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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18788-8.txt b/18788-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d393123 --- /dev/null +++ b/18788-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4252 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Post-Prandial Philosophy, by Grant Allen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Post-Prandial Philosophy + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: July 8, 2006 [EBook #18788] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POST-PRANDIAL PHILOSOPHY *** + + + + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +POST-PRANDIAL +PHILOSOPHY + + +By GRANT ALLEN + + +AUTHOR OF +"THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE," ETC. + +LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS +1894 + + + + +PREFACE + + +These Essays appeared originally in _The Westminster Gazette_, and have +only been so far modified here as is necessary for purposes of volume +publication. They aim at being suggestive rather than exhaustive: I +shall be satisfied if I have provoked thought without following out each +train to a logical conclusion. Most of the Essays are just what they +pretend to be--crystallisations into writing of ideas suggested in +familiar conversation. + +G. A. + +Hind Head, _March_ 1894. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + + PAGE + + I. THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE AMONG LANGUAGES 1 + + II. IN THE MATTER OF ARISTOCRACY 9 + + III. SCIENCE IN EDUCATION 18 + + IV. THE THEORY OF SCAPEGOATS 27 + + V. AMERICAN DUCHESSES 35 + + VI. IS ENGLAND PLAYED OUT? 44 + + VII. THE GAME AND THE RULES 53 + + VIII. THE RÔLE OF PROPHET 61 + + IX. THE ROMANCE OF THE CLASH OF RACES 70 + + X. THE MONOPOLIST INSTINCTS 79 + + XI. "MERE AMATEURS" 87 + + XII. A SQUALID VILLAGE 95 + + XIII. CONCERNING ZEITGEIST 104 + + XIV. THE DECLINE OF MARRIAGE 112 + + XV. EYE _versus_ EAR 122 + + XVI. THE POLITICAL PUPA 130 + + XVII. ON THE CASINO TERRACE 138 + +XVIII. THE CELTIC FRINGE 147 + + XIX. IMAGINATION AND RADICALS 156 + + XX. ABOUT ABROAD 165 + + XXI. WHY ENGLAND IS BEAUTIFUL 173 + + XXII. ANENT ART PRODUCTION 182 + +XXIII. A GLIMPSE INTO UTOPIA 190 + + XXIV. OF SECOND CHAMBERS 199 + + XXV. A POINT OF CRITICISM 207 + + + + +POST-PRANDIAL PHILOSOPHY + + + + +I. + +_THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE AMONG +LANGUAGES._ + + +A distinguished Positivist friend of mine, who is in most matters a +practical man of the world, astonished me greatly the other day at +Venice, by the grave remark that Italian was destined to be the language +of the future. I found on inquiry he had inherited the notion direct +from Auguste Comte, who justified it on the purely sentimental and +unpractical ground that the tongue of Dante had never yet been +associated with any great national defeat or disgrace. The idea +surprised me not a little; because it displays such a profound +misconception of what language is, and why people use it. The speech of +the world will not be decided on mere grounds of sentiment: the tongue +that survives will not survive because it is so admirably adapted for +the manufacture of rhymes or epigrams. Stern need compels. Frenchmen and +Germans, in congress assembled, and looking about them for a means of +intercommunication, might indeed agree to accept Italian then and there +as an international compromise. But congresses don't make or unmake the +habits of everyday life; and the growth or spread of a language is a +thing as much beyond our deliberate human control as the rise or fall of +the barometer. + +My friend's remark, however, set me thinking and watching what are +really the languages now gaining and spreading over the civilised world; +it set me speculating what will be the outcome of this gain and spread +in another half century. And the results are these: Vastly the most +growing and absorbing of all languages at the present moment is the +English, which is almost everywhere swallowing up the overflow of +German, Scandinavian, Dutch, and Russian. Next to it, probably, in point +of vitality, comes Spanish, which is swallowing up the overflow of +French, Italian, and the other Latin races. Third, perhaps, ranks +Russian, destined to become in time the spoken tongue of a vast tract in +Northern and Central Asia. Among non-European languages, three seem to +be gaining fast: Chinese, Malay, Arabic. Of the doomed tongues, on the +other hand, the most hopeless is French, which is losing all round; +while Italian, German, and Dutch are either quite at a standstill or +slightly retrograding. The world is now round. By the middle of the +twentieth century, in all probability, English will be its dominant +speech; and the English-speaking peoples, a heterogeneous conglomerate +of all nationalities, will control between them the destinies of +mankind. Spanish will be the language of half the populous southern +hemisphere. Russian will spread over a moiety of Asia. Chinese, Malay, +Arabic, will divide among themselves the less civilised parts of Africa +and the East. But French, German, and Italian will be insignificant and +dwindling European dialects, as numerically unimportant as Flemish or +Danish in our own day. + +And why? Not because Shakespeare wrote in English, but because the +English language has already got a firm hold of all those portions of +the earth's surface which are most absorbing the overflow of European +populations. Germans and Scandinavians and Russians emigrate by the +thousand now to all parts of the United States and the north-west of +Canada. In the first generation they may still retain their ancestral +speech; but their children have all to learn English. In Australia and +New Zealand the same thing is happening. In South Africa Dutch had got a +footing, it is true; but it is fast losing it. The newcomers learn +English, and though the elder Boers stick with Boer conservatism to +their native tongue, young Piet and young Paul find it pays them better +to know and speak the language of commerce--the language of Cape Town, +of Kimberley, of the future. The reason is the same throughout. Whenever +two tongues come to be spoken in the same area one of them is sure to be +more useful in business than the other. Every French-Canadian who wishes +to do things on a large scale is obliged to speak English. So is the +Creole in Louisiana; so earlier were the Knickerbocker Dutch in New +York. Once let English get in, and it beats all competing languages +fairly out of the field in a couple of generations. + +Like influences favour Spanish in South America and elsewhere. English +has annexed most of North America, Australia, South Africa, the Pacific; +Spanish has annexed South America, Central America, the Philippines, +Cuba, and a few other places. For the most part these areas are less +suited than the English-speaking districts for colonisation by North +Europeans; but they absorb a large number of Italians and other +Mediterranean races, who all learn Spanish in the second generation. As +to the other dominant languages, the points in their favour are +different. Conquest and administrative needs are spreading Russian over +the steppes of Asia; the Arab merchant and the growth of Mahommedanism +are importing Arabic far into the heart of Africa; the Chinaman is +carrying his own monosyllables with him to California, Australia, +Singapore. These tongues in future will divide the world between them. + +The German who leaves Germany becomes an Anglo-American. The Italian who +leaves Italy becomes a Spanish-American. + +There is another and still more striking way of looking at the rapid +increase of English. No other language will carry you through so many +ports in the world. It suffices for London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast, +Southampton, Cardiff; for New York, Boston, Montreal, Charleston, New +Orleans, San Francisco; for Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Hong Kong, +Yokohama, Honolulu; for Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Kurrachi, Singapore, +Colombo, Cape Town, Mauritius. Spanish with Cadiz, Barcelona, Havana, +Callao, Valparaiso, cannot touch that record; nor can French with +Marseilles, Bordeaux, Havre, Algiers, Antwerp, Tahiti. The most +commercially useful language in the world, thus widely diffused in so +many great mercantile and shipping centres, is certain to win in the +struggle for existence among the tongues of the future. + +The old Mediterranean civilisation teaches us a useful lesson in this +respect. Two languages dominated the Mediterranean basin. The East spoke +Greek, not because Plato and Æschylus spoke Greek, but because Greek was +the tongue of the great commercial centres--of Athens, Syracuse, +Alexandria, Antioch, Byzantium. The West spoke Latin, not because +Catullus and Virgil spoke Latin, but because Latin was the +administrative tongue, the tongue of Rome, of Italy, and later of Gaul, +of Spain, of the great towns in Dacia, Pannonia, Britain. Whoever wanted +to do anything on the big scale then, had to speak Greek or Latin; so +much so that the native languages of Gaul and Spain died utterly out, +and Latin dialects are now the spoken tongue in all southern Europe. In +our own time, again, educated Hindoos from different parts of India have +to use English as a means of intercommunication; and native merchants +must write their business correspondence with distant houses in English. +To put an extreme contrast: in the last century French was spoken by far +more people than English; at the present day French is only just keeping +up its numbers in France, is losing in Canada and the United States, is +not advancing to any extent in Africa. English is spoken by a hundred +million people in Europe and America; is over-running Africa; has +annexed Australasia and the Pacific Isles; has ousted, or is ousting, +Dutch at the Cape, French in Louisiana, even Spanish itself in Florida, +California, New Mexico. In Egyptian mud villages, the aspiring Copt, who +once learnt French, now learns English. In Scandinavia, our tongue gains +ground daily. Everywhere in the world it takes the lead among the +European languages, and by the middle of the next century will no doubt +be spoken over half the globe by a cosmopolitan mass of five hundred +million people. + +And all on purely Darwinian principles! It is the best adapted tongue, +and therefore it survives in the struggle for existence. It is the +easiest to learn, at least orally. It has got rid of the effete rubbish +of genders; simplified immensely its declensions and conjugations; +thrown overboard most of the nonsensical ballast we know as grammar. It +is only weighted now by its grotesque and ridiculous spelling--one of +the absurdest among all the absurd English attempts at compromise. The +pressure of the newer speakers will compel it to make jetsam of that +lumber also; and then the tongue of Shelley and Newton will march onward +unopposed to the conquest of humanity. + +I pen these remarks, I hope, "without prejudice." Patriotism is a vulgar +vice of which I have never been guilty. + + + + +II. + +_IN THE MATTER OF ARISTOCRACY._ + + +Aristocracies, as a rule, all the world over, consist, and have always +consisted, of barbaric conquerors or their descendants, who remain to +the last, on the average of instances, at a lower grade of civilisation +and morals than the democracy they live among. + +I know this view is to some extent opposed to the common ideas of people +at large (and especially of that particular European people which +"dearly loves a lord") as to the relative position of aristocracies and +democracies in the sliding scale of human development. There is a common +though wholly unfounded belief knocking about the world, that the +aristocrat is better in intelligence, in culture, in arts, in manners, +than the ordinary plebeian. The fact is, being, like all barbarians, a +boastful creature, he has gone on so long asserting his own profound +superiority by birth to the world around him--a superiority as of fine +porcelain to common clay--that the world around him has at last actually +begun to accept him at his own valuation. Most English people in +particular think that a lord is born a better judge of pictures and +wines and books and deportment than the human average of us. But history +shows us the exact opposite. It is a plain historical fact, provable by +simple enumeration, that almost all the aristocracies the world has ever +known have taken their rise in the conquest of civilised and cultivated +races by barbaric invaders; and that the barbaric invaders have seldom +or never learned the practical arts and handicrafts which are the +civilising element in the life of the conquered people around them. + +To begin with the aristocracies best known to most of us, the noble +families of modern and mediæval Europe sprang, as a whole, from the +Teutonic invasion of the Roman Empire. In Italy, it was the Lombards and +the Goths who formed the bulk of the great ruling families; all the +well-known aristocratic names of mediæval Italy are without exception +Teutonic. In Gaul it was the rude Frank who gave the aristocratic +element to the mixed nationality, while it was the civilised and +cultivated Romano-Celtic provincial who became, by fate, the mere +_roturier_. The great revolution, it has been well said, was, ethnically +speaking, nothing more than the revolt of the Celtic against the +Teutonic fraction; and, one might add also, the revolt of the civilised +Romanised serf against the barbaric _seigneur_. In Spain, the hidalgo is +just the _hi d'al Go_, the son of the Goth, the descendant of those rude +Visigothic conquerors who broke down the old civilisation of Iberian and +Romanised Hispania. And so on throughout. All over Europe, if you care +to look close, you will find the aristocrat was the son of the intrusive +barbarian; the democrat was the son of the old civilised and educated +autochthonous people. + +It is just the same elsewhere, wherever we turn. Take Greece, for +example. Its most aristocratic state was undoubtedly Sparta, where a +handful of essentially barbaric Dorians held in check a much larger and +Helotised population of higher original civilisation. Take the East: the +Persian was a wild mountain adventurer who imposed himself as an +aristocrat upon the far more cultivated Babylonian, Assyrian, and +Egyptian. The same sort of thing had happened earlier in time in +Babylonia and Assyria themselves, where barbaric conquerors had +similarly imposed themselves upon the first known historical +civilisations. Take India under the Moguls, once more; the aristocracy +of the time consisted of the rude Mahommedan Tartar, who lorded it over +the ancient enchorial culture of Rajpoot and Brahmin. Take China: the +same thing over again--a Tartar horde imposing its savage rule over the +most ancient civilised people of Asia. Take England: its aristocracy at +different times has consisted of the various barbaric invaders, first +the Anglo-Saxon (if I must use that hateful and misleading word)--a +pirate from Sleswick; then the Dane, another pirate from Denmark direct; +then the Norman, a yet younger Danish pirate, with a thin veneer of +early French culture, who came over from Normandy to better himself +after just two generations of Christian apprenticeship. Go where you +will, it matters not where you look; from the Aztec in Mexico to the +Turk at Constantinople or the Arab in North Africa, the aristocrat +belongs invariably to a lower race than the civilised people whom he has +conquered and subjugated. + +"That may be true, perhaps," you object, "as to the remote historical +origin of aristocracies; but surely the aristocrat of later generations +has acquired all the science, all the art, all the polish of the people +he lives amongst. He is the flower of their civilisation." Don't you +believe it! There isn't a word of truth in it. From first to last the +aristocrat remains, what Matthew Arnold so justly called him, a +barbarian. I often wonder, indeed, whether Arnold himself really +recognised the literal and actual truth of his own brilliant +generalisation. For the aristocratic ideas and the aristocratic pursuits +remain to the very end essentially barbaric. The "gentleman" never soils +his high-born hands with dirty work; in other words, he holds himself +severely aloof from the trades and handicrafts which constitute +civilisation. The arts that train and educate hand, eye, and brain he +ignorantly despises. In the early middle ages he did not even condescend +to read and write, those inferior accomplishments being badges of +serfdom. If you look close at the "occupations of a gentleman" in the +present day, you will find they are all of purely barbaric character. +They descend to us direct from the semi-savage invaders who overthrew +the structure of the Roman empire, and replaced its civilised +organisation by the military and barbaric system of feudalism. The +"gentleman" is above all things a fighter, a hunter, a fisher--he +preserves the three simplest and commonest barbaric functions. He is +_not_ a practiser of any civilised or civilising art--a craftsman, a +maker, a worker in metal, in stone, in textile fabrics, in pottery. +These are the things that constitute civilisation; but the aristocrat +does none of them; in the famous words of one who now loves to mix with +English gentlemen, "he toils not, neither does he spin." The things he +_may_ do are, to fight by sea and land, like his ancestor the Goth and +his ancestor the Viking; to slay pheasant and partridge, like his +predatory forefathers; to fish for salmon in the Highlands; to hunt the +fox, to sail the yacht, to scour the earth in search of great +game--lions, elephants, buffalo. His one task is to kill--either his +kind or his quarry. + +Observe, too, the essentially barbaric nature of the gentleman's +home--his trappings, his distinctive marks, his surroundings, his +titles. He lives by choice in the wildest country, like his skin-clad +ancestors, demanding only that there be game and foxes and fish for his +delectation. He loves the moors, the wolds, the fens, the braes, the +Highlands, not as the painter, the naturalist, or the searcher after +beauty of scenery loves them--for the sake of their wild life, their +heather and bracken, their fresh keen air, their boundless horizon--but +for the sake of the thoroughly barbarous existence he and his dogs and +his gillies can lead in them. The fact is, neither he nor his ancestors +have ever been really civilised. Barbarians in the midst of an +industrial community, they have lived their own life of slaying and +playing, untouched by the culture of the world below them. Knights in +the middle ages, squires in the eighteenth century, they have never +received a tincture of the civilising arts and crafts and industries; +they have fought and fished and hunted in uninterrupted succession since +the days when wild in woods the noble savage ran, to the days when they +pay extravagant rents for Scottish grouse moors. Their very titles are +barbaric and military--knight and earl and marquis and duke, early +crystallised names for leaders in war or protectors of the frontier. +Their crests and coats of arms are but the totems of their savage +predecessors, afterwards utilised by mediæval blacksmiths as +distinguishing marks for the summit of a helmet. They decorate their +halls with savage trophies of the chase, like the Zulu or the Red +Indian; they hang up captured arms and looted Chinese jars from the +Summer Palace in their semi-civilised drawing-rooms. They love to be +surrounded by grooms and gamekeepers and other barbaric retainers; they +pass their lives in the midst of serfs; their views about the position +and rights of women--especially the women of the "lower orders"--are +frankly African. They share the sentiments of Achilles as to the +individuality of Chryseis and Briseis. + +Such is the actual aristocrat, as we now behold him. Thus, living his +own barbarous life in the midst of a civilised community of workers and +artists and thinkers and craftsmen, with whom he seldom mingles, and +with whom he has nothing in common, this chartered relic of worse days +preserves from first to last many painful traits of the low moral and +social ideas of his ancestors, from which he has never varied. He +represents most of all, in the modern world, the surviving savage. His +love of gewgaws, of titles, of uniform, of dress, of feathers, of +decorations, of Highland kilts, and stars and garters, is but one +external symbol of his lower grade of mental and moral status. All over +Europe, the truly civilised classes have gone on progressing by the +practice of peaceful arts from generation to generation; but the +aristocrat has stood still at the same half-savage level, a hunter and +fighter, an orgiastic roysterer, a killer of wild boars and wearer of +absurd mediæval costumes, too childish for the civilised and cultivated +commoner. + +Government by aristocrats is thus government by the mentally and morally +inferior. And yet--a Bill for giving at last some scant measure of +self-government to persecuted Ireland has to run the gauntlet, in our +nineteenth-century England, of an irresponsible House of hereditary +barbarians! + + + + +III. + +_SCIENCE IN EDUCATION._ + + +I mean what I say: science in education, not education in science. + +It is the last of these that all the scientific men of England have so +long been fighting for. And a very good thing it is in its way, and I +hope they may get as much as they want of it. But compared to the +importance of science in education, education in science is a matter of +very small national moment. + +The difference between the two is by no means a case of tweedledum and +tweedledee. Education in science means the systematic teaching of +science so as to train up boys to be scientific men. Now scientific men +are exceedingly useful members of a community; and so are engineers, and +bakers, and blacksmiths, and artists, and chimney-sweeps. But we can't +all be bakers, and we can't all be painters in water-colours. There is a +dim West Country legend to the effect that the inhabitants of the Scilly +Isles eke out a precarious livelihood by taking in one another's +washing. As a matter of practical political economy, such a source of +income is worse than precarious--it's frankly impossible. "It takes all +sorts to make a world." A community entirely composed of scientific men +would fail to feed itself, clothe itself, house itself, and keep itself +supplied with amusing light literature. In one word, education in +science produces specialists; and specialists, though most useful and +valuable persons in their proper place, are no more the staple of a +civilised community than engine-drivers or ballet-dancers. + +What the world at large really needs, and will one day get, is not this, +but due recognition of the true value of science in education. We don't +all want to be made into first-class anatomists like Owen, still less +into first-class practical surgeons, like Sir Henry Thompson. But what +we do all want is a competent general knowledge (amongst other things) +of anatomy at large, and especially of human anatomy; of physiology at +large, and especially of human physiology. We don't all want to be +analytical chemists: but what we do all want is to know as much about +oxygen and carbon as will enable us to understand the commonest +phenomena of combustion, of chemical combination, of animal or vegetable +life. We don't all want to be zoologists, and botanists of the type who +put their names after "critical species:" but what we do all want to +know is as much about plants and animals as will enable us to walk +through life intelligently, and to understand the meaning of the things +that surround us. We want, in one word, a general acquaintance with the +_results_ rather than with the _methods_ of science. + +"In short," says the specialist, with his familiar sneer, "you want a +smattering." + +Well, yes, dear Sir Smelfungus, if it gives you pleasure to put it +so--just that; a smattering, an all-round smattering. But remember that +in this matter the man of science is always influenced by ideas derived +from his own pursuits as specialist. He is for ever thinking what sort +of education will produce more specialists in future; and as a rule he +is thinking what sort of education will produce men capable in future of +advancing science. Now to advance science, to discover new snails, or +invent new ethyl compounds, is not and cannot be the main object of the +mass of humanity. What the mass wants is just unspecialised +knowledge--the kind of knowledge that enables men to get comfortably and +creditably and profitably through life, to meet emergencies as they +rise, to know their way through the world, to use their faculties in all +circumstances to the best advantage. And for this purpose what is wanted +is, not the methods, but the results of science. + +One science, and one only, is rationally taught in our schools at +present. I mean geography. And the example of geography is so eminently +useful for illustrating the difference I am trying to point out, that I +will venture to dwell upon it for a moment in passing. It is good for us +all to know that the world is round, without its being necessary for +every one of us to follow in detail the intricate reasoning by which +that result has been arrived at. It is good for us all to know the +position of New York and Rio and Calcutta on the map, without its being +necessary for us to understand, far less to work out for ourselves, the +observations and calculations which fixed their latitude and longitude. +Knowledge of the map is a good thing in itself, though it is a very +different thing indeed from the technical knowledge which enables a man +to make a chart of an unknown region, or to explore and survey it. +Furthermore, it is a form of knowledge far more generally useful. A fair +acquaintance with the results embodied in the atlas, in the gazetteer, +in Baedeker, and in Bradshaw, is much oftener useful to us on our way +through the world than a special acquaintance with the methods of +map-making. It would be absurd to say that because a man is not going to +be a Stanley or a Nansen, therefore it is no good for him to learn +geography. It would be absurd to say that unless he learned geography in +accordance with its methods instead of its results, he could have but a +smattering, and that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. A little +knowledge of the position of New York is indeed a dangerous thing, if a +man uses it to navigate a Cunard vessel across the Atlantic. But the +absence of the smattering is a much more dangerous and fatal thing if +the man wishes to do business with the Argentine and the Transvaal, or +to enter into practical relations of any sort with anybody outside his +own parish. The results of geography are useful and valuable in +themselves, quite apart from the methods employed in obtaining them. + +It is just the same with all the other sciences. There is nothing occult +or mysterious about them. No just cause or impediment exists why we +should insist on being ignorant of the orbits of the planets because we +cannot ourselves make the calculations for determining them; no reason +why we should insist on being ignorant of the classification of plants +and animals because we don't feel able ourselves to embark on anatomical +researches which would justify us in coming to original conclusions +about them. I know the mass of scientific opinion has always gone the +other way; but then scientific opinion means only the opinion of men of +science, who are themselves specialists, and who think most of the +education needed to make men specialists, not of the education needed to +fit them for the general exigencies and emergencies of life. We don't +want authorities on the Cucurbitaceæ, but well-informed citizens. +Professor Huxley is not our best guide in these matters, but Mr. Herbert +Spencer, who long ago, in his book on Education, sketched out a radical +programme of instruction in that knowledge which is of most worth, such +as no country, no college, no school in Europe has ever yet been bold +enough to put into practice. + +What common sense really demands, then, is education in the main results +of all the sciences--a knowledge of what is known, not necessarily a +knowledge of each successive step by which men came to know it. At +present, of course, in all our schools in England there is no systematic +teaching of knowledge at all; what replaces it is a teaching of the +facts of language, and for the most part of useless facts, or even of +exploded fictions. Our public schools, especially (by which phrase we +never mean real public schools like the board schools at all, but merely +schools for the upper and the middle classes) are in their existing +stage primarily great gymnasiums--very good things, too, in their way, +against which I have not a word of blame; and, secondarily, places for +imparting a sham and imperfect knowledge of some few philological facts +about two extinct languages. Pupils get a smattering of Homer and +Cicero. That is literally all the equipment for life that the cleverest +and most industrious boys can ever take away from them. The sillier or +idler don't take away even that. As to the "mental training" argument, +so often trotted out, it is childish enough not to be worth answering. +Which is most practically useful to us in life--knowledge of Latin +grammar or knowledge of ourselves and the world we live in, physical, +social, moral? That is the question. + +The truth is, schoolmastering in Britain has become a vast vested +interest in the hands of men who have nothing to teach us. They try to +bolster up their vicious system by such artificial arguments as the +"mental training" fallacy. Forced to admit the utter uselessness of the +pretended knowledge they impart, they fall back upon the plea of its +supposed occult value as intellectual discipline. They say in +effect:--"This sawdust we offer you contains no food, we know: but then +see how it strengthens the jaws to chew it!" Besides, look at our +results! The typical John Bull! pig-headed, ignorant, brutal. Are we +really such immense successes ourselves that we must needs perpetuate +the mould that warped us? + +The one fatal charge brought against the public school system is that +"after all, it turns out English gentlemen!" + + + + +IV. + +_THE THEORY OF SCAPEGOATS._ + + +"Alas, how easily things go wrong!" says Dr. George MacDonald. And all +the world over, when things do go wrong, the natural and instinctive +desire of the human animal is--to find a scapegoat. When the great +French nation in the lump embarks its capital in a hopeless scheme for +cutting a canal through the Isthmus of Panama, and then finds out too +late that Nature has imposed insuperable barriers to its completion on +the projected scale--what does the great French nation do, in its +collective wisdom, but turn round at once to rend the directors? It +cries, "A Mazas!" just as in '71 it cried "Bazaine à la lanterne!" I +don't mean to say the directors don't deserve all they have got or ever +will get, and perhaps more also; I don't mean to deny corruption +extraordinary in many high places; as a rule the worst that anybody +alleges about anything is only a part of what might easily be alleged if +we were all in the secret. Which of us, indeed, would 'scape whipping? +But what I do mean is, that we should never have heard of Reinach or +Herz, of the corruption and peculation, at all if things had gone well. +It is the crash that brought them out. The nation wants a scapegoat. +"Ain't nobody to be whopped for this 'ere?" asked Mr. Sam Weller on a +critical occasion. The question embodies the universal impulse of +humanity. + +Tracing the feeling back to its origin, it seems due to this: minds of +the lower order can never see anything go wrong without experiencing a +certain sense of resentment; and resentment, by its very nature, desires +to vent itself upon some living and sentient creature, by preference a +fellow human being. When the child, running too fast, falls and hurts +itself, it gets instantly angry. "Naughty ground to hurt baby!" says the +nurse: "Baby hit it and hurt it." And baby promptly hits it back, with +vicious little fist, feeling every desire to revenge itself. By-and-by, +when baby grows older and learns that the ground can't feel to speak of, +he wants to put the blame upon somebody else, in order to have an object +to expend his rage upon. "You pushed me down!" he says to his playmate, +and straightway proceeds to punch his playmate's head for it--not +because he really believes the playmate did it, but because he feels he +_must_ have some outlet for his resentment. When once resentment is +roused, it will expend its force on anything that turns up handy, as the +man who has quarrelled with his wife about a question of a bonnet, will +kick his dog for trying to follow him to the club as he leaves her. + +The mob, enraged at the death of Cæsar, meets Cinna the poet in the +streets of Rome. "Your name, sir?" inquires the Third Citizen. "Truly, +my name is Cinna," says the unsuspecting author. "Tear him to pieces!" +cries the mob; "he's a conspirator!" "I am Cinna the poet," pleads the +unhappy man; "I am not Cinna the conspirator!" But the mob does not heed +such delicate distinctions at such a moment. "Tear him for his bad +verses!" it cries impartially. "Tear him for his bad verses!" + +Whatever sort of misfortune falls upon persons of the lower order of +intelligence is always met in the same spirit. Especially is this the +case with the deaths of relatives. Fools who have lost a friend +invariably blame somebody for his fatal illness. To hear many people +talk, you would suppose they were unaware of the familiar proposition +that all men are mortal (including women); you might imagine they +thought an ordinary human constitution was calculated to survive nine +hundred and ninety-nine years unless some evil-disposed person or +persons took the trouble beforehand to waylay and destroy it. "My poor +father was eighty-seven when he died; and he would have been alive still +if it weren't for that nasty Mrs. Jones: she put him into a pair of damp +sheets." Or, "My husband would never have caught the cold that killed +him, if that horrid man Brown hadn't kept him waiting so long in the +carriage at the street corner." The doctor has to bear the brunt of most +such complaints; indeed, it is calculated by an eminent statistician +(who desires his name to remain unpublished) that eighty-three per cent. +of the deaths in Great Britain might easily have been averted if the +patient had only been treated in various distinct ways by all the +members of his family, and if that foolish Dr. Squills hadn't so grossly +mistaken and mistreated his malady. + +The fact is, the death is regarded as a misfortune, and somebody must be +blamed for it. Heaven has provided scapegoats. The doctor and the +hostile female members of the family are always there--laid on, as it +were, for the express purpose. + +With us in modern Europe, resentment in such cases seldom goes further +than vague verbal outbursts of temper. We accuse Mrs. Jones of +misdemeanours with damp sheets; but we don't get so far as to accuse her +of tricks with strychnine. In the Middle Ages, however, the pursuit of +the scapegoat ran a vast deal further. When any great one died--a Black +Prince or a Dauphin--it was always assumed on all hands that he must +have been poisoned. True, poisoning may then have been a trifle more +frequent; certainly the means of detecting it were far less advanced +than in the days of Tidy and Lauder Brunton. Still, people must often +have died natural deaths even in the Middle Ages--though nobody believed +it. All the world began to speculate what Jane Shore could have poisoned +them. A little earlier, again, it was not the poisoner that was looked +for, but his predecessor, the sorcerer. Whoever fell ill, somebody had +bewitched him. Were the cattle diseased? Then search for the evil eye. +Did the cows yield no milk? Some neighbour, doubtless, knew the reason +only too well, and could be forced to confess it by liberal use of the +thumb-screw and the ducking-stool. No misfortune was regarded as due to +natural causes; for in their philosophy there were no such things as +natural causes at all; whatever ill-luck came, somebody had contrived +it; so you had always your scapegoat ready to hand to punish. The +Athenians, indeed, kept a small collection of public scapegoats always +in stock, waiting to be sacrificed at a moment's notice. + +More even than that. Go one step further back, and you will find that +man in his early stages has no conception of such a thing as natural +death in any form. He doesn't really know that the human organism is +wound up like a clock to run at best for so many years, or months, or +hours, and that even if nothing unexpected happens to cut short its +course prematurely, it can only run out its allotted period. Within his +own experience, almost all the deaths that occur are violent deaths, and +have been brought about by human agency or by the attacks of wild +beasts. There you have a cause with whose action and operation the +savage is personally familiar; and it is the only one he believes in. +Even old age is in his eyes no direct cause of death; for when his +relations grow old, he considerately clubs them, to put them out of +their misery. When, therefore, he sees his neighbour struck down before +his face by some invisible power, and writhing with pain as though +unseen snakes and tigers were rending him, what should he naturally +conclude save that demon or witch or wizard is at work? and if he cares +about the matter at all, what should he do save endeavour to find the +culprit out and inflict condign punishment? In savage states, whenever +anything untoward happens to the king or chief, it is the business of +the witch-finder to disclose the wrong-doer; and sooner or later, you +may be sure, "somebody gets whopped for it." Whopping in Dahomey means +wholesale decapitation. + +Now, is it not a direct survival from this primitive state of mind that +entails upon us all the desire to find a scapegoat? Our ancestors really +believed there was always somebody to blame--man, witch, or spirit--if +only you could find him; and though we ourselves have mostly got beyond +that stage, yet the habit it engendered in our race remains ingrained in +the nervous system, so that none but a few of the naturally highest and +most civilised dispositions have really outgrown it. Most people still +think there is somebody to blame for every human misfortune. "Who fills +the butcher's shops with large blue flies?" asked the poet of the +Regency. He set it down to "the Corsican ogre." For the Tory Englishmen +of the present day it is Mr. Gladstone who is most often and most +popularly envisaged as the author of all evil. For the Pope, it is the +Freemasons. There are just a few men here and there in the world who can +see that when misfortunes come, circumstances, or nature, or (hardest of +all) we ourselves have brought them. The common human instinct is still +to get into a rage, and look round to discover whether there's any other +fellow standing about unobserved, whose head we can safely undertake to +punch for it. + +"It's all the fault of those confounded paid agitators." + + + + +V. + +_AMERICAN DUCHESSES._ + + +Every American woman is by birth a duchess. + +There, you see, I have taken you in. When you saw the heading, "American +Duchesses," you thought I was going to purvey some piquant scandal about +high-placed ladies; and you straightway began to read my essay. That +shows I rightly interpreted your human nature. There's a deal of human +nature flying about unrecognised. Yet when I said duchesses, I actually +meant it. For the American woman is the only real aristocrat now living +in America. + +These remarks are forced upon me by a brilliant afternoon on the +Promenade des Anglais. All Nice is there, in its cosmopolitan butterfly +variety, flaunting itself in the sun in the very ugly dresses now in +fashion. I don't know why, but the mode of the moment consists in making +everything as exaggerated as possible, and sedulously hiding the natural +contours of the human figure. But let that pass; the day is too fine for +a man to be critical. The band is playing Mascagni's last in the Jardin +Public; the carriages are drawn up beside the palms and judas-trees that +fringe the Paillon; the _sous-officiers_ are strolling along the wall +with their red caps stuck jauntily just a trifle on one side, as though +to mow down nursemaids were the one legitimate occupation of the _brav' +militaire_. And among them all, proud, tall, disdainful, glide the +American duchesses, cold, critical, high-toned, yet ready to strike up, +should opportunity serve, appropriate acquaintance with their natural +equals, the dukes of Europe. + +"And the American dukes?"--There aren't any. "But these ladies' husbands +and fathers and brothers?"--Oh, _they're_ business men, working hard for +the duchesses in Wall Street, or on 'Change in Chicago. And that's why I +say quite seriously the American woman is the only real aristocrat now +living in America. Everybody who has seen much of Americans must have +noticed for himself how really superior American women are, on the +average, to the men of their kind. I don't mean merely that they are +better dressed, and better groomed, and better got up, and better +mannered than their brothers. I mean that they have a real superiority +in the things worth having--the things that are more excellent--in +education, culture, knowledge, taste, good feeling. And the reason is +not far to seek. They represent the only leisured class in America. They +are the one set of people from Maine to California who have time to +read, to think, to travel, to look at good pictures, to hear good music, +to mix with society that can improve and elevate them. They have read +Daudet; they have seen the Vatican. The women thus form a natural +aristocracy--the only aristocracy the country possesses. + +I am aware that in saying this I take my life in my hands. I shall be +prepared to defend myself from the infuriated Westerner with the usual +argument, which I shall carry about loaded in all its chambers in my +right-hand pocket. I am also aware that less infuriated Easterners, +choosing their own more familiar weapon, will inundate my leisure with +sardonic inquiries whether I don't consider Oliver Wendell Holmes or +Charles Eliot Norton (thus named in full) the equal in culture of the +average American woman. Well, I frankly admit these cases and thousands +like them; indeed I have had the good fortune to number among my +personal acquaintances many American gentlemen whose chivalrous breeding +would have been conspicuous (if you will believe it) even at Marlborough +House. I will also allow that in New York, in Boston, and less +abundantly in other big towns of America, men of leisure, men of +culture, and men of thought are to be found, as wide-minded and as +gentle-natured as this race of ours makes them. But that doesn't alter +the general fact that, taking them in the lump, American men stand a +step or two lower in the scale of humanity than American women. One need +hardly ask why. It is because the men are almost all immersed and +absorbed in business, while the women are fine ladies who stop at home, +and read, and see, and interest themselves widely in numberless +directions. + +The consequence is that nowhere, as a rule, does the gulf between the +sexes yawn so wide as in America. One can often observe it in the +brothers and sisters of the same family. And it runs in the opposite +direction from the gulf in Europe. With us, as a rule, the men are +better educated, and more likely to have read and seen and thought +widely, than the women. In America, the men are generally so steeped in +affairs as to be materialised and encysted; they take for the most part +a hard-headed, solid-silver view of everything, and are but little +influenced by abstract conceptions. Their horizon is bounded by the rim +of the dollar. Nay, owing to the eager desire to get a good start by +beginning life early, their education itself is generally cut short at a +younger age than their sisters'; so that, even at the outset, the girls +have often a decided superiority in knowledge and culture. Amanda reads +Paul Bourget and John Oliver Hobbes; she has some slight tincture of +Latin, Greek, and German; while Cyrus knows nothing but English and +arithmetic, the quotations for prime pork and the state of the market +for Futures. Add to this that the women are more sensitive, more +delicate, more naturally refined, as well as unspoilt by the trading +spirit, and you get the real reasons for the marked and, in some ways, +unusual superiority of the American woman. + +That, I think, in large part explains the fascination which American +women undoubtedly exercise over a considerable class of European men. In +the European man the American woman often recognises for the first time +the male of her species. Unaccustomed at home to as general a level of +culture and feeling as she finds among the educated gentlemen of Europe, +she likes their society and makes her preference felt by them. Now man +is a vain animal. You are a man yourself, and must recognise at once the +truth of the proposition. As soon as he sees a woman likes him, he +instantly returns the compliment with interest. In point of fact, he +usually falls in love with her. Of course I admit the large number of +concomitant circumstances which disturb the problem; I admit on the one +hand the tempting shekels of the Californian heiress, and on the other +hand the glamour and halo that still surround the British coronet. +Nevertheless, after making all deductions for these disturbing factors, +I submit there remains a residual phenomenon thus best interpreted. If +anybody denies it, I would ask him one question--how does it come that +so many Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Italians marry American women, while +so few Englishwomen, French women, or Italian women marry American men? +Surely the American men have also the shekels; surely it is something +even in Oregon or Montana to have inspired an honourable passion in a +Lady Elizabeth or a dowager countess. I think the true explanation is +that our men are attracted by American women, but our women are not +equally attracted by American men, and that the quality of the articles +has something to do with it. + +The American duchess, I take it, comes over to Europe, and desires +incontinently to drag the European duke at the wheels of her chariot. +And the European duke is fascinated in turn, partly by this very fact, +partly by the undeniable freshness, brightness, and delicate culture of +the American woman. For there is no burking the truth that in many +respects the American woman carries about her a peculiar charm ungranted +as yet to her European sisters. It is the charm of freedom, of ease, of +a certain external and skin-deep emancipation--an emancipation which +goes but a little way down, yet adds a quaint and piquant grace of +manner. What she conspicuously lacks, on the other hand, is essential +femininity; by which I don't mean womanliness--of that she has enough +and to spare--but the wholesome physical and instinctive qualities which +go to make up a sound and well-equipped wife and mother. The lack of +these underlying muliebral qualities more than counterbalances to not a +few Europeans the undoubted vivacity, originality, and freshness of the +American woman. She is a dainty bit of porcelain, unsuited for use; a +delicate exotic blossom, for drawing-room decoration, where many would +prefer robust fruit-bearing faculties. + +I dropped into the Opera House here at Nice the other night, and found +they were playing "Carmen"--which is always interesting. Well, you may +perhaps remember that when that creature of passion, the gipsy heroine, +wishes to gain or retain a man's affections, she throws a rose at him, +and then he cannot resist her. That is Mérimée's symbolism. Art is full +of these sacrifices of realism to reticence. Outside the opera, it is +not with roses that women enslave us. But the American duchess relies +entirely upon the use of the rose; and that is just where she fails to +interest so many of us in Europe. + +And now I think it's almost time for me to go and hunt up the material +arguments for that rusty six-shooter. + + + + +VI. + +_IS ENGLAND PLAYED OUT?_ + + +Britain is now the centre of civilisation. Will it always be so? Is our +commercial supremacy decaying or not? Have we begun to reach the period +of inevitable decline? Or is decline indeed inevitable at all? Might a +nation go on being great for ever? If so, are _we_ that nation? If not, +have we yet arrived at the moment when retrogression becomes a foregone +conclusion? These are momentous questions. Dare I try, under the mimosas +on the terrace, to resolve them? + +Most people have talked of late as though the palmy days of England were +fairly over. The down grade lies now before us. But, then, so far as I +can judge, most people have talked so ever since the morning when +Hengist and Horsa, Limited, landed from their three keels in the Isle of +Thanet. Gildas is the oldest historian of these islands, and his work +consists entirely of a good old Tory lament in the Ashmead-Bartlett +strain upon the degeneracy of the times and the proximate ruin of the +British people. Gildas wrote some fourteen hundred years ago or +thereabouts--and the country is not yet quite visibly ruined. On the +contrary, it seems to the impartial eye a more eligible place of +residence to-day than in the stirring times of the Saxon invasion. +Hence, for the last two or three centuries, I have learned to discount +these recurrent Jeremiads of Toryism, and to judge the question of our +decadence or progress by a more rational standard. + +There is only one such rational standard; and that is, to discover the +causes and conditions of our commercial prosperity, and then to inquire +whether those causes and conditions are being largely altered or +modified by the evolution of new phases. If they are, England must begin +to decline; if they are not, her day is not yet come. Home Rule she will +survive; even the Eight Hours bogey, we may presume, will not finally +dispose of her. + +Now, the centre of civilisation is not a fixed point. It has varied from +time to time, and may yet vary. In the very earliest historical period, +there was hardly such a thing as a centre of civilisation at all. There +were civilisations in Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Etruria; discrete +civilisations of the river valleys, mostly, which scarcely came into +contact with one another in their first beginnings; any more than our +own came into contact once with the civilisations of China, of Japan, of +Peru, of Mexico. As yet there was no world-commerce, no mutual +communication of empire with empire. It was in the Ægean and the eastern +basin of the Mediterranean that navigation first reached the point where +great commercial ports and free intercourse became possible. The +Phoenicians, and later the Greeks, were the pioneers of the new era. +Tyre, Athens, Miletus, Rhodes, occupied the centre of the nascent world, +and bound together Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, +Sicily, and Italy in one mercantile system. A little later, Hellas +itself enlarged, so as to include Syracuse, Byzantium, Alexandria, +Cyrene, Cumae, Neapolis, Massilia. The inland sea became "a Greek lake." +But as navigation thus slowly widened to the western Mediterranean +basin, the centre of commerce had to shift perforce from Hellas to the +mid-point of the new area. Two powerful trading towns occupied such a +mid-point in the Mediterranean--Rome and Carthage; and they were driven +to fight out the supremacy of the world (the world as it then existed) +between them. With the Roman Empire, the circle extended so as to take +in the Atlantic coasts, Gaul, Spain, and Britain, which then, however, +lay not at the centre but on the circumference of civilisation. During +the Middle Ages, when navigation began to embrace the great open sea as +well as the Mediterranean, a double centre sprang up: the Italian +Republics, Venice, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, were still the chief carriers; +but the towns of Flanders, Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp began to compete +with them, and the Atlantic states, France, England, the Low Countries, +rose into importance. By and by, as time goes on, the discoveries of +Columbus and of Vasco di Gama open out new tracks. Suddenly commerce is +revolutionised. France, England, Spain, become nearer to America and +India than Italy; so Italy declines; while the Atlantic states usurp the +first place as the centres of civilisation. + +Our own age brings fresh seas into the circle once more. It is no longer +the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, or the Indian Ocean that alone count; +the Pacific also begins to be considered. China, Japan, the Cape; Chili, +Peru, the Argentine; California, British Columbia, Australia, New +Zealand; all of them are parts of the system of to-day; civilisation is +world-wide. + +Has this change of area altered the central position of England? Not at +all, save to strengthen it. If you look at the hemisphere of greatest +land, you will see that England occupies its exact middle. Insular +herself, and therefore all made up of ports, she is nearer all ports in +the world than any other country is or ever can be. I don't say that +this insures for her perpetual dominion, such as Virgil prophesied for +the Roman Empire; but I do say it makes her a hard country to beat in +commercial competition. It accounts for Liverpool, London, Glasgow, +Newcastle; it even accounts in a way for Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, +and Sheffield. England now stands at the mathematical centre of the +practical world, and unless some Big Thing occurs to displace her, she +must continue to stand there. It takes a great deal to upset the balance +of an entire planet. + +Is anything now displacing her? Well, there is the fact that railways +are making land-carriage to-day more important relatively to +water-carriage than at any previous period. That may, perhaps, in time +shift the centre of the world from an island like England to the middle +of a great land area, like Chicago or Moscow. And, no doubt, if ever the +centre shifts at all, it will shift towards Western America, or rather +the prairie region. But, just at present, what are the greatest +commercial towns of the world? All ports to a man. And the day when it +will be otherwise, if ever, seems still far distant. Look at the newest +countries. What are their great focal points? Every one of them ports. +Melbourne and Sydney; Rio, Buenos Ayres, and Valparaiso; Cape Town, San +Francisco, Bombay, Calcutta, Yokohama. Chicago itself, the most vital +and the quickest grower among modern towns, owes half its importance to +the fact that there water-carriage down the Great Lakes begins; though +it owes the other half, I admit, to the converse fact that all the great +trans-continental railways have to bend south at that point to avoid +Lake Michigan. Still, on the whole, I think, as long as conditions +remain what they are, the commercial supremacy of England is in no +immediate danger. It is these great permanent geographical factors that +make or mar a country, not Eight Hours Bills or petty social +reconstructions. Said the Lord Mayor of London to petulant King James, +when he proposed to remove the Court to Oxford, "May it please your +Majesty not to take away the Thames also." + +"But our competitors? We are being driven out of our markets." Oh, yes, +if that's all you mean, I don't suppose we shall always be able in +everything to keep up our exclusive position. Our neighbours, who (bar +the advantage of insularity, which means a coast and a port always close +at hand) seem nearly as well situated as we are for access to the +world-markets, are beginning to wake up and take a slice of the cake +from us. Germany is manufacturing; Belgium is smelting; Antwerp is +exporting; America is occupying her own markets. But that's a very +different thing indeed from national decadence. We may have to compete a +little harder with our rivals, that's all. The Boom may be over; but the +Thames remains: the geographical facts are still unaltered. And notice +that all the time while there's been this vague talk about "bad +times"--income-tax has been steadily increasing, London has been +steadily growing, every outer and visible sign of commercial prosperity +has been steadily spreading. Have our watering-places shrunk? Have our +buildings been getting smaller and less luxurious? If Antwerp has grown, +how about Hull and Cardiff? "Well, perhaps the past is all right; but +consider the future! Eight hours are going to drive capital out of the +country!" Rubbish! I'm not a political economist, thank God; I never +sank quite so low as that. And I'm not speaking for or against Eight +Hours: I'm only discounting some verbose nonsense. But I know enough to +see that the capital of a country can no more be exported than the land +or the houses. Can you drive away the London and North-Western Railway? +Can you drive away the factories of Manchester, the mines of the Black +Country, the canals, the buildings, the machinery, the docks, the plant, +the apparatus? Impossible, on the very face of it! Most of the capital +of a country is fixed in its soil, and can't be uprooted. People fall +into this error about driving away capital because they know you can +sell particular railway shares or a particular factory and leave the +country with the proceeds, provided somebody else is willing to buy; but +you can't sell all the railways and all the factories in a lump, and +clear out with the capital. No, no; England stands where she does, +because God put her there; and until He invents a new order of things +(which may, of course, happen any day--as, for example, if aerial +navigation came in) she must continue, in spite of minor changes, to +maintain in the main her present position. + +But a truce to these frivolities! The little Italian boy next door calls +me to play ball with him, with a green lemon from the garden. Vengo, +Luigi, vengo! I return at once to the realities of life, and dismiss +such shadows. + + + + +VII. + +_THE GAME AND THE RULES._ + + +A sportive friend of mine, a mighty golfer, is fond of saying, "You +Radicals want to play the game without the rules." To which I am +accustomed mildly to retort, "Not at all; but we think the rules unfair, +and so we want to see them altered." + +Now life is a very peculiar game, which differs in many important +respects even from compulsory football. The Rugby scrimmage is mere +child's play by the side of it. There's no possibility of shirking it. A +medical certificate won't get you off; whether you like it or not, play +you must in your appointed order. We are all unwilling competitors. +Nobody asks our naked little souls beforehand whether they would prefer +to be born into the game or to remain, unfleshed, in the limbo of +non-existence. Willy nilly, every one of us is thrust into the world by +an irresponsible act of two previous players; and once there, we must +play out the set as best we may to the bitter end, however little we +like it or the rules that order it. + +That, it must be admitted, makes a grave distinction from the very +outset between the game of human life and any other game with which we +are commonly acquainted. It also makes it imperative upon the framers of +the rules so to frame them that no one player shall have an unfair or +unjust advantage over any of the others. And since the penalty of bad +play, or bad success in the match, is death, misery, starvation, it +behoves the rule-makers to be more scrupulously particular as to +fairness and equity than in any other game like cricket or tennis. It +behoves them to see that all start fair, and that no hapless beginner is +unduly handicapped. To compel men to take part in a match for dear life, +whether they wish it or not, and then to insist that some of them shall +wield bats and some mere broom-sticks, irrespective of height, weight, +age, or bodily infirmity, is surely not fair. It justifies the committee +in calling for a revision. + +But things are far worse than even that in the game as actually played +in Europe. What shall we say of rules which decide dogmatically that one +set of players are hereditarily entitled to be always batting, while +another set, less lucky, have to field for ever, and to be fined or +imprisoned for not catching? What shall we say of rules which give one +group a perpetual right to free lunch in the tent, while the remainder +have to pick up what they can for themselves by gleaning among the +stubble? How justify the principle in accordance with which the captain +on one side has an exclusive claim to the common ground of the club, and +may charge every player exactly what he likes for the right to play upon +it?--especially when the choice lies between playing on such terms, or +being cast into the void, yourself and your family. And then to think +that the ground thus tabooed by one particular member may be all +Sutherlandshire, or, still worse, all Westminster! Decidedly, these +rules call for instant revision; and the unprivileged players must be +submissive indeed who consent to put up with them. + +Friends and fellow-members, let us cry with one voice, "The links for +the players!" + +Once more, just look at the singular rule in our own All England club, +by which certain assorted members possess a hereditary right to veto all +decisions of the elective committee, merely because they happen to be +their fathers' sons, and the club long ago very foolishly permitted the +like privilege to their ancestors! That is an irrational interference +with the liberty of the players which hardly anybody nowadays ventures +to defend in principle, and which is only upheld in some half-hearted +way (save in the case of that fossil anachronism, the Duke of Argyll) by +supposed arguments of convenience. It won't last long now; there is talk +in the committee of "mending or ending it." It shows the long-suffering +nature of the poor blind players at this compulsory game of national +football that they should ever for one moment permit so monstrous an +assumption--permit the idea that one single player may wield a +substantive voice and vote to outweigh tens of thousands of his +fellow-members! + +These questions of procedure, however, are after all small matters. It +is the real hardships of the game that most need to be tackled. Why +should one player be born into the sport with a prescriptive right to +fill some easy place in the field, while another has to fag on from +morning to night in the most uninteresting and fatiguing position? Why +should _pâté de foie gras_ and champagne-cup in the tent be so unequally +distributed? Why should those who have made fewest runs and done no +fielding be admitted to partake of these luxuries, free of charge, while +those who have borne the brunt of the fight, those who have suffered +from the heat of the day, those who have contributed most to the honour +of the victory, are turned loose, unfed, to do as they can for +themselves by hook or by crook somehow? These are the questions some of +us players are now beginning to ask ourselves; and we don't find them +efficiently answered by the bald statement that we "want to play the +game without the rules," and that we ought to be precious glad the +legislators of the club haven't made them a hundred times harder against +us. + +No, no; the rules themselves must be altered. Time was, indeed, when +people used to think they were made and ordained by divine authority. +"Cum privilegio" was the motto of the captains. But we know very well +now that every club settles its own standing orders, and that it can +alter and modify them as fundamentally as it pleases. Lots of funny old +saws are still uttered upon this subject--"There must always be rich and +poor;" "You can't interfere with economical laws;" "If you were to +divide up everything to-morrow, at the end of a fortnight you'd find the +same differences and inequalities as ever." The last-named argument (I +believe it considers itself by courtesy an argument) is one which no +self-respecting Radical should so much as deign to answer. Nobody that I +ever heard of for one moment proposed to "divide up everything," or, for +that matter, anything: and the imputation that somebody did or does is a +proof either of intentional malevolence or of crass stupidity. Neither +should be encouraged; and you encourage them by pretending to take them +seriously. It is the initial injustices of the game that we Radicals +object to--the injustices which prevent us from all starting fair and +having our even chance of picking up a livelihood. We don't want to +"divide up everything"--a most futile proceeding; but we do want to +untie the legs and release the arms of the handicapped players. To drop +metaphor at last, it is the conditions we complain about. Alter the +conditions, and there would be no need for division, summary or gradual. +The game would work itself out spontaneously without your intervention. + +The injustice of the existing set of rules simply appals the Radical. +Yet oddly enough, this injustice itself appeals rather to the +comparative looker-on than to the heavily-handicapped players in person. +They, poor creatures, dragging their log in patience, have grown so +accustomed to regarding the world as another man's oyster, that they put +up uncomplainingly for the most part with the most patent inequalities. +Perhaps 'tis their want of imagination that makes them unable to +conceive any other state of things as even possible--like the dog who +accepts kicking as the natural fate of doghood. At any rate, you will +find, if you look about you, that the chief reformers are not, as a +rule, the ill-used classes themselves, but the sensitive and thinking +souls who hate and loathe the injustice with which others are treated. +Most of the best Radicals I have known were men of gentle birth and +breeding. Not all: others, just as earnest, just as eager, just as +chivalrous, sprang from the masses. Yet the gently-reared preponderate. +It is a common Tory taunt to say that the battle is one between the +Haves and the Have-nots. That is by no means true. It is between the +selfish Haves, on one side, and the unselfish Haves, who wish to see +something done for the Have-nots, on the other. As for the poor +Have-nots themselves, they are mostly inarticulate. Indeed, the Tory +almost admits as much when he alters his tone and describes the +sympathising and active few as "paid agitators." + +For myself, however, I am a born Conservative. I hate to see any old +custom or practice changed; unless, indeed, it is either foolish or +wicked--like most existing ones. + + + + +VIII. + +_THE RÔLE OF PROPHET._ + + +One great English thinker and artist once tried the rash experiment of +being true to himself--of saying out boldly, without fear or reserve, +the highest and noblest and best that was in him. He gave us the most +exquisite lyrics in the English language; he moulded the thought of our +first youth as no other poet has ever yet moulded it; he became the +spiritual father of the richest souls in two succeeding generations of +Englishmen. And what reward did he get for it? He was expelled from his +university. He was hounded out of his country. He was deprived of his +own children. He was denied the common appeal to the law and courts of +justice. He was drowned, an exile, in a distant sea, and burned in +solitude on a foreign shore. And after his death he was vilified and +calumniated by wretched penny-a-liners, or (worse insult still) +apologised for, with half-hearted shrugs, by lukewarm advocates. The +purest in life and the most unselfish in purpose of all mankind, he was +persecuted alive with the utmost rancour of hate, and pursued when dead +with the vilest shafts of malignity. He never even knew in his scattered +grave the good he was to do to later groups of thinkers. + +It was a noble example, of course; but not, you will admit, an alluring +one for others to follow. + +"Be true to yourself," say the copy-book moralists, "and you may be sure +the result will at last be justified." No doubt; but in how many +centuries? And what sort of life will you lead yourself, meanwhile, for +your allotted space of threescore years and ten, unless haply hanged, or +burned, or imprisoned before it? What the copy-book moralists mean is +merely this--that sooner or later your principles will triumph, which +may or may not be the case according to the nature of the principles. +But even suppose they do, are you to ignore yourself in the +interim--you, a human being with emotions, sensations, domestic +affections, and, in the majority of instances, wife and children on whom +to expend them? Why should it be calmly taken for granted by the world +that if you have some new and true thing to tell humanity (which +humanity, of course, will toss back in your face with contumely and +violence) you are bound to blurt it out, with childish unreserve, +regardless of consequences to yourself and to those who depend upon you? +Why demand of genius or exceptional ability a gratuitous sacrifice which +you would deprecate as wrong and unjust to others in the ordinary +citizen? For the genius, too, is a man, and has his feelings. + +The fact is, society considers that in certain instances it has a right +to expect the thinker will martyrise himself on its account, while it +stands serenely by and heaps faggots on the pile, with every mark of +contempt and loathing. But society is mistaken. No man is bound to +martyrise himself; in a great many cases a man is bound to do the exact +opposite. He has given hostages to Fortune, and his first duty is to the +hostages. "We ask you for bread," his children may well say, "and you +give us a noble moral lesson. We ask you for clothing, and you supply us +with a beautiful poetical fancy." This is not according to bargain. Wife +and children have a first mortgage on a man's activities; society has +only a right to contingent remainders. + +A great many sensible men who had truths of deep import to deliver to +the world must have recognised these facts in all times and places, and +must have held their tongues accordingly. Instead of speaking out the +truths that were in them, they must have kept their peace, or have +confined themselves severely to the ordinary platitudes of their age and +nation. Why ruin yourself by announcing what you feel and believe, when +all the reward you will get for it in the end will be social ostracism, +if not even the rack, the stake, or the pillory? The Shelleys and +Rousseaus there's no holding, of course; they _will_ run right into it; +but the Goethes--oh, no, they keep their secret. Indeed, I hold it as +probable that the vast majority of men far in advance of their times +have always held their tongues consistently, save for mere common +babble, on Lord Chesterfield's principle that "Wise men never say." + +The _rôle_ of prophet is thus a thankless and difficult one. Nor is it +quite certainly of real use to the community. For the prophet is +generally too much ahead of his times. He discounts the future at a +ruinous rate, and he takes the consequences. If you happen ever to have +read the Old Testament you must have noticed that the prophets had +generally a hard time of it. + +The leader is a very different stamp of person. _He_ stands well abreast +of his contemporaries, and just half a pace in front of them; and he has +power to persuade even the inertia of humanity into taking that one +half-step in advance he himself has already made bold to adventure. His +post is honoured, respected, remunerated. But the prophet gets no +thanks, and perhaps does mankind no benefit. He sees too quick. And +there can be very little good indeed in so seeing. If one of us had been +an astronomer, and had discovered the laws of Kepler, Newton, and +Laplace in the thirteenth century, I think he would have been wise to +keep the discovery to himself for a few hundred years or so. Otherwise, +he would have been burned for his trouble. Galileo, long after, tried +part of the experiment a decade or so too soon, and got no good by it. +But in moral and social matters the danger is far graver. I would say to +every aspiring youth who sees some political or economical or ethical +truth quite clearly: "Keep it dark! Don't mention it! Nobody will listen +to you; and you, who are probably a person of superior insight and +higher moral aims than the mass, will only destroy your own influence +for good by premature declarations. The world will very likely come +round of itself to your views in the end; but if you tell them too soon, +you will suffer for it in person, and will very likely do nothing to +help on the revolution in thought that you contemplate. For thought that +is too abruptly ahead of the mass never influences humanity." + +"But sometimes the truth will out in spite of one!" Ah, yes, that's the +worst of it. Do as I say, not as I do. If possible, repress it. + +It is a noble and beautiful thing to be a martyr, especially if you are +a martyr in the cause of truth, and not, as is often the case, of some +debasing and degrading superstition. But nobody has a right to demand of +you that you should be a martyr. And some people have often a right to +demand that you should resolutely refuse the martyr's crown on the +ground that you have contracted prior obligations, inconsistent with the +purely personal luxury of martyrdom. 