Self Help | Page 2

in some other form, unless the conditions of personal life
and character are radically improved. If this view be correct, then it
follows that the highest patriotism and philanthropy consist, not so
much in altering laws and modifying institutions, as in helping and
stimulating men to elevate and improve themselves by their own free
and independent individual action.
It may be of comparatively little consequence how a man is governed
from without, whilst everything depends upon how he governs himself
from within. The greatest slave is not he who is ruled by a despot, great
though that evil be, but he who is the thrall of his own moral ignorance,
selfishness, and vice. Nations who are thus enslaved at heart cannot be
freed by any mere changes of masters or of institutions; and so long as
the fatal delusion prevails, that liberty solely depends upon and consists
in government, so long will such changes, no matter at what cost they
may be effected, have as little practical and lasting result as the shifting
of the figures in a phantasmagoria. The solid foundations of liberty
must rest upon individual character; which is also the only sure
guarantee for social security and national progress. John Stuart Mill
truly observes that "even despotism does not produce its worst effects
so long as individuality exists under it; and whatever crushes
individuality IS despotism, by whatever name it be called."
Old fallacies as to human progress are constantly turning up. Some call
for Caesars, others for Nationalities, and others for Acts of Parliament.
We are to wait for Caesars, and when they are found, "happy the people
who recognise and follow them." {1} This doctrine shortly means,
everything FOR the people, nothing BY them,--a doctrine which, if
taken as a guide, must, by destroying the free conscience of a
community, speedily prepare the way for any form of despotism.
Caesarism is human idolatry in its worst form--a worship of mere
power, as degrading in its effects as the worship of mere wealth would
be. A far healthier doctrine to inculcate among the nations would be
that of Self-Help; and so soon as it is thoroughly understood and
carried into action, Caesarism will be no more. The two principles are

directly antagonistic; and what Victor Hugo said of the Pen and the
Sword alike applies to them, "Ceci tuera cela." [This will kill that.]
The power of Nationalities and Acts of Parliament is also a prevalent
superstition. What William Dargan, one of Ireland's truest patriots, said
at the closing of the first Dublin Industrial Exhibition, may well be
quoted now. "To tell the truth," he said, "I never heard the word
independence mentioned that my own country and my own fellow
townsmen did not occur to my mind. I have heard a great deal about the
independence that we were to get from this, that, and the other place,
and of the great expectations we were to have from persons from other
countries coming amongst us. Whilst I value as much as any man the
great advantages that must result to us from that intercourse, I have
always been deeply impressed with the feeling that our industrial
independence is dependent upon ourselves. I believe that with simple
industry and careful exactness in the utilization of our energies, we
never had a fairer chance nor a brighter prospect than the present. We
have made a step, but perseverance is the great agent of success; and if
we but go on zealously, I believe in my conscience that in a short
period we shall arrive at a position of equal comfort, of equal happiness,
and of equal independence, with that of any other people."
All nations have been made what they are by the thinking and the
working of many generations of men. Patient and persevering labourers
in all ranks and conditions of life, cultivators of the soil and explorers
of the mine, inventors and discoverers, manufacturers, mechanics and
artisans, poets, philosophers, and politicians, all have contributed
towards the grand result, one generation building upon another's
labours, and carrying them forward to still higher stages. This constant
succession of noble workers--the artisans of civilisation--has served to
create order out of chaos in industry, science, and art; and the living
race has thus, in the course of nature, become the inheritor of the rich
estate provided by the skill and industry of our forefathers, which is
placed in our hands to cultivate, and to hand down, not only unimpaired
but improved, to our successors.
The spirit of self-help, as exhibited in the energetic action of

individuals, has in all times been a marked feature in the English
character, and furnishes the true measure of our power as a nation.
Rising above the heads of the mass, there were always to be