INTRODUCTORY

15

be  sadly  confessed.  It  is  significant  that
Dickens  felt  called  upon  to  defend  the  crime
of  poverty  in  the  Chimes,  and  to  attack  the
economic  man  in  Hard  Times.  By  many
readers  to-day  these  tales  may  be  ranked
among  his  inferior  works  by  reason  of  their
exaggeration,  but  had  such  critics  lived  in  his
day  it  is  possible  that  the  exaggeration  would
have  seemed  but  legitimate  artistic  emphasis.
Ruskin  was  another  writer  who  felt  sure  that
there  were  wrongs  to  be  righted  ;  but,  while
Dickens  appealed  to  human  emotions,  he  for
his  part  set  himself  to  the  task  of  searching
out  the  errors  of  reason  wherein  social  wrongs
found  their  source.  Unfortunately  for  political
economy,  Ruskin  in  his  generous  enthusiasm
was  for  root  and  branch  destruction.  Falling
into  the  same  fundamental  error  as  the
popular  political  economists,  in  confounding
precepts  with  laws,  and,  while  brilliantly
suggestive,  adding  to  the  confusion  by  overlaying ­
  the  positive  with  the  ethical  point  of
view,  he  denounced  not  merely  the  appalling
economic  maxims  which  were  passing  current
as  political  economy  but  also  the  scientific
generalisations  relating  to  the  causes  of
economic  phenomena,  the  truth  and  serviceableness ­
  of  which  should  have  been  apparent.
In  the  above  paragraph  events  have  been,