nteresting _Recollections_ Mr Espinasse states that during the
time that Carlyle was writing on the labour question, not a single
blue-book was visible on his table! To Carlyle's influence must be
traced much of the sentimental treatment of social and industrial
questions which has followed the unpopularity of political economy. It
is only fair to Carlyle to note, that at times he had qualms as to the
superiority of his paternal theory of government over Laissez Faire. In
one place he admits that even Frederick could not have superintended the
great emigration movement to such good effect as was done by the
spontaneous efforts of nature. In the social sphere Carlyle was false to
his doctrine of spontaneity. In his early essays he was perpetually
condemning mechanical interference with society, and contending that
free play should be given to the dynamic agencies. Untrue to himself and
his creed, Carlyle in his later books was constantly denouncing
Government for neglecting to apply mechanical remedies for social
diseases. In his view, the duty of a ruler was not to work in harmony
with social impulses, but to cut and carve institutions in harmony with
the ideas of great men. Puritanism under Cromwell failed because it was
forgotten that society is an organism, not a piece of clay, to be
moulded according to the notions of heroic potters. Strictly speaking,
_Frederick_ and _Cromwell_ should be classed with the _Latter Day
Pamphlets_. In the _Pamphlets_ Carlyle declaims against democratic
methods, and in _Frederick_ and _Cromwell_ we are presented with
incarnations of autocratic methods.

Of all the critics of Carlyle, no one has surpassed Mr Morley in
indicating the mischievous effects which flow from the elevation of
mere will power and emotional force into guides in social and political
questions. As Mr Morley says: 'The dictates of a kind heart are of
superior force to the maxims of political economy; swift and peremptory
resolution is a safer guide than a balancing judgment. If the will works
easily and surely, we may assume the rectitude of the moving impulse.
All this is no caricature of a system which sets sentiment, sometimes
hard sentiment, above reason and method. In other words, the writer who
in these days has done more than anybody else to fire men's hearts with
a feeling for right, and an eager desire for social activity, has, with
deliberate contempt, thrust away from him the only instruments by which
we c