a + British man from prosecuting Literature to the very utmost, and wringing + the final secret from her: "A talent is in thee; No talent is in thee." To + the British subject who fancies genius may be lodged in him, this liberty + remains; and truly it is, if well computed, almost the only one he has. + </p> + <p> + A crowded portal this of Literature, accordingly! The haven of expatriated + spiritualisms, and alas also of expatriated vanities and prurient + imbecilities: here do the windy aspirations, foiled activities, foolish + ambitions, and frustrate human energies reduced to the vocable condition, + fly as to the one refuge left; and the Republic of Letters increases in + population at a faster rate than even the Republic of America. The + strangest regiment in her Majesty's service, this of the Soldiers of + Literature:—would your Lordship much like to march through Coventry + with them? The immortal gods are there (quite irrecognizable under these + disguises), and also the lowest broken valets;—an extremely + miscellaneous regiment. In fact the regiment, superficially viewed, looks + like an immeasurable motley flood of discharged play-actors, funambulists, + false prophets, drunken ballad-singers; and marches not as a regiment, but + as a boundless canaille,—without drill, uniform, captaincy or + billet; with huge over-proportion of drummers; you would say, a regiment + gone wholly to the drum, with hardly a good musket to be seen in it,—more + a canaille than a regiment. Canaille of all the loud-sounding levities, + and general winnowings of Chaos, marching through the world in a most + ominous manner; proclaiming, audibly if you have ears: "Twelfth hour of + the Night; ancient graves yawning; pale clammy Puseyisms screeching in + their winding-sheets; owls busy in the City regions; many goblins abroad! + Awake ye living; dream no more; arise to judgment! Chaos and Gehenna are + broken loose; the Devil with his Bedlams must be flung in chains again, + and the Last of the Days is about to dawn!" Such is Literature to the + reflective soul at this moment. + </p> + <p> + But what now concerns us most is the circumstance that here too the demand + is, Vocables, still vocables. In all appointed courses of activity and + paved careers for human genius, and in this unpaved, unappointed, broadest + career of Literature, broad way that leadeth to destruction for so many, + the one duty laid upon you is still, Talk, talk. Talk well with pen or + tongue, and it shall be well with you; do not talk well, it shall be ill + with you. To wag the tongue with dexterous acceptability, there is for + human worth and faculty, in our England of the Nineteenth Century, that + one method of emergence and no other. Silence, you would say, means + annihilation for the Englishman of the Nineteenth Century. The worth that + has not spoken itself, is not; or is potentially only, and as if it were + not. Vox is the God of this Universe. If you have human intellect, it + avails nothing unless you either make it into beaverism, or talk with it. + Make it into beaverism, and gather money; or else make talk with it, and + gather what you can. Such is everywhere the demand for talk among us: to + which, of course, the supply is proportionate. + </p> + <p> + From dinners up to woolsacks and divine mitres, here in England, much may + be gathered by talk; without talk, of the human sort nothing. Is Society + become wholly a bag of wind, then, ballasted by guineas? Are our interests + in it as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal?—In Army or Navy, + when unhappily we have war on hand, there is, almost against our will, + some kind of demand for certain of the silent talents. But in peace, that + too passes into mere demand of the ostentations, of the pipeclays and the + blank cartridges; and,—except that Naval men are occasionally, on + long voyages, forced to hold their tongue, and converse with the dumb + elements, and illimitable oceans, that moan and rave there without you and + within you, which is a great advantage to the Naval man,—our poor + United Services have to make conversational windbags and ostentational + paper-lanterns of themselves, or do worse, even as the others. + </p> + <p> + My friends, must I assert, then, what surely all men know, though all men + seem to have forgotten it, That in the learned professions as in the + unlearned, and in human things throughout, in every place and in every + time, the true function of intellect is not that of talking, but of + understanding and discerning with a view to performing! An intellect may + easily talk too much, and perform too little. Gradually, if it get into + the noxious habit of talk, there will less and less performance come of + it, talk being so delightfully handy in comparison with work; and at last + there will no work, or thought of work, be got from it at all. Talk, + except as the preparation for work, is worth almost nothing;—sometimes + it is worth infinitely less than nothing; and becomes, little conscious of + playing such a fatal part, the general summary of pretentious + nothingnesses, and the chief of all the curses the Posterity of Adam are + liable to in this sublunary world! Would you discover the Atropos of Human + Virtue; the sure Destroyer, "by painless extinction," of Human Veracities, + Performances, and Capabilities to perform or to be veracious,—it is + this, you have it here. + </p> + <p> + Unwise talk is matchless in unwisdom. Unwise work, if it but persist, is + everywhere struggling towards correction, and restoration to health; for + it is still in contact with Nature, and all Nature incessantly contradicts + it, and will heal it or annihilate it: not so with unwise talk, which + addresses itself, regardless of veridical Nature, to the universal + suffrages; and can if it be dexterous, find harbor there till all the + suffrages are bankrupt and gone to Houndsditch, Nature not interfering + with her protest till then. False speech, definable as the acme of unwise + speech, is capable, as we already said, of becoming the