'Tis a luxury for a few. It befits +only the bachelor, the unattached, and the economically spareworthy. + +"These be pessimistic pronouncements," you say. Well, no, not exactly. +For, after all, we must never shut our eyes to the actual; and in the +world as it is, meliorism, not optimism, is the true opposite of +pessimism. Optimist and pessimist are both alike in a sense, seeing they +are both conservative; they sit down contented--the first with the smug +contentment that says "All's well; I have enough; why this fuss about +others?" the second with the contentment of blank despair that says, +"All's hopeless; all's wrong; why try uselessly to mend it?" The +meliorist attitude, on the contrary, is rather to say, "Much is wrong; +much painful; what can we do to improve it?" And from this point of view +there is something we can all do to make martyrdom less inevitable in +the end, for the man who has a thought, a discovery, an idea, to tell +us. Such men are rare, and their thought, when they produce it, is sure +to be unpalatable. For, if it were otherwise, it would be thought of our +own type--familiar, banal, commonplace, unoriginal. It would encounter +no resistance, as it thrilled on its way through our brain, from +established errors. What the genius and the prophet are there for is +just that--to make us listen to unwelcome truths, to compel us to hear, +to drive awkward facts straight home with sledge-hammer force to the +unwilling hearts and brains of us. Not what _you_ want to hear, or what +_I_ want to hear, is good and useful for us; but what we _don't_ want to +hear, what we can't bear to think, what we hate to believe, what we +fight tooth and nail against. The man who makes us listen to _that_ is +the seer and the prophet; he comes upon us like Shelley, or Whitman, or +Ibsen, and plumps down horrid truths that half surprise, half disgust +us. He shakes us out of our lethargy. To such give ear, though they say +what shocks you. Weigh well their hateful ideas. Avoid the vulgar vice +of sneering and carping at them. Learn to examine their nude thought +without shrinking, and examine it all the more carefully when it most +repels you. Naked verity is an acquired taste; it is never beautiful at +first sight to the unaccustomed vision. Remember that no question is +finally settled; that no question is wholly above consideration; that +what you cherish as holiest is most probably wrong; and that in social +and moral matters especially (where men have been longest ruled by pure +superstitions) new and startling forms of thought have the highest _a +priori_ probability in their favour. Dismiss your idols. Give every +opinion its fair chance of success--especially when it seems to you both +wicked and ridiculous, recollecting that it is better to let five +hundred crude guesses run loose about the world unclad, than to crush +one fledgling truth in its callow condition. To the Greeks, foolishness: +to the Jews, a stumbling-block. If you can't be one of the prophets +yourself, you can at least abstain from helping to stone them. + +Dear me! These reflections to-day are anything but post-prandial. The +_gnocchi_ and the olives must certainly have disagreed with me. But +perhaps it may some of it be "wrote sarcastic." I have heard tell there +is a thing called irony. + + + + +IX. + +_THE ROMANCE OF THE CLASH OF RACES._ + + +The world has expanded faster in the last thirty years than in any +previous age since "the spacious days of great Elizabeth." And with its +expansion, of course, our ideas have widened. I believe Europe is now in +the midst of just such an outburst of thought and invention as that +which followed the discovery of America, and of the new route to India +by the Cape of Good Hope. But I don't want to insist too strongly upon +that point, because I know a great many of my contemporaries are deeply +hurt by the base and spiteful suggestion that they and their fellows are +really quite as good as any fish that ever came out of the sea before +them. I only desire now to call attention for a moment to one curious +result entailed by this widening of the world upon our literary +productivity--a result which, though obvious enough when one comes to +look at it, seems to me hitherto to have strangely escaped deliberate +notice. + +In one word, the point of which I speak is the comparative +cosmopolitanisation of letters, and especially the introduction into +literary art of the phenomena due to the Clash of Races. + +This Clash itself is the one picturesque and novel feature of our +otherwise somewhat prosaic and machine-made epoch; and, therefore, it +has been eagerly seized upon, with one accord, by all the chief +purveyors of recent literature, and especially of fiction. They have +espied in it, with technical instinct, the best chance for obtaining +that fresh interest which is essential to the success of a work of art. +We were all getting somewhat tired, it must be confessed, of the old +places and the old themes. The insipid loves of Anthony Trollope's +blameless young people were beginning to pall upon us. The jaded palate +of the Anglo-Celtic race pined for something hot, with a touch of fresh +spice in it. It demanded curried fowl and Jamaica peppers. Hence, on the +one hand, the sudden vogue of the novelists of the younger +countries--Tolstoi and Tourgenieff, Ibsen and Bjornson, Mary Wilkins and +Howells--who transplanted us at once into fresh scenes, new people: +hence, on the other hand, the tendency on the part of our own latest +writers--the Stevensons, the Hall Caines, the Marion Crawfords, the +Rider Haggards--to go far afield among the lower races or the later +civilisations for the themes of their romances. + +Alas, alas, I see breakers before me! Must I pause for a moment in the +flowing current of a paragraph to explain, as in an aside, that I +include Marion Crawford of set purpose among "our own" late writers, +while I count Mary Wilkins and Howells as Transatlantic aliens? +Experience teaches me that I must; else shall I have that annoying +animalcule, the microscopic critic, coming down upon me in print with +his petty objection that "Mr. Crawford is an American." Go to, oh, blind +one! And Whistler also, I suppose, and Sargent, and, perhaps, Ashmead +Bartlett! What! have you read "Sarracinesca" and not learnt that its +author is European to the core? 'Twas for such as you that the Irishman +invented his brilliant retort: "And if I was born in a stable would I be +a horse?" + +Not merely, however, do our younger writers go into strange and novel +places for the scenes of their stories; the important point to notice in +the present connection is that, consciously or unconsciously to +themselves, they have perceived the mighty influence of this Clash of +Races, and have chosen the relations of the civilised people with their +savage allies, or enemies, or subjects, as the chief theme of their +handicraft. 'Tis a momentous theme, for it encloses in itself half the +problems of the future. The old battles are now well-nigh fought out; +but new ones are looming ahead for us. The cosmopolitanisation of the +world is introducing into our midst strange elements of discord. A +conglomerate of unwelded ethnical elements usurps the stage of history. +America and South Africa have already their negro question; California +and Australia have already their Chinese question; Russia is fast +getting her Asiatic, her Mahommedan question. Even France, the most +narrowly European in interest of European countries, has yet her +Algeria, her Tunis, her Tonquin. Spain has Cuba and the Philippines. +Holland has Java. Germany is burdening herself with the unborn troubles +of a Hinterland. And as for England, she staggers on still under the +increasing load of India, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, the West +Indies, Fiji, New Guinea, North Borneo--all of them rife with endless +race-questions, all pregnant with difficulties. + +Who can be surprised that amid this seething turmoil of colours, +instincts, creeds, and languages, art should have fastened upon the +race-problems as her great theme for the moment? And she has fastened +upon them everywhere. France herself has not been able to avoid the +contagion. Pierre Loti is the most typical French representative of this +vagabond spirit; and the question of the peoples naturally envisages +itself to his mind in true Gallic fashion in the "Mariage de Loti" and +in "Madame Chrysanthème." He sees it through a halo of vague sexual +sentimentalism. In England, it was Rider Haggard from the Cape who first +set the mode visibly; and nothing is more noteworthy in all his work +than the fact that the interest mainly centres in the picturesque +juxtaposition and contrast of civilisation and savagery. Once the cue +was given, what more natural than that young Rudyard Kipling, fresh home +from India, brimming over with genius and with knowledge of two +concurrent streams of life that flow on side by side yet never mingle, +should take up his parable in due course, and storm us all by assault +with his light field artillery? Then Robert Louis Stevenson, born a +wandering Scot, with roving Scandinavian and fiery Celtic blood in his +veins, must needs settle down, like a Viking that he is, in far Samoa, +there to charm and thrill us by turns with the romance of Polynesia. The +example was catching. Almost without knowing it, other writers have +turned for subjects to similar fields. "Dr. Isaacs," "Paul Patoff," "By +Proxy," were upon us. Even Hall Caine himself, in some ways a most +insular type of genius, was forced in "The Scapegoat" to carry us off +from Cumberland and Man to Morocco. Sir Edwin Arnold inflicts upon us +the tragedies of Japan. I have been watching this tendency long myself +with the interested eye of a dealer engaged in the trade, and therefore +anxious to keep pace with every changing breath of popular favour: and I +notice a constant increase from year to year in the number of short +stories in magazines and newspapers dealing with the romance of the +inferior races. I notice, also, that such stories are increasingly +successful with the public. This shows that, whether the public knows it +or not itself, the question of race is interesting it more and more. It +is gradually growing to understand the magnitude of the change that has +come over civilisation by the inclusion of Asia, Africa, and Australasia +within its circle. Even the Queen is learning Hindustani. + +There is a famous passage in Green's "Short History of the English +People" which describes in part that strange outburst of national +expansion under Elizabeth, when Raleigh, Drake, and Frobisher scoured +the distant seas, and when at home "England became a nest of singing +birds," with Shakespeare, Spenser, Fletcher, and Marlow. "The old sober +notions of thrift," says the picturesque historian, "melted before the +strange revolutions of fortune wrought by the New World. Gallants +gambled away a fortune at a sitting, and sailed off to make a fresh one +in the Indies." (Read rather to-day at Kimberley, Johannesburg, +Vancouver.) "Visions of galleons loaded to the brim with pearls and +diamonds and ingots of silver, dreams of El Dorados where all was of +gold, threw a haze of prodigality and profusion over the imagination of +the meanest seaman. The wonders, too, of the New World kindled a burst +of extravagant fancy in the Old. The strange medley of past and present +which distinguishes its masques and feastings only reflected the medley +of men's thoughts.... A 'wild man' from the Indies chanted the Queen's +praises at Kenilworth, and Echo answered him. Elizabeth turned from the +greetings of sibyls and giants to deliver the enchanted lady from her +tyrant, 'Sans Pitie.' Shepherdesses welcomed her with carols of the +spring, while Ceres and Bacchus poured their corn and grapes at her +feet." Oh, gilded youth of the Gaiety, _mutato nomine de te Fabula +narratur_. Yours, yours is this glory! + +For our own age, too, is a second Elizabethan. It blossoms out daily +into such flowers of fancy as never bloomed before, save then, on +British soil. When men tell you nowadays we have "no great writers +left," believe not the silly parrot cry. Nay, rather, laugh it down for +them. We move in the midst of one of the mightiest epochs earth has ever +seen, an epoch which will live in history hereafter side by side with +the Athens of Pericles, the Rome of Augustus, the Florence of Lorenzo, +the England of Elizabeth. Don't throw away your birthright by ignoring +the fact. Live up to your privileges. Gaze around you and know. Be a +conscious partaker in one of the great ages of humanity. + + + + +X. + +_THE MONOPOLIST INSTINCTS._ + + +In the first of these after-dinner _causeries_ I ventured humbly to +remark that Patriotism was a vulgar vice of which I had never been +guilty. That innocent indiscretion of mine aroused at the moment some +unfavourable comment. I confess I was sorry for it. But I passed it by +at the time, lest I should speak too hastily and lose my temper. I recur +to the subject now, at the hour of the cigarette, when man can discourse +most genially of his bitterest enemy. And Monopoly is mine. Its very +name is hateful. + +I don't often say what I think. At least, not much of it. I don't often +get the chance. And, besides, being a timid and a modest man, I'm afraid +to. But just this once, I'm going to "try it on." Object to my opinions +as you will. But still, let me express them. Strike--but hear me! + +Has it ever occurred to you that one object of reading is to learn +things you never thought of before, and would never think of now, unless +you were told them? + +Patriotism is one of the Monopolist Instincts. And the Monopolist +Instincts are the greatest enemies of the social life in humanity. They +are what we have got in the end to outlive. The test of a man's place in +the scale of being is how far he has outlived them. They are surviving +relics of the ape and tiger. But we must let the ape and tiger die. We +must begin to be human. + +I will take Patriotism first, because it is the most specious of them +all, and has still a self-satisfied way of masquerading as a virtue. But +after all what is Patriotism? "My country, right or wrong; and just +because it is _my_ country." It is nothing more than a wider form of +selfishness. Often enough, indeed, it is even a narrow one. It means, +"My business interests against the business interests of other people; +and let the taxes of my fellow-citizens pay to support them." At other +times it is pure Jingoism. It means, "_My_ country against other +countries! _My_ army and navy against other fighters! _My_ right to +annex unoccupied territory over the equal right of all other people! +_My_ power to oppress all weaker nationalities, all inferior races!" It +_never_ means anything good. For if a cause is just, like Ireland's, or +once Italy's, then 'tis the good man's duty to espouse it with warmth, +be it his own or another's. And if a cause be bad, then 'tis the good +man's duty to oppose it tooth and nail, irrespective of your +"Patriotism." True, a good man will feel more sensitively anxious that +justice should be done by the particular State of which he happens +himself to be a member than by any other, because he is partly +responsible for the corporate action; but then, people who feel deeply +this joint moral responsibility of all the citizens are not praised as +patriots but reviled as unpatriotic. To urge that our own country should +strive with all its might to be better, higher, purer, nobler, juster +than other countries around it--the only kind of Patriotism worth a +brass farthing in a righteous man's eyes--is accounted by most men both +wicked and foolish. + +Patriotism, then, is the collective or national form of the Monopolist +Instincts. And like all those Instincts, it is a relic of savagery, +which the Man of the Future is now engaged in out-living. + +Property is the next form. That, on the very face of it, is a viler and +more sordid one. For Patriotism at least can lay claim to some +expansiveness beyond mere individual interest; whereas property stops +dead short at the narrowest limits. It is not "Us against the world!" +but "Me against my fellow-citizens!" It is the final result of the +industrial war in its most hideous avatar. Look how it scars the fair +face of our England with its anti-social notice-boards, "Trespassers +will be prosecuted!" It says, in effect, "This is my land. God made it; +but I have acquired it and tabooed it. The grass on it grows green; but +only for me. The mountains rise beautiful; no foot of man, save mine and +my gamekeepers', shall tread them. The waterfalls gleam fresh and cool +in the glen: avaunt there, you non-possessors; _you_ shall never see +them! All this is my own. And I choose to monopolise it." + +Or is it the capitalist? "I will add field to field," he says, in +despite of his own scripture; "I will join railway to railway. I will +juggle into my own hands all the instruments for the production of +wealth that I can lay hold of; and I will use them for myself against +the producer and the consumer. I will enrich myself by 'corners' on the +necessaries of life; I will make food dear for the poor, that I myself +may roll in needless luxury. I will monopolise whatever I can seize, and +the people may eat straw." That temper, too, humanity must outlive. And +those who can't outlive it of themselves, or be warned in time, must be +taught by stern lessons that their race has outstripped them. + +As for slavery, 'tis now gone. That was the vilest of them all. It was +the naked assertion of the Monopolist platform: "You live, not for +yourself, but wholly and solely for me. I disregard your life entirely, +and use you as my chattel." It died at last of the moral indignation of +humanity. It died when a Southern court of so-called justice formulated +in plain words the underlying principle of its hateful creed: "A black +man has no rights which a white man is bound to respect." That finally +finished it. We no longer allow every man to "wallop his own nigger." +And though the last relics of it die hard in Queensland, South Africa, +Demerara, we have at least the satisfaction of knowing that one +Monopolist Instinct out of the group is pretty well bred out of us. + +Except as regards women! There, it lingers still. The Man says even now +to himself:--"This woman is mine. If she ventures to have a heart or a +will of her own, woe betide her! I have tabooed her for life; let any +other man touch her, let her look at any other man--and--knife, +revolver, or law court, they shall both of them answer for it!" There +you have in all its natural ugliness another Monopolist Instinct--the +deepest-seated of all, the vilest, the most barbaric. She is not yours: +she is her own: unhand her! The Turk takes his offending slave, sews her +up in a sack, and flings her into the Bosphorus. The Christian +Englishman drags her shame before an open court, and divorces her with +contumely. Her shame, I say, in the common phrase, because though to me +it is no shame that any human being should follow the dictates of his or +her own heart, it is a shame to the woman in the eyes of the world, and +a life of disgrace she must live thenceforward. All this is Monopoly and +essentially slavery. As man lives down the Ape and Tiger stage, he will +learn to say, rather: "Be mine while you can; but the day you cease to +feel you can be mine willingly, don't disgrace your own body by yielding +it up where your soul feels loathing; don't consent to be the mother of +children by a father you despise or dislike or are tired of. Let us kiss +and part. Go where you will; and my good will go with you!" Till the man +can say that with a sincere heart, why, to borrow a phrase from George +Meredith, he may have passed Seraglio Point, but he hasn't rounded Cape +Turk yet. + +You find that a hard saying, do you? You kick against freedom for wife +or daughter? Well, yes, no doubt; you are still a Monopolist. But, +believe me, the earnest and solemn expression of a profound belief never +yet did harm to any one. I look forward to the time when women shall be +as free in every way as men, not by levelling down, but by levelling up; +not, as some would have us think, by enslaving the men, but by +elevating, emancipating, unshackling the women. + +There is a charming little ditty in Louis Stevenson's "Child's Garden of +Verse," which always seems to me to sum up admirably the Monopolist +attitude. Here it is. Look well at it:-- + + "When I am grown to man's estate + I shall be very proud and great, + And tell the other girls and boys, + Not to meddle with _my_ toys." + +That is the way of the Monopolist. It catches him in the very act. He +says to all the world: "Hands off! My property! Don't walk on my grass! +Don't trespass in my park! Beware of my gunboats! No trifling with my +women! I am the king of the castle. You meddle with me at your peril." + +"Ours!" not "Mine!" is the watchword of the future. + + + + +XI. + +"_MERE AMATEURS._" + + +"He was a mere amateur; but still, he did some good work in science." + +Increasingly of late years I have heard these condescending words +uttered, in the fatherland of Bacon, of Newton, of Darwin, when some +Bates or Spottiswoode has been gathered to his fathers. It was not so +once. Time was when all English science was the work of amateurs--and +very well indeed the amateurs did it. I don't think anybody who does me +the honour to cognise my humble individuality at all will ever be likely +to mistake me for a _laudator temporis acti_. On the contrary, so far as +I can see, the past seems generally to have been such a distinct failure +all along the line that the one lesson we have to learn from it is, to +go and do otherwise. I am one on that point with Shelley and Rousseau. +But it does not follow, because most old things are bad, that all new +things and rising things are necessarily and indisputably in their own +nature excellent. Novelties, too, may be retrograde. And even our +great-grandfathers occasionally blundered upon something good in which +we should do well to imitate them. The amateurishness of old English +science was one of these good things now in course of abolition by the +fashionable process of Germanisation. + +Don't imagine it was only for France that 1870 was fatal. The sad +successes of that deadly year sent a wave of triumphant Teutonism over +the face of Europe. + +I suppose it is natural to man to worship success; but ever since 1870 +it is certainly the fact that if you wish to gain respect and +consideration for any proposed change of system you must say, "They do +it so in Germany." In education and science this is especially the case. +Pedants always admire pedants. And Germany having shown herself to be +easily first of European States in her pedant-manufacturing machinery, +all the assembled dominies of all the rest of the world exclaimed with +one voice, "Go to! Let us Germanise our educational system!" + +Now, the German is an excellent workman in his way. Patient, laborious, +conscientious, he has all the highest qualities of the ideal +brick-maker. He produces the best bricks, and you can generally depend +upon him to turn out both honest and workmanlike articles. But he is not +an architect. For the architectonic faculty in its highest developments +you must come to England. And he is not a teacher or expounder. For the +expository faculty in its purest form, the faculty that enables men to +flash forth clearly and distinctly before the eyes of others the facts +and principles they know and perceive themselves, you must go to France. +Oh, dear, yes; we may well be proud of England. Remember, I have already +disclaimed more than once in these papers the vulgar error of +patriotism. But freedom from that narrow vice does not imply inability +to recognise the good qualities of one's own race as well as the bad +ones. And the Englishman, left to himself and his own native methods, +used to cut a very respectable figure indeed in the domain of science. +No other nation has produced a Newton or a Darwin. The Englishman's way +was to get up an interest in a subject first; and then, working back +from the part of it that specially appealed to his own tastes, to make +himself master of the entire field of inquiry. This natural and +thoroughly individualistic English method enabled him to arrive at new +results in a way impossible to the pedantically educated German--nay, +even to the lucidly and systematically educated Frenchman. It was the +plan to develop "mere amateurs," I admit; but it was also the plan to +develop discoverers and revolutionisers of science. For the man most +likely to advance knowledge is not the man who knows in an encyclopædic +rote-work fashion the whole circle of the sciences, but the man who +takes a fresh interest for its own sake in some particular branch of +inquiry. + +Darwin was a "mere amateur." He worked at things for the love of them. +So were Murchison, Lyell, Benjamin Franklin, Herschel. So were or are +Bates, Herbert Spencer, Alfred Russel Wallace. "Mere amateurs!" every +man of them. + +In an evil hour, however, our pastors and masters in conclave assembled +said to one another, "Come now, let us Teutonise English scientific +education." And straightway they Teutonised it. And there began to arise +in England a new brood of patent machine-made scientists--excellent men +in their way, authorities on the Arachnida, knowing all about everything +that could be taught in the schools, but lacking somehow the supreme +grace of the old English originality. They are first-rate specialists, I +allow; and I don't deny that a civilised country has all need of +specialists. Nay, I even admit that the day of the specialist has only +just begun. He will yet go far; he will impose himself and his yoke upon +us. But don't let us therefore make the grand mistake of concluding that +our fine old English birthright in science--the birthright that gave us +our Newtons, our Cavendishes, our Darwins, our Lyells--was all folly and +error. Don't let us spoil ourselves in order to become mere second-hand +Germans. Let us recognise the fact that each nation has a work of its +own to do in the world; and that as star from star, so one nation +differeth from another in glory. Let each of us thank the goodness and +the grace that on his birth have smiled, that he was born of English +breed, and not a German child. + +"Don't you think," a military gentleman once said to me, "the Germans +are wonderful organisers?" "No," I answered, "I don't; but I think +they're excellent drill-sergeants." + +There are people who drop German authorities upon you as if a Teutonic +name were guarantee enough for anything. They say, "Hausberger asserts," +or "According to Schimmelpenninck." This is pure fetichism. Believe me, +your man of science isn't necessarily any the better because he comes to +you with the label, "Made in Germany." The German instinct is the +instinct of Frederick William of Prussia--the instinct of drilling. Very +thorough and efficient men in their way it turns out; men versed in all +the lore of their chosen subject. If they are also men of transcendent +ability (as often happens), they can give us a comprehensive view of +their own chosen field such as few Englishmen (except Sir Archibald +Geikie, and he's a Scot) can equal. If I wanted to select a learned man +for a special Government post--British Museum, and so forth--I dare say +I should often be compelled to admit, as Government often admits, that +the best man then and there obtainable is the German. But if I wanted to +train Herbert Spencers and Faradays, I would certainly _not_ send them +to Bonn or to Berlin. John Stuart Mill was an English Scotchman, +educated and stuffed by his able father on the German system; and how +much of spontaneity, of vividness, of _verve_, we all of us feel John +Stuart Mill lost by it! One often wonders to what great, to what still +greater, things that lofty brain might not have attained, if only James +Mill would have given it a chance to develop itself naturally! + +Our English gift is originality. Our English keynote is individuality. +Let us cling to those precious heirlooms of our Celtic ancestry, and +refuse to be Teutonised. Let us discard the lessons of the Potsdam +grenadiers. Let us write on the pediment of our educational temple, "No +German need apply." Let us disclaim that silly phrase "A mere amateur." +Let us return to the simple faith in direct observation that made +English science supreme in Europe. + +And may the Lord gi'e us Britons a guid conceit o' oorsel's! + + + + +XII. + +_A SQUALID VILLAGE._ + + +Strange that the wealthiest class in the wealthiest country in the world +should so long have been content to inhabit a squalid village! + +I'm not going to compare London, as Englishmen often do, with Paris or +Vienna. I won't do two great towns that gross injustice. And, indeed, +comparison here is quite out of the question. You don't compare Oxford +with Little Peddlington, or Edinburgh with Thrums, and then ask which is +the handsomest. Things must be alike in kind before you can begin to +compare them. And London and Paris are not alike in kind. One is a city, +and a noble city; the other is a village, and a squalid village. + +No; I will not even take a humbler standard of comparison, and look at +London side by side with Brussels, Antwerp, Munich, Turin. Each of those +is a city, and a fine city in its way; but each of them is small. Still, +even by their side, London is again but a squalid village. I insist upon +that point, because, misled by their ancient familiarity with London, +most Englishmen have had their senses and understandings so blunted on +this issue, that they really don't know what is meant by a town, or a +fine town, when they see one. And don't suppose it's because London is +in Britain and these other towns out of it that I make these remarks: +for Bath is a fine town, Edinburgh is a fine town, even Glasgow and +Newcastle are towns, while London is still a straggling, sprawling, +invertebrate, inchoate, overgrown village. I am as free, I hope, from +anti-patriotic as from patriotic prejudice. The High Street in Oxford, +Milsom Street in Bath, Princes Street in Edinburgh, those are all fine +streets that would attract attention even in France or Germany. But the +Strand, Piccadilly, Regent Street, Oxford Street--good Lord, deliver us! + +One more _caveat_ as to my meaning. When I cite among real towns +Brussels, Antwerp, and Munich, I am not thinking of the treasures of art +those beautiful places contain; that is another and altogether higher +question. Towns supreme in this respect often lag far behind others of +less importance--lag behind in those external features and that general +architectural effectiveness which rightly entitle us to say in a broad +sense, "This is a fine city." Florence, for example, contains more +treasures of art in a small space than any other town of Europe; yet +Florence, though undoubtedly a town, and even a fine town, is not to be +compared in this respect, I do not say with Venice or Brussels, but even +with Munich or Milan. On the other hand, London contains far more +treasures of art in its way than Boston, Massachusetts; but Boston is a +handsome, well-built, regular town, while London--well, I will spare you +the further repetition of the trite truism that London is a squalid +village. In one word, the point I am seeking to bring out here is that a +town, as a town, is handsome or otherwise, not in virtue of the works of +art or antiquity it contains, but in virtue of its ground-plan, its +architecture, its external and visible decorations and places--the +Louvre, the Boulevards, the Champs Elysées, the Place de l'Opéra. + +Now London has no ground-plan. It has no street architecture. It has no +decorations, though it has many uglifications. It is frankly and simply +and ostentatiously hideous. And being wholly wanting in a system of any +sort--in organic parts, in idea, in views, in vistas--it is only a +village, and a painfully uninteresting one. + +Most Englishmen see London before they see any other great town. They +become so familiarised with it that their sense of comparison is dulled +and blunted. I had the good fortune to have seen many other great towns +before I ever saw London: and I shall never forget my first sense of +surprise at its unmitigated ugliness. + +Get on top of an omnibus--I don't say in Paris, from the Palais Royal to +the Arc de Triomphe, but in Brussels, from the Gare du Nord to the +Palais de Justice--and what do you see? From end to end one unbroken +succession of noble and open prospects. I'm not thinking now of the +Grande Place in the old town, with its magnificent collection of +mediæval buildings; the Great Fire effectively deprived us of our one +sole chance of such an element of beauty in modern London. I confine +myself on purpose to the parts of Brussels which are purely recent, and +might have been imitated at a distance in London, if there had been any +public spirit or any public body in England to imitate them. (But +unhappily there was neither.) Recall to mind as you read the strikingly +handsome street view that greets you as you emerge from the Northern +Station down the great central Boulevards to the Gare du Midi--all built +within our own memory. Then think of the prospects that gradually unfold +themselves as you rise on the hill; the fine vista north towards Sainte +Marie de Schaarbeck; the beautiful Rue Royale, bounded by that charming +Parc; the unequalled stretch of the Rue de la Régence, starting from the +Place Royale with Godfrey of Bouillon, and ending with the imposing mass +of the Palais de Justice. It is to me a matter for mingled surprise and +humiliation that so many Englishmen can look year after year at that +glorious street--perhaps the finest in the world--and yet never think to +themselves, "Mightn't we faintly imitate some small part of this in our +wealthy, ugly, uncompromising London?" + +I always say to Americans who come to Europe: "When you go to England, +don't see our towns, but see our country. Our country is something +unequalled in the world: while our towns!--well, anyway, keep away from +London!" + +With the solitary and not very brilliant exception of the Embankment, +there isn't a street in London where one could take a stranger to admire +the architecture. Compare that record with the new Boulevards in +Antwerp, where almost every house is worth serious study: or with the +Ring at Cologne (to keep close home all the time), where one can see +whole rows of German Renaissance houses of extraordinary interest. What +street in London can be mentioned in this respect side by side with +Commonwealth Avenue or Beacon Street in Boston; with Euclid Avenue in +Cleveland, Ohio; with the upper end of Fifth Avenue, New York; nay, even +with the new Via Roma at Genoa? Why is it that we English can't get on +the King's Road at Brighton anything faintly approaching that splendid +sea front on the Digue at Ostend, or those coquettish white villas that +line the Promenade des Anglais at Nice? The blight of London seems to +lie over all Southern England. + +Paris looks like the capital of a world-wide empire. London, looks like +a shapeless neglected suburb, allowed to grow up by accident anyhow. And +that's just the plain truth of it. 'Tis a fortuitous concourse of +hap-hazard houses. + +"But we are improving somewhat. The County Council is opening out a few +new thoroughfares piecemeal." Oh yes, in an illogical, unsystematic, +English patchwork fashion, we are driving a badly-designed, unimpressive +new street or two, with no expansive sense of imperial greatness, +through the hopelessly congested and most squalid quarters. But that is +all. No grand, systematic, reconstructive plan, no rising to the height +of the occasion and the Empire! You tinker away at a Shaftesbury Avenue. +Parochial, all of it. And there you get the real secret of our futile +attempts at making a town out of our squalid village. The fault lies all +at the door of the old Corporation, and of the people who made and still +make the old Corporation possible. For centuries, indeed, there was +really no London, not even a village; there was only a scratch +collection of contiguous villages. The consequence was that here, at the +centre of national life, the English people grew wholly unaccustomed to +the bare idea of a town, and managed everything piecemeal, on the petty +scale of a country vestry. The vestryman intelligence has now overrun +the land; and if the London County Council ever succeeds at last in +making the congeries of villages into--I do not say a city, for that is +almost past praying for, but something analogous to a second-rate +Continental town, it will only be after long lapse of time and violent +struggles with the vestryman level of intellect and feeling. + +London had many great disadvantages to start with. She lay in a dull and +marshy bottom, with no building stone at hand, and therefore she was +forecondemned by her very position to the curse of brick and stucco, +when Bath, Oxford, Edinburgh, were all built out of their own quarries. +Then fire destroyed all her mediæval architecture, leaving her only +Westminster Abbey to suggest the greatness of her losses. But +brick-earth and fire have been as nothing in their way by the side of +the evil wrought by Gog and Magog. When five hundred trembling ghosts of +naked Lord Mayors have to answer for their follies and their sins +hereafter, I confidently expect the first question in the appalling +indictment will be, "Why did you allow the richest nation on earth to +house its metropolis in a squalid village?" + +We have a Moloch in England to whom we sacrifice much. And his hateful +name is Vested Interest. + + + + +XIII. + +_CONCERNING ZEITGEIST._ + + +A certain story is told about Mr. Ruskin, no doubt apocryphal, but at +any rate characteristic. A young lady, fresh from the Abyss of +Bayswater, met the sage one evening at dinner--a gushing young lady, as +many such there be--who, aglow with joy, boarded the Professor at once +with her private art-experiences. "Oh, Mr. Ruskin," she cried, clasping +her hands, "do you know, I hadn't been two days in Florence before I +discovered what you meant when you spoke about the supreme +unapproachableness of Botticelli." "Indeed?" Ruskin answered. "Well, +that's very remarkable; for it took me, myself, half a lifetime to +discover it." + +The answer, of course, was meant to be crushing. How should _she_, a +brand plucked from the burning of Bayswater, be able all at once, on the +very first blush, to appreciate Botticelli? And it took the greatest +critic of his age half a lifetime! Yet I venture to maintain, for all +that, that the young lady was right, and that the critic was wrong--if +such a thing be conceivable. I know, of course, that when we speak of +Ruskin we must walk delicately, like Agag. But still, I repeat it, the +young lady was right; and it was largely the unconscious, pervasive +action of Mr. Ruskin's own personality that enabled her to be so. + +It's all the Zeitgeist: that's where it is. The slow irresistible +Zeitgeist. Fifty years ago, men's taste had been so warped and distorted +by current art and current criticism that they _couldn't_ see +Botticelli, however hard they tried at it. He was a sealed book to our +fathers. In those days it required a brave, a vigorous, and an original +thinker to discover any merit in any painter before Raffael, except +perhaps, as Goldsmith wisely remarked, Perugino. The man who went then +to the Uffizi or the Pitti, after admiring as in duty bound his High +Renaissance masters, found himself suddenly confronted with the Judith +or the Calumny, and straightway wondered what manner of strange wild +beasts these were that some insane early Tuscan had once painted to +amuse himself in a lucid interval. They were not in the least like the +Correggios and the Guidos, the Lawrences and the Opies, that the men of +that time had formed their taste upon, and accepted as their sole +artistic standards. To people brought up upon pure David and +Thorvaldsen, the Primavera at the Belle Arti must naturally have seemed +like a wild freak of madness. The Zeitgeist then went all in the +direction of cold lifeless correctness; the idea that the painter's soul +counted for something in art was an undreamt of heresy. + +On your way back from Paris some day, stop a night at Amiens and take +the Cathedral seriously. Half the stately interior of that glorious +thirteenth century pile is encrusted and overlaid by hideous gewgaw +monstrosities of the flashiest Bernini and _baroque_ period. There they +sprawl their obtrusive legs and wave their flaunting theatrical wings to +the utter destruction of all repose and consistency in one of the +noblest and most perfect buildings of Europe. Nowadays, any child, any +workman can see at a glance how ugly and how disfiguring those floppy +creatures are; it is impossible to look at them without saying to +oneself: "Why don't they clear away all this high-faluting rubbish, and +let us see the real columns and arches and piers as their makers +designed them?" Yet who was it that put them there, those unspeakable +angels in muslin drapery, those fly-away nymphs and graces and seraphim? +Why, the best and most skilled artists of their day in Europe. And +whence comes it that the merest child can now see instinctively how out +of place they are, how disfiguring, how incongruous? Why, because the +Gothic revival has taught us all by degrees to appreciate the beauty and +delicacy of a style which to our eighteenth century ancestors was mere +barbaric mediævalism; has taught us to admire its exquisite purity, and +to dislike the obstrusive introduction into its midst of incongruous and +meretricious Bernini-like flimsiness. + +The Zeitgeist has changed, and we have changed with it. + +It is just the same with our friend Botticelli. Scarce a dozen years +ago, it was almost an affectation to pretend you admired him. It is no +affectation now. Hundreds of assorted young women from the Abyss of +Bayswater may rise any morning here in sacred Florence and stand +genuinely enchanted before the Adoration of the Kings, or the Venus who +floats on her floating shell in a Botticellian ocean. And why? Because +Leighton, Holman Hunt, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Madox Brown, Strudwick, +have led them slowly up to it by golden steps innumerable. Thirty years +ago the art of the early Tuscan painters was something to us Northerners +exotic, strange, unconnected, archæological. Gradually, it has been +brought nearer and nearer to us on the walls of the Grosvenor and the +New Gallery, till now he that runs may read; the ingenuous maiden, +fished from the Abyss of Bayswater, can drink in at a glance what it +took a Ruskin many years of his life and much slow development to attain +to piecemeal. + +That is just what all great men are for--to make the world accept as a +truism in the generation after them what it rejected as a paradox in the +generation before them. + +Not, of course, that there isn't a little of affectation, and still more +of fashion, to the very end in all of it. An immense number of people, +incapable of genuinely admiring anything for its own sake at all, are +anxious only to be told what they "ought to admire, don't you know," and +will straightway proceed as conscientiously as they can to get up an +admiration for it. A friend of mine told me a beautiful example. Two +aspiring young women, of the limp-limbed, short-haired, æsthetic +species, were standing rapt before the circular Madonna at the Uffizi. +They had gazed at it long and lovingly, seeing it bore on its frame the +magic name of Botticelli. Of a sudden one of the pair happened to look a +little nearer at the accusing label. "Why, this is not Sandro," she +cried, with a revulsion of disgust; "this is only Aless." And +straightway they went off from the spot in high dudgeon at having been +misled as they supposed into examining the work of "another person of +the same name." + +Need I point the moral of my apologue, in this age of enlightenment, by +explaining, for the benefit of the junior members, that the gentleman's +full name was really Alessandro, and that both abbreviations are +impartially intended to cover his one and indivisible personality? The +first half is official, like Alex.; the second affectionate and +familiar, like Sandy. + +Still, even after making due allowance for such humbugs as these, a vast +residuum remains of people who, if born sixty years ago, could never by +any possibility have been made to see there was anything admirable in +Lippi, Botticelli, Giotto; but who, having been born thirty years ago, +see it without an effort. Hundreds who read these lines must themselves +remember the unmistakable thrill of genuine pleasure with which they +first gazed upon the Fra Angelicos at San Marco, the Memlings at Bruges, +the Giottos in the Madonna dell' Arena at Padua. To many of us, those +are real epochs in our inner life. To the men of fifty years ago, the +bare avowal itself would have seemed little short of affected silliness. + +Is the change all due to the teaching of the teachers and the preaching +of the preachers? I think not entirely. For, after all, the teachers and +the preachers are but a little ahead of the age they live in. They see +things earlier; they help to lead us up to them; but they do not wholly +produce the revolutions they inaugurate. Humanity as a whole develops +consistently along certain pre-established and predestined lines. Sooner +or later, a certain point must inevitably be reached; but some of us +reach it sooner, and most of us later. That's all the difference. Every +great change is mainly due to the fact that we have all already attained +a certain point in development. A step in advance becomes inevitable +after that, and one after another we are sure to take it. In one word, +what it needed a man of genius to see dimly thirty years ago, it needs a +singular fool not to see clearly nowadays. + + + + +XIV. + +_THE DECLINE OF MARRIAGE._ + + +Men don't marry nowadays. So everybody tells us. And I suppose we may +therefore conclude, by a simple act of inference, that women in turn +don't marry either. It takes two, of course, to make a quarrel--or a +marriage. + +Why is this? "Young people nowadays want to begin where their fathers +left off." "Men are made so comfortable at present in their clubs." +"College-bred girls have no taste for housekeeping." "Rents are so high +and manners so luxurious." Good heavens, what silly trash, what puerile +nonsense! Are we all little boys and girls, I ask you, that we are to +put one another off with such transparent humbug? Here we have to deal +with a primitive instinct--the profoundest and deepest-seated instinct +of humanity, save only the instincts of food and drink and of +self-preservation. Man, like all other animals, has two main functions: +to feed his own organism, and to reproduce his species. Ancestral habit +leads him, when mature, to choose himself a mate--because he loves her. +It drives him, it urges him, it goads him irresistibly. If this profound +impulse is really lacking to-day in any large part of our race, there +must be some correspondingly profound and adequate reason for it. Don't +let us deceive ourselves with shallow platitudes which may do for +drawing-rooms. This is philosophy, even though post-prandial. Let us try +to take a philosophic view of the question at issue, from the point of +vantage of a biological outlook. + +Before you begin to investigate the causes of a phenomenon _quelconque_, +'tis well to decide whether the phenomenon itself is there to +investigate. + +Taking society throughout--_not_ in the sense of those "forty families" +to which the term is restricted by Lady Charles Beresford--I doubt +whether marriage is much out of fashion. Statistics show a certain +decrease, it is true, but not an alarming one. Among the labouring +classes, I imagine men, and also women, still wed pretty frequently. +When people say, "Young men won't marry nowadays," they mean young men +in a particular stratum of society, roughly bounded by a silk hat on +Sundays. Now, when you and I were young (I take it for granted that you +and I are approaching the fifties) young men did marry; even within this +restricted area, 'twas their wholesome way in life to form an attachment +early with some nice girl in their own set, and to start at least with +the idea of marrying her. Toward that goal they worked; for that end +they endured and sacrificed many things. True, even then, the long +engagement was the rule; but the long engagement itself meant some +persistent impulse, some strong impetus marriage-wards. The desire of +the man to make this woman his own, the longing to make this woman +happy--normal and healthy endowments of our race--had still much +driving-power. Nowadays, I seriously think I observe in most young men +of the middle class around me a distinct and disastrous weakening of the +impulse. They don't fall in love as frankly, as honestly, as +irretrievably as they used to do. They shilly-shally, they pick and +choose, they discuss, they criticise. They say themselves these futile +foolish things about the club, and the flat, and the cost of living. +They believe in Malthus. Fancy a young man who believes in Malthus! They +seem in no hurry at all to get married. But thirty or forty years ago, +young men used to rush by blind instinct into the toils of +matrimony--because they couldn't help themselves. Such Laodicean +luke-warmness betokens in the class which exhibits it a weakening of +impulse. That weakening of impulse is really the thing we have to +account for. + +Young men of a certain type don't marry, because--they are less of young +men than formerly. + +Wild animals in confinement seldom propagate their kind. Only a few +caged birds will continue their species. Whatever upsets the balance of +the organism, in an individual or a race tends first of all to affect +the rate of reproduction. Civilise the red man, and he begins to +decrease at once in numbers. Turn the Sandwich Islands into a trading +community, and the native Hawaiian refuses forthwith to give hostages to +fortune. Tahiti is dwindling. From the moment the Tasmanians were taken +to Norfolk Island, not a single Tasmanian baby was born. The Jesuits +made a model community of Paraguay; but they altered the habits of the +Paraguayans so fast that the reverend fathers, who were, of course, +themselves celibates, were compelled to take strenuous and even +grotesque measures to prevent the complete and immediate extinction of +their converts. Other cases in abundance I might quote an I would; but I +limit myself to these. They suffice to exhibit the general principle +involved; any grave upset in the conditions of life affects first and at +once the fertility of a species. + +"But colonists often increase with rapidity." Ay, marry, do they, where +the conditions of life are easy. At the present day most colonists go to +fairly civilised regions; they are transported to their new home by +steamboat and railway; they find for the most part more abundant +provender and more wholesome surroundings than in their native country. +There is no real upset. Better food and easier life, as Herbert Spencer +has shown, result (other things equal) in increased fertility. His +chapters on this subject in the "Principles of Biology" should be read +by everybody who pretends to talk on questions of population. But in new +and difficult colonies the increase is slight. Whatever compels greater +wear and tear of the nervous system proves inimical to the reproductive +function. The strain and stress of co-ordination with novel +circumstances and novel relations affect most injuriously the organic +balance. The African negro has long been accustomed to agricultural toil +and to certain simple arts in his own country. Transported to the West +Indies and the United States, he found life no harder than of old, if +not, indeed, easier. He had abundant food, protection, security, a kind +of labour for which he was well adapted. Instead of dying out, +therefore, he was fruitful, and multiplied, and replenished the earth +amazingly. But the Red Indian, caught blatant in the hunting stage, +refused to be tamed, and could not swallow civilisation. He pined and +dwined and decreased in his "reservations." The change was too great, +too abrupt, too brusque for him. The papoose before long became an +extinct animal. + +Is not the same thing true of the middle class of England? Civilisation +and its works have come too quickly upon us. The strain and stress of +correlating and co-ordinating the world we live in are getting too much +for us. Railways, telegraphs, the penny post, the special edition, have +played havoc at last with our nervous systems. We are always on the +stretch, rushing and tearing perpetually. We bolt our breakfasts; we +catch the train or 'bus by the skin of our teeth, to rattle us into the +City; we run down to Scotland or over to Paris on business; we lunch in +London and dine in Glasgow, Belfast, or Calcutta. (Excuse imagination.) +The tape clicks perpetually in our ears the last quotation in Eries; the +telephone rings us up at inconvenient moments. Something is always +happening somewhere to disturb our equanimity; we tear open the _Times_ +with feverish haste, to learn that Kimberleys or Jabez Balfour have +fallen, that Matabeleland has been painted red, that shares have gone +up, or gone down, or evaporated. Life is one turmoil of excitement and +bustle. Financially, 'tis a series of dissolving views; personally 'tis +a rush; socially, 'tis a mosaic of deftly-fitted engagements. Drop out +one piece, and you can never replace it. You are full next week from +Monday to Saturday--business all day, what calls itself pleasure (save +the mark!) all evening. Poor old Leisure is dead. We hurry and scurry +and flurry eternally. One whirl of work from morning till night: then +dress and dine: one whirl of excitement from night till morning. A snap +of troubled sleep, and again _da capo_. Not an hour, not a minute, we +can call our own. A wire from a patient ill abed in Warwickshire! A wire +from a client hard hit in Hansards! Endless editors asking for more +copy! more copy! Alter to suit your own particular trade, and 'tis the +life of all of us. + +The first generation after Stephenson and the Rocket pulled through with +it somehow. They inherited the sound constitutions of the men who sat on +rustic seats in the gardens of the twenties. The second +generation--that's you and me--felt the strain of it more severely: new +machines had come in to make life still more complicated: sixpenny +telegrams, Bell and Edison, submarine cables, evening papers, +perturbations pouring in from all sides incessantly; the suburbs +growing, the hubbub increasing, Metropolitan railways, trams, bicycles, +innumerable: but natheless we still endured, and presented the world all +the same with a third generation. That third generation--ah me! there +comes the pity of it! One fancies the impulse to marry and rear a family +has wholly died out of it. It seems to have died out most in the class +where the strain and stress are greatest. I don't think young men of +that class to-day have the same feelings towards women of their sort as +formerly. Nobody, I trust, will mistake me for a reactionary: in most +ways, the modern young man is a vast improvement on you and me at +twenty-five. But I believe there is really among young men in towns less +chivalry, less devotion, less romance than there used to be. That, I +take it, is the true reason why young men don't marry. With certain +classes and in certain places a primitive instinct of our race has +weakened. They say this weakening is accompanied in towns by an increase +in sundry hateful and degrading vices. I don't know if that is so; but +at least one would expect it. Any enfeeblement of the normal and natural +instinct of virility would show itself first in morbid aberrations. On +that I say nothing. I only say this--that I think the present crisis in +the English marriage market is due, not to clubs or the comfort of +bachelor quarters, but to the cumulative effect of nervous +over-excitement. + + + + +XV. + +_EYE_ VERSUS _EAR_. + + +It is admitted on all hands by this time, I suppose, that the best way +of learning is by eye, not by ear. Therefore the authorities that +prescribe for us our education among all classes have decided that we +shall learn by ear, not by eye. Which is just what one might expect from +a vested interest. + +Of course this superiority of sight over hearing is pre-eminently true +of natural science--that is to say, of nine-tenths among the subjects +worth learning by humanity. The only real way to learn geology, for +example, is not to mug it up in a printed text-book, but to go into the +field with a geologist's hammer. The only real way to learn zoology and +botany is not by reading a volume of natural history, but by collecting, +dissecting, observing, preserving, and comparing specimens. Therefore, +of course, natural science has never been a favourite study in the eyes +of school-masters, who prefer those subjects which can be taught in a +room to a row of boys on a bench, and who care a great deal less than +nothing for any subject which isn't "good to examine in." Educational +value and importance in after life have been sacrificed to the teacher's +ease and convenience, or to the readiness with which the pupil's +progress can be tested on paper. Not what is best to learn, but what is +least trouble to teach in great squads to boys, forms the staple of our +modern English education. They call it "education," I observe in the +papers, and I suppose we must fall in with that whim of the profession. + +But even the subjects which belong by rights to the ear can nevertheless +be taught by the eye more readily. Everybody knows how much easier it is +to get up the history and geography of a country when you are actually +in it than when you are merely reading about it. It lives and moves +before you. The places, the persons, the monuments, the events, all +become real to you. Each illustrates each, and each tends to impress the +other on the memory. Sight burns them into the brain without conscious +effort. You can learn more of Egypt and of Egyptian history, culture, +hieroglyphics, and language in a few short weeks at Luxor or Sakkarah +than in a year at the Louvre and the British Museum. The Tombs of the +Kings are worth many papyri. The mere sight of the temples and obelisks +and monuments and inscriptions, in the places where their makers +originally erected them, gives a sense of reality and interest to them +all that no amount of study under alien conditions can possibly equal. +We have all of us felt that the only place to observe Flemish art to the +greatest advantage is at Ghent and Bruges and Brussels and Antwerp; just +as the only place to learn Florentine art as it really was is at the +Uffizi and the Bargello. + +These things being so, the authorities who have charge of our public +education, primary, secondary, and tertiary, have decided in their +wisdom--to do and compel the exact contrary. Object-lessons and the +visible being admittedly preferable to rote-lessons and the audible, +they have prescribed that our education, so called, shall be mainly an +education not in things and properties, but in books and reading. They +have settled that it shall deal almost entirely and exclusively with +language and with languages; that words, not objects, shall be the facts +it impresses on the minds of the pupils. In our primary schools they +have insisted upon nothing but reading and writing, with just a +smattering of arithmetic by way of science. In our secondary schools +they have insisted upon nothing but Greek and Latin, with about an equal +leaven of algebra and geometry. This mediæval fare (I am delighted that +I can thus agree for once with Professor Ray Lankester) they have thrust +down the throats of all the world indiscriminately; so much so that +nowadays people seem hardly able at last to conceive of any other than a +linguistic education as possible. You will hear many good folk who talk +with contempt of Greek and Latin; but when you come to inquire what new +mental pabulum they would substitute for those quaint and grotesque +survivals of the Dark Ages, you find what they want instead is--modern +languages. The idea that language of any sort forms no necessary element +in a liberal education has never even occurred to them. They take it for +granted that when you leave off feeding boys on straw and oats you must +supply them instead with hay and sawdust. + +Not that I rage against Greek and Latin as such. It is well we should +have many specialists among us who understand them, just as it is well +we should have specialists in Anglo-Saxon and Sanskrit. I merely mean +that they are not the sum and substance of educational method. They are +at best but two languages of considerable importance to the student of +purely human evolution. + +Furthermore, even these comparatively useless linguistic subjects could +themselves be taught far better by sight than by hearing. A week at Rome +would give your average boy a much clearer idea of the relations of the +Capitol with the Palatine than all the pretty maps in Dr. William +Smith's Smaller Classical Dictionary. It would give him also a sense of +the reality of the Latin language and the Latin literature, which he +could never pick up out of a dog-eared Livy or a thumb-marked Æneid. You +have only to look across from the top of the Janiculum, towards the +white houses of Frascati, to learn a vast deal more about the Alban +hills and the site of Tusculum than ever you could mug up from all the +geography books in the British Museum. The way to learn every subject on +earth, even book-lore included, is not out of books alone, but by actual +observation. + +And yet it is impossible for any one among us to do otherwise than +acquiesce in this vicious circle. Why? Just because no man can +dissociate himself outright from the social organism of which he forms a +component member. He can no more do so than the eye can dissociate +itself from the heart and lungs, or than the legs can shake themselves +free from the head and stomach. We have all to learn, and to let our +boys learn, what authority decides for us. We can't give them a better +education than the average, even if we know what it is and desire to +impart it, because the better education, though abstractly more +valuable, is now and here the inlet to nothing. Every door is barred +with examinations, and opens but to the golden key of the crammer. Not +what is of most real use and importance in life, but what "pays best" in +examination, is the test of desirability. We are the victims of a +system; and our only hope of redress is not by sporadic individual +action but by concerted rebellion. We must cry out against the abuse +till at last we are heard by dint of our much speaking. In a world so +complex and so highly organised as ours, the individual can only do +anything in the long run by influencing the mass--by securing the +co-operation of many among his fellows. + +Meanwhile, I believe it is gradually becoming the fact that our girls, +who till lately were so very ill-taught, are beginning to know more of +what is really worth knowing than their public-school-bred brothers. For +the public school still goes on with the system of teaching it has +derived direct from the thirteenth century; while the girls' schools, +having started fair and fresh, are beginning to assimilate certain newer +ideas belonging to the seventeenth and even the eighteenth. In time they +may conceivably come down to the more elementary notions of the present +generation. Less hampered by professions and examinations than the boys, +the girls are beginning to know something now, not indeed of the +universe in which they live, its laws and its properties, but of +literature and history, and the principal facts about human development. +Yet all the time, the boys go on as ever with Musa, Musæ, like so many +parrots, and are turned out at last, in nine cases out of ten, with just +enough smattering of Greek and Latin grammar to have acquired a +life-long distaste for Horace and an inconquerable incapacity for +understanding Æschylus. One year in Italy with their eyes open would be +worth more than three at Oxford; and six months in the fields with a +platyscopic lens would teach them strange things about the world around +them that all the long terms at Harrow and Winchester have failed to +discover to them. But that would involve some trouble to the teacher. + +What a misfortune it is that we should thus be compelled to let our +boys' schooling interfere with their education! + + + + +XVI. + +_THE POLITICAL PUPA._ + + +I have picked up on the moor the chrysalis of a common English +butterfly. As I sit on the heather and turn it over attentively, while +it wriggles in my hands, I can't help thinking how closely it resembles +the present condition of our British commonwealth. It is a platitude, +indeed, to say that "this is an age of transition." But it would be +truer and more graphic perhaps to put it that this is an age in which +England, and for the matter of that every other European country as +well, is passing through something like the chrysalis stage in its +evolution. + +But, first of all, do you clearly understand what a chrysalis is driving +at? It means more than it seems; the change that goes on within that +impassive case is a great deal more profound than most people imagine. +When the caterpillar is just ready to turn into a butterfly it lies by +for a while, full of internal commotion, and feels all its organs slowly +melting one by one into a sort of indistinguishable protoplasmic pulp; +chaos precedes the definite re-establishment of a fresh form of order. +Limbs and parts and nervous system all disappear for a time, and then +gradually grow up again in new and altered types. The caterpillar, if it +philosophised on its own state at all (which seems to be very little the +habit of well-conducted caterpillars, as of well-conducted young +ladies), might easily be excused for forming just at first the +melancholy impression that a general dissolution was coming over it +piecemeal. It must begin by feeling legs and eyes and nervous centres +melt away by degrees into a common indistinguishable organic pulp, out +of which the new organs only slowly form themselves in obedience to the +law of some internal impulse. But when the process is all over, and--hi, +presto!