He has consecrated Fraternity with an
eloquence unapproached by his peers, and with equal force put to scorn the
superstition of Equality; but he has aimed at Liberty destructive shafts,
some of which may find a mark the archer little meant.
[Footnote: _Vide passim_ the chapter in _Liberty_ entitled "Limits to the
Authority of Society over the Individual," where Mill denounces the idea
of "the majority of operatives in many branches of industry ... that bad
workmen ought to receive the same wages as good."]
CHAPTER X
CARLYLE'S RELIGION AND ETHICS--RELATION TO PREDECESSORS--INFLUENCE
The same advance or retrogression that appears in Carlyle's Politics is
traceable in his Religion; though it is impossible to record the stages
of the change with even an equal approach to precision. Religion, in the
widest sense--faith in some supreme Power above us yet acting for us--was
the great factor of his inner life. But when we further question his
Creed, he is either bewilderingly inconsistent or designedly vague. The
answer he gives is that of Schiller: "Welche der Religionen? Keine
von allen. Warum? Aus Religion." In 1870 he writes: "I begin to think
religion again possible for whoever will piously struggle upwards and
sacredly refuse to tell lies: which indeed will mostly mean refusal to
speak at all on that topic." This and other implied protests against
intrusive inquisition are valid in the case of those who keep their own
secrets: it is impertinence to peer and "interview" among the sanctuaries
of a poet or politician or historian who does not himself open their
doors.
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