falsest of all + things. Falsest of all things:—and whither will the general deluge + of that, in Parliament and Synagogue, in Book and Broadside, carry you and + your affairs, my friend, when once they are embarked on it as now? + </p> + <p> + Parliament, <i>Parliamentum</i>, is by express appointment the Talking + Apparatus; yet not in Parliament either is the essential function, by any + means, talk. Not to speak your opinion well, but to have a good and just + opinion worth speaking,—for every Parliament, as for every man, this + latter is the point. Contrive to have a true opinion, you will get it told + in some way, better or worse; and it will be a blessing to all creatures. + Have a false opinion, and tell it with the tongue of Angels, what can that + profit? The better you tell it, the worse it will be! + </p> + <p> + In Parliament and out of Parliament, and everywhere in this Universe, your + one salvation is, That you can discern with just insight, and follow with + noble valor, what the law of the case before you is, what the appointment + of the Maker in regard to it has been. Get this out of one man, you are + saved; fail to get this out of the most August Parliament wrapt in the + sheepskins of a thousand years, you are lost,—your Parliament, and + you, and all your sheepskins are lost. Beautiful talk is by no means the + most pressing want in Parliament! We have had some reasonable modicum of + talk in Parliament! What talk has done for us in Parliament, and is now + doing, the dullest of us at length begins to see! + </p> + <p> + Much has been said of Parliament's breeding men to business; of the + training an Official Man gets in this school of argument and talk. He is + here inured to patience, tolerance; sees what is what in the Nation and in + the Nation's Government attains official knowledge, official courtesy and + manners—in short, is polished at all points into official + articulation, and here better than elsewhere qualifies himself to be a + Governor of men. So it is said.—Doubtless, I think, he will see and + suffer much in Parliament, and inure himself to several things;—he + will, with what eyes he has, gradually <i>see</i> Parliament itself, for + one thing; what a high-soaring, helplessly floundering, ever-babbling yet + inarticulate dark dumb Entity it is (certainly one of the strangest under + the sun just now): which doubtless, if he have in view to get measures + voted there one day, will be an important acquisition for him. But as to + breeding himself for a Doer of Work, much more for a King, or Chief of + Doers, here in this element of talk; as to that I confess the fatalest + doubts, or rather, alas, I have no doubt! Alas, it is our fatalest misery + just now, not easily alterable, and yet urgently requiring to be altered, + That no British man can attain to be a Statesman, or Chief of <i>Workers</i>, + till he has first proved himself a Chief of <i>Talkers</i>: which mode of + trial for a Worker, is it not precisely, of all the trials you could set + him upon, the falsest and unfairest? + </p> + <p> + Nay, I doubt much you are not likely ever to meet the fittest material for + a Statesman, or Chief of Workers, in such an element as that. Your + Potential Chief of Workers, will he come there at all, to try whether he + can talk? Your poor tenpound franchisers and electoral world generally, in + love with eloquent talk, are they the likeliest to discern what man it is + that has worlds of silent work in him? No. Or is such a man, even if born + in the due rank for it, the likeliest to present himself, and court their + most sweet voices? Again, no. + </p> + <p> + The Age that admires talk so much can have little discernment for + inarticulate work, or for anything that is deep and genuine. Nobody, or + hardly anybody, having in himself an earnest sense for truth, how can + anybody recognize an inarticulate Veracity, or Nature-fact of any kind; a + Human <i>Doer</i> especially, who is the most complex, profound, and + inarticulate of all Nature's Facts? Nobody can recognize him: till once he + is patented, get some public stamp of authenticity, and has been + articulately proclaimed, and asserted to be a Doer. To the worshipper of + talk, such a one is a sealed book. An excellent human soul, direct from + Heaven,—how shall any excellence of man become recognizable to this + unfortunate? Not except by announcing and placarding itself as excellent,—which, + I reckon, it above other things will probably be in no great haste to do. + </p> + <p> + Wisdom, the divine message which every soul of man brings into this world; + the divine prophecy of what the new man has got the new and peculiar + capability to do, is intrinsically of silent nature. It cannot at once, or + completely at all, be read off in words; for it is written in abstruse + facts, of endowment, position, desire, opportunity, granted to the man;—interprets + itself in presentiments, vague struggles, passionate endeavors and is only + legible in whole when his work is <i>done</i>. Not by the noble monitions + of Nature, but by the ignoble, is a man much tempted to publish the secret + of his soul in words. Words, if he have a secret, will be forever + inadequate to it. Words do but disturb the real answer of fact which could + be given to it; disturb, obstruct, and will in the end abolish, and render + impossible, said answer. No grand Doer in this world can be a copious + speaker about his doings. William the Silent spoke himself best in a + country liberated; Oliver Cromwell did not shine in rhetoric; Goethe, when + he had but a book in view, found that he must say nothing even of that, if + it was to succeed with him. + </p> + <p> + Then as to politeness, and breeding to business. An official man must be + bred to business; of course he must: and not for essence only, but even + for the manners of office he requires breeding. Besides his intrinsic + faculty, whatever that may be, he must be cautious, vigilant, discreet,—above + all things, he must be reticent, patient, polite. Certain of these + qualities are by