There are
other elements in life besides those to which he called
attention--elements very definite and not at all austere--and they too
have a place in the universe and a claim upon our acceptance. Many of
these are in every way more desirable to the type of mind that rebelled
than the aspects of the universe on which Carlyle had insisted, and so
they went out freely among these neglected elements, set them over
against his kind of idealism, and became themselves idealists of other
sorts.
Matthew Arnold, the apostle of culture, found his idealism in the purely
mental region. Rossetti was the idealist of the heart, with its whole
world of emotions, and that subtle and far-reaching inter-play between
soul and body for which Carlyle had always made too little allowance.
Mr. H.G. Wells and Mr. Bernard Shaw, proclaiming themselves idealists of
the social order, have been reaching conclusions and teaching doctrines
at which Carlyle would have stood aghast. These are but random examples,
but they are one in this, that each has protested against that
one-sidedness for which Carlyle stood. Yet each is a one-sided protest,
and falls again into the snare of setting the affections upon things
which are not eternal, and so wedding man to the green earth again.
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