Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968). rn The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.

Past and Present

Carlyle, Thomas

Thomas Carlyle

(One of the most famous of British essayists, 1795–1881; historian of the French Revolution, and master of a vivid and picturesque prose-style)

WHAT is it, if you pierce through his Cants, his oft-repeated Hearsays, what he calls his Worships and so forth,—what is it that the modern English soul does, in very truth, dread infinitely, and contemplate with entire despair? What is his Hell, after all these reputable, oft-repeated Hearsays, what is it? With hesitation, with astonishment, I pronounce it to be: The terror of “Not succeeding”; of not making money, fame, or some other figure in the world,—chiefly of not making money! Is not that a somewhat singular Hell?