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第12章

latter-day pamphlets-第12章

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re。  Done this thing must be。  Alas; I perceive that if I cannot do it; then surely I shall die; and perhaps shall not have Christian burial!  But I already raise near upon Ten Millions for feeding you in idleness; my nomadic friends; work; under due regulations; I really might try to get of'_Here arises indescribable uproar; no longer repressible; from all manner of Economists; Emancipationists; Constitutionalists; and miscellaneous Professors of the Dismal Science; pretty numerously scattered about; and cries of 〃Private enterprise;〃 〃Rights of Capital;〃 〃Voluntary Principle;〃 〃Doctrines of the British Constitution;〃 swollen by the general assenting hum of all the world; quite drown the Chief Minister for a while。 He; with invincible resolution; persists; obtains hearing again_:'

〃Respectable Professors of the Dismal Science; soft you a little。  Alas; I know what you would say。  For my sins; I have read much in those inimitable volumes of yours;really I should think; some barrowfuls of them in my time;and; in these last forty years of theory and practice; have pretty well seized what of Divine Message you were sent with to me。  Perhaps as small a message; give me leave to say; as ever there was such a noise made about before。  Trust me; I have not forgotten it; shall never forget it。 Those Laws of the Shop…till are indisputable to me; and practically useful in certain departments of the Universe; as the multiplication…table itself。 Once I even tried to sail through the Immensities with them; and to front the big coming Eternities with them; but I found it would not do。  As the Supreme Rule of Statesmanship; or Government of Men;since this Universe is not wholly a Shop;no。  You rejoice in my improved tariffs; free…trade movements and the like; on every hand; for which be thankful; and even sing litanies if you choose。  But here at last; in the Idle…Workhouse movement;unexampled yet on Earth or in the waters under the Earth;I am fairly brought to a stand; and have had to make reflections; of the most alarming; and indeed awful; and as it were religious nature!  Professors of the Dismal Science; I perceive that the length of your tether is now pretty well run; and that I must request you to talk a little lower in future。  By the side of the shop…till;see; your small 'Law of God' is hung up; along with the multiplication…table itself。  But beyond and above the shop…till; allow me to say; you shall as good as hold your peace。  Respectable Professors; I perceive it is not now the Gigantic Hucksters; but it is the Immortal Gods; yes they; in their terror and their beauty; in their wrath and their beneficence; that are coming into play in the affairs of this world!  Soft you a little。  Do not you interrupt me; but try to understand and help me!

〃Work; was I saying?  My indigent unguided friends; I should think some work might be discoverable for you。  Enlist; stand drill; become; from a nomadic Banditti of Idleness; Soldiers of Industry!  I will lead you to the Irish Bogs; to the vacant desolations of Connaught now falling into Cannibalism; to mistilled Connaught; to ditto Munster; Leinster; Ulster; I will lead you:  to the English fox…covers; furze…grown Commons; New Forests; Salisbury Plains:  likewise to the Scotch Hill…sides; and bare rushy slopes; which as yet feed only sheep;moist uplands; thousands of square miles in extent; which are destined yet to grow green crops; and fresh butter and milk and beef without limit (wherein no 'Foreigner can compete with us'); were the Glasgow sewers once opened on them; and you with your Colonels carried thither。  In the Three Kingdoms; or in the Forty Colonies; depend upon it; you shall be led to your work!

〃To each of you I will then say:  Here is work for you; strike into it with manlike; soldier…like obedience and heartiness; according to the methods here prescribed;wages follow for you without difficulty; all manner of just remuneration; and at length emancipation itself follows。  Refuse to strike into it; shirk the heavy labor; disobey the rules;I will admonish and endeavor to incite you; if in vain; I will flog you; if still in vain; I will at last shoot you;and make God's Earth; and the forlorn…hope in God's Battle; free of you。  Understand it; I advise you!  The Organization of Labor〃'_Left speaking_; says our reporter。'


〃Left speaking:〃  alas; that he should have to 〃speak〃 so much!  There are things that should be done; not spoken; that till the doing of them is begun; cannot well be spoken。  He may have to 〃speak〃 seven years yet; before a spade be struck into the Bog of Allen; and then perhaps it will be too late!…

You perceive; my friends; we have actually got into the 〃New Era〃 there has been such prophesying of:  here we all are; arrived at last;and it is by no means the land flowing with milk and honey we were led to expect!  Very much the reverse。  A terrible _new_ country this:  no neighbors in it yet; that I can see; but irrational flabby monsters (philanthropic and other) of the giant species; hyenas; laughing hyenas; predatory wolves; probably _devils_; blue (or perhaps blue…and…yellow) devils; as St。 Guthlac found in Croyland long ago。  A huge untrodden haggard country; the 〃chaotic battle…field of Frost and Fire;〃 a country of savage glaciers; granite mountains; of foul jungles; unhewed forests; quaking bogs;which we shall have our own ados to make arable and habitable; I think!  We must stick by it; however;of all enterprises the impossiblest is that of getting out of it; and shifting into another。  To work; then; one and all; hands to work!


'March 1; 1850。' No。 II。  MODEL PRISONS。

The deranged condition of our affairs is a universal topic among men at present; and the heavy miseries pressing; in their rudest shape; on the great dumb inarticulate class; and from this; by a sure law; spreading upwards; in a less palpable but not less certain and perhaps still more fatal shape on all classes to the very highest; are admitted everywhere to be great; increasing and now almost unendurable。  How to diminish them;this is every man's question。  For in fact they do imperatively need diminution; and unless they can be diminished; there are many other things that cannot very long continue to exist beside them。  A serious question indeed; How to diminish them!

Among the articulate classes; as they may be called; there are two ways of proceeding in regard to this。  One large body of the intelligent and influential; busied mainly in personal affairs; accepts the social iniquities; or whatever you may call them; and the miseries consequent thereupon; accepts them; admits them to be extremely miserable; pronounces them entirely inevitable; incurable except by Heaven; and eats its pudding with as little thought of them as possible。  Not a very noble class of citizens these; not a very hopeful or salutary method of dealing with social iniquities this of theirs; however it may answer in respect to themselves and their personal affairs!  But now there is the select small minority; in whom some sentiment of public spirit and human pity still survives; among whom; or not anywhere; the Good Cause may expect to find soldiers and servants:  their method of proceeding; in these times; is also very strange。  They embark in the 〃philanthropic movement;〃 they calculate that the miseries of the world can be cured by bringing the philanthropic movement to bear on them。  To universal public misery; and universal neglect of the clearest public duties; let private charity superadd itself: there will thus be some balance restored; and maintained again; thus;or by what conceivable method?  On these terms they; for their part; embark in the sacred cause; resolute to cure a world's woes by rose…water; desperately bent on trying to the uttermost that mild method。  It seems not to have struck these good men that no world; or thing here below; ever fell into misery; without having first fallen into folly; into sin against the Supreme Ruler of it; by adopting as a law of conduct what was not a law; but the reverse of one; and that; till its folly; till its sin be cast out of it; there is not the smallest hope of its misery going;that not for all the charity and rose…water in the world wi

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