v "DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME 2.51 



Mr. Booth tells us, with commendable frankness, 

 that " it is primarily and mainly for the sake of 

 saving the soul that I seek the salvation of the 

 body " (p. 45), which language, being interpreted, 

 means that the propagation of the special 

 Salvationist creed comes first, and the promotion 

 of the physical, intellectual, and purely moral 

 welfare of mankind second in his estimation. 

 Men are to be made sober and industrious, 

 mainly, that, as washed, shorn, and docile sheep, 

 they may be driven into the narrow theological 

 fold which Mr. Booth patronises. If they refuse 

 to enter, for all their moral cleanliness, they will 

 have to take their place among the goats as 

 sinners, only less dirty than the rest. 



I have been in the habit of thinking (and I 

 believe the opinion is largely shared by reasonable 

 men) that self-respect and thrift are the rungs of 

 the ladder by which men may most surely climb 

 out of the slough of despond of want ; and I have 

 regarded them as perhaps the most eminent of 

 the practical virtues. That is not Mr. Booth's 

 opinion. For him they are mere varnished sins 

 nothing better than "Pride re-baptised" (p. 

 46). Shutting his eyes to the necessary con 

 sequences of the struggle for life, the existence of 

 which he accepts as fully as any Darwinian, 1 Mr. 

 Booth tells men, whose evil case is one of those 

 consequences, that envy is a corner-stone of our 

 1 See p. 100. 



