Chapter VII: Part 7

Christ’s disciples were few, but by their earnestness and belief in the truth they wrought a great change. Perhaps, in their enthusiasm, they broke away from things that were beautiful and useful; but one prominent good they did: they promoted a spirit of fellowship; of fraternity which, if not new in theory, was new in practice. The Franciscan Order began in spite of the Church. St. Francis was, in a sense, a revolutionary. While the Church was preaching wealth he preached poverty. While the Church was systematically conservative he was progressive. And with what swiftness his teaching moved. Beginning in a little company of followers in Assisi, the Order spread over Europe, almost as a flash of lightning. All the greatest things start small. It is enthusiasm that really moves the world; to use enthusiasm wisely comes afterwards. Who shall say how far or how beneficially the new lay Order in Britain will go? It may become the ruling factor of modern democracy; it may turn a paper democracy into a living one. Movements of less moment than this one have changed the destinies of nations, and such changes have always come about after great upheavals. After the terrible strain of War people looked about them and began to wonder if what led up to the War was not (even if it made wealth) destroying our spiritual nature. I like better, our instinctive Ideals. It surely made the wise think more deeply and the less wise wonder what was the matter. It was evident that a mood was about beyond the power of politicians to tackle. No red tape could do it; it could only wrap it up and put the bundle away in a pigeon-hole. Was it all a chimera in which we were living? Extended luxuries, ridiculously high wages, penalising taxes, were all artificial and demonstrated an entirely artificial life. Constant demand for excitement, if prolonged, must ruin a nation. The preachments of equality were vain; there is not such a thing and never can be. The only approach to equality can be found in _equality of honour_; each man working his best, giving the best for decent wages, and the noblest of all giving their best for no wages at all.

§ 57

What was the matter with England? Too rich! Too self-indulgent, growing idle and becoming dishonest! An enormous population of so-called Labour, led by ignorant, headstrong agitators. A weak Government, carrying on the tactics of promise and no performance, tactics of sops to agitators, of declining to face realities. A Government which was losing whatever respect it might have had, even from the Party in the Country which it had pampered and spoiled, and what for? To gain their votes at a general election. Tradesmen who could charge what they pleased, and a Government that one moment held them in check, the next gave way. Growing blindness to everything that makes a great nation, Honesty, Industry, Thrift and a high Ideal for the future welfare of their country, and entire apathy as to the judgment which history will pass upon the _Tone of the People_. In fact, something so like Anarchy as to be practically, if not theoretically, Anarchy.

Even if the Government saw the danger it did not face it. It dared not do so because its very existence depended upon a class, and that one the least provided with education sufficient to put it into a position of clear thinking and sound judgment. “The idle” rich were pointed at as the first offenders; Capital was destructive to Labour interests, was the foolish cry, as if a country could exist without Capital! The fact being that the higher wages the greater the capital will have to be to meet them. To achieve capital all must work!

In my dream just now I heard a workman say, “Never again will we cry out against Capital; we see now that without it we should be _paupers_! And who, after all, came forward in the extreme moments of stress during the War? Surely that part of Society dubbed ‘The Idle Rich.’ How was the cost of five millions a day met? By Capital, of course. How were we paid for making munitions? By Capital, of course. And (he went on to say), from our own point of view, in our own interests, indeed, discounting all others for the sake of argument, our enemies were not the rich or the refined and cultivated classes, they were the men who pretended to lead us, and, alas! they did so, almost to our undoing; but rid of them we are now, and will never again accept them.” New ideas, or old ones revived are catching, and if formed on the highest motives, will prevail as long as a good humour towards them is in favour. “The Lay Order,” which we have watched and found entirely sincere, is working a great change. Extending from villages to cities, from the fields to factories, from public to private life, the Lay Order finds respect from the peasant, the agricultural and the industrial classes. Its influence is felt in every form of social life, from the Lord Mayors to the humblest commoner. The peasant finds wisdom in these men! He saw them at the plough, he found them companions as well as leaders.

