Past and Present: Thomas Carlyle's Collected Works, Vol. XIII.Carlyle, Thomas
Philosophy
Past and Present: Thomas Carlyle's Collected Works, Vol. XIII.
Carlyle, Thomas
Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems
'When the very Tailor verges towards Sansculottism, is it not ominous?
The last Divinity of poor mankind dethroning himself; sinking _his_
taper too, flame downmost, like the Genius of Sleep or of Death;
admonitory that Tailor time shall be no more!--For, little as one
could advise Sumptuary Laws at the present epoch, yet nothing is
clearer than that where ranks do actually exist, strict division of
costumes will also be enforced; that if we ever have a new Hierarchy
and Aristocracy, acknowledged veritably as such, for which I daily
pray Heaven, the Tailor will reawaken; and be, by volunteering and
appointment, consciously and unconsciously, a safeguard of that
same.'--Certain farther observations, from the same invaluable pen, on
our never-ending changes of mode, our 'perpetual nomadic and even
ape-like appetite for change and mere change' in all the equipments of
our existence, and the 'fatal revolutionary character' thereby
manifested, we suppress for the present. It may be admitted that
Democracy, in all meanings of the word, is in full career;
irresistible by any Ritter Kauderwaelsch or other Son of Adam, as times
go. 'Liberty' is a thing men are determined to have.
* * * * *
But truly, as I had to remark in the mean while, 'the liberty of not
being oppressed by your fellow man' is an indispensable, yet one of
the most insignificant fractional parts of Human Liberty. No man
oppresses thee, can bid thee fetch or carry, come or go, without
reason shown. True; from all men thou art emancipated: but from
Thyself and from the Devil--? No man, wiser, unwiser, can make thee
come or go: but thy own futilities, bewilderments, thy false appetites
for Money, Windsor Georges and suchlike? No man oppresses thee, O free
and independent Franchiser: but does not this stupid Porter-pot
oppress thee? No Son of Adam can bid thee come or go; but this absurd
Pot of Heavy-wet, this can and does! Thou art the thrall not of Cedric
the Saxon, but of thy own brutal appetites and this scoured dish of
liquor. And thou pratest of thy 'liberty'? Thou entire blockhead!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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