nature imposed upon men of station; and they are trained + from birth to some exercise of them: this constitutes their one intrinsic + qualification for office;—this is their one advantage in the New + Downing Street projected for this New Era; and it will not go for much in + that Institution. One advantage, or temporary advantage; against which + there are so many counterbalances. It is the indispensable preliminary for + office, but by no means the complete outfit,—a miserable outfit + where there is nothing farther. + </p> + <p> + Will your Lordship give me leave to say that, practically, the intrinsic + qualities will presuppose these preliminaries too, but by no means <i>vice + versa</i>. That, on the whole, if you have got the intrinsic qualities, + you have got everything, and the preliminaries will prove attainable; but + that if you have got only the preliminaries, you have yet got nothing. A + man of real dignity will not find it impossible to bear himself in a + dignified manner; a man of real understanding and insight will get to + know, as the fruit of his very first study, what the laws of his situation + are, and will conform to these. Rough old Samuel Johnson, blustering + Boreas and rugged Arctic Bear as he often was, defined himself, justly + withal, as a polite man: a noble manful attitude of soul is his; a clear, + true and loyal sense of what others are, and what he himself is, shines + through the rugged coating of him; comes out as grave deep rhythmus when + his King honors him, and he will not "bandy compliments with his King;"—is + traceable too in his indignant trampling down of the Chesterfield + patronages, tailor-made insolences, and contradictions of sinners; which + may be called his <i>revolutionary</i> movements, hard and peremptory by + the law of them; these could not be soft like his <i>constitutional</i> + ones, when men and kings took him for somewhat like the thing he was. + Given a noble man, I think your Lordship may expect by and by a polite + man. No "politer" man was to be found in Britain than the rustic Robert + Burns: high duchesses were captivated with the chivalrous ways of the man; + recognized that here was the true chivalry, and divine nobleness of + bearing,—as indeed they well might, now when the Peasant God and + Norse Thor had come down among them again! Chivalry this, if not as they + do chivalry in Drury Lane or West-End drawing-rooms, yet as they do it in + Valhalla and the General Assembly of the Gods. + </p> + <p> + For indeed, who <i>invented</i> chivalry, politeness, or anything that is + noble and melodious and beautiful among us, except precisely the like of + Johnson and of Burns? The select few who in the generations of this world + were wise and valiant, they, in spite of all the tremendous majority of + blockheads and slothful belly-worshippers, and noisy ugly persons, have + devised whatsoever is noble in the manners of man to man. I expect they + will learn to be polite, your Lordship, when you give them a chance!—Nor + is it as a school of human culture, for this or for any other grace or + gift, that Parliament will be found first-rate or indispensable. As + experience in the river is indispensable to the ferryman, so is knowledge + of his Parliament to the British Peel or Chatham;—so was knowledge + of the OEil-de-Boeuf to the French Choiseul. Where and how said river, + whether Parliament with Wilkeses, or OEil-de-Boeuf with Pompadours, can be + waded, boated, swum; how the miscellaneous cargoes, "measures" so called, + can be got across it, according to their kinds, and landed alive on the + hither side as facts:—we have all of us our <i>ferries</i> in this + world; and must know the river and its ways, or get drowned some day! In + that sense, practice in Parliament is indispensable to the British + Statesman; but not in any other sense. + </p> + <p> + A school, too, of manners and of several other things, the Parliament will + doubtless be to the aspirant Statesman; a school better or worse;—as + the OEil-de-Boeuf likewise was, and as all scenes where men work or live + are sure to be. Especially where many men work together, the very rubbing + against one another will grind and polish off their angularities into + roundness, into "politeness" after a sort; and the official man, place him + how you may, will never want for schooling, of extremely various kinds. A + first-rate school one cannot call this Parliament for him;—I fear to + say what rate at present! In so far as it teaches him vigilance, patience, + courage, toughness of lungs or of soul, and skill in any kind of swimming, + it is a good school. In so far as it forces him to speak where Nature + orders silence; and even, lest all the world should learn his secret + (which often enough would kill his secret, and little profit the world), + forces him to speak falsities, vague ambiguities, and the froth-dialect + usual in Parliaments in these times, it may be considered one of the worst + schools ever devised by man; and, I think, may almost challenge the + OEil-de-Boeuf to match it in badness. + </p> + <p> + Parliament will train your men to the manners required of a statesman; but + in a much less degree to the intrinsic functions of one. To these latter, + it is capable of mistraining as nothing else can. Parliament will train + you to talk; and above all things to hear, with patience, unlimited + quantities of foolish talk. To tell a good story for yourself, and to make + it <i>appear</i> that you have done your work: this, especially in + constitutional countries, is something;—and yet in all countries, + constitutional ones too, it is intrinsically nothing, probably even less. + For it is not the function of any mortal, in Downing Street or elsewhere + here below, to wag the tongue of him, and make it appear that he has done + work; but to wag some quite other organs of him, and to do work; there is + no danger of his work's appearing by and by. Such an accomplishment, even + in constitutional countries, I grieve to say, may become much less than + nothing. Have you at all