, embodied in brick, in iron,
smoke, dust, Palaces, Parliaments, Hackney Coaches, Katherine Docks,
and the rest of it! Not a brick was made but some man had to _think_
of the making of that brick.--The thing we called 'bits of paper with
traces of black ink,' is the _purest_ embodiment a Thought of man can
have. No wonder it is, in all ways, the activest and noblest.

All this, of the importance and supreme importance of the Man of
Letters in modern Society, and how the Press is to such a degree
superseding the Pulpit, the Senate, the _Senatus Academicus_ and much
else, has been admitted for a good while; and recognised often enough,
in late times, with a sort of sentimental triumph and wonderment. It
seems to me, the Sentimental by and by will have to give place to the
Practical. If Men of Letters _are_ so incalculably influential,
actually performing such work for us from age to age, and even from
day to day, then I think we may conclude that Men of Letters will not
always wander like unrecognised unregulated Ishmaelites among us!
Whatsoever thing, as I said above, has virtual unnoticed power will
castoff its wrappages, bandages, and step-forth one day with palpably
articulated, universally visible power. That one man wear the clothes,
and take the wages, of a function which is done by quite another:
there can be no profit in this; this is not right, it is wrong. And
yet, alas, the _making_ of it right,--what a business, for long times
to come! Sure enough, this that we call Organisation of the Literary
Guild is still a great way off, encumbered with all manner of
complexities. If you asked me what were the best possible organisation
for the Men of Letters in modern society; the arrangement of
furtherance and regulation, grounded the most accurately on the actual
facts of their position and of the world's position,--I should beg to
say that the problem far exceeded my faculty! It is not one man's
faculty; it is that of many successive men turned earnestly upon it,
that will bring-out even an approximate solution. What the best
arrangement were, none of us could say. But if you ask, Which is the
worst? I answer: This which we now have, that Chaos should sit umpire
in it; this is the worst. To the best, or any good one, there is yet a
long way.

One remark I must not omit, That royal or parliamentary grants of
money are by no means the chief thing wanted! To give our Men of
Letters stipends, endowments and all further