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ti-m^

T^lae JTorii^in

AUGUST, 1890.

PROPHETS OF UNREST.

It was, I confess, very late, and only in dearth of other read-
ing, that I toolv up the last, and, if popularit}^ and circulation are
the tests, the most successful, of all tlie " Utopias." I am little
attracted by compositions of this class, either as fictions or as
speculations. As fictions they seem to me inevitably insipid,
whatever the ttdents of the author, since they deal with characters
which are preterhuman. Speculation can no longer interest
when it loses hold of reality and probability, and when, if you
are so matter-of-fact as to attem])t criticism, the hy})uthesis or
project slips away into tlie inane.

An historical interest and a , social importance of a certain
kind these visions have. They are ay .ke the rainbow in the
spray of Niagara, to mark a cataract in tlic stream of history.
That of More, from which the general name is taken, and that of
Rabelais, marked the fall of the stream from the middle ages into
modern times. Plato's " Re{)ublic " marked the catastrophe of
Greek republicanism, tliough it is not a mere " Utopia " but a
great treatise on morality, and even as a ])olitical speculation not
wholly beyond tlie pale of what a Greek citizen might have re-
garded as practical reform, since it is in its main features an
idealization of Sparta. Langland's vision of refoi-m heralded
the outbreak of Lollardism and the insurrectiou of the serfs.

■b

.^i'

A-nH'> V7

(51)

81)0

PHOPHETS OF UNKEST.

Tl)c fancies of Rousseau and Beruanliii do St. Pierre lieralded
tlic ]{evoiution. llousseau's reveries, be it, observed, iiot only
failed of reabzation, but gave liardlj any sign of that wiiidi
was really couiing. The Jacobins canted in his phrase, but they
returned to the state, of natui'c only in personal lilthiness, in
brutality of manners, and in guillotining Lavoisier, because the
Rejudjlic had no neei^ of cheniists.

There is a general feeling abroad that tlic stream is di-awing
near a cataract now, and thei'o are apparent grounds for the sur-
mise. Tht>4'c is everywhere in the social frame an outward un-
rest, which as usual is the simi of fundamental chane'e within.
Old creeds have given way. The masses, the artisans especially,
have ceased to believe that the existing order of society, with its
grades of rank and wealth, is a divine ordinance against which
it is vain to i-ebel. They have ceased to believe in a future state,
the compensation of those whose lot is hard here. Convinced
that this world is all, and that there is nothing more to come, they
want at once to grasp their share of enjoyment. The labor jour-
nals are full of this thought. Social science, if it is to take the
place of religio/i as a conservative force, has not yet developed
itself or taken firm hold of the popular mind. The rivalrv of
factions an;i demagogues has ahnost every wliere introduced mii-
versal suffrage. The jioorer classes are freshly possessed of
political jiower, and have conceived boundless notions of the
changes which, by exercising it, they may make in their own
favor. They are just in that twilight of education in whicii
chimeras stalk. This concurrence of social and economical with
political and religious revolution has always been fraught with
danger. The governing classes, unnerved by skejiticism, have
lost faith in the order which they represent, and are inclined to
precipitate abdication. Many members of them — partlv from
philanthropy, partly from vanity, pai'tly perhaps from fear — are
playing the demagogue and, as they did in France, dallj-ing with
revolution. The ostentation of wealtli has stimulated to a dan-
gerous ]utcli envy, which has always been ime of the most pow-
ei'fnl elements of revt.ibuion. Tiiis is not tlie ]>laee to cast the
hoi'oscoi)e of society. We may, after all, be exaggerating the
uravitv of the crisis. T1

10 first of May passed without bringing

i?>9

PROPHETS OF UNREST.

GOl

».)

