196 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



of one for which I have accumulated materials 

 and ideas for some time is c The Proletariate: 

 the Power of the Future.' It has been my lot 

 to see a great deal of the Labour Question, 

 not only agricultural, but also urban." Really ? 

 Urban? Where, how, and in what period of 

 his life did he get his urban experience? Was 

 it on the streets of Swindon, that great centre 

 of life and thought? " And it seems to me 

 that all politics are slowly resolving into this 

 one great point." He means that the condi- 

 tion of the people all over the world is rapidly 

 becoming the dominant question. He was 

 right ; but he spoke ten years too soon. 

 " Eeligion, society, institutions of every kind 

 are affected. No doubt you saw the extra- 

 ordinary account in the Times recently of the 

 burial of a Socialist in Germany, and the 

 marked progress of their doctrines. There 

 are several books on wages, capital and labour, 

 etc., but it seems to me that most thinkers 

 and writers treat the subject on grounds too 

 narrow. Of wages I propose to say very little. 

 My idea is to point out how proletarian influ- 

 ences are at work everywhere under the sur- 



