Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/444

 on thousands. The minds of men are moved unconsciously by the events around them, and the more sympathetic minds are the readiest to formulate their thought. At last the thought finds utterance, and the first to give it voice is hailed as the founder of a new philosophy. His teachings receive the imme- diate assent of those who are pre-disposed for their acceptance, and supported by the apparent logic of facts, convince others who had theretofore reached only the stage of speculation. The philosopher is recognised as a power. In Carlyle's youth and middle age, the nation was passing through a period of profound change. It was his mission to convince his fellow-countrymen, neither through a blind conservatism to prop up institutions which had survived their utility, nor, through an unreasoning radicalism to deny principles surviving the institutions by which at one time they had been truly expressed. Truth and justice are eternal verities ; in the long run, these will triumph not only over all that is mittedly opposed to them, but over all that enjoys authority as admere counterfeit of them. Government is but a means to an end and even the most absolute form of Government is to be approved,if for the timebeing,it alone can secure truth and justice. There is a brotherhood among men and it is a universal duty to recognise it ; but this does not imply an equality in the faculties with which each man is endowed that he may co-operate for the good of all. The equality which in fact subsists is the equal dignity of all honest labour. 'All true work,' wrote Carlyle, 'is sacred ; in all true work, were it but hand labour, there is some- thing of divineness. Labour wide as the earth has its summit in heaven.^ And again : ' There is a perennial nobleness and even sacredness in work ; were he ever so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works.^ To do his work well, the self in man must be annihilated. And when the work is done, ay, and done nobly, the worker is not to look for his reward here. ' The wages of every noble work do yet lie in heaven or else nowhere.' The true worker will not necessarily be rewarded with happiness, for what is our 'whim of happiness V 'By certain valuations and averages of our own striking, we come upon some sort of average terrestrial lot : this we fancy belongs to us by nature and of indefeasible right. Simple payment of our wages, our deserts, requires neither thanks nor complaint ; only such surplus as there may be, do we account happiness; any defect is misery. Now, con- sider that "vo have the valuation of our own merits ourselves, and what a I'und of self-conceit there is in each of us, do you wonder that <>he balance should so often dip the wrong way,