' li

forth anvtliiiig more portentous tluiu an epidemic of sti'ikes,
whicli, tliougli very disastrous, as they sharpen and embitter class
antagonisms, arc not in tlicmsclves attem})ts to subvert society.
Sir Cliarles Dillcc, after surveying all the democracies, says that
the only country on which revolutionary socialism has taken hold
is England. German socialism, of which Ave hear so much, ap-
pears to be largely impatience of taxation and conseription.
Much is called socialism and taken as ominous of revolution
wdiich is merely the extension of the action of government, wisely
or unwisely, over new portions of its present field, and perhaps
does not deserve the dreaded name so much as our familiar Sun-
day law. The crash, if it come, may not be universal; things
may not everywhere take the same coursi,. Wealth in some
countries, when seriously alarmed, may convert itself into military
power, of whicli tlie artisans have little, and may turn the scale
in its own favor. Though social science is as yet undeveloped,
intelli"-encc has more orjrans and an increasing hold. The present
may after all glide more calmly than w^e think into the future.
Still there is a crisis. AVc have had the Parisian Commune, the
Spanish Intmnsi'gentes, nihilism, anarchism. It is not a time
for playing with wild-fire. Though Rouss>^au's scheme of
regeneration by a return to nature came to nothing, his denun-
ciations of society told with a vengeance, and sent thousands
to the guillotine.

The writer of an "Uto})ia," however, in trymg to make his
fancy plausible and pleasing, is naturally tempted to exaggerate
the evils of the existing state of things. " Looking Backward "
opens with a very vivid and telling p'cture of society as it is:

"Byway of attempting to give the reader some general impression of
the way people Hved togetlior in those days, and especially of the relations
of tlie rich and poor to one anotlier, poriiaps I cannot do better than to
compare society as it then was to a prodigious coach, wliich the masses of
humanity were harnessed to and dragged toilsomely along a very hilly and
sandy road. The driver was hungry, and permitted no lagging, though
the pace was necessarily very slow. Despite the diOTiculty of drawing tiie
coach at all along so hard a road, the top was covered with passengers, who
never got down, even at the steepest ascent. These seats were very hroozy
and couifurlablo. Well up out of tlie dust, thoir occupants could enjoy the
scenery at tlieir leisure, or critically discuss tlie merits of tho straining
team. Naturally such places were in great demand, tuid the cjiiipotitiou

■*^..

turn

(;o;>

PROPHETS OF UNREST.

forllioni was keen, every one seeking as the first end in life to secure a
seal on the coacli lor himself and to leave it to his (.hild alter him. By the
rule of tiie coacii a man ctnild lei, veins seat to whom ho wisheil, but on tho
olhi'r hand there were many accidents by which it might at any time be
wJiolly lost. For all that they were so easy, the seats were very insecure,
and at every sudden jolt of the coacl persons were slipping out of then,
ami falling;' to the ground, where they were instantly compelled to take hold
of the rope and help to drag the coach on which they had before ridden so
pleasantly. It was naturally regarded as a terrible misfortune to lose one's
seat, and tlie apprehension that this might liappi-n to them or their friends
was a constant cloud \ipon the happiness of those who rt)ile.''

And wliat arc the feoling-s of tlio p.isscngci's toward the liap-
Icss toilers who drag the coach? Have they no compas.^ion for
the sulTerings of the fedow beings from whom fortune oiilv lias

distino-uif

slieil

lem:

"Oh, yes; commiseration was frequently expressed by those who rode
for tiioso who had to pull the coach, especially when the vcliicle came to a
had place in the road, as it 'vas constantly doing, or to a particularly steep
hill. At such times the desperate straining of the team, their agonized
leaping and plunging under the pitiless lashing of hunger, the many who
faintoil at the rope and were trampled in the mire, made a very distressing
spectacle, which often called forth highly creditable displaj's of feeling on
the top of the coach. At such times the passengers would call down en-
couragingly to the toilersat the rope, exhorting them to paticce, iind hold-
ing out hopes of possible compensation in another world for the hardness of
their lot, while others contributed to buy salves and liniments for the
cripjiled and injured. It was agreed that it was agreat pity that the coach
should be so hard to pull, and theie was a sense of general relief when the
specially bad piece of road was golttni over. This relief was not, indeed,
wholly on accouit of the team, for there was always some danger at these
bad places of agoneral overtiu'n in winch all would lose their seats."'