We hear him say, “What they teach they do.” At first they marvelled. “Why do gentlemen do this? We thought ‘gentlemen’ _loved ease_ now we know that the real gentleman is a hard handed man with a gentle heart, and he knows more than we do, so we listen to him! The Order has done wonders in breaking down class distinction. Instead, fervent fraternity is taking root. “We have given up the fetish of equality; we know it is a broken reed that is quite untrustworthy, even to a drowning man.” We know, whatever station of life is ours, that we can dignify it or defile it.”

§ 58

Dignify it by exertion, defile it by apathy or worse. The churches looked upon the Lay Order with suspicion at first. Inclined to question their Dogmas, they called them “Socinians,” Atheists and even harder names we know of, triumphantly adopted by Dogmatists. The Cardinals of Rome mistrusted St. Francis and his little following, who cut at the root of their wealth. The Cardinals drove about in splendid carriages, were attended by gaily dressed footmen, of whom they demanded servility. The Franciscans walked, footsore in snow and hail, were exposed to scorching sun, were hungry, were beggars, but inside them they felt the warmth of the Love of God, and a burning love for their fellow-men. The Order has something of Monasticism, and why not? It is Monasticism purged of its morbidity. It is not eager to save souls for the next world, but to nourish them for their progress in this which is, after all, the only one that can be demonstrated and dealt with with certainty. They do not ask for joy after death, but before it; and they find it in labour, in labour for the less instructed, in the Doctrine of THOU more than of _I_. They remember a fine ancient saying, “Love enters the soul when self has evacuated the fortress of the heart.”

The word soul has been often used in this story of my dream. What do I mean by it? I mean that part of a nation and individual that is immortal! Not longing to escape damnation or to attain Joy hereafter, but escape it here, and realise it here. They teach the Art of living, “_Ars Vivendi_,” and it is followed with honesty and just pride, “The Art of dying, _Ars Moriendi_,” will take care of itself. They do not preach the joys of a life to come, but of this one which we can make joyful if we please. They are Idealists who are, at the same time practical; Rationalists, if you like so to call them. They accept matter, not as a check or obstacle to the conduct of an Ideal, but as inseparable from it. They teach Free Will, and have nothing to say to Predestination. The former is certain, the latter is supposition. It is the common sense which pervades their work that is making it respected. They teach an Ideal that _can_ be touched if not entirely reached: that an Ideal is not a phantom.

Education is spreading persistently, not by leaps or bounds, but systematically and surely. Facts are taught, but not as a parrot is. Then cause and effect, of which the parrot, as far as we know is ignorant, is the very kernel of History. Young people are led to reason, to obey their instincts so far as they are justified. Facts are useful, but too many piled together puzzle more than invigorate the mind. If we try to hold too many seeds in our hand some must escape through the fingers. Young people are led, not driven, and with discretion. They are not crammed with useless facts. Every child, rich and poor, is initiated to a handicraft. In that there is no distinction; this was forced upon us when it became certain that we should have to be in a measure our own craftsmen and our own servants. The rise in wages made that a _sine quâ non_, and it has been met. The class that served as household domestics is doing now a work much more serviceable to the country; it is working on the land, both men and women are.

Performing our own jobs of mending, we have released a whole army of small hand-to-mouth trades. This is economical; indeed, at the price “little labour” demanded it was imperative, and since it has become a habit nobody grumbles. Home exercises of prudence and economy fill up moments which grow to be hours otherwise wasted. An effect this has had is remarkable; it has been the cause of greater, not less independence of self-reliance which tells upon character. We are very wary of men of law like Napoleon; we mistrust them as we mistrust all sophists. We do not care for them as members of our Councils; we use them as referees, not as helmsmen. The man of law goes round and round in a circle in equal distance from the centre, he avoids the centre. We like the guilty punished, but we do not like that he gets off on a point of law when the man who got him off knows perfectly well he is guilty, this is playing with Justice, not administering it.

