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88 CARLYLE'S LOVES AND LETTERS
Might was Right, Carlyle, who had ever the
shortest of ways with dissenters, drowned the
argument in a flood of invective. Of course
if Right is Might it does follow that the good
cause has always been the successful one ;
and in that case it looks as though the suc-
cessful one must always have been the good.
knew better :
Might, in fact, is Right. Carlyle
and he who would be the prophet of his age
must know, as he did, to reject unwholesome
conclusions without invalidating the healthy
premises from which they follow.
lijgEach age has its Carlyles, but it never
much respects the Carlyles of other ages.
We have our Ferrero and our H. G. Wells,
to say nothing of such small fry as Faguets,
Marinetti, e tutti quanti. They are people
who have something for their own age and
nothing for any other, and their own age is
pretty sure to prefer them to any great man
it may produce but fail to smother : they
are adored and duly forgotten. They must
come forward as the critics and guides of
society ;
whether they declare their messages
in prose or verse, in novels, histories, speeches,
essays, or philosophical treatises is of no
consequence. It must be possible to make
prophets of them, that is all. A pure artist
or
philosopher or man of science, one who is
concerned with Beauty or Truth but not