computed how much less? The human creature who + has once given way to satisfying himself with "appearances," to seeking + his salvation in "appearances," the moral life of such human creature is + rapidly bleeding out of him. Depend upon it, Beelzebub, Satan, or however + you may name the too authentic Genius of Eternal Death, has got that human + creature in his claws. By and by you will have a dead parliamentary + bagpipe, and your living man fled away without return! + </p> + <p> + Such parliamentary bagpipes I myself have heard play tunes, much to the + satisfaction of the people. Every tune lies within their compass; and + their mind (for they still call it <i>mind</i>) is ready as a hurdy-gurdy + on turning of the handle: "My Lords, this question now before the House"—Ye + Heavens, O ye divine Silences, was there in the womb of Chaos, then, such + a product, liable to be evoked by human art, as that same? While the + galleries were all applausive of heart, and the Fourth Estate looked with + eyes enlightened, as if you had touched its lips with a staff dipped in + honey,—I have sat with reflections too ghastly to be uttered. A poor + human creature and learned friend, once possessed of many fine gifts, + possessed of intellect, veracity, and manful conviction on a variety of + objects, has he now lost all that;—converted all that into a + glistering phosphorescence which can show itself on the outside; while + within, all is dead, chaotic, dark; a painted sepulchre full of dead-men's + bones! Discernment, knowledge, intellect, in the human sense of the words, + this man has now none. His opinion you do not ask on any matter: on the <i>matter</i> + he has no opinion, judgment, or insight; only on what may be said about + the matter, how it may be argued of, what tune may be played upon it to + enlighten the eyes of the Fourth Estate. + </p> + <p> + Such a soul, though to the eye he still keeps tumbling about in the + Parliamentary element, and makes "motions," and passes bills, for aught I + know,—are we to define him as a <i>living</i> one, or as a dead? + Partridge the Almanac-Maker, whose "Publications" still regularly appear, + is known to be dead! The dog that was drowned last summer, and that floats + up and down the Thames with ebb and flood ever since,—is it not + dead? Alas, in the hot months, you meet here and there such a floating + dog; and at length, if you often use the river steamers, get to know him + by sight. "There he is again, still astir there in his quasi-stygian + element!" you dejectedly exclaim (perhaps reading your Morning Newspaper + at the moment); and reflect, with a painful oppression of nose and + imagination, on certain completed professors of parliamentary eloquence in + modern times. Dead long since, but <i>not</i> resting; daily doing motions + in that Westminster region still,—daily from Vauxhall to + Blackfriars, and back again; and cannot get away at all! Daily (from + Newspaper or river steamer) you may see him at some point of his fated + course, hovering in the eddies, stranded in the ooze, or rapidly + progressing with flood or ebb; and daily the odor of him is getting more + intolerable: daily the condition of him appeals more tragically to gods + and men. + </p> + <p> + Nature admits no lie; most men profess to be aware of this, but few in any + measure lay it to heart. Except in the departments of mere material + manipulation, it seems to be taken practically as if this grand truth were + merely a polite flourish of rhetoric. What is a lie? The question is worth + asking, once and away, by the practical English mind. + </p> + <p> + A voluntary spoken divergence from the fact as it stands, as it has + occurred and will proceed to develop itself: this clearly, if adopted by + any man, will so far forth mislead him in all practical dealing with the + fact; till he cast that statement out of him, and reject it as an unclean + poisonous thing, he can have no success in dealing with the fact. If such + spoken divergence from the truth be involuntary, we lament it as a + misfortune; and are entitled, at least the speaker of it is, to lament it + extremely as the most palpable of all misfortunes, as the indubitablest + losing of his way, and turning aside from the goal instead of pressing + towards it, in the race set before him. If the divergence is voluntary,—there + superadds itself to our sorrow a just indignation: we call the voluntary + spoken divergence a lie, and justly abhor it as the essence of human + treason and baseness, the desertion of a man to the Enemy of men against + himself and his brethren. A lost deserter; who has gone over to the Enemy, + called Satan; and cannot <i>but</i> be lost in the adventure! Such is + every liar with the tongue; and such in all nations is he, at all epochs, + considered. Men pull his nose, and kick him out of doors; and by + peremptory expressive methods signify that they can and will have no trade + with him. Such is spoken divergence from the fact; so fares it with the + practiser of that sad art. + </p> + <p> + But have we well considered a divergence <i>in thought</i> from what is + the fact? Have we considered the man whose very thought is a lie to him + and to us! He too is a frightful man; repeating about this Universe on + every hand what is not, and driven to repeat it; the sure herald of ruin + to all that follow him, that know with <i>his</i> knowledge! And would you + learn how to get a mendacious thought, there is no surer recipe than + carrying a loose tongue. The lying thought, you already either have it, or + will soon get it by that method. He who lies with his very tongue, <i>he</i> + clearly enough has long ceased to think truly in his mind. Does he, in any + sense, "think"? All his thoughts and imaginations, if they extend beyond + mere beaverisms, astucities and sensualisms, are false, incomplete, + perverse, untrue even to himself. He has become a false mirror of this + Universe; not a small mirror only, but a crooked, bedimmed and utterly + deranged one. But all loose tongues too are akin to lying ones; are + insincere at the best, and go rattling with little meaning; the thought + lying languid at a great distance behind them, if thought there be behind + them at all. Gradually there will be none or little! How can the thought + of such a man, what he calls thought, be other than false? + </p> + <p> + Alas, the palpable liar with his tongue does at least know that he is + lying, and has or might have some faint vestige of remorse and chance of + amendment; but the impalpable liar, whose tongue articulates mere accepted + commonplaces, cants and babblement, which means only, "Admire me, call me + an excellent stump-orator!"