12. CHAPTER XII
ILL WOULD CHANGE BE AT WHILES WERE IT NOT FOR THE CHANGE BEYOND
THE CHANGE
HE said: "Many strange things hast thou told me that I could not
understand; yea, some my wit so failed to compass, that I cannot
so much as ask thee questions concerning them; but of some
matters would I ask thee, and I must hasten, for in very sooth
the night is worn old and grey. Whereas thou sayest that in the
days to come, when there shall be no labouring men who are not
thralls after their new fashion, that their lords shall be many
and very many, it seemeth to me that these same lords, if they be
many, shall hardly be rich,
or but very few of them, since they must verily feed and clothe
and house their thralls, so that that which they take from them,
since it will have to be dealt out amongst many, will not be
enough to make many rich; since out of one man ye may get but one
man's work; and pinch him never so sorely, still as aforesaid ye
may not pinch him so sorely as not to feed him. Therefore,
though the eyes of my mind may see a few lords and many slaves,
yet can they not see many lords as well as many slaves; and if
the slaves be many and the lords few, then some day shall the
slaves make an end of that mastery by the force of their bodies.
How then shall thy mastership of the latter days endure?"
"John Ball," said I, "mastership hath many shifts whereby it
striveth to keep itself alive in the world. And now hear a
marvel: whereas thou sayest these two times that out of one man
ye may get but
one man's work, in days to come one man shall do the work of a
hundred men — yea, of a thousand or more: and this is the shift of
mastership that shall make many masters and many rich men."
John Ball laughed. "Great is my harvest of riddles to-night,"
said he; "for even if a man sleep not, and eat and drink while he
is a-working, ye shall but make two men, or three at the most,
out of him."
Said I: "Sawest thou ever a weaver at his loom?"
"Yea," said he, "many a time."
He was silent a little, and then said: "Yet I marvelled not
at it; but now I marvel, because I know what thou wouldst say.
Time was when the shuttle was thrust in and out of all the
thousand threads of the warp, and it was long to do; but now the
spring-staves go up and down as the man's feet move, and this and
that leaf of the warp cometh forward and the shuttle
goeth in one shot through all the thousand warps. Yea, so it is
that this multiplieth a man many times. But look you, he is so
multiplied already; and so hath he been, meseemeth, for many
hundred years."
"Yea," said I, "but what hitherto needed the masters to
multiply him more? For many hundred years the workman was a
thrall bought and sold at the cross; and for other hundreds of
years he hath been a villein — that is, a working-beast and a part
of the stock of the manor on which he liveth; but then thou and
the like of thee shall free him, and then is mastership put to
its shifts; for what should avail the mastery then, when the
master no longer owneth the man by law as his chattel, nor any
longer by law owneth him as stock of his land, if the master hath
not that which he on whom he liveth may not lack and live withal,
and cannot have without selling himself?"
He said nothing, but I saw his brow
knitted and his lips pressed together as though in anger; and
again I said:
"Thou hast seen the weaver at his loom: think how it should be
if he sit no longer before the web and cast the shuttle and draw
home the sley, but if the shed open of itself and the shuttle of
itself speed through it as swift as the eye can follow, and the
sley come home of itself; and the weaver standing by and
whistling The Hunt's Up! the while, or
looking to half-a-dozen looms and bidding them what to do. And
as with the weaver so with the potter, and the smith, and every
worker in metals, and all other crafts, that it shall be for them
looking on and tending, as with the man that sitteth in the cart
while the horse draws. Yea, at last so shall it be even with
those who are mere husbandmen; and no longer shall the reaper
fare afield in the morning with his hook over his shoulder, and
smite and bind and smite again till the sun is
down and the moon is up; but he shall draw a thing made by men
into the field with one or two horses, and shall say the word and
the horses shall go up and down, and the thing shall reap and
gather and bind, and do the work of many men. Imagine all this
in thy mind if thou canst, at least as ye may imagine a tale of
enchantment told by a minstrel, and then tell me what shouldst
thou deem that the life of men would be amidst all this, men such
as these men of the township here, or the men of the Canterbury
gilds."
"Yea," said he; "but before I tell thee my thoughts of thy
tale of wonder, I would ask thee this: In those days when men
work so easily, surely they shall make more wares than they can
use in one countryside, or one good town, whereas in another,
where things have not gone as well, they shall have less than
they need; and even so it is with us now, and thereof cometh
scarcity
and famine; and if people may not come at each other's goods, it
availeth the whole land little that one country-side hath more
than enough while another hath less; for the goods shall abide
there in the storehouses of the rich place till they perish. So
if that be so in the days of wonder ye tell of (and I see not how
it can be otherwise), then shall men be but little holpen by
making all their wares so easily and with so little labour."
