Consequently, while brought in
evidence by most of our modern Social idealists, Comtists and Communists
alike, all they can say is that he has given to their protest against the
existing state of the commercial world a more eloquent expression than
their own. He has no compact scheme,--as that of St. Simon or Fourier, or
Owen--few such definite proposals as those of Karl Marx, Bellamy, Hertzka
or Gronlund, or even William Morris. He seems to share with Mill the view
that "the restraints of communism are weak in comparison with those of
capitalists," and with Morris to look far forward to some golden age; he
has given emphatic support to a copartnership of employers and employed,
in which the profits of labour shall be apportioned by some rule of
equity, and insisted on the duty of the State to employ those who are out
of work in public undertakings.
Enlist, stand drill, and become from banditti soldiers of
industry. I will lead you to the Irish bogs ... English
foxcovers ... New Forest, Salisbury Plains, and Scotch
hill-sides which as yet feed only sheep ... thousands of
square miles ... destined yet to grow green crops and fresh
butter and milk and beef without limit:--
an estimate with the usual exaggeration. But Carlyle's later work
generally advances on his earlier, in its higher appreciation of
Industrialism. He looks forward to the boon of "one big railway right
across America," a prophecy since three times fulfilled; and admits that
"the new omnipotence of the steam engine is hewing aside quite other
mountains than the physical," _i.
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