'Past and Present' by Carlyle

Carlyle was a writer of Victorian age. ‘Past and Present’ was published in 1843. In this book, he compares his own time with the past. He speaks in favour of past and totally against the present time. The first book of ‘Past and Present’ describes the writer’s observations about his own time e.g., Victorian era.

The values of truth, sincerity, honesty and faith were vanishing in Victorian age. It was an age of ‘Mammon’ worship. There were no relations between rich and poor.

 

“Cash was the only bond between different people, the rich were engaged in the game of demand and supply, and profit and loss.”

 

Millions of the people were suffering because of insufficient wages. England was the richest country in the world but the people were unclothed and foodless.

Feeling dissatisfied with the present condition of England, Carlyle sings the glory of the past. So, he devoted the second book of ‘Past and Present’ to an impressive description of past.

It was an age of faith, sincerity and honesty. Men lived and died like martyrs because they believed in God. There was no tinge of hypocrisy in the religion. The monks were ignorant but sincere to their religion. They had unshakeable belief in God.

Carlyle describes the election of Abbot Samson. Samson was a sincere, energetic and patient governor who could save monks of the time. It was a noble spirit of hero worship that prompted that people to elect Samson. They had realized the truth that he was the only capable man who could resolve the glory of the past.

Samson stuck to his actual duties and proved that he was a man of noble ideas. According to Carlyle, England has its glory when Samson was alive. There were two notes in Samson’s personality i.e., mental and spiritual.

 

“Samson solved all the problems faced by the state with his practical wisdom.”

 

He overcame riots in the religious sphere by ex-communication. He followed to Cross and God. He proved that;

 

“Religion is not something to be discussed but something to be lived in.”

 

Carlyle attacked his contemporaries because he knew that they were devoid of spiritual values. He criticized a writer , Stanley, who was trying to promulgate a rational basis for belief in supernaturalism. Carlyle said about ‘Mill’;

 

“He had not even the brain of a rabbit.”

 

In his age, Carlyle was disgusted with the philosophies like utilitarianism, democracy and liberty for all. Benham and some other writers had adopted a philosophy which says;

 

“The greatest good of the greatest number.”

 

They did not want to do anything for the welfare of the poor. A prominent writer, Ricardo, was trying to prove that the capitalists should give lowest wages to the workers. Such inhuman philosophies make Carlyle think of the past. It was the reason that Carlyle was not satisfied with his age. Machinery was throwing out a large number of men and women on the streets.

So, in the end we may conclude that the miserable condition of Victorian society was very painful for Carlyle. Actually, he wanted to reform England and, in this effort, he has tried to remind England of the glory of their past so that they should look forward to improve themselves in future.