Excerpt from The Social Philosophy of Carlyle and Ruskin The following chapters have been written not only as an interpretation on important sides of two great and related literary personalities of the Victorian Era, but also as a contribution, however slight, to the history of social thought in England during a critical period. The writer would fain hope that the chal lenging message of these prophets, delivered in a time of profound transformations in the structure of society, might not be without inspiration and guid ance for our own day, a day even more disturbed than theirs, more fraught with unrest and uncertainty, when men everywhere are listening for authentic voices that shall speak counsels worthy to be fol lowed. For the social philosophy of Carlyle and Ruskin is not a matter of academic interest for a few leisured scholars and book-lovers alone. It is rather a trumpet-call to workers, old and young, workers alike with hand and with brain, - to put forth their utmost efforts, in the midst of the present confusion, for the purpose of effecting an ordered revolution of our industrial system, so that civilization in reality may become what for generations at least it has not been, the humanization of man in society. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.