Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems
O unwise mortals that forever change and shift, and say, Yonder,
not Here! Wealth richer than both the Indies lies everywhere for
man, if he will endure. Not his oaks only and his fruit-trees,
his very heart roots itself wherever he will abide;--roots
itself, draws nourishment from the deep fountains of Universal
Being! Vagrant Sam-Slicks, who rove over the Earth doing
'strokes of trade,' what wealth have they? Horseloads, shiploads
of white or yellow metal: in very sooth, what are these? Slick
rests nowhere, he is homeless. He can build stone or marble
houses; but to continue in them is denied him. The wealth of a
man is the number of things which he loves and blesses, which he
is loved and blessed by! The herdsman in his poor clay shealing,
where his very cow and dog are friends to him, and not a cataract
but carries memories for him, and not a mountain-top but nods old
recognition: his life, all encircled as in blessed mother's-
arms, is it poorer than Slick's with the ass-loads of yellow
metal on his back? Unhappy Slick! Alas, there has so much grown
nomadic, apelike, with us: so much will have, with whatever
pain, repugnance and 'impossibility,' to alter itself, to fix
itself again,--in some wise way, in any not delirious way!
A question arises here: Whether, in some ulterior, perhaps some
not far-distant stage of this 'Chivalry of Labour,' your Master-
Worker may not find it possible, and needful, to grant his
Workers permanent _interest_ in his enterprise and theirs? So
that it become, in practical result, what in essential fact and
justice it ever is, a joint enterprise; all men, from the Chief
Master down to the lowest Overseer and Operative, economically as
well as loyally concerned for it?--Which question I do not
answer. The answer, near or else far, is perhaps, Yes;--and yet
one knows the difficulties. Despotism is essential in most
enterprises; I am told, they do not tolerate 'freedom of debate'
on board a Seventy-four! Republican senate and _plebiscita_
would not answer well in Cotton-Mills. And yet observe there
too: Freedom, not nomad's or ape's Freedom, but man's Freedom;
this is indispensable. We must have it, and will have it! To
reconcile Despotism with Freedom:--well, is that such a mystery?
Do you not already know the way? It is to make your Despotism
_just._ Rigorous as Destiny; but just too, as Destiny and its
Laws. The Laws of God: all men obey these, and have no
'Freedom' at all but in obeying them. The way is already known,
part of the way;--and courage and some qualities are needed for
walking on it!
Chapter VI
The Landed
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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