Hence it is that we feel
impelled to close our notice of the great Apostle of Social Justice and
Economic Freedom of the Seventeenth Century with the following eloquent
and soul-stirring words of his still greater successor of the Nineteenth
Century, words which almost seem but as an echo of his own, even though
many of us even to-day may have yet to learn to appreciate their full
force, meaning and truth:
"In our time, as in times before, creep on the insidious forces
that, producing inequality, destroy Liberty. On the horizon the
clouds begin to lower. Liberty calls to us again. We must follow
her further; we must trust her fully. Either we must wholly accept
her or she will not stay. It is not enough that men should vote; it
is not enough that they should be theoretically equal before the
law. They must have liberty to avail themselves of the
opportunities and means of life; they must stand on equal terms
with reference to the bounties of nature. Either this, or Liberty
withdraws her light! Either this, or darkness comes on, and the
very forces that progress has evolved turn to powers that work
destruction. This is the universal law. This is the lesson of the
centuries. Unless its foundations be laid in justice the social
structure cannot stand."
END.
FOOTNOTES:
[228:1] Published under the title, _The Condition of Labour_ (Swan,
Sonnenschein & Co.
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