§ 59

“We admit that a reasonable profit is justifiable on the sale of all goods, but the Great War taught us that tradesmen profited enormously upon our evil times. We might grow hungry, but they must profit by it; and it was men of our own class who did this mercilessly. This has made us beware of tradesmen, so we have put spokes in their wheels which they do not like, and finding they can ‘rook’ us no longer, they have gone to work on the land, which is better for their health and morals and for the country at large.” So spoke a workman--mind, a workman, not a capitalist!!

Another said, “Directly we saw straight, and viewed the horizon clearly, we knew we had power, and we set ourselves to use it rightly, and chose leaders who would help us. We do not intend to go back, we mean to go forward, and show the country that it may have confidence in us. We are learning to rule ourselves, hence we may claim a place among legislators. We know that a bad servant cannot make a good master. The old Trades Union masters could not become statesmen because they taught that “bad work is good for Trade,” than which nothing can be a greater fallacy.”

§ 60

A nation progresses, even survives, only on good work. It is ruined by bad! Since we are rid of bad leaders, the outlook on life is extended fourfold. The new Lay Order, being composed of a great variety of minds, some passive (as scholars and teachers must be, in a measure) active and alert, physically and mentally, leaves no subject of education, high as well as simple, untouched. Among this disinterested community there exists no struggle for precedence. Each man regards himself as an item of the nation’s wants, and strives to advance them in due order and without prejudice. Hence we have the men of letters, the Artist (inclusive) and Scientist working under the banner of Justice, hand-in-hand with the ploughman. The order is coming to be the root of all education.

§ 61

It is referred to by Village as well as City “Teachers.” It has become a kind of university, a source from which spring many small streams irrigating deserts that were unproductive. When started, the scheme was considered Utopian; a mere fad, and the men who framed its first principles were “Dreamers”--Poets, if you like, but unpractical. In a short time it became evident that far from being unpractical they were the reverse. They, seeing chaos, sought to achieve Kosmos. Success, hitherto gained, has been due to the touch created with an almost infinite variety of occupations and interests, which, while being local, are also national. They came at exactly the right moment, when a great upheaval threatened the very existence of England. By personal influence, direct and circumspect, they are doing for the country what the politician can never do, or statesman achieve, even if they are gifted with “Imagination.”

§ 62

Theories were abundant, practice now prevails. So sure is the growth of practical education that those who thought in grooves, now think broadly; hence they are not easily misled. The effort of each Commune is not to make new laws, but to enforce a few already made which, protecting every class, are not limited to one pre-eminently. It is said, “We got tired of Government which, to save their seats, listened to the last popular clamour, and toyed with transient public needs and opinions; which listened to the discontented and tried to appease them by promises which they knew they could not fulfil. We see through that paradox! We were tired to death of ‘The Plain Man,’ the obstinate ignorant utilitarian. We don’t want the kind of man who prevailed, who, to lay a B line of tramways, would, if he could, pull down the sacred trusts left to us by creative master minds. We do not want the kind of man who, for the sake of ‘Rents,’ would build factories or cheap houses on every open space, the ‘lungs of our Cities.’ We do not want the man who looks upon every fair garden to destroy it and erect ‘Flats’; who would float a company with promises of 10 per cent. when the capital is mostly on paper.”

§ 63

Once upon a time an ex-Lord Mayor was surprised to hear an expression of disgust at a proposal to convert Westminster Abbey into a railway terminus. “We don’t want that kind of Mayor or ex-Mayor; we regard him as a savage.” Excellent John Bright! Your study of the style of the Bible and Milton made you an orator, but not a wise man when you expressed a hope that Industrialism would so prevail that smoky chimneys should be everywhere as a sign of Wealth! You saw as a sectarian, narrowly and ill! The beauty of our English lake scenery would no longer exist if “The Plain Man” had had his way. The banks of the Thames near to Chiswick, that precious bit of rural Suburban London, was saved from destruction, but only just saved.