—of him what hope is there? His thought, + what thought he had, lies dormant, inspired only to invent vocables and + plausibilities; while the tongue goes so glib, the thought is absent, gone + a wool-gathering; getting itself drugged with the applausive "Hear, hear!"—what + will become of such a man? His idle thought has run all to seed, and grown + false and the giver of falsities; the inner light of his mind is gone out; + all his light is mere putridity and phosphorescence henceforth. Whosoever + is in quest of ruin, let him with assurance follow that man; he or no one + is on the right road to it. + </p> + <p> + Good Heavens, from the wisest Thought of a man to the actual truth of a + Thing as it lies in Nature, there is, one would suppose, a sufficient + interval! Consider it,—and what other intervals we introduce! The + faithfulest, most glowing word of a man is but an imperfect image of the + thought, such as it is, that dwells within him; his best word will never + but with error convey his thought to other minds: and then between his + poor thought and Nature's Fact, which is the Thought of the Eternal, there + may be supposed to lie some discrepancies, some shortcomings! Speak your + sincerest, think your wisest, there is still a great gulf between you and + the fact. And now, do not speak your sincerest, and what will inevitably + follow out of that, do not think your wisest, but think only your + plausiblest, your showiest for parliamentary purposes, where will you land + with that guidance?—I invite the British Parliament, and all the + Parliamentary and other Electors of Great Britain, to reflect on this till + they have well understood it; and then to ask, each of himself, What + probably the horoscopes of the British Parliament, at this epoch of + World-History, may be?— + </p> + <p> + Fail, by any sin or any misfortune, to discover what the truth of the fact + is, you are lost so far as that fact goes! If your thought do not image + truly but do image falsely the fact, you will vainly try to work upon the + fact. The fact will not obey you, the fact will silently resist you; and + ever, with silent invincibility, will go on resisting you, till you do get + to image it truly instead of falsely. No help for you whatever, except in + attaining to a true image of the fact. Needless to vote a false image + true; vote it, revote it by overwhelming majorities, by jubilant + unanimities and universalities; read it thrice or three hundred times, + pass acts of parliament upon it till the Statute-book can hold no more,—it + helps not a whit: the thing is not so, the thing is otherwise than so; and + Adam's whole Posterity, voting daily on it till the world finish, will not + alter it a jot. Can the sublimest sanhedrim, constitutional parliament, or + other Collective Wisdom of the world, persuade fire not to burn, sulphuric + acid to be sweet milk, or the Moon to become green cheese? The fact is + much the reverse:—and even the Constitutional British Parliament + abstains from such arduous attempts as these latter in the voting line; + and leaves the multiplication-table, the chemical, mechanical and other + qualities of material substances to take their own course; being aware + that voting and perorating, and reporting in Hansard, will not in the + least alter any of these. Which is indisputably wise of the British + Parliament. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately the British Parliament does not, at present, quite know that + all manner of things and relations of things, spiritual equally with + material, all manner of qualities, entities, existences whatsoever, in + this strange visible and invisible Universe, are equally inflexible of + nature; that, they will, one and all, with precisely the same obstinacy, + continue to obey their own law, not our law; deaf as the adder to all + charm of parliamentary eloquence, and of voting never so often repeated; + silently, but inflexibly and forevermore, declining to change themselves, + even as sulphuric acid declines to become sweet milk, though you vote so + to the end of the world. This, it sometimes seems to me, is not quite + sufficiently laid hold of by the British and other Parliaments just at + present. Which surely is a great misfortune to said Parliaments! For, it + would appear, the grand point, after all constitutional improvements, and + such wagging of wigs in Westminster as there has been, is precisely what + it was before any constitution was yet heard of, or the first official wig + had budded out of nothing: namely, to ascertain what the truth of your + question, in Nature, really is! Verily so. In this time and place, as in + all past and in all future times and places. To-day in St. Stephen's, + where constitutional, philanthropical, and other great things lie in the + mortar-kit; even as on the Plain of Shinar long ago, where a certain + Tower, likewise of a very philanthropic nature, indeed one of the + desirablest towers I ever heard of, was to be built,—but couldn't! + My friends, I do not laugh; truly I am more inclined to weep. + </p> + <p> + Get, by six hundred and fifty-eight votes, or by no vote at all, by the + silent intimation of your own eyesight and understanding given you direct + out of Heaven, and more sacred to you than anything earthly, and than all + things earthly,—a correct image of the fact in question, as God and + Nature have made it: that is the one thing needful; with