How it will go with Souls'-Overseers,and what the new kind will be,we do prophesy just .Clear it is,however,that the last finish of the State's efforts,in this operation of regimenting,will be to get the true Souls'-Overseers set over men's souls,to regiment,as the consummate flower of all,and constitute into some Sacred Corporation,bearing authority and dignity in their generation,the Chosen of the Wise,of the Spiritual and Devout-minded,the Reverent who deserve reverence,who are as the Salt of the Earth;--that till this is done can the State consider its edifice to have reached the first story,to be safe for a moment,to be other than an arch without the keystones,and supported hitherto on mere wood.How will this be done?Ask ;let the second or the third generation after this begin to ask!--Alas,wise men do exist,born duly into the world in every current generation;but the getting of them regimented is the highest pitch of human Polity,and the feat of all feats in political engineering:--impossible for us,in this poor age,as the building of St.Paul's would be for Canadian Beavers,acquainted only with the architecture of fish-dams,and with trowel but their tail.
Literature,the strange entity so called,--that indeed is here.
If Literature continue to be the haven of expatriated spiritualisms,and have its Johnsons,Goethes and true Archbishops of the World,to show for itself as heretofore,there may be hope in Literature.If Literature dwindle,as is probable,into mere merry-andrewism,windy twaddle,and feats of spiritual legerdemain,analogous to rope-dancing,opera-dancing,and street-fiddling with a hat carried round for halfpence,or for guineas,there will be hope in Literature.What if our next set of Souls'-Overseers were to be silent ones very mainly?--Alas,alas,why gaze into the blessed continents and delectable mountains of a Future based on truth ,while as yet we struggle far down,nigh suffocated in a slough of lies,uncertain whether or how we shall be able to climb at all!
Who will begin the long steep journey with us;who of living statesmen will snatch the standard,and say,like a hero on the forlorn-hope for his country,Forward!Or is there e;one that can and dare?And our lot too,then,is Anarchy by barricade or ballot-box,and Social Death?--We will think so.
Whether Sir Robert Peel will undertake the Reform of Downing Street for us,or any Ministry or Reform farther,is kn.
He,they say,is getting old,does himself recoil from it,and shudder at it;which is possible egh.The clubs and coteries appear to have settled that he surely will ;that this melancholy wriggling seesaw of red-tape Trojans and Protectionist Greeks must continue its course till--what can happen,my friends,if this go on continuing?