--the butterfly emerges at last from the chrysalis condition, +what does it find but that instead of having lost everything it has new +and stronger legs in place of the old and feeble ones; it has nerves and +brain more developed than before; it has wings for flight instead of +mere creeping little feet to crawl with? What seemed like chaos was +really nothing more than the necessary kneading up of all component +parts into a plastic condition which precedes every fresh departure in +evolution. The old must fade before the new can replace it. + +Now I am not going to work this perhaps somewhat fanciful analogy to +death, or pretend it is anything more than a convenient metaphor. Still, +taken as such, it is not without its luminosity. For a metaphor, by +supplying us with a picturable representation, often enables us really +to get at the hang of the thing a vast deal better than the most solemn +argument. And I fancy communities sometimes pass through just such a +chrysalis stage, when it seems to the timid and pessimistic in their +midst as if every component element of the State (but especially the one +in which they themselves and their friends are particularly interested) +were rushing violently down a steep place to eternal perdition. Chaos +appears to be swallowing up everything. "The natural relations of +classes" disappear. Faiths melt; churches dissolve; morals fade; bonds +fail; a universal magma of emancipated opinion seems to take the place +of old-established dogma. The squires and the parsons of the +period--call them scribes or augurs--wring their hands in despair, and +cry aloud that they don't know what the world is coming to. But, after +all, it is only the chrysalis stage of a new system. The old social +order must grow disjointed and chaotic before the new social order can +begin to evolve from it. The establishment of a plastic consistency in +the mass is the condition precedent of the higher development. + +Not, of course, that this consideration will ever afford one grain of +comfort to the squires and the parsons of each successive epoch; for +what _they_ want is not the reasonable betterment of the whole social +organism, but the continuance of just this particular type of squiredom +and parsonry. That is what they mean by "national welfare;" and any +interference with it they criticise in all ages with the current +equivalent for the familiar Tory formula that "the country is going to +the devil." + +Sometimes these great social reconstructions of which I speak are forced +upon communities by external factors interfering with their fixed +internal order, as happened when the influx of northern barbarians broke +up the decaying and rotten organism of the Roman Empire. Sometimes, +again, they occur from internal causes, in an acute, and so to speak, +inflammatory condition, as at the French Revolution. But sometimes, as +in our own time and country, they are slowly brought about by organic +development, so as really to resemble in all essential points the +chrysalis type of evolution. Politically, socially, theologically, +ethically, the old fixed beliefs seem at such periods to grow fluid or +plastic. New feelings and habits and aspirations take their place. For a +while a general chaos of conflicting opinions and nascent ideas is +produced. The mass for the moment seems formless and lawless. Then new +order supervenes, as the magma settles down and begins to crystallise; +till at last, I'm afraid, the resulting social organism becomes for the +most part just as rigid, just as definite, just as dogmatic, just as +exacting, as the one it has superseded. The caterpillar has grown into a +particular butterfly. + +Through just such a period of reconstruction Europe in general and +Britain in particular are now in all likelihood beginning to pass. And +they will come out at the other end translated and transfigured. Laws +and faiths and morals will all of them have altered. There will be a new +heaven and a new earth for the men and women of the new epoch. Strange +that people should make such a fuss about a detail like Home Rule, when +the foundations of society are all becoming fluid. Don't flatter +yourself for a moment that your particular little sect or your +particular little dogma is going to survive the gentle cataclysm any +more than my particular little sect or my particular little dogma. All +alike are doomed to inevitable reconstruction. "We can't put the +Constitution into the melting-pot," said Mr. John Morley, if I recollect +his words aright. But at the very moment when he said it, in my humble +opinion, the Constitution was already well into the melting-pot, and +even beginning to simmer merrily. Federalism, or something extremely +like it, may with great probability be the final outcome of that +particular melting; though anything else is perhaps just as probable, +and in any case the melting is general, not special. The one thing we +can guess with tolerable certainty is that the melting-pot stage has +begun to overtake us, socially, ethically, politically, +ecclesiastically; and that what will emerge from the pot at the end of +it must depend at last upon the relative strength of those unknown +quantities--the various formative elements. + +Being the most optimistic of pessimists, however, I will venture (after +this disclaimer of prophecy) to prophesy one thing alone: 'Twill be a +butterfly, not a grub, that comes out of our chrysalis. + +Beyond that, I hold all prediction premature. We may guess and we may +hope, but we can have no certainty. Save only the certainty that no +element will outlive the revolution unchanged--not faiths, nor classes, +nor domestic relations, nor any other component factor of our complex +civilisation. All are becoming plastic in the organic plasm; all are +losing features in the common mass of the melting-pot. For that reason, +I never trouble my head for a moment when people object to me that this, +that, or the other petty point of detail in Bellamy's Utopia or William +Morris's Utopia, or my own little private and particular Utopia, is +impossible, or unrealisable, or wicked, or hateful. For these, after +all, are mere Utopias; their details are the outcome of individual +wishes; what will emerge must be, not a Utopia at all, either yours or +mine, but a practical reality, full of shifts and compromises most +unphilosophical and illogical--a practical reality distasteful in many +ways to all us Utopia-mongers. "The Millennium by return of post" is no +more realisable to-day than yesterday. The greatest of revolutions can +only produce that unsatisfactory result, a new human organisation. + +Yet, it is something, after all, to believe at least that the grub will +emerge into a full-fledged butterfly. Not, perhaps, quite as glossy in +the wings as we could wish; but a butterfly all the same, not a crawling +caterpillar. + + + + +XVII. + +_ON THE CASINO TERRACE._ + + +I have always regarded Monte Carlo as an Influence for Good. It helps to +keep so many young men off the Stock Exchange. + +Let me guard against an obvious but unjust suspicion. These remarks are +not uttered under the exhilarating effect of winning at the tables. +Quite the contrary. It is the Bank that has broken the Man to-day +at Monte Carlo. They are rather due to the chastening and +thought-compelling influence of persistent loss, not altogether +unbalanced by a well-cooked lunch at perhaps the best restaurant in any +town of Europe. I have lost my little pile. The eight five-franc pieces +which I annually devote out of my scanty store to the tutelary god of +roulette have been snapped up, one after another, in breathless haste, +by the sphinx-like croupiers, impassive priests of that rapacious deity, +and now I am sitting, cleaned out, by the edge of the terrace, on a +brilliant, cloudless, February afternoon, looking across the zoned and +belted bay towards the beautiful grey hills of Rocca-bruna and the +gleaming white spit of Bordighera in the distance. 'Tis a modest +tribute, my poor little forty francs. Surely the veriest puritan, the +oiliest Chadband of them all, will allow a humble scribbler, at so cheap +a yearly rate, to purchase wisdom, not unmixed with tolerance, at the +gilded shrine of Fors Fortuna! + +For what a pother, after all, the unwise of this world are wont to make +about one stranded gambling-house, in a remote corner of Liguria! If +they were in earnest or sincere, how small a matter they would think it! +Of course, when I say so, hypocrisy holds up its hands in holy horror. +But that is the way with the purveyors of mint, cumin, and anise; they +raise a mighty hubbub over some unimportant detail--in order to feel +their consciences clear when business compels them to rob the widow and +the orphan. In reality, though Monte Carlo is bad enough in its way--do +I not pay it unwilling tribute myself twice a year out of the narrow +resources of The Garret, Grub Street?--it is but a skin-deep surface +symptom of a profound disease which attacks the heart and core in London +and Paris. Compared with Panama, Argentines, British South Africans, and +Liberators, Monte Carlo is a mole on the left ankle. + +"The Devil's advocate!" you say. Well, well, so be it. The fact is, the +supposed moral objection to gambling as such is a purely commercial +objection of a commercial nation; and the reason so much importance is +attached to it in certain places is because at that particular vice men +are likely to lose their money. It is largely a fetish, like the +sinfulness of cards, of dice, of billiards. Moreover, the objection is +only to the _kind_ of gambling. There is another kind, less open, at +which you stand a better chance to win yourself, while other parties +stand a better chance to lose; and that kind, which is played in great +gambling-houses known as the Stock Exchange and the Bourse, is +considered, morally speaking, as quite innocuous. Large fortunes are +made at this other sort of gambling, which, of course, sanctifies and +almost canonises it. Indeed, if you will note, you will find not only +that the objection to gambling pure and simple is commonest in the most +commercial countries, but also that even there it is commonest among the +most commercial classes. The landed aristocracy, the military, and the +labouring men have no objection to betting; nor have the Neapolitan +lazzaroni, the Chinese coolies. It is the respectable English +counting-house that discourages the vice, especially among the clerks, +who are likely to make the till or the cheque-book rectify the little +failures of their flutter on the Derby. + +Observe how artificial is the whole mild out-cry: how absolutely it +partakes of the nature of damning the sins you have no mind to! Here, on +the terrace where I sit, and where ladies in needlessly costly robes are +promenading up and down to exhibit their superfluous wealth +ostentatiously to one another, my ear is continuously assailed by the +constant _ping, ping, ping_ of the pigeon-shooting, and my peace +disturbed by the flapping death-agonies of those miserable victims. Yet +how many times have you heard the tables at Monte Carlo denounced to +once or never that you have heard a word said of the poor mangled +pigeons? And why? Because nobody loses much money at pigeon-matches. +That is legitimate sport, about as good and as bad as pheasant or +partridge shooting--no better, no worse, in spite of artificial +distinctions; and nobody (except the pigeons) has any interest in +denouncing it. Legend has it at Monte Carlo, indeed, that when the +proprietors of the Casino wished to take measures "pour attirer les +Anglais" they held counsel with the wise men whether it was best to +establish and endow an English church or a pigeon-shooting tournament. +And the church was in a minority. Since then, I have heard more than one +Anglican Bishop speak evil of the tables, but I have never heard one of +them say a good word yet for the boxed and slaughtered pigeons. + +Let me take a more striking because a less hackneyed case--one that +still fewer people would think of. Everybody who visits Monte Carlo gets +there, of course, by the P.L.M. If you know this coast at all you will +know that P.L.M. is the curt and universal abbreviation for the Paris, +Lyon, Méditerranée Railway Company--in all probability the most gigantic +and wickedest monopoly on the face of this planet. Yet you never once +heard a voice raised yet against the company as a company. Individual +complaints get into the _Times_, of course, about the crowding of the +_train de luxe_, the breach of faith as to places, and the discomforts +of the journey; but never a glimmering conception seems to flit across +the popular mind that here is a Colossal Wrong, compared to which Monte +Carlo is but as a flea-bite to the Asiatic cholera. This chartered abuse +connects the three biggest towns in France--Paris, Lyon, Marseilles--and +is absolutely without competitors. It can do as it likes; and it does +it, regardless--I say "regardless," without qualification, because the +P.L.M. regards nobody and nothing. Yet one hears of no righteous +indignation, no uprising of the people in their angry thousands, no +moral recognition of the monopoly as a Wicked Thing, to be fought tooth +and nail, without quarter given. It probably causes a greater aggregate +of human misery in a week than Monte Carlo in a century. Besides, the +one is compulsory, the other optional. You needn't risk a louis on the +tables unless you choose, but, like it or lump it, if you're bound for +Nice or Cannes or Mentone, you must open your mouth and shut your eyes +and see what P.L.M. will send you. Our own railways, indeed, are by no +means free from blame at the hands of the Democracy: the South-Eastern +has not earned the eternal gratitude of its season-ticket holders; the +children of the Great Western do not rise up and call it blessed. +(Except, indeed, in the most uncomplimentary sense of blessing.) But the +P.L.M. goes much further than these; and I have always held that the one +solid argument for eternal punishment consists in the improbability that +its Board of Directors will be permitted to go scot-free for ever after +all their iniquities. + +I am not wholly joking. I mean the best part of it. Great monopolies +that abuse their trust are far more dangerous enemies of public morals +than an honest gambling-house at every corner. Monte Carlo as it stands +is just a concentrated embodiment of all the evils of our anti-social +system, and the tables are by far the least serious among them. It is an +Influence for Good, because it mirrors our own world in all its naked, +all its over-draped hideousness. There it rears its meretricious head, +that gaudy Palace of Sin, appropriately decked in its Haussmanesque +architecture and its coquettish gardens, attracting to itself all the +idle, all the vicious, all the rich, all the unworthy, from every corner +of Europe and America. But Monte Carlo didn't make them; it only gathers +to its bosom its own chosen children from the places where they are +produced--from London, Paris, Brussels, New York, Berlin, St. +Petersburg. The vices of our organisation begot these over-rich folk, +begot their diamond-decked women, and their clipped French poodles with +gold bangles spanning their aristocratic legs. These are the spawn of +land-owning, of capitalism, of military domination, of High Finance, of +all the social ills that flesh is heir to. I feel as I pace the terrace +in the broad Mediterranean sunshine, that I am here in the midst of the +very best society Europe affords. That is to say, the very worst. The +dukes and the money-lenders, the Jay Goulds and the Reinachs. The +idlest, the cruellest: the hereditary drones, the successful +blood-suckers. But to find fault with them only for trying to +win one another's ill-gotten gold at a fair and open game of +_trente-et-quarante_, with the odds against them, and then to say +nothing about the way they came by it, is to make a needless fuss about +a trifle of detail, while overlooking the weightiest moral problems of +humanity. + +Whoever allows red herrings like these to be trailed across the path of +his moral consciousness, to the detriment of the scent which should lead +him straight on to the lairs of gigantic evils, deserves little credit +either for conscience or sagacity. My son, be wise. Strike at the root +of the evil. Let Monte Carlo go, but keep a stern eye on London +ground-rents. + + + + +XVIII. + +_THE CELTIC FRINGE._ + + +We Celts henceforth will rule the roost in Britain. + +What is that you mutter? "A very inopportune moment to proclaim the +fact." Well, no, I don't think so. And I'm sorry to hear you say it, for +if there _is_ a quality on which I plume myself, it's the delicate tact +that makes me refrain from irritating the susceptibilities of the +sensitive Saxon. See how polite I am to him! I call him sensitive. But, +opportune or inopportune, Lord Salisbury says we are a Celtic fringe. I +beg to retort, we are the British people. + +"Conquered races," say my friends. Well, grant it for a moment. But in +civilised societies, conquerors have, sooner or later, to amalgamate +with the conquered. And where the vanquished are more numerous, they +absorb the victors instead of being absorbed by them. That is the +Nemesis of conquest. Rome annexed Etruria; and Etruscan Mæcenas, +Etruscan Sejanus organised and consolidated the Roman Empire. Rome +annexed Italy; and the _Jus Italicum_ grew at last to be the full Roman +franchise. Rome annexed the civilised world; and the provinces under +Cæsar blotted out the Senate. Britain is passing now through the +self-same stage. One inevitable result of the widening of the electorate +has been the transfer of power from the Teutonic to the Celtic half of +Britain. I repeat, we are no longer a Celtic fringe: at the polls, in +Parliament, we are the British people. Lord Salisbury may fail to +perceive that fact, or, as I hold more probable, may affect to ignore +it. What will such tactics avail? The ostrich is not usually counted +among men as a perfect model of political wisdom. + +And _are_ we, after all, the conquered peoples? Meseems, I doubt it. +They say we Celts dearly love a paradox--which is perhaps only the +sensible Saxon way of envisaging the fact that we catch at new truths +somewhat quicker than other people. At any rate, 'tis a pet little +paradox of my own that we have never been conquered, and that to our +unconquered state we owe in the main our Radicalism, our Socialism, our +ingrained love of political freedom. We are tribal not feudal; we think +the folk more important than his lordship. The Saxon of the south-east +is the conquered man: he has felt on his neck for generations the heel +of feudalism. He is slavish; he is snobbish; he dearly loves a lord. He +shouts himself hoarse for his Beaconsfield or his Salisbury. Till +lately, in his rural avatar, he sang but one song-- + + "God bless the squire and his relations, + And keep us in our proper stations." + +Trite, isn't it? but so is the Saxon intelligence. + +Seriously--for at times it is well to be serious--South-Eastern England, +the England of the plains, has been conquered and enslaved in a dozen +ages by each fresh invader. Before the dawn of history, Heaven knows +what shadowy Belgæ and Iceni enslaved it. But historical time will serve +our purpose. The Roman enslaved it, but left Caledonia and Hibernia +free, the Cambrian, the Silurian, the Cornishman half-subjugated. The +Saxon and Anglian enslaved the east, but scarcely crossed over the +watershed of the western ocean. The Dane, in turn, enslaved the Saxon in +East Anglia and Yorkshire. The Norman ground all down to a common +servitude between the upper and nether millstones of the feudal +system--the king and the nobleman. At the end of it all, Teutonic +England was reduced to a patient condition of contented serfdom: it had +accommodated itself to its environment: no wish was left in it for the +assertion of its freedom. To this day, the south-east, save where +leavened and permeated by Celtic influences, hugs its chains and loves +them. It produces the strange portent of the Conservative working-man, +who yearns to be led by Lord Randolph Churchill. + +With the North and the West, things go wholly otherwise. Even Cornwall, +the earliest Celtic kingdom to be absorbed, was rather absorbed than +conquered. I won't go into the history of the West Welsh of Somerset, +Devon, and Cornwall at full length, because it would take ten pages to +explain it; and I know that readers are too profoundly interested in the +Shocking Murder in the Borough Road to devote half-an-hour to the origin +and evolution of their own community. It must suffice to say that the +Devonian and Cornubian Welsh coalesced with the West Saxon for +resistance to their common enemy the Dane, and that the West Saxon +kingdom was made supreme in Britain by the founder of the English +monarchy--one Dunstan, a monk from the West Welsh Abbey of Glastonbury. +Wales proper, overrun piecemeal by Norman filibusterers, was roughly +annexed by the Plantagenet kings; but it was only pacified under the +Welsh Tudors, and was never at any time thoroughly feudalised. +Glendower's rebellion, Richmond's rebellion, the Wesleyan revolt, the +Rebecca riots, the tithe war, are all continuous parts of the ceaseless +reaction of gallant little Wales against Teutonic aggression. "An alien +Church" still disturbs the Principality. The Lake District and +Ayrshire--Celtic Cumbria and Strathclyde--only accepted by degrees the +supremacy of the Kings of England and Scotland. The brother of a Scotch +King was Prince of Cumbria, as the elder son of an English King was +Prince of Wales. Indeed, David of Cumbria, who became David I. of +Scotland, was the real consolidator of the Scotch kingdom. Cumbria was +no more conquered by the Saxon Lothians than Scotland was conquered by +the accession of James I. or by the Act of Union. That means absorption, +conciliation, a certain degree of tribal independence. For Ireland, we +know that the "mere Irish" were never subjugated at all till the days of +Henry VII.; that they had to be reconquered by Cromwell and by William +of Orange; that they rebelled more or less throughout the eighteenth +century; and that they have been thorns in the side of Tory England +through the whole of the nineteenth. As for the Highlands, they held out +against the Stuarts till England had rejected that impossible dynasty; +and then they rallied round the Stuarts as the enemies of the Saxon. +General Wade's roads and the forts in the Great Glen, aided by a few +trifles of Glencoe massacres, kept them quiet for a moment. But it was +only for a moment. The North is once more in open revolt. Dr. Clark and +the crofters are its mode of expressing itself. + +Nor is that all. The Celtic ideas have remained unaltered. Of course, I +am not silly enough to believe there is any such thing as a Celtic race. +I use the word merely as a convenient label for the league of the +unconquered peoples in Britain. Ireland alone contains half-a-dozen +races; and none of them appear to have anything in common with the Pict +of Aberdeenshire or the West-Welsh of Cornwall. All I mean when I speak +of Celtic ideas and Celtic ideals is the ideas and ideals proper and +common to unconquered races. As compared with the feudalised and +contented serf of South-Eastern England, are not the Irish peasant, the +Scotch clansman, the "statesman" of the dales, the Cornish miner, free +men every soul of them? English landlordism, imposed from without upon +the crofter of Skye or the rack-rented tenant of a Connemara hillside, +has never crushed out the native feeling of a right to the soil, the +native resistance to an alien system. The south-east, I assert, has been +brutalised into acquiescent serfdom by a long course of feudalism; the +west and north still retain the instincts of freemen. + +As long as South-Eastern England and the Normanised or feudalised Saxon +lowlands of Scotland contained all the wealth, all the power, and most +of the population of Britain, the Celtic ideals had no chance of +realising themselves. But the industrial revolution of the present +century has turned us right-about-face, has transferred the balance of +power from the secondary strata to the primary strata in Britain; from +the agricultural lowlands to the uplands of coal and iron, the cotton +factories, the woollen trade. Great industrial cities have grown up in +the Celtic or semi-Celtic area--Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, +Bradford, Sheffield, Belfast, Aberdeen, Cardiff. The Celt--that is to +say, the mountaineer and the man of the untouched country--reproduces +his kind much more rapidly than the Teuton. The Highlander and the +Irishman swarm into Glasgow; the Irishman and the Welshman swarm into +Liverpool; the west-countryman into Bristol; Celts of all types into +London, Southampton, Newport, Birmingham, Sheffield. This eastward +return-wave of Celts upon the Teuton has leavened the whole mass; if you +look at the leaders of Radicalism in England you will find they bear, +almost without exception, true Celtic surnames. Chartists and Socialists +of the first generation were marshalled by men of Cymric descent, like +Ernest Jones and Robert Owen, or by pure-blooded Irishmen like Fergus +O'Connor. It is not a mere accident that the London Socialists of the +present day should be led by Welshmen like William Morris, or by the +eloquent brogue of Bernard Shaw's audacious oratory. We Celts now lurk +in every corner of Britain; we have permeated it with our ideas; we have +inspired it with our aspirations; we have roused the Celtic remnant in +the south-east itself to a sense of their wrongs; and we are marching +to-day, all abreast, to the overthrow of feudalism. If Lord Salisbury +thinks we are a Celtic fringe he is vastly mistaken. But he doesn't +really think so: 'tis a piece of his ponderous Saxon humour. Talk of +"Batavian grace," indeed! Well, the Cecils came first from the fens of +Lincolnshire. + + + + +XIX. + +_IMAGINATION AND RADICALS._ + + +Conservatism, I believe, is mainly due to want of imagination. + +In saying this, I do not for a moment mean to deny the other and equally +obvious truth that Conservatism, in the lump, is a euphemism for +selfishness. But the two ideas have much in common. Selfish people are +apt to be unimaginative: unimaginative people are apt to be selfish. +Clearly to realise the condition of the unfortunate is the beginning of +philanthropy. Clearly to realise the rights of others is the beginning +of justice. "Put yourself in his place" strikes the keynote of ethics. +Stupid people can only see their own side of a question: they cannot +even imagine any other side possible. So, as a rule, stupid people are +Conservative. They cling to what they have; they dread revision, +redistribution, justice. Also, if a man has imagination he is likely to +be Radical, even though selfish; while if he has no imagination he is +likely to be Conservative, even though otherwise good and kind-hearted. +Some men are Conservative from defects of heart, while some are +Conservative from defects of head. Conversely, most imaginative people +are Radical; for even a bad man may sometimes uphold the side of right +because he has intelligence enough to understand that things might be +better managed in the future for all than they are in the present. + +But when I say that Conservatism is mainly due to want of imagination, I +mean more than that. Most people are wholly unable to conceive in their +own minds any state of things very different from the one they have been +born and brought up in. The picturing power is lacking. They can +conceive the past, it is true, more or less vaguely--because they have +always heard things once were so, and because the past is generally +realisable still by the light of the relics it has bequeathed to the +present. But they can't at all conceive the future. Imagination fails +them. Innumerable difficulties crop up for them in the way of every +proposed improvement. Before there was any County Council for London, +such people thought municipal government for the metropolis an insoluble +problem. Now that Home Rule quivers trembling in the balance, they think +it would pass the wit of man to devise in the future a federal league +for the component elements of the United Kingdom; in spite of the fact +that the wit of man has already devised one for the States of the Union, +for the Provinces of the Dominion, for the component Cantons of the +Swiss Republic. To the unimaginative mind difficulties everywhere seem +almost insuperable. It shrinks before trifles. "Impossible!" said +Napoleon. "There is no such word in my dictionary!" He had been trained +in the school of the French Revolution--which was _not_ carried out by +unimaginative pettifoggers. + +To people without imagination any change you propose seems at once +impracticable. They are ready to bring up endless objections to the mode +of working it. There would be this difficulty in the way, and that +difficulty, and the other one. You would think, to hear them talk, the +world as it stands was absolutely perfect, and moved without a hitch in +all its bearings. They don't see that every existing institution just +bristles with difficulties--and that the difficulties are met or got +over somehow. Often enough while they swallow the camel of existing +abuses they strain at some gnat which they fancy they see flying in at +the window of Utopia or of the Millennium. "If your reform were +carried," they say in effect, "we should, doubtless, get rid of such and +such flagrant evils; but the streets in November would be just as muddy +as ever, and slight inconvenience might be caused in certain improbable +contingencies to the duke or the cotton-spinner, the squire or the +mine-owner." They omit to note that much graver inconvenience is caused +at present to the millions who are shut out from the fields and the +sunshine, who are sweated all day for a miserable wage, or who are +forced to pay fancy prices for fuel to gratify the rapacity of a handful +of coal-grabbers. + +Lack of imagination makes people fail to see the evils that are; makes +them fail to realise the good that might be. + +I often fancy to myself what such people would say if land had always +been communal property, and some one now proposed to hand it over +absolutely to the dukes, the squires, the game-preservers, and the +coal-owners. "'Tis impossible," they would exclaim; "the thing wouldn't +be workable. Why, a single landlord might own half Westminster! A single +landlord might own all Sutherlandshire! The hypothetical Duke of +Westminster might put bars to the streets; he might impede locomotion; +he might refuse to let certain people to whom he objected take up their +residence in any part of his territory; he might prevent them from +following their own trades or professions; he might even descend to such +petty tyranny as tabooing brass plates on the doors of houses. And what +would you do then? The thing isn't possible. The Duke of Sutherland, +again, might shut up all Sutherlandshire; might turn whole vast tracts +into grouse-moor or deer-forest; might prevent harmless tourists from +walking up the mountains. And surely free Britons would never submit to +_that_. The bare idea is ridiculous. The squire of a rural parish might +turn out the Dissenters; might refuse to let land for the erection of +chapels; might behave like a petty King Augustus of Scilly. Indeed, +there would be nothing to prevent an American alien from buying up +square miles of purple heather in Scotland, and shutting the inhabitants +of these British Isles out of their own inheritance. Sites might be +refused for needful public purposes; fancy prices might be asked for +pure cupidity. Speculators would job land for the sake of unearned +increment; towns would have to grow as landlords willed, irrespective of +the wants or convenience of the community. Theoretically, I don't even +see that Lord Rothschild mightn't buy up the whole area of Middlesex, +and turn London into a Golden House of Nero. Your scheme can't be +worked. The anomalies are too obvious." + +They are indeed. Yet I doubt whether the unimaginative would quite have +foreseen them: the things they foresee are less real and possible. But +they urge against every reform such objections as I have parodied; and +they urge them about matters of far less vital importance. The existing +system exists; they know its abuses, its checks and its counter-checks. +The system of the future does not yet exist; and they can't imagine how +its far slighter difficulties could ever be smoothed over. They are not +the least staggered by the appalling reality of the Duke of Westminster +or the Duke of Sutherland; not the least staggered by the sinister power +of a conspiracy of coal-owners to paralyse a great nation with the +horrors of a fuel famine. But they _are_ staggered by their bogey that +State ownership of land might give rise to a certain amount of jobbery +and corruption on the part of officials. They think it better that the +dukes and the squires should get all the rent than that the State should +get most of it, with the possibility of a percentage being corruptly +embezzled by the functionaries who manage it. This shows want of +imagination. It is as though one should say to one's clerk, "All your +income shall be paid in future to the Duke of Westminster, and not to +yourself, for his sole use and benefit; because we, your employers, are +afraid that if we give you your salary in person, you may let some of it +be stolen from you or badly invested." How transparently absurd! We want +our income ourselves, to spend as we please. We would rather risk losing +one per cent. of it in bad investments than let all be swallowed up by +the dukes and the landlords. + +It is the same throughout. Want of imagination makes people exaggerate +the difficulties and dangers of every new scheme, because they can't +picture constructively to themselves the details of its working. Men +with great picturing power, like Shelley or Robespierre, are always very +advanced Radicals, and potentially revolutionists. The difficulty _they_ +see is not the difficulty of making the thing work, but the difficulty +of convincing less clear-headed people of its desirability and +practicability. A great many Conservatives, who are Conservative from +selfishness, would be Radicals if only they could feel for themselves +that even their own petty interests and pleasures are not really +menaced. The squires and the dukes can't realise how much happier even +they would be in a free, a beautiful, and a well-organised community. +Imaginative minds can picture a world where everything is so ordered +that life comes as a constant æsthetic delight to everybody. They know +that that world could be realised to-morrow--if only all others could +picture it to themselves as vividly as they do. But they also know that +it can only be attained in the end by long ages of struggle, and by slow +evolution of the essentially imaginative ethical faculty. For right +action depends most of all, in the last resort, upon a graphic +conception of the feelings of others. + + + + +XX. + +_ABOUT ABROAD._ + + +The place known as Abroad is not nearly so nice a country to live in as +England. The people who inhabit Abroad are called Foreigners. They are +in every way and at all times inferior to Englishmen. + +These Post-Prandials used once to be provided with a sting in their +tail, like the common scorpion. By way of change, I turn them out now +with a sting in their head, like the common mosquito. Mosquitoes are +much less dangerous than scorpions, but they're a deal more irritating. + +Not that I am sanguine enough to expect I shall irritate Englishmen. +Your Englishman is far too cock-sure of the natural superiority of +Britons to Foreigners, the natural superiority of England to Abroad, +ever to be irritated by even the gentlest criticism. He accepts it all +with lordly indifference. He brushes it aside as the elephant might +brush aside the ineffective gadfly. No proboscis can pierce that +pachydermatous hide of his. If you praise him to his face, he accepts +your praise as his obvious due, with perfect composure and without the +slightest elation. If you blame him in aught, he sets it down to your +ignorance and mental inferiority. You say to him, "Oh, Englishman, you +are great; you are wise; you are rich beyond comparison. You are noble; +you are generous; you are the prince among nations." He smiles a calm +smile, and thinks you a very sensible fellow. But you add, "Oh, my lord, +if I may venture to say so, there is a smudge on your nose, which I make +bold to attribute to the settlement of a black on your intelligent +countenance." He is not angry. He is not even contemptuously amused. He +responds, "My friend, you are wrong. There is never a smudge on my +immaculate face. No blacks fly in London. The sky is as clear there in +November as in August. All is pure and serene and beautiful." You +answer, "Oh, my lord, I admit the force of your profound reasoning. You +light the gas at ten in the morning only to show all the world you can +afford to burn it." At that, he gropes his way along Pall Mall to his +club, and tells the men he meets there how completely he silenced you. + +And yet, My Lord Elephant, there is use in mosquitoes. Mr. Mattieu +Williams once discovered the final cause of fleas. Certain people, said +he, cannot be induced to employ the harmless necessary tub. For them, +Providence designed the lively flea. He compels them to scratch +themselves. By so doing they rouse the skin to action and get rid of +impurities. Now, this British use of the word Abroad is a smudge on the +face of the otherwise perfect Englishman. Perchance a mosquito-bite may +induce him to remove it with a little warm water and a cambric +pocket-handkerchief. + +To most Englishmen, the world divides itself naturally into two unequal +and non-equivalent portions--Abroad and England. Of these two, Abroad is +much the larger country; but England, though smaller, is vastly more +important. Abroad is inhabited by Frenchmen and Germans, who speak their +own foolish and chattering languages. Part of it is likewise pervaded by +Chinamen, who wear pigtails; and the outlying districts belong to the +poor heathen, chiefly interesting as a field of missionary enterprise, +and a possible market for Manchester piece-goods. We sometimes invest +our money abroad, but then we are likely to get it swallowed up in +Mexicans or Egyptian Unified. If you ask most people what has become of +Tom, they will answer at once with the specific information, "Oh, Tom +has gone Abroad." I have one stereotyped rejoinder to an answer like +that. "What part of Abroad, please?" That usually stumps them. Abroad is +Abroad; and like the gentleman who was asked in examination to "name the +minor prophets," they decline to make invidious distinctions. It is +nothing to them whether he is tea-planting in the Himalayas, or +sheep-farming in Australia, or orange-growing in Florida, or ranching in +Colorado. If he is not in England, why then he is elsewhere; and +elsewhere is Abroad, one and indivisible. + +In short, Abroad answers in space to that well-known and definite date, +the Olden Time, in chronology. + +People will tell you, "Foreigners do this"; "Foreigners do that"; +"Foreigners smoke so much"; "Foreigners always take coffee for +breakfast." "Indeed," I love to answer; "I've never observed it myself +in Central Asia." 'Tis Parson Adams and the Christian religion. Nine +English people out of ten, when they talk of Abroad, mean what they call +the Continent; and when they talk of the Continent, they mean France, +Germany, Switzerland, Italy; in short, the places most visited by +Englishmen when they consent now and again to go Abroad for a holiday. +"I don't like Abroad," a lady once said to me on her return from Calais. +Foreigners, in like manner, means Frenchmen, Germans, Swiss, Italians. +In the country called Abroad, the most important parts are the parts +nearest England; of the people called Foreigners, the most important are +those who dress like Englishmen. The dim black lands that lie below the +horizon are hardly worth noticing. + +Would it surprise you to learn that most people live in Asia? Would it +surprise you to learn that most people are poor benighted heathen, and +that, of the remainder, most people are Mahommedans, and that of the +Christians, who come next, most people are Roman Catholics, and that, of +the other Christian sects, most people belong to the Greek Church, and +that, last of all, we get Protestants, more particularly Anglicans, +Wesleyans, Baptists? Have you ever really realised the startling fact +that England is an island off the coast of Europe? that Europe is a +peninsula at the end of Asia? that France, Germany, Italy, are the +fringe of Russia? Have you ever really realised that the +English-speaking race lives mostly in America? that the country is +vastly more populous than London? that our class is the froth and the +scum of society? Think these things out, and try to measure them on the +globe. And when you speak of Abroad, do please specify what part of it. + +Abroad is not all alike. There are differences between Poland, Peru, and +Palestine. What is true of France is not true of Fiji. Distinguish +carefully between Timbuctoo, Tobolsk, and Toledo. + +It is not our insularity that makes us so insular. 'Tis a gift of the +gods, peculiar to Englishmen. The other inhabitants of these Isles of +Britain are comparatively cosmopolitan. The Scotchman goes everywhere; +the world is his oyster. Ireland is an island still more remote than +Great Britain; but the Irishman has never been so insular as the +English. I put that down in part to his Catholicism: his priests have +been wheels in a world-wide system; his relations have been with Douai, +St. Omer, and Rome; his bishops have gone pilgrimages and sat on Vatican +Councils; his kinsmen are the MacMahons in France, the O'Donnels in +Spain, the Taafes in Austria. Even in the days of the Regency this was +so: look at Lever and his heroes! When England drank port, County Clare +drank claret. But ever since the famine, Ireland has expanded. Every +Irishman has cousins in Canada, in Australia, in New York, in San +Francisco. The Empire is Irish, with the exception of India; and India, +of course, is a Scotch dependency. Irishmen and Scotchmen have no such +feelings about Abroad and its Foreigners as Londoners entertain. But +Englishmen never quite get over the sense that everybody must needs +divide the world into England and Elsewhere. To the end no Englishman +really grasps the fact that to Frenchmen and Germans he himself is a +foreigner. I have met John Bulls who had passed years in Italy, but who +spoke of the countrymen of Cæsar and Dante and Leonardo and Garibaldi +with the contemptuous toleration one might feel towards a child or an +Andaman Islander. These Italians could build Giotto's campanile; could +paint the Transfiguration; could carve the living marble on the tombs of +the Medici; could produce the Vita Nuova; could beget Galileo, Galvani, +Beccaria; but still--they were Foreigners. Providence in its wisdom has +decreed that they must live Abroad--just as it has decreed that a +comprehension of the decimal system and its own place in the world +should be limitations eternally imposed upon the English intellect. + + + + +XXI. + +_WHY ENGLAND IS BEAUTIFUL._ + + +As I strolled across the moor this afternoon towards Waverley, I saw +Jones was planting out that bare hillside of his with Douglas pines and +Scotch firs and new strains of silver birches. They will improve the +landscape. And I thought as I scanned them, "How curious that most +people entirely overlook this constant betterment and beautifying of +England! You hear them talk much of the way bricks and mortar are +invading the country; you never hear anything of this slow and silent +process of planting and developing which has made England into the +prettiest and one of the most beautiful countries in Europe." + +What's that you say? "Astonished to find I have a good word of any sort +to put in for England!" Why, dear me, how irrational you are! I just +_love_ England. Can any man with eyes in his head and a soul for beauty +do otherwise? England and Italy--there you have the two great glories of +Europe. Italy for towns, for art, for man's handicraft; England for +country, for nature, for green lanes and lush copses. Was it not one +that loved Italy well who sighed in Italy-- + + "Oh, to be in England now that April's there?" + +And who that loves Italy, and knows England, too, does not echo +Browning's wish when April comes round again on dusty Tuscan hilltops? +At Perugia, last spring, through weeks of tramontana, how one yearned +for the sight of yellow English primroses! Not love England, indeed! +Milton's England, Shelley's England; the England of the skylark, the +dog-rose, the honeysuckle! Not love England, forsooth! Why, I love every +flower, every blade of grass in it. Devonshire lane, close-cropped down, +rich water-meadow, bickering brooklet: ah me, how they tug at one's +heartstrings in Africa! No son of the soil can love England as those +love her very stones who have come from newer lands over sea to her +ivy-clad church-towers, her mouldering castles, her immemorial elms, the +berries on her holly, the may in her hedgerows. Are not all these bound +up in our souls with each cherished line of Shakespeare and Wordsworth? +do they not rouse faint echoes of Gray and Goldsmith? Even before I ever +set foot in England, how I longed to behold my first cowslip, my first +foxglove! And now, I have wandered through the footpaths that run +obliquely across English pastures, picking meadowsweet and fritillaries, +for half a lifetime, till I have learned by heart every leaf and every +petal. You think because I dislike one squalid village--"The Wen," stout +English William Cobbett delighted to call it--I don't love England. You +think because I see some spots on the sun of the English character, I +don't love Englishmen. Why, how can any man who speaks the English +tongue, and boasts one drop of English blood in his veins, not be proud +of England? England, the mother of poets and thinkers; England, that +gave us Newton, Darwin, Spencer; England, that holds in her lap Oxford, +Salisbury, Durham; England of daisy and heather and pine-wood! Are we +hewn out of granite, to be cold before England? + +Upon my soul, your unseasonable interruption has almost made me forget +what I was going to say; it has made me grow warm, and drop into poetry. + +England, I take it, is certainly the prettiest country in Europe. It is +almost the most beautiful. I say "almost," because I bethink me of +Norway and Switzerland. I say "country," because I bethink me of Rome, +Venice, Florence. But, taking it as country, and as country alone, +nothing else approaches it. Have you ever thought why? Man made the +town, says the proverb, and God made the country. Not so in England. +There, man made the country, and beautified it exceedingly. In itself, +the land of south-eastern England is absolutely the same as the land of +Northern France--that hideous tract about Boulogne and Amiens which we +traverse in silence every time we run across by Calais to Paris. Chalk +and clay and sandstone stretch continuously under sea from Kent and +Sussex to Flanders and Picardy. The Channel burst through, and made the +Straits of Dover; but the land on either side was and still is +geologically and physically identical. What has made the difference? +Man, the planter and gardener. England is beautiful by copse and +hedgerow, by pine-clad ridge and willow-covered hollow, by meadows +interspersed with great spreading oaks, by pastures where drowsy sheep, +deep-fleeced and ruddy-stained, huddle under the shade of ancestral +beech-trees. Its loveliness is human. In itself, I believe, the actual +contour of England cannot once have been much better than the contour of +northern France--though nowadays it is hard indeed to realise it. +Judicious planting, and a constant eye to picturesque effect in scenery, +have made England what she is--the garden of Europe. + +Of course there are parts of the country which owed, and still owe, +their beauty to their wildness--Dartmoor, Exmoor, the West Riding of +Yorkshire, the Surrey hills, the Peak in Derbyshire. Yet even these +depend more than you would believe, when you take them in detail, on the +art of the forester. The view from Leith Hill embraces John Evelyn's +woods at Wotton: the larches that cover one Jura-like gorge were set +there well within your and my memory. But elsewhere in England the hand +of man has done absolutely everything. The American, when he first +visits England, is charmed on his way up from Liverpool to London by the +exquisite air of antique cultivation and soft rural beauty. The very +sward is moss-like. Thoroughly wild country, indeed, unless bold and +mountainous, does not often please one. It is apt to be bare, +unattractive, and desolate. Witness the Veldt, the Steppes, the +prairies. You may go through miles and miles of the States and Canada, +where the wildness for the most part rather repels than delights you. I +do not say everywhere; in places the wilderness will blossom like a +rose; boggy margins of lakes, fallen trunks in the forest overgrown with +wild flowers, make scenes unattainable in our civilised England. Even +our roughest scenery is comparatively man-made: our heaths are game +preserves; our woodlands are thinned of superfluous underbrush; our +moors are relieved by deliberate plantations. But England in her own way +is unique and unrivalled. Such parks, such greensward, such grassy +lawns, such wooded tilth, are wholly unknown elsewhere. Compare the +blank fields and long poplar-fringed high roads of central France with +our Devon or our Warwickshire, and you get at once a just measure of the +vast, the unspeakable difference. + +And man has done it all. Alone he did it. Often as I take my walks +abroad--and when I say abroad I mean in England--I see men at work +dotting about exotics of variegated foliage on some barren hillside, and +I say to myself, "There, before my eyes, goes on the beautifying of +England." Thirty years ago, the North Downs near Dorking were one bare +stretch of white chalky sheep-walk; half of them still remain so; the +other half has been planted irregularly with copses and spinneys, which +serve to throw up and enhance the beauty of the unaltered intervals. +Beech and larch in autumn tints set off smooth patches of grass and +juniper. Within the last few years, the downs about Leatherhead have +been similarly diversified. Much of the loveliness of rural England is +due, one must frankly confess, to the big landlords. Though the great +houses love us not, we must allow at least that the great houses have +cared for the trees in the hedge-rows, and for the timber in the +meadows, as well as for the covert that sheltered their pheasants, their +foxes, and their gamekeepers. But almost as much of England's charm is +due to individual small owners or occupiers. 'Tis they who have planted +the grounds about villa or cottage; they who have stocked the sweet old +gardens of yew and box, of hollyhock and peony; they who have given us +the careless rustic grace of the English village. Still, one way or +another, man has done it all, whether in grange or in manor-house, in +palatial estate or in labourer's holding. Look at the French or Belgian +hamlet by the side of the English one; look at the French or Belgian +farm by the side of our English wealth in wooded glen or sheltered +homestead. Bricks and mortar are _not_ covering the whole of England. +That is only true of the squalid purlieus and outliers of London, +whither Londoners gravitate by mutual attraction. If you _will_ go and +live in a dingy suburb, you can't reasonably complain that all the +world's suburban. Being the most cheerful of pessimists, a dweller in +the country all the days of my life, I have no hesitation in expressing +my profound conviction that within my memory more has been done to +beautify than to uglify England. Only, the beautification has been quiet +and unobtrusive, while the uglification has been obvious and +concentrated. It takes half a year to jerry-build a dingy street, but it +takes a decade for newly-planted trees to give the woodland air by +imperceptible stages to a stretch of country. + + + + +XXII. + +_ANENT ART PRODUCTION._ + + +Yesterday, at Bordighera, I strolled up the hills behind the town to +Sasso. It is a queer little cluster of gleaming white-washed houses that +top the crest of a steep ridge; and, like many other Italian villages, +it makes a brave show from a distance, though within it is full of evil +smells and all uncleanness. But I found it had a church--a picturesquely +ugly and dilapidated church; and without and within, this church was +decorated by inglorious hands with very naïve and rudimentary frescoes. +The Four Evangelists were there, in flowing blue robes; and the Four +Greater Prophets, with long white beards; and the Madonna, appearing in +most wooden clouds; and the Patron Saint tricked out for his Festa in +gorgeous holiday episcopal vestments. That was all--just the common +everyday Italian country church that everybody has seen turned out to +pattern with manufacturing regularity a hundred times over! Yet, as I +sat among the olive-terraces looking down the steep slope into the +Borghetto valley, and across the gorge to the green pines on the Cima, +it set me thinking. 