Past and Present by Thomas Carlyle
page 38 of 398 (09%)
page 38 of 398 (09%)
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stupid hoofs for a century or two; till you discover that they
are gods,--and then take to braying over them, still in a very long-eared manner!--So speaks the sarcastic man; in his wild way, very mournful truths. Day's-wages for day's-work? continues he: The Progress of Human Society consists even in this same. The better and better apportioning of wages to work. Give me this, you have given me all. Pay to every man accurately what he has worked for, what he has earned and done and deserved,--to this man broad lands and honours, to that man high gibbets and treadmills: what more have I to ask? Heaven's Kingdom, which we daily pray for, _has_ come; God's will is done on Earth even as it is in Heaven! This _is_ the radiance of celestial justice; in the light or in the fire of which all impediments, vested interests, and iron cannon, are more and more melting like wax, and disappearing from the pathways of men. A thing ever struggling forward; irrepressible, advancing inevitable; perfecting itself, all days, more and more,--never to be _perfect_ till that general Doomsday, the ultimate Consummation, and Last of earthly Days. True, as to 'perfection' and so forth, answer we; true enough! And yet withal we have to remark, that imperfect Human Society holds itself together, and finds place under the Sun, in virtue simply of some _approximation_ to perfection being actually made and put in practice. We remark farther, that there are supportable approximations, and then likewise insupportable. With some, almost with any, supportable approximation men are apt, perhaps too apt, to rest indolently patient, and say, It will do. Thus these poor Manchester manual workers mean only, by |
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