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
On the morrow after his instalment he brings in a load of money-bonds,
all duly stamped, sealed with this or the other Convent Seal:
frightful, unmanageable, a bottomless confusion of Convent finance.
There they are;--but there at least they all are; all that shall be of
them. Our Lord Abbot demands that all the official seals in use among
us be now produced and delivered to him. Three-and-thirty seals turn
up; are straightway broken, and shall seal no more: the Abbot only,
and those duly authorised by him shall seal any bond. There are but
two ways of paying debt: increase of industry in raising income,
increase of thrift in laying it out. With iron energy, in slow but
steady undeviating perseverance, Abbot Samson sets to work in both
directions. His troubles are manifold: cunning _milites_, unjust
bailiffs, lazy sockmen, he an inexperienced Abbot; relaxed lazy monks,
not disinclined to mutiny in mass: but continued vigilance, rigorous
method, what we call 'the eye of the master,' work wonders. The
clear-beaming eyesight of Abbot Samson, steadfast, severe,
all-penetrating,--it is like _Fiat lux_ in that inorganic waste
whirlpool; penetrates gradually to all nooks, and of the chaos makes a
_kosmos_ or ordered world!
He arranges everywhere, struggles unweariedly to arrange, and place on
some intelligible footing, the 'affairs and dues, _res ac redditus_,'
of his dominion. The Lakenheath eels cease to breed squabbles between
human beings; the penny of _reap-silver_ to explode into the streets
the Female Chartism of St. Edmundsbury. These and innumerable greater
things. Wheresoever Disorder may stand or lie, let it have a care;
here is the man that has declared war with it, that never will make
peace with it. Man is the Missionary of Order; he is the servant not
of the Devil and Chaos, but of God and the Universe! Let all sluggards
and cowards, remiss, false-spoken, unjust, and otherwise diabolic
persons have a care: this is a dangerous man for them. He has a mild
grave face; a thoughtful sternness, a sorrowful pity: but there is a
terrible flash of anger in him too; lazy monks often have to murmur,
"_Saevit ut lupus_, He rages like a wolf; was not our Dream true!" 'To
repress and hold-in such sudden anger he was continually 'careful,'
and succeeded well:--right, Samson; that it may become in thee as
noble central heat, fruitful, strong, beneficent; not blaze out, or
the seldomest possible blaze out, as wasteful volcanoism to scorch and
consume!
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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