Before Winstanley found opportunity to declare in action the truths that had been revealed unto him, he found time to write yet another pamphlet, entitled Fire in the Bush.[78:1] In it he still further elucidates his interpretation of the story of the Creation, and his conception of the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life, and reaffirms his basic contention that “All the strivings that are in mankind are for the Earth: Who shall have it? Whether some particular persons shall have it, and the rest have none; or whether the Earth shall be made a Common Treasury to all, without respect of persons?” As it traverses much the same ground as the pamphlet from which we have just quoted at such length, it really calls for no further notice from us. The following verse on its title-page, however, seems to us worth quoting:
“The Righteous Law a government will give to whole mankind
How he should govern all the Earth, and therein true peace find;
This government is Reason pure, who will fill man with Love,
And wording justice, without deeds, is judged by this Dove.”
[68:1] The full title reads—“The New Law of Righteousness: Budding forth to restore the whole Creation from the Bondage or the Curse. Or a glympse of the new Heaven and the new Earth, wherein dwells Righteousness. Giving an Alarm to silence all that preach or speak from hearsay or imagination.” This pamphlet is very scarce. There is no copy in the British Museum or in any other of the London Public Libraries, nor in the Bodleian. The Jesus College Library, Oxford, however, is fortunate enough to possess a copy, which, to judge from its marginal notes, was once in the possession of one of Winstanley’s followers or admirers, and which was courteously placed at our disposal by the librarian, Mr. Hazell, to whom we here desire to convey our grateful acknowledgement.
[71:1] See his chapter “Of Property” in his classical work on Civil Government, a chapter which, as the conservative Hallam observes, “would be sufficient, if all Locke’s other writings had perished, to leave him a high name in philosophy.”
[71:2] For a short account of the writings of Thomas Spence and Patrick Edward Dove, see J. Morrison Davidson’s Four Precursors of Henry George. (Publisher, F. Henderson, London.)
[71:3] See his Agrarian Justice.
[74:1] “As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property.”—John Locke, Civil Government. (Of Property.)
[78:1] “Fire in the Bush: The Spirit burning, not consuming, but purging mankind.” Published by Giles Calvert. This pamphlet, too, is very scarce. There is no copy in the British Museum, but a copy is to be found in the Bodleian Library.