THE CALL OF THE LAND 



Tasks of all these sorts have to be done or 

 society will go to pieces; and he who will 

 not participate in them when necessary is, 

 negatively if in no worse sense, an anarchist. 



Other anarchists are those who inces- 

 santly decry all efforts at social reform, 

 maintaining that the social welfare can 

 never be much if any greater than it is. No 

 one can say that the necessity of a vast deal 

 of evil abroad is self-evident. Not till all 

 possible plans of reform have been tried and 

 have failed ought one to despair of the 

 state; and to preach despair before that be- 

 speaks a bad spirit. Criticism is right and 

 a duty. But indiscriminate condemnation, 

 always to find fault when men are trying 

 to mend wrongs, is not criticism but the 

 death of it. We must, of course, prove all 

 things, but let us not fail to hold fast to that 

 which is good. If it is a sin to call evil good, 

 it is surely no less so to call good evil. 



Anarchic in its effect is it also when you 

 impeach the motives or deny the patriot- 

 ism of immense classes of citizens. We 

 should distinguish sharply between an or- 



334 