These picturesque passages, we have no doubt, will siidc deep
into the hearts of many who will pay little attention to the
si)cculativc }ilans of reconstruction which follow. For one reader
of " Progress and Poverty " who was at the pain.s to follow tlie
economical reasoning, there were probably thou.sands who draidc
ill the invectives against wealth and tlie suggestions of confi.sca-
tioii. . But is the description here given true or anything like the
truth? Are the nuusses toiling like the horses of a coach, not for
tlieir benefit, but merely for that of the passengers whom they
draw ? Arc they not toiling to make their own bread, and to
produce liy their joint labor the things necessary for tlu.'ir eom-

■1

I'ROl'IIETS OV UXUKST.

go;}

mon pubsistencc ? As to tlio vast iiiiijitrity of tliom can it Yui said
that they are k-apiiig and [>hiii<i;iiig in agony under tin- pitik'ss
lash (if hunger, hunting at tlie rope and tranijiled in tin; mire ?
Are they luA with their families living in tolerable comfort, with
bread enough and not witliont enjoyment ? Has it not Ijeen
])rovcd Id'vond doubt that their waiirs have risen jrreatlv and are
still I'ising ? Ibive not the woi'king classes, unlike the horses,
votes ? Is there really any such shar]) division as is here as-
sumed to exist between labor and wealth ? Are not many wdio
have more or less of wealth and who could have seats on the top
of any social coach, laborers and j)rodneers of the most effective
kind ? Can so good a wi'iter l)e the dn])e of the fallacy that only
those who work with the hands labor ? What is the amount of
the hereditary property held bv idlers in sucli a country' us the
United States, compared with that of the general wealth ? Do
the holders even of that jiroperty really add by their existence to
the strain on the workers as the ]iassengers by their jirescnce add
to the strain on the horses ? Su])posing they and their riches
were annihilated, would the workers feel any relief ? Would
they niit rather lose a fund upon which they draw to some ex-
tent at need? The hereditary wealth which is here taken to be
the monster iniquity and evil, what is it but the savings of ]tast
generations ? Had those who made it S]ient it, instead of leav-
ing it to their children, should we l)e better olT ? Then, as to
the feelings of the rich towtird the poor: can a Bostonuin, as
this writer is, look round his own city and fail to see that heart-
less indifference has its seat only in the s(uils of a few sybarites,
and that philanthropy and charity are the rule ?

Utopists and communists arc set at work by the belief that
equal justice is the luitural law of the world, and that nothing
keeps us out of it but the barrier of artificial arrangements set
up by the power, and in the interest, of a class. Break down
that barrier by revolutionary legislation, and the kingdom of
equal justice, they think, will come. Would that it were so!
Who would be so selfish and so ignorant of the deepest source
of haitpiness as not to vote for the change, whatever his wealth
or his ])lace on the social coach might be ? Unhappily, neither
equal justice nor perfection of any kind is the law of the world.

604

PROPHETS OF UNREST.

a.s tlic worM is at present, towanl wlialevcr f^nal we may lie
moving. Health, strengtli, beauts', intelleet, dH'sjiriiig, length
of days, are distributed with no more regard for justiee than
are the jxjwcrs oi" making and saving wealtli. One man is born
in an age of barbari in, another in an age of eivilization ; one
man in the time of the thirty years' war or the reign of
terror, another in an era of jieaee and comparative happiness.
No justiee can be done to tlie myriads who have sulTered and
died. Equal justiee is far indeeil from being the law of the
animal kingdom. AVhy is one animal the beast of prey, another
the victim ? AVhy does an elei)haiit live for two centuries and
an eiihemeral insect for a few hours ? If you come to that, why
should one sentient creature be a worm and another a man?
In earth and skies, in the whole universe, so far as our ken
reaches, imperfection reigns. The man who in " Looking Back-
ward " wakes from a magnetic slumber to find the lots of all
men made just and equal, might iilmost as well have awakened
to find all human frames nuide ])erfect, disease and accident ban-
ished, the animals all in a state like that of Eden, the Arctic re-
'jions bearing harvests, Sahara moistened with fertilizintf rain,
the moon provitled with an atmcsphcrc, and the solar system,
which at present is so full of gaps and wrecks, symmetri-
cally comjileted. All this is no bar to the rational effort by which
society is gradually improved. But it shuts out the hope of sud-
den transformation. Society, like the bodily frame, is an im-
])crfect organism ; you ma\' help its growth, but you cannot
transform it. To revolutionary violence the author of "Look-
ing Backward" is whollv averse. lie iiscs oidv the niaijfic
wand.

