Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/795

 tapestries, his epics, and his masterpieces of printing, to try and bring his fellow citizens to their senses by the summary process of shouting at them in the streets and in Trafalgar Square. John Ruskin's writing began with Modern Painters; Carlyle began with literary studies of German culture and the like; both were driven to become revolutionary pamphleteers. If people are rotting and starving in all directions, and nobody else has the heart or brains to make a disturbance about it, the great writers must.

Fleet Street Eclogues

(In these dialogues a number of English journalists discuss their views of life. The author, by his tragic death, may be said to have put the seal of sincerity upon his bitter utterances. See page 216)

I too, for light the world explore, And, trembling, tread where angels trod; Devout at every shrine adore, And follow after each new god. But by the altar everywhere I find the money-changer's stall; And littering every temple-stair The sick and sore like maggots crawl

And always divers undertones Within the roaring tempest throb— The chink of gold, the laborer's groans, The infant's wail, the woman's sob.