286 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



his economies " and with much-needed repairs of the Monastery 

 itself. Material rubbish is cleared away, — and spiritual rubbish 

 as well! 



Faithful in his immediate tasks at St. Edmundsbury, he is 

 equally faithful to his king in time of war and to his country as a 

 member of Parliament in times of peace. Thus, " by the heavenly 

 Awe that overshadows earthly business, does Samson, readily in 

 those days, save St. Edmund's Shrine, and innumerable still 

 more precious things! " 



" By heavenly Awe! " — for Carlyle ranks as vital in the great 

 man and his power, religious conviction, — and by religion, he 

 means, " the thing a man does practically lay to heart, and know 

 for certain"; or again: "the manner in which he feels himself 

 to be spiritually related to the unseen world or no world." * 



Personality, then, is the key to Carlyle's social philosophy, — a 

 personality born a genius and developed by faithfulness in ap- 

 prenticeship tasks, thus learning to guide others; — " faithful 

 over few things " rewarded by being made " ruler over many 

 things." The supreme need of every nation in every age accord- 

 ing to him, is the willingness and the machinery for selecting as 

 leaders the one born and trained to rule. And finding such he 

 should be clothed with authority by the powers of earth, fortified 

 with belief that this authority is also of God, so that he may be 

 able to compel as well as merely lead. 



In early times, such great men were heroes and worshipped as 

 such, — and Carlyle would bring back that day, turning aside 

 from all pretense of democracy for an aristocracy of the truly 

 great. 



William James (1842-1910) 



The Energies of Men 



Standing almost alone among the galaxy of great thinkers and 

 writers whom we have passed in review, William James was a 

 firm believer in unconditioned freedom of the will, at least in some 

 small degree. His starting point for philosophical thought is the 

 experience of life with all its contradictions; and unlike the 

 1 Heroes and Hero Worship, p. 6, Lecture II. 