'Tis a bad habit one falls into when one has nothing +better to turn one's mind to. + +We English, coming to Italy with our ideas fully formed about everything +on heaven and earth, naturally say to ourselves, "Great heart alive, +what sadly degraded frescoes! To think the art of Raphael and Andrea del +Sarto should degenerate even here, in their own land, to such a childish +level!" But we are wrong, for all that. It is Raphael and Andrea who +rose, not my poor nameless Sasso artists who sank and degenerated. Italy +was capable of producing her great painters in her own great day, just +because in thousands of such Italian villages there were work-a-day +artisans in form and colour capable of turning out such ridiculous daubs +as those that decorate this tawdry church on the Ligurian hilltop. + +We English, in short, think of it all the wrong way uppermost. We think +of it topsy-turvy, beginning at the end, while evolution invariably +begins at the beginning. The Raphaels and Andreas, to put it in brief, +were the final flower and fullest outcome of whole races of church +decorators in infantile fresco. + +Everywhere you go in Italy, this truth is forced upon your attention +even to the present day. Art here is no exotic. It smacks of the soil; +it springs spontaneous, like a weed; it burgeons of itself out of the +heart of the people. Not high art, understand well; not the art of +Burne-Jones and Whistler and Puvis de Chavannes and Sar Peladan. +Commonplace everyday art, that is a trade and a handicraft, like the +joiner's or the shoemaker's. Look up at your ceiling; it's overrun with +festoons of crude red and blue flowers, or it's covered with cupids and +graces, or it bristles with arabesques and unmeaning phantasies. Every +wall is painted; every grotto decorated. Sham landscapes, sham loggias, +sham parapets are everywhere. The sham windows themselves are provided, +not only with sham blinds and sham curtains, but even with sham +coquettes making sham eyes or waving sham handkerchiefs at passers-by +below them. Open-air fresco painting is still a living art, an art +practised by hundreds and thousands of craftsmen, an art as alive as +cookery or weaving. The Italian decorates everything; his pottery, his +house, his church, his walls, his palaces. And the only difference he +feels between the various cases is, that in some of them a higher type +of art is demanded by wealth and skill than in the others. No wonder, +therefore, he blossomed out at last into Michael Angelo's frescoes in +the Sistine Chapel! + +To us English, on the contrary, high art is something exotic, separate, +alone, _sui generis_. We never think of the plaster star in the middle +of our ceiling as belonging even to the same range of ideas as, say, the +frescoes in the Houses of Parliament. + +A nation in such a condition as that is never truly artistic. The artist +with us, even now, is an exceptional product. Art for a long time in +England had nothing at all to do with the life of the people. It was a +luxury for the rich, a curious thing for ladies' and gentlemen's +consumption, as purely artificial as the stuccoed Italian villa in which +they insisted on shivering in our chilly climate. And the pictures it +produced were wholly alien to the popular wants and the popular +feelings; they were part of an imported French, Italian, and Flemish +tradition. English art has only slowly outgrown this stage, just in +proportion as truly artistic handicrafts have sprung up here and there, +and developed themselves among us. Go into the Cantagalli or the Ginori +potteries at Florence, and you will see mere boys and girls, untrained +children of the people, positively disporting themselves, with childish +glee, in painting plates and vases. You will see them, not slavishly +copying a given design of the master's, but letting their fancy run riot +in lithe curves and lines, in griffons and dragons and floral +twists-and-twirls of playful extravagance. They revel in ornament. Now, +it is out of the loins of people like these that great artists spring by +nature--not State-taught, artificial, made-up artists, but the real +spontaneous product, the Lippi and Botticelli, the hereditary craftsmen, +the born painters. And in England nowadays it is a significant fact that +a large proportion of the truest artists--the innovators, the men who +are working out a new style of English art for themselves, in accordance +with the underlying genius of the British temperament, have sprung from +the great industrial towns--Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester--where +artistic handicrafts are now once more renascent. I won't expose myself +to further ridicule by repeating here (what I nevertheless would firmly +believe, were it not for the scoffers) that a large proportion of them +are of Celtic descent--belong, in other words, to that section of the +complex British nationality in which the noble traditions of decorative +art never wholly died out--that section which was never altogether +enslaved and degraded by the levelling and cramping and soul-destroying +influences of manufacturing industrialism. + +In Italy, art is endemic. In England, in spite of all we have done to +stimulate it of late years with guano and other artificial manures, it +is still sporadic. + +The case of music affords us an apt parallel. Till very lately, I +believe, our musical talent in Britain came almost entirely from the +cathedral towns. And why? Because there, and there alone, till quite a +recent date, there existed a hereditary school of music, a training of +musicians from generation to generation among the mass of the people. +Not only were the cathedral services themselves a constant school of +taste in music, but successive generations of choristers and organists +gave rise to something like a musical caste in our episcopal centres. It +is true, our vocalists have always come mainly from Wales, from the +Scotch Highlands, from Yorkshire, from Ireland. But for that there is, I +believe, a sufficient physical reason. For these are clearly the most +mountainous parts of the United Kingdom; and the clear mountain air +seems to produce on the average a better type of human larynx than the +mists of the level. The men of the lowland, say the Tyrolese, croak like +frogs in their marshes; but the men of the upland sing like nightingales +on their tree-tops. And indeed, it would seem as if the mountain people +were always calling to one another across intervening valleys, always +singing and whistling and shouting over their work in a way that gives +tone to the whole vocal mechanism. Witness Welsh penillion singing. And +wherever this fine physical endowment goes hand in hand with a delicate +ear and a poetic temperament, you get your great vocalist, your Sims +Reeves or your Patti. But in England proper it was only in the cathedral +towns that music was a living reality to the people; and it was in the +cathedral towns, accordingly, during the dark ages of art, that +exceptional musical ability was most likely to show itself. More +particularly was this so on the Welsh border, where the two favouring +influences of race and practice coincided--at Gloucester, Worcester, +Hereford, long known for the most musical towns in England. + +Cause and effect act and react. Art is a product of the artistic +temperament. The artistic temperament is a product of the long +hereditary cultivation of art. And where a broad basis of this +temperament exists among the people, owing to intermixture of +artistically-minded stocks, one is liable to get from time to time that +peculiar combination of characteristics--sensuous, intellectual, +spiritual--which results in the highest and truest artist. + + + + +XXIII. + +_A GLIMPSE INTO UTOPIA._ + + +You ask me what would be the position of women in an ideal community. +Well, after dinner, imagination may take free flight. Suppose, till the +coffee comes, we discuss that question. + +Woman, I take it, differs from man in being the sex sacrificed to +reproductive necessities. + +Whenever I say this, I notice my good friends, the women's-rights women, +with whom I am generally in pretty close accord, look annoyed and hurt. +I can never imagine why. I regard this point as an original inequality +of nature, which it should be the duty of human society to redress as +far as possible, like all other inequalities. Women are not on the +average as tall as men; nor can they lift as heavy weights, or undergo, +as a rule, so much physical labour. Yet civilised society recognises +their equal right to the protection of our policemen, and endeavours to +neutralise their physical inequality by the collective guarantee of all +the citizens. In the same way I hold that women in the lump have a +certain disadvantage laid upon them by nature, in the necessity that +some or most among them should bear children; and this disadvantage I +think the men in a well-ordered State would do their best to compensate +by corresponding privileges. If women endure on our behalf the great +public burden of providing future citizens for the community, the least +we can do for them in return is to render that burden as honourable and +as little onerous as possible. I can never see that there is anything +unchivalrous in frankly admitting these facts of nature; on the +contrary, it seems to me the highest possible chivalry to recognise in +woman, as woman, high or low, rich or poor, the potential mother, who +has infinite claims on that ground alone to our respect and sympathy. + +Nor do I mean to deny, either, that the right to be a mother is a sacred +and peculiar privilege of women. In a well-ordered community, I believe, +that privilege will be valued high, and will be denied to no fitting +mother by any man. While maternity is from one point of view a painful +duty, a burden imposed upon a single sex for the good of the whole, it +is from another point of view a privilege and a joy, and from a third +point of view the natural fulfilment of a woman's own instincts, the +complement of her personality, the healthy exercise of her normal +functions. Just as in turn the man's part in providing physically for +the support of the woman and the children is from one point of view a +burden imposed upon him, but from another point of view a precious +privilege of fatherhood, and from a third point of view the proper +outlet for his own energy and his own faculties. + +In an ideal State, then, I take it, almost every woman would be a +mother, and almost every woman a mother of not more than about four +children. An average of something like four is necessary, we know, to +keep up population, and to allow for infant mortality, inevitable +celibates, and so forth. Few women in such a State would abstain from +maternity, save those who felt themselves physically or morally unfitted +for the task; for in proportion as they abstained, either the State must +lack citizens to carry on its life, or an extra and undue burden would +have to be cast upon some other woman. And it may well be doubted +whether in a well-ordered and civilised State any one woman could +adequately bear, bring up, and superintend the education of more than +four young citizens. Hence we may conclude that while no woman save the +unfit would voluntarily shirk the duties and privileges of maternity, +few (if any) women would make themselves mothers of more than four +children. Four would doubtless grow to be regarded in such a community +as the moral maximum; while it is even possible that improved +sanitation, by diminishing infant mortality and adult ineffectiveness, +might make a maximum of three sufficient to keep up the normal strength +of the population. + +In an ideal community, again, the woman who looked forward to this great +task on behalf of the race would strenuously prepare herself for it +beforehand from childhood upward. She would not be ashamed of such +preparation; on the contrary, she would be proud of it. Her duty would +be no longer "to suckle fools and chronicle small beer," but to produce +and bring up strong, vigorous, free, able, and intelligent citizens. +Therefore, she must be nobly educated for her great and important +function--educated physically, intellectually, morally. Let us forecast +her future. She will be well clad in clothes that allow of lithe and +even development of the body; she will be taught to run, to play games, +to dance, to swim; she will be supple and healthy, finely moulded and +knit in limb and organ, beautiful in face and features, splendid and +graceful in the native curves of her lissom figure. No cramping +conventions will be allowed to cage her; no worn-out moralities will be +tied round her neck like a mill-stone to hamper her. Intellectually she +will be developed to the highest pitch of which in each individual case +she proves herself capable--educated, not in the futile linguistic +studies which have already been tried and found wanting for men, but in +realities and existences, in the truths of life, in recognition of her +own and our place among immensities. She will know something worth +knowing of the world she lives in, its past and its present, the +material of which it is made, the forces that inform it, the energies +that thrill through it. Something, too, of the orbs that surround it, of +the sun that lights it, of the stars that gleam upon it, of the seasons +that govern it. Something of the plants and herbs that clothe it, of the +infinite tribes of beast and bird that dwell upon it. Something of the +human body, its structure and functions, the human soul, its origin and +meaning. Something of human societies in the past, of institutions and +laws, of creeds and ideas, of the birth of civilisation, of progress and +evolution. Something, too, of the triumphs of art, of sculpture and +painting, of the literature and the poetry of all races and ages. Her +mind will be stored with the best thoughts of the thinkers. Morally, she +will be free; her emotional development, instead of being narrowly +checked and curbed, will have been fostered and directed. She will have +a heart to love, and be neither ashamed nor afraid of it. Thus nurtured +and trained, she will be a fit mate for a free man, a fit mother for +free children, a fit citizen for a free and equal community. + +Her life, too, will be her own. She will know no law but her higher +instincts. No man will be able to buy or to cajole her. And in order +that she may possess this freedom to perfection, that she may be no +husband's slave, no father's obedient and trembling daughter, I can see +but one way: the whole body of men in common must support in perfect +liberty the whole body of women. The collective guarantee must protect +them against individual tyranny. Thus only can women be safe from the +bribery of the rich husband, from the dictation of the father from whom +there are "expectations." In the ideal State, I take it, every woman +will be absolutely at liberty to dispose of herself as she will, and no +man will be able to command or to purchase her, to influence her in any +way, save by pure inclination. + +In such a State, most women would naturally desire to be mothers. Being +healthy, strong, and free, they would wish to realise the utmost +potentialities of their own organisms. And when they had done their duty +as mothers, they would not care much, I imagine, for any further outlets +for their superfluous energy. I don't doubt they would gratify to the +full their artistic sensibilities and their thirst for knowledge. They +would also perform their duties to the State as citizens, no less than +the men. But having done these things I fancy they would have done +enough; the margin of their life would be devoted to dignified and +cultivated leisure. They would leave to men the tilling of the soil, the +building and navigation of marine or aerial ships, the working of mines +and metals, the erection of houses, the construction of roads, railways, +and communications, perhaps even the entire manufacturing work of the +community. Medicine and the care of the sick might still be a charge to +some; education to most; art, in one form or another, to almost all. But +the hard work of the world might well be left to men, upon whom it more +naturally and fitly devolves. No hateful drudgery of "earning a +livelihood." Women might rest content with being free and beautiful, +cultivated and artistic, good citizens to the State, the mothers and +guardians of the coming generations. If any woman asks more than this, +she is really asking less--for she is asking that a heavier burden +should be cast on some or most of her sex, in order to relieve the +minority of a duty which to well-organised women ought to be a +privilege. + +"But all this has no practical bearing!" I beg your pardon. An ideal has +often two practical uses. In the first place, it gives us a pattern +towards which we may approximate. In the second place, it gives us a +standard by which we may judge whether any step we propose to take is a +step forward or a step backward. + + + + +XXIV. + +_OF SECOND CHAMBERS._ + + +A Second Chamber acts as a drag. Progress is always uphill work. So we +are at pains to provide a drag beforehand--for an uphill journey. + +There, in one word, you have the whole philosophy of Second Chambers. + +How, then, did the nations of Europe come to hamper their legislative +systems with such a useless, such an illogical adjunct? In sackcloth and +ashes, let us confess the truth--we English led them astray: on us the +shame; to us the dishonour. Theorists, indeed (wise after the fact, as +is the wont of theorists), have discovered or invented an imaginary +function for Second Chambers. They are to preserve the people, it seems, +from the fatal consequences of their own precipitancy. As though the +people--you and I--the vast body of citizens, were a sort of foolish +children, to be classed with infants, women, criminals, and imbeciles (I +adopt the chivalrous phraseology of an Act of Parliament), incapable of +knowing their own minds for two minutes together, and requiring to be +kept straight by the fatherly intervention of Dukes of Marlborough or +Marquises of Ailesbury. The ideal picture of the level-headed peers +restraining the youthful impetuosity of the representatives of the +people from committing to-day some rash act which they would gladly +repent and repeal to-morrow, is both touching and edifying. But it +exists only in the minds of the philosophers, who find a reason for +everything just because it is there. Members of Parliament, I have +observed, seem to know their own minds every inch as well as earls--nay, +even as marquises. + +The plain fact of the matter is, all the Second Chambers in the world +are directly modelled upon the House of Lords, that Old Man of the Sea +whom England, the weary Titan, is now striving so hard to shake off her +shoulders. The mother of Parliaments is responsible for every one of +them. Senates and Upper Houses are just the result of irrational +Anglomania. When constitutional government began to exist, men turned +unanimously to the English Constitution as their model and pattern. That +was perfectly natural. Evolutionists know that evolution never proceeds +on any other plan than by reproduction, with modification, of existing +structures. America led the way. She said, "England has a House of +Commons; therefore we must have a House of Representatives. England has +also a House of Lords; nature has not dowered us with those exalted +products, but we will do what we can; we will imitate it by a Senate." +Monarchical France followed her lead; so did Belgium, Italy, +civilisation in general. I believe even Japan rejoices to-day in the +august dignity of a Second Chamber. But mark now the irony of it. They +all of them did this thing to be entirely English. And just about the +time when they had completed the installation of their peers or their +senators, England, who set the fashion, began to discover in turn she +could manage a great deal better herself without them. + +And then what do the philosophers do? Why, they prove to you the +necessity of a Second Chamber by pointing to the fact that all civilised +nations have got one--in imitation of England. Furthermore, it being +their way to hunt up abstruse and recondite reasons for what is on the +face of it ridiculous, they argue that a Second Chamber is a necessary +wheel in the mechanism of popular representative government. A foolish +phrase, which has come down to us from antiquity, represents the +populace as inevitably "fickle," a changeable mob, to be restrained by +the wisdom of the seniors and optimates. As a matter of fact, the +populace is never anything of the sort. It is dogged, slow, +conservative, hard to move; it advances step by step, a patient, +sure-footed beast of burden; and when once it has done a thing, it never +goes back upon it. I believe this silly fiction of the "fickleness" of +the mob is mainly due to the equally silly fictions of prejudiced Greek +oligarchs about the Athenian assembly--which was an assembly of +well-to-do and cultivated slave-owners. I do not swallow all that +Thucydides chooses to tell us in his one-sided caricature about Cleon's +appointment to the command at Sphacteria, or about the affair of +Mitylene; and even if I did, I think it has nothing to do with the +question. But on such utterly exploded old-world ideas is the whole +modern argument of the Second Chamber founded. + +Does anybody really believe great nations are so incapable of managing +their own affairs for themselves through their duly-elected +representatives that they are compelled to check their own boyish ardour +by means of the acts of an irresponsible and non-elective body? Does +anybody believe that the House of Commons works too fast, and gets +through its public business too hurriedly? Does anybody believe we +improve things in England at such a break-neck pace that we require the +assistance of Lord Salisbury and Lord St. Leonards to prevent us from +rushing straight down a steep place into the sea, like the swine of +Gadara? If they do, I congratulate them on their psychological acumen +and their political wisdom. + +What the Commons want is not a drag, but a goad--nay, rather, a +snow-plough. + +No; the plain truth of the matter is this: all the Second Chambers in +the world owe their existence, not to any deliberate plan or reason, but +to the mere accident that the British nobles, not having a room big +enough to sit in with the Commons, took to sitting separately, and +transacted their own business as a distinct assembly. With so much +wisdom are the kingdoms of the earth governed! How else could any one in +his senses have devised the idea of creating one deliberative body on +purpose to mutilate or destroy the work of another? to produce from time +to time a periodical crisis or a periodical deadlock? There is not a +country in the world with a Second Chamber that doesn't twice a year +kick and plunge to get rid of it. + +The House of Lords was once a reality. It consisted of the +ecclesiastical hierarchy--the bishops and mitred abbots; with the +official hierarchy--the great nobles, who were also great satraps of +provinces, and great military commanders. It was thus mainly made up of +practical life-members, appointed by merit. The peers, lay and +spiritual, were the men who commended themselves to the sovereign as +able administrators. Gradually, with prolonged peace, the hereditary +element choked and swamped the nominated element. The abbots +disappeared, the lords multiplied. The peer ceased to be the leader of a +shire, and sank into a mere idle landowner. Wealth alone grew at last to +be a title to the peerage. The House of Lords became a House of +Landlords. And the English people submitted to the claim of +irresponsible wealth or irresponsible acres to exercise a veto upon +national legislation. The anomaly, utterly indefensible in itself, had +grown up so slowly that the public accepted it--nay, even defended it. +And other countries, accustomed to regard England--the Pecksniff among +nations--as a perfect model of political wisdom, swallowed half the +anomaly, and all the casuistical reasoning that was supposed to justify +it, without a murmur. But if we strip the facts bare from the glamour +that surrounds them, the plain truth is this--England allows an assembly +of hereditary nobodies to retard or veto its legislation nowadays, +simply because it never noticed the moment when a practical House of +administrative officers lapsed into a nest of plutocrats. + +Mend or end? As it stands, the thing is a not-even-picturesque mediæval +relic. If we English were logical, we would arrange that any man who +owned so many thousand acres of land, or brewed so many million bottles +of beer per annum, should _ipso facto_ be elevated to the peerage. Why +should not gallons of gin confer an earldom direct, and Brighton A's be +equivalent to a marquisate? Why not allow the equal claim of screws and +pills with coal and iron? Why disregard the native worth of annatto and +nitrates? Baron Beecham or Lord Sunlight is a first-rate name. As it is, +we make petty and puerile distinctions. Beer is in, but whiskey is out; +and even in beer itself, if I recollect aright, Dublin stout wore a +coronet for some months or years before English pale ale attained the +dignity of a barony. No Minister has yet made chocolate a viscount. At +present, banks and minerals go in as of right, while soap is left out in +the cold, and even cotton languishes. If the Chancellor of the Exchequer +put up titles to auction, while abolishing the legislative function of +the Lords, there would be millions in it. But as we English are not +logical, our mending would probably resolve itself into fatuous +tinkering. We might get rid of the sons, but leave the fathers. We might +flood the Lords with life peers, but leave the veto. Such tactics are +too Britannic. "Stone dead hath no fellow!" + + + + +XXV. + +_A POINT OF CRITICISM._ + + +A few pages back, I ventured to remark that in Utopia or the Millennium +the women of the community would probably be supported in common by the +labour of the men, and so be secured complete independence of choice and +action. When these essays first appeared in a daily newspaper, a Leader +among Women wrote to me in reply, "What a paradise you open up to us! +Alas for the reality! The question is--could women ever be really +independent if men supplied the means of existence? They would always +feel they had the right to control us. The difference of the position of +a woman in marriage when she has got a little fortune of her own is +something miraculous. Men adore money, and the possession of it inspires +them with an involuntary respect for the happy possessor." + +Now I got a great many letters in answer to these Post-Prandials as they +originally came out--some of them, strange to say, not wholly +complimentary. As a rule, I am too busy a man to answer letters: and I +take this opportunity of apologising to correspondents who write to tell +me I am a knave or a fool, for not having acknowledged direct their +courteous communications. But this friendly criticism seems to call for +a reply, because it involves a question of principle which I have often +noted in all discussions of Utopias and Millennia. + +For my generous critic seems to take it for granted that women are not +now dependent on the labour of men for their support--that some, or even +most of them, are in a position of freedom. The plain truth of it +is--almost all women depend for everything upon one man, who is or may +be an absolute despot. A very small number of women have "money of their +own," as we quaintly phrase it--that is to say, are supported by the +labour of many among us, either in the form of rent or in the form of +interest on capital bequeathed to them. A woman with five thousand a +year from Consols, for example, is in the strictest sense supported by +the united labour of all of us--she has a first mortgage to that amount +upon the earnings of the community. You and I are taxed to pay her. But +is she therefore more dependent than the woman who lives upon what she +can get out of the scanty earnings of a drunken husband? Does the +community therefore think it has a right to control her? Not a bit of +it. She is in point of fact the only free woman among us. My dream was +to see all women equally free--inheritors from the community of so much +of its earnings; holders, as it were, of sufficient world-consols to +secure their independence. + +That, however, is not the main point to which I desire just now to +direct attention. I want rather to suggest an underlying fallacy of all +so-called individualists in dealing with schemes of so-called +Socialism--for to me your Socialist is the true and only individualist. +My correspondent's argument is written from the standpoint of the class +in which women have or may have money. But most women have none; and +schemes of reconstruction must be for the benefit of the many. So-called +individualists seem to think that under a more organised social state +they would not be so able to buy pictures as at present, not so free to +run across to California or Kamschatka. I doubt their premiss, for I +believe we should all of us be better off than we are to-day; but let +that pass; 'tis a detail. The main thing is this: they forget that most +of us are narrowly tied and circumscribed at present by endless +monopolies and endless restrictions of land or capital. I should like to +buy pictures; but I can't afford them. I long to see Japan; but I shall +never get there. The man in the street may desire to till the ground: +every acre is appropriated. He may wish to dig coal: Lord Masham +prevents him. He may have a pretty taste in Venetian glass: the flints +on the shore are private property; the furnace and the implements belong +to a capitalist. Under the existing _régime_, the vast mass of us are +hampered at every step in order that a few may enjoy huge monopolies. +Most men have no land, so that one man may own a county. And they call +this Individualism! + +In considering any proposed change, whether imminent or distant, in +practice or in day-dream, it is not fair to take as your standard of +reference the most highly-favoured individuals under existing +conditions. Nor is it fair to take the most unfortunate only. You should +look at the average. + +Now the average man, in the world as it wags, is a farm-labourer, an +artisan, a mill-hand, a navvy. He has untrammelled freedom of contract +to follow the plough on another man's land, or to work twelve hours a +day in another man's factory, for that other man's benefit--provided +always he can only induce the other man to employ him. If he can't, he +is at perfect liberty to tramp the high road till he drops with fatigue, +or to starve, unhindered, on the Thames Embankment. He may live where he +likes, as far as his means permit; for example, in a convenient court +off Seven Dials. He may make his own free bargain with grasping landlord +or exacting sweater. He may walk over every inch of English soil, with +the trifling exception of the millions of acres where trespassers will +be prosecuted. Even travel is not denied him: Florence and Venice are +out of his beat, it is true; but if he saves up his loose cash for a +couple of months, he may revel in the Oriental luxury of a third-class +excursion train to Brighton and back for three shillings. Such +advantages does the _régime_ of landlord-made individualism afford to +the average run of British citizen. If he fails in the race, he may +retire at seventy to the ease and comfort of the Union workhouse, and be +buried inexpensively at the cost of his parish. + +The average woman in turn is the wife of such a man, dependent upon him +for what fraction of his earnings she can save from the public-house. Or +she is a shop-girl, free to stand all day from eight in the morning till +ten at night behind a counter, and to throw up her situation if it +doesn't suit her. Or she is a domestic servant, enjoying the glorious +liberty of a Sunday out every second week, and a walk with her young man +every alternate Wednesday after eight in the evening. She has full leave +to do her love-making in the open street, and to get as wet as she +chooses in Regent's Park on rainy nights in November. Look the question +in the face, and you will see for yourself that the mass of mothers in +every community are dependent for support, not upon men in general, but +upon a single man, their husband, against whose caprices and despotism +they have no sort of protection. Even the few women who are, as we say, +"independent," how are they supported, save by the labour of many men +who work to keep them in comfort or luxury? They are landowners, let us +put it; and then they are supported by the labour of their farmers and +ploughmen. Or they hold North-Western shares; and then they are +supported by the labour of colliers, and stokers, and guards, and +engine-drivers. And so on throughout. The plain fact is, either a woman +must earn her own livelihood by work, which, in the case of the mothers +in a community, is bad public policy; or else she must be supported by a +man or men, her husband, or her labourers. + +My day-dream was, then, to make every woman independent, in precisely +the same sense that women of property are independent at present. Would +it give them a consciousness of being unduly controlled if they derived +their support from the general funds of the body politic, of which they +would be free and equal members and voters? Well, look at similar cases +in our own England. The Dukes of Marlborough derive a heavy pension from +the taxes of the country; but I have never observed that any Duke of +Marlborough of my time felt himself a slave to the imperious taxpayer. +Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace is justly the recipient of a Civil List +annuity; but that hasn't prevented his active and essentially +individualist brain from inventing Land Nationalisation. Mr. Robert +Buchanan very rightly draws another such annuity for good work done; but +Mr. Buchanan's name is not quite the first that rises naturally to my +lips as an example of cowed and cringing sycophancy to the ideas and +ideals of his fellow-citizens. No, no; be sure of it, this terror is a +phantom. One master is real, realisable, instant; but to be dependent +upon ten million is just what we always describe as independence. + + +THE END. + + PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. + EDINBURGH AND LONDON. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Post-Prandial Philosophy, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POST-PRANDIAL PHILOSOPHY *** + +***** This file should be named 18788-8.txt or 18788-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/7/8/18788/ + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Post-Prandial Philosophy + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: July 8, 2006 [EBook #18788] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POST-PRANDIAL PHILOSOPHY *** + + + + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1> </h1> +<div class="smcapi"><h1>Post-Prandial</h1></div> +<div class="smcapi"><h1>Philosophy</h1></div> +<h1> </h1> + +<h3>By GRANT ALLEN</h3> + + +<h5>AUTHOR OF</h5> +<h6>"THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE," ETC.</h6> + +<h4>LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS</h4> +<h5>1894</h5> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>These Essays appeared originally in <i>The Westminster +Gazette</i>, and have only been so far modified +here as is necessary for purposes of volume +publication. They aim at being suggestive rather +than exhaustive: I shall be satisfied if I have +provoked thought without following out each train +to a logical conclusion. Most of the Essays are +just what they pretend to be—crystallisations into +writing of ideas suggested in familiar conversation.</p> + +<table summary="Signed" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" +style="width: 90%;"> +<tbody> +<tr> + <td class="cell_2"></td> + <td class="cell_4">G. A.</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +<p><small> Hind Head,</small> <i>March</i> 1894.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<table summary="Contents" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="6" border="0" +style="width: 100%; font-size: small;"> +<tbody> +<tr> + <td class="cell_1"></td> + <td class="cell_2"></td> + <td class="cell_3">PAGE</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">I.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE AMONG LANGUAGES</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#I">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">II.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">IN THE MATTER OF ARISTOCRACY</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#II">9</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">III.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">SCIENCE IN EDUCATION</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#III">18</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">IV.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">THE THEORY OF SCAPEGOATS</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#IV">27</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">V.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">AMERICAN DUCHESSES</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#V">35</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">VI.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">IS ENGLAND PLAYED OUT?</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#VI">44</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">VII.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">THE GAME AND THE RULES</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#VII">53</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">VIII.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">THE RÔLE OF PROPHET</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#VIII">61</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">IX.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">THE ROMANCE OF THE CLASH OF RACES</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#IX">70</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">X.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">THE MONOPOLIST INSTINCTS</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#X">79</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XI.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">"MERE AMATEURS"</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XI">87</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XII.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">A SQUALID VILLAGE</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XII">95</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XIII.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">CONCERNING ZEITGEIST</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XIII">104</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XIV.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">THE DECLINE OF MARRIAGE</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XIV">112</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XV.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">EYE <i>versus</i> EAR</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XV">122</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XVI.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">THE POLITICAL PUPA</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XVI">130</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XVII.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">ON THE CASINO TERRACE</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XVII">138</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XVIII.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">THE CELTIC FRINGE</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XVIII">147</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XIX.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">IMAGINATION AND RADICALS</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XIX">156</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XX.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">ABOUT ABROAD</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XX">165</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XXI.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">WHY ENGLAND IS BEAUTIFUL</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XXI">173</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XXII.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">ANENT ART PRODUCTION</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XXII">182</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XXIII.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">A GLIMPSE INTO UTOPIA</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XXIII">190</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XXIV.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">OF SECOND CHAMBERS</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XXIV">199</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="cell_1">XXV.</td> + <td class="cell_2"><p class="one">A POINT OF CRITICISM</p></td> + <td class="cell_3"><a href="#XXV">207</a></td> +</tr> + +</tbody> + +</table> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>POST-PRANDIAL PHILOSOPHY</h2> + +<h3><a name="I" id="I" ></a>I.</h3> + +<h4><i>THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE AMONG LANGUAGES.</i></h4> + + +<p>A distinguished Positivist friend of mine, who is +in most matters a practical man of the world, +astonished me greatly the other day at Venice, +by the grave remark that Italian was destined +to be the language of the future. I found on +inquiry he had inherited the notion direct from +Auguste Comte, who justified it on the purely +sentimental and unpractical ground that the +tongue of Dante had never yet been associated +with any great national defeat or disgrace. The +idea surprised me not a little; because it displays +such a profound misconception of what language +is, and why people use it. The speech of the +world will not be decided on mere grounds of +sentiment: the tongue that survives will not survive +because it is so admirably adapted for the +manufacture of rhymes or epigrams. Stern need +compels. Frenchmen and Germans, in congress +assembled, and looking about them for a means +of intercommunication, might indeed agree to +accept Italian then and there as an international +compromise. But congresses don't make or unmake +the habits of everyday life; and the growth +or spread of a language is a thing as much beyond +our deliberate human control as the rise or fall +of the barometer.</p> + +<p>My friend's remark, however, set me thinking +and watching what are really the languages now +gaining and spreading over the civilised world; +it set me speculating what will be the outcome +of this gain and spread in another half century. +And the results are these: Vastly the most growing +and absorbing of all languages at the present +moment is the English, which is almost everywhere +swallowing up the overflow of German, Scandinavian, +Dutch, and Russian. Next to it, probably, +in point of vitality, comes Spanish, which is +swallowing up the overflow of French, Italian, +and the other Latin races. Third, perhaps, ranks +Russian, destined to become in time the spoken +tongue of a vast tract in Northern and Central +Asia. Among non-European languages, three +seem to be gaining fast: Chinese, Malay, Arabic. +Of the doomed tongues, on the other hand, the +most hopeless is French, which is losing all round; +while Italian, German, and Dutch are either quite +at a standstill or slightly retrograding. The +world is now round. By the middle of the +twentieth century, in all probability, English will +be its dominant speech; and the English-speaking +peoples, a heterogeneous conglomerate of all +nationalities, will control between them the destinies +of mankind. Spanish will be the language +of half the populous southern hemisphere. Russian +will spread over a moiety of Asia. Chinese, +Malay, Arabic, will divide among themselves the +less civilised parts of Africa and the East. But +French, German, and Italian will be insignificant +and dwindling European dialects, as numerically +unimportant as Flemish or Danish in our own +day.</p> + +<p>And why? Not because Shakespeare wrote +in English, but because the English language +has already got a firm hold of all those portions +of the earth's surface which are most absorbing +the overflow of European populations. Germans +and Scandinavians and Russians emigrate by the +thousand now to all parts of the United States +and the north-west of Canada. In the first +generation they may still retain their ancestral +speech; but their children have all to learn +English. In Australia and New Zealand the +same thing is happening. In South Africa Dutch +had got a footing, it is true; but it is fast losing +it. The newcomers learn English, and though +the elder Boers stick with Boer conservatism to +their native tongue, young Piet and young Paul +find it pays them better to know and speak the +language of commerce—the language of Cape +Town, of Kimberley, of the future. The reason +is the same throughout. Whenever two tongues +come to be spoken in the same area one of them +is sure to be more useful in business than the +other. Every French-Canadian who wishes to do +things on a large scale is obliged to speak English. +So is the Creole in Louisiana; so earlier were the +Knickerbocker Dutch in New York. Once let English +get in, and it beats all competing languages +fairly out of the field in a couple of generations.</p> + +<p>Like influences favour Spanish in South America +and elsewhere. English has annexed most of +North America, Australia, South Africa, the +Pacific; Spanish has annexed South America, +Central America, the Philippines, Cuba, and a +few other places. For the most part these areas +are less suited than the English-speaking districts +for colonisation by North Europeans; but they +absorb a large number of Italians and other +Mediterranean races, who all learn Spanish in +the second generation. As to the other dominant +languages, the points in their favour are +different. Conquest and administrative needs are +spreading Russian over the steppes of Asia; the +Arab merchant and the growth of Mahommedanism +are importing Arabic far into the heart +of Africa; the Chinaman is carrying his own +monosyllables with him to California, Australia, +Singapore. These tongues in future will divide +the world between them.</p> + +<p>The German who leaves Germany becomes an +Anglo-American. The Italian who leaves Italy +becomes a Spanish-American.</p> + +<p>There is another and still more striking way +of looking at the rapid increase of English. No +other language will carry you through so many +ports in the world. It suffices for London, +Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast, Southampton, Cardiff; +for New York, Boston, Montreal, Charleston, New +Orleans, San Francisco; for Sydney, Melbourne, +Auckland, Hong Kong, Yokohama, Honolulu; for +Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Kurrachi, Singapore, +Colombo, Cape Town, Mauritius. Spanish with +Cadiz, Barcelona, Havana, Callao, Valparaiso, +cannot touch that record; nor can French with +Marseilles, Bordeaux, Havre, Algiers, Antwerp, +Tahiti. The most commercially useful language +in the world, thus widely diffused in so many +great mercantile and shipping centres, is certain +to win in the struggle for existence among the +tongues of the future.</p> + +<p>The old Mediterranean civilisation teaches us +a useful lesson in this respect. Two languages +dominated the Mediterranean basin. The East +spoke Greek, not because Plato and Æschylus +spoke Greek, but because Greek was the tongue +of the great commercial centres—of Athens, +Syracuse, Alexandria, Antioch, Byzantium. The +West spoke Latin, not because Catullus and Virgil +spoke Latin, but because Latin was the administrative +tongue, the tongue of Rome, of Italy, +and later of Gaul, of Spain, of the great towns +in Dacia, Pannonia, Britain. Whoever wanted +to do anything on the big scale then, had to +speak Greek or Latin; so much so that the +native languages of Gaul and Spain died utterly +out, and Latin dialects are now the spoken +tongue in all southern Europe. In our own +time, again, educated Hindoos from different +parts of India have to use English as a means +of intercommunication; and native merchants +must write their business correspondence with +distant houses in English. To put an extreme +contrast: in the last century French was spoken +by far more people than English; at the present +day French is only just keeping up its numbers +in France, is losing in Canada and the United +States, is not advancing to any extent in Africa. +English is spoken by a hundred million people +in Europe and America; is over-running Africa; +has annexed Australasia and the Pacific Isles; +has ousted, or is ousting, Dutch at the Cape, +French in Louisiana, even Spanish itself in +Florida, California, New Mexico. In Egyptian +mud villages, the aspiring Copt, who once learnt +French, now learns English. In Scandinavia, +our tongue gains ground daily. Everywhere in +the world it takes the lead among the European +languages, and by the middle of the next century +will no doubt be spoken over half the globe by a +cosmopolitan mass of five hundred million people.</p> + +<p>And all on purely Darwinian principles! It +is the best adapted tongue, and therefore it +survives in the struggle for existence. It is +the easiest to learn, at least orally. It has got +rid of the effete rubbish of genders; simplified +immensely its declensions and conjugations; +thrown overboard most of the nonsensical ballast +we know as grammar. It is only weighted now +by its grotesque and ridiculous spelling—one of +the absurdest among all the absurd English +attempts at compromise. The pressure of the +newer speakers will compel it to make jetsam +of that lumber also; and then the tongue of +Shelley and Newton will march onward unopposed +to the conquest of humanity.</p> + +<p>I pen these remarks, I hope, "without prejudice." +Patriotism is a vulgar vice of which +I have never been guilty.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.</h3> + +<h4><i>IN THE MATTER OF ARISTOCRACY.</i></h4> + + +<p>Aristocracies, as a rule, all the world over, +consist, and have always consisted, of barbaric +conquerors or their descendants, who remain to +the last, on the average of instances, at a lower +grade of civilisation and morals than the democracy +they live among.</p> + +<p>I know this view is to some extent opposed +to the common ideas of people at large (and +especially of that particular European people +which "dearly loves a lord") as to the relative +position of aristocracies and democracies in the +sliding scale of human development. There is a +common though wholly unfounded belief knocking +about the world, that the aristocrat is better +in intelligence, in culture, in arts, in manners, +than the ordinary plebeian. The fact is, being, +like all barbarians, a boastful creature, he has +gone on so long asserting his own profound +superiority by birth to the world around him—a +superiority as of fine porcelain to common clay—that +the world around him has at last actually +begun to accept him at his own valuation. Most +English people in particular think that a lord is +born a better judge of pictures and wines and +books and deportment than the human average +of us. But history shows us the exact opposite. +It is a plain historical fact, provable by simple +enumeration, that almost all the aristocracies the +world has ever known have taken their rise in +the conquest of civilised and cultivated races by +barbaric invaders; and that the barbaric invaders +have seldom or never learned the practical arts +and handicrafts which are the civilising element +in the life of the conquered people around +them.</p> + +<p>To begin with the aristocracies best known to +most of us, the noble families of modern and +mediæval Europe sprang, as a whole, from the +Teutonic invasion of the Roman Empire. In +Italy, it was the Lombards and the Goths who +formed the bulk of the great ruling families; all +the well-known aristocratic names of mediæval +Italy are without exception Teutonic. In Gaul +it was the rude Frank who gave the aristocratic +element to the mixed nationality, while it was +the civilised and cultivated Romano-Celtic provincial +who became, by fate, the mere <i>roturier</i>. +The great revolution, it has been well said, was, +ethnically speaking, nothing more than the revolt +of the Celtic against the Teutonic fraction; and, +one might add also, the revolt of the civilised +Romanised serf against the barbaric <i>seigneur</i>. In +Spain, the hidalgo is just the <i>hi d'al Go</i>, the son +of the Goth, the descendant of those rude Visigothic +conquerors who broke down the old civilisation +of Iberian and Romanised Hispania. And +so on throughout. All over Europe, if you care +to look close, you will find the aristocrat was +the son of the intrusive barbarian; the democrat +was the son of the old civilised and educated +autochthonous people.</p> + +<p>It is just the same elsewhere, wherever we turn. +Take Greece, for example. Its most aristocratic +state was undoubtedly Sparta, where a handful of +essentially barbaric Dorians held in check a much +larger and Helotised population of higher original +civilisation. Take the East: the Persian was a +wild mountain adventurer who imposed himself as +an aristocrat upon the far more cultivated Babylonian, +Assyrian, and Egyptian. The same sort +of thing had happened earlier in time in Babylonia +and Assyria themselves, where barbaric conquerors +had similarly imposed themselves upon the first +known historical civilisations. Take India under +the Moguls, once more; the aristocracy of the time +consisted of the rude Mahommedan Tartar, who +lorded it over the ancient enchorial culture of +Rajpoot and Brahmin. Take China: the same +thing over again—a Tartar horde imposing its +savage rule over the most ancient civilised people +of Asia. Take England: its aristocracy at different +times has consisted of the various barbaric +invaders, first the Anglo-Saxon (if I must use that +hateful and misleading word)—a pirate from +Sleswick; then the Dane, another pirate from +Denmark direct; then the Norman, a yet younger +Danish pirate, with a thin veneer of early French +culture, who came over from Normandy to better +himself after just two generations of Christian +apprenticeship. Go where you will, it matters +not where you look; from the Aztec in Mexico +to the Turk at Constantinople or the Arab in +North Africa, the aristocrat belongs invariably to +a lower race than the civilised people whom he +has conquered and subjugated.</p> + +<p>"That may be true, perhaps," you object, "as +to the remote historical origin of aristocracies; but +surely the aristocrat of later generations has +acquired all the science, all the art, all the polish +of the people he lives amongst. He is the flower +of their civilisation." Don't you believe it! There +isn't a word of truth in it. From first to last the +aristocrat remains, what Matthew Arnold so justly +called him, a barbarian. I often wonder, indeed, +whether Arnold himself really recognised the literal +and actual truth of his own brilliant generalisation. +For the aristocratic ideas and the aristocratic pursuits +remain to the very end essentially barbaric. +The "gentleman" never soils his high-born hands +with dirty work; in other words, he holds himself +severely aloof from the trades and handicrafts +which constitute civilisation. The arts that train +and educate hand, eye, and brain he ignorantly +despises. In the early middle ages he did not +even condescend to read and write, those inferior +accomplishments being badges of serfdom. If you +look close at the "occupations of a gentleman" in +the present day, you will find they are all of purely +barbaric character. They descend to us direct from +the semi-savage invaders who overthrew the structure +of the Roman empire, and replaced its civilised +organisation by the military and barbaric +system of feudalism. The "gentleman" is above +all things a fighter, a hunter, a fisher—he preserves +the three simplest and commonest barbaric +functions. He is <i>not</i> a practiser of any civilised +or civilising art—a craftsman, a maker, a worker +in metal, in stone, in textile fabrics, in pottery. +These are the things that constitute civilisation; +but the aristocrat does none of them; in the +famous words of one who now loves to mix with +English gentlemen, "he toils not, neither does he +spin." The things he <i>may</i> do are, to fight by sea +and land, like his ancestor the Goth and his ancestor +the Viking; to slay pheasant and partridge, +like his predatory forefathers; to fish for salmon +in the Highlands; to hunt the fox, to sail the +yacht, to scour the earth in search of great game—lions, +elephants, buffalo. His one task is to kill—either +his kind or his quarry.</p> + +<p>Observe, too, the essentially barbaric nature of +the gentleman's home—his trappings, his distinctive +marks, his surroundings, his titles. He lives +by choice in the wildest country, like his skin-clad +ancestors, demanding only that there be game and +foxes and fish for his delectation. He loves the +moors, the wolds, the fens, the braes, the Highlands, +not as the painter, the naturalist, or the searcher +after beauty of scenery loves them—for the sake +of their wild life, their heather and bracken, their +fresh keen air, their boundless horizon—but for +the sake of the thoroughly barbarous existence he +and his dogs and his gillies can lead in them. +The fact is, neither he nor his ancestors have ever +been really civilised. Barbarians in the midst of +an industrial community, they have lived their own +life of slaying and playing, untouched by the culture +of the world below them. Knights in the +middle ages, squires in the eighteenth century, +they have never received a tincture of the civilising +arts and crafts and industries; they have +fought and fished and hunted in uninterrupted +succession since the days when wild in woods the +noble savage ran, to the days when they pay extravagant +rents for Scottish grouse moors. Their +very titles are barbaric and military—knight and +earl and marquis and duke, early crystallised names +for leaders in war or protectors of the frontier. +Their crests and coats of arms are but the totems +of their savage predecessors, afterwards utilised by +mediæval blacksmiths as distinguishing marks for +the summit of a helmet. They decorate their halls +with savage trophies of the chase, like the Zulu or +the Red Indian; they hang up captured arms and +looted Chinese jars from the Summer Palace in +their semi-civilised drawing-rooms. They love to +be surrounded by grooms and gamekeepers and +other barbaric retainers; they pass their lives in +the midst of serfs; their views about the position +and rights of women—especially the women of the +"lower orders"—are frankly African. They share +the sentiments of Achilles as to the individuality +of Chryseis and Briseis.</p> + +<p>Such is the actual aristocrat, as we now behold +him. Thus, living his own barbarous life in the +midst of a civilised community of workers and +artists and thinkers and craftsmen, with whom he +seldom mingles, and with whom he has nothing in +common, this chartered relic of worse days preserves +from first to last many painful traits of the +low moral and social ideas of his ancestors, from +which he has never varied. He represents most +of all, in the modern world, the surviving savage. +His love of gewgaws, of titles, of uniform, of dress, +of feathers, of decorations, of Highland kilts, and +stars and garters, is but one external symbol of his +lower grade of mental and moral status. All over +Europe, the truly civilised classes have gone on +progressing by the practice of peaceful arts from +generation to generation; but the aristocrat has +stood still at the same half-savage level, a hunter +and fighter, an orgiastic roysterer, a killer of wild +boars and wearer of absurd mediæval costumes, too +childish for the civilised and cultivated commoner.</p> + +<p>Government by aristocrats is thus government +by the mentally and morally inferior. And yet—a +Bill for giving at last some scant measure of +self-government to persecuted Ireland has to run +the gauntlet, in our nineteenth-century England, of +an irresponsible House of hereditary barbarians!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h3> + +<h4><i>SCIENCE IN EDUCATION.</i></h4> + + +<p>I mean what I say: science in education, not +education in science.</p> + +<p>It is the last of these that all the scientific +men of England have so long been fighting for. +And a very good thing it is in its way, and I +hope they may get as much as they want of it. +But compared to the importance of science in +education, education in science is a matter of very +small national moment.</p> + +<p>The difference between the two is by no means +a case of tweedledum and tweedledee. Education +in science means the systematic teaching of science +so as to train up boys to be scientific men. Now +scientific men are exceedingly useful members of +a community; and so are engineers, and bakers, +and blacksmiths, and artists, and chimney-sweeps. +But we can't all be bakers, and we can't all be +painters in water-colours. There is a dim West +Country legend to the effect that the inhabitants +of the Scilly Isles eke out a precarious livelihood +by taking in one another's washing. As a matter +of practical political economy, such a source of +income is worse than precarious—it's frankly +impossible. "It takes all sorts to make a world." +A community entirely composed of scientific men +would fail to feed itself, clothe itself, house itself, +and keep itself supplied with amusing light literature. +In one word, education in science produces +specialists; and specialists, though most useful and +valuable persons in their proper place, are no more +the staple of a civilised community than engine-drivers +or ballet-dancers.</p> + +<p>What the world at large really needs, and will +one day get, is not this, but due recognition of +the true value of science in education. We don't +all want to be made into first-class anatomists +like Owen, still less into first-class practical surgeons, +like Sir Henry Thompson. But what we +do all want is a competent general knowledge +(amongst other things) of anatomy at large, and +especially of human anatomy; of physiology at +large, and especially of human physiology. We +don't all want to be analytical chemists: but what +we do all want is to know as much about oxygen +and carbon as will enable us to understand the +commonest phenomena of combustion, of chemical +combination, of animal or vegetable life. We +don't all want to be zoologists, and botanists of +the type who put their names after "critical +species:" but what we do all want to know is +as much about plants and animals as will enable +us to walk through life intelligently, and to +understand the meaning of the things that surround +us. We want, in one word, a general +acquaintance with the <i>results</i> rather than with +the <i>methods</i> of science.</p> + +<p>"In short," says the specialist, with his familiar +sneer, "you want a smattering."</p> + +<p>Well, yes, dear Sir Smelfungus, if it gives you +pleasure to put it so—just that; a smattering, +an all-round smattering. But remember that in +this matter the man of science is always influenced +by ideas derived from his own pursuits as +specialist. He is for ever thinking what sort of +education will produce more specialists in future; +and as a rule he is thinking what sort of education +will produce men capable in future of advancing +science. Now to advance science, to discover +new snails, or invent new ethyl compounds, is +not and cannot be the main object of the mass +of humanity. What the mass wants is just unspecialised +knowledge—the kind of knowledge +that enables men to get comfortably and creditably +and profitably through life, to meet emergencies +as they rise, to know their way through +the world, to use their faculties in all circumstances +to the best advantage. And for this +purpose what is wanted is, not the methods, but +the results of science.</p> + +<p>One science, and one only, is rationally taught +in our schools at present. I mean geography. +And the example of geography is so eminently +useful for illustrating the difference I am trying +to point out, that I will venture to dwell upon +it for a moment in passing. It is good for us +all to know that the world is round, without its +being necessary for every one of us to follow in +detail the intricate reasoning by which that result +has been arrived at. It is good for us all to +know the position of New York and Rio and +Calcutta on the map, without its being necessary +for us to understand, far less to work out for +ourselves, the observations and calculations which +fixed their latitude and longitude. Knowledge +of the map is a good thing in itself, though it is +a very different thing indeed from the technical +knowledge which enables a man to make a chart +of an unknown region, or to explore and survey +it. Furthermore, it is a form of knowledge far +more generally useful. A fair acquaintance with +the results embodied in the atlas, in the gazetteer, +in Baedeker, and in Bradshaw, is much oftener +useful to us on our way through the world than +a special acquaintance with the methods of map-making. +It would be absurd to say that because +a man is not going to be a Stanley or a Nansen, +therefore it is no good for him to learn geography. +It would be absurd to say that unless he learned +geography in accordance with its methods instead +of its results, he could have but a smattering, +and that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. +A little knowledge of the position of New York +is indeed a dangerous thing, if a man uses it +to navigate a Cunard vessel across the Atlantic. +But the absence of the smattering is a much more +dangerous and fatal thing if the man wishes to +do business with the Argentine and the Transvaal, +or to enter into practical relations of any sort +with anybody outside his own parish. The results +of geography are useful and valuable in themselves, +quite apart from the methods employed in obtaining +them.</p> + +<p>It is just the same with all the other sciences. +There is nothing occult or mysterious about them. +No just cause or impediment exists why we +should insist on being ignorant of the orbits of +the planets because we cannot ourselves make +the calculations for determining them; no reason +why we should insist on being ignorant of the +classification of plants and animals because we +don't feel able ourselves to embark on anatomical +researches which would justify us in coming to +original conclusions about them. I know the +mass of scientific opinion has always gone the +other way; but then scientific opinion means +only the opinion of men of science, who are themselves +specialists, and who think most of the +education needed to make men specialists, not of +the education needed to fit them for the general +exigencies and emergencies of life. We don't +want authorities on the Cucurbitaceæ, but well-informed +citizens. Professor Huxley is not our +best guide in these matters, but Mr. Herbert +Spencer, who long ago, in his book on Education, +sketched out a radical programme of instruction +in that knowledge which is of most +worth, such as no country, no college, no school +in Europe has ever yet been bold enough to put +into practice.</p> + +<p>What common sense really demands, then, is +education in the main results of all the sciences—a +knowledge of what is known, not necessarily +a knowledge of each successive step by which +men came to know it. At present, of course, in +all our schools in England there is no systematic +teaching of knowledge at all; what replaces it +is a teaching of the facts of language, and for +the most part of useless facts, or even of exploded +fictions. Our public schools, especially (by which +phrase we never mean real public schools like +the board schools at all, but merely schools for +the upper and the middle classes) are in their +existing stage primarily great gymnasiums—very +good things, too, in their way, against which I +have not a word of blame; and, secondarily, +places for imparting a sham and imperfect knowledge +of some few philological facts about two +extinct languages. Pupils get a smattering of +Homer and Cicero. That is literally all the +equipment for life that the cleverest and most +industrious boys can ever take away from them. +The sillier or idler don't take away even that. +As to the "mental training" argument, so often +trotted out, it is childish enough not to be +worth answering. Which is most practically +useful to us in life—knowledge of Latin grammar +or knowledge of ourselves and the world we +live in, physical, social, moral? That is the +question.</p> + +<p>The truth is, schoolmastering in Britain has +become a vast vested interest in the hands of men +who have nothing to teach us. They try to +bolster up their vicious system by such artificial +arguments as the "mental training" fallacy. +Forced to admit the utter uselessness of the +pretended knowledge they impart, they fall back +upon the plea of its supposed occult value as +intellectual discipline. They say in effect:—"This +sawdust we offer you contains no food, we +know: but then see how it strengthens the jaws +to chew it!" Besides, look at our results! The +typical John Bull! pig-headed, ignorant, brutal. +Are we really such immense successes ourselves +that we must needs perpetuate the mould that +warped us?</p> + +<p>The one fatal charge brought against the public +school system is that "after all, it turns out +English gentlemen!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.</h3> + +<h4><i>THE THEORY OF SCAPEGOATS.</i></h4> + + +<p>"Alas, how easily things go wrong!" says Dr. +George MacDonald. And all the world over, when +things do go wrong, the natural and instinctive +desire of the human animal is—to find a scapegoat. +When the great French nation in the +lump embarks its capital in a hopeless scheme for +cutting a canal through the Isthmus of Panama, +and then finds out too late that Nature has +imposed insuperable barriers to its completion on +the projected scale—what does the great French +nation do, in its collective wisdom, but turn +round at once to rend the directors? It cries, +"A Mazas!" just as in '71 it cried "Bazaine +à la lanterne!" I don't mean to say the directors +don't deserve all they have got or ever will get, +and perhaps more also; I don't mean to deny +corruption extraordinary in many high places; +as a rule the worst that anybody alleges about +anything is only a part of what might easily be +alleged if we were all in the secret. Which of +us, indeed, would 'scape whipping? But what +I do mean is, that we should never have heard +of Reinach or Herz, of the corruption and peculation, +at all if things had gone well. It is the +crash that brought them out. The nation wants +a scapegoat. "Ain't nobody to be whopped for +this 'ere?" asked Mr. Sam Weller on a critical +occasion. The question embodies the universal +impulse of humanity.</p> + +<p>Tracing the feeling back to its origin, it seems +due to this: minds of the lower order can never +see anything go wrong without experiencing a +certain sense of resentment; and resentment, by +its very nature, desires to vent itself upon some +living and sentient creature, by preference a +fellow human being. When the child, running +too fast, falls and hurts itself, it gets instantly +angry. "Naughty ground to hurt baby!" says +the nurse: "Baby hit it and hurt it." And +baby promptly hits it back, with vicious little +fist, feeling every desire to revenge itself. By-and-by, +when baby grows older and learns that +the ground can't feel to speak of, he wants to +put the blame upon somebody else, in order to +have an object to expend his rage upon. "You +pushed me down!" he says to his playmate, and +straightway proceeds to punch his playmate's head +for it—not because he really believes the playmate +did it, but because he feels he <i>must</i> have +some outlet for his resentment. When once +resentment is roused, it will expend its force +on anything that turns up handy, as the man +who has quarrelled with his wife about a question +of a bonnet, will kick his dog for trying to follow +him to the club as he leaves her.</p> + +<p>The mob, enraged at the death of Cæsar, meets +Cinna the poet in the streets of Rome. "Your +name, sir?" inquires the Third Citizen. "Truly, +my name is Cinna," says the unsuspecting author. +"Tear him to pieces!" cries the mob; "he's a +conspirator!" "I am Cinna the poet," pleads +the unhappy man; "I am not Cinna the conspirator!" +But the mob does not heed such +delicate distinctions at such a moment. "Tear +him for his bad verses!" it cries impartially. +"Tear him for his bad verses!"</p> + +<p>Whatever sort of misfortune falls upon persons +of the lower order of intelligence is always met +in the same spirit. Especially is this the case +with the deaths of relatives. Fools who have lost +a friend invariably blame somebody for his fatal +illness. To hear many people talk, you would +suppose they were unaware of the familiar proposition +that all men are mortal (including +women); you might imagine they thought an +ordinary human constitution was calculated to +survive nine hundred and ninety-nine years unless +some evil-disposed person or persons took the +trouble beforehand to waylay and destroy it. +"My poor father was eighty-seven when he +died; and he would have been alive still if it +weren't for that nasty Mrs. Jones: she put him +into a pair of damp sheets." Or, "My husband +would never have caught the cold that killed +him, if that horrid man Brown hadn't kept him +waiting so long in the carriage at the street +corner." The doctor has to bear the brunt of +most such complaints; indeed, it is calculated by +an eminent statistician (who desires his name to +remain unpublished) that eighty-three per cent. +of the deaths in Great Britain might easily have +been averted if the patient had only been treated +in various distinct ways by all the members of +his family, and if that foolish Dr. Squills hadn't +so grossly mistaken and mistreated his malady.</p> + +<p>The fact is, the death is regarded as a misfortune, +and somebody must be blamed for it. +Heaven has provided scapegoats. The doctor +and the hostile female members of the family are +always there—laid on, as it were, for the express +purpose.</p> + +<p>With us in modern Europe, resentment in such +cases seldom goes further than vague verbal outbursts +of temper. We accuse Mrs. Jones of misdemeanours +with damp sheets; but we don't get +so far as to accuse her of tricks with strychnine. +In the Middle Ages, however, the pursuit of the +scapegoat ran a vast deal further. When any +great one died—a Black Prince or a Dauphin—it +was always assumed on all hands that he must +have been poisoned. True, poisoning may then +have been a trifle more frequent; certainly the +means of detecting it were far less advanced than +in the days of Tidy and Lauder Brunton. Still, +people must often have died natural deaths even +in the Middle Ages—though nobody believed it. +All the world began to speculate what Jane +Shore could have poisoned them. A little earlier, +again, it was not the poisoner that was looked +for, but his predecessor, the sorcerer. Whoever +fell ill, somebody had bewitched him. Were the +cattle diseased? Then search for the evil eye. +Did the cows yield no milk? Some neighbour, +doubtless, knew the reason only too well, and could +be forced to confess it by liberal use of the thumb-screw +and the ducking-stool. No misfortune was +regarded as due to natural causes; for in their +philosophy there were no such things as natural +causes at all; whatever ill-luck came, somebody +had contrived it; so you had always your scapegoat +ready to hand to punish. The Athenians, +indeed, kept a small collection of public scapegoats +always in stock, waiting to be sacrificed at +a moment's notice.</p> + +<p>More even than that. Go one step further +back, and you will find that man in his early +stages has no conception of such a thing as +natural death in any form. He doesn't really +know that the human organism is wound up like +a clock to run at best for so many years, or +months, or hours, and that even if nothing unexpected +happens to cut short its course prematurely, +it can only run out its allotted period. +Within his own experience, almost all the deaths +that occur are violent deaths, and have been +brought about by human agency or by the attacks +of wild beasts. There you have a cause with +whose action and operation the savage is personally +familiar; and it is the only one he believes +in. Even old age is in his eyes no direct +cause of death; for when his relations grow old, +he considerately clubs them, to put them out +of their misery. When, therefore, he sees his +neighbour struck down before his face by some +invisible power, and writhing with pain as though +unseen snakes and tigers were rending him, what +should he naturally conclude save that demon or +witch or wizard is at work? and if he cares +about the matter at all, what should he do save +endeavour to find the culprit out and inflict condign +punishment? In savage states, whenever +anything untoward happens to the king or chief, +it is the business of the witch-finder to disclose +the wrong-doer; and sooner or later, you may +be sure, "somebody gets whopped for it." Whopping +in Dahomey means wholesale decapitation.