that it shall be + well with you in whatsoever you have to do with said fact. Get, by the + sublimest constitutional methods, belauded by all the world, an incorrect + image of the fact: so shall it be other than well with you; so shall you + have laud from able editors and vociferous masses of mistaken human + creatures; and from the Nature's Fact, continuing quite silently the same + as it was, contradiction, and that only. What else? Will Nature change, or + sulphuric acid become sweet milk, for the noise of vociferous blockheads? + Surely not. Nature, I assure you, has not the smallest intention of doing + so. + </p> + <p> + On the contrary, Nature keeps silently a most exact Savings-bank, and + official register correct to the most evanescent item, Debtor and + Creditor, in respect to one and all of us; silently marks down, Creditor + by such and such an unseen act of veracity and heroism; Debtor to such a + loud blustery blunder, twenty-seven million strong or one unit strong, and + to all acts and words and thoughts executed in consequence of that,—Debtor, + Debtor, Debtor, day after day, rigorously as Fate (for this is Fate that + is writing); and at the end of the account you will have it all to pay, my + friend; there is the rub! Not the infinitesimalest fraction of a farthing + but will be found marked there, for you and against you; and with the due + rate of interest you will have to pay it, neatly, completely, as sure as + you are alive. You will have to pay it even in money if you live:—and, + poor slave, do you think there is no payment but in money? There is a + payment which Nature rigorously exacts of men, and also of Nations, and + this I think when her wrath is sternest, in the shape of dooming you to + possess money. To possess it; to have your bloated vanities fostered into + monstrosity by it, your foul passions blown into explosion by it, your + heart and perhaps your very stomach ruined with intoxication by it; your + poor life and all its manful activities stunned into frenzy and comatose + sleep by it,—in one word, as the old Prophets said, your soul + forever lost by it. Your soul; so that, through the Eternities, you shall + have no soul, or manful trace of ever having had a soul; but only, for + certain fleeting moments, shall have had a money-bag, and have given soul + and heart and (frightfuler still) stomach itself in fatal exchange for the + same. You wretched mortal, stumbling about in a God's Temple, and thinking + it a brutal Cookery-shop! Nature, when her scorn of a slave is divinest, + and blazes like the blinding lightning against his slavehood, often enough + flings him a bag of money, silently saying: "That! Away; thy doom is + that!"— + </p> + <p> + For no man, and for no body or biggest multitude of men, has Nature favor, + if they part company with her facts and her. Excellent stump-orator; + eloquent parliamentary dead-dog, making motions, passing bills; reported + in the Morning Newspapers, and reputed the "best speaker going"? From the + Universe of Fact he has turned himself away; he is gone into partnership + with the Universe of Phantasm; finds it profitablest to deal in forged + notes, while the foolish shopkeepers will accept them. Nature for such a + man, and for Nations that follow such, has her patibulary forks, and + prisons of death everlasting:—dost thou doubt it? Unhappy mortal, + Nature otherwise were herself a Chaos and no Cosmos. Nature was not made + by an Impostor; not she, I think, rife as they are!—In fact, by + money or otherwise, to the uttermost fraction of a calculable and + incalculable value, we have, each one of us, to settle the exact balance + in the above-said Savings-bank, or official register kept by Nature: + Creditor by the quantity of veracities we have done, Debtor by the + quantity of falsities and errors; there is not, by any conceivable device, + the faintest hope of escape from that issue for one of us, nor for all of + us. + </p> + <p> + This used to be a well-known fact; and daily still, in certain edifices, + steeple-houses, joss-houses, temples sacred or other, everywhere spread + over the world, we hear some dim mumblement of an assertion that such is + still, what it was always and will forever be, the fact: but meseems it + has terribly fallen out of memory nevertheless; and, from Dan to + Beersheba, one in vain looks out for a man that really in his heart + believes it. In his heart he believes, as we perceive, that scrip will + yield dividends: but that Heaven too has an office of account, and + unerringly marks down, against us or for us, whatsoever thing we do or say + or think, and treasures up the same in regard to every creature,—this + I do not so well perceive that he believes. Poor blockhead, no: he reckons + that all payment is in money, or approximately representable by money; + finds money go a strange course; disbelieves the parson and his Day of + Judgment; discerns not that there is any judgment except in the small or + big debt court; and lives (for the present) on that strange footing in + this Universe. The unhappy mortal, what is the use of his "civilizations" + and his "useful knowledges," if he have forgotten that beginning of human + knowledge; the earliest perception of the awakened human soul in this + world; the first dictate of Heaven's inspiration to all men? I cannot + account him a man any more; but only a kind of human beaver, who has + acquired the art of ciphering. He lives without rushing hourly towards + suicide, because his soul, with all its noble aspirations and + imaginations, is sunk at the bottom of his stomach, and lies torpid there, + unaspiring, unimagining, unconsidering, as if it were the vital principle + of a mere <i>four</i>-footed beaver. A soul of a man, appointed for + spinning cotton and making money, or, alas, for merely shooting grouse and + gathering rent; to whom Eternity and Immortality, and all human + Noblenesses and divine Facts that did not tell upon the stock-exchange, + were meaningless fables, empty as the inarticulate wind. He will recover + out of that persuasion one day, or be ground to powder, I believe!