The promoters of the scheme held out plausible hopes to “The People,” but were outwitted, thank Heaven, and the King’s Meadows were saved. Had it succeeded Chiswick would have been under a smoke cloud, and we should have said good-bye to the health and beauty of what is still the most charming suburb of our grim, chaotic, dirty Metropolis. How to treat London as a whole, is under consideration. It will probably be broken up into self-governing sections. Much of it will have to be pulled down and rearranged. Open spaces will be increased. Public opinion will not, in these days of its greater enlightenment, be the slave of Jerry-builders or Companies that, for the sake of high interest, erected _Pig-styes_ and called them dwellings. It is proposed to break London up, to equalise the number of the population in every district, and not to permit their extension in the future. One scheme I heard in my dream is to divide Central London from its suburbs by a zone, entirely free of buildings, which shall be one vast productive garden. It is thought to be a practicable scheme, in point of fact, the simplest yet suggested. The total abolition of the Smoke Fiend and the consequent clean and healthy air now enjoyed, and the quantity of sunlight being doubled, experts say there is no reason to doubt the healthy growth of fruit and vegetables in the proposed rural zone. Within Central London only such factories will be permitted which are entirely free from nuisance, disorder, bad smells or smoke of any kind whatever. A plan is being thought out to heat Central London by electricity upon the same system so successfully applied to the New City.

§ 64

It is determined already that from London Bridge to Richmond Bridge no factories will be permitted on the banks of our splendid river. Imagination will supply a vision of what our river might be then. Clear water, heaps of good fish, even salmon and trout, a place for pageants, a healthy playground for the people and as beautiful a river as any in Europe.

Centralization has received its death blow. Home rule, including all responsibilities, has taken the place of a gigantic mistake. Each County now rules itself. Only the best and most reliable men are in a position of power. Class legislation is at an end. The rich have no more power than the poor. The great or main effort of New England is to _level up_. That desirable object, indeed more than desirable, indispensable object, can only be attained by extending enlightenment, and to do so the whole nation is now of one voice. To sharpen our wits, as well as our tools, to enlarge the boundaries of our outlook, and to maintain simplicity. Not to be time-servers, but to recognise the debt we owe to aftercomers, and never to forget that we are trustees, not only of the moment, but for the future. To put big things before small. To realise, and profoundly, that every poor as well as rich man is a responsible agent; that responsibility is equal if different; the rich to use their money well, the poor to earn honourable wages for honourable toil. Never to forget that all labour is honourable, if well and honestly executed; and that idleness and living upon the savings of our neighbours is a crime against Society. Above all, to bear in mind that the _Soul of a Nation_ must not be forgotten. Upon the purity of its conduct, the elevation of its Ideals, carried into effect by constant and the highest efforts, a nation keeps itself on the high road to dignity and prosperity. To do this we must choose our guides, not from platforms on Clapham Common, but from every class which, having learnt the lesson of “Self-Rule,” is in a position to lead others to attain it, and so to proceed with the delicate task of ruling others.

The foregoing statements are becoming truisms, so universal are they becoming. And hence a Democracy is a possibility, even a probability, as it is certainly the most consistent form of Government. To attain it discord must cease! The discord which followed the Great War was more dangerous to Britain than its great enemy, Germany. But, if that discord is resolved into a concord, deplorable as it seemed to be, it will have worked for good. The motto of the New England is an ancient Benedictine proverb:--

“_Laborare est Orare._”

And so ends my Dream, which, when I woke, I thought might some day grow to be a Reality.

§ 65

I can find no nobler words in all literature with which to end than the prayer of Socrates, spoken at the end of the “Phædrus”:--

“Beloved Pan, and all ye other gods who haunt this place, give me beauty in the inward soul; and may the outward and inward man be one. May I reckon the Wise to be the Wealthy, and may I have such a quantity of gold as none but the temperate can bear and carry. Anything more? That prayer, I think, is enough for me. Let us go.” (_From Jowett’s Translation._)

THE END.

Transcriber’s Note:

Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have been left unchanged. Eight misspelled words were corrected.

Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, or partially printed letters, were corrected. Duplicate punctuation was deleted. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added. One missing section (§) symbol was added. Redundant word ‘thousand’ following ‘4,000’ was deleted.