A SUNDAY IN CHEYNE ROW. 279 



of his work is not yet possible. We must wait and 

 see if he was right about democracy, about Amer- 

 ica, universal suffrage, progress of the species, etc. 

 "Whether his message was a true message remains 

 to be seen." " If he was wrong he has misued his 

 powers. The principles of his teaching are false. 

 He has offered himself as a guide upon a road of 

 which he had no knowledge ; and his own desire for 

 himself would be the speediest oblivion both of his 

 person and his works." 



But the man was true ; there can be no doubt 

 about that, and when such is the case, the message 

 may safely be left to take care of Itself. We have 

 got the full force and benefit of it in our own day and 

 generation, whether our " cherished ideas of political 

 liberty, with their kindred corollaries," prove illu- 

 sions or not. All high spiritual and prophetic utter- 

 ances are instantly their own proof and justification, 

 or they are naught. Does Mr. Froude really mean 

 that the prophecies of Jeremiah and Isaiah have be- 

 come a part of the permanent " spiritual inheritance 

 of mankind " because they were literally fulfilled in 

 specific instances, and not because they were true 

 from the first and always, as the impassioned yearn- 

 ings and uprisings and reachings-forth of high God- 

 burdened souls at all times are true ? Regarded 

 merely as a disturbing and overturning force, Carlyle 

 was of great value. There never was a time, espe- 

 cially in an era like ours, when the opinion and 

 moral conviction of the race did not need subsoiling, 



