第 6 节
作者:
套牢 更新:2021-02-21 16:39 字数:9322
I say; it is the everlasting privilege of the foolish to be governed by the wise; to be guided in the right path by those who know it better than they。 This is the first 〃right of man;〃 compared with which all other rights are as nothing;mere superfluities; corollaries which will follow of their own accord out of this; if they be not contradictions to this; and less than nothing! To the wise it is not a privilege; far other indeed。 Doubtless; as bringing preservation to their country; it implies preservation of themselves withal; but intrinsically it is the harshest duty a wise man; if he be indeed wise; has laid to his hand。 A duty which he would fain enough shirk; which accordingly; in these sad times of doubt and cowardly sloth; he has long everywhere been endeavoring to reduce to its minimum; and has in fact in most cases nearly escaped altogether。 It is an ungoverned world; a world which we flatter ourselves will henceforth need no governing。 On the dust of our heroic ancestors we too sit ballot…boxing; saying to one another; It is well; it is well! By inheritance of their noble struggles; we have been permitted to sit slothful so long。 By noble toil ; not by shallow laughter and vain talk; they made this English Existence from a savage forest into an arable inhabitable field for us; and we; idly dreaming it would grow spontaneous crops forever;find it now in a too questionable state; peremptorily requiring real labor and agriculture again。 Real 〃agriculture〃 is not pleasant; much pleasanter to reap and winnow (with ballot…box or otherwise) than to plough!
Who would govern that can get along without governing? He that is fittest for it; is of all men the unwillingest unless constrained。 By multifarious devices we have been endeavoring to dispense with governing; and by very superficial speculations; of _laissez…faire_; supply…and…demand; &c。 &c。 to persuade ourselves that it is best so。 The Real Captain; unless it be some Captain of mechanical Industry hired by Mammon; where is he in these days? Most likely; in silence; in sad isolation somewhere; in remote obscurity; trying if; in an evil ungoverned time; he cannot at least govern himself。 The Real Captain undiscoverable; the Phantasm Captain everywhere very conspicuous:it is thought Phantasm Captains; aided by ballot…boxes; are the true method; after all。 They are much the pleasantest for the time being! And so no _Dux_ or Duke of any sort; in any province of our affairs; now _leads_: the Duke's Bailiff _leads_; what little leading is required for getting in the rents; and the Duke merely rides in the state…coach。 It is everywhere so: and now at last we see a world all rushing towards strange consummations; because it is and has long been so!
I do not suppose any reader of mine; or many persons in England at all; have much faith in Fraternity; Equality and the Revolutionary Millenniums preached by the French Prophets in this age: but there are many movements here too which tend inevitably in the like direction; and good men; who would stand aghast at Red Republic and its adjuncts; seem to me travelling at full speed towards that or a similar goal! Certainly the notion everywhere prevails among us too; and preaches itself abroad in every dialect; uncontradicted anywhere so far as I can hear; That the grand panacea for social woes is what we call 〃enfranchisement;〃 〃emancipation;〃 or; translated into practical language; the cutting asunder of human relations; wherever they are found grievous; as is like to be pretty universally the case at the rate we have been going for some generations past。 Let us all be 〃free〃 of one another; we shall then be happy。 Free; without bond or connection except that of cash…payment; fair day's wages for the fair day's work; bargained for by voluntary contract; and law of supply…and…demand: this is thought to be the true solution of all difficulties and injustices that have occurred between man and man。
