Book I—Proem
Chap. I Midas
The condition of England one of the most ominous ever seen in this world: Full of wealth in every kind, yet dying of inanition; Workhouses, in which no work cane be done. Destitution in Scotland. Stockport Assizes. England's unprofitable success: Human faces glooming discordantly on one another. Midas longed for gold, and the gods gave it him.
Chap. II. The Sphinx
The grand unnamable Sphinx-riddle, which each man is called upon to solve. Notions of the foolish concerning justice and judgment. Courts of Westminster, and the general High Court of the Universe. The one strong thing, the just thing, the true thing. A noble Conservatism, as well as an ignoble. In all battles of men each fighter, in the end, prospers according to his right: Wallace of Scotland. Fact and Semblance. What is justice? As many men as there are in a Nation who can see Heaven's justice, so many are there who stand between it and perdition.
Chap. III. Manchester Insurrection
Peterloo not an unsuccessful Insurrection. Governors who wait for Insurrection to instruct them, getting into the fatalest courses. Unspeakable County Yeomanry. Poor Manchester operatives, and their huge inarticulate question: Unhappy Workers, unhappier idlers, of this actual England! Fair day's- wages for fair day's-work: Milton's 'wages;' Cromwell's. Pay to each man what he has earned and done and deserved; what more have we to ask? Some not _in_supportable approximation indispensable and inevitable.
Chap. IV. Morrison's Pill
A state of mind worth reflecting on. No Morrison's Pill for curing the maladies of Society: Universal alteration of regimen and way of life: Vain jargon giving place to some genuine Speech again. If we walk according to the Law of this Universe, the Law-Maker will befriend us; if not, not. Quacks, sham heroes, the one bane of the world. Quack and Dupe, upper side and under of the selfsame substance.
Chap. V. Aristocracy of Talent
All misery the fruit of unwisdom: Neither with individuals nor with Nations is it fundamentally otherwise. Nature in late centuries universally supposed to be dead; but now everywhere asserting herself to be alive and miraculous. That guidance of this country not sufficiently wise. Aristocracy of talent, or government by the Wisest, a dreadfully difficult affair to get started. The true eye for talent; and the flunky eye for respectabilities, warm garnitures and larders dropping fatness: Bobus and Bobissimus.
Chap. VI. Hero-worship
Enlightened Egoism, never so luminous, not the rule by which man's life can be led: A soul, different from a stomach in any sense of the word. Hero-worship done differently in every different epoch of the world. Reform, like Charity, must begin at home. Arrestment of the knaves and dastards, beginning by arresting our own poor selves out of that fraternity. The present Editor's purpose to himself full of hope. A Loadstar in the eternal sky: glimmering of light, for here and there a human soul.