"With private i)roperty, with wdiich it is the dre.'im of Uto-
pian writers to do away, go, as everybody knows, many e^•ils;
among others that of inordinate accumulation, an instance of
whi;,-h the other day startled New York ; while, on the other hand,
it is hard to see how without |)rivate jiroperty we could have the
home and all that it enshrines. But let the evils be wdiat they
may, no other motive power of i)roduction, at least of any pro-

duction bevond that ne

property, is at prese

cessary to stay liunger, except the desire
'Ut known. A score or more of experi-

PROPHETS OF UNREST.

(UI.J

int'iits in cuiniiiunisiu liuvo been inadc tijxhi tliis continont hy
visionaries of dill'ereiit kinds, from the founders of Broolv K;ina
to tliose of the Oneida Coiinnunity and the Sliakers. '^riiey have
faih'd utterly, exce})l in the one oi' two cases wliere tlie ruh' of
eelibaey lias been enforced, and the niendjers, having no wives
or children to maintain, and being themselves of a specially in-
dustrious and frugal class, have n\ide enough and more than
enough for their own su])|)ort. Barrack life, without tlu' home,
has also been a condition of success. The Oneiila Community,
the most prosperous of all, had moreover a dictator. So it is
with regard to competition, that other social fiend of this and
all Uto])ians. Nobody will deny that competition has its ugly
side. But no other way at present is known to us of sustaining
the })rogress of industry and securing the best and cheapest prod-
ucts. It is surely a stretch of pessimistic fancy to describe the
industrial world under the competitive system as a horde of wild
beasts rending each other, or as a Black Hole of Calcutta, " with
its press of maddened men tearing and trampling one aiiotlu'r in
the struggle to win a place at the breathing holes." It is surely
going beyond the mark to say that all producers are "praying
by night and working by day for the frustration of each other's
enteri)rises," and that they arc as much bent on spoiling their
neighbors' crops as on saving their own. Do two tailors or
grocers, even when their stores are in the same block, I'cnd each
other when they meet? Is there not rather a certain fellowshij)
between members of the same trade? Docs not each think a
good deal more, both in his prayers and in his })ractical transac-
tions, of doing well himself than of preventing the other from
doing well? After all, there is more co-operation than competi-
tion in the industrial world as it now exists. Analyze tlic com-
position of any article, taking into account the implenients or
means l)v which it has been produced, and you will find that to
produce it myriads have co-operated in all parts of the world, yet
have not compctcil with one another. The world would have
one harvest if the protectionists would let us alone.

As a normal picture of our present civilization, the table of
contents of a newspaper is presented to us. It is a mere cat-
alogue of calamities and horrors — wai-s, burglaries, strikes, fail-

GOG

rUOPlIETS OF UNUESl'.

urcs ill husiiu'ss, coriioriiigs, luHidlings, iiiurders, .suicidt-s, cm-
liiv.zIcMiiciits, ami cast's of cnu'lty, liinacv, or (k'stitntion. Xo
doubt a real tabic of coiik-iits would give a pictuiv, tliongh not
so tcrribk' ;iiid licnrtrciiding as this, yet rie'- in I'atastrophcs.
r>ul it is forgotten that the catastrophes or the e.\cei)tional events
alone are recorded by newspapers, especially in the tables of eon-
tents, which are intended to catch the eye. No newspaper gives
us a picture of the ordinary course of life. No newspaper speaks
of the countries which are enjoying secure peace, of the people
who are making a fair livelihood by honest indiistrv, of the
families which ari' living in comfort and the eiijoyincnt of aU'ee-
tioii. r)uvcrs wonld hardly be found for a sheet which should
tell you bv wavof news that bread was being regularly delivered
bv the baker and that the milkman was going his round.

Centuries unnuinhcred, according to recent paheontologists,
liuniau .society has taken in eiiiubing to what is here described
as the level of a vast den of wild beasts or a Black Hole t>f Cal-
cutta. Yet in one I'cntury or a litth' more it is to become a
paradise on earth. So the writer of " Looking B.ackward "'

dreams

iml

to show that he does not iverard this as a mere

dream, he circs historical preccflents of changes which he thinks
cipially miraeulons — the sudden and nne.Npcetcd success, as it
appears to him to have been, of the American revolution, of
(iernian and Italian unificatii oi. of the agitation against slavery.
Til two of these cases at least, those of German and Italian unity,
the wonder was not that the event came at last, but that it was
delayed so h^ng. In no one of the cases, surely, is anything like
a precedent to he found.