I smiled again and said: "Yea, but it shall not be so; not
only shall men be multiplied a hundred and a thousand fold, but
the distance of one place from another shall be as nothing; so
that the wares which lie ready for market in Durham in the
evening may be in London on the morrow morning; and the men of
Wales may eat corn of Essex and the men of Essex wear wool of
Wales; so that, so far as the flitting of goods to market goes,
all the land shall be as one
parish. Nay, what say I? Not as to this land only shall it be
so, but even the Indies, and far countries of which thou knowest
not, shall be, so to say, at every man's door, and wares which
now ye account precious and dear-bought, shall then be common
things bought and sold for little price at every huckster's
stall. Say then, John, shall not those days be merry, and
plentiful of ease and contentment for all men?"
"Brother," said he, "meseemeth some doleful mockery lieth
under these joyful tidings of thine; since thou hast already
partly told me to my sad bewilderment what the life of man shall
be in those days. Yet will I now for a little set all that aside
to consider thy strange tale as of a minstrel from over sea, even
as thou biddest me. Therefore I say, that if men still abide men
as I have known them, and unless these folk of England change as,
the land changeth —
and forsooth of the men, for good and for evil, I can think no
other than I think now, or behold them other than I have known
them and loved them — I say if the men be still men, what will
happen except that there should be all plenty in the land, and
not one poor man therein, unless of his own free will he choose
to lack and be poor, as a man in religion or such like; for there
would then be such abundance of all good things, that, as greedy
as the lords might be, there would be enough to satisfy their
greed and yet leave good living for all who laboured with their
hands; so that these should labour far less than now, and they
would have time to learn knowledge, so that there should be no
learned or unlearned, for all should be learned; and they would
have time also to learn how to order the matters of the parish
and the hundred, and of the parliament of the realm, so that the
king should take no more than his own; and to
order the rule of the realm, so that all men, rich and unrich,
should have part therein; and so by undoing of evil laws and
making of good ones, that fashion would come to an end whereof
thou speakest, that rich men make laws for their own behoof; for
they should no longer be able to do thus when all had part in
making the laws; whereby it would soon come about that there
would be no men rich and tyrannous, but all should have enough
and to spare of the increase of the earth and the work of their
own hands. Yea surely, brother, if ever it cometh about that men
shall be able to make things, and not men, work for their
superfluities, and that the length of travel from one place to
another be made of no account, and all the world be a market for
all the world, then all shall live in health and wealth; and envy
and grudging shall perish. For then shall we have conquered the
earth and it shall be enough; and then
shall the kingdom of heaven be come down to the earth in very
deed. Why lookest thou so sad and sorry? what sayest thou?"
I said: "Hast thou forgotten already what I told thee, that
in those latter days a man who hath nought save his own body (and
such men shall be far the most of men) must needs pawn his labour
for leave to labour? Can such a man be wealthy? Hast thou not
called him a thrall?"
"Yea," he said; "but how could I deem that such things could
be when those days should be come wherein men could make things
work for them?"
"Poor man!" said I. "Learn that in those very days, when it
shall be with the making of things as with the carter in the
cart, that there he sitteth and shaketh the reins and the horse
draweth and the cart goeth; in those days, I tell thee, many men
shall be as poor and wretched always, year by year, as they are
with thee when there is
famine in the land; nor shall any have plenty and surety of
livelihood save those that shall sit by and look on while others
labour; and these, I tell thee, shall be a many, so that they
shall see to the making of all laws, and in their hands shall be
all power, and the labourers shall think that they cannot do
without these men that live by robbing them, and shall praise
them and wellnigh pray to them as ye pray to the saints, and the
best worshipped man in the land shall be he who by forestalling
and regrating hath gotten to him the most money."
"Yea," said he, "and shall they who see themselves robbed
worship the robber? Then indeed shall men be changed from what
they are now, and they shall be sluggards, dolts, and cowards
beyond all the earth hath yet borne. Such are not the men I have
known in my life-days, and that now I love in my death."
"Nay," I said, "but the robbery shall
they not see; for have I not told thee that they shall hold
themselves to be free men? And for why? I will tell thee: but
first tell me how it fares with men now; may the labouring man
become a lord?"
