ck. With Rousseau, Carlyle appears to look upon civilisation as a
disease. In one of his essays, _Characteristics_, he goes near the
Roussean idea when he declaims against self-consciousness, and
deliberately gives a preference to instinct. The uses of great men are
to lead humanity away from introspection back to energetic, rude,
instinctive action. When humanity will not listen to the voice of the
prophets, it must be treated to whip and scorpion. It never dawned upon
Carlyle that the highest life, individual and collective, has roots in
physical laws, that politico-economic forces must be reckoned with
before social harmony can be reached.

Just as Carlyle's Idealism drove him into opposition to the utilitarian
theory of morals, so it drove him into opposition to the utilitarian
theory of society. Out of his idealistic way of looking upon life there
flowed a curious result. As early as _Sartor Resartus_ we find Carlyle
anticipating the evolutionary conception of society. Spencer has
familiarised us with the idea that society is an organism. The idea
which he received from the Germans that Nature is not a mere mechanical
collection of atoms, but the materialised expression of a spiritual
unity--that idea Carlyle extended to society. As he puts it in _Sartor
Resartus_: 'Yes, truly, if Nature is one, and a living indivisible
whole, much more is Mankind, the Image that reflects and creates Nature,
without which Nature were not.... Noteworthy also, and serviceable for
the progress of this same individual, wilt thou find his subdivisions
into Generations. Generations are as the Days of toilsome Mankind; Death
and Birth are the vesper and the matin bells, that summon Mankind to
sleep, and to rise refreshed for new advancement. What the Father has
made, the Son can make and enjoy; but has also work of his own appointed
him. Thus all things wax and roll onwards.... Find mankind where thou
wilt, thou findest it in living movement, in progress faster or slower;
the Phoenix soars aloft, hovers with outstretched wings, filling Earth
with her music; or as now, she sinks, and with spheral swan-song
immolates herself in flame, that she may soar the higher and sing the
clearer.'

Philosophies of civilisation have a tendency to beget Fatalism. Bent
upon watching the resistless play of general laws, philosophers, in
their admiration of the products, are apt to ignore the frightful
suffering and waste involved in the process. Society b