240 FRESH FIELDS 



the consequences of a mistake are so appalling that 

 voting had better be dispensed with, and the selec- 

 tion of constables be left to the evolutionary princi- 

 ple of the solar system? 



Carlyle was not a reconciler. When he saw a 

 fact, he saw it with such intense and magnif} T ing 

 eyes, as I have already said, that it became at once 

 irreconcilable with other facts. He could not and 

 would not reconcile popular government, the rule of 

 majorities, with what he knew and what w r e all 

 know to be popular follies, or the proneness of the 

 multitude to run after humbugs. How easy for 

 fallacies, speciosities, quackeries, etc., to become 

 current! That a thing is popular makes a wise 

 man look upon it with suspicion. Are the greatest 

 or best books the most read books? Have not the 

 great principles, the great reforms, begun in minori- 

 ties and fought their way against the masses? Does 

 not the multitude generally greet its saviors with 

 " Crucify him, crucify him " ? Who have been the 

 martyrs and the persecuted in all ages? Where 

 does the broad road lead to, and which is the Xar- 

 row Way ? " Can it be proved that, since the 

 beginning of the world, there was ever given a uni- 

 versal vote in favor of the worthiest man or thing? 

 I have always understood that true worth, in any 

 department, was difficult to recognize; that the 

 worthiest, if he appealed to universal suffrage, 

 would have but a poor chance." 



Upon these facts Carlyle planted himself, and 

 the gulf which he saw open between them and the 