He said: "The thing hath been seen that churls have risen
from the dortoir of the monastery to the abbot's chair and the
bishop's throne; yet not often; and whiles hath a bold sergeant
become a wise captain, and they have made him squire and knight;
and yet but very seldom. And now I suppose thou wilt tell me
that the Church will open her arms wider to this poor people, and
that many through her shall rise into lordship. But what
availeth that? Nought were it to me if the Abbot of St. Alban's
with his golden mitre sitting guarded by his knights and
sergeants, or the Prior of Merton with his hawks and his hounds,
had once been poor men, if they were now tyrants of poor men; nor
would it better
the matter if there were ten times as many Houses of Religion in
the land as now are, and each with a churl's son for abbot or
prior over it."
I smiled and said: "Comfort thyself; for in those days shall
there be neither abbey nor priory in the land, nor monks nor
friars, nor any religious." (He started as I spoke.) "But thou
hast told me that hardly in these days may a poor man rise to be
a lord: now I tell thee that in the days to come poor men shall
be able to become lords and masters and do-nothings; and oft will
it be seen that they shall do so; and it shall be even for that
cause that their eyes shall be blinded to the robbing of them-selves by others, because they shall hope in their souls that
they may each live to rob others: and this shall be the very
safeguard of all rule and law in those days."
"Now am I sorrier than thou hast yet made me," said he; "for
when once this is
established, how then can it be changed? Strong shall be the
tyranny of the latter days. And now meseems, if thou sayest
sooth, this time of the conquest of the earth shall not bring
heaven down to the earth, as erst I deemed it would, but rather
that it shall bring hell up on to the earth. Woe's me, brother,
for thy sad and weary foretelling! And yet saidst thou that the
men of those days would seek a remedy. Canst thou yet tell me,
brother, what that remedy shall be, lest the sun rise upon me
made hopeless by thy tale of what is to be? And, lo you, soon
shall she rise upon the earth."
In truth the dawn was widening now, and the colours coming
into the pictures on wall and in window; and as well as I could
see through the varied glazing of these last (and one window
before me had as yet nothing but white glass in it), the ruddy
glow, which had but so little a while quite died out in the west,
was now beginning to
gather in the east — the new day was beginning. I looked at the
poppy that I still carried in my hand, and it seemed to me to
have withered and dwindled. I felt anxious to speak to my
companion and tell him much, and withal I felt that I must
hasten, or for some reason or other I should be too late; so I
spoke at last loud and hurriedly:
"John Ball, be of good cheer; for once more thou knowest, as I
know, that the Fellowship of Men shall endure, however many
tribulations it may have to wear through. Look you, a while ago
was the light bright about us; but it was because of the moon,
and the night was deep notwithstanding, and when the moonlight
waned and died, and there was but a little glimmer in place of
the bright light, yet was the world glad because all things knew
that the glimmer was of day and not of night. Lo you, an image
of the times to betide the
hope of the Fellowship of Men. Yet forsooth, it may well be that
this bright day of summer which is now dawning upon us is no
image of the beginning of the day that shall be; but rather shall
that day-dawn be cold and grey and surly; and yet by its light
shall men see things as they verily are, and no longer enchanted
by the gleam of the moon and the glamour of the dream-tide. By
such grey light shall wise men and valiant souls see the remedy,
and deal with it, a real thing that may be touched and handled,
and no glory of the heavens to be worshipped from afar off. And
what shall it be, as I told thee before, save that men shall be
determined to be free; yea, free as thou wouldst have them, when
thine hope rises the highest, and thou art thinking not of the
king's uncles, and poll-groat bailiffs, and the villeinage of
Essex, but of the end of all, when men shall have the fruits of
the earth and the fruits of their
toil thereon, without money and without price. The time shall
come, John Ball, when that dream of thine that this shall one day
be, shall be a thing that men shall talk of soberly, and as a
thing soon to come about, as even with thee they talk of the
villeins becoming tenants paying their lord quit-rent; therefore,
hast thou done well to hope it; and, if thou heedest this also,
as I suppose thou heedest it little, thy name shall abide by thy
hope in those days to come, and thou shalt not be forgotten."
I heard his voice come out of the twilight, scarcely seeing
him, though now the light was growing fast, as he said:
"Brother, thou givest me heart again; yet since now I wot well
that thou art a sending from far-off times and far-off things:
tell thou, if thou mayest, to a man who is going to his death how
this shall come about."
