old order, and
it seems to me that it becomes more impossible every day. Thus far I am with the
Socialists, in that I denounce the commercial class, the bourgeois, the
capitalists - call them what you will - as the supremely maleficent. They hold
us at their mercy, and their mercy is nought. Monstrously hypocritical, they cry
for progress when they mean increased opportunities of swelling their own purses
at the expense of those they employ, and of those they serve; vulgar to the
core, they exalt a gross ideal of well being, and stink in their prosperity. The
very poor and the uncommercial wealthy alike suffer from them; the intellect of
the country is poisoned by their influence. They it is who indeed are
oppressors; they grow rich on the toil of poor girls in London garrets and of
men who perish prematurely to support their children. I won't talk of these
people; I should lose my calm views of things and use language too much like
this of the Fiery Cross.«
    Hubert was thoughtful.
    »What is before us?« he murmured.
    »Evil; of that I am but too firmly assured. Progress will have its way, and
its path will be a path of bitterness. A pillar of dark cloud leads it by day,
and of terrible fire by night. I do not say that the promised land may not lie
ahead of its guiding, but woe is me for the desert first to be traversed! Two
vices are growing among us to dread proportions - indifference and hatred: the
one will let poverty anguish at its door, the other will hound on the vassal
against his lord. Papers like the Fiery Cross, even though such a man as
Westlake edit them, serve the cause of hatred; they preach, by implication at
all events, the childish theory of the equality of men, and seek to make
discontented a whole class which only needs regular employment on the old
conditions to be perfectly satisfied.«
    »Westlake says here that they have no right to be satisfied.«
    »I know. It is one of the huge fallacies of the time; it comes of the
worship of progress. I am content with the fact that, even in our bad day, as a
class they are satisfied. No, these reforms address themselves to the wrong
people; they begin at the wrong end. Let us raise our voices, if we feel
impelled to do so at all, for the old simple Christian rules, and do our best to
get the educated by the ears. I have my opinion about the clergy