In a century or a little more, if we arc to accept the statement
of Dr. Leete, the .showman of the new heavens and new earth in
''Looking Backward," .society ha.-- undergone not only a radical
change but a comjilete transformation, Boston, of cour.se, leading
the way, as Paris leads in the regeneration proclaimed hy Comte,
and all the most civilized communities following in her train.
Society has become entirely industrial, war being completely
eliminated. No fear is entertained lest when the civilized
w orld has been turned into a vast factory of defenseless wealth,
tlie uncivilized world may be tempted to loot it.

puoiMihrrs OF unukst.

607

(■'

The stiitc lias hocoiiic' tlio .^olc caiiitalist ami the universal
employer. How did all the eapitid pass from the hands of indi-
viduals or private eompanies into those of the state? Was it
ny a voluntary and universal surrender? Wen' all llic eapital-
ists and all the stoekholders suddenly convineed of the bles.ings
of self-si)oIiation? Or did the government by a sweeping net of
eonfiseation seize all the capital? In that case, was there not a
desperate struggle? Was not the entrance into l^ira<lise ellerfed
through a civil war? The seer was in his magnetic trance when
the trai' ler took place, and he has not the curiosity to ask JJr.
Leete how it was elTected. For us, therefore, the problem re-
mains unsolved.

The inducement to the chanc'^ we are told, was a sense of
the economic advantages prodiu-e I by the aggregation of in-
dustries under co-operative syndicntes and trusts, which suggested
that by a complete uiiilication )f all industri .; under the state
unmeasured benLlits might bu t)btained. But these corporations,
syndicates, and trusts, on however Ltw a scale they inay be, are
still managed each of theiii by u set of jjcrsons (h)votcd to that
particular business, and the}' depend for their success on per-
sonal aptitude and ex})ci'ienc(^ Between such aggregations and
a nnilication of all the induslrico in the lands of a government
there is a gulf, and we do not see how the gulf is to be j^asscd.
The tendency of industry appears, it is true, to be toward largo
establishments, the advantages of wdnch over a multitude of petty
and starveling stores, both as regards those engaged in the trade
and the consumer, are obvious. But the large establishments
are still sjiecial, and the advantages of combining Ih. Stewart's
dry goods establishment with ]\fr. Carnegie's iron works are not
obvious at all.

To the objection that the work of managing all the industries
of a country and its foreign commerce (for foreign connnei'ce
there is still to be) would be difficult for anj^ government, the
simple and satisfactory answer is that in Utopia there could be
no dilficulty at all. The government of a purely industrial com-
monwealth is of course itself industrial. It consists of veterans
of labor chosen on account of their merit as workers, the identity
of which with administrative capacity and power of command, as

COS

FKOPIIETS OF UNREST.

it is iiol likely to be tested, may L assunieti witlumt fear of dis-
prool". Tobaiii h an}' misgivings which we might have as to tlic
practicability of such a government, the seer points to the part
taken bv aliunni in the iioverinncnt of universities — surclv as
subtle an analoiiv as the aeutest intelligence ever discerned.

TJie new organization of labor has been followed by such a
ilood of wealth that eveiybody lives, not only in plenty, but in
luxury and refmement before unknown. Everybody is able to
give u]) work at forty-five and jiass the rest of his days in ease
and enjoyment. " No man any more has any care for to-mor-
row, either for himself or his children, for the nation guarantees
the nurture, education, and comfortable maintenance of every
citizen from the cradle to the grave." All the world dresses for
dinner, dines well, and has wine and cigars after dinner. Under
all this lurks, it is to be feared, the same fallacy which under-
lies the theory of Mr. Henry George, who fancies that an in-
crease of i)opulation, being an increase of the number of labor-
ers, will necessarily augment production, and consequently that
the fears of Malthus and all who dread o\'er-po]nilation are base-
less. It is assumed that everything is produced by labor. Labor
only produces the form or directs the natural forces. The mate-
'•ial is produced by Nature, and she will not supjjly more than a
given quantit}' within a given area and under given conditions.
Even in !N[a.ssachusetts, therefore, which is su})poscd to be the
jtrimal scene of human regeneration, the ])eople, however skilled
their labor, and however Utopian their industrial organization
might be, unless their number were limited or their territory en-
larged, would starve.