"Only this may I tell thee " said I; "to
thee, when thou didst try to conceive of them, the ways of the
days to come seemed follies scarce to be thought of; yet shall
they come to be familiar things, and an order by which every man
liveth, ill as he liveth, so that men shall deem of them, that
thus it hath been since the beginning of the world, and that thus
it shall be while the world endureth; and in this wise so shall
they be thought of a long while; and the complaint of the poor
the rich man shall heed, even as much and no more as he who lieth
in pleasure under the lime-trees in the summer heedeth the murmur
of his toiling bees. Yet in time shall this also grow old, and
doubt shall creep in, because men shall scarce be able to live by
that order, and the complaint of the poor shall be hearkened, no
longer as a tale not utterly grievous, but as a threat of ruin,
and a fear. Then shall these things, which to thee seem follies,
and to the men between thee and me mere wisdom
and the bond of stability, seem follies once again; yet, whereas
men have so long lived by them, they shall cling to them yet from
blindness and from fear; and those that see, and that have thus
much conquered fear that they are furthering the real time that
cometh and not the dream that faileth, these men shall the blind
and the fearful mock and missay, and torment and murder: and
great and grievous shall be the strife in those days, and many
the failures of the wise, and too oft sore shall be the despair
of the valiant; and back-sliding, and doubt, and contest between
friends and fellows lacking time in the hubbub to understand each
other, shall grieve many hearts and hinder the Host of the
Fellowship: yet shall all bring about the end, till thy deeming
of folly and ours shall be one, and thy hope and our hope; and
then — the Day will have come."
Once more I heard the voice of John Ball: "Now, brother, I
say farewell; for
now verily hath the Day of the Earth come, and thou and I are
lonely of each other again; thou hast been a dream to me as I to
thee, and sorry and glad have we made each other, as tales of old
time and the longing of times to come shall ever make men to be.
I go to life and to death, and leave thee; and scarce do I know
whether to wish thee some dream of the days beyond thine to tell
what shall be, as thou hast told me, for I know not if that shall
help or hinder thee; but since we have been kind and very
friends, I will not leave thee without a wish of good-will, so at
least I wish thee what thou thyself wishest for thyself, and that
is hopeful strife and blameless peace, which is to say in one
word, life. Farewell, friend."
For some little time, although I had known that the daylight
was growing and what was around me, I had scarce seen the things
I had before noted so keenly; but now in a flash I saw all — the
east crimson
with sunrise through the white window on my right hand; the
richly-carved stalls and gilded screen work, the pictures on the
walls, the loveliness of the faultless colour of the mosaic
window lights, the altar and the red light over it looking
strange in the daylight, and the biers with the hidden dead men
upon them that lay before the high altar. A great pain filled my
heart at the sight of all that beauty, and withal I heard quick
steps coming up the paved church-path to the porch, and the loud
whistle of a sweet old tune therewith; then the footsteps stopped
at the door; I heard the latch rattle, and knew that Will Green's
hand was on the ring of it.
Then I strove to rise up, but fell back again; a white light,
empty of all sights, broke upon me for a moment, and lo I behold,
I was lying in my familiar bed, the south-westerly gale rattling
the Venetian blinds and making their hold-fasts squeak.
I got up presently, and going to the
window looked out on the winter morning; the river was before me
broad between outer bank and bank, but it was nearly dead ebb,
and there was a wide space of mud on each side of the hurrying
stream, driven on the faster as it seemed by the push of the
south-west wind. On the other side of the water the few willow-trees left us by the Thames Conservancy looked doubtfully alive
against the bleak sky and the row of wretched-looking blue-slated
houses, although, by the way, the latter were the backs of a sort
of street of "villas" and not a slum; the road in front of the
house was sooty and muddy at once, and in the air was that sense
of dirty discomfort which one is never quit of in London. The
morning was harsh, too, and though the wind was from the south-west it was as cold as a north wind; and yet amidst it all, I
thought of the corner of the next bight of the river which I
could not quite see from where I was, but over which one can see
clear of houses and
into Richmond Park, looking like the open country; and dirty as
the river was, and harsh as was the January wind, they seemed to
woo me toward the country-side, where away from the miseries of
the "Great Wen" I might of my own will carry on a daydream of the
friends I had made in the dream of the night and against my will.
But as I turned away shivering and downhearted, on a sudden
came the frightful noise of the "hooters," one after the other,
that call the workmen to the factories, this one the after-breakfast one, more by token. So I grinned surlily, and dressed
and got ready for my day's "work" as I call it, but which many a
man besides John Ruskin (though not many in his position) would
call "play."