</p> + +<p>Now, is it not a direct survival from this primitive +state of mind that entails upon us all the +desire to find a scapegoat? Our ancestors really +believed there was always somebody to blame—man, +witch, or spirit—if only you could find him; +and though we ourselves have mostly got beyond +that stage, yet the habit it engendered in our race +remains ingrained in the nervous system, so that +none but a few of the naturally highest and most +civilised dispositions have really outgrown it. Most +people still think there is somebody to blame for +every human misfortune. "Who fills the butcher's +shops with large blue flies?" asked the poet of the +Regency. He set it down to "the Corsican ogre." +For the Tory Englishmen of the present day it is +Mr. Gladstone who is most often and most popularly +envisaged as the author of all evil. For the +Pope, it is the Freemasons. There are just a few +men here and there in the world who can see that +when misfortunes come, circumstances, or nature, +or (hardest of all) we ourselves have brought them. +The common human instinct is still to get into a +rage, and look round to discover whether there's +any other fellow standing about unobserved, whose +head we can safely undertake to punch for it.</p> + +<p>"It's all the fault of those confounded paid +agitators."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.</h3> + +<h4><i>AMERICAN DUCHESSES.</i></h4> + + +<p>Every American woman is by birth a duchess.</p> + +<p>There, you see, I have taken you in. When +you saw the heading, "American Duchesses," +you thought I was going to purvey some piquant +scandal about high-placed ladies; and you straightway +began to read my essay. That shows I +rightly interpreted your human nature. There's +a deal of human nature flying about unrecognised. +Yet when I said duchesses, I actually meant it. +For the American woman is the only real aristocrat +now living in America.</p> + +<p>These remarks are forced upon me by a brilliant +afternoon on the Promenade des Anglais. All +Nice is there, in its cosmopolitan butterfly variety, +flaunting itself in the sun in the very ugly dresses +now in fashion. I don't know why, but the +mode of the moment consists in making everything +as exaggerated as possible, and sedulously +hiding the natural contours of the human figure. +But let that pass; the day is too fine for a man +to be critical. The band is playing Mascagni's +last in the Jardin Public; the carriages are +drawn up beside the palms and judas-trees that +fringe the Paillon; the <i>sous-officiers</i> are strolling +along the wall with their red caps stuck jauntily +just a trifle on one side, as though to mow down +nursemaids were the one legitimate occupation of +the <i>brav' militaire</i>. And among them all, proud, +tall, disdainful, glide the American duchesses, +cold, critical, high-toned, yet ready to strike up, +should opportunity serve, appropriate acquaintance +with their natural equals, the dukes of +Europe.</p> + +<p>"And the American dukes?"—There aren't +any. "But these ladies' husbands and fathers +and brothers?"—Oh, <i>they're</i> business men, working +hard for the duchesses in Wall Street, or on +'Change in Chicago. And that's why I say quite +seriously the American woman is the only real +aristocrat now living in America. Everybody +who has seen much of Americans must have +noticed for himself how really superior American +women are, on the average, to the men of their +kind. I don't mean merely that they are better +dressed, and better groomed, and better got up, +and better mannered than their brothers. I mean +that they have a real superiority in the things +worth having—the things that are more excellent—in +education, culture, knowledge, taste, good +feeling. And the reason is not far to seek. They +represent the only leisured class in America. They +are the one set of people from Maine to California +who have time to read, to think, to travel, to +look at good pictures, to hear good music, to +mix with society that can improve and elevate +them. They have read Daudet; they have seen +the Vatican. The women thus form a natural +aristocracy—the only aristocracy the country +possesses.</p> + +<p>I am aware that in saying this I take my life +in my hands. I shall be prepared to defend +myself from the infuriated Westerner with the +usual argument, which I shall carry about loaded +in all its chambers in my right-hand pocket. +I am also aware that less infuriated Easterners, +choosing their own more familiar weapon, will +inundate my leisure with sardonic inquiries whether +I don't consider Oliver Wendell Holmes or Charles +Eliot Norton (thus named in full) the equal in +culture of the average American woman. Well, +I frankly admit these cases and thousands like +them; indeed I have had the good fortune to +number among my personal acquaintances many +American gentlemen whose chivalrous breeding +would have been conspicuous (if you will believe +it) even at Marlborough House. I will also +allow that in New York, in Boston, and less +abundantly in other big towns of America, men +of leisure, men of culture, and men of thought +are to be found, as wide-minded and as gentle-natured +as this race of ours makes them. But +that doesn't alter the general fact that, taking +them in the lump, American men stand a step +or two lower in the scale of humanity than +American women. One need hardly ask why. +It is because the men are almost all immersed +and absorbed in business, while the women are +fine ladies who stop at home, and read, and see, +and interest themselves widely in numberless +directions.</p> + +<p>The consequence is that nowhere, as a rule, +does the gulf between the sexes yawn so wide +as in America. One can often observe it in the +brothers and sisters of the same family. And +it runs in the opposite direction from the gulf +in Europe. With us, as a rule, the men are +better educated, and more likely to have read +and seen and thought widely, than the women. +In America, the men are generally so steeped +in affairs as to be materialised and encysted; +they take for the most part a hard-headed, solid-silver +view of everything, and are but little influenced +by abstract conceptions. Their horizon +is bounded by the rim of the dollar. Nay, owing +to the eager desire to get a good start by beginning +life early, their education itself is generally +cut short at a younger age than their sisters'; +so that, even at the outset, the girls have often +a decided superiority in knowledge and culture. +Amanda reads Paul Bourget and John Oliver +Hobbes; she has some slight tincture of Latin, +Greek, and German; while Cyrus knows nothing +but English and arithmetic, the quotations for +prime pork and the state of the market for +Futures. Add to this that the women are more +sensitive, more delicate, more naturally refined, +as well as unspoilt by the trading spirit, and +you get the real reasons for the marked and, in +some ways, unusual superiority of the American +woman.</p> + +<p>That, I think, in large part explains the fascination +which American women undoubtedly exercise +over a considerable class of European men. In +the European man the American woman often +recognises for the first time the male of her +species. Unaccustomed at home to as general +a level of culture and feeling as she finds among +the educated gentlemen of Europe, she likes their +society and makes her preference felt by them. +Now man is a vain animal. You are a man +yourself, and must recognise at once the truth +of the proposition. As soon as he sees a woman +likes him, he instantly returns the compliment +with interest. In point of fact, he usually falls +in love with her. Of course I admit the large +number of concomitant circumstances which disturb +the problem; I admit on the one hand the +tempting shekels of the Californian heiress, and +on the other hand the glamour and halo that +still surround the British coronet. Nevertheless, +after making all deductions for these disturbing +factors, I submit there remains a residual phenomenon +thus best interpreted. If anybody denies +it, I would ask him one question—how does it +come that so many Englishmen, Frenchmen, and +Italians marry American women, while so few +Englishwomen, French women, or Italian women +marry American men? Surely the American +men have also the shekels; surely it is something +even in Oregon or Montana to have inspired an +honourable passion in a Lady Elizabeth or a +dowager countess. I think the true explanation +is that our men are attracted by American women, +but our women are not equally attracted by +American men, and that the quality of the articles +has something to do with it.</p> + +<p>The American duchess, I take it, comes over +to Europe, and desires incontinently to drag the +European duke at the wheels of her chariot. And +the European duke is fascinated in turn, partly by +this very fact, partly by the undeniable freshness, +brightness, and delicate culture of the American +woman. For there is no burking the truth that +in many respects the American woman carries +about her a peculiar charm ungranted as yet to +her European sisters. It is the charm of freedom, +of ease, of a certain external and skin-deep emancipation—an +emancipation which goes but a little +way down, yet adds a quaint and piquant grace +of manner. What she conspicuously lacks, on the +other hand, is essential femininity; by which I +don't mean womanliness—of that she has enough +and to spare—but the wholesome physical and +instinctive qualities which go to make up a sound +and well-equipped wife and mother. The lack of +these underlying muliebral qualities more than +counterbalances to not a few Europeans the undoubted +vivacity, originality, and freshness of the +American woman. She is a dainty bit of porcelain, +unsuited for use; a delicate exotic blossom, for +drawing-room decoration, where many would prefer +robust fruit-bearing faculties.</p> + +<p>I dropped into the Opera House here at Nice +the other night, and found they were playing +"Carmen"—which is always interesting. Well, +you may perhaps remember that when that +creature of passion, the gipsy heroine, wishes to +gain or retain a man's affections, she throws a rose +at him, and then he cannot resist her. That is +Mérimée's symbolism. Art is full of these sacrifices +of realism to reticence. Outside the opera, +it is not with roses that women enslave us. But +the American duchess relies entirely upon the use +of the rose; and that is just where she fails to +interest so many of us in Europe.</p> + +<p>And now I think it's almost time for me to go +and hunt up the material arguments for that rusty +six-shooter.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.</h3> + +<h4><i>IS ENGLAND PLAYED OUT?</i></h4> + + +<p>Britain is now the centre of civilisation. Will +it always be so? Is our commercial supremacy +decaying or not? Have we begun to reach the +period of inevitable decline? Or is decline indeed +inevitable at all? Might a nation go on being +great for ever? If so, are <i>we</i> that nation? If +not, have we yet arrived at the moment when retrogression +becomes a foregone conclusion? These +are momentous questions. Dare I try, under the +mimosas on the terrace, to resolve them?</p> + +<p>Most people have talked of late as though +the palmy days of England were fairly over. +The down grade lies now before us. But, then, +so far as I can judge, most people have talked +so ever since the morning when Hengist and +Horsa, Limited, landed from their three keels +in the Isle of Thanet. Gildas is the oldest +historian of these islands, and his work consists +entirely of a good old Tory lament in the Ashmead-Bartlett +strain upon the degeneracy of the times +and the proximate ruin of the British people. +Gildas wrote some fourteen hundred years ago +or thereabouts—and the country is not yet quite +visibly ruined. On the contrary, it seems to the +impartial eye a more eligible place of residence +to-day than in the stirring times of the Saxon +invasion. Hence, for the last two or three +centuries, I have learned to discount these recurrent +Jeremiads of Toryism, and to judge the +question of our decadence or progress by a more +rational standard.</p> + +<p>There is only one such rational standard; and +that is, to discover the causes and conditions of our +commercial prosperity, and then to inquire whether +those causes and conditions are being largely +altered or modified by the evolution of new phases. +If they are, England must begin to decline; if +they are not, her day is not yet come. Home Rule +she will survive; even the Eight Hours bogey, we +may presume, will not finally dispose of her.</p> + +<p>Now, the centre of civilisation is not a fixed +point. It has varied from time to time, and +may yet vary. In the very earliest historical +period, there was hardly such a thing as a centre +of civilisation at all. There were civilisations in +Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Etruria; discrete civilisations +of the river valleys, mostly, which scarcely +came into contact with one another in their +first beginnings; any more than our own came +into contact once with the civilisations of China, +of Japan, of Peru, of Mexico. As yet there was +no world-commerce, no mutual communication of +empire with empire. It was in the Ægean and +the eastern basin of the Mediterranean that +navigation first reached the point where great +commercial ports and free intercourse became +possible. The Phoenicians, and later the Greeks, +were the pioneers of the new era. Tyre, Athens, +Miletus, Rhodes, occupied the centre of the nascent +world, and bound together Assyria, Babylonia, +Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, Sicily, and Italy in +one mercantile system. A little later, Hellas +itself enlarged, so as to include Syracuse, Byzantium, +Alexandria, Cyrene, Cumae, Neapolis, +Massilia. The inland sea became "a Greek lake." +But as navigation thus slowly widened to the +western Mediterranean basin, the centre of commerce +had to shift perforce from Hellas to the +mid-point of the new area. Two powerful trading +towns occupied such a mid-point in the Mediterranean—Rome +and Carthage; and they were +driven to fight out the supremacy of the world +(the world as it then existed) between them. +With the Roman Empire, the circle extended +so as to take in the Atlantic coasts, Gaul, Spain, +and Britain, which then, however, lay not at the +centre but on the circumference of civilisation. +During the Middle Ages, when navigation began +to embrace the great open sea as well as the +Mediterranean, a double centre sprang up: the +Italian Republics, Venice, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, +were still the chief carriers; but the towns of +Flanders, Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp began to +compete with them, and the Atlantic states, +France, England, the Low Countries, rose into +importance. By and by, as time goes on, the +discoveries of Columbus and of Vasco di Gama +open out new tracks. Suddenly commerce is +revolutionised. France, England, Spain, become +nearer to America and India than Italy; so Italy +declines; while the Atlantic states usurp the first +place as the centres of civilisation.</p> + +<p>Our own age brings fresh seas into the circle +once more. It is no longer the Atlantic, the +Mediterranean, or the Indian Ocean that alone +count; the Pacific also begins to be considered. +China, Japan, the Cape; Chili, Peru, the Argentine; +California, British Columbia, Australia, New +Zealand; all of them are parts of the system of +to-day; civilisation is world-wide.</p> + +<p>Has this change of area altered the central position +of England? Not at all, save to strengthen +it. If you look at the hemisphere of greatest +land, you will see that England occupies its exact +middle. Insular herself, and therefore all made +up of ports, she is nearer all ports in the world +than any other country is or ever can be. I +don't say that this insures for her perpetual +dominion, such as Virgil prophesied for the Roman +Empire; but I do say it makes her a hard country +to beat in commercial competition. It accounts for +Liverpool, London, Glasgow, Newcastle; it even +accounts in a way for Manchester, Birmingham, +Leeds, and Sheffield. England now stands at the +mathematical centre of the practical world, and +unless some Big Thing occurs to displace her, she +must continue to stand there. It takes a great +deal to upset the balance of an entire planet.</p> + +<p>Is anything now displacing her? Well, there +is the fact that railways are making land-carriage +to-day more important relatively to water-carriage +than at any previous period. That may, perhaps, +in time shift the centre of the world from an island +like England to the middle of a great land area, +like Chicago or Moscow. And, no doubt, if ever +the centre shifts at all, it will shift towards Western +America, or rather the prairie region. But, just +at present, what are the greatest commercial towns +of the world? All ports to a man. And the day +when it will be otherwise, if ever, seems still far +distant. Look at the newest countries. What are +their great focal points? Every one of them ports. +Melbourne and Sydney; Rio, Buenos Ayres, and +Valparaiso; Cape Town, San Francisco, Bombay, +Calcutta, Yokohama. Chicago itself, the most vital +and the quickest grower among modern towns, +owes half its importance to the fact that there +water-carriage down the Great Lakes begins; +though it owes the other half, I admit, to the +converse fact that all the great trans-continental +railways have to bend south at that point to +avoid Lake Michigan. Still, on the whole, I +think, as long as conditions remain what they are, +the commercial supremacy of England is in no +immediate danger. It is these great permanent +geographical factors that make or mar a country, +not Eight Hours Bills or petty social reconstructions. +Said the Lord Mayor of London to +petulant King James, when he proposed to remove +the Court to Oxford, "May it please your +Majesty not to take away the Thames also."</p> + +<p>"But our competitors? We are being driven +out of our markets." Oh, yes, if that's all you +mean, I don't suppose we shall always be able in +everything to keep up our exclusive position. Our +neighbours, who (bar the advantage of insularity, +which means a coast and a port always close at +hand) seem nearly as well situated as we are for +access to the world-markets, are beginning to +wake up and take a slice of the cake from us. +Germany is manufacturing; Belgium is smelting; +Antwerp is exporting; America is occupying her +own markets. But that's a very different thing +indeed from national decadence. We may have +to compete a little harder with our rivals, that's +all. The Boom may be over; but the Thames +remains: the geographical facts are still unaltered. +And notice that all the time while there's been +this vague talk about "bad times"—income-tax +has been steadily increasing, London has been +steadily growing, every outer and visible sign of +commercial prosperity has been steadily spreading. +Have our watering-places shrunk? Have our +buildings been getting smaller and less luxurious? +If Antwerp has grown, how about Hull and +Cardiff? "Well, perhaps the past is all right; +but consider the future! Eight hours are going +to drive capital out of the country!" Rubbish! +I'm not a political economist, thank God; I never +sank quite so low as that. And I'm not speaking +for or against Eight Hours: I'm only discounting +some verbose nonsense. But I know enough to +see that the capital of a country can no more be +exported than the land or the houses. Can you +drive away the London and North-Western Railway? +Can you drive away the factories of Manchester, +the mines of the Black Country, the +canals, the buildings, the machinery, the docks, +the plant, the apparatus? Impossible, on the +very face of it! Most of the capital of a country +is fixed in its soil, and can't be uprooted. People +fall into this error about driving away capital +because they know you can sell particular railway +shares or a particular factory and leave the country +with the proceeds, provided somebody else is willing +to buy; but you can't sell all the railways and all +the factories in a lump, and clear out with the +capital. No, no; England stands where she does, +because God put her there; and until He invents +a new order of things (which may, of course, +happen any day—as, for example, if aerial navigation +came in) she must continue, in spite of +minor changes, to maintain in the main her present +position.</p> + +<p>But a truce to these frivolities! The little +Italian boy next door calls me to play ball with +him, with a green lemon from the garden. Vengo, +Luigi, vengo! I return at once to the realities of +life, and dismiss such shadows.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.</h3> + +<h4><i>THE GAME AND THE RULES.</i></h4> + + +<p>A sportive friend of mine, a mighty golfer, is +fond of saying, "You Radicals want to play the +game without the rules." To which I am accustomed +mildly to retort, "Not at all; but we +think the rules unfair, and so we want to see +them altered."</p> + +<p>Now life is a very peculiar game, which differs +in many important respects even from compulsory +football. The Rugby scrimmage is mere child's +play by the side of it. There's no possibility of +shirking it. A medical certificate won't get you +off; whether you like it or not, play you must +in your appointed order. We are all unwilling +competitors. Nobody asks our naked little souls +beforehand whether they would prefer to be born +into the game or to remain, unfleshed, in the +limbo of non-existence. Willy nilly, every one +of us is thrust into the world by an irresponsible +act of two previous players; and once there, we +must play out the set as best we may to the +bitter end, however little we like it or the rules +that order it.</p> + +<p>That, it must be admitted, makes a grave distinction +from the very outset between the game +of human life and any other game with which +we are commonly acquainted. It also makes it +imperative upon the framers of the rules so to +frame them that no one player shall have an unfair +or unjust advantage over any of the others. +And since the penalty of bad play, or bad success +in the match, is death, misery, starvation, +it behoves the rule-makers to be more scrupulously +particular as to fairness and equity than in any +other game like cricket or tennis. It behoves +them to see that all start fair, and that no hapless +beginner is unduly handicapped. To compel men +to take part in a match for dear life, whether +they wish it or not, and then to insist that some +of them shall wield bats and some mere broom-sticks, +irrespective of height, weight, age, or bodily +infirmity, is surely not fair. It justifies the +committee in calling for a revision.</p> + +<p>But things are far worse than even that in +the game as actually played in Europe. What +shall we say of rules which decide dogmatically +that one set of players are hereditarily entitled +to be always batting, while another set, less lucky, +have to field for ever, and to be fined or imprisoned +for not catching? What shall we say +of rules which give one group a perpetual right +to free lunch in the tent, while the remainder +have to pick up what they can for themselves by +gleaning among the stubble? How justify the +principle in accordance with which the captain +on one side has an exclusive claim to the common +ground of the club, and may charge every player +exactly what he likes for the right to play upon +it?—especially when the choice lies between +playing on such terms, or being cast into the +void, yourself and your family. And then to +think that the ground thus tabooed by one particular +member may be all Sutherlandshire, or, +still worse, all Westminster! Decidedly, these +rules call for instant revision; and the unprivileged +players must be submissive indeed who +consent to put up with them.</p> + +<p>Friends and fellow-members, let us cry with +one voice, "The links for the players!"</p> + +<p>Once more, just look at the singular rule in +our own All England club, by which certain +assorted members possess a hereditary right to +veto all decisions of the elective committee, merely +because they happen to be their fathers' sons, +and the club long ago very foolishly permitted +the like privilege to their ancestors! That +is an irrational interference with the liberty of +the players which hardly anybody nowadays ventures +to defend in principle, and which is only +upheld in some half-hearted way (save in the +case of that fossil anachronism, the Duke of +Argyll) by supposed arguments of convenience. +It won't last long now; there is talk in the +committee of "mending or ending it." It shows +the long-suffering nature of the poor blind players +at this compulsory game of national football that +they should ever for one moment permit so monstrous +an assumption—permit the idea that one +single player may wield a substantive voice and +vote to outweigh tens of thousands of his fellow-members!</p> + +<p>These questions of procedure, however, are +after all small matters. It is the real hardships +of the game that most need to be tackled. Why +should one player be born into the sport with +a prescriptive right to fill some easy place in the +field, while another has to fag on from morning +to night in the most uninteresting and fatiguing +position? Why should <i>pâté de foie gras</i> and +champagne-cup in the tent be so unequally distributed? +Why should those who have made +fewest runs and done no fielding be admitted +to partake of these luxuries, free of charge, while +those who have borne the brunt of the fight, those +who have suffered from the heat of the day, those +who have contributed most to the honour of the +victory, are turned loose, unfed, to do as they +can for themselves by hook or by crook somehow? +These are the questions some of us players are +now beginning to ask ourselves; and we don't +find them efficiently answered by the bald statement +that we "want to play the game without +the rules," and that we ought to be precious glad +the legislators of the club haven't made them a +hundred times harder against us.</p> + +<p>No, no; the rules themselves must be altered. +Time was, indeed, when people used to think +they were made and ordained by divine authority. +"Cum privilegio" was the motto of the captains. +But we know very well now that every club settles +its own standing orders, and that it can alter +and modify them as fundamentally as it pleases. +Lots of funny old saws are still uttered upon +this subject—"There must always be rich and +poor;" "You can't interfere with economical +laws;" "If you were to divide up everything +to-morrow, at the end of a fortnight you'd find +the same differences and inequalities as ever." +The last-named argument (I believe it considers +itself by courtesy an argument) is one which no +self-respecting Radical should so much as deign +to answer. Nobody that I ever heard of for +one moment proposed to "divide up everything," +or, for that matter, anything: and the imputation +that somebody did or does is a proof either of +intentional malevolence or of crass stupidity. +Neither should be encouraged; and you encourage +them by pretending to take them seriously. It +is the initial injustices of the game that we +Radicals object to—the injustices which prevent +us from all starting fair and having our even +chance of picking up a livelihood. We don't +want to "divide up everything"—a most futile +proceeding; but we do want to untie the legs +and release the arms of the handicapped players. +To drop metaphor at last, it is the conditions we +complain about. Alter the conditions, and there +would be no need for division, summary or gradual. +The game would work itself out spontaneously +without your intervention.</p> + +<p>The injustice of the existing set of rules simply +appals the Radical. Yet oddly enough, this injustice +itself appeals rather to the comparative +looker-on than to the heavily-handicapped players +in person. They, poor creatures, dragging their +log in patience, have grown so accustomed to regarding +the world as another man's oyster, that +they put up uncomplainingly for the most part +with the most patent inequalities. Perhaps 'tis +their want of imagination that makes them unable +to conceive any other state of things as even +possible—like the dog who accepts kicking as the +natural fate of doghood. At any rate, you will +find, if you look about you, that the chief reformers +are not, as a rule, the ill-used classes themselves, +but the sensitive and thinking souls who hate and +loathe the injustice with which others are treated. +Most of the best Radicals I have known were men +of gentle birth and breeding. Not all: others, +just as earnest, just as eager, just as chivalrous, +sprang from the masses. Yet the gently-reared +preponderate. It is a common Tory taunt to say +that the battle is one between the Haves and the +Have-nots. That is by no means true. It is +between the selfish Haves, on one side, and the +unselfish Haves, who wish to see something done +for the Have-nots, on the other. As for the poor +Have-nots themselves, they are mostly inarticulate. +Indeed, the Tory almost admits as much when he +alters his tone and describes the sympathising and +active few as "paid agitators."</p> + +<p>For myself, however, I am a born Conservative. +I hate to see any old custom or practice changed; +unless, indeed, it is either foolish or wicked—like +most existing ones.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.</h3> + +<h4><i>THE RÔLE OF PROPHET.</i></h4> + + +<p>One great English thinker and artist once tried +the rash experiment of being true to himself—of +saying out boldly, without fear or reserve, the +highest and noblest and best that was in him. +He gave us the most exquisite lyrics in the English +language; he moulded the thought of our first +youth as no other poet has ever yet moulded it; he +became the spiritual father of the richest souls in +two succeeding generations of Englishmen. And +what reward did he get for it? He was expelled +from his university. He was hounded out of his +country. He was deprived of his own children. +He was denied the common appeal to the law +and courts of justice. He was drowned, an exile, +in a distant sea, and burned in solitude on a +foreign shore. And after his death he was vilified +and calumniated by wretched penny-a-liners, +or (worse insult still) apologised for, with half-hearted +shrugs, by lukewarm advocates. The +purest in life and the most unselfish in purpose +of all mankind, he was persecuted alive with the +utmost rancour of hate, and pursued when dead +with the vilest shafts of malignity. He never +even knew in his scattered grave the good he +was to do to later groups of thinkers.</p> + +<p>It was a noble example, of course; but not, +you will admit, an alluring one for others to +follow.</p> + +<p>"Be true to yourself," say the copy-book +moralists, "and you may be sure the result will +at last be justified." No doubt; but in how many +centuries? And what sort of life will you lead +yourself, meanwhile, for your allotted space of +threescore years and ten, unless haply hanged, or +burned, or imprisoned before it? What the copy-book +moralists mean is merely this—that sooner or +later your principles will triumph, which may or +may not be the case according to the nature of +the principles. But even suppose they do, are you +to ignore yourself in the interim—you, a human +being with emotions, sensations, domestic affections, +and, in the majority of instances, wife and children +on whom to expend them? Why should it be +calmly taken for granted by the world that if you +have some new and true thing to tell humanity +(which humanity, of course, will toss back in your +face with contumely and violence) you are bound +to blurt it out, with childish unreserve, regardless +of consequences to yourself and to those who depend +upon you? Why demand of genius or exceptional +ability a gratuitous sacrifice which you +would deprecate as wrong and unjust to others in +the ordinary citizen? For the genius, too, is a +man, and has his feelings.</p> + +<p>The fact is, society considers that in certain +instances it has a right to expect the thinker will +martyrise himself on its account, while it stands +serenely by and heaps faggots on the pile, with +every mark of contempt and loathing. But society +is mistaken. No man is bound to martyrise himself; +in a great many cases a man is bound to do +the exact opposite. He has given hostages to +Fortune, and his first duty is to the hostages. +"We ask you for bread," his children may well +say, "and you give us a noble moral lesson. We +ask you for clothing, and you supply us with a +beautiful poetical fancy." This is not according +to bargain. Wife and children have a first mortgage +on a man's activities; society has only a +right to contingent remainders.</p> + +<p>A great many sensible men who had truths of +deep import to deliver to the world must have +recognised these facts in all times and places, and +must have held their tongues accordingly. Instead +of speaking out the truths that were in them, they +must have kept their peace, or have confined themselves +severely to the ordinary platitudes of their +age and nation. Why ruin yourself by announcing +what you feel and believe, when all the reward you +will get for it in the end will be social ostracism, +if not even the rack, the stake, or the pillory? +The Shelleys and Rousseaus there's no holding, of +course; they <i>will</i> run right into it; but the +Goethes—oh, no, they keep their secret. Indeed, +I hold it as probable that the vast majority of +men far in advance of their times have always +held their tongues consistently, save for mere +common babble, on Lord Chesterfield's principle +that "Wise men never say."</p> + +<p>The <i>rôle</i> of prophet is thus a thankless and difficult +one. Nor is it quite certainly of real use to +the community. For the prophet is generally +too much ahead of his times. He discounts the +future at a ruinous rate, and he takes the consequences. +If you happen ever to have read the +Old Testament you must have noticed that the +prophets had generally a hard time of it.</p> + +<p>The leader is a very different stamp of person. +<i>He</i> stands well abreast of his contemporaries, and +just half a pace in front of them; and he has +power to persuade even the inertia of humanity +into taking that one half-step in advance he himself +has already made bold to adventure. His post +is honoured, respected, remunerated. But the +prophet gets no thanks, and perhaps does mankind +no benefit. He sees too quick. And there can +be very little good indeed in so seeing. If one of +us had been an astronomer, and had discovered +the laws of Kepler, Newton, and Laplace in the +thirteenth century, I think he would have been +wise to keep the discovery to himself for a few +hundred years or so. Otherwise, he would have +been burned for his trouble. Galileo, long after, +tried part of the experiment a decade or so too +soon, and got no good by it. But in moral and +social matters the danger is far graver. I would +say to every aspiring youth who sees some political +or economical or ethical truth quite clearly: +"Keep it dark! Don't mention it! Nobody will +listen to you; and you, who are probably a person +of superior insight and higher moral aims than +the mass, will only destroy your own influence for +good by premature declarations. The world will +very likely come round of itself to your views in +the end; but if you tell them too soon, you will +suffer for it in person, and will very likely do +nothing to help on the revolution in thought +that you contemplate. For thought that is too +abruptly ahead of the mass never influences +humanity."</p> + +<p>"But sometimes the truth will out in spite of +one!" Ah, yes, that's the worst of it. Do as I +say, not as I do. If possible, repress it.</p> + +<p>It is a noble and beautiful thing to be a martyr, +especially if you are a martyr in the cause of truth, +and not, as is often the case, of some debasing and +degrading superstition. But nobody has a right +to demand of you that you should be a martyr. +And some people have often a right to demand +that you should resolutely refuse the martyr's +crown on the ground that you have contracted +prior obligations, inconsistent with the purely +personal luxury of martyrdom. 'Tis a luxury for +a few. It befits only the bachelor, the unattached, +and the economically spareworthy.</p> + +<p>"These be pessimistic pronouncements," you say. +Well, no, not exactly. For, after all, we must +never shut our eyes to the actual; and in the +world as it is, meliorism, not optimism, is the +true opposite of pessimism. Optimist and pessimist +are both alike in a sense, seeing they are +both conservative; they sit down contented—the +first with the smug contentment that says "All's +well; I have enough; why this fuss about others?" +the second with the contentment of blank despair +that says, "All's hopeless; all's wrong; why try +uselessly to mend it?" The meliorist attitude, on +the contrary, is rather to say, "Much is wrong; +much painful; what can we do to improve it?" +And from this point of view there is something +we can all do to make martyrdom less inevitable +in the end, for the man who has a thought, a discovery, +an idea, to tell us. Such men are rare, +and their thought, when they produce it, is sure +to be unpalatable. For, if it were otherwise, it +would be thought of our own type—familiar, +banal, commonplace, unoriginal. It would encounter +no resistance, as it thrilled on its way +through our brain, from established errors. What +the genius and the prophet are there for is just +that—to make us listen to unwelcome truths, +to compel us to hear, to drive awkward facts +straight home with sledge-hammer force to the +unwilling hearts and brains of us. Not what <i>you</i> +want to hear, or what <i>I</i> want to hear, is good and +useful for us; but what we <i>don't</i> want to hear, +what we can't bear to think, what we hate to +believe, what we fight tooth and nail against. +The man who makes us listen to <i>that</i> is the seer +and the prophet; he comes upon us like Shelley, +or Whitman, or Ibsen, and plumps down horrid +truths that half surprise, half disgust us. He +shakes us out of our lethargy. To such give +ear, though they say what shocks you. Weigh +well their hateful ideas. Avoid the vulgar vice of +sneering and carping at them. Learn to examine +their nude thought without shrinking, and examine +it all the more carefully when it most repels you. +Naked verity is an acquired taste; it is never +beautiful at first sight to the unaccustomed vision. +Remember that no question is finally settled; that +no question is wholly above consideration; that +what you cherish as holiest is most probably +wrong; and that in social and moral matters +especially (where men have been longest ruled by +pure superstitions) new and startling forms of +thought have the highest <i>a priori</i> probability in +their favour. Dismiss your idols. Give every +opinion its fair chance of success—especially when +it seems to you both wicked and ridiculous, recollecting +that it is better to let five hundred crude +guesses run loose about the world unclad, than to +crush one fledgling truth in its callow condition. To +the Greeks, foolishness: to the Jews, a stumbling-block. +If you can't be one of the prophets yourself, +you can at least abstain from helping to +stone them.</p> + +<p>Dear me! These reflections to-day are anything +but post-prandial. The <i>gnocchi</i> and the +olives must certainly have disagreed with me. +But perhaps it may some of it be "wrote sarcastic." +I have heard tell there is a thing +called irony.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.</h3> + +<h4><i>THE ROMANCE OF THE CLASH OF RACES.</i></h4> + + +<p>The world has expanded faster in the last thirty +years than in any previous age since "the spacious +days of great Elizabeth." And with its +expansion, of course, our ideas have widened. I +believe Europe is now in the midst of just such +an outburst of thought and invention as that +which followed the discovery of America, and of +the new route to India by the Cape of Good +Hope. But I don't want to insist too strongly +upon that point, because I know a great many +of my contemporaries are deeply hurt by the +base and spiteful suggestion that they and their +fellows are really quite as good as any fish that +ever came out of the sea before them. I only +desire now to call attention for a moment to one +curious result entailed by this widening of the +world upon our literary productivity—a result +which, though obvious enough when one comes to +look at it, seems to me hitherto to have strangely +escaped deliberate notice.</p> + +<p>In one word, the point of which I speak is +the comparative cosmopolitanisation of letters, and +especially the introduction into literary art of the +phenomena due to the Clash of Races.</p> + +<p>This Clash itself is the one picturesque and +novel feature of our otherwise somewhat prosaic +and machine-made epoch; and, therefore, it has +been eagerly seized upon, with one accord, by +all the chief purveyors of recent literature, and +especially of fiction. They have espied in it, +with technical instinct, the best chance for obtaining +that fresh interest which is essential to the +success of a work of art. We were all getting +somewhat tired, it must be confessed, of the old +places and the old themes. The insipid loves +of Anthony Trollope's blameless young people were +beginning to pall upon us. The jaded palate of +the Anglo-Celtic race pined for something hot, +with a touch of fresh spice in it. It demanded +curried fowl and Jamaica peppers. Hence, on +the one hand, the sudden vogue of the novelists +of the younger countries—Tolstoi and Tourgenieff, +Ibsen and Bjornson, Mary Wilkins and Howells +—who transplanted us at once into fresh scenes, +new people: hence, on the other hand, the tendency +on the part of our own latest writers—the +Stevensons, the Hall Caines, the Marion Crawfords, +the Rider Haggards—to go far afield among the +lower races or the later civilisations for the themes +of their romances.</p> + +<p>Alas, alas, I see breakers before me! Must I +pause for a moment in the flowing current of a +paragraph to explain, as in an aside, that I include +Marion Crawford of set purpose among "our +own" late writers, while I count Mary Wilkins +and Howells as Transatlantic aliens? Experience +teaches me that I must; else shall I have that +annoying animalcule, the microscopic critic, coming +down upon me in print with his petty objection +that "Mr. Crawford is an American." Go to, oh, +blind one! And Whistler also, I suppose, and +Sargent, and, perhaps, Ashmead Bartlett! What! +have you read "Sarracinesca" and not learnt that +its author is European to the core? 'Twas for such +as you that the Irishman invented his brilliant +retort: "And if I was born in a stable would I +be a horse?"</p> + +<p>Not merely, however, do our younger writers go +into strange and novel places for the scenes of +their stories; the important point to notice in the +present connection is that, consciously or unconsciously +to themselves, they have perceived the +mighty influence of this Clash of Races, and have +chosen the relations of the civilised people with +their savage allies, or enemies, or subjects, as the +chief theme of their handicraft. 'Tis a momentous +theme, for it encloses in itself half the problems +of the future. The old battles are now well-nigh +fought out; but new ones are looming ahead for +us. The cosmopolitanisation of the world is introducing +into our midst strange elements of discord. +A conglomerate of unwelded ethnical elements +usurps the stage of history. America and South +Africa have already their negro question; California +and Australia have already their Chinese +question; Russia is fast getting her Asiatic, her +Mahommedan question. Even France, the most +narrowly European in interest of European +countries, has yet her Algeria, her Tunis, her +Tonquin. Spain has Cuba and the Philippines. +Holland has Java. Germany is burdening herself +with the unborn troubles of a Hinterland. And +as for England, she staggers on still under the +increasing load of India, Hong Kong, Singapore, +South Africa, the West Indies, Fiji, New Guinea, +North Borneo—all of them rife with endless race-questions, +all pregnant with difficulties.</p> + +<p>Who can be surprised that amid this seething +turmoil of colours, instincts, creeds, and languages, +art should have fastened upon the race-problems as +her great theme for the moment? And she has +fastened upon them everywhere. France herself +has not been able to avoid the contagion. Pierre +Loti is the most typical French representative of +this vagabond spirit; and the question of the +peoples naturally envisages itself to his mind in +true Gallic fashion in the "Mariage de Loti" and +in "Madame Chrysanthème." He sees it through +a halo of vague sexual sentimentalism. In England, +it was Rider Haggard from the Cape who +first set the mode visibly; and nothing is more +noteworthy in all his work than the fact that the +interest mainly centres in the picturesque juxtaposition +and contrast of civilisation and savagery. +Once the cue was given, what more natural than +that young Rudyard Kipling, fresh home from +India, brimming over with genius and with +knowledge of two concurrent streams of life that +flow on side by side yet never mingle, should +take up his parable in due course, and storm +us all by assault with his light field artillery? +Then Robert Louis Stevenson, born a wandering +Scot, with roving Scandinavian and fiery Celtic +blood in his veins, must needs settle down, like +a Viking that he is, in far Samoa, there to +charm and thrill us by turns with the romance of +Polynesia. The example was catching. Almost +without knowing it, other writers have turned +for subjects to similar fields. "Dr. Isaacs," +"Paul Patoff," "By Proxy," were upon us. Even +Hall Caine himself, in some ways a most insular +type of genius, was forced in "The Scapegoat" +to carry us off from Cumberland and Man to +Morocco. Sir Edwin Arnold inflicts upon us +the tragedies of Japan. I have been watching +this tendency long myself with the interested eye +of a dealer engaged in the trade, and therefore +anxious to keep pace with every changing breath +of popular favour: and I notice a constant increase +from year to year in the number of +short stories in magazines and newspapers dealing +with the romance of the inferior races. I +notice, also, that such stories are increasingly +successful with the public. This shows that, +whether the public knows it or not itself, the +question of race is interesting it more and more. +It is gradually growing to understand the magnitude +of the change that has come over civilisation +by the inclusion of Asia, Africa, and +Australasia within its circle. Even the Queen +is learning Hindustani.</p> + +<p>There is a famous passage in Green's "Short +History of the English People" which describes +in part that strange outburst of national expansion +under Elizabeth, when Raleigh, Drake, and +Frobisher scoured the distant seas, and when at +home "England became a nest of singing birds," +with Shakespeare, Spenser, Fletcher, and Marlow. +"The old sober notions of thrift," says the picturesque +historian, "melted before the strange +revolutions of fortune wrought by the New +World. Gallants gambled away a fortune at a +sitting, and sailed off to make a fresh one in the +Indies." (Read rather to-day at Kimberley, +Johannesburg, Vancouver.) "Visions of galleons +loaded to the brim with pearls and diamonds +and ingots of silver, dreams of El Dorados where +all was of gold, threw a haze of prodigality and +profusion over the imagination of the meanest +seaman. The wonders, too, of the New World +kindled a burst of extravagant fancy in the Old. +The strange medley of past and present which +distinguishes its masques and feastings only reflected +the medley of men's thoughts.... A +'wild man' from the Indies chanted the Queen's +praises at Kenilworth, and Echo answered him. +Elizabeth turned from the greetings of sibyls and +giants to deliver the enchanted lady from her +tyrant, 'Sans Pitie.' Shepherdesses welcomed +her with carols of the spring, while Ceres and +Bacchus poured their corn and grapes at her +feet." Oh, gilded youth of the Gaiety, <i>mutato +nomine de te Fabula narratur</i>. Yours, yours is +this glory!</p> + +<p>For our own age, too, is a second Elizabethan. +It blossoms out daily into such flowers of fancy +as never bloomed before, save then, on British +soil. When men tell you nowadays we have +"no great writers left," believe not the silly +parrot cry. Nay, rather, laugh it down for +them. We move in the midst of one of the +mightiest epochs earth has ever seen, an epoch +which will live in history hereafter side by side +with the Athens of Pericles, the Rome of +Augustus, the Florence of Lorenzo, the England +of Elizabeth. Don't throw away your birthright +by ignoring the fact. Live up to your privileges. +Gaze around you and know. Be a conscious partaker +in one of the great ages of humanity.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="X" id="X"></a>X.</h3> + +<h4><i>THE MONOPOLIST INSTINCTS.</i></h4> + + +<p>In the first of these after-dinner <i>causeries</i> I ventured +humbly to remark that Patriotism was a +vulgar vice of which I had never been guilty. +That innocent indiscretion of mine aroused at the +moment some unfavourable comment. I confess +I was sorry for it. But I passed it by at the +time, lest I should speak too hastily and lose my +temper. I recur to the subject now, at the hour +of the cigarette, when man can discourse most +genially of his bitterest enemy. And Monopoly +is mine. Its very name is hateful.</p> + +<p>I don't often say what I think. At least, not +much of it. I don't often get the chance. And, +besides, being a timid and a modest man, I'm +afraid to. But just this once, I'm going to +"try it on." Object to my opinions as you will. +But still, let me express them. Strike—but +hear me!</p> + +<p>Has it ever occurred to you that one object +of reading is to learn things you never thought of +before, and would never think of now, unless you +were told them?</p> + +<p>Patriotism is one of the Monopolist Instincts. +And the Monopolist Instincts are the greatest +enemies of the social life in humanity. They +are what we have got in the end to outlive. +The test of a man's place in the scale of being +is how far he has outlived them. They are +surviving relics of the ape and tiger. But we +must let the ape and tiger die. We must begin +to be human.</p> + +<p>I will take Patriotism first, because it is the +most specious of them all, and has still a self-satisfied +way of masquerading as a virtue. But +after all what is Patriotism? "My country, +right or wrong; and just because it is <i>my</i> +country." It is nothing more than a wider form +of selfishness. Often enough, indeed, it is even +a narrow one. It means, "My business interests +against the business interests of other people; +and let the taxes of my fellow-citizens pay to +support them." At other times it is pure +Jingoism. It means, "<i>My</i> country against other +countries! <i>My</i> army and navy against other +fighters! <i>My</i> right to annex unoccupied territory +over the equal right of all other people! <i>My</i> +power to oppress all weaker nationalities, all +inferior races!" It <i>never</i> means anything good. +For if a cause is just, like Ireland's, or once +Italy's, then 'tis the good man's duty to espouse +it with warmth, be it his own or another's. +And if a cause be bad, then 'tis the good man's +duty to oppose it tooth and nail, irrespective of +your "Patriotism." True, a good man will feel +more sensitively anxious that justice should be +done by the particular State of which he happens +himself to be a member than by any other, +because he is partly responsible for the corporate +action; but then, people who feel deeply this +joint moral responsibility of all the citizens are +not praised as patriots but reviled as unpatriotic. +To urge that our own country should strive with +all its might to be better, higher, purer, nobler, +juster than other countries around it—the only +kind of Patriotism worth a brass farthing in a +righteous man's eyes—is accounted by most men +both wicked and foolish.</p> + +<p>Patriotism, then, is the collective or national +form of the Monopolist Instincts. And like all +those Instincts, it is a relic of savagery, which +the Man of the Future is now engaged in out-living.</p> + +<p>Property is the next form. That, on the +very face of it, is a viler and more sordid one. +For Patriotism at least can lay claim to some +expansiveness beyond mere individual interest; +whereas property stops dead short at the narrowest +limits. It is not "Us against the +world!" but "Me against my fellow-citizens!" +It is the final result of the industrial war in +its most hideous avatar. Look how it scars +the fair face of our England with its anti-social +notice-boards, "Trespassers will be prosecuted!" +It says, in effect, "This is my land. God made +it; but I have acquired it and tabooed it. +The grass on it grows green; but only for me. +The mountains rise beautiful; no foot of man, +save mine and my gamekeepers', shall tread +them. The waterfalls gleam fresh and cool in the +glen: avaunt there, you non-possessors; <i>you</i> shall +never see them! All this is my own. And I +choose to monopolise it."</p> + +<p>Or is it the capitalist? "I will add field +to field," he says, in despite of his own scripture; +"I will join railway to railway. I will +juggle into my own hands all the instruments +for the production of wealth that I can +lay hold of; and I will use them for myself +against the producer and the consumer. I will +enrich myself by 'corners' on the necessaries +of life; I will make food dear for the poor, +that I myself may roll in needless luxury. +I will monopolise whatever I can seize, and +the people may eat straw." That temper, too, +humanity must outlive. And those who can't +outlive it of themselves, or be warned in time, +must be taught by stern lessons that their race +has outstripped them.</p> + +<p>As for slavery, 'tis now gone. That was the +vilest of them all. It was the naked assertion +of the Monopolist platform: "You live, not for +yourself, but wholly and solely for me. I disregard +your life entirely, and use you as my +chattel." It died at last of the moral indignation +of humanity. It died when a Southern court +of so-called justice formulated in plain words the +underlying principle of its hateful creed: "A +black man has no rights which a white man is +bound to respect." That finally finished it. We +no longer allow every man to "wallop his own +nigger." And though the last relics of it die +hard in Queensland, South Africa, Demerara, we +have at least the satisfaction of knowing that +one Monopolist Instinct out of the group is pretty +well bred out of us.</p> + +<p>Except as regards women! There, it lingers +still. The Man says even now to himself:—"This +woman is mine. If she ventures to have +a heart or a will of her own, woe betide her! I +have tabooed her for life; let any other man +touch her, let her look at any other man—and—knife, +revolver, or law court, they shall both +of them answer for it!" There you have in all +its natural ugliness another Monopolist Instinct—the +deepest-seated of all, the vilest, the most +barbaric. She is not yours: she is her own: +unhand her! The Turk takes his offending +slave, sews her up in a sack, and flings her into +the Bosphorus. The Christian Englishman drags +her shame before an open court, and divorces +her with contumely. Her shame, I say, in the +common phrase, because though to me it is no +shame that any human being should follow the +dictates of his or her own heart, it is a shame +to the woman in the eyes of the world, and a +life of disgrace she must live thenceforward. +All this is Monopoly and essentially slavery. +As man lives down the Ape and Tiger stage, +he will learn to say, rather: "Be mine while +you can; but the day you cease to feel you +can be mine willingly, don't disgrace your own +body by yielding it up where your soul feels +loathing; don't consent to be the mother of +children by a father you despise or dislike or +are tired of. Let us kiss and part. Go where +you will; and my good will go with you!" +Till the man can say that with a sincere heart, +why, to borrow a phrase from George Meredith, +he may have passed Seraglio Point, but he hasn't +rounded Cape Turk yet.</p> + +<p>You find that a hard saying, do you? You +kick against freedom for wife or daughter? Well, +yes, no doubt; you are still a Monopolist. But, +believe me, the earnest and solemn expression +of a profound belief never yet did harm to any +one. I look forward to the time when women +shall be as free in every way as men, not by +levelling down, but by levelling up; not, as +some would have us think, by enslaving the men, +but by elevating, emancipating, unshackling the +women.</p> + +<p>There is a charming little ditty in Louis +Stevenson's "Child's Garden of Verse," which +always seems to me to sum up admirably the +Monopolist attitude. Here it is. Look well +at it:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"When I am grown to man's estate</span> +<span class="i2">I shall be very proud and great,</span> +<span class="i2">And tell the other girls and boys,</span> +<span class="i2">Not to meddle with <i>my</i> toys."</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>That is the way of the Monopolist. It catches +him in the very act. He says to all the world: +"Hands off! My property! Don't walk on +my grass! Don't trespass in my park! Beware +of my gunboats! No trifling with my women! +I am the king of the castle. You meddle with +me at your peril."</p> + +<p>"Ours!" not "Mine!" is the watchword of the +future.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI.</h3> + +<h4>"<i>MERE AMATEURS.</i>"</h4> + + +<p>"He was a mere amateur; but still, he did some +good work in science."</p> + +<p>Increasingly of late years I have heard these +condescending words uttered, in the fatherland of +Bacon, of Newton, of Darwin, when some Bates +or Spottiswoode has been gathered to his fathers. +It was not so once. Time was when all English +science was the work of amateurs—and very +well indeed the amateurs did it. I don't think +anybody who does me the honour to cognise my +humble individuality at all will ever be likely +to mistake me for a <i>laudator temporis acti</i>. On +the contrary, so far as I can see, the past seems +generally to have been such a distinct failure +all along the line that the one lesson we +have to learn from it is, to go and do otherwise. +I am one on that point with Shelley +and Rousseau. But it does not follow, because +most old things are bad, that all new things +and rising things are necessarily and indisputably +in their own nature excellent. Novelties, +too, may be retrograde. And even our great-grandfathers +occasionally blundered upon something +good in which we should do well to +imitate them. The amateurishness of old English +science was one of these good things now in +course of abolition by the fashionable process +of Germanisation.</p> + +<p>Don't imagine it was only for France that 1870 +was fatal. The sad successes of that deadly +year sent a wave of triumphant Teutonism over +the face of Europe.</p> + +<p>I suppose it is natural to man to worship +success; but ever since 1870 it is certainly +the fact that if you wish to gain respect and +consideration for any proposed change of system +you must say, "They do it so in Germany." +In education and science this is especially the +case. Pedants always admire pedants. And +Germany having shown herself to be easily +first of European States in her pedant-manufacturing +machinery, all the assembled dominies +of all the rest of the world exclaimed with one +voice, "Go to! Let us Germanise our educational +system!"</p> + +<p>Now, the German is an excellent workman in +his way. Patient, laborious, conscientious, he has +all the highest qualities of the ideal brick-maker. +He produces the best bricks, and you can generally +depend upon him to turn out both honest +and workmanlike articles. But he is not an +architect. For the architectonic faculty in its +highest developments you must come to England. +And he is not a teacher or expounder. +For the expository faculty in its purest form, +the faculty that enables men to flash forth +clearly and distinctly before the eyes of others +the facts and principles they know and perceive +themselves, you must go to France. Oh, dear, +yes; we may well be proud of England. Remember, +I have already disclaimed more than once in +these papers the vulgar error of patriotism. But +freedom from that narrow vice does not imply +inability to recognise the good qualities of one's +own race as well as the bad ones. And the +Englishman, left to himself and his own native +methods, used to cut a very respectable figure +indeed in the domain of science. No other nation +has produced a Newton or a Darwin. The +Englishman's way was to get up an interest in a +subject first; and then, working back from the +part of it that specially appealed to his own +tastes, to make himself master of the entire field +of inquiry. This natural and thoroughly individualistic +English method enabled him to arrive +at new results in a way impossible to the +pedantically educated German—nay, even to the +lucidly and systematically educated Frenchman. +It was the plan to develop "mere amateurs," +I admit; but it was also the plan to develop +discoverers and revolutionisers of science. For +the man most likely to advance knowledge is +not the man who knows in an encyclopædic +rote-work fashion the whole circle of the +sciences, but the man who takes a fresh interest +for its own sake in some particular branch of +inquiry.</p> + +<p>Darwin was a "mere amateur." He worked +at things for the love of them. So were Murchison, +Lyell, Benjamin Franklin, Herschel. So +were or are Bates, Herbert Spencer, Alfred +Russel Wallace. "Mere amateurs!" every man +of them.</p> + +<p>In an evil hour, however, our pastors and +masters in conclave assembled said to one another, +"Come now, let us Teutonise English +scientific education." And straightway they Teutonised +it. And there began to arise in England +a new brood of patent machine-made scientists—excellent +men in their way, authorities on +the Arachnida, knowing all about everything +that could be taught in the schools, but lacking +somehow the supreme grace of the old English +originality. They are first-rate specialists, I +allow; and I don't deny that a civilised country +has all need of specialists. Nay, I even admit +that the day of the specialist has only just +begun. He will yet go far; he will impose +himself and his yoke upon us. But don't let +us therefore make the grand mistake of concluding +that our fine old English birthright in +science—the birthright that gave us our Newtons, +our Cavendishes, our Darwins, our Lyells—was +all folly and error. Don't let us spoil ourselves +in order to become mere second-hand Germans. +Let us recognise the fact that each nation has +a work of its own to do in the world; and +that as star from star, so one nation differeth +from another in glory. Let each of us thank +the goodness and the grace that on his birth +have smiled, that he was born of English breed, +and not a German child.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think," a military gentleman once +said to me, "the Germans are wonderful organisers?" +"No," I answered, "I don't; but I think +they're excellent drill-sergeants."</p> + +<p>There are people who drop German authorities +upon you as if a Teutonic name were +guarantee enough for anything. They say, "Hausberger +asserts," or "According to Schimmelpenninck." +This is pure fetichism. Believe me, +your man of science isn't necessarily any the +better because he comes to you with the label, +"Made in Germany." The German instinct is +the instinct of Frederick William of Prussia—the +instinct of drilling. Very thorough and +efficient men in their way it turns out; men +versed in all the lore of their chosen subject. +If they are also men of transcendent ability +(as often happens), they can give us a comprehensive +view of their own chosen field such +as few Englishmen (except Sir Archibald Geikie, +and he's a Scot) can equal. If I wanted to +select a learned man for a special Government +post—British Museum, and so forth—I dare +say I should often be compelled to admit, as +Government often admits, that the best man +then and there obtainable is the German. But +if I wanted to train Herbert Spencers and +Faradays, I would certainly <i>not</i> send them to +Bonn or to Berlin. John Stuart Mill was an +English Scotchman, educated and stuffed by his +able father on the German system; and how +much of spontaneity, of vividness, of <i>verve</i>, we +all of us feel John Stuart Mill lost by it! +One often wonders to what great, to what still +greater, things that lofty brain might not have +attained, if only James Mill would have given it +a chance to develop itself naturally!</p> + +<p>Our English gift is originality. Our English +keynote is individuality. Let us cling to those +precious heirlooms of our Celtic ancestry, and +refuse to be Teutonised. Let us discard the +lessons of the Potsdam grenadiers. Let us write +on the pediment of our educational temple, "No +German need apply." Let us disclaim that silly +phrase "A mere amateur." Let us return to +the simple faith in direct observation that made +English science supreme in Europe.</p> + +<p>And may the Lord gi'e us Britons a guid +conceit o' oorsel's!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII.</h3> + +<h4><i>A SQUALID VILLAGE.</i></h4> + + +<p>Strange that the wealthiest class in the wealthiest +country in the world should so long have been +content to inhabit a squalid village!</p> + +<p>I'm not going to compare London, as Englishmen +often do, with Paris or Vienna. I won't +do two great towns that gross injustice. And, +indeed, comparison here is quite out of the +question. You don't compare Oxford with Little +Peddlington, or Edinburgh with Thrums, and +then ask which is the handsomest. Things must +be alike in kind before you can begin to compare +them. And London and Paris are not +alike in kind. One is a city, and a noble city; +the other is a village, and a squalid village.</p> + +<p>No; I will not even take a humbler standard +of comparison, and look at London side by side +with Brussels, Antwerp, Munich, Turin. Each +of those is a city, and a fine city in its way; +but each of them is small. Still, even by their +side, London is again but a squalid village. I +insist upon that point, because, misled by their +ancient familiarity with London, most Englishmen +have had their senses and understandings +so blunted on this issue, that they really don't +know what is meant by a town, or a fine town, +when they see one. And don't suppose it's +because London is in Britain and these other +towns out of it that I make these remarks: for +Bath is a fine town, Edinburgh is a fine town, +even Glasgow and Newcastle are towns, while +London is still a straggling, sprawling, invertebrate, +inchoate, overgrown village. I am as +free, I hope, from anti-patriotic as from patriotic +prejudice. The High Street in Oxford, Milsom +Street in Bath, Princes Street in Edinburgh, +those are all fine streets that would attract +attention even in France or Germany. But the +Strand, Piccadilly, Regent Street, Oxford Street—good +Lord, deliver us!