To rectify the relation that exists between two men; is there no method; then; but that of ending it? The old relation has become unsuitable; obsolete; perhaps unjust; it imperatively requires to be amended; and the remedy is; Abolish it; let there henceforth be no relation at all。 From the 〃Sacrament of Marriage〃 downwards; human beings used to be manifoldly related; one to another; and each to all; and there was no relation among human beings; just or unjust; that had not its grievances and difficulties; its necessities on both sides to bear and forbear。 But henceforth; be it known; we have changed all that; by favor of Heaven: 〃the voluntary principle〃 has come up; which will itself do the business for us; and now let a new Sacrament; that of Divorce; which we call emancipation; and spout of on our platforms; be universally the order of the day!Have men considered whither all this is tending; and what it certainly enough betokens? Cut every human relation which has anywhere grown uneasy sheer asunder; reduce whatsoever was compulsory to voluntary; whatsoever was permanent among us to the condition of nomadic:in other words; loosen by assiduous wedges in every joint; the whole fabric of social existence; stone from stone: till at last; all now being loose enough; it can; as we already see in most countries; be overset by sudden outburst of revolutionary rage; and; lying as mere mountains of anarchic rubbish; solicit you to sing Fraternity; &c。; over it; and to rejoice in the new remarkable era of human progress we have arrived at。
Certainly Emancipation proceeds with rapid strides among us; this good while; and has got to such a length as might give rise to reflections in men of a serious turn。 West…Indian Blacks are emancipated; and it appears refuse to work: Irish Whites have long been entirely emancipated; and nobody asks them to work; or on condition of finding them potatoes (which; of course; is indispensable); permits them to work。Among speculative persons; a question has sometimes risen: In the progress of Emancipation; are we to look for a time when all the Horses also are to be emancipated; and brought to the supply…and…demand principle? Horses too have 〃motives;〃 are acted on by hunger; fear; hope; love of oats; terror of platted leather; nay they have vanity; ambition; emulation; thankfulness; vindictiveness; some rude outline of all our human spiritualities;a rude resemblance to us in mind and intelligence; even as they have in bodily frame。 The Horse; poor dumb four…footed fellow; he too has his private feelings; his affections; gratitudes; and deserves good usage; no human master; without crime; shall treat him unjustly either; or recklessly lay on the whip where it is not needed:I am sure if I could make him 〃happy;〃 I should be willing to grant a small vote (in addition to the late twenty millions) for that object!
Him too you occasionally tyrannize over; and with bad result to yourselves; among others; using the leather in a tyrannous unnecessary manner; withholding; or scantily furnishing; the oats and ventilated stabling that are due。 Rugged horse…subduers; one fears they are a little tyrannous at times。 〃Am I not a horse; and half…brother?〃To remedy which; so far as remediable; fancythe horses all 〃emancipated;〃 restored to their primeval right of property in the grass of this Globe: turned out to graze in an independent supply…and…demand manner! So long as grass lasts; I dare say they are very happy; or think themselves so。 And Farmer Hodge sallying forth; on a dry spring morning; with a sieve of oats in his hand; and agony of eager expectation in his heart; is he happy? Help me to plough this day; Black Dobbin: oats in full measure if thou wilt。 〃Hlunh; Nothank!〃 snorts Black Dobbin; he prefers glorious liberty and the grass。 Bay Darby; wilt not thou perhaps? 〃Hlunh!〃Gray Joan; then; my beautiful broad…bottomed mare;O Heaven; she too answers Hlunh! Not a quadruped of them will plough a stroke for me。 Corn…crops are _ended_ in this world!For the sake; if not of Hodge; then of Hodge's horses; one prays this benevolent practice might now cease; and a new and better one try to begin。 Small kindness to Hodge's horses to emancipate them! The fate of all emancipated horses is; sooner or later; inevitable。 To have in this habitable Earth no grass to eat;in Black Jamaica gradually none; as in White Connemara already none;to roam aimless; wasting the seedfields of the world; and be hunted home to Chaos; by the due watch…dogs and due hell…dogs; with such horrors of forsaken wretchedness as were never seen before! These things are not sport; they are terribly true; in this country at this hour。
Between our Black West Indies and our White Ireland; between these two extremes of lazy refusal to work; and of famishing inability to find any work; what a world have we made of it; with our fierce Mammon…worships; and our benevolent philanderings; and idle godless nonsenses of one kind and another! Supply…and…demand; Leave…it…alone; Voluntary Principle; Time will mend it:till British industrial existence seems fast becoming one huge poison…swamp of reeking pestilence physical and moral; a hideous _living_ Golgotha of souls and bodies buried alive; such a Curtius' gulf; communicati