thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of Heaven's pavement, trodden gold,
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed
In vision beatific.... Let none admire
That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane.

Milton.

* * * * *

#The Head Merchant#

Ours is the era of commerce, as its propagandists never weary of
telling us. Business is the basis of our material lives, and
consequently of our culture. Business men control our politics and
dictate our laws; business men own our newspapers and direct their
policy; business men sit on our school boards, and endow and manage
our universities. The Reformation was a revolt of the newly-developing
merchant classes against the tyrannies and abuses of feudal
clericalism: so in all Protestant Christianity one finds the spirit,
ideals, and language of Trade. We have shown how the symbolism of the
Anglican Church is of the palace and the throne; in the same way that
of the non-conformist sects may be shown to be of the counting-house.
In the view of the middle-class Britisher, the nexus between man and
man is cent per cent; and so in their Sunday services the worshippers
sing such hymns as this:

Whatever, Lord, we lend to Thee,
Repaid a thousand fold shall be;
Then gladly will we give to Thee,
Who givest all.

The first duty of every man under the competitive system is to secure
the survival of his own business; So on the Sabbath, when he comes to
deal with eternity, he is practical and explicit:

Nothing is worth a thought beneath
But how I may escape the death
That never, never dies;
How make mine own election sure,
And when I fail on earth secure
A mansion in the skies.

Just as the priest of the aristocratic caste figures God as a mighty
Conqueror--

Marching as to war
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before--

so the preacher to the trader figures the divinity as a glorified
Merchant keeping books. This Head Merchant has a monopoly in His line;
He knows all His rivals' secrets, so there is no getting ahead of Him,
and nothing to do but obey His Word, as revealed through His clerical
staff. The system is oily with protestations of divine love; but when
you read the comments of Luther upon Calvin and of Calvin upon Luther,
you understand that this love is confined to the inside of each
denomination. And even so restricted, there