</p> + +<p>One more <i>caveat</i> as to my meaning. When I +cite among real towns Brussels, Antwerp, and +Munich, I am not thinking of the treasures of +art those beautiful places contain; that is another +and altogether higher question. Towns supreme +in this respect often lag far behind others of +less importance—lag behind in those external +features and that general architectural effectiveness +which rightly entitle us to say in a broad +sense, "This is a fine city." Florence, for +example, contains more treasures of art in a +small space than any other town of Europe; +yet Florence, though undoubtedly a town, and +even a fine town, is not to be compared in this +respect, I do not say with Venice or Brussels, +but even with Munich or Milan. On the other +hand, London contains far more treasures of art +in its way than Boston, Massachusetts; but +Boston is a handsome, well-built, regular town, +while London—well, I will spare you the further +repetition of the trite truism that London is a +squalid village. In one word, the point I am +seeking to bring out here is that a town, as a +town, is handsome or otherwise, not in virtue +of the works of art or antiquity it contains, but +in virtue of its ground-plan, its architecture, its +external and visible decorations and places—the +Louvre, the Boulevards, the Champs Elysées, the +Place de l'Opéra.</p> + +<p>Now London has no ground-plan. It has no +street architecture. It has no decorations, though +it has many uglifications. It is frankly and simply +and ostentatiously hideous. And being wholly +wanting in a system of any sort—in organic +parts, in idea, in views, in vistas—it is only a +village, and a painfully uninteresting one.</p> + +<p>Most Englishmen see London before they see +any other great town. They become so familiarised +with it that their sense of comparison is +dulled and blunted. I had the good fortune to +have seen many other great towns before I ever +saw London: and I shall never forget my first +sense of surprise at its unmitigated ugliness.</p> + +<p>Get on top of an omnibus—I don't say in +Paris, from the Palais Royal to the Arc de +Triomphe, but in Brussels, from the Gare du +Nord to the Palais de Justice—and what do +you see? From end to end one unbroken succession +of noble and open prospects. I'm not +thinking now of the Grande Place in the old +town, with its magnificent collection of mediæval +buildings; the Great Fire effectively deprived +us of our one sole chance of such an element of +beauty in modern London. I confine myself on +purpose to the parts of Brussels which are purely +recent, and might have been imitated at a distance +in London, if there had been any public +spirit or any public body in England to imitate +them. (But unhappily there was neither.) Recall +to mind as you read the strikingly handsome +street view that greets you as you emerge +from the Northern Station down the great central +Boulevards to the Gare du Midi—all built within +our own memory. Then think of the prospects +that gradually unfold themselves as you rise on +the hill; the fine vista north towards Sainte +Marie de Schaarbeck; the beautiful Rue Royale, +bounded by that charming Parc; the unequalled +stretch of the Rue de la Régence, starting from +the Place Royale with Godfrey of Bouillon, and +ending with the imposing mass of the Palais de +Justice. It is to me a matter for mingled surprise +and humiliation that so many Englishmen +can look year after year at that glorious street—perhaps +the finest in the world—and yet never +think to themselves, "Mightn't we faintly imitate +some small part of this in our wealthy, ugly, uncompromising +London?"</p> + +<p>I always say to Americans who come to +Europe: "When you go to England, don't see our +towns, but see our country. Our country is something +unequalled in the world: while our towns!—well, +anyway, keep away from London!"</p> + +<p>With the solitary and not very brilliant exception +of the Embankment, there isn't a street in +London where one could take a stranger to admire +the architecture. Compare that record with the +new Boulevards in Antwerp, where almost every +house is worth serious study: or with the Ring +at Cologne (to keep close home all the time), +where one can see whole rows of German Renaissance +houses of extraordinary interest. What +street in London can be mentioned in this respect +side by side with Commonwealth Avenue +or Beacon Street in Boston; with Euclid Avenue +in Cleveland, Ohio; with the upper end of Fifth +Avenue, New York; nay, even with the new Via +Roma at Genoa? Why is it that we English +can't get on the King's Road at Brighton anything +faintly approaching that splendid sea front +on the Digue at Ostend, or those coquettish white +villas that line the Promenade des Anglais at +Nice? The blight of London seems to lie over +all Southern England.</p> + +<p>Paris looks like the capital of a world-wide +empire. London, looks like a shapeless neglected +suburb, allowed to grow up by accident anyhow. +And that's just the plain truth of it. 'Tis a fortuitous +concourse of hap-hazard houses.</p> + +<p>"But we are improving somewhat. The County +Council is opening out a few new thoroughfares +piecemeal." Oh yes, in an illogical, unsystematic, +English patchwork fashion, we are driving a badly-designed, +unimpressive new street or two, with no +expansive sense of imperial greatness, through the +hopelessly congested and most squalid quarters. +But that is all. No grand, systematic, reconstructive +plan, no rising to the height of the +occasion and the Empire! You tinker away at +a Shaftesbury Avenue. Parochial, all of it. And +there you get the real secret of our futile attempts +at making a town out of our squalid village. The +fault lies all at the door of the old Corporation, +and of the people who made and still make the +old Corporation possible. For centuries, indeed, +there was really no London, not even a village; +there was only a scratch collection of contiguous +villages. The consequence was that here, at the +centre of national life, the English people grew +wholly unaccustomed to the bare idea of a town, +and managed everything piecemeal, on the petty +scale of a country vestry. The vestryman intelligence +has now overrun the land; and if the +London County Council ever succeeds at last in +making the congeries of villages into—I do not +say a city, for that is almost past praying for, +but something analogous to a second-rate Continental +town, it will only be after long lapse +of time and violent struggles with the vestryman +level of intellect and feeling.</p> + +<p>London had many great disadvantages to start +with. She lay in a dull and marshy bottom, +with no building stone at hand, and therefore +she was forecondemned by her very position to +the curse of brick and stucco, when Bath, Oxford, +Edinburgh, were all built out of their own +quarries. Then fire destroyed all her mediæval +architecture, leaving her only Westminster Abbey +to suggest the greatness of her losses. But +brick-earth and fire have been as nothing in +their way by the side of the evil wrought by +Gog and Magog. When five hundred trembling +ghosts of naked Lord Mayors have to answer +for their follies and their sins hereafter, I confidently +expect the first question in the appalling +indictment will be, "Why did you allow the +richest nation on earth to house its metropolis +in a squalid village?"</p> + +<p>We have a Moloch in England to whom we +sacrifice much. And his hateful name is Vested +Interest.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII.</h3> + +<h4><i>CONCERNING ZEITGEIST.</i></h4> + + +<p>A certain story is told about Mr. Ruskin, no +doubt apocryphal, but at any rate characteristic. +A young lady, fresh from the Abyss of Bayswater, +met the sage one evening at dinner—a +gushing young lady, as many such there be—who, +aglow with joy, boarded the Professor at +once with her private art-experiences. "Oh, Mr. +Ruskin," she cried, clasping her hands, "do you +know, I hadn't been two days in Florence before +I discovered what you meant when you spoke +about the supreme unapproachableness of Botticelli." +"Indeed?" Ruskin answered. "Well, +that's very remarkable; for it took me, myself, +half a lifetime to discover it."</p> + +<p>The answer, of course, was meant to be crushing. +How should <i>she</i>, a brand plucked from +the burning of Bayswater, be able all at once, +on the very first blush, to appreciate Botticelli? +And it took the greatest critic of his age half +a lifetime! Yet I venture to maintain, for all +that, that the young lady was right, and that the +critic was wrong—if such a thing be conceivable. +I know, of course, that when we speak of Ruskin +we must walk delicately, like Agag. But still, +I repeat it, the young lady was right; and it +was largely the unconscious, pervasive action of +Mr. Ruskin's own personality that enabled her +to be so.</p> + +<p>It's all the Zeitgeist: that's where it is. The +slow irresistible Zeitgeist. Fifty years ago, men's +taste had been so warped and distorted by current +art and current criticism that they <i>couldn't</i> see +Botticelli, however hard they tried at it. He +was a sealed book to our fathers. In those days +it required a brave, a vigorous, and an original +thinker to discover any merit in any painter +before Raffael, except perhaps, as Goldsmith wisely +remarked, Perugino. The man who went then +to the Uffizi or the Pitti, after admiring as in +duty bound his High Renaissance masters, found +himself suddenly confronted with the Judith or +the Calumny, and straightway wondered what +manner of strange wild beasts these were that +some insane early Tuscan had once painted to +amuse himself in a lucid interval. They were +not in the least like the Correggios and the +Guidos, the Lawrences and the Opies, that the +men of that time had formed their taste upon, +and accepted as their sole artistic standards. +To people brought up upon pure David and +Thorvaldsen, the Primavera at the Belle Arti +must naturally have seemed like a wild freak of +madness. The Zeitgeist then went all in the +direction of cold lifeless correctness; the idea +that the painter's soul counted for something in +art was an undreamt of heresy.</p> + +<p>On your way back from Paris some day, stop a +night at Amiens and take the Cathedral seriously. +Half the stately interior of that glorious thirteenth +century pile is encrusted and overlaid by hideous +gewgaw monstrosities of the flashiest Bernini and +<i>baroque</i> period. There they sprawl their obtrusive +legs and wave their flaunting theatrical wings +to the utter destruction of all repose and consistency +in one of the noblest and most perfect +buildings of Europe. Nowadays, any child, any +workman can see at a glance how ugly and +how disfiguring those floppy creatures are; it is +impossible to look at them without saying to +oneself: "Why don't they clear away all this +high-faluting rubbish, and let us see the real +columns and arches and piers as their makers +designed them?" Yet who was it that put +them there, those unspeakable angels in muslin +drapery, those fly-away nymphs and graces and +seraphim? Why, the best and most skilled +artists of their day in Europe. And whence +comes it that the merest child can now see instinctively +how out of place they are, how disfiguring, +how incongruous? Why, because the +Gothic revival has taught us all by degrees to +appreciate the beauty and delicacy of a style +which to our eighteenth century ancestors was +mere barbaric mediævalism; has taught us to +admire its exquisite purity, and to dislike the +obstrusive introduction into its midst of incongruous +and meretricious Bernini-like flimsiness.</p> + +<p>The Zeitgeist has changed, and we have +changed with it.</p> + +<p>It is just the same with our friend Botticelli. +Scarce a dozen years ago, it was almost an affectation +to pretend you admired him. It is no affectation +now. Hundreds of assorted young women +from the Abyss of Bayswater may rise any morning +here in sacred Florence and stand genuinely +enchanted before the Adoration of the Kings, or +the Venus who floats on her floating shell in a +Botticellian ocean. And why? Because Leighton, +Holman Hunt, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Madox +Brown, Strudwick, have led them slowly up to +it by golden steps innumerable. Thirty years ago +the art of the early Tuscan painters was something +to us Northerners exotic, strange, unconnected, +archæological. Gradually, it has been +brought nearer and nearer to us on the walls of +the Grosvenor and the New Gallery, till now +he that runs may read; the ingenuous maiden, +fished from the Abyss of Bayswater, can drink +in at a glance what it took a Ruskin many years +of his life and much slow development to attain +to piecemeal.</p> + +<p>That is just what all great men are for—to +make the world accept as a truism in the generation +after them what it rejected as a paradox in +the generation before them.</p> + +<p>Not, of course, that there isn't a little of affectation, +and still more of fashion, to the very end +in all of it. An immense number of people, +incapable of genuinely admiring anything for its +own sake at all, are anxious only to be told +what they "ought to admire, don't you know," +and will straightway proceed as conscientiously +as they can to get up an admiration for it. +A friend of mine told me a beautiful example. +Two aspiring young women, of the limp-limbed, +short-haired, æsthetic species, were standing rapt +before the circular Madonna at the Uffizi. They +had gazed at it long and lovingly, seeing it bore +on its frame the magic name of Botticelli. Of +a sudden one of the pair happened to look a +little nearer at the accusing label. "Why, this +is not Sandro," she cried, with a revulsion of +disgust; "this is only Aless." And straightway +they went off from the spot in high dudgeon +at having been misled as they supposed into +examining the work of "another person of the +same name."</p> + +<p>Need I point the moral of my apologue, in +this age of enlightenment, by explaining, for the +benefit of the junior members, that the gentleman's +full name was really Alessandro, and that +both abbreviations are impartially intended to +cover his one and indivisible personality? The +first half is official, like Alex.; the second affectionate +and familiar, like Sandy.</p> + +<p>Still, even after making due allowance for +such humbugs as these, a vast residuum remains +of people who, if born sixty years ago, could +never by any possibility have been made to see +there was anything admirable in Lippi, Botticelli, +Giotto; but who, having been born thirty years +ago, see it without an effort. Hundreds who read +these lines must themselves remember the unmistakable +thrill of genuine pleasure with which +they first gazed upon the Fra Angelicos at San +Marco, the Memlings at Bruges, the Giottos in +the Madonna dell' Arena at Padua. To many +of us, those are real epochs in our inner life. +To the men of fifty years ago, the bare avowal +itself would have seemed little short of affected +silliness.</p> + +<p>Is the change all due to the teaching of the +teachers and the preaching of the preachers? I +think not entirely. For, after all, the teachers +and the preachers are but a little ahead of the +age they live in. They see things earlier; they +help to lead us up to them; but they do not +wholly produce the revolutions they inaugurate. +Humanity as a whole develops consistently +along certain pre-established and predestined lines. +Sooner or later, a certain point must inevitably +be reached; but some of us reach it sooner, +and most of us later. That's all the difference. +Every great change is mainly due to the fact +that we have all already attained a certain point +in development. A step in advance becomes inevitable +after that, and one after another we are +sure to take it. In one word, what it needed +a man of genius to see dimly thirty years ago, +it needs a singular fool not to see clearly nowadays.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV.</h3> + +<h4><i>THE DECLINE OF MARRIAGE.</i></h4> + + +<p>Men don't marry nowadays. So everybody tells +us. And I suppose we may therefore conclude, +by a simple act of inference, that women in +turn don't marry either. It takes two, of course, +to make a quarrel—or a marriage.</p> + +<p>Why is this? "Young people nowadays want +to begin where their fathers left off." "Men +are made so comfortable at present in their +clubs." "College-bred girls have no taste for +housekeeping." "Rents are so high and manners +so luxurious." Good heavens, what silly trash, +what puerile nonsense! Are we all little boys +and girls, I ask you, that we are to put one +another off with such transparent humbug? +Here we have to deal with a primitive instinct—the +profoundest and deepest-seated instinct of +humanity, save only the instincts of food and +drink and of self-preservation. Man, like all +other animals, has two main functions: to feed +his own organism, and to reproduce his species. +Ancestral habit leads him, when mature, to choose +himself a mate—because he loves her. It drives +him, it urges him, it goads him irresistibly. If +this profound impulse is really lacking to-day +in any large part of our race, there must be +some correspondingly profound and adequate reason +for it. Don't let us deceive ourselves with shallow +platitudes which may do for drawing-rooms. +This is philosophy, even though post-prandial. +Let us try to take a philosophic view of the +question at issue, from the point of vantage of a +biological outlook.</p> + +<p>Before you begin to investigate the causes of a +phenomenon <i>quelconque</i>, 'tis well to decide whether +the phenomenon itself is there to investigate.</p> + +<p>Taking society throughout—<i>not</i> in the sense +of those "forty families" to which the term is +restricted by Lady Charles Beresford—I doubt +whether marriage is much out of fashion. Statistics +show a certain decrease, it is true, but not +an alarming one. Among the labouring classes, +I imagine men, and also women, still wed pretty +frequently. When people say, "Young men won't +marry nowadays," they mean young men in a +particular stratum of society, roughly bounded by +a silk hat on Sundays. Now, when you and +I were young (I take it for granted that you +and I are approaching the fifties) young men did +marry; even within this restricted area, 'twas +their wholesome way in life to form an attachment +early with some nice girl in their own set, +and to start at least with the idea of marrying +her. Toward that goal they worked; for that +end they endured and sacrificed many things. +True, even then, the long engagement was the +rule; but the long engagement itself meant some +persistent impulse, some strong impetus marriage-wards. +The desire of the man to make this +woman his own, the longing to make this woman +happy—normal and healthy endowments of our +race—had still much driving-power. Nowadays, +I seriously think I observe in most young men +of the middle class around me a distinct and +disastrous weakening of the impulse. They don't +fall in love as frankly, as honestly, as irretrievably +as they used to do. They shilly-shally, +they pick and choose, they discuss, they criticise. +They say themselves these futile foolish +things about the club, and the flat, and the cost +of living. They believe in Malthus. Fancy a +young man who believes in Malthus! They seem +in no hurry at all to get married. But thirty or +forty years ago, young men used to rush by blind +instinct into the toils of matrimony—because they +couldn't help themselves. Such Laodicean luke-warmness +betokens in the class which exhibits it +a weakening of impulse. That weakening of impulse +is really the thing we have to account for.</p> + +<p>Young men of a certain type don't marry, +because—they are less of young men than +formerly.</p> + +<p>Wild animals in confinement seldom propagate +their kind. Only a few caged birds will +continue their species. Whatever upsets the +balance of the organism, in an individual or a +race tends first of all to affect the rate of reproduction. +Civilise the red man, and he begins +to decrease at once in numbers. Turn the +Sandwich Islands into a trading community, and +the native Hawaiian refuses forthwith to give +hostages to fortune. Tahiti is dwindling. From +the moment the Tasmanians were taken to Norfolk +Island, not a single Tasmanian baby was +born. The Jesuits made a model community of +Paraguay; but they altered the habits of the +Paraguayans so fast that the reverend fathers, +who were, of course, themselves celibates, were +compelled to take strenuous and even grotesque +measures to prevent the complete and immediate +extinction of their converts. Other cases in abundance +I might quote an I would; but I limit +myself to these. They suffice to exhibit the +general principle involved; any grave upset in +the conditions of life affects first and at once the +fertility of a species.</p> + +<p>"But colonists often increase with rapidity." +Ay, marry, do they, where the conditions of life +are easy. At the present day most colonists go +to fairly civilised regions; they are transported +to their new home by steamboat and railway; +they find for the most part more abundant provender +and more wholesome surroundings than +in their native country. There is no real upset. +Better food and easier life, as Herbert Spencer +has shown, result (other things equal) in increased +fertility. His chapters on this subject in the +"Principles of Biology" should be read by everybody +who pretends to talk on questions of population. +But in new and difficult colonies the increase +is slight. Whatever compels greater wear +and tear of the nervous system proves inimical +to the reproductive function. The strain and +stress of co-ordination with novel circumstances +and novel relations affect most injuriously the +organic balance. The African negro has long +been accustomed to agricultural toil and to certain +simple arts in his own country. Transported to +the West Indies and the United States, he found +life no harder than of old, if not, indeed, easier. +He had abundant food, protection, security, a kind +of labour for which he was well adapted. Instead +of dying out, therefore, he was fruitful, +and multiplied, and replenished the earth amazingly. +But the Red Indian, caught blatant in +the hunting stage, refused to be tamed, and +could not swallow civilisation. He pined and +dwined and decreased in his "reservations." The +change was too great, too abrupt, too brusque +for him. The papoose before long became an +extinct animal.</p> + +<p>Is not the same thing true of the middle class +of England? Civilisation and its works have come +too quickly upon us. The strain and stress of +correlating and co-ordinating the world we live +in are getting too much for us. Railways, telegraphs, +the penny post, the special edition, have +played havoc at last with our nervous systems. +We are always on the stretch, rushing and tearing +perpetually. We bolt our breakfasts; we +catch the train or 'bus by the skin of our +teeth, to rattle us into the City; we run down +to Scotland or over to Paris on business; we +lunch in London and dine in Glasgow, Belfast, +or Calcutta. (Excuse imagination.) The +tape clicks perpetually in our ears the last quotation +in Eries; the telephone rings us up at +inconvenient moments. Something is always happening +somewhere to disturb our equanimity; we +tear open the <i>Times</i> with feverish haste, to learn +that Kimberleys or Jabez Balfour have fallen, +that Matabeleland has been painted red, that +shares have gone up, or gone down, or evaporated. +Life is one turmoil of excitement and +bustle. Financially, 'tis a series of dissolving +views; personally 'tis a rush; socially, 'tis a +mosaic of deftly-fitted engagements. Drop out +one piece, and you can never replace it. You +are full next week from Monday to Saturday—business +all day, what calls itself pleasure (save +the mark!) all evening. Poor old Leisure is dead. +We hurry and scurry and flurry eternally. One +whirl of work from morning till night: then +dress and dine: one whirl of excitement from +night till morning. A snap of troubled sleep, +and again <i>da capo</i>. Not an hour, not a minute, +we can call our own. A wire from a patient +ill abed in Warwickshire! A wire from a client +hard hit in Hansards! Endless editors asking +for more copy! more copy! Alter to suit your +own particular trade, and 'tis the life of all +of us.</p> + +<p>The first generation after Stephenson and the +Rocket pulled through with it somehow. They +inherited the sound constitutions of the men who +sat on rustic seats in the gardens of the twenties. +The second generation—that's you and me—felt +the strain of it more severely: new machines +had come in to make life still more complicated: +sixpenny telegrams, Bell and Edison, submarine +cables, evening papers, perturbations pouring in +from all sides incessantly; the suburbs growing, +the hubbub increasing, Metropolitan railways, +trams, bicycles, innumerable: but natheless we +still endured, and presented the world all the same +with a third generation. That third generation—ah +me! there comes the pity of it! One +fancies the impulse to marry and rear a family +has wholly died out of it. It seems to have +died out most in the class where the strain and +stress are greatest. I don't think young men of +that class to-day have the same feelings towards +women of their sort as formerly. Nobody, I +trust, will mistake me for a reactionary: in most +ways, the modern young man is a vast improvement +on you and me at twenty-five. But I +believe there is really among young men in +towns less chivalry, less devotion, less romance +than there used to be. That, I take it, is the +true reason why young men don't marry. With +certain classes and in certain places a primitive +instinct of our race has weakened. They say +this weakening is accompanied in towns by an +increase in sundry hateful and degrading vices. +I don't know if that is so; but at least one +would expect it. Any enfeeblement of the normal +and natural instinct of virility would show itself +first in morbid aberrations. On that I say +nothing. I only say this—that I think the +present crisis in the English marriage market +is due, not to clubs or the comfort of bachelor +quarters, but to the cumulative effect of nervous +over-excitement.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV.</h3> + +<h4><i>EYE</i> <small>VERSUS</small> <i>EAR</i>.</h4> + + +<p>It is admitted on all hands by this time, I suppose, +that the best way of learning is by eye, not +by ear. Therefore the authorities that prescribe +for us our education among all classes have decided +that we shall learn by ear, not by eye. +Which is just what one might expect from a +vested interest.</p> + +<p>Of course this superiority of sight over hearing +is pre-eminently true of natural science—that is +to say, of nine-tenths among the subjects worth +learning by humanity. The only real way to +learn geology, for example, is not to mug it up +in a printed text-book, but to go into the field +with a geologist's hammer. The only real way to +learn zoology and botany is not by reading a +volume of natural history, but by collecting, dissecting, +observing, preserving, and comparing specimens. +Therefore, of course, natural science has +never been a favourite study in the eyes of school-masters, +who prefer those subjects which can be +taught in a room to a row of boys on a bench, +and who care a great deal less than nothing +for any subject which isn't "good to examine +in." Educational value and importance in after +life have been sacrificed to the teacher's ease and +convenience, or to the readiness with which the +pupil's progress can be tested on paper. Not +what is best to learn, but what is least trouble +to teach in great squads to boys, forms the +staple of our modern English education. They +call it "education," I observe in the papers, and +I suppose we must fall in with that whim of +the profession.</p> + +<p>But even the subjects which belong by rights +to the ear can nevertheless be taught by the eye +more readily. Everybody knows how much easier +it is to get up the history and geography of a +country when you are actually in it than when +you are merely reading about it. It lives and +moves before you. The places, the persons, the +monuments, the events, all become real to you. +Each illustrates each, and each tends to impress +the other on the memory. Sight burns them +into the brain without conscious effort. You can +learn more of Egypt and of Egyptian history, +culture, hieroglyphics, and language in a few +short weeks at Luxor or Sakkarah than in a +year at the Louvre and the British Museum. +The Tombs of the Kings are worth many papyri. +The mere sight of the temples and obelisks and +monuments and inscriptions, in the places where +their makers originally erected them, gives a sense +of reality and interest to them all that no amount +of study under alien conditions can possibly equal. +We have all of us felt that the only place to +observe Flemish art to the greatest advantage is +at Ghent and Bruges and Brussels and Antwerp; +just as the only place to learn Florentine art as +it really was is at the Uffizi and the Bargello.</p> + +<p>These things being so, the authorities who have +charge of our public education, primary, secondary, +and tertiary, have decided in their wisdom—to do +and compel the exact contrary. Object-lessons +and the visible being admittedly preferable to +rote-lessons and the audible, they have prescribed +that our education, so called, shall be mainly an +education not in things and properties, but in +books and reading. They have settled that it +shall deal almost entirely and exclusively with +language and with languages; that words, not +objects, shall be the facts it impresses on the +minds of the pupils. In our primary schools +they have insisted upon nothing but reading and +writing, with just a smattering of arithmetic by +way of science. In our secondary schools they +have insisted upon nothing but Greek and Latin, +with about an equal leaven of algebra and geometry. +This mediæval fare (I am delighted that +I can thus agree for once with Professor Ray +Lankester) they have thrust down the throats of +all the world indiscriminately; so much so that +nowadays people seem hardly able at last to conceive +of any other than a linguistic education as +possible. You will hear many good folk who talk +with contempt of Greek and Latin; but when you +come to inquire what new mental pabulum they +would substitute for those quaint and grotesque +survivals of the Dark Ages, you find what they +want instead is—modern languages. The idea +that language of any sort forms no necessary +element in a liberal education has never even +occurred to them. They take it for granted that +when you leave off feeding boys on straw and +oats you must supply them instead with hay +and sawdust.</p> + +<p>Not that I rage against Greek and Latin as such. +It is well we should have many specialists among +us who understand them, just as it is well we +should have specialists in Anglo-Saxon and Sanskrit. +I merely mean that they are not the sum +and substance of educational method. They are +at best but two languages of considerable importance +to the student of purely human evolution.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, even these comparatively useless +linguistic subjects could themselves be taught far +better by sight than by hearing. A week at +Rome would give your average boy a much clearer +idea of the relations of the Capitol with the +Palatine than all the pretty maps in Dr. William +Smith's Smaller Classical Dictionary. It would +give him also a sense of the reality of the Latin +language and the Latin literature, which he could +never pick up out of a dog-eared Livy or a +thumb-marked Æneid. You have only to look +across from the top of the Janiculum, towards the +white houses of Frascati, to learn a vast deal more +about the Alban hills and the site of Tusculum +than ever you could mug up from all the geography +books in the British Museum. The way +to learn every subject on earth, even book-lore +included, is not out of books alone, but by actual +observation.</p> + +<p>And yet it is impossible for any one among us +to do otherwise than acquiesce in this vicious +circle. Why? Just because no man can dissociate +himself outright from the social organism +of which he forms a component member. He +can no more do so than the eye can dissociate +itself from the heart and lungs, or than the legs +can shake themselves free from the head and +stomach. We have all to learn, and to let our +boys learn, what authority decides for us. We +can't give them a better education than the average, +even if we know what it is and desire to +impart it, because the better education, though +abstractly more valuable, is now and here the +inlet to nothing. Every door is barred with +examinations, and opens but to the golden key +of the crammer. Not what is of most real use +and importance in life, but what "pays best" in +examination, is the test of desirability. We are +the victims of a system; and our only hope of +redress is not by sporadic individual action but +by concerted rebellion. We must cry out against +the abuse till at last we are heard by dint of our +much speaking. In a world so complex and so +highly organised as ours, the individual can only +do anything in the long run by influencing the +mass—by securing the co-operation of many +among his fellows.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, I believe it is gradually becoming +the fact that our girls, who till lately were so +very ill-taught, are beginning to know more of +what is really worth knowing than their public-school-bred +brothers. For the public school still +goes on with the system of teaching it has derived +direct from the thirteenth century; while the +girls' schools, having started fair and fresh, are +beginning to assimilate certain newer ideas belonging +to the seventeenth and even the eighteenth. +In time they may conceivably come down to the +more elementary notions of the present generation. +Less hampered by professions and examinations +than the boys, the girls are beginning to +know something now, not indeed of the universe +in which they live, its laws and its properties, +but of literature and history, and the principal +facts about human development. Yet all the +time, the boys go on as ever with Musa, Musæ, +like so many parrots, and are turned out at last, +in nine cases out of ten, with just enough smattering +of Greek and Latin grammar to have acquired +a life-long distaste for Horace and an inconquerable +incapacity for understanding Æschylus. One +year in Italy with their eyes open would be +worth more than three at Oxford; and six months +in the fields with a platyscopic lens would teach +them strange things about the world around them +that all the long terms at Harrow and Winchester +have failed to discover to them. But that would +involve some trouble to the teacher.</p> + +<p>What a misfortune it is that we should thus +be compelled to let our boys' schooling interfere +with their education!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI.</h3> + +<h4><i>THE POLITICAL PUPA.</i></h4> + + +<p>I have picked up on the moor the chrysalis of +a common English butterfly. As I sit on the +heather and turn it over attentively, while it +wriggles in my hands, I can't help thinking how +closely it resembles the present condition of our +British commonwealth. It is a platitude, indeed, +to say that "this is an age of transition." But +it would be truer and more graphic perhaps to +put it that this is an age in which England, +and for the matter of that every other European +country as well, is passing through something like +the chrysalis stage in its evolution.</p> + +<p>But, first of all, do you clearly understand what +a chrysalis is driving at? It means more than +it seems; the change that goes on within that +impassive case is a great deal more profound +than most people imagine. When the caterpillar +is just ready to turn into a butterfly it lies +by for a while, full of internal commotion, and +feels all its organs slowly melting one by one +into a sort of indistinguishable protoplasmic pulp; +chaos precedes the definite re-establishment of a +fresh form of order. Limbs and parts and nervous +system all disappear for a time, and then gradually +grow up again in new and altered types. +The caterpillar, if it philosophised on its own +state at all (which seems to be very little the +habit of well-conducted caterpillars, as of well-conducted +young ladies), might easily be excused +for forming just at first the melancholy impression +that a general dissolution was coming over it +piecemeal. It must begin by feeling legs and +eyes and nervous centres melt away by degrees +into a common indistinguishable organic pulp, +out of which the new organs only slowly form +themselves in obedience to the law of some +internal impulse. But when the process is all +over, and—hi, presto!—the butterfly emerges at +last from the chrysalis condition, what does it +find but that instead of having lost everything +it has new and stronger legs in place of the +old and feeble ones; it has nerves and brain +more developed than before; it has wings for +flight instead of mere creeping little feet to +crawl with? What seemed like chaos was really +nothing more than the necessary kneading up +of all component parts into a plastic condition +which precedes every fresh departure in evolution. +The old must fade before the new can +replace it.</p> + +<p>Now I am not going to work this perhaps +somewhat fanciful analogy to death, or pretend +it is anything more than a convenient metaphor. +Still, taken as such, it is not without its luminosity. +For a metaphor, by supplying us with +a picturable representation, often enables us really +to get at the hang of the thing a vast deal +better than the most solemn argument. And +I fancy communities sometimes pass through just +such a chrysalis stage, when it seems to the +timid and pessimistic in their midst as if every +component element of the State (but especially +the one in which they themselves and their +friends are particularly interested) were rushing +violently down a steep place to eternal perdition. +Chaos appears to be swallowing up everything. +"The natural relations of classes" disappear. +Faiths melt; churches dissolve; morals fade; +bonds fail; a universal magma of emancipated +opinion seems to take the place of old-established +dogma. The squires and the parsons of the +period—call them scribes or augurs—wring their +hands in despair, and cry aloud that they don't +know what the world is coming to. But, after +all, it is only the chrysalis stage of a new system. +The old social order must grow disjointed and +chaotic before the new social order can begin to +evolve from it. The establishment of a plastic +consistency in the mass is the condition precedent +of the higher development.</p> + +<p>Not, of course, that this consideration will ever +afford one grain of comfort to the squires and +the parsons of each successive epoch; for what +<i>they</i> want is not the reasonable betterment of the +whole social organism, but the continuance of just +this particular type of squiredom and parsonry. +That is what they mean by "national welfare;" +and any interference with it they criticise in all +ages with the current equivalent for the familiar +Tory formula that "the country is going to the +devil."</p> + +<p>Sometimes these great social reconstructions of +which I speak are forced upon communities by +external factors interfering with their fixed internal +order, as happened when the influx of +northern barbarians broke up the decaying and +rotten organism of the Roman Empire. Sometimes, +again, they occur from internal causes, in +an acute, and so to speak, inflammatory condition, +as at the French Revolution. But sometimes, +as in our own time and country, they are slowly +brought about by organic development, so as really +to resemble in all essential points the chrysalis +type of evolution. Politically, socially, theologically, +ethically, the old fixed beliefs seem at such +periods to grow fluid or plastic. New feelings +and habits and aspirations take their place. For +a while a general chaos of conflicting opinions +and nascent ideas is produced. The mass for +the moment seems formless and lawless. Then +new order supervenes, as the magma settles down +and begins to crystallise; till at last, I'm afraid, +the resulting social organism becomes for the most +part just as rigid, just as definite, just as dogmatic, +just as exacting, as the one it has superseded. +The caterpillar has grown into a particular +butterfly.</p> + +<p>Through just such a period of reconstruction +Europe in general and Britain in particular are +now in all likelihood beginning to pass. And +they will come out at the other end translated +and transfigured. Laws and faiths and morals +will all of them have altered. There will be +a new heaven and a new earth for the men +and women of the new epoch. Strange that +people should make such a fuss about a detail +like Home Rule, when the foundations of society +are all becoming fluid. Don't flatter yourself for +a moment that your particular little sect or your +particular little dogma is going to survive the +gentle cataclysm any more than my particular +little sect or my particular little dogma. All +alike are doomed to inevitable reconstruction. +"We can't put the Constitution into the melting-pot," +said Mr. John Morley, if I recollect his words +aright. But at the very moment when he said +it, in my humble opinion, the Constitution was +already well into the melting-pot, and even beginning +to simmer merrily. Federalism, or something +extremely like it, may with great probability +be the final outcome of that particular melting; +though anything else is perhaps just as probable, +and in any case the melting is general, not special. +The one thing we can guess with tolerable certainty +is that the melting-pot stage has begun to overtake +us, socially, ethically, politically, ecclesiastically; +and that what will emerge from the pot at the +end of it must depend at last upon the relative +strength of those unknown quantities—the various +formative elements.</p> + +<p>Being the most optimistic of pessimists, however, +I will venture (after this disclaimer of +prophecy) to prophesy one thing alone: 'Twill +be a butterfly, not a grub, that comes out of +our chrysalis.</p> + +<p>Beyond that, I hold all prediction premature. +We may guess and we may hope, but we can +have no certainty. Save only the certainty that +no element will outlive the revolution unchanged—not +faiths, nor classes, nor domestic relations, +nor any other component factor of our complex +civilisation. All are becoming plastic in the +organic plasm; all are losing features in the +common mass of the melting-pot. For that +reason, I never trouble my head for a moment +when people object to me that this, that, or the +other petty point of detail in Bellamy's Utopia or +William Morris's Utopia, or my own little private +and particular Utopia, is impossible, or unrealisable, +or wicked, or hateful. For these, after all, +are mere Utopias; their details are the outcome +of individual wishes; what will emerge must be, +not a Utopia at all, either yours or mine, but a +practical reality, full of shifts and compromises +most unphilosophical and illogical—a practical +reality distasteful in many ways to all us Utopia-mongers. +"The Millennium by return of post" +is no more realisable to-day than yesterday. The +greatest of revolutions can only produce that unsatisfactory +result, a new human organisation.</p> + +<p>Yet, it is something, after all, to believe at +least that the grub will emerge into a full-fledged +butterfly. Not, perhaps, quite as glossy in the +wings as we could wish; but a butterfly all the +same, not a crawling caterpillar.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII.</h3> + +<h4><i>ON THE CASINO TERRACE.</i></h4> + + +<p>I have always regarded Monte Carlo as an +Influence for Good. It helps to keep so many +young men off the Stock Exchange.</p> + +<p>Let me guard against an obvious but unjust +suspicion. These remarks are not uttered under +the exhilarating effect of winning at the tables. +Quite the contrary. It is the Bank that has +broken the Man to-day at Monte Carlo. They +are rather due to the chastening and thought-compelling +influence of persistent loss, not altogether +unbalanced by a well-cooked lunch at +perhaps the best restaurant in any town of +Europe. I have lost my little pile. The eight +five-franc pieces which I annually devote out of +my scanty store to the tutelary god of roulette +have been snapped up, one after another, in +breathless haste, by the sphinx-like croupiers, +impassive priests of that rapacious deity, and +now I am sitting, cleaned out, by the edge of +the terrace, on a brilliant, cloudless, February +afternoon, looking across the zoned and belted +bay towards the beautiful grey hills of Rocca-bruna +and the gleaming white spit of Bordighera +in the distance. 'Tis a modest tribute, my poor +little forty francs. Surely the veriest puritan, +the oiliest Chadband of them all, will allow a +humble scribbler, at so cheap a yearly rate, to +purchase wisdom, not unmixed with tolerance, at +the gilded shrine of Fors Fortuna!</p> + +<p>For what a pother, after all, the unwise of +this world are wont to make about one stranded +gambling-house, in a remote corner of Liguria! +If they were in earnest or sincere, how small a +matter they would think it! Of course, when +I say so, hypocrisy holds up its hands in holy +horror. But that is the way with the purveyors +of mint, cumin, and anise; they raise a mighty +hubbub over some unimportant detail—in order +to feel their consciences clear when business +compels them to rob the widow and the orphan. +In reality, though Monte Carlo is bad enough +in its way—do I not pay it unwilling tribute +myself twice a year out of the narrow resources +of The Garret, Grub Street?—it is but a skin-deep +surface symptom of a profound disease +which attacks the heart and core in London +and Paris. Compared with Panama, Argentines, +British South Africans, and Liberators, Monte +Carlo is a mole on the left ankle.</p> + +<p>"The Devil's advocate!" you say. Well, +well, so be it. The fact is, the supposed moral +objection to gambling as such is a purely commercial +objection of a commercial nation; and +the reason so much importance is attached to +it in certain places is because at that particular +vice men are likely to lose their money. It +is largely a fetish, like the sinfulness of cards, +of dice, of billiards. Moreover, the objection is +only to the <i>kind</i> of gambling. There is another +kind, less open, at which you stand a better +chance to win yourself, while other parties stand +a better chance to lose; and that kind, which +is played in great gambling-houses known as +the Stock Exchange and the Bourse, is considered, +morally speaking, as quite innocuous. Large +fortunes are made at this other sort of gambling, +which, of course, sanctifies and almost canonises +it. Indeed, if you will note, you will find +not only that the objection to gambling pure +and simple is commonest in the most commercial +countries, but also that even there it is +commonest among the most commercial classes. +The landed aristocracy, the military, and the +labouring men have no objection to betting; +nor have the Neapolitan lazzaroni, the Chinese +coolies. It is the respectable English counting-house +that discourages the vice, especially among +the clerks, who are likely to make the till or +the cheque-book rectify the little failures of their +flutter on the Derby.</p> + +<p>Observe how artificial is the whole mild out-cry: +how absolutely it partakes of the nature of +damning the sins you have no mind to! Here, +on the terrace where I sit, and where ladies in +needlessly costly robes are promenading up and +down to exhibit their superfluous wealth ostentatiously +to one another, my ear is continuously +assailed by the constant <i>ping, ping, ping</i> of the +pigeon-shooting, and my peace disturbed by the +flapping death-agonies of those miserable victims. +Yet how many times have you heard the tables +at Monte Carlo denounced to once or never that +you have heard a word said of the poor mangled +pigeons? And why? Because nobody loses +much money at pigeon-matches. That is legitimate +sport, about as good and as bad as pheasant +or partridge shooting—no better, no worse, in +spite of artificial distinctions; and nobody (except +the pigeons) has any interest in denouncing it. +Legend has it at Monte Carlo, indeed, that when +the proprietors of the Casino wished to take +measures "pour attirer les Anglais" they held +counsel with the wise men whether it was best +to establish and endow an English church or a +pigeon-shooting tournament. And the church was +in a minority. Since then, I have heard more +than one Anglican Bishop speak evil of the +tables, but I have never heard one of them say +a good word yet for the boxed and slaughtered +pigeons.</p> + +<p>Let me take a more striking because a less +hackneyed case—one that still fewer people would +think of. Everybody who visits Monte Carlo gets +there, of course, by the P.L.M. If you know +this coast at all you will know that P.L.M. is +the curt and universal abbreviation for the Paris, +Lyon, Méditerranée Railway Company—in all +probability the most gigantic and wickedest monopoly +on the face of this planet. Yet you never +once heard a voice raised yet against the company +as a company. Individual complaints get +into the <i>Times</i>, of course, about the crowding of +the <i>train de luxe</i>, the breach of faith as to places, +and the discomforts of the journey; but never a +glimmering conception seems to flit across the +popular mind that here is a Colossal Wrong, +compared to which Monte Carlo is but as a flea-bite +to the Asiatic cholera. This chartered abuse +connects the three biggest towns in France—Paris, +Lyon, Marseilles—and is absolutely without competitors. +It can do as it likes; and it does it, +regardless—I say "regardless," without qualification, +because the P.L.M. regards nobody and +nothing. Yet one hears of no righteous indignation, +no uprising of the people in their angry +thousands, no moral recognition of the monopoly +as a Wicked Thing, to be fought tooth and nail, +without quarter given. It probably causes a +greater aggregate of human misery in a week +than Monte Carlo in a century. Besides, the +one is compulsory, the other optional. You +needn't risk a louis on the tables unless you +choose, but, like it or lump it, if you're bound +for Nice or Cannes or Mentone, you must open +your mouth and shut your eyes and see what +P.L.M. will send you. Our own railways, indeed, +are by no means free from blame at the hands +of the Democracy: the South-Eastern has not +earned the eternal gratitude of its season-ticket +holders; the children of the Great Western do +not rise up and call it blessed. (Except, indeed, +in the most uncomplimentary sense of blessing.) +But the P.L.M. goes much further than these; +and I have always held that the one solid argument +for eternal punishment consists in the improbability +that its Board of Directors will be +permitted to go scot-free for ever after all their +iniquities.</p> + +<p>I am not wholly joking. I mean the best +part of it. Great monopolies that abuse their +trust are far more dangerous enemies of public +morals than an honest gambling-house at every +corner. Monte Carlo as it stands is just a concentrated +embodiment of all the evils of our anti-social +system, and the tables are by far the least +serious among them. It is an Influence for Good, +because it mirrors our own world in all its naked, +all its over-draped hideousness. There it rears +its meretricious head, that gaudy Palace of Sin, +appropriately decked in its Haussmanesque architecture +and its coquettish gardens, attracting to +itself all the idle, all the vicious, all the rich, +all the unworthy, from every corner of Europe +and America. But Monte Carlo didn't make +them; it only gathers to its bosom its own +chosen children from the places where they are +produced—from London, Paris, Brussels, New +York, Berlin, St. Petersburg. The vices of our +organisation begot these over-rich folk, begot +their diamond-decked women, and their clipped +French poodles with gold bangles spanning their +aristocratic legs. These are the spawn of land-owning, +of capitalism, of military domination, +of High Finance, of all the social ills that flesh +is heir to. I feel as I pace the terrace in the +broad Mediterranean sunshine, that I am here +in the midst of the very best society Europe +affords. That is to say, the very worst. The +dukes and the money-lenders, the Jay Goulds +and the Reinachs. The idlest, the cruellest: the +hereditary drones, the successful blood-suckers. +But to find fault with them only for trying to +win one another's ill-gotten gold at a fair and open +game of <i>trente-et-quarante</i>, with the odds against +them, and then to say nothing about the way +they came by it, is to make a needless fuss about +a trifle of detail, while overlooking the weightiest +moral problems of humanity.</p> + +<p>Whoever allows red herrings like these to be +trailed across the path of his moral consciousness, +to the detriment of the scent which should lead +him straight on to the lairs of gigantic evils, +deserves little credit either for conscience or sagacity. +My son, be wise. Strike at the root of the +evil. Let Monte Carlo go, but keep a stern eye +on London ground-rents.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII.</h3> + +<h4><i>THE CELTIC FRINGE.</i></h4> + + +<p>We Celts henceforth will rule the roost in +Britain.</p> + +<p>What is that you mutter? "A very inopportune +moment to proclaim the fact." Well, no, +I don't think so. And I'm sorry to hear you +say it, for if there <i>is</i> a quality on which I plume +myself, it's the delicate tact that makes me +refrain from irritating the susceptibilities of the +sensitive Saxon. See how polite I am to him! +I call him sensitive. But, opportune or inopportune, +Lord Salisbury says we are a Celtic fringe. +I beg to retort, we are the British people.</p> + +<p>"Conquered races," say my friends. Well, +grant it for a moment. But in civilised societies, +conquerors have, sooner or later, to amalgamate +with the conquered. And where the vanquished +are more numerous, they absorb the victors instead +of being absorbed by them. That is the +Nemesis of conquest. Rome annexed Etruria; +and Etruscan Mæcenas, Etruscan Sejanus organised +and consolidated the Roman Empire. Rome +annexed Italy; and the <i>Jus Italicum</i> grew at +last to be the full Roman franchise. Rome +annexed the civilised world; and the provinces +under Cæsar blotted out the Senate. Britain +is passing now through the self-same stage. One +inevitable result of the widening of the electorate +has been the transfer of power from the Teutonic +to the Celtic half of Britain. I repeat, we are +no longer a Celtic fringe: at the polls, in Parliament, +we are the British people. Lord Salisbury +may fail to perceive that fact, or, as I hold +more probable, may affect to ignore it. What will +such tactics avail? The ostrich is not usually +counted among men as a perfect model of political +wisdom.</p> + +<p>And <i>are</i> we, after all, the conquered peoples? +Meseems, I doubt it. They say we Celts dearly +love a paradox—which is perhaps only the +sensible Saxon way of envisaging the fact that +we catch at new truths somewhat quicker than +other people. At any rate, 'tis a pet little +paradox of my own that we have never been +conquered, and that to our unconquered state we +owe in the main our Radicalism, our Socialism, +our ingrained love of political freedom. We are +tribal not feudal; we think the folk more important +than his lordship. The Saxon of the +south-east is the conquered man: he has felt +on his neck for generations the heel of feudalism. +He is slavish; he is snobbish; he dearly loves a +lord. He shouts himself hoarse for his Beaconsfield +or his Salisbury. Till lately, in his rural +avatar, he sang but one song—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"God bless the squire and his relations,</span> +<span class="i2">And keep us in our proper stations."</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Trite, isn't it? but so is the Saxon intelligence.</p> + +<p>Seriously—for at times it is well to be serious—South-Eastern +England, the England of the +plains, has been conquered and enslaved in a +dozen ages by each fresh invader. Before the +dawn of history, Heaven knows what shadowy +Belgæ and Iceni enslaved it. But historical time +will serve our purpose. The Roman enslaved it, +but left Caledonia and Hibernia free, the Cambrian, +the Silurian, the Cornishman half-subjugated. +The Saxon and Anglian enslaved the +east, but scarcely crossed over the watershed of +the western ocean. The Dane, in turn, enslaved +the Saxon in East Anglia and Yorkshire. The +Norman ground all down to a common servitude +between the upper and nether millstones of the +feudal system—the king and the nobleman. At +the end of it all, Teutonic England was reduced +to a patient condition of contented serfdom: it +had accommodated itself to its environment: no +wish was left in it for the assertion of its freedom. +To this day, the south-east, save where leavened +and permeated by Celtic influences, hugs its chains +and loves them. It produces the strange portent +of the Conservative working-man, who yearns to +be led by Lord Randolph Churchill.</p> + +<p>With the North and the West, things go wholly +otherwise. Even Cornwall, the earliest Celtic +kingdom to be absorbed, was rather absorbed +than conquered. I won't go into the history of +the West Welsh of Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall +at full length, because it would take ten +pages to explain it; and I know that readers +are too profoundly interested in the Shocking +Murder in the Borough Road to devote half-an-hour +to the origin and evolution of their own +community. It must suffice to say that the +Devonian and Cornubian Welsh coalesced with +the West Saxon for resistance to their common +enemy the Dane, and that the West Saxon +kingdom was made supreme in Britain by the +founder of the English monarchy—one Dunstan, +a monk from the West Welsh Abbey of Glastonbury. +Wales proper, overrun piecemeal by +Norman filibusterers, was roughly annexed by +the Plantagenet kings; but it was only pacified +under the Welsh Tudors, and was never at any +time thoroughly feudalised. Glendower's rebellion, +Richmond's rebellion, the Wesleyan revolt, the +Rebecca riots, the tithe war, are all continuous +parts of the ceaseless reaction of gallant little +Wales against Teutonic aggression. "An alien +Church" still disturbs the Principality. The +Lake District and Ayrshire—Celtic Cumbria and +Strathclyde—only accepted by degrees the supremacy +of the Kings of England and Scotland. +The brother of a Scotch King was Prince of +Cumbria, as the elder son of an English King +was Prince of Wales. Indeed, David of Cumbria, +who became David I. of Scotland, was the real +consolidator of the Scotch kingdom. Cumbria +was no more conquered by the Saxon Lothians +than Scotland was conquered by the accession of +James I. or by the Act of Union. That means +absorption, conciliation, a certain degree of tribal +independence. For Ireland, we know that the +"mere Irish" were never subjugated at all till the +days of Henry VII.; that they had to be reconquered +by Cromwell and by William of Orange; +that they rebelled more or less throughout the +eighteenth century; and that they have been +thorns in the side of Tory England through the +whole of the nineteenth. As for the Highlands, +they held out against the Stuarts till England +had rejected that impossible dynasty; and then +they rallied round the Stuarts as the enemies of +the Saxon. General Wade's roads and the forts +in the Great Glen, aided by a few trifles of +Glencoe massacres, kept them quiet for a moment. +But it was only for a moment. The North is +once more in open revolt. Dr. Clark and the +crofters are its mode of expressing itself.</p> + +<p>Nor is that all. The Celtic ideas have remained +unaltered. Of course, I am not silly +enough to believe there is any such thing as a +Celtic race. I use the word merely as a convenient +label for the league of the unconquered +peoples in Britain. Ireland alone contains half-a-dozen +races; and none of them appear to have +anything in common with the Pict of Aberdeenshire +or the West-Welsh of Cornwall. All I +mean when I speak of Celtic ideas and Celtic +ideals is the ideas and ideals proper and common +to unconquered races. As compared with the +feudalised and contented serf of South-Eastern +England, are not the Irish peasant, the Scotch +clansman, the "statesman" of the dales, the +Cornish miner, free men every soul of them? +English landlordism, imposed from without upon +the crofter of Skye or the rack-rented tenant of +a Connemara hillside, has never crushed out the +native feeling of a right to the soil, the native +resistance to an alien system. The south-east, +I assert, has been brutalised into acquiescent +serfdom by a long course of feudalism; the west +and north still retain the instincts of freemen.</p> + +<p>As long as South-Eastern England and the Normanised +or feudalised Saxon lowlands of Scotland +contained all the wealth, all the power, and most +of the population of Britain, the Celtic ideals had +no chance of realising themselves. But the industrial +revolution of the present century has +turned us right-about-face, has transferred the +balance of power from the secondary strata to the +primary strata in Britain; from the agricultural +lowlands to the uplands of coal and iron, the +cotton factories, the woollen trade. Great industrial +cities have grown up in the Celtic or +semi-Celtic area—Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, +Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Belfast, Aberdeen, Cardiff. +The Celt—that is to say, the mountaineer +and the man of the untouched country—reproduces +his kind much more rapidly than the +Teuton. The Highlander and the Irishman swarm +into Glasgow; the Irishman and the Welshman +swarm into Liverpool; the west-countryman into +Bristol; Celts of all types into London, Southampton, +Newport, Birmingham, Sheffield. This +eastward return-wave of Celts upon the Teuton +has leavened the whole mass; if you look at the +leaders of Radicalism in England you will find +they bear, almost without exception, true Celtic +surnames. Chartists and Socialists of the first +generation were marshalled by men of Cymric +descent, like Ernest Jones and Robert Owen, or +by pure-blooded Irishmen like Fergus O'Connor. +It is not a mere accident that the London +Socialists of the present day should be led by +Welshmen like William Morris, or by the eloquent +brogue of Bernard Shaw's audacious oratory. We +Celts now lurk in every corner of Britain; we +have permeated it with our ideas; we have inspired +it with our aspirations; we have roused +the Celtic remnant in the south-east itself to a +sense of their wrongs; and we are marching to-day, +all abreast, to the overthrow of feudalism. +If Lord Salisbury thinks we are a Celtic fringe he +is vastly mistaken. But he doesn't really think +so: 'tis a piece of his ponderous Saxon humour. +Talk of "Batavian grace," indeed! Well, the +Cecils came first from the fens of Lincolnshire.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX.</h3> + +<h4><i>IMAGINATION AND RADICALS.</i></h4> + + +<p>Conservatism, I believe, is mainly due to want +of imagination.</p> + +<p>In saying this, I do not for a moment mean +to deny the other and equally obvious truth that +Conservatism, in the lump, is a euphemism for +selfishness. But the two ideas have much in +common. Selfish people are apt to be unimaginative: +unimaginative people are apt to be selfish. +Clearly to realise the condition of the unfortunate +is the beginning of philanthropy. Clearly +to realise the rights of others is the beginning +of justice. "Put yourself in his place" strikes +the keynote of ethics. Stupid people can only +see their own side of a question: they cannot +even imagine any other side possible. So, as a +rule, stupid people are Conservative. They cling +to what they have; they dread revision, redistribution, +justice. Also, if a man has imagination +he is likely to be Radical, even though selfish; +while if he has no imagination he is likely +to be Conservative, even though otherwise good +and kind-hearted. Some men are Conservative +from defects of heart, while some are Conservative +from defects of head. Conversely, most imaginative +people are Radical; for even a bad man may +sometimes uphold the side of right because he +has intelligence enough to understand that things +might be better managed in the future for all +than they are in the present.</p> + +<p>But when I say that Conservatism is mainly +due to want of imagination, I mean more than +that. Most people are wholly unable to conceive +in their own minds any state of things very +different from the one they have been born and +brought up in. The picturing power is lacking. +They can conceive the past, it is true, more or +less vaguely—because they have always heard +things once were so, and because the past is +generally realisable still by the light of the +relics it has bequeathed to the present. But +they can't at all conceive the future. Imagination +fails them. Innumerable difficulties crop up +for them in the way of every proposed improvement. +Before there was any County Council for +London, such people thought municipal government +for the metropolis an insoluble problem. +Now that Home Rule quivers trembling in the +balance, they think it would pass the wit of +man to devise in the future a federal league for +the component elements of the United Kingdom; +in spite of the fact that the wit of man has +already devised one for the States of the Union, +for the Provinces of the Dominion, for the component +Cantons of the Swiss Republic. To the +unimaginative mind difficulties everywhere seem +almost insuperable. It shrinks before trifles. "Impossible!" +said Napoleon. "There is no such +word in my dictionary!" He had been trained +in the school of the French Revolution—which +was <i>not</i> carried out by unimaginative pettifoggers.</p> + +<p>To people without imagination any change you +propose seems at once impracticable. They are +ready to bring up endless objections to the mode +of working it. There would be this difficulty in +the way, and that difficulty, and the other one. +You would think, to hear them talk, the world +as it stands was absolutely perfect, and moved +without a hitch in all its bearings. They don't +see that every existing institution just bristles +with difficulties—and that the difficulties are met +or got over somehow. Often enough while they +swallow the camel of existing abuses they strain +at some gnat which they fancy they see flying +in at the window of Utopia or of the Millennium. +"If your reform were carried," they say in effect, +"we should, doubtless, get rid of such and such +flagrant evils; but the streets in November would +be just as muddy as ever, and slight inconvenience +might be caused in certain improbable +contingencies to the duke or the cotton-spinner, +the squire or the mine-owner." They omit to +note that much graver inconvenience is caused +at present to the millions who are shut out from +the fields and the sunshine, who are sweated all +day for a miserable wage, or who are forced to +pay fancy prices for fuel to gratify the rapacity +of a handful of coal-grabbers.</p> + +<p>Lack of imagination makes people fail to see +the evils that are; makes them fail to realise the +good that might be.