This is a serious question for a state which guarantees to
every one nurture, education, and comfortable mainteuanco.
As the guarantee extenels to the citizen's wife and child as well
as to himself, and they are made inde})endent of his labor, the
last restraint of providence on marriage and giving birfh to chil-
dren would be removed. The ])eo]>le would then probablv mul-
tijtly at a rate which would leave Irish or French-Caiuulian plii-
loprogenitivencss behind, and without remedial action a Aast
scene of squalid misery would ensue.

There is no more private jtroperty. In its ]»lace comes a sense

'•■s

PROPHETS OF UNREST.

009

of public duty urging oacli man to labor. Of tbe sufTieicnt
strength of this we are positivel\ assured, notwithstanding the
result of all the ex])erinients hitherto tried. lieaiitv peeps out
when we are told that those who refuse to woi'k will be put into
confinement on bi-ead and water — something like a reversion, is it
not, to the coach and horses, with the "lash of hunger"? The
stimulus of dutj' to the man's family will exist no more, since
the maintenance of his wife and children will be taken oiT his
hands by the state. For the lower natures, though not for tlie
higher, there will be emulation, whieh, it is taken for gi-antcd,
will act on them with undiminished effect when all the substan-
tial prizes with which success in the contest for distinction is
now attended have been removed. An ajipeal is also made to
a y;<rtA'/-military sense of honor, and the commuinty is organized
as an army, with military titles, apparently for that puriiose.
But it has been shown, in answer to other theorists wlio have
pointed to military honor as a substitute for the ordinarv mo-
tives to industry, that military duty is enforced b}' a code of ex-
ceptional severitv.

All arc to be paid alike, on the iii'incijilc that so long as you
do yonr best your deserts are the same as those of otliers,
though your p,(iwer may not be so great as theii's. Your deserts
in the eye of Heaven, no douht, are the same if you do your
best, and Heaven, as we believe, has the means of ascertaining
that your best is being done. But if it is asked what means a
board of industrial veterans, or their lieutenants, supposing
them to l>e ever so excellent craftsmen themselves, have of as-
certaining that every man is doing his best, the answer, we sus-
pect, must l)e that in Utoi>ia such questions are not to be raised.
In the ] -resent evil world most men do their best, or something
like their best, because they have to make their own living and
that of their wives and children. Some men, under the volun-
tary ami competitive system, put forth those extraordinarv elTorts
which make the world move on. But tlie state, though it miglit
command the daily amount of labor by tlirc;it of solitary eon-
finement on l)read-and-water, could not command im])rovement
or invention. Invention, it seems to us, wouhl be little encour-
aged under the Utopian rcrjime, since no man is to be allowed to

GIO

PROPHETS OF UNliEST.

sliirk labor on pretense of IxMUg a student — a regulation wliieh
iiiight have borne liunl on Archimedes, Newton, or even Watts.
Newton could have given the state no assiirance that his time
was being well employed till his discovery had been made.

Money has been discarded as " tlie root of all evil," though
the Gospel denunciatioji, we venture to think, is leveled against
covetousness, not against the use of coin as a circulating medium,
wliich, on the contrary, Christ seems to have recognized on more
than one occasion. The }>lace of money is taken by credit cards,
entitling the bearer, l)y virtue of liis mere humanity, to a share of
the national [troduce. "Wages arc a thing of the past. Tlie cer-
tificates are to be presented at the government store, for govern-
ment is the universal stored-ceeper as well the universal cmplo^'er
of labor. Money, it is said, may have been fraudulently or im-
properly obtained, but with labor certificates this cannot bo the
case. AVe hardly see how a government storedvceper at New
Orleans is to tell that the certificate was not fraudulently ob-
tained at Boston. Perhaps it is tacitly assumed in this, as it
seems to be in other communistic schemes, that the members of
the phalanstirrc, or whatever the organization is called, will always
remain in the same ])laee, and that thus life will become station-
ary as well as devoid of hidividual aim. But the weak part of
the arrangement betrays itself in the necessity of continuing to
use the terms dollars and cent<. They are used only, we are
told, as '■ algebraic syml)ols." Surely the most obvious and the
safest course would have been to discard the terms altogether,
pregnant as they were with evil associations and likely as they
would be to jierpctuate the vicious desires and habits of the past.
Let another set oi algebraic symbols be devised, and let us see
how it will work. In the ease of the transition from the use of
moiuy lo that of labor certificates, as in that of the transition
from private connnei'ce to commerce concentrated in the haiulsof
govcrmiient, we should ha/e liked to be present when the leap was
taken, or at least to have had some account of the ]ir(jcess, espe-
cially as it must have taken i)lace at once over the whole civilized

Will

Id. 1-

iir commerce

we have said, there is still to be: the

Utoi)ian of Boston could not uet 1

tO|

jaw as

a profession has ceased to exist. Of

lis wine and ciirars without it.
course where

;ift

PROPHETS OF UNUKST.

