The Wairarapa Daily TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1890. LOOKING BACKWARD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3497, 29 April 1890, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1890. LOOKING BACKWARD.

The shilling shocker of the year 1800 is a work written' by. an ingenious American named Edward Bellamy, and entitled " Looking Backward," it is a dream of a millennium in the year of grace 2000, when by means of a development of .the socialistic aspiration of the present day tliera will be a new order of things, under which every man in the community will be healthy, wealthy and' wise, Dreams of this kind are recorded in many histories, but the speciality of, the present vision is that many labor organisations have accepted it as a prophetic glimpse of the imaginary Paradise towards which they;.are working, and with them this purely visionary, and unreal novel is a text book. It may be said that the author has 'considerable, literary gifts, and eveu those who see the-utter absurdityiof'the icloal existence winch is depicted in its pages are interested in perusing it. The light, however, in which wo ai'o.itsked to regard it is as '.the germ of a great political reality; but, it requires-a great stretch of one's imagination aud an abandonment; of one's judgment to accept the idea that we are within measurable distance of a time when mankind will bo on an equality, when, say each individual iu a nation will have £SOO a year, or its equivalent in goods,, paid to- him by the State. Of course in this millennium the wolf will lie down with the lamb, and there are many w|io do not consider it quite safe even ypt to trust the wolf, but against this view :it,is| urged that human nature' is' changing, aiid human sympathies becoming wider and stronger, We believe, however, that this growth of human' sympathy perceptible though it way

j be is like all .other developments—- », slow and gradual process, Were #at t)« ggeds of it aowu in Galilee, nearly two yoai's ago, au'd have twenty centuries' Hewed for it to leaven the cavtb ? We believe that progress is now moro rapid than it was in former days, but tbe records of liistory go to prove tliat ;eacli step in adyatifio js slow, painful, and laborious, The people of flny country can only adopt with safety sup!) a measure of development in their government and ml condition as they aro fitted to twelve,. .lii.many States of Europe for esaniple the people would bo unfitted for,accepting the comparatively free inatitutioiiß of the United States. If wb wont further afield into the wilds of Africa and granted free institutions to the subjects of King Dahomey, in a very short time there wouldbenoneof them left to enjoy their newly-acquired privileges,.' When ' people reach' a higher stage of development it will necessarily: acquire 'fuller privileges, and leading fltri«ga<neccssary iri the |3Bt will : bo done q\yay with, After

remains tbafc ifc is a folly to indulge in idle dwiims*pf a Utopia, but thatliaoli tries ttf raise himself ; without treading' 'dowii his follow; man, but; on the contrary belpiogl: when .oomsion^offers." a "a^Btyle" actually" helps to briiig about a'distant millennium,