Cromwell," undertook to give a sort of abstract and summary, intending it most likely for some review; but at length made up his mind to add to it, by way of prefix and supplement, sundry pages of his own upon matters and things in general which had gradually accumulated upon his table without having been "translated into print." This prefatory and supplementary matter grew, as not unfrequently happens in such cases, to be more than double the bulk of the rest; and altogether it constitutes what we have ventured to denominate the olla podrida, "Past and Present."

In this dish the "Past "—that is the summation of Jocelyn's Chronicle, here entitled "The Ancient Monk"-is the essential meat, a little tough perhaps, yet always sound; while the remainder, under such chapter heads as "Midas," "Sphinx," "Morrison's Pill," "Gospel of Mammonism," "Happy," "Gospel of Dilettantism," " Plugson of Undershot," "Labor," "Democracy," "Sir Jabesh Windbag," "Captains of Industry," "The Landed," "The Gifted," and "The Didactic," are the scraps, the potatoes, the turnips, the garlic, and the dish water, which were thrown in to fill the big pot. Not that one can not, by dextrous use of the critical fork and spoon, fish out many wholesome bits from this olla podrida. Thus we fish up the following from the chapter entitled "Captains of Industry":

THE CHIVALRY OF LABOR.

"The Leaders of Industry, if Industry is ever to be led, are virtually the Captains of the World; if there be no nobleness in them, there will never be an Aristocracy more. But let the Captains of Industry consider; once again, are they born of other clay than the old Captains of Slaughter; doomed forever to be no Chivalry, but a mere Gold-plated Doggery-what the French well name 'Canaille, Doggery,' with more or less Gold carrion at its disposal. Captains of Industry are the true Fighters, henceforth recognizable as the only true ones: Fighters against Chaos, Necessity, and the Devils and Jötuns; and lead on Mankind in that great, and alone true and universal warfare; the stars in their courses fighting for them, and all Heaven and all Earth saying audibly, 'Well-done!' Let the Captains of Industry retire into their own hearts and ask solemnly, If there is nothing but vulturous hunger, for fine wines, valet reputation, and gilt carriages, discoverable there? . . . . Our England, our World, cannot live as it is. It will connect itself with a God again, or go down with nameless throes and fire-consummations, to the Devils. Thou who feelest aught of such a Godhead stirring in thee, any faintest intimations of it, as though heavy-laden dreams, follow it, I conjure thee. Arise, save thyself, be one of those that save thy country!

...

"You cannot lead a Fighting World without having it regimented, chivalried; and can you any more continue to lead a Working World unregimented, anarchic? . . . . Will not one French Revolution and Reign of Terror suffice us, but must there be two? There will be two if needed; there will be twenty if needed; there will be just as many as are needed. . . .

"Your gallant battle-hosts and work-hosts will need to be made loyally yours; they must and will be regulated, methodically secured in their just share of conquest under you;-joined with you in veritable Brotherhood, Sonhood, by quite other and deeper ties than those of temporary day's wages! How would mere red-coated regiments, to say nothing of chivalries, fight for you if you could discharge them on the evening of battle, on payment of the stipulated shillings, and they discharge you on the morning of it! Chelsea Hospitals, pensions, promotions, rigorous lasting covenants on the one side and on the other, are indispensable even for a hired fighter. The Feudal Baron, how could he subsist with mere temporary mercenaries round him at sixpence a day; ready to go over to the other side if sevenpence were offered? . . . .

war.

"Awake, ye noble workers, warriors in the one true

Look around you. Your world-hosts are all in mutiny, in confusion, in destitution; on the eve of fiery wreck and madness! They will not march further for you, on the sixpence a day and supply-and-demand principle: they will not; nor ought they; nor can they. Ye shall reduce them to order; begin reducing them. To order, just subordination; noble loyalty in return for noble guidance. Their souls are driven nigh mad; let yours be sane and ever saner. Not as a bewildered, bewildering mob; but as a firm regimented mass, with real captains over them, will these men march any more. All human interests, combined human endeavors, and social growths in the world have, at a certain stage in their development, required organizing: and Work, the grandest of human interests, does now require it."

And this, in the brief chapter entitled "Permanence," put quite hypothetically, as though too dubious to be fully declared; and yet it is a thing which a few Captains of Industry have found quite practicable; a thing which we imagine many more must not long hence find not only practicable, but absolutely indispensable :

A FREE DESPOTISM.

"A question arises here: Whether in some ulterior, perhaps some not far-distant stage of this 'Chivalry of Labor,' your Master-Worker may not find it necessary and possible to grant his Worker's interest in his enterprise and theirs? so that it becomes in practical result what in essential fact and justice it ever is, a joint enterprise; all men, from the Chief Master down to the lowest Overseer and Operative, economically as well as loyally concerned for it?—Which question I do not answer. The answer, near or else far, is perhaps 'Yes'; and yet one knows the difficulties. Despotism is essential in most enterprises; I am told they do not tolerate 'freedom of debate' on board a Seventy-four; Republican Senate and Plebiscita would not answer well in Cotton-Mills. And yet observe there too: Freedom, not nomad's or ape's Freedom, but man's Freedom; this is indispensable. We must have it, and will have it. To reconcile Despotism with Freedom! Well, is that such a mystery? Do you not already know the way? It is to make your Despotism just rigorous as Destiny, but just, too, as Destiny and its Laws. The Laws of God: all men obey these, and have no Freedom at all but in obeying them. The way is already known, part of the way; and courage and some qualities are needed for walking on it!"

No new teaching this, but very old, and as true as old. The kingdom of heaven is such a despotism-a despotism not arbitrary, but founded upon those eternal principles of right which stand as laws not merely to the subjects, but, with all reverence be it said, as Wordsworth has said, to the infinite being and majesty of the Supreme Ruler himself. The essential problem of a state-call it what you will, kingdom, or commonwealth, or republic-is to find or have found for it a chief ruler who can and will be in some good measure such a despot, call him what you will-king, protector, or president; or, if you please, the Parliament or the Congress.

VII.

LETTERS AND SPEECHES OF OLIVER CROMWELL.

THE Life of Oliver Cromwell yet remains to be written: Carlyle's "Letters and Speeches of Cromwell," with its running commentary upon them, is the nearest present approximation to such a Life. This work was published in 1845, two years after the appearance of "Past and Present." We have already noted the almost apologetic manner in which in 1840, in his "Heroes and Hero-Worship," he ventures the opinion that Cromwell was "not a knave and a liar, but a genu