611

there is no property there can ho no chancery suits. As nine-
teen twentieths of crime arises from tlie desire of money — not
from (b'ink as the prohibitionists [)reten(l — it follows that in get-
ting rid of money society has almost entirely got rid of crime.
Of crime, in tlie present sense of the term, indeed, it has got rid
altogether. A few victims of " atavism " are left as a sort of Uih-
ute to reality, but they generally save the judiciary trouble by
pleading guilty, so high has the regard for veracity become even
in the minds of kleptomaniacs.

In the present im])erfect state of things, the distribution of
employments, it must be owned, though partly a matter of choice,
is largely a matter of chance and circumstance, the intellectual
callintjs a;oinfir to those who have the means of a high education.
In Utopia it will be entirely a matter of choice, after elaborate
testing of aptitudes and tastes under the guidance of a paternal
government. It is assumed that all em[)loyments will attract,
since some men, after deliberate survey of all the walks of life,
will conveniently choose to be miners, hod-men, " odorless exca-
vators," brakesmen, stokers, or sailors on the north Atlantic pas-
sage. We should rather apprehend a rush into the lighter call-
ings, especially that of poets. The harcbiess or disagreeable
character of work is to be compensated by short hours — a jirovi-
sion which we cannot help thinking might, if thoroughly carried
into effect, entail such a deduction from the sum of wealth-pro-
ducing labor as would counterbalance even the marvelous gains
of state organization. Any repugnance which there might be,
will be conjured away by saying that all kinds of labt)r are
equally honorable. Do we not say this now?

Everybody is to be highly educated and thoroughly refined.
,This in Utopia will lujt interfere with the disposition for man-
ual labor, nor will it take too much of the manual laborer's time.
One question, howevei", occurs to us. The po]iulation cannot
have been highly educated when the system was first introduced.
IIow were the ignorant and unqualified masses brought to take
part in its introduction, and how was its operation managed be-
fore they had been ecbicated up to the jiroper mark? This is
another problem of the transition the solution of which remains
buried in the seer's magnetic sleep.

filS

PROPHETS OF UNREST,

The relations between the sexes and the constitution of tlie
family are, of eourse, to be revolutionized, and the revolution
has so far an element of jjroljabilit}' that it follows what we may
suppose to be liostonian theories and lines. The women are to
be organized apart from the men as a distinet interest, under a
general of theii- own who has a seat in the eabinet. They would
do quite enough for soeiety, they ai-e gallantly told, if they oecu-
pied themselves only in the cultivation of their own charms and
graces, women without any sj)eeial charms and graces but those
which belong to the ])erforniance of their womanly duties as
wives and mothers being creatures unknown in Ut(jpia. How-
ever, for the sake of their health and to satisfy their feelings of
independence, they are to do a very moderate amount of work.
They have in fact nothing else to do. They have no household
cares, as tlie state is iiiiiversal cook, liousemaid, laundress, seam-
stress, and nurse; and "a husband is not a baby that he should
be eared for — nor, of course, is a wife." Maternity is thrown
into the background. It is an interlude in the woman's indus-
trial life, and as soon as it is over the mother returns to her in-
dusti'ial " conu-ades," leaving her child, apparently, to that univei--
sal ])rovidence, the state. Hitherto, it seems, men, like "ernel
robbers," have " seized to themselves the whole product of the
world and left women to beg and wheedle for their share." })y
whose labor the world has been made to yield its products, for
the benefit of both sexes, we are not told. IIowcA'er, "that any
])ei'son should be dependent for the means of support upon an-
other would be shoekiniT to the moral sense as well as indefcnsi-

ble on any rational social theory." Women in Utopia, therefore,
are no longer left in " galling dependence " upon their luis-
bands for the means of life, or children upon their parents.
Both wife and child are maintaind by the direct agency ot the
state, so that the wife no longer owes anA'thing to her husband,
and the child is able, as reason and nature dictate, to snap its
fingers in its parents' face. The state gives suck, and the baby
is no longer iguominiously beholden to its mother for juilk. It
woulil be too curious to ask what the state is; whether it is any-
thing but the government, and whether to be dependent on the
government is not to be dependent on beings not less human than

t cS

riiOPHETS OF UNKEST.

