The Catholic World, Vol. 06, October, 1867 to March, 1868.Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 06, October, 1867 to March, 1868.
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
canons of his social system, Mr. Carlyle devotes the greater part
of his essay--his fourth, fifth, and sixth paragraphs, and part
of the seventh. When England shall have shot Niagara, therefore,
her titled aristocracy is to recreate her, and the process is to
be the rendering "permanent" the relation between master and
servant; then will the devil be again tied up, and then will come
the millennium.
{91}
Well does Mr. Carlyle observe, however, that it will be a long
time "before the fool of a world opens its eyes to the tap-root"
of its evils, and that, when it "has discovered it, what a
puddling, and scolding, and jargoning there will be before the
first real step toward remedy is taken!"
Mr. Carlyle's seventh paragraph is taken up with some pretty
sound advice upon domestic economy, especially upon the "cheap
and nasty" tendency of the times, which leads us to be too often
contented with appearances instead of realities. His remarks upon
the inferiority of the London brick of modern make are practical,
but the moral he draws about the necessity of rebuilding England
at once and properly is much more so. It is well, however, for
humanity that those Englishmen who wish to rebuild her have a
different system of philosophy from that Mr. Carlyle advocates at
present. It is well, also, for humanity that, while it is not
impossible that an experienced "drill-sergeant," such as he
presents in his concluding paragraph as a remedy for our
insubordination in all matters, would be a blessing, it is well
that heaven has not given him the baton. Mr. Carlyle gave to the
world in 1840 his entire political system in his _Hero
Worship_, and it is the same substantially in his present
essay. Then he told us that to heroes alone belonged the right to
govern society, and that the duty of society was to discover
these providential beings and to blindly obey them. Cromwell and
Napoleon he presented as types of this heroism. By his many
allusions to "Oliver" in his present essay and his two entire
paragraphs upon his Industrial and his Practical Hero, we see
that he has not yet realized that the very necessity of making
and following heroes proves the still greater necessity of
raising people to a higher appreciation of the dignity of their
manhood. Could the "devil's strap" theory be actuated, there
would be in the state a hero, but he would only be great because
his people were contemptible. Although Mr. Carlyle promised to
say something about the second "achievement" of democracy,
namely, the gradual deliquescence and final evaporation of all
religions under its baneful influence, he says nothing whatever
about God or religion. His illiberality, bitterness, and love of
tyranny make us suspect that in his heart there dwells but little
love for that which cannot but be liberal, kind, and respectful
to the rights of man. Indeed, one finds in this essay an
undercurrent of the same nature as the spirit shown in Carlyle's
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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