</p> + +<p>I often fancy to myself what such people would +say if land had always been communal property, +and some one now proposed to hand it over absolutely +to the dukes, the squires, the game-preservers, +and the coal-owners. "'Tis impossible," +they would exclaim; "the thing wouldn't be workable. +Why, a single landlord might own half +Westminster! A single landlord might own all +Sutherlandshire! The hypothetical Duke of Westminster +might put bars to the streets; he might +impede locomotion; he might refuse to let certain +people to whom he objected take up their residence +in any part of his territory; he might +prevent them from following their own trades or +professions; he might even descend to such petty +tyranny as tabooing brass plates on the doors of +houses. And what would you do then? The +thing isn't possible. The Duke of Sutherland, +again, might shut up all Sutherlandshire; might +turn whole vast tracts into grouse-moor or deer-forest; +might prevent harmless tourists from walking +up the mountains. And surely free Britons +would never submit to <i>that</i>. The bare idea is +ridiculous. The squire of a rural parish might +turn out the Dissenters; might refuse to let land +for the erection of chapels; might behave like a +petty King Augustus of Scilly. Indeed, there +would be nothing to prevent an American alien +from buying up square miles of purple heather +in Scotland, and shutting the inhabitants of these +British Isles out of their own inheritance. Sites +might be refused for needful public purposes; +fancy prices might be asked for pure cupidity. +Speculators would job land for the sake of unearned +increment; towns would have to grow as +landlords willed, irrespective of the wants or convenience +of the community. Theoretically, I don't +even see that Lord Rothschild mightn't buy up +the whole area of Middlesex, and turn London +into a Golden House of Nero. Your scheme can't +be worked. The anomalies are too obvious."</p> + +<p>They are indeed. Yet I doubt whether the +unimaginative would quite have foreseen them: +the things they foresee are less real and possible. +But they urge against every reform such objections +as I have parodied; and they urge them +about matters of far less vital importance. The +existing system exists; they know its abuses, its +checks and its counter-checks. The system of +the future does not yet exist; and they can't +imagine how its far slighter difficulties could +ever be smoothed over. They are not the least +staggered by the appalling reality of the Duke +of Westminster or the Duke of Sutherland; not +the least staggered by the sinister power of a conspiracy +of coal-owners to paralyse a great nation +with the horrors of a fuel famine. But they <i>are</i> +staggered by their bogey that State ownership of +land might give rise to a certain amount of +jobbery and corruption on the part of officials. +They think it better that the dukes and the +squires should get all the rent than that the +State should get most of it, with the possibility +of a percentage being corruptly embezzled by the +functionaries who manage it. This shows want of +imagination. It is as though one should say to +one's clerk, "All your income shall be paid in +future to the Duke of Westminster, and not to +yourself, for his sole use and benefit; because +we, your employers, are afraid that if we give +you your salary in person, you may let some of +it be stolen from you or badly invested." How +transparently absurd! We want our income ourselves, +to spend as we please. We would rather +risk losing one per cent. of it in bad investments +than let all be swallowed up by the dukes and +the landlords.</p> + +<p>It is the same throughout. Want of imagination +makes people exaggerate the difficulties and +dangers of every new scheme, because they can't +picture constructively to themselves the details +of its working. Men with great picturing power, +like Shelley or Robespierre, are always very +advanced Radicals, and potentially revolutionists. +The difficulty <i>they</i> see is not the difficulty of +making the thing work, but the difficulty of convincing +less clear-headed people of its desirability +and practicability. A great many Conservatives, +who are Conservative from selfishness, would be +Radicals if only they could feel for themselves +that even their own petty interests and pleasures +are not really menaced. The squires and the +dukes can't realise how much happier even they +would be in a free, a beautiful, and a well-organised +community. Imaginative minds can picture a +world where everything is so ordered that life +comes as a constant æsthetic delight to everybody. +They know that that world could be realised +to-morrow—if only all others could picture it +to themselves as vividly as they do. But they +also know that it can only be attained in the +end by long ages of struggle, and by slow evolution +of the essentially imaginative ethical faculty. +For right action depends most of all, in the last +resort, upon a graphic conception of the feelings +of others.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX.</h3> + +<h4><i>ABOUT ABROAD.</i></h4> + + +<p>The place known as Abroad is not nearly so +nice a country to live in as England. The people +who inhabit Abroad are called Foreigners. They +are in every way and at all times inferior to +Englishmen.</p> + +<p>These Post-Prandials used once to be provided +with a sting in their tail, like the common +scorpion. By way of change, I turn them out +now with a sting in their head, like the common +mosquito. Mosquitoes are much less dangerous +than scorpions, but they're a deal more irritating.</p> + +<p>Not that I am sanguine enough to expect I +shall irritate Englishmen. Your Englishman is +far too cock-sure of the natural superiority of +Britons to Foreigners, the natural superiority of +England to Abroad, ever to be irritated by even +the gentlest criticism. He accepts it all with +lordly indifference. He brushes it aside as the +elephant might brush aside the ineffective gadfly. +No proboscis can pierce that pachydermatous hide +of his. If you praise him to his face, he accepts +your praise as his obvious due, with perfect composure +and without the slightest elation. If you +blame him in aught, he sets it down to your +ignorance and mental inferiority. You say to +him, "Oh, Englishman, you are great; you are +wise; you are rich beyond comparison. You are +noble; you are generous; you are the prince +among nations." He smiles a calm smile, and +thinks you a very sensible fellow. But you add, +"Oh, my lord, if I may venture to say so, there +is a smudge on your nose, which I make bold +to attribute to the settlement of a black on your +intelligent countenance." He is not angry. He +is not even contemptuously amused. He responds, +"My friend, you are wrong. There is never a +smudge on my immaculate face. No blacks fly +in London. The sky is as clear there in November +as in August. All is pure and serene and +beautiful." You answer, "Oh, my lord, I admit +the force of your profound reasoning. You light +the gas at ten in the morning only to show all +the world you can afford to burn it." At that, he +gropes his way along Pall Mall to his club, and +tells the men he meets there how completely he +silenced you.</p> + +<p>And yet, My Lord Elephant, there is use in +mosquitoes. Mr. Mattieu Williams once discovered +the final cause of fleas. Certain people, +said he, cannot be induced to employ the harmless +necessary tub. For them, Providence designed +the lively flea. He compels them to scratch +themselves. By so doing they rouse the skin to +action and get rid of impurities. Now, this British +use of the word Abroad is a smudge on the face +of the otherwise perfect Englishman. Perchance +a mosquito-bite may induce him to remove it with +a little warm water and a cambric pocket-handkerchief.</p> + +<p>To most Englishmen, the world divides itself +naturally into two unequal and non-equivalent +portions—Abroad and England. Of these two, +Abroad is much the larger country; but England, +though smaller, is vastly more important. Abroad +is inhabited by Frenchmen and Germans, who +speak their own foolish and chattering languages. +Part of it is likewise pervaded by Chinamen, who +wear pigtails; and the outlying districts belong +to the poor heathen, chiefly interesting as a field +of missionary enterprise, and a possible market +for Manchester piece-goods. We sometimes invest +our money abroad, but then we are likely to get +it swallowed up in Mexicans or Egyptian Unified. +If you ask most people what has become of Tom, +they will answer at once with the specific information, +"Oh, Tom has gone Abroad." I have one +stereotyped rejoinder to an answer like that. +"What part of Abroad, please?" That usually +stumps them. Abroad is Abroad; and like the +gentleman who was asked in examination to +"name the minor prophets," they decline to make +invidious distinctions. It is nothing to them +whether he is tea-planting in the Himalayas, or +sheep-farming in Australia, or orange-growing in +Florida, or ranching in Colorado. If he is not in +England, why then he is elsewhere; and elsewhere +is Abroad, one and indivisible.</p> + +<p>In short, Abroad answers in space to that well-known +and definite date, the Olden Time, in +chronology.</p> + +<p>People will tell you, "Foreigners do this"; +"Foreigners do that"; "Foreigners smoke so +much"; "Foreigners always take coffee for breakfast." +"Indeed," I love to answer; "I've never +observed it myself in Central Asia." 'Tis Parson +Adams and the Christian religion. Nine English +people out of ten, when they talk of Abroad, mean +what they call the Continent; and when they +talk of the Continent, they mean France, Germany, +Switzerland, Italy; in short, the places +most visited by Englishmen when they consent +now and again to go Abroad for a holiday. "I +don't like Abroad," a lady once said to me +on her return from Calais. Foreigners, in like +manner, means Frenchmen, Germans, Swiss, Italians. +In the country called Abroad, the most important +parts are the parts nearest England; of the people +called Foreigners, the most important are those +who dress like Englishmen. The dim black +lands that lie below the horizon are hardly worth +noticing.</p> + +<p>Would it surprise you to learn that most people +live in Asia? Would it surprise you to learn +that most people are poor benighted heathen, +and that, of the remainder, most people are +Mahommedans, and that of the Christians, who +come next, most people are Roman Catholics, and +that, of the other Christian sects, most people +belong to the Greek Church, and that, last of all, +we get Protestants, more particularly Anglicans, +Wesleyans, Baptists? Have you ever really +realised the startling fact that England is an +island off the coast of Europe? that Europe is +a peninsula at the end of Asia? that France, +Germany, Italy, are the fringe of Russia? Have +you ever really realised that the English-speaking +race lives mostly in America? that the country +is vastly more populous than London? that our +class is the froth and the scum of society? +Think these things out, and try to measure them +on the globe. And when you speak of Abroad, +do please specify what part of it.</p> + +<p>Abroad is not all alike. There are differences +between Poland, Peru, and Palestine. What is +true of France is not true of Fiji. Distinguish +carefully between Timbuctoo, Tobolsk, and Toledo.</p> + +<p>It is not our insularity that makes us so insular. +'Tis a gift of the gods, peculiar to Englishmen. +The other inhabitants of these Isles of Britain +are comparatively cosmopolitan. The Scotchman +goes everywhere; the world is his oyster. Ireland +is an island still more remote than Great Britain; +but the Irishman has never been so insular as +the English. I put that down in part to his +Catholicism: his priests have been wheels in a +world-wide system; his relations have been with +Douai, St. Omer, and Rome; his bishops have +gone pilgrimages and sat on Vatican Councils; +his kinsmen are the MacMahons in France, the +O'Donnels in Spain, the Taafes in Austria. Even +in the days of the Regency this was so: look at +Lever and his heroes! When England drank +port, County Clare drank claret. But ever since +the famine, Ireland has expanded. Every Irishman +has cousins in Canada, in Australia, in New +York, in San Francisco. The Empire is Irish, +with the exception of India; and India, of course, +is a Scotch dependency. Irishmen and Scotchmen +have no such feelings about Abroad and its +Foreigners as Londoners entertain. But Englishmen +never quite get over the sense that everybody +must needs divide the world into England and +Elsewhere. To the end no Englishman really +grasps the fact that to Frenchmen and Germans +he himself is a foreigner. I have met John Bulls +who had passed years in Italy, but who spoke of +the countrymen of Cæsar and Dante and Leonardo +and Garibaldi with the contemptuous toleration +one might feel towards a child or an Andaman +Islander. These Italians could build Giotto's +campanile; could paint the Transfiguration; could +carve the living marble on the tombs of the +Medici; could produce the Vita Nuova; could +beget Galileo, Galvani, Beccaria; but still—they +were Foreigners. Providence in its wisdom has +decreed that they must live Abroad—just as it +has decreed that a comprehension of the decimal +system and its own place in the world should be +limitations eternally imposed upon the English +intellect.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI.</h3> + +<h4><i>WHY ENGLAND IS BEAUTIFUL.</i></h4> + + +<p>As I strolled across the moor this afternoon +towards Waverley, I saw Jones was planting out +that bare hillside of his with Douglas pines and +Scotch firs and new strains of silver birches. +They will improve the landscape. And I thought +as I scanned them, "How curious that most people +entirely overlook this constant betterment and +beautifying of England! You hear them talk +much of the way bricks and mortar are invading +the country; you never hear anything of this +slow and silent process of planting and developing +which has made England into the prettiest and +one of the most beautiful countries in Europe."</p> + +<p>What's that you say? "Astonished to find +I have a good word of any sort to put in for +England!" Why, dear me, how irrational you +are! I just <i>love</i> England. Can any man with +eyes in his head and a soul for beauty do otherwise? +England and Italy—there you have the +two great glories of Europe. Italy for towns, for +art, for man's handicraft; England for country, +for nature, for green lanes and lush copses. Was +it not one that loved Italy well who sighed in +Italy—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"Oh, to be in England now that April's there?"</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>And who that loves Italy, and knows England, too, +does not echo Browning's wish when April comes +round again on dusty Tuscan hilltops? At +Perugia, last spring, through weeks of tramontana, +how one yearned for the sight of yellow English +primroses! Not love England, indeed! Milton's +England, Shelley's England; the England of the +skylark, the dog-rose, the honeysuckle! Not love +England, forsooth! Why, I love every flower, +every blade of grass in it. Devonshire lane, close-cropped +down, rich water-meadow, bickering brooklet: +ah me, how they tug at one's heartstrings in +Africa! No son of the soil can love England as +those love her very stones who have come from +newer lands over sea to her ivy-clad church-towers, +her mouldering castles, her immemorial elms, the +berries on her holly, the may in her hedgerows. +Are not all these bound up in our souls with +each cherished line of Shakespeare and Wordsworth? +do they not rouse faint echoes of Gray +and Goldsmith? Even before I ever set foot +in England, how I longed to behold my first +cowslip, my first foxglove! And now, I have +wandered through the footpaths that run obliquely +across English pastures, picking meadowsweet and +fritillaries, for half a lifetime, till I have learned +by heart every leaf and every petal. You think +because I dislike one squalid village—"The Wen," +stout English William Cobbett delighted to call +it—I don't love England. You think because +I see some spots on the sun of the English character, +I don't love Englishmen. Why, how can +any man who speaks the English tongue, and +boasts one drop of English blood in his veins, +not be proud of England? England, the mother +of poets and thinkers; England, that gave us +Newton, Darwin, Spencer; England, that holds in +her lap Oxford, Salisbury, Durham; England of +daisy and heather and pine-wood! Are we hewn +out of granite, to be cold before England?</p> + +<p>Upon my soul, your unseasonable interruption +has almost made me forget what I was going to +say; it has made me grow warm, and drop into +poetry.</p> + +<p>England, I take it, is certainly the prettiest +country in Europe. It is almost the most beautiful. +I say "almost," because I bethink me of +Norway and Switzerland. I say "country," because +I bethink me of Rome, Venice, Florence. +But, taking it as country, and as country alone, +nothing else approaches it. Have you ever +thought why? Man made the town, says the +proverb, and God made the country. Not so in +England. There, man made the country, and +beautified it exceedingly. In itself, the land of +south-eastern England is absolutely the same as +the land of Northern France—that hideous tract +about Boulogne and Amiens which we traverse in +silence every time we run across by Calais to +Paris. Chalk and clay and sandstone stretch +continuously under sea from Kent and Sussex +to Flanders and Picardy. The Channel burst +through, and made the Straits of Dover; but the +land on either side was and still is geologically +and physically identical. What has made the +difference? Man, the planter and gardener. +England is beautiful by copse and hedgerow, by +pine-clad ridge and willow-covered hollow, by +meadows interspersed with great spreading oaks, +by pastures where drowsy sheep, deep-fleeced and +ruddy-stained, huddle under the shade of ancestral +beech-trees. Its loveliness is human. In itself, +I believe, the actual contour of England cannot +once have been much better than the contour of +northern France—though nowadays it is hard +indeed to realise it. Judicious planting, and a +constant eye to picturesque effect in scenery, +have made England what she is—the garden of +Europe.</p> + +<p>Of course there are parts of the country which +owed, and still owe, their beauty to their wildness—Dartmoor, +Exmoor, the West Riding of Yorkshire, +the Surrey hills, the Peak in Derbyshire. +Yet even these depend more than you would +believe, when you take them in detail, on the +art of the forester. The view from Leith Hill +embraces John Evelyn's woods at Wotton: the +larches that cover one Jura-like gorge were set +there well within your and my memory. But +elsewhere in England the hand of man has done +absolutely everything. The American, when he +first visits England, is charmed on his way up +from Liverpool to London by the exquisite air of +antique cultivation and soft rural beauty. The +very sward is moss-like. Thoroughly wild country, +indeed, unless bold and mountainous, does not +often please one. It is apt to be bare, unattractive, +and desolate. Witness the Veldt, the Steppes, +the prairies. You may go through miles and miles +of the States and Canada, where the wildness for +the most part rather repels than delights you. I +do not say everywhere; in places the wilderness +will blossom like a rose; boggy margins of lakes, +fallen trunks in the forest overgrown with wild +flowers, make scenes unattainable in our civilised +England. Even our roughest scenery is comparatively +man-made: our heaths are game preserves; +our woodlands are thinned of superfluous underbrush; +our moors are relieved by deliberate plantations. +But England in her own way is unique +and unrivalled. Such parks, such greensward, +such grassy lawns, such wooded tilth, are wholly +unknown elsewhere. Compare the blank fields +and long poplar-fringed high roads of central +France with our Devon or our Warwickshire, and +you get at once a just measure of the vast, the +unspeakable difference.</p> + +<p>And man has done it all. Alone he did it. +Often as I take my walks abroad—and when I +say abroad I mean in England—I see men at +work dotting about exotics of variegated foliage +on some barren hillside, and I say to myself, +"There, before my eyes, goes on the beautifying +of England." Thirty years ago, the North Downs +near Dorking were one bare stretch of white +chalky sheep-walk; half of them still remain so; +the other half has been planted irregularly with +copses and spinneys, which serve to throw up +and enhance the beauty of the unaltered intervals. +Beech and larch in autumn tints set off smooth +patches of grass and juniper. Within the last +few years, the downs about Leatherhead have +been similarly diversified. Much of the loveliness +of rural England is due, one must frankly +confess, to the big landlords. Though the great +houses love us not, we must allow at least that +the great houses have cared for the trees in the +hedge-rows, and for the timber in the meadows, +as well as for the covert that sheltered their +pheasants, their foxes, and their gamekeepers. +But almost as much of England's charm is due +to individual small owners or occupiers. 'Tis +they who have planted the grounds about villa +or cottage; they who have stocked the sweet +old gardens of yew and box, of hollyhock and +peony; they who have given us the careless +rustic grace of the English village. Still, one +way or another, man has done it all, whether in +grange or in manor-house, in palatial estate or +in labourer's holding. Look at the French or +Belgian hamlet by the side of the English one; +look at the French or Belgian farm by the side +of our English wealth in wooded glen or sheltered +homestead. Bricks and mortar are <i>not</i> covering +the whole of England. That is only true of the +squalid purlieus and outliers of London, whither +Londoners gravitate by mutual attraction. If you +<i>will</i> go and live in a dingy suburb, you can't +reasonably complain that all the world's suburban. +Being the most cheerful of pessimists, a dweller +in the country all the days of my life, I have no +hesitation in expressing my profound conviction +that within my memory more has been done +to beautify than to uglify England. Only, the +beautification has been quiet and unobtrusive, +while the uglification has been obvious and concentrated. +It takes half a year to jerry-build a +dingy street, but it takes a decade for newly-planted +trees to give the woodland air by imperceptible +stages to a stretch of country.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII.</h3> + +<h4><i>ANENT ART PRODUCTION.</i></h4> + + +<p>Yesterday, at Bordighera, I strolled up the hills +behind the town to Sasso. It is a queer little +cluster of gleaming white-washed houses that top +the crest of a steep ridge; and, like many other +Italian villages, it makes a brave show from a +distance, though within it is full of evil smells +and all uncleanness. But I found it had a church—a +picturesquely ugly and dilapidated church; +and without and within, this church was decorated +by inglorious hands with very naïve and rudimentary +frescoes. The Four Evangelists were +there, in flowing blue robes; and the Four Greater +Prophets, with long white beards; and the Madonna, +appearing in most wooden clouds; and +the Patron Saint tricked out for his Festa in +gorgeous holiday episcopal vestments. That was +all—just the common everyday Italian country +church that everybody has seen turned out to +pattern with manufacturing regularity a hundred +times over! Yet, as I sat among the olive-terraces +looking down the steep slope into the Borghetto +valley, and across the gorge to the green pines +on the Cima, it set me thinking. 'Tis a bad +habit one falls into when one has nothing better +to turn one's mind to.</p> + +<p>We English, coming to Italy with our ideas +fully formed about everything on heaven and +earth, naturally say to ourselves, "Great heart +alive, what sadly degraded frescoes! To think +the art of Raphael and Andrea del Sarto should +degenerate even here, in their own land, to such +a childish level!" But we are wrong, for all +that. It is Raphael and Andrea who rose, not +my poor nameless Sasso artists who sank and +degenerated. Italy was capable of producing her +great painters in her own great day, just because +in thousands of such Italian villages there were +work-a-day artisans in form and colour capable +of turning out such ridiculous daubs as those +that decorate this tawdry church on the Ligurian +hilltop.</p> + +<p>We English, in short, think of it all the wrong +way uppermost. We think of it topsy-turvy, +beginning at the end, while evolution invariably +begins at the beginning. The Raphaels and +Andreas, to put it in brief, were the final flower +and fullest outcome of whole races of church +decorators in infantile fresco.</p> + +<p>Everywhere you go in Italy, this truth is +forced upon your attention even to the present +day. Art here is no exotic. It smacks of the +soil; it springs spontaneous, like a weed; it +burgeons of itself out of the heart of the people. +Not high art, understand well; not the art of +Burne-Jones and Whistler and Puvis de Chavannes +and Sar Peladan. Commonplace everyday art, +that is a trade and a handicraft, like the joiner's +or the shoemaker's. Look up at your ceiling; +it's overrun with festoons of crude red and blue +flowers, or it's covered with cupids and graces, +or it bristles with arabesques and unmeaning +phantasies. Every wall is painted; every grotto +decorated. Sham landscapes, sham loggias, sham +parapets are everywhere. The sham windows +themselves are provided, not only with sham +blinds and sham curtains, but even with sham +coquettes making sham eyes or waving sham +handkerchiefs at passers-by below them. Open-air +fresco painting is still a living art, an art +practised by hundreds and thousands of craftsmen, +an art as alive as cookery or weaving. The +Italian decorates everything; his pottery, his house, +his church, his walls, his palaces. And the only +difference he feels between the various cases is, +that in some of them a higher type of art is +demanded by wealth and skill than in the others. +No wonder, therefore, he blossomed out at last +into Michael Angelo's frescoes in the Sistine +Chapel!</p> + +<p>To us English, on the contrary, high art is +something exotic, separate, alone, <i>sui generis</i>. We +never think of the plaster star in the middle of +our ceiling as belonging even to the same range +of ideas as, say, the frescoes in the Houses of +Parliament.</p> + +<p>A nation in such a condition as that is never +truly artistic. The artist with us, even now, is +an exceptional product. Art for a long time in +England had nothing at all to do with the life +of the people. It was a luxury for the rich, a +curious thing for ladies' and gentlemen's consumption, +as purely artificial as the stuccoed Italian +villa in which they insisted on shivering in our +chilly climate. And the pictures it produced were +wholly alien to the popular wants and the popular +feelings; they were part of an imported French, +Italian, and Flemish tradition. English art has +only slowly outgrown this stage, just in proportion +as truly artistic handicrafts have sprung up here +and there, and developed themselves among us. +Go into the Cantagalli or the Ginori potteries at +Florence, and you will see mere boys and girls, +untrained children of the people, positively disporting +themselves, with childish glee, in painting +plates and vases. You will see them, not slavishly +copying a given design of the master's, but letting +their fancy run riot in lithe curves and lines, in +griffons and dragons and floral twists-and-twirls +of playful extravagance. They revel in ornament. +Now, it is out of the loins of people like these +that great artists spring by nature—not State-taught, +artificial, made-up artists, but the real +spontaneous product, the Lippi and Botticelli, the +hereditary craftsmen, the born painters. And in +England nowadays it is a significant fact that a +large proportion of the truest artists—the innovators, +the men who are working out a new style +of English art for themselves, in accordance with +the underlying genius of the British temperament, +have sprung from the great industrial towns—Birmingham, +Manchester, Leicester—where artistic +handicrafts are now once more renascent. I won't +expose myself to further ridicule by repeating here +(what I nevertheless would firmly believe, were it +not for the scoffers) that a large proportion of +them are of Celtic descent—belong, in other +words, to that section of the complex British +nationality in which the noble traditions of decorative +art never wholly died out—that section +which was never altogether enslaved and degraded +by the levelling and cramping and soul-destroying +influences of manufacturing industrialism.</p> + +<p>In Italy, art is endemic. In England, in spite +of all we have done to stimulate it of late years +with guano and other artificial manures, it is still +sporadic.</p> + +<p>The case of music affords us an apt parallel. +Till very lately, I believe, our musical talent in +Britain came almost entirely from the cathedral +towns. And why? Because there, and there +alone, till quite a recent date, there existed a +hereditary school of music, a training of musicians +from generation to generation among the mass +of the people. Not only were the cathedral +services themselves a constant school of taste in +music, but successive generations of choristers and +organists gave rise to something like a musical +caste in our episcopal centres. It is true, our +vocalists have always come mainly from Wales, +from the Scotch Highlands, from Yorkshire, from +Ireland. But for that there is, I believe, a sufficient +physical reason. For these are clearly the +most mountainous parts of the United Kingdom; +and the clear mountain air seems to produce +on the average a better type of human larynx +than the mists of the level. The men of the +lowland, say the Tyrolese, croak like frogs in +their marshes; but the men of the upland sing +like nightingales on their tree-tops. And indeed, +it would seem as if the mountain people were +always calling to one another across intervening +valleys, always singing and whistling and shouting +over their work in a way that gives tone to the +whole vocal mechanism. Witness Welsh penillion +singing. And wherever this fine physical endowment +goes hand in hand with a delicate ear and +a poetic temperament, you get your great vocalist, +your Sims Reeves or your Patti. But in England +proper it was only in the cathedral towns that +music was a living reality to the people; and it +was in the cathedral towns, accordingly, during +the dark ages of art, that exceptional musical +ability was most likely to show itself. More +particularly was this so on the Welsh border, +where the two favouring influences of race and +practice coincided—at Gloucester, Worcester, +Hereford, long known for the most musical towns +in England.</p> + +<p>Cause and effect act and react. Art is a product +of the artistic temperament. The artistic +temperament is a product of the long hereditary +cultivation of art. And where a broad basis of +this temperament exists among the people, owing +to intermixture of artistically-minded stocks, one is +liable to get from time to time that peculiar combination +of characteristics—sensuous, intellectual, +spiritual—which results in the highest and truest +artist.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII.</h3> + +<h4><i>A GLIMPSE INTO UTOPIA.</i></h4> + + +<p>You ask me what would be the position of women +in an ideal community. Well, after dinner, imagination +may take free flight. Suppose, till the +coffee comes, we discuss that question.</p> + +<p>Woman, I take it, differs from man in being +the sex sacrificed to reproductive necessities.</p> + +<p>Whenever I say this, I notice my good friends, +the women's-rights women, with whom I am generally +in pretty close accord, look annoyed and hurt. +I can never imagine why. I regard this point +as an original inequality of nature, which it +should be the duty of human society to redress +as far as possible, like all other inequalities. +Women are not on the average as tall as men; +nor can they lift as heavy weights, or undergo, +as a rule, so much physical labour. Yet civilised +society recognises their equal right to the protection +of our policemen, and endeavours to neutralise +their physical inequality by the collective guarantee +of all the citizens. In the same way I hold +that women in the lump have a certain disadvantage +laid upon them by nature, in the necessity +that some or most among them should bear +children; and this disadvantage I think the men +in a well-ordered State would do their best to +compensate by corresponding privileges. If women +endure on our behalf the great public burden of +providing future citizens for the community, the +least we can do for them in return is to render +that burden as honourable and as little onerous +as possible. I can never see that there is anything +unchivalrous in frankly admitting these +facts of nature; on the contrary, it seems to me +the highest possible chivalry to recognise in +woman, as woman, high or low, rich or poor, the +potential mother, who has infinite claims on that +ground alone to our respect and sympathy.</p> + +<p>Nor do I mean to deny, either, that the right +to be a mother is a sacred and peculiar privilege +of women. In a well-ordered community, I believe, +that privilege will be valued high, and will be +denied to no fitting mother by any man. While +maternity is from one point of view a painful +duty, a burden imposed upon a single sex for +the good of the whole, it is from another point of +view a privilege and a joy, and from a third point +of view the natural fulfilment of a woman's own +instincts, the complement of her personality, the +healthy exercise of her normal functions. Just +as in turn the man's part in providing physically +for the support of the woman and the children is +from one point of view a burden imposed upon +him, but from another point of view a precious +privilege of fatherhood, and from a third point of +view the proper outlet for his own energy and +his own faculties.</p> + +<p>In an ideal State, then, I take it, almost every +woman would be a mother, and almost every +woman a mother of not more than about four +children. An average of something like four is +necessary, we know, to keep up population, and +to allow for infant mortality, inevitable celibates, +and so forth. Few women in such a State would +abstain from maternity, save those who felt themselves +physically or morally unfitted for the task; +for in proportion as they abstained, either the +State must lack citizens to carry on its life, or an +extra and undue burden would have to be cast +upon some other woman. And it may well be +doubted whether in a well-ordered and civilised +State any one woman could adequately bear, +bring up, and superintend the education of more +than four young citizens. Hence we may conclude +that while no woman save the unfit would +voluntarily shirk the duties and privileges of +maternity, few (if any) women would make themselves +mothers of more than four children. Four +would doubtless grow to be regarded in such a +community as the moral maximum; while it +is even possible that improved sanitation, by +diminishing infant mortality and adult ineffectiveness, +might make a maximum of three sufficient +to keep up the normal strength of the population.</p> + +<p>In an ideal community, again, the woman who +looked forward to this great task on behalf of +the race would strenuously prepare herself for it +beforehand from childhood upward. She would +not be ashamed of such preparation; on the +contrary, she would be proud of it. Her duty +would be no longer "to suckle fools and chronicle +small beer," but to produce and bring up strong, +vigorous, free, able, and intelligent citizens. Therefore, +she must be nobly educated for her great +and important function—educated physically, intellectually, +morally. Let us forecast her future. +She will be well clad in clothes that allow of +lithe and even development of the body; she +will be taught to run, to play games, to dance, to +swim; she will be supple and healthy, finely +moulded and knit in limb and organ, beautiful +in face and features, splendid and graceful in the +native curves of her lissom figure. No cramping +conventions will be allowed to cage her; no worn-out +moralities will be tied round her neck like a +mill-stone to hamper her. Intellectually she will +be developed to the highest pitch of which in +each individual case she proves herself capable—educated, +not in the futile linguistic studies +which have already been tried and found wanting +for men, but in realities and existences, in the +truths of life, in recognition of her own and our +place among immensities. She will know something +worth knowing of the world she lives in, +its past and its present, the material of which +it is made, the forces that inform it, the energies +that thrill through it. Something, too, of the +orbs that surround it, of the sun that lights it, +of the stars that gleam upon it, of the seasons +that govern it. Something of the plants and +herbs that clothe it, of the infinite tribes of beast +and bird that dwell upon it. Something of the +human body, its structure and functions, the +human soul, its origin and meaning. Something +of human societies in the past, of institutions +and laws, of creeds and ideas, of the birth of +civilisation, of progress and evolution. Something, +too, of the triumphs of art, of sculpture +and painting, of the literature and the poetry of +all races and ages. Her mind will be stored +with the best thoughts of the thinkers. Morally, +she will be free; her emotional development, +instead of being narrowly checked and curbed, +will have been fostered and directed. She will +have a heart to love, and be neither ashamed nor +afraid of it. Thus nurtured and trained, she will +be a fit mate for a free man, a fit mother for +free children, a fit citizen for a free and equal +community.</p> + +<p>Her life, too, will be her own. She will know +no law but her higher instincts. No man will +be able to buy or to cajole her. And in order +that she may possess this freedom to perfection, +that she may be no husband's slave, no father's +obedient and trembling daughter, I can see but +one way: the whole body of men in common +must support in perfect liberty the whole body +of women. The collective guarantee must protect +them against individual tyranny. Thus only can +women be safe from the bribery of the rich +husband, from the dictation of the father from +whom there are "expectations." In the ideal +State, I take it, every woman will be absolutely +at liberty to dispose of herself as she will, and +no man will be able to command or to purchase +her, to influence her in any way, save by pure +inclination.</p> + +<p>In such a State, most women would naturally +desire to be mothers. Being healthy, strong, and +free, they would wish to realise the utmost potentialities +of their own organisms. And when they +had done their duty as mothers, they would not +care much, I imagine, for any further outlets for +their superfluous energy. I don't doubt they +would gratify to the full their artistic sensibilities +and their thirst for knowledge. They would also +perform their duties to the State as citizens, no +less than the men. But having done these things +I fancy they would have done enough; the margin +of their life would be devoted to dignified and +cultivated leisure. They would leave to men the +tilling of the soil, the building and navigation of +marine or aerial ships, the working of mines and +metals, the erection of houses, the construction +of roads, railways, and communications, perhaps +even the entire manufacturing work of the community. +Medicine and the care of the sick might +still be a charge to some; education to most; art, +in one form or another, to almost all. But the +hard work of the world might well be left to +men, upon whom it more naturally and fitly +devolves. No hateful drudgery of "earning a +livelihood." Women might rest content with +being free and beautiful, cultivated and artistic, +good citizens to the State, the mothers and +guardians of the coming generations. If any +woman asks more than this, she is really asking +less—for she is asking that a heavier burden +should be cast on some or most of her sex, in +order to relieve the minority of a duty which to +well-organised women ought to be a privilege.</p> + +<p>"But all this has no practical bearing!" I +beg your pardon. An ideal has often two practical +uses. In the first place, it gives us a +pattern towards which we may approximate. In +the second place, it gives us a standard by which +we may judge whether any step we propose to take +is a step forward or a step backward.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV.</h3> + +<h4><i>OF SECOND CHAMBERS.</i></h4> + + +<p>A Second Chamber acts as a drag. Progress is +always uphill work. So we are at pains to provide +a drag beforehand—for an uphill journey.</p> + +<p>There, in one word, you have the whole philosophy +of Second Chambers.</p> + +<p>How, then, did the nations of Europe come to +hamper their legislative systems with such a +useless, such an illogical adjunct? In sackcloth +and ashes, let us confess the truth—we English +led them astray: on us the shame; to us the +dishonour. Theorists, indeed (wise after the fact, +as is the wont of theorists), have discovered or invented +an imaginary function for Second Chambers. +They are to preserve the people, it seems, from +the fatal consequences of their own precipitancy. +As though the people—you and I—the vast body +of citizens, were a sort of foolish children, to be +classed with infants, women, criminals, and imbeciles +(I adopt the chivalrous phraseology of an +Act of Parliament), incapable of knowing their +own minds for two minutes together, and requiring +to be kept straight by the fatherly intervention of +Dukes of Marlborough or Marquises of Ailesbury. +The ideal picture of the level-headed peers restraining +the youthful impetuosity of the representatives +of the people from committing to-day some +rash act which they would gladly repent and +repeal to-morrow, is both touching and edifying. +But it exists only in the minds of the philosophers, +who find a reason for everything just because it is +there. Members of Parliament, I have observed, +seem to know their own minds every inch as well +as earls—nay, even as marquises.</p> + +<p>The plain fact of the matter is, all the Second +Chambers in the world are directly modelled upon +the House of Lords, that Old Man of the Sea whom +England, the weary Titan, is now striving so hard +to shake off her shoulders. The mother of Parliaments +is responsible for every one of them. +Senates and Upper Houses are just the result +of irrational Anglomania. When constitutional +government began to exist, men turned unanimously +to the English Constitution as their model +and pattern. That was perfectly natural. Evolutionists +know that evolution never proceeds on any +other plan than by reproduction, with modification, +of existing structures. America led the way. She +said, "England has a House of Commons; therefore +we must have a House of Representatives. +England has also a House of Lords; nature has +not dowered us with those exalted products, but +we will do what we can; we will imitate it by a +Senate." Monarchical France followed her lead; +so did Belgium, Italy, civilisation in general. I +believe even Japan rejoices to-day in the august +dignity of a Second Chamber. But mark now the +irony of it. They all of them did this thing to be +entirely English. And just about the time when +they had completed the installation of their peers +or their senators, England, who set the fashion, +began to discover in turn she could manage a great +deal better herself without them.</p> + +<p>And then what do the philosophers do? Why, +they prove to you the necessity of a Second +Chamber by pointing to the fact that all civilised +nations have got one—in imitation of England. +Furthermore, it being their way to hunt up abstruse +and recondite reasons for what is on the +face of it ridiculous, they argue that a Second +Chamber is a necessary wheel in the mechanism +of popular representative government. A foolish +phrase, which has come down to us from antiquity, +represents the populace as inevitably "fickle," a +changeable mob, to be restrained by the wisdom +of the seniors and optimates. As a matter of +fact, the populace is never anything of the sort. +It is dogged, slow, conservative, hard to move; +it advances step by step, a patient, sure-footed +beast of burden; and when once it has done a +thing, it never goes back upon it. I believe this +silly fiction of the "fickleness" of the mob is +mainly due to the equally silly fictions of prejudiced +Greek oligarchs about the Athenian assembly—which +was an assembly of well-to-do and cultivated +slave-owners. I do not swallow all that +Thucydides chooses to tell us in his one-sided +caricature about Cleon's appointment to the command +at Sphacteria, or about the affair of Mitylene; +and even if I did, I think it has nothing +to do with the question. But on such utterly +exploded old-world ideas is the whole modern +argument of the Second Chamber founded.</p> + +<p>Does anybody really believe great nations are +so incapable of managing their own affairs for +themselves through their duly-elected representatives +that they are compelled to check their own +boyish ardour by means of the acts of an irresponsible +and non-elective body? Does anybody +believe that the House of Commons works too +fast, and gets through its public business too +hurriedly? Does anybody believe we improve +things in England at such a break-neck pace that +we require the assistance of Lord Salisbury and +Lord St. Leonards to prevent us from rushing +straight down a steep place into the sea, like the +swine of Gadara? If they do, I congratulate them +on their psychological acumen and their political +wisdom.</p> + +<p>What the Commons want is not a drag, but a +goad—nay, rather, a snow-plough.</p> + +<p>No; the plain truth of the matter is this: all +the Second Chambers in the world owe their existence, +not to any deliberate plan or reason, but to +the mere accident that the British nobles, not +having a room big enough to sit in with the Commons, +took to sitting separately, and transacted +their own business as a distinct assembly. With +so much wisdom are the kingdoms of the earth +governed! How else could any one in his senses +have devised the idea of creating one deliberative +body on purpose to mutilate or destroy the work +of another? to produce from time to time a periodical +crisis or a periodical deadlock? There is +not a country in the world with a Second Chamber +that doesn't twice a year kick and plunge to get +rid of it.</p> + +<p>The House of Lords was once a reality. It consisted +of the ecclesiastical hierarchy—the bishops +and mitred abbots; with the official hierarchy—the +great nobles, who were also great satraps of provinces, +and great military commanders. It was +thus mainly made up of practical life-members, +appointed by merit. The peers, lay and spiritual, +were the men who commended themselves to the +sovereign as able administrators. Gradually, with +prolonged peace, the hereditary element choked +and swamped the nominated element. The abbots +disappeared, the lords multiplied. The peer ceased +to be the leader of a shire, and sank into a mere +idle landowner. Wealth alone grew at last to +be a title to the peerage. The House of Lords +became a House of Landlords. And the English +people submitted to the claim of irresponsible +wealth or irresponsible acres to exercise a veto +upon national legislation. The anomaly, utterly +indefensible in itself, had grown up so slowly that +the public accepted it—nay, even defended it. +And other countries, accustomed to regard England—the +Pecksniff among nations—as a perfect +model of political wisdom, swallowed half the +anomaly, and all the casuistical reasoning that +was supposed to justify it, without a murmur. +But if we strip the facts bare from the glamour +that surrounds them, the plain truth is this—England +allows an assembly of hereditary nobodies +to retard or veto its legislation nowadays, simply +because it never noticed the moment when a +practical House of administrative officers lapsed +into a nest of plutocrats.</p> + +<p>Mend or end? As it stands, the thing is +a not-even-picturesque mediæval relic. If we +English were logical, we would arrange that any +man who owned so many thousand acres of land, +or brewed so many million bottles of beer per +annum, should <i>ipso facto</i> be elevated to the peerage. +Why should not gallons of gin confer an earldom +direct, and Brighton A's be equivalent to a marquisate? +Why not allow the equal claim of +screws and pills with coal and iron? Why disregard +the native worth of annatto and nitrates? +Baron Beecham or Lord Sunlight is a first-rate +name. As it is, we make petty and puerile +distinctions. Beer is in, but whiskey is out; +and even in beer itself, if I recollect aright, +Dublin stout wore a coronet for some months or +years before English pale ale attained the dignity +of a barony. No Minister has yet made chocolate +a viscount. At present, banks and minerals go +in as of right, while soap is left out in the cold, +and even cotton languishes. If the Chancellor +of the Exchequer put up titles to auction, while +abolishing the legislative function of the Lords, +there would be millions in it. But as we English +are not logical, our mending would probably resolve +itself into fatuous tinkering. We might +get rid of the sons, but leave the fathers. We +might flood the Lords with life peers, but leave +the veto. Such tactics are too Britannic. "Stone +dead hath no fellow!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV.</h3> + +<h4><i>A POINT OF CRITICISM.</i></h4> + + +<p>A few pages back, I ventured to remark that in +Utopia or the Millennium the women of the community +would probably be supported in common +by the labour of the men, and so be secured complete +independence of choice and action. When +these essays first appeared in a daily newspaper, +a Leader among Women wrote to me in reply, +"What a paradise you open up to us! Alas +for the reality! The question is—could women +ever be really independent if men supplied the +means of existence? They would always feel they +had the right to control us. The difference of +the position of a woman in marriage when she +has got a little fortune of her own is something +miraculous. Men adore money, and the possession +of it inspires them with an involuntary respect for +the happy possessor."</p> + +<p>Now I got a great many letters in answer to +these Post-Prandials as they originally came out—some +of them, strange to say, not wholly complimentary. +As a rule, I am too busy a man to +answer letters: and I take this opportunity of +apologising to correspondents who write to tell me +I am a knave or a fool, for not having acknowledged +direct their courteous communications. But +this friendly criticism seems to call for a reply, +because it involves a question of principle which +I have often noted in all discussions of Utopias +and Millennia.</p> + +<p>For my generous critic seems to take it for +granted that women are not now dependent on +the labour of men for their support—that some, or +even most of them, are in a position of freedom. +The plain truth of it is—almost all women depend +for everything upon one man, who is or may be +an absolute despot. A very small number of +women have "money of their own," as we quaintly +phrase it—that is to say, are supported by the +labour of many among us, either in the form of +rent or in the form of interest on capital bequeathed +to them. A woman with five thousand +a year from Consols, for example, is in the strictest +sense supported by the united labour of all of +us—she has a first mortgage to that amount upon +the earnings of the community. You and I are +taxed to pay her. But is she therefore more +dependent than the woman who lives upon what +she can get out of the scanty earnings of a +drunken husband? Does the community therefore +think it has a right to control her? Not a bit +of it. She is in point of fact the only free woman +among us. My dream was to see all women +equally free—inheritors from the community of +so much of its earnings; holders, as it were, of +sufficient world-consols to secure their independence.</p> + +<p>That, however, is not the main point to which +I desire just now to direct attention. I want +rather to suggest an underlying fallacy of all so-called +individualists in dealing with schemes of +so-called Socialism—for to me your Socialist is +the true and only individualist. My correspondent's +argument is written from the standpoint of +the class in which women have or may have +money. But most women have none; and schemes +of reconstruction must be for the benefit of the +many. So-called individualists seem to think that +under a more organised social state they would +not be so able to buy pictures as at present, not +so free to run across to California or Kamschatka. +I doubt their premiss, for I believe we should all +of us be better off than we are to-day; but let +that pass; 'tis a detail. The main thing is this: +they forget that most of us are narrowly tied and +circumscribed at present by endless monopolies and +endless restrictions of land or capital. I should +like to buy pictures; but I can't afford them. I +long to see Japan; but I shall never get there. +The man in the street may desire to till the +ground: every acre is appropriated. He may +wish to dig coal: Lord Masham prevents him. +He may have a pretty taste in Venetian glass: +the flints on the shore are private property; the +furnace and the implements belong to a capitalist. +Under the existing <i>régime</i>, the vast mass of us +are hampered at every step in order that a few +may enjoy huge monopolies. Most men have no +land, so that one man may own a county. And +they call this Individualism!</p> + +<p>In considering any proposed change, whether +imminent or distant, in practice or in day-dream, +it is not fair to take as your standard of reference +the most highly-favoured individuals under +existing conditions. Nor is it fair to take the +most unfortunate only. You should look at the +average.</p> + +<p>Now the average man, in the world as it wags, +is a farm-labourer, an artisan, a mill-hand, a +navvy. He has untrammelled freedom of contract +to follow the plough on another man's land, +or to work twelve hours a day in another man's +factory, for that other man's benefit—provided +always he can only induce the other man to +employ him. If he can't, he is at perfect liberty +to tramp the high road till he drops with fatigue, +or to starve, unhindered, on the Thames Embankment. +He may live where he likes, as far as +his means permit; for example, in a convenient +court off Seven Dials. He may make his own +free bargain with grasping landlord or exacting +sweater. He may walk over every inch of English +soil, with the trifling exception of the millions +of acres where trespassers will be prosecuted. +Even travel is not denied him: Florence and +Venice are out of his beat, it is true; but if he +saves up his loose cash for a couple of months, +he may revel in the Oriental luxury of a third-class +excursion train to Brighton and back for +three shillings. Such advantages does the <i>régime</i> +of landlord-made individualism afford to the average +run of British citizen. If he fails in the +race, he may retire at seventy to the ease and +comfort of the Union workhouse, and be buried +inexpensively at the cost of his parish.</p> + +<p>The average woman in turn is the wife of +such a man, dependent upon him for what fraction +of his earnings she can save from the public-house. +Or she is a shop-girl, free to stand all day from +eight in the morning till ten at night behind +a counter, and to throw up her situation if it +doesn't suit her. Or she is a domestic servant, +enjoying the glorious liberty of a Sunday out +every second week, and a walk with her young +man every alternate Wednesday after eight in +the evening. She has full leave to do her love-making +in the open street, and to get as wet +as she chooses in Regent's Park on rainy nights +in November. Look the question in the face, +and you will see for yourself that the mass of +mothers in every community are dependent for +support, not upon men in general, but upon a +single man, their husband, against whose caprices +and despotism they have no sort of protection. +Even the few women who are, as we say, "independent," +how are they supported, save by the +labour of many men who work to keep them +in comfort or luxury? They are landowners, +let us put it; and then they are supported by +the labour of their farmers and ploughmen. Or +they hold North-Western shares; and then they +are supported by the labour of colliers, and stokers, +and guards, and engine-drivers. And so on +throughout. The plain fact is, either a woman +must earn her own livelihood by work, which, +in the case of the mothers in a community, is +bad public policy; or else she must be supported +by a man or men, her husband, or her labourers.</p> + +<p>My day-dream was, then, to make every woman +independent, in precisely the same sense that +women of property are independent at present. +Would it give them a consciousness of being +unduly controlled if they derived their support +from the general funds of the body politic, of +which they would be free and equal members +and voters? Well, look at similar cases in our +own England. The Dukes of Marlborough derive +a heavy pension from the taxes of the country; +but I have never observed that any Duke of Marlborough +of my time felt himself a slave to the +imperious taxpayer. Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace +is justly the recipient of a Civil List annuity; +but that hasn't prevented his active and essentially +individualist brain from inventing Land Nationalisation. +Mr. Robert Buchanan very rightly draws +another such annuity for good work done; but +Mr. Buchanan's name is not quite the first that +rises naturally to my lips as an example of cowed +and cringing sycophancy to the ideas and ideals +of his fellow-citizens. No, no; be sure of it, +this terror is a phantom. One master is real, +realisable, instant; but to be dependent upon ten +million is just what we always describe as independence.</p> + + +<p>THE END.</p> + +<p> +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.<br /> +EDINBURGH AND LONDON.<br /> +</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Post-Prandial Philosophy, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POST-PRANDIAL PHILOSOPHY *** + +***** This file should be named 18788-h.htm or 18788-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/7/8/18788/ + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Post-Prandial Philosophy + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: July 8, 2006 [EBook #18788] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POST-PRANDIAL PHILOSOPHY *** + + + + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +POST-PRANDIAL +PHILOSOPHY + + +By GRANT ALLEN + + +AUTHOR OF +"THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE," ETC. + +LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS +1894 + + + + +PREFACE + + +These Essays appeared originally in _The Westminster Gazette_, and have +only been so far modified here as is necessary for purposes of volume +publication. They aim at being suggestive rather than exhaustive: I +shall be satisfied if I have provoked thought without following out each +train to a logical conclusion. Most of the Essays are just what they +pretend to be--crystallisations into writing of ideas suggested in +familiar conversation. + +G. A. + +Hind Head, _March_ 1894. