CARLYLE ON THE SOCIAL OBLIGATIONS OF THE NATION

FORTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. Inserted at the earnest request of a friend, who was struck by the coincidence of

some ideas, similar to those of this volume, set forth so long ago, but as yet

remaining unrealised, and which I had never read.

EXTRACTS FROM " PAST AND PRESENT. '

" A Prime Minister, even here in England, , who shall dare believe the (heavenly omens, and address himself like a man and hero to the great dumb- struggling heart of England, and speak out for it, and act out for it, the God's- Justice it is writhing to get uttered and perishing for want of- — yes, he too will see awaken round him, in passionate, burning, all-defiant lo)'alty, the heart ot England, and such a ' support ' as no Division-List or Parliamentary Majority •was ever yet known to yield a man ! Here as there, now as then, he who can and dare trust the heavenly Immensities, all earthly Localities are subject to him. We will pray for such a man and First-Lord ;— yes, and far better, we •will strive and incessantly make ready, each of us, to be worthy to serve and second such a First-Lord ! We shall then be as good as sure of his arriving ; sure of many things, let him arrive or not.

"Who can despair of Governments that passes a Soldier's Guard-house, or imeets a red-coated man on the streets ? That a body of men could be got together to kill other men when you bade them : this, à prion, does it not seem one of the impossiblest things ? Yet look, behold it : in the stolidest of Do-nothing Governments, that impossibility is a thing done."

— {Carlyle, " Past and Present," page 223.)

" Strange, interesting, and yet most mournful to reflect on. Was this, then, •of all the things mankind had some talent for, the one thing important to learn ■well, and bring to perfection ; this of successfully killing one another ? Truly, you have learned it well, and carried the business to a high perfection. It is incalculable what, by arranging, commanding, and regimenting you can make of men. These thousand straight-standing, firm-set individuals, who shoulder arms, who march, wheel, advance, retreat ; and are, for your behoof a magazine •charged with fiery death, in the most perfect condition of potential activity. Few months ago, till the persuasive sergeant came, what were they? Multiform ragged losels, runaway apprentices, starved weavers, thievish valets ; an entirely broken population, fast tending towards the treadmill. But the persuasive sergeant came, by tap of drum enlisted, or formed lists of them, took heartily