cities are from those above them; how completely they are
inaccessible to motives which act upon ordinary human beings, and how
deeply they are sunk beyond ray of sun or stars, immersed in the
selfishness naturally begotten of their incessant struggle for
existence and the incessant warfare with society. It was an awful
thought to me, ever present on those Sundays, and haunting me at
other times, that men, women, and children were living in such
brutish degradation, and that as they died others would take their
place. Our civilisation seemed nothing but a thin film or crust
lying over a volcanic pit, and I often wondered whether some day the
pit would not break up through it and destroy us all. Great towns
are answerable for the creation and maintenance of the masses of
dark, impenetrable, subterranean blackguardism, with which we became
acquainted. The filthy gloom of the sky, the dirt of the street, the
absence of fresh air, the herding of the poor into huge districts
which cannot be opened up by those who would do good, are tremendous
agencies of corruption which are active at such a rate that it is
appalling to reflect what our future will be if the accumulation of
population be not checked. To stand face to face with the insoluble
is not pleasant. A man will do anything rather than confess it is
beyond him. He will create pleasant fictions, and fancy a possible
escape here and there, but this problem of Drury Lane was round and
hard like a ball of adamant. The only thing I could do was faintly,
and I was about to say stupidly, hope--for I had no rational,
tangible grounds for hoping--that some force of which we are not now
aware might some day develop itself which will be able to resist and
remove the pressure which sweeps and crushes into a hell, sealed from
the upper air, millions of human souls every year in one quarter of
the globe alone.