G13

a?.

a liiisl.iiiid, ;i /atlier, or ;i in()tlicr. To some, dquMideiK^c on llio
govciMiiiuMit might socm the most galling of all.

False (Iclicacy is jmt out of the way, and the women are al-
lowed to propose. They " sit aloft " on tlie top of the coach, giv-
ing the prizes for the industrial race, and select only tlic best and
noMest men for their husbands. Ill-favored men of inferior
type, and laggards, will be condemned to celibacy. From them
the ■• radiant faces " will be averted. These hapless i)ersons are
treated with a marked absence, to say the least, of the 2)hilan-
thropy which overflows njwn criminals and lunatics, tlnnigh it
seems that the plea of atavism should not be less valid in
then- case. Has Dr. Leetc, when he denies them marriage, found
a way of extinguishing their passions? If he has not, what
moi-al results does he expecit? lie will answer perhaps by an
appeal to wh.at maybe called the occult " we," that mysterious
power which, in an Utopia, is present throughout to solve all dini-
culties and banish every doubt. Nothing can be luore divine
than the i)icture which Dr. Lecte presents to us; but we look at
It with a secret misgiving that his community would be in some
danger oi being thrust out of existence by some barbarous horde,
which honored virtue and admired excellence in both sexes
without giving itself over to a slavish and fatuous worship of
either, held men and women alike to their natural duties, and
obeyed the laws of nature.

The government is the universal publisher, and is bound to
publish everything brought to it, but on condition that the
author pay tlie first cost out of his credit. How the author,
while ^preparing himself to write "Paradise Lost" or the "Priti-
c^pia," is to earn a labor credit, we hardly see. The literature of
Utopia is of course divine. To read one of Berrian's novels or
one of Gates's poems is worth a year of one's life. AVould that
wo had a specimen of eithei-I We should then be able to see
how far it transcended Shakespeai-e or Seott. For love stoi-ies,
we are told, there will be material in plenty and of a much higher
• lualify than there was in the days of coarse and stormy "pas-
sion. The actual love alTair that takes place in Utopia certainlv
<locs not remind us much of '' Komeo and Juliet." Of the pul-

pit eloquence we have a, specimen, and it is startlingly lik

ke oui's.

(ji-i

PROPHETS OF UNREST.

One great improvement, however, there is; the preaching is hy
telephone and you can shut it oil'.

The pliysieal arrangements arc carried to inillenarian per-
fection. Instead of a multitude of separate und)rellas, one com-
mon umbrella is jnit by the state over Boston when it rains.
The whole community is converted into one vast Wanamaker's
store. You turn on celestial music as you turn on gas or water.
These visions of a material heaven on earth naturally arise as
the hope of a spiritual heaven fade away.

It is specified that at a man's death the state allows a fixed
sum for his funeral ex^^enses. This is the only intimation that
over the social and material Paradise hovers Death.

A vista of illimitable progress — progress so glorious that it
dazzles the prophetic eye, is said all the time to be opened. But
how can there be progress beyond perfection? How can there
be great progress without organic change? How can there be
organic change without something like a revolution in the gov-
ernment? Finality is the trap into which all Utopians fall.
Comtc, after tracing tlie movement of humanity through all the
ages down to his own time, undertakes by his supreme intelli-
gence to furnish it a creed and a set of institutions which are to
serve it forever. Progress, however, we do not doubt there
would be with a vengeance. The monotony, the constraint, the
procrusteanism, the dullness, the despotism of the system would
soon give birth to general revolt, which would dasli the whole
structure to pieces.

We have touched very lightly on each point, because we
have felt all the time that we might be committing a platitude,
and that the gifted and ingenious author of "Lookiiig Back-
ward " might laugh at our simplicity in seriously criticising a
brilliant jeu d' esprit.

GoLDWix Smith.