of Nazareth, a Wiclif, a John Wesley, a Darwin, a Tolstoy, or a Henry
George; and it is in the comparatively unknown Gerrard Winstanley that
we shall find the master-mind, the inspirer and director, of the Digger
Movement. As Gardiner well says, "It is not only by the immediate
accomplishment of its aim that the value of honest endeavour is to be
tested." And the reader's interest in our work may be quickened if we so
far forestall the pages that are to follow as to indicate that not only
were Winstanley's earlier theological writings the source whence the
early Quakers, or the Children of Light, as they at first called
themselves, drew many of their most characteristic tenets and doctrines,
but that the fundamental principles which inspired and animated his
political writings were in all respects identical with those that during
the past quarter of a century have been so honourably associated with
the name of Henry George. We are not here called upon to pronounce
judgement on these principles; but in passing we shall endeavour to
point out how far the demands and doctrines of the Land Reformers of the
Seventeenth Century, as revealed in Winstanley's writings, coincide with
those of their successors in the Twentieth Century. In all cases we
shall, as far as possible, let Gerrard Winstanley speak for himself.


FOOTNOTES:

[34:1] _Clarke Papers_, vol. ii. p. 209. Bulstrode Whitelocke, then
already a member of the Council of State, in his _Memorial of English
Affairs_ (p. 396), under date April 17th, 1649, has an entry referring
to and summarising this letter.

[34:2] That is to say, a week last Sunday, or last Sunday week.