— + </p> + <p> + To such a pass, by our beaverisms and our mammonisms; by canting of + "prevenient grace" everywhere, and so boarding and lodging our poor souls + upon supervenient moonshine everywhere, for centuries long; by our sordid + stupidities and our idle babblings; through faith in the divine + Stump-orator, and Constitutional Palaver, or august Sanhedrim of Orators,—have + men and Nations been reduced, in this sad epoch! I cannot call them happy + Nations; I must call them Nations like to perish; Nations that will either + begin to recover, or else soon die. Recovery is to be hoped;—yes, + since there is in Nature an Almighty Beneficence, and His voice, divinely + terrible, can be heard in the world-whirlwind now, even as from of old and + forevermore. Recovery, or else destruction and annihilation, is very + certain; and the crisis, too, comes rapidly on: but by Stump-Orator and + Constitutional Palaver, however perfected, my hopes of <i>recovery</i> + have long vanished. Not by them, I should imagine, but by something far + the reverse of them, shall we return to truth and God!— + </p> + <p> + I tell you, the ignoble intellect cannot think the <i>truth</i>, even + within its own limits, and when it seriously tries! And of the ignoble + intellect that does not seriously try, and has even reached the + "ignobleness" of seriously trying the reverse, and of lying with its very + tongue, what are we to expect? It is frightful to consider. Sincere wise + speech is but an imperfect corollary, and insignificant outer + manifestation, of sincere wise thought. He whose very tongue utters + falsities, what has his heart long been doing? The thought of his heart is + not its wisest, not even <i>its</i> wisest; it is its foolishest;—and + even of that we have a false and foolish copy. And it is Nature's Fact, or + the Thought of the Eternal, which we want to arrive at in regard to the + matter,—which if we do <i>not</i> arrive at, we shall not save the + matter, we shall drive the matter into shipwreck! + </p> + <p> + The practice of modern Parliaments, with reporters sitting among them, and + twenty-seven millions mostly fools listening to them, fills me with + amazement. In regard to no <i>thing</i>, or fact as God and Nature have + made it, can you get so much as the real thought of any honorable head,—even + so far as <i>it</i>, the said honorable head, still has capacity of + thought. What the honorable gentleman's wisest thought is or would have + been, had he led from birth a life of piety and earnest veracity and + heroic virtue, you, and he himself poor deep-sunk creature, vainly + conjecture as from immense dim distances far in the rear of what he is led + to <i>say</i>. And again, far in the rear of what his thought is,—surely + long infinitudes beyond all <i>he</i> could ever think,—lies the + Thought of God Almighty, the Image itself of the Fact, the thing you are + in quest of, and must find or do worse! Even his, the honorable + gentleman's, actual bewildered, falsified, vague surmise or quasi-thought, + even this is not given you; but only some falsified copy of this, such as + he fancies may suit the reporters and twenty-seven millions mostly fools. + And upon that latter you are to act;—with what success, do you + expect? That is the thought you are to take for the Thought of the Eternal + Mind,—that double-distilled falsity of a blockheadism from one who + is false even as a blockhead! + </p> + <p> + Do I make myself plain to Mr. Peter's understanding? Perhaps it will + surprise him less that parliamentary eloquence excites more wonder than + admiration in me; that the fate of countries governed by that sublime + alchemy does not appear the hopefulest just now. Not by that method, I + should apprehend, will the Heavens be scaled and the Earth vanquished; not + by that, but by another. + </p> + <p> + A benevolent man once proposed to me, but without pointing out the methods + how, this plan of reform for our benighted world: To cut from one + generation, whether the current one or the next, all the tongues away, + prohibiting Literature too; and appoint at least one generation to pass + its life in silence. "There, thou one blessed generation, from the vain + jargon of babble thou art beneficently freed. Whatsoever of truth, + traditionary or original, thy own god-given intellect shall point out to + thee as true, that thou wilt go and do. In doing of it there will be a + verdict for thee; if a verdict of True, thou wilt hold by it, and ever + again do it; if of Untrue, thou wilt never try it more, but be eternally + delivered from it. To do aught because the vain hearsays order thee, and + the big clamors of the sanhedrim of fools, is not thy lot,—what + worlds of misery are spared thee! Nature's voice heard in thy own inner + being, and the sacred Commandment of thy Maker: these shall be thy + guidances, thou happy tongueless generation. What is good and beautiful + thou shalt know; not merely what is said to be so. Not to talk of thy + doings, and become the envy of surrounding flunkies, but to taste of the + fruit of thy doings themselves, is thine. What the Eternal Laws will + sanction for thee, do; what the Froth Gospels and multitudinous long-eared + Hearsays never so loudly bid, all this is already chaff for thee,—drifting + rapidly along, thou knowest whitherward, on the eternal winds." + </p> + <p> + Good Heavens, if such a plan were practicable, how the chaff might be + winnowed out of every man, and out of all human things; and ninety-nine + hundredths of our whole big Universe, spiritual and practical, might blow + itself away, as mere torrents of chaff whole trade-winds of chaff, many + miles deep, rushing continually with the voice of whirlwinds towards a + certain FIRE, which knows how to deal with it! Ninety-nine hundredths + blown away; all the lies blown away, and some skeleton of a spiritual and + practical Universe left standing for us which were true: O Heavens, is it + forever impossible, then? By a generation that had no tongue it really + might be done; but not so easily by one that had. Tongues, platforms, + parliaments, and fourth-estates; unfettered presses, periodical and + stationary literatures: we are nearly all gone to tongue, I think; and our + fate is very questionable. + </p> + <p> + Truly, it is little known at present, and ought forthwith to become better + known, what ruin to all nobleness and fruitfulness and blessedness in the + genius of a poor mortal you generally bring about, by ordering him to + speak, to do all things with a view to their being seen! Few good and + fruitful things ever were done, or could be done, on those terms. Silence, + silence; and be distant ye profane, with your jargonings and superficial + babblements, when a man has anything to do! Eye-service,—dost thou + know what that is, poor England?