It is not enough to compose such appeals as may quicken the nation
to a perception of her peculiar mission; it is necessary to
paint for her guidance the abominations and weakness of foreign
countries. The young writer may be trusted to know his duty
instinctively in this matter, but should his moral perception be
blunted, a sharper argument will soon remind him of what he owes
to the Common Conscience of Christians. He that cannot write,
and write with zeal, upon the Balkans, or upon Finland, or upon
the Clerical trouble, or upon whatever lies before us to do for
righteousness, is not worthy of a place in English letters: the
public and his editor will very soon convince him of what he has
lost by an unmanly reticence.
His comrades, who are content to deal with such matters as they
arise, will not be paid at a higher rate: but they will be paid
more often. They will not infrequently be paid from several
sources; they will have many opportunities for judging those
financial questions which are invariably mixed up with the great
battle against the Ultramontane, the Cossack and the Turk. In
Cairo, Frankfort, Pretoria, Mayfair, Shanghai, their latter days
confirm Dr. Caliban’s profound conclusion: “Whosoever works for
Humanity works, whether he know it or not, for himself as well.”[7]
I earnestly beseech the reader of this text-book, especially if he
be young, to allow no false shame to modify his zeal in judging
the vileness of the Continent. We know whatever can be known; all
criticism or qualification is hypocrisy; all silence is cowardice.
There is work to be done. Let the writer take up his pen and
_write_.
I had some little hesitation what model to put before the student.
This book does not profess to be more than an introduction to the
elements of our science; I therefore omitted what had first seemed
to me of some value, the letters written on a special commission
to Pondicherry during the plague and famine in that unhappy and
ill-governed remnant of a falling empire. The articles on the
tortures in the Phillipines were never printed, and might mislead.
I have preferred to show Priestcraft and Liberty in their eternal
struggle as they appeared to me in the character of Special
Commissioner for _Out and About_ during the troubles of 1901. It
is clear, and I think unbiassed; it opens indeed in that light
fashion which is a concession to contemporary journalism: but the
half-frivolous exterior conceals a permanent missionary purpose.
Its carefully collected array of facts give, I suggest, a vivid
picture of one particular battlefield; that whereon there rage
to-day the opposed forces which will destroy or save the French
people. The beginner could not have a better introduction to his
struggle against the infamies of Clericalism. Let him ask himself
(as Mr. Gardy, M.P., asked in a letter to _Out and About_) the
indignant question, “Could such things happen here in England?”