Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present

Nathan Uglow (Trinity All Saints, Leeds)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Domains

Political Philosophy

Dates

First circulation or publication 1843

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Essays/ Lectures (any)
Historical representation

Resources

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The opening pages of

Past and Present

describe a moment of sudden insight. A “picturesque Tourist”, out to admire “this bounteous realm of England”, finds only the St. Ives Union Workhouse, surrounded by workhands, ready and willing to work, but for all that unable to do so. What, he demands, is the “Enchantment” that can compel such work-ready men to languish, reducing potentially productive bodies to such a state of needy dependency? The answer, of course, was “the invisible hand” of . The first law of Laissez-faire economics, or what Carlyle here renames the “cash-nexus”, has it that if it is not immediately profitable to have work done, then no work shall be done until sufficient demand for the relevant product of that work can reassert itself. Somehow between the…

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1996 words

Citation: Uglow, Nathan. "Past and Present". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 March 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2915, accessed 27 November 2024.]