ABSTRACT
The central concerns of Past and Present are announced in its opening sentence deploring the 'condition of England'. Thomas Carlyle's views on race, which was at this time the subject of a growing body of scientific, social, and popular investigation, were neither unusual nor systematic. The contrast between empire and metropole, together with its racial context, is at play in 'Permanence', in which Carlyle opposes the Haiti Duke of Marmalade and the freed slave Quashee to Cedric the Saxon and the swineherd Gurth. Carlyle connects the origin of the nation to the need for good government. In addition to linking blacks with anarchy, Carlyle associates Africa with the creation of language divorced from practical action. Carlyle advocates universal access to education, but he does not believe that education alone will turn the poor into civilised, productive workers.