—eye-service is all the man can do + in these sad circumstances; grows to be all he has the idea of doing, of + his or any other man's ever doing, or ever having done, in any + circumstances. Sad, enough. Alas, it is our saddest woe of all;—too + sad for being spoken of at present, while all or nearly all men consider + it an imaginary sorrow on my part! + </p> + <p> + Let the young English soul, in whatever logic-shop and nonsense-verse + establishment of an Eton, Oxford, Edinburgh, Halle, Salamanca, or other + High Finishing-School, he may be getting his young idea taught how to + speak and spout, and print sermons and review-articles, and thereby show + himself and fond patrons that it <i>is</i> an idea,—lay this + solemnly to heart; this is my deepest counsel to him! The idea you have + once spoken, if it even were an idea, is no longer yours; it is gone from + you, so much life and virtue is gone, and the vital circulations of your + self and your destiny and activity are henceforth deprived of it. If you + could not get it spoken, if you could still constrain it into silence, so + much the richer are you. Better keep your idea while you can: let it still + circulate in your blood, and there fructify; inarticulately inciting you + to good activities; giving to your whole spiritual life a ruddier health. + When the time does come for speaking it, you will speak it all the more + concisely, the more expressively, appropriately; and if such a time should + never come, have you not already acted it, and uttered it as no words can? + Think of this, my young friend; for there is nothing truer, nothing more + forgotten in these shabby gold-laced days. Incontinence is half of all the + sins of man. And among the many kinds of that base vice, I know none + baser, or at present half so fell and fatal, as that same Incontinence of + Tongue. "Public speaking," "parliamentary eloquence:" it is a Moloch, + before whom young souls are made to pass through the fire. They enter, + weeping or rejoicing, fond parents consecrating them to the red-hot Idol, + as to the Highest God: and they come out spiritually <i>dead</i>. Dead + enough; to live thenceforth a galvanic life of mere Stump-Oratory; + screeching and gibbering, words without wisdom, without veracity, without + conviction more than skin-deep. A divine gift, that? It is a thing admired + by the vulgar, and rewarded with seats in the Cabinet and other + preciosities; but to the wise, it is a thing not admirable, not adorable; + unmelodious rather, and ghastly and bodeful, as the speech of sheeted + spectres in the streets at midnight! + </p> + <p> + Be not a Public Orator, thou brave young British man, thou that art now + growing to be something: not a Stump-Orator, if thou canst help it. Appeal + not to the vulgar, with its long ears and its seats in the Cabinet; not by + spoken words to the vulgar; <i>hate</i> the profane vulgar, and bid it + begone. Appeal by silent work, by silent suffering if there be no work, to + the gods, who have nobler than seats in the Cabinet for thee! Talent for + Literature, thou hast such a talent? Believe it not, be slow to believe + it! To speak, or to write, Nature did not peremptorily order thee; but to + work she did. And know this: there never was a talent even for real + Literature, not to speak of talents lost and damned in doing sham + Literature, but was primarily a talent for something infinitely better of + the silent kind. Of Literature, in all ways, be shy rather than otherwise, + at present! There where thou art, work, work; whatsoever thy hand findeth + to do, do it,—with the hand of a man, not of a phantasm; be that thy + unnoticed blessedness and exceeding great reward. Thy words, let them be + few, and well-ordered. Love silence rather than speech in these tragic + days, when, for very speaking, the voice of man has fallen inarticulate to + man; and hearts, in this loud babbling, sit dark and dumb towards one + another. Witty,—above all, oh be not witty: none of us is bound to + be witty, under penalties; to be wise and true we all are, under the + terriblest penalties! + </p> + <p> + Brave young friend, dear to me, and <i>known</i> too in a sense, though + never seen, nor to be seen by me,—you are, what I am not, in the + happy case to learn to <i>be</i> something and to <i>do</i> something, + instead of eloquently talking about what has been and was done and may be! + The old are what they are, and will not alter; our hope is in you. + England's hope, and the world's, is that there may once more be millions + such, instead of units as now. <i>Macte; i fausto pede</i>. And may future + generations, acquainted again with the silences, and once more cognizant + of what is noble and faithful and divine, look back on us with pity and + incredulous astonishment! + </p> + <p> + Italicized text is represented in the etext with underscores <i>thusly</i>. + Greek text has been transliterated into English, with notation "[Gr.]" + appended to it. Otherwise the etext has been left as it was in the printed + text. Footnotes have been embedded directly into the text, with the + notation [Footnote: ...]. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1140 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |