284 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



down into ever worse distress towards final ruin; — all this I 

 liken to dry dead fuel, waiting for the lightning out of heaven that 

 shall kindle it. The great man, with his free force direct out of 

 God's own hand, is the lightning. His word is the wise healing 

 word which all can believe in. All blazes round him now, when 

 he has once struck on it, into fire like his own. The dry moulder- 

 ing sticks are thought to have called him forth. They did want 

 him greatly; but as to calling him forth! — Those are critics of 

 small vision, I think, who cry: ' See, is it not the sticks that made 

 the fire ? ' . . . There is no sadder symptom of a generation 

 than such general blindness to the spiritual Hghtning, with faith 

 only in the heap of barren dead fuel." * 



Refreshing indeed is this glowing appreciation of the power of 

 personality, — this veneration of the great personality after our 

 many excursions into those types of social philosophy which see 

 only the great cosmic machine with man but a cog! 



Carlyle makes practical application of the above thesis to his 

 own time in England, — England suffering from a dearth of great 

 men, — England but " dry mouldering sticks " awaiting the 

 kindling touch of genius. He finds an analogy to the political 

 and social condition of his day and a key to the solution of the 

 problem in the condition of the monastery of St. Edmundsbury 

 in the twelfth century and the reconstructive work of Abbot 

 Samson as portrayed in the Chronicles of Jocelin. 



Abbot Samson, we are told, was not a high dignitary but only 

 sub-Sacrista; that he had learned during many years of faithful 

 service the great lesson of obedience thus being supremely quali- 

 fied to command; a man " whom no severity would break to 

 complain, and no kindness soften into smiles or thanks." There 

 is something in his selection to the high office of Abbot, too, as 

 told by our author, which is significant of Carlyle's own ideal of 

 selection to public office. He was not chosen by popular vote 

 of any group of people but by a process of " winnowing." 2 



1 Heroes and Hero Worship, Lecture I. 



2 The Chapter selects twelve monks who with the Prior are to confer with 

 the King, the Bishop of Winchester, and the Chancellor, and secure the appoint- 

 ment of an abbot, if possible from their own convent. The thirteen are ordered 

 to nominate three from their monastery and these names are given to the King, — 