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + + PAGE + + I. THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE AMONG LANGUAGES 1 + + II. IN THE MATTER OF ARISTOCRACY 9 + + III. SCIENCE IN EDUCATION 18 + + IV. THE THEORY OF SCAPEGOATS 27 + + V. AMERICAN DUCHESSES 35 + + VI. IS ENGLAND PLAYED OUT? 44 + + VII. THE GAME AND THE RULES 53 + + VIII. THE ROLE OF PROPHET 61 + + IX. THE ROMANCE OF THE CLASH OF RACES 70 + + X. THE MONOPOLIST INSTINCTS 79 + + XI. "MERE AMATEURS" 87 + + XII. A SQUALID VILLAGE 95 + + XIII. CONCERNING ZEITGEIST 104 + + XIV. THE DECLINE OF MARRIAGE 112 + + XV. EYE _versus_ EAR 122 + + XVI. THE POLITICAL PUPA 130 + + XVII. ON THE CASINO TERRACE 138 + +XVIII. THE CELTIC FRINGE 147 + + XIX. IMAGINATION AND RADICALS 156 + + XX. ABOUT ABROAD 165 + + XXI. WHY ENGLAND IS BEAUTIFUL 173 + + XXII. ANENT ART PRODUCTION 182 + +XXIII. A GLIMPSE INTO UTOPIA 190 + + XXIV. OF SECOND CHAMBERS 199 + + XXV. A POINT OF CRITICISM 207 + + + + +POST-PRANDIAL PHILOSOPHY + + + + +I. + +_THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE AMONG +LANGUAGES._ + + +A distinguished Positivist friend of mine, who is in most matters a +practical man of the world, astonished me greatly the other day at +Venice, by the grave remark that Italian was destined to be the language +of the future. I found on inquiry he had inherited the notion direct +from Auguste Comte, who justified it on the purely sentimental and +unpractical ground that the tongue of Dante had never yet been +associated with any great national defeat or disgrace. The idea +surprised me not a little; because it displays such a profound +misconception of what language is, and why people use it. The speech of +the world will not be decided on mere grounds of sentiment: the tongue +that survives will not survive because it is so admirably adapted for +the manufacture of rhymes or epigrams. Stern need compels. Frenchmen and +Germans, in congress assembled, and looking about them for a means of +intercommunication, might indeed agree to accept Italian then and there +as an international compromise. But congresses don't make or unmake the +habits of everyday life; and the growth or spread of a language is a +thing as much beyond our deliberate human control as the rise or fall of +the barometer. + +My friend's remark, however, set me thinking and watching what are +really the languages now gaining and spreading over the civilised world; +it set me speculating what will be the outcome of this gain and spread +in another half century. And the results are these: Vastly the most +growing and absorbing of all languages at the present moment is the +English, which is almost everywhere swallowing up the overflow of +German, Scandinavian, Dutch, and Russian. Next to it, probably, in point +of vitality, comes Spanish, which is swallowing up the overflow of +French, Italian, and the other Latin races. Third, perhaps, ranks +Russian, destined to become in time the spoken tongue of a vast tract in +Northern and Central Asia. Among non-European languages, three seem to +be gaining fast: Chinese, Malay, Arabic. Of the doomed tongues, on the +other hand, the most hopeless is French, which is losing all round; +while Italian, German, and Dutch are either quite at a standstill or +slightly retrograding. The world is now round. By the middle of the +twentieth century, in all probability, English will be its dominant +speech; and the English-speaking peoples, a heterogeneous conglomerate +of all nationalities, will control between them the destinies of +mankind. Spanish will be the language of half the populous southern +hemisphere. Russian will spread over a moiety of Asia. Chinese, Malay, +Arabic, will divide among themselves the less civilised parts of Africa +and the East. But French, German, and Italian will be insignificant and +dwindling European dialects, as numerically unimportant as Flemish or +Danish in our own day. + +And why? Not because Shakespeare wrote in English, but because the +English language has already got a firm hold of all those portions of +the earth's surface which are most absorbing the overflow of European +populations. Germans and Scandinavians and Russians emigrate by the +thousand now to all parts of the United States and the north-west of +Canada. In the first generation they may still retain their ancestral +speech; but their children have all to learn English. In Australia and +New Zealand the same thing is happening. In South Africa Dutch had got a +footing, it is true; but it is fast losing it. The newcomers learn +English, and though the elder Boers stick with Boer conservatism to +their native tongue, young Piet and young Paul find it pays them better +to know and speak the language of commerce--the language of Cape Town, +of Kimberley, of the future. The reason is the same throughout. Whenever +two tongues come to be spoken in the same area one of them is sure to be +more useful in business than the other. Every French-Canadian who wishes +to do things on a large scale is obliged to speak English. So is the +Creole in Louisiana; so earlier were the Knickerbocker Dutch in New +York. Once let English get in, and it beats all competing languages +fairly out of the field in a couple of generations. + +Like influences favour Spanish in South America and elsewhere. English +has annexed most of North America, Australia, South Africa, the Pacific; +Spanish has annexed South America, Central America, the Philippines, +Cuba, and a few other places. For the most part these areas are less +suited than the English-speaking districts for colonisation by North +Europeans; but they absorb a large number of Italians and other +Mediterranean races, who all learn Spanish in the second generation. As +to the other dominant languages, the points in their favour are +different. Conquest and administrative needs are spreading Russian over +the steppes of Asia; the Arab merchant and the growth of Mahommedanism +are importing Arabic far into the heart of Africa; the Chinaman is +carrying his own monosyllables with him to California, Australia, +Singapore. These tongues in future will divide the world between them. + +The German who leaves Germany becomes an Anglo-American. The Italian who +leaves Italy becomes a Spanish-American. + +There is another and still more striking way of looking at the rapid +increase of English. No other language will carry you through so many +ports in the world. It suffices for London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast, +Southampton, Cardiff; for New York, Boston, Montreal, Charleston, New +Orleans, San Francisco; for Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Hong Kong, +Yokohama, Honolulu; for Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Kurrachi, Singapore, +Colombo, Cape Town, Mauritius. Spanish with Cadiz, Barcelona, Havana, +Callao, Valparaiso, cannot touch that record; nor can French with +Marseilles, Bordeaux, Havre, Algiers, Antwerp, Tahiti. The most +commercially useful language in the world, thus widely diffused in so +many great mercantile and shipping centres, is certain to win in the +struggle for existence among the tongues of the future. + +The old Mediterranean civilisation teaches us a useful lesson in this +respect. Two languages dominated the Mediterranean basin. The East spoke +Greek, not because Plato and AEschylus spoke Greek, but because Greek was +the tongue of the great commercial centres--of Athens, Syracuse, +Alexandria, Antioch, Byzantium. The West spoke Latin, not because +Catullus and Virgil spoke Latin, but because Latin was the +administrative tongue, the tongue of Rome, of Italy, and later of Gaul, +of Spain, of the great towns in Dacia, Pannonia, Britain. Whoever wanted +to do anything on the big scale then, had to speak Greek or Latin; so +much so that the native languages of Gaul and Spain died utterly out, +and Latin dialects are now the spoken tongue in all southern Europe. In +our own time, again, educated Hindoos from different parts of India have +to use English as a means of intercommunication; and native merchants +must write their business correspondence with distant houses in English. +To put an extreme contrast: in the last century French was spoken by far +more people than English; at the present day French is only just keeping +up its numbers in France, is losing in Canada and the United States, is +not advancing to any extent in Africa. English is spoken by a hundred +million people in Europe and America; is over-running Africa; has +annexed Australasia and the Pacific Isles; has ousted, or is ousting, +Dutch at the Cape, French in Louisiana, even Spanish itself in Florida, +California, New Mexico. In Egyptian mud villages, the aspiring Copt, who +once learnt French, now learns English. In Scandinavia, our tongue gains +ground daily. Everywhere in the world it takes the lead among the +European languages, and by the middle of the next century will no doubt +be spoken over half the globe by a cosmopolitan mass of five hundred +million people. + +And all on purely Darwinian principles! It is the best adapted tongue, +and therefore it survives in the struggle for existence. It is the +easiest to learn, at least orally. It has got rid of the effete rubbish +of genders; simplified immensely its declensions and conjugations; +thrown overboard most of the nonsensical ballast we know as grammar. It +is only weighted now by its grotesque and ridiculous spelling--one of +the absurdest among all the absurd English attempts at compromise. The +pressure of the newer speakers will compel it to make jetsam of that +lumber also; and then the tongue of Shelley and Newton will march onward +unopposed to the conquest of humanity. + +I pen these remarks, I hope, "without prejudice." Patriotism is a vulgar +vice of which I have never been guilty. + + + + +II. + +_IN THE MATTER OF ARISTOCRACY._ + + +Aristocracies, as a rule, all the world over, consist, and have always +consisted, of barbaric conquerors or their descendants, who remain to +the last, on the average of instances, at a lower grade of civilisation +and morals than the democracy they live among. + +I know this view is to some extent opposed to the common ideas of people +at large (and especially of that particular European people which +"dearly loves a lord") as to the relative position of aristocracies and +democracies in the sliding scale of human development. There is a common +though wholly unfounded belief knocking about the world, that the +aristocrat is better in intelligence, in culture, in arts, in manners, +than the ordinary plebeian. The fact is, being, like all barbarians, a +boastful creature, he has gone on so long asserting his own profound +superiority by birth to the world around him--a superiority as of fine +porcelain to common clay--that the world around him has at last actually +begun to accept him at his own valuation. Most English people in +particular think that a lord is born a better judge of pictures and +wines and books and deportment than the human average of us. But history +shows us the exact opposite. It is a plain historical fact, provable by +simple enumeration, that almost all the aristocracies the world has ever +known have taken their rise in the conquest of civilised and cultivated +races by barbaric invaders; and that the barbaric invaders have seldom +or never learned the practical arts and handicrafts which are the +civilising element in the life of the conquered people around them. + +To begin with the aristocracies best known to most of us, the noble +families of modern and mediaeval Europe sprang, as a whole, from the +Teutonic invasion of the Roman Empire. In Italy, it was the Lombards and +the Goths who formed the bulk of the great ruling families; all the +well-known aristocratic names of mediaeval Italy are without exception +Teutonic. In Gaul it was the rude Frank who gave the aristocratic +element to the mixed nationality, while it was the civilised and +cultivated Romano-Celtic provincial who became, by fate, the mere +_roturier_. The great revolution, it has been well said, was, ethnically +speaking, nothing more than the revolt of the Celtic against the +Teutonic fraction; and, one might add also, the revolt of the civilised +Romanised serf against the barbaric _seigneur_. In Spain, the hidalgo is +just the _hi d'al Go_, the son of the Goth, the descendant of those rude +Visigothic conquerors who broke down the old civilisation of Iberian and +Romanised Hispania. And so on throughout. All over Europe, if you care +to look close, you will find the aristocrat was the son of the intrusive +barbarian; the democrat was the son of the old civilised and educated +autochthonous people. + +It is just the same elsewhere, wherever we turn. Take Greece, for +example. Its most aristocratic state was undoubtedly Sparta, where a +handful of essentially barbaric Dorians held in check a much larger and +Helotised population of higher original civilisation. Take the East: the +Persian was a wild mountain adventurer who imposed himself as an +aristocrat upon the far more cultivated Babylonian, Assyrian, and +Egyptian. The same sort of thing had happened earlier in time in +Babylonia and Assyria themselves, where barbaric conquerors had +similarly imposed themselves upon the first known historical +civilisations. Take India under the Moguls, once more; the aristocracy +of the time consisted of the rude Mahommedan Tartar, who lorded it over +the ancient enchorial culture of Rajpoot and Brahmin. Take China: the +same thing over again--a Tartar horde imposing its savage rule over the +most ancient civilised people of Asia. Take England: its aristocracy at +different times has consisted of the various barbaric invaders, first +the Anglo-Saxon (if I must use that hateful and misleading word)--a +pirate from Sleswick; then the Dane, another pirate from Denmark direct; +then the Norman, a yet younger Danish pirate, with a thin veneer of +early French culture, who came over from Normandy to better himself +after just two generations of Christian apprenticeship. Go where you +will, it matters not where you look; from the Aztec in Mexico to the +Turk at Constantinople or the Arab in North Africa, the aristocrat +belongs invariably to a lower race than the civilised people whom he has +conquered and subjugated. + +"That may be true, perhaps," you object, "as to the remote historical +origin of aristocracies; but surely the aristocrat of later generations +has acquired all the science, all the art, all the polish of the people +he lives amongst. He is the flower of their civilisation." Don't you +believe it! There isn't a word of truth in it. From first to last the +aristocrat remains, what Matthew Arnold so justly called him, a +barbarian. I often wonder, indeed, whether Arnold himself really +recognised the literal and actual truth of his own brilliant +generalisation. For the aristocratic ideas and the aristocratic pursuits +remain to the very end essentially barbaric. The "gentleman" never soils +his high-born hands with dirty work; in other words, he holds himself +severely aloof from the trades and handicrafts which constitute +civilisation. The arts that train and educate hand, eye, and brain he +ignorantly despises. In the early middle ages he did not even condescend +to read and write, those inferior accomplishments being badges of +serfdom. If you look close at the "occupations of a gentleman" in the +present day, you will find they are all of purely barbaric character. +They descend to us direct from the semi-savage invaders who overthrew +the structure of the Roman empire, and replaced its civilised +organisation by the military and barbaric system of feudalism. The +"gentleman" is above all things a fighter, a hunter, a fisher--he +preserves the three simplest and commonest barbaric functions. He is +_not_ a practiser of any civilised or civilising art--a craftsman, a +maker, a worker in metal, in stone, in textile fabrics, in pottery. +These are the things that constitute civilisation; but the aristocrat +does none of them; in the famous words of one who now loves to mix with +English gentlemen, "he toils not, neither does he spin." The things he +_may_ do are, to fight by sea and land, like his ancestor the Goth and +his ancestor the Viking; to slay pheasant and partridge, like his +predatory forefathers; to fish for salmon in the Highlands; to hunt the +fox, to sail the yacht, to scour the earth in search of great +game--lions, elephants, buffalo. His one task is to kill--either his +kind or his quarry. + +Observe, too, the essentially barbaric nature of the gentleman's +home--his trappings, his distinctive marks, his surroundings, his +titles. He lives by choice in the wildest country, like his skin-clad +ancestors, demanding only that there be game and foxes and fish for his +delectation. He loves the moors, the wolds, the fens, the braes, the +Highlands, not as the painter, the naturalist, or the searcher after +beauty of scenery loves them--for the sake of their wild life, their +heather and bracken, their fresh keen air, their boundless horizon--but +for the sake of the thoroughly barbarous existence he and his dogs and +his gillies can lead in them. The fact is, neither he nor his ancestors +have ever been really civilised. Barbarians in the midst of an +industrial community, they have lived their own life of slaying and +playing, untouched by the culture of the world below them. Knights in +the middle ages, squires in the eighteenth century, they have never +received a tincture of the civilising arts and crafts and industries; +they have fought and fished and hunted in uninterrupted succession since +the days when wild in woods the noble savage ran, to the days when they +pay extravagant rents for Scottish grouse moors. Their very titles are +barbaric and military--knight and earl and marquis and duke, early +crystallised names for leaders in war or protectors of the frontier. +Their crests and coats of arms are but the totems of their savage +predecessors, afterwards utilised by mediaeval blacksmiths as +distinguishing marks for the summit of a helmet. They decorate their +halls with savage trophies of the chase, like the Zulu or the Red +Indian; they hang up captured arms and looted Chinese jars from the +Summer Palace in their semi-civilised drawing-rooms. They love to be +surrounded by grooms and gamekeepers and other barbaric retainers; they +pass their lives in the midst of serfs; their views about the position +and rights of women--especially the women of the "lower orders"--are +frankly African. They share the sentiments of Achilles as to the +individuality of Chryseis and Briseis. + +Such is the actual aristocrat, as we now behold him. Thus, living his +own barbarous life in the midst of a civilised community of workers and +artists and thinkers and craftsmen, with whom he seldom mingles, and +with whom he has nothing in common, this chartered relic of worse days +preserves from first to last many painful traits of the low moral and +social ideas of his ancestors, from which he has never varied. He +represents most of all, in the modern world, the surviving savage. His +love of gewgaws, of titles, of uniform, of dress, of feathers, of +decorations, of Highland kilts, and stars and garters, is but one +external symbol of his lower grade of mental and moral status. All over +Europe, the truly civilised classes have gone on progressing by the +practice of peaceful arts from generation to generation; but the +aristocrat has stood still at the same half-savage level, a hunter and +fighter, an orgiastic roysterer, a killer of wild boars and wearer of +absurd mediaeval costumes, too childish for the civilised and cultivated +commoner. + +Government by aristocrats is thus government by the mentally and morally +inferior. And yet--a Bill for giving at last some scant measure of +self-government to persecuted Ireland has to run the gauntlet, in our +nineteenth-century England, of an irresponsible House of hereditary +barbarians! + + + + +III. + +_SCIENCE IN EDUCATION._ + + +I mean what I say: science in education, not education in science. + +It is the last of these that all the scientific men of England have so +long been fighting for. And a very good thing it is in its way, and I +hope they may get as much as they want of it. But compared to the +importance of science in education, education in science is a matter of +very small national moment. + +The difference between the two is by no means a case of tweedledum and +tweedledee. Education in science means the systematic teaching of +science so as to train up boys to be scientific men. Now scientific men +are exceedingly useful members of a community; and so are engineers, and +bakers, and blacksmiths, and artists, and chimney-sweeps. But we can't +all be bakers, and we can't all be painters in water-colours. There is a +dim West Country legend to the effect that the inhabitants of the Scilly +Isles eke out a precarious livelihood by taking in one another's +washing. As a matter of practical political economy, such a source of +income is worse than precarious--it's frankly impossible. "It takes all +sorts to make a world." A community entirely composed of scientific men +would fail to feed itself, clothe itself, house itself, and keep itself +supplied with amusing light literature. In one word, education in +science produces specialists; and specialists, though most useful and +valuable persons in their proper place, are no more the staple of a +civilised community than engine-drivers or ballet-dancers. + +What the world at large really needs, and will one day get, is not this, +but due recognition of the true value of science in education. We don't +all want to be made into first-class anatomists like Owen, still less +into first-class practical surgeons, like Sir Henry Thompson. But what +we do all want is a competent general knowledge (amongst other things) +of anatomy at large, and especially of human anatomy; of physiology at +large, and especially of human physiology. We don't all want to be +analytical chemists: but what we do all want is to know as much about +oxygen and carbon as will enable us to understand the commonest +phenomena of combustion, of chemical combination, of animal or vegetable +life. We don't all want to be zoologists, and botanists of the type who +put their names after "critical species:" but what we do all want to +know is as much about plants and animals as will enable us to walk +through life intelligently, and to understand the meaning of the things +that surround us. We want, in one word, a general acquaintance with the +_results_ rather than with the _methods_ of science. + +"In short," says the specialist, with his familiar sneer, "you want a +smattering." + +Well, yes, dear Sir Smelfungus, if it gives you pleasure to put it +so--just that; a smattering, an all-round smattering. But remember that +in this matter the man of science is always influenced by ideas derived +from his own pursuits as specialist. He is for ever thinking what sort +of education will produce more specialists in future; and as a rule he +is thinking what sort of education will produce men capable in future of +advancing science. Now to advance science, to discover new snails, or +invent new ethyl compounds, is not and cannot be the main object of the +mass of humanity. What the mass wants is just unspecialised +knowledge--the kind of knowledge that enables men to get comfortably and +creditably and profitably through life, to meet emergencies as they +rise, to know their way through the world, to use their faculties in all +circumstances to the best advantage. And for this purpose what is wanted +is, not the methods, but the results of science. + +One science, and one only, is rationally taught in our schools at +present. I mean geography. And the example of geography is so eminently +useful for illustrating the difference I am trying to point out, that I +will venture to dwell upon it for a moment in passing. It is good for us +all to know that the world is round, without its being necessary for +every one of us to follow in detail the intricate reasoning by which +that result has been arrived at. It is good for us all to know the +position of New York and Rio and Calcutta on the map, without its being +necessary for us to understand, far less to work out for ourselves, the +observations and calculations which fixed their latitude and longitude. +Knowledge of the map is a good thing in itself, though it is a very +different thing indeed from the technical knowledge which enables a man +to make a chart of an unknown region, or to explore and survey it. +Furthermore, it is a form of knowledge far more generally useful. A fair +acquaintance with the results embodied in the atlas, in the gazetteer, +in Baedeker, and in Bradshaw, is much oftener useful to us on our way +through the world than a special acquaintance with the methods of +map-making. It would be absurd to say that because a man is not going to +be a Stanley or a Nansen, therefore it is no good for him to learn +geography. It would be absurd to say that unless he learned geography in +accordance with its methods instead of its results, he could have but a +smattering, and that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. A little +knowledge of the position of New York is indeed a dangerous thing, if a +man uses it to navigate a Cunard vessel across the Atlantic. But the +absence of the smattering is a much more dangerous and fatal thing if +the man wishes to do business with the Argentine and the Transvaal, or +to enter into practical relations of any sort with anybody outside his +own parish. The results of geography are useful and valuable in +themselves, quite apart from the methods employed in obtaining them. + +It is just the same with all the other sciences. There is nothing occult +or mysterious about them. No just cause or impediment exists why we +should insist on being ignorant of the orbits of the planets because we +cannot ourselves make the calculations for determining them; no reason +why we should insist on being ignorant of the classification of plants +and animals because we don't feel able ourselves to embark on anatomical +researches which would justify us in coming to original conclusions +about them. I know the mass of scientific opinion has always gone the +other way; but then scientific opinion means only the opinion of men of +science, who are themselves specialists, and who think most of the +education needed to make men specialists, not of the education needed to +fit them for the general exigencies and emergencies of life. We don't +want authorities on the Cucurbitaceae, but well-informed citizens. +Professor Huxley is not our best guide in these matters, but Mr. Herbert +Spencer, who long ago, in his book on Education, sketched out a radical +programme of instruction in that knowledge which is of most worth, such +as no country, no college, no school in Europe has ever yet been bold +enough to put into practice. + +What common sense really demands, then, is education in the main results +of all the sciences--a knowledge of what is known, not necessarily a +knowledge of each successive step by which men came to know it. At +present, of course, in all our schools in England there is no systematic +teaching of knowledge at all; what replaces it is a teaching of the +facts of language, and for the most part of useless facts, or even of +exploded fictions. Our public schools, especially (by which phrase we +never mean real public schools like the board schools at all, but merely +schools for the upper and the middle classes) are in their existing +stage primarily great gymnasiums--very good things, too, in their way, +against which I have not a word of blame; and, secondarily, places for +imparting a sham and imperfect knowledge of some few philological facts +about two extinct languages. Pupils get a smattering of Homer and +Cicero. That is literally all the equipment for life that the cleverest +and most industrious boys can ever take away from them. The sillier or +idler don't take away even that. As to the "mental training" argument, +so often trotted out, it is childish enough not to be worth answering. +Which is most practically useful to us in life--knowledge of Latin +grammar or knowledge of ourselves and the world we live in, physical, +social, moral? That is the question. + +The truth is, schoolmastering in Britain has become a vast vested +interest in the hands of men who have nothing to teach us. They try to +bolster up their vicious system by such artificial arguments as the +"mental training" fallacy. Forced to admit the utter uselessness of the +pretended knowledge they impart, they fall back upon the plea of its +supposed occult value as intellectual discipline. They say in +effect:--"This sawdust we offer you contains no food, we know: but then +see how it strengthens the jaws to chew it!" Besides, look at our +results! The typical John Bull! pig-headed, ignorant, brutal. Are we +really such immense successes ourselves that we must needs perpetuate +the mould that warped us? + +The one fatal charge brought against the public school system is that +"after all, it turns out English gentlemen!" + + + + +IV. + +_THE THEORY OF SCAPEGOATS._ + + +"Alas, how easily things go wrong!" says Dr. George MacDonald. And all +the world over, when things do go wrong, the natural and instinctive +desire of the human animal is--to find a scapegoat. When the great +French nation in the lump embarks its capital in a hopeless scheme for +cutting a canal through the Isthmus of Panama, and then finds out too +late that Nature has imposed insuperable barriers to its completion on +the projected scale--what does the great French nation do, in its +collective wisdom, but turn round at once to rend the directors? It +cries, "A Mazas!" just as in '71 it cried "Bazaine a la lanterne!" I +don't mean to say the directors don't deserve all they have got or ever +will get, and perhaps more also; I don't mean to deny corruption +extraordinary in many high places; as a rule the worst that anybody +alleges about anything is only a part of what might easily be alleged if +we were all in the secret. Which of us, indeed, would 'scape whipping? +But what I do mean is, that we should never have heard of Reinach or +Herz, of the corruption and peculation, at all if things had gone well. +It is the crash that brought them out. The nation wants a scapegoat. +"Ain't nobody to be whopped for this 'ere?" asked Mr. Sam Weller on a +critical occasion. The question embodies the universal impulse of +humanity. + +Tracing the feeling back to its origin, it seems due to this: minds of +the lower order can never see anything go wrong without experiencing a +certain sense of resentment; and resentment, by its very nature, desires +to vent itself upon some living and sentient creature, by preference a +fellow human being. When the child, running too fast, falls and hurts +itself, it gets instantly angry. "Naughty ground to hurt baby!" says the +nurse: "Baby hit it and hurt it." And baby promptly hits it back, with +vicious little fist, feeling every desire to revenge itself. By-and-by, +when baby grows older and learns that the ground can't feel to speak of, +he wants to put the blame upon somebody else, in order to have an object +to expend his rage upon. "You pushed me down!" he says to his playmate, +and straightway proceeds to punch his playmate's head for it--not +because he really believes the playmate did it, but because he feels he +_must_ have some outlet for his resentment. When once resentment is +roused, it will expend its force on anything that turns up handy, as the +man who has quarrelled with his wife about a question of a bonnet, will +kick his dog for trying to follow him to the club as he leaves her. + +The mob, enraged at the death of Caesar, meets Cinna the poet in the +streets of Rome. "Your name, sir?" inquires the Third Citizen. "Truly, +my name is Cinna," says the unsuspecting author. "Tear him to pieces!" +cries the mob; "he's a conspirator!" "I am Cinna the poet," pleads the +unhappy man; "I am not Cinna the conspirator!" But the mob does not heed +such delicate distinctions at such a moment. "Tear him for his bad +verses!" it cries impartially. "Tear him for his bad verses!" + +Whatever sort of misfortune falls upon persons of the lower order of +intelligence is always met in the same spirit. Especially is this the +case with the deaths of relatives. Fools who have lost a friend +invariably blame somebody for his fatal illness. To hear many people +talk, you would suppose they were unaware of the familiar proposition +that all men are mortal (including women); you might imagine they +thought an ordinary human constitution was calculated to survive nine +hundred and ninety-nine years unless some evil-disposed person or +persons took the trouble beforehand to waylay and destroy it. "My poor +father was eighty-seven when he died; and he would have been alive still +if it weren't for that nasty Mrs. Jones: she put him into a pair of damp +sheets." Or, "My husband would never have caught the cold that killed +him, if that horrid man Brown hadn't kept him waiting so long in the +carriage at the street corner." The doctor has to bear the brunt of most +such complaints; indeed, it is calculated by an eminent statistician +(who desires his name to remain unpublished) that eighty-three per cent. +of the deaths in Great Britain might easily have been averted if the +patient had only been treated in various distinct ways by all the +members of his family, and if that foolish Dr. Squills hadn't so grossly +mistaken and mistreated his malady. + +The fact is, the death is regarded as a misfortune, and somebody must be +blamed for it. Heaven has provided scapegoats. The doctor and the +hostile female members of the family are always there--laid on, as it +were, for the express purpose. + +With us in modern Europe, resentment in such cases seldom goes further +than vague verbal outbursts of temper. We accuse Mrs. Jones of +misdemeanours with damp sheets; but we don't get so far as to accuse her +of tricks with strychnine. In the Middle Ages, however, the pursuit of +the scapegoat ran a vast deal further. When any great one died--a Black +Prince or a Dauphin--it was always assumed on all hands that he must +have been poisoned. True, poisoning may then have been a trifle more +frequent; certainly the means of detecting it were far less advanced +than in the days of Tidy and Lauder Brunton. Still, people must often +have died natural deaths even in the Middle Ages--though nobody believed +it. All the world began to speculate what Jane Shore could have poisoned +them. A little earlier, again, it was not the poisoner that was looked +for, but his predecessor, the sorcerer. Whoever fell ill, somebody had +bewitched him. Were the cattle diseased? Then search for the evil eye. +Did the cows yield no milk? Some neighbour, doubtless, knew the reason +only too well, and could be forced to confess it by liberal use of the +thumb-screw and the ducking-stool. No misfortune was regarded as due to +natural causes; for in their philosophy there were no such things as +natural causes at all; whatever ill-luck came, somebody had contrived +it; so you had always your scapegoat ready to hand to punish. The +Athenians, indeed, kept a small collection of public scapegoats always +in stock, waiting to be sacrificed at a moment's notice. + +More even than that. Go one step further back, and you will find that +man in his early stages has no conception of such a thing as natural +death in any form. He doesn't really know that the human organism is +wound up like a clock to run at best for so many years, or months, or +hours, and that even if nothing unexpected happens to cut short its +course prematurely, it can only run out its allotted period. Within his +own experience, almost all the deaths that occur are violent deaths, and +have been brought about by human agency or by the attacks of wild +beasts. There you have a cause with whose action and operation the +savage is personally familiar; and it is the only one he believes in. +Even old age is in his eyes no direct cause of death; for when his +relations grow old, he considerately clubs them, to put them out of +their misery. When, therefore, he sees his neighbour struck down before +his face by some invisible power, and writhing with pain as though +unseen snakes and tigers were rending him, what should he naturally +conclude save that demon or witch or wizard is at work? and if he cares +about the matter at all, what should he do save endeavour to find the +culprit out and inflict condign punishment? In savage states, whenever +anything untoward happens to the king or chief, it is the business of +the witch-finder to disclose the wrong-doer; and sooner or later, you +may be sure, "somebody gets whopped for it." Whopping in Dahomey means +wholesale decapitation. + +Now, is it not a direct survival from this primitive state of mind that +entails upon us all the desire to find a scapegoat? Our ancestors really +believed there was always somebody to blame--man, witch, or spirit--if +only you could find him; and though we ourselves have mostly got beyond +that stage, yet the habit it engendered in our race remains ingrained in +the nervous system, so that none but a few of the naturally highest and +most civilised dispositions have really outgrown it. Most people still +think there is somebody to blame for every human misfortune. "Who fills +the butcher's shops with large blue flies?" asked the poet of the +Regency. He set it down to "the Corsican ogre." For the Tory Englishmen +of the present day it is Mr. Gladstone who is most often and most +popularly envisaged as the author of all evil. For the Pope, it is the +Freemasons. There are just a few men here and there in the world who can +see that when misfortunes come, circumstances, or nature, or (hardest of +all) we ourselves have brought them. The common human instinct is still +to get into a rage, and look round to discover whether there's any other +fellow standing about unobserved, whose head we can safely undertake to +punch for it. + +"It's all the fault of those confounded paid agitators." + + + + +V. + +_AMERICAN DUCHESSES._ + + +Every American woman is by birth a duchess. + +There, you see, I have taken you in. When you saw the heading, "American +Duchesses," you thought I was going to purvey some piquant scandal about +high-placed ladies; and you straightway began to read my essay. That +shows I rightly interpreted your human nature. There's a deal of human +nature flying about unrecognised. Yet when I said duchesses, I actually +meant it. For the American woman is the only real aristocrat now living +in America. + +These remarks are forced upon me by a brilliant afternoon on the +Promenade des Anglais. All Nice is there, in its cosmopolitan butterfly +variety, flaunting itself in the sun in the very ugly dresses now in +fashion. I don't know why, but the mode of the moment consists in making +everything as exaggerated as possible, and sedulously hiding the natural +contours of the human figure. But let that pass; the day is too fine for +a man to be critical. The band is playing Mascagni's last in the Jardin +Public; the carriages are drawn up beside the palms and judas-trees that +fringe the Paillon; the _sous-officiers_ are strolling along the wall +with their red caps stuck jauntily just a trifle on one side, as though +to mow down nursemaids were the one legitimate occupation of the _brav' +militaire_. And among them all, proud, tall, disdainful, glide the +American duchesses, cold, critical, high-toned, yet ready to strike up, +should opportunity serve, appropriate acquaintance with their natural +equals, the dukes of Europe. + +"And the American dukes?"--There aren't any. "But these ladies' husbands +and fathers and brothers?"--Oh, _they're_ business men, working hard for +the duchesses in Wall Street, or on 'Change in Chicago. And that's why I +say quite seriously the American woman is the only real aristocrat now +living in America. Everybody who has seen much of Americans must have +noticed for himself how really superior American women are, on the +average, to the men of their kind. I don't mean merely that they are +better dressed, and better groomed, and better got up, and better +mannered than their brothers. I mean that they have a real superiority +in the things worth having--the things that are more excellent--in +education, culture, knowledge, taste, good feeling. And the reason is +not far to seek. They represent the only leisured class in America. They +are the one set of people from Maine to California who have time to +read, to think, to travel, to look at good pictures, to hear good music, +to mix with society that can improve and elevate them. They have read +Daudet; they have seen the Vatican. The women thus form a natural +aristocracy--the only aristocracy the country possesses. + +I am aware that in saying this I take my life in my hands. I shall be +prepared to defend myself from the infuriated Westerner with the usual +argument, which I shall carry about loaded in all its chambers in my +right-hand pocket. I am also aware that less infuriated Easterners, +choosing their own more familiar weapon, will inundate my leisure with +sardonic inquiries whether I don't consider Oliver Wendell Holmes or +Charles Eliot Norton (thus named in full) the equal in culture of the +average American woman. Well, I frankly admit these cases and thousands +like them; indeed I have had the good fortune to number among my +personal acquaintances many American gentlemen whose chivalrous breeding +would have been conspicuous (if you will believe it) even at Marlborough +House. I will also allow that in New York, in Boston, and less +abundantly in other big towns of America, men of leisure, men of +culture, and men of thought are to be found, as wide-minded and as +gentle-natured as this race of ours makes them. But that doesn't alter +the general fact that, taking them in the lump, American men stand a +step or two lower in the scale of humanity than American women. One need +hardly ask why. It is because the men are almost all immersed and +absorbed in business, while the women are fine ladies who stop at home, +and read, and see, and interest themselves widely in numberless +directions. + +The consequence is that nowhere, as a rule, does the gulf between the +sexes yawn so wide as in America. One can often observe it in the +brothers and sisters of the same family. And it runs in the opposite +direction from the gulf in Europe. With us, as a rule, the men are +better educated, and more likely to have read and seen and thought +widely, than the women. In America, the men are generally so steeped in +affairs as to be materialised and encysted; they take for the most part +a hard-headed, solid-silver view of everything, and are but little +influenced by abstract conceptions. Their horizon is bounded by the rim +of the dollar. Nay, owing to the eager desire to get a good start by +beginning life early, their education itself is generally cut short at a +younger age than their sisters'; so that, even at the outset, the girls +have often a decided superiority in knowledge and culture. Amanda reads +Paul Bourget and John Oliver Hobbes; she has some slight tincture of +Latin, Greek, and German; while Cyrus knows nothing but English and +arithmetic, the quotations for prime pork and the state of the market +for Futures. Add to this that the women are more sensitive, more +delicate, more naturally refined, as well as unspoilt by the trading +spirit, and you get the real reasons for the marked and, in some ways, +unusual superiority of the American woman. + +That, I think, in large part explains the fascination which American +women undoubtedly exercise over a considerable class of European men. In +the European man the American woman often recognises for the first time +the male of her species. Unaccustomed at home to as general a level of +culture and feeling as she finds among the educated gentlemen of Europe, +she likes their society and makes her preference felt by them. Now man +is a vain animal. You are a man yourself, and must recognise at once the +truth of the proposition. As soon as he sees a woman likes him, he +instantly returns the compliment with interest. In point of fact, he +usually falls in love with her. Of course I admit the large number of +concomitant circumstances which disturb the problem; I admit on the one +hand the tempting shekels of the Californian heiress, and on the other +hand the glamour and halo that still surround the British coronet. +Nevertheless, after making all deductions for these disturbing factors, +I submit there remains a residual phenomenon thus best interpreted. If +anybody denies it, I would ask him one question--how does it come that +so many Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Italians marry American women, while +so few Englishwomen, French women, or Italian women marry American men? +Surely the American men have also the shekels; surely it is something +even in Oregon or Montana to have inspired an honourable passion in a +Lady Elizabeth or a dowager countess. I think the true explanation is +that our men are attracted by American women, but our women are not +equally attracted by American men, and that the quality of the articles +has something to do with it. + +The American duchess, I take it, comes over to Europe, and desires +incontinently to drag the European duke at the wheels of her chariot. +And the European duke is fascinated in turn, partly by this very fact, +partly by the undeniable freshness, brightness, and delicate culture of +the American woman. For there is no burking the truth that in many +respects the American woman carries about her a peculiar charm ungranted +as yet to her European sisters. It is the charm of freedom, of ease, of +a certain external and skin-deep emancipation--an emancipation which +goes but a little way down, yet adds a quaint and piquant grace of +manner. What she conspicuously lacks, on the other hand, is essential +femininity; by which I don't mean womanliness--of that she has enough +and to spare--but the wholesome physical and instinctive qualities which +go to make up a sound and well-equipped wife and mother. The lack of +these underlying muliebral qualities more than counterbalances to not a +few Europeans the undoubted vivacity, originality, and freshness of the +American woman. She is a dainty bit of porcelain, unsuited for use; a +delicate exotic blossom, for drawing-room decoration, where many would +prefer robust fruit-bearing faculties. + +I dropped into the Opera House here at Nice the other night, and found +they were playing "Carmen"--which is always interesting. Well, you may +perhaps remember that when that creature of passion, the gipsy heroine, +wishes to gain or retain a man's affections, she throws a rose at him, +and then he cannot resist her. That is Merimee's symbolism. Art is full +of these sacrifices of realism to reticence. Outside the opera, it is +not with roses that women enslave us. But the American duchess relies +entirely upon the use of the rose; and that is just where she fails to +interest so many of us in Europe. + +And now I think it's almost time for me to go and hunt up the material +arguments for that rusty six-shooter. + + + + +VI. + +_IS ENGLAND PLAYED OUT?_ + + +Britain is now the centre of civilisation. Will it always be so? Is our +commercial supremacy decaying or not? Have we begun to reach the period +of inevitable decline? Or is decline indeed inevitable at all? Might a +nation go on being great for ever? If so, are _we_ that nation? If not, +have we yet arrived at the moment when retrogression becomes a foregone +conclusion? These are momentous questions. Dare I try, under the mimosas +on the terrace, to resolve them? + +Most people have talked of late as though the palmy days of England were +fairly over. The down grade lies now before us. But, then, so far as I +can judge, most people have talked so ever since the morning when +Hengist and Horsa, Limited, landed from their three keels in the Isle of +Thanet. Gildas is the oldest historian of these islands, and his work +consists entirely of a good old Tory lament in the Ashmead-Bartlett +strain upon the degeneracy of the times and the proximate ruin of the +British people. Gildas wrote some fourteen hundred years ago or +thereabouts--and the country is not yet quite visibly ruined. On the +contrary, it seems to the impartial eye a more eligible place of +residence to-day than in the stirring times of the Saxon invasion. +Hence, for the last two or three centuries, I have learned to discount +these recurrent Jeremiads of Toryism, and to judge the question of our +decadence or progress by a more rational standard. + +There is only one such rational standard; and that is, to discover the +causes and conditions of our commercial prosperity, and then to inquire +whether those causes and conditions are being largely altered or +modified by the evolution of new phases. If they are, England must begin +to decline; if they are not, her day is not yet come. Home Rule she will +survive; even the Eight Hours bogey, we may presume, will not finally +dispose of her. + +Now, the centre of civilisation is not a fixed point. It has varied from +time to time, and may yet vary. In the very earliest historical period, +there was hardly such a thing as a centre of civilisation at all. There +were civilisations in Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Etruria; discrete +civilisations of the river valleys, mostly, which scarcely came into +contact with one another in their first beginnings; any more than our +own came into contact once with the civilisations of China, of Japan, of +Peru, of Mexico. As yet there was no world-commerce, no mutual +communication of empire with empire. It was in the AEgean and the eastern +basin of the Mediterranean that navigation first reached the point where +great commercial ports and free intercourse became possible. The +Phoenicians, and later the Greeks, were the pioneers of the new era. +Tyre, Athens, Miletus, Rhodes, occupied the centre of the nascent world, +and bound together Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, +Sicily, and Italy in one mercantile system. A little later, Hellas +itself enlarged, so as to include Syracuse, Byzantium, Alexandria, +Cyrene, Cumae, Neapolis, Massilia. The inland sea became "a Greek lake." +But as navigation thus slowly widened to the western Mediterranean +basin, the centre of commerce had to shift perforce from Hellas to the +mid-point of the new area. Two powerful trading towns occupied such a +mid-point in the Mediterranean--Rome and Carthage; and they were driven +to fight out the supremacy of the world (the world as it then existed) +between them. With the Roman Empire, the circle extended so as to take +in the Atlantic coasts, Gaul, Spain, and Britain, which then, however, +lay not at the centre but on the circumference of civilisation. During +the Middle Ages, when navigation began to embrace the great open sea as +well as the Mediterranean, a double centre sprang up: the Italian +Republics, Venice, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, were still the chief carriers; +but the towns of Flanders, Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp began to compete +with them, and the Atlantic states, France, England, the Low Countries, +rose into importance. By and by, as time goes on, the discoveries of +Columbus and of Vasco di Gama open out new tracks. Suddenly commerce is +revolutionised. France, England, Spain, become nearer to America and +India than Italy; so Italy declines; while the Atlantic states usurp the +first place as the centres of civilisation. + +Our own age brings fresh seas into the circle once more. It is no longer +the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, or the Indian Ocean that alone count; +the Pacific also begins to be considered. China, Japan, the Cape; Chili, +Peru, the Argentine; California, British Columbia, Australia, New +Zealand; all of them are parts of the system of to-day; civilisation is +world-wide. + +Has this change of area altered the central position of England? Not at +all, save to strengthen it. If you look at the hemisphere of greatest +land, you will see that England occupies its exact middle. Insular +herself, and therefore all made up of ports, she is nearer all ports in +the world than any other country is or ever can be. I don't say that +this insures for her perpetual dominion, such as Virgil prophesied for +the Roman Empire; but I do say it makes her a hard country to beat in +commercial competition. It accounts for Liverpool, London, Glasgow, +Newcastle; it even accounts in a way for Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, +and Sheffield. England now stands at the mathematical centre of the +practical world, and unless some Big Thing occurs to displace her, she +must continue to stand there. It takes a great deal to upset the balance +of an entire planet. + +Is anything now displacing her? Well, there is the fact that railways +are making land-carriage to-day more important relatively to +water-carriage than at any previous period. That may, perhaps, in time +shift the centre of the world from an island like England to the middle +of a great land area, like Chicago or Moscow. And, no doubt, if ever the +centre shifts at all, it will shift towards Western America, or rather +the prairie region. But, just at present, what are the greatest +commercial towns of the world? All ports to a man. And the day when it +will be otherwise, if ever, seems still far distant. Look at the newest +countries. What are their great focal points? Every one of them ports. +Melbourne and Sydney; Rio, Buenos Ayres, and Valparaiso; Cape Town, San +Francisco, Bombay, Calcutta, Yokohama. Chicago itself, the most vital +and the quickest grower among modern towns, owes half its importance to +the fact that there water-carriage down the Great Lakes begins; though +it owes the other half, I admit, to the converse fact that all the great +trans-continental railways have to bend south at that point to avoid +Lake Michigan. Still, on the whole, I think, as long as conditions +remain what they are, the commercial supremacy of England is in no +immediate danger. It is these great permanent geographical factors that +make or mar a country, not Eight Hours Bills or petty social +reconstructions. Said the Lord Mayor of London to petulant King James, +when he proposed to remove the Court to Oxford, "May it please your +Majesty not to take away the Thames also." + +"But our competitors? We are being driven out of our markets." Oh, yes, +if that's all you mean, I don't suppose we shall always be able in +everything to keep up our exclusive position. Our neighbours, who (bar +the advantage of insularity, which means a coast and a port always close +at hand) seem nearly as well situated as we are for access to the +world-markets, are beginning to wake up and take a slice of the cake +from us. Germany is manufacturing; Belgium is smelting; Antwerp is +exporting; America is occupying her own markets. But that's a very +different thing indeed from national decadence. We may have to compete a +little harder with our rivals, that's all. The Boom may be over; but the +Thames remains: the geographical facts are still unaltered. And notice +that all the time while there's been this vague talk about "bad +times"--income-tax has been steadily increasing, London has been +steadily growing, every outer and visible sign of commercial prosperity +has been steadily spreading. Have our watering-places shrunk? Have our +buildings been getting smaller and less luxurious? If Antwerp has grown, +how about Hull and Cardiff? "Well, perhaps the past is all right; but +consider the future! Eight hours are going to drive capital out of the +country!" Rubbish! I'm not a political economist, thank God; I never +sank quite so low as that. And I'm not speaking for or against Eight +Hours: I'm only discounting some verbose nonsense. But I know enough to +see that the capital of a country can no more be exported than the land +or the houses. Can you drive away the London and North-Western Railway? +Can you drive away the factories of Manchester, the mines of the Black +Country, the canals, the buildings, the machinery, the docks, the plant, +the apparatus? Impossible, on the very face of it! Most of the capital +of a country is fixed in its soil, and can't be uprooted. People fall +into this error about driving away capital because they know you can +sell particular railway shares or a particular factory and leave the +country with the proceeds, provided somebody else is willing to buy; but +you can't sell all the railways and all the factories in a lump, and +clear out with the capital. No, no; England stands where she does, +because God put her there; and until He invents a new order of things +(which may, of course, happen any day--as, for example, if aerial +navigation came in) she must continue, in spite of minor changes, to +maintain in the main her present position. + +But a truce to these frivolities! The little Italian boy next door calls +me to play ball with him, with a green lemon from the garden. Vengo, +Luigi, vengo! I return at once to the realities of life, and dismiss +such shadows. + + + + +VII. + +_THE GAME AND THE RULES._ + + +A sportive friend of mine, a mighty golfer, is fond of saying, "You +Radicals want to play the game without the rules." To which I am +accustomed mildly to retort, "Not at all; but we think the rules unfair, +and so we want to see them altered." + +Now life is a very peculiar game, which differs in many important +respects even from compulsory football. The Rugby scrimmage is mere +child's play by the side of it. There's no possibility of shirking it. A +medical certificate won't get you off; whether you like it or not, play +you must in your appointed order. We are all unwilling competitors. +Nobody asks our naked little souls beforehand whether they would prefer +to be born into the game or to remain, unfleshed, in the limbo of +non-existence. Willy nilly, every one of us is thrust into the world by +an irresponsible act of two previous players; and once there, we must +play out the set as best we may to the bitter end, however little we +like it or the rules that order it. + +That, it must be admitted, makes a grave distinction from the very +outset between the game of human life and any other game with which we +are commonly acquainted. It also makes it imperative upon the framers of +the rules so to frame them that no one player shall have an unfair or +unjust advantage over any of the others. And since the penalty of bad +play, or bad success in the match, is death, misery, starvation, it +behoves the rule-makers to be more scrupulously particular as to +fairness and equity than in any other game like cricket or tennis. It +behoves them to see that all start fair, and that no hapless beginner is +unduly handicapped. To compel men to take part in a match for dear life, +whether they wish it or not, and then to insist that some of them shall +wield bats and some mere broom-sticks, irrespective of height, weight, +age, or bodily infirmity, is surely not fair. It justifies the committee +in calling for a revision. + +But things are far worse than even that in the game as actually played +in Europe. What shall we say of rules which decide dogmatically that one +set of players are hereditarily entitled to be always batting, while +another set, less lucky, have to field for ever, and to be fined or +imprisoned for not catching? What shall we say of rules which give one +group a perpetual right to free lunch in the tent, while the remainder +have to pick up what they can for themselves by gleaning among the +stubble? How justify the principle in accordance with which the captain +on one side has an exclusive claim to the common ground of the club, and +may charge every player exactly what he likes for the right to play upon +it?--especially when the choice lies between playing on such terms, or +being cast into the void, yourself and your family. And then to think +that the ground thus tabooed by one particular member may be all +Sutherlandshire, or, still worse, all Westminster! Decidedly, these +rules call for instant revision; and the unprivileged players must be +submissive indeed who consent to put up with them. + +Friends and fellow-members, let us cry with one voice, "The links for +the players!" + +Once more, just look at the singular rule in our own All England club, +by which certain assorted members possess a hereditary right to veto all +decisions of the elective committee, merely because they happen to be +their fathers' sons, and the club long ago very foolishly permitted the +like privilege to their ancestors! That is an irrational interference +with the liberty of the players which hardly anybody nowadays ventures +to defend in principle, and which is only upheld in some half-hearted +way (save in the case of that fossil anachronism, the Duke of Argyll) by +supposed arguments of convenience. It won't last long now; there is talk +in the committee of "mending or ending it." It shows the long-suffering +nature of the poor blind players at this compulsory game of national +football that they should ever for one moment permit so monstrous an +assumption--permit the idea that one single player may wield a +substantive voice and vote to outweigh tens of thousands of his +fellow-members! + +These questions of procedure, however, are after all small matters. It +is the real hardships of the game that most need to be tackled. Why +should one player be born into the sport with a prescriptive right to +fill some easy place in the field, while another has to fag on from +morning to night in the most uninteresting and fatiguing position? Why +should _pate de foie gras_ and champagne-cup in the tent be so unequally +distributed? Why should those who have made fewest runs and done no +fielding be admitted to partake of these luxuries, free of charge, while +those who have borne the brunt of the fight, those who have suffered +from the heat of the day, those who have contributed most to the honour +of the victory, are turned loose, unfed, to do as they can for +themselves by hook or by crook somehow? These are the questions some of +us players are now beginning to ask ourselves; and we don't find them +efficiently answered by the bald statement that we "want to play the +game without the rules," and that we ought to be precious glad the +legislators of the club haven't made them a hundred times harder against +us. + +No, no; the rules themselves must be altered. Time was, indeed, when +people used to think they were made and ordained by divine authority. +"Cum privilegio" was the motto of the captains. But we know very well +now that every club settles its own standing orders, and that it can +alter and modify them as fundamentally as it pleases. Lots of funny old +saws are still uttered upon this subject--"There must always be rich and +poor;" "You can't interfere with economical laws;" "If you were to +divide up everything to-morrow, at the end of a fortnight you'd find the +same differences and inequalities as ever." The last-named argument (I +believe it considers itself by courtesy an argument) is one which no +self-respecting Radical should so much as deign to answer. Nobody that I +ever heard of for one moment proposed to "divide up everything," or, for +that matter, anything: and the imputation that somebody did or does is a +proof either of intentional malevolence or of crass stupidity. Neither +should be encouraged; and you encourage them by pretending to take them +seriously. It is the initial injustices of the game that we Radicals +object to--the injustices which prevent us from all starting fair and +having our even chance of picking up a livelihood. We don't want to +"divide up everything"--a most futile proceeding; but we do want to +untie the legs and release the arms of the handicapped players. To drop +metaphor at last, it is the conditions we complain about. Alter the +conditions, and there would be no need for division, summary or gradual. +The game would work itself out spontaneously without your intervention. + +The injustice of the existing set of rules simply appals the Radical. +Yet oddly enough, this injustice itself appeals rather to the +comparative looker-on than to the heavily-handicapped players in person. +They, poor creatures, dragging their log in patience, have grown so +accustomed to regarding the world as another man's oyster, that they put +up uncomplainingly for the most part with the most patent inequalities. +Perhaps 'tis their want of imagination that makes them unable to +conceive any other state of things as even possible--like the dog who +accepts kicking as the natural fate of doghood. At any rate, you will +find, if you look about you, that the chief reformers are not, as a +rule, the ill-used classes themselves, but the sensitive and thinking +souls who hate and loathe the injustice with which others are treated. +Most of the best Radicals I have known were men of gentle birth and +breeding. Not all: others, just as earnest, just as eager, just as +chivalrous, sprang from the masses. Yet the gently-reared preponderate. +It is a common Tory taunt to say that the battle is one between the +Haves and the Have-nots. That is by no means true. It is between the +selfish Haves, on one side, and the unselfish Haves, who wish to see +something done for the Have-nots, on the other. As for the poor +Have-nots themselves, they are mostly inarticulate. Indeed, the Tory +almost admits as much when he alters his tone and describes the +sympathising and active few as "paid agitators." + +For myself, however, I am a born Conservative. I hate to see any old +custom or practice changed; unless, indeed, it is either foolish or +wicked--like most existing ones. + + + + +VIII. + +_THE ROLE OF PROPHET._ + + +One great English thinker and artist once tried the rash experiment of +being true to himself--of saying out boldly, without fear or reserve, +the highest and noblest and best that was in him. He gave us the most +exquisite lyrics in the English language; he moulded the thought of our +first youth as no other poet has ever yet moulded it; he became the +spiritual father of the richest souls in two succeeding generations of +Englishmen. And what reward did he get for it? He was expelled from his +university. He was hounded out of his country. He was deprived of his +own children. He was denied the common appeal to the law and courts of +justice. He was drowned, an exile, in a distant sea, and burned in +solitude on a foreign shore. And after his death he was vilified and +calumniated by wretched penny-a-liners, or (worse insult still) +apologised for, with half-hearted shrugs, by lukewarm advocates. The +purest in life and the most unselfish in purpose of all mankind, he was +persecuted alive with the utmost rancour of hate, and pursued when dead +with the vilest shafts of malignity. He never even knew in his scattered +grave the good he was to do to later groups of thinkers. + +It was a noble example, of course; but not, you will admit, an alluring +one for others to follow. + +"Be true to yourself," say the copy-book moralists, "and you may be sure +the result will at last be justified." No doubt; but in how many +centuries? And what sort of life will you lead yourself, meanwhile, for +your allotted space of threescore years and ten, unless haply hanged, or +burned, or imprisoned before it? What the copy-book moralists mean is +merely this--that sooner or later your principles will triumph, which +may or may not be the case according to the nature of the principles. +But even suppose they do, are you to ignore yourself in the +interim--you, a human being with emotions, sensations, domestic +affections, and, in the majority of instances, wife and children on whom +to expend them? Why should it be calmly taken for granted by the world +that if you have some new and true thing to tell humanity (which +humanity, of course, will toss back in your face with contumely and +violence) you are bound to blurt it out, with childish unreserve, +regardless of consequences to yourself and to those who depend upon you? +Why demand of genius or exceptional ability a gratuitous sacrifice which +you would deprecate as wrong and unjust to others in the ordinary +citizen? For the genius, too, is a man, and has his feelings. + +The fact is, society considers that in certain instances it has a right +to expect the thinker will martyrise himself on its account, while it +stands serenely by and heaps faggots on the pile, with every mark of +contempt and loathing. But society is mistaken. No man is bound to +martyrise himself; in a great many cases a man is bound to do the exact +opposite. He has given hostages to Fortune, and his first duty is to the +hostages. "We ask you for bread," his children may well say, "and you +give us a noble moral lesson. We ask you for clothing, and you supply us +with a beautiful poetical fancy." This is not according to bargain. Wife +and children have a first mortgage on a man's activities; society has +only a right to contingent remainders. + +A great many sensible men who had truths of deep import to deliver to +the world must have recognised these facts in all times and places, and +must have held their tongues accordingly. Instead of speaking out the +truths that were in them, they must have kept their peace, or have +confined themselves severely to the ordinary platitudes of their age and +nation. Why ruin yourself by announcing what you feel and believe, when +all the reward you will get for it in the end will be social ostracism, +if not even the rack, the stake, or the pillory? The Shelleys and +Rousseaus there's no holding, of course; they _will_ run right into it; +but the Goethes--oh, no, they keep their secret. Indeed, I hold it as +probable that the vast majority of men far in advance of their times +have always held their tongues consistently, save for mere common +babble, on Lord Chesterfield's principle that "Wise men never say." + +The _role_ of prophet is thus a thankless and difficult one. Nor is it +quite certainly of real use to the community. For the prophet is +generally too much ahead of his times. He discounts the future at a +ruinous rate, and he takes the consequences. If you happen ever to have +read the Old Testament you must have noticed that the prophets had +generally a hard time of it. + +The leader is a very different stamp of person. _He_ stands well abreast +of his contemporaries, and just half a pace in front of them; and he has +power to persuade even the inertia of humanity into taking that one +half-step in advance he himself has already made bold to adventure. His +post is honoured, respected, remunerated. But the prophet gets no +thanks, and perhaps does mankind no benefit. He sees too quick. And +there can be very little good indeed in so seeing. If one of us had been +an astronomer, and had discovered the laws of Kepler, Newton, and +Laplace in the thirteenth century, I think he would have been wise to +keep the discovery to himself for a few hundred years or so. Otherwise, +he would have been burned for his trouble. Galileo, long after, tried +part of the experiment a decade or so too soon, and got no good by it. +But in moral and social matters the danger is far graver. I would say to +every aspiring youth who sees some political or economical or ethical +truth quite clearly: "Keep it dark! Don't mention it! Nobody will listen +to you; and you, who are probably a person of superior insight and +higher moral aims than the mass, will only destroy your own influence +for good by premature declarations. The world will very likely come +round of itself to your views in the end; but if you tell them too soon, +you will suffer for it in person, and will very likely do nothing to +help on the revolution in thought that you contemplate. For thought that +is too abruptly ahead of the mass never influences humanity." + +"But sometimes the truth will out in spite of one!" Ah, yes, that's the +worst of it. Do as I say, not as I do. If possible, repress it. + +It is a noble and beautiful thing to be a martyr, especially if you are +a martyr in the cause of truth, and not, as is often the case, of some +debasing and degrading superstition. But nobody has a right to demand of +you that you should be a martyr. And some people have often a right to +demand that you should resolutely refuse the martyr's crown on the +ground that you have contracted prior obligations, inconsistent with the +purely personal luxury of martyrdom. 'Tis a luxury for a few. It befits +only the bachelor, the unattached, and the economically spareworthy. + +"These be pessimistic pronouncements," you say. Well, no, not exactly. +For, after all, we must never shut our eyes to the actual; and in the +world as it is, meliorism, not optimism, is the true opposite of +pessimism. Optimist and pessimist are both alike in a sense, seeing they +are both conservative; they sit down contented--the first with the smug +contentment that says "All's well; I have enough; why this fuss about +others?" the second with the contentment of blank despair that says, +"All's hopeless; all's wrong; why try uselessly to mend it?" The +meliorist attitude, on the contrary, is rather to say, "Much is wrong; +much painful; what can we do to improve it?" And from this point of view +there is something we can all do to make martyrdom less inevitable in +the end, for the man who has a thought, a discovery, an idea, to tell +us. Such men are rare, and their thought, when they produce it, is sure +to be unpalatable. For, if it were otherwise, it would be thought of our +own type--familiar, banal, commonplace, unoriginal. It would encounter +no resistance, as it thrilled on its way through our brain, from +established errors. What the genius and the prophet are there for is +just that--to make us listen to unwelcome truths, to compel us to hear, +to drive awkward facts straight home with sledge-hammer force to the +unwilling hearts and brains of us. Not what _you_ want to hear, or what +_I_ want to hear, is good and useful for us; but what we _don't_ want to +hear, what we can't bear to think, what we hate to believe, what we +fight tooth and nail against. The man who makes us listen to _that_ is +the seer and the prophet; he comes upon us like Shelley, or Whitman, or +Ibsen, and plumps down horrid truths that half surprise, half disgust +us. He shakes us out of our lethargy. To such give ear, though they say +what shocks you. Weigh well their hateful ideas. Avoid the vulgar vice +of sneering and carping at them. Learn to examine their nude thought +without shrinking, and examine it all the more carefully when it most +repels you. Naked verity is an acquired taste; it is never beautiful at +first sight to the unaccustomed vision. Remember that no question is +finally settled; that no question is wholly above consideration; that +what you cherish as holiest is most probably wrong; and that in social +and moral matters especially (where men have been longest ruled by pure +superstitions) new and startling forms of thought have the highest _a +priori_ probability in their favour. Dismiss your idols. Give every +opinion its fair chance of success--especially when it seems to you both +wicked and ridiculous, recollecting that it is better to let five +hundred crude guesses run loose about the world unclad, than to crush +one fledgling truth in its callow condition. To the Greeks, foolishness: +to the Jews, a stumbling-block. If you can't be one of the prophets +yourself, you can at least abstain from helping to stone them. + +Dear me! These reflections to-day are anything but post-prandial. The +_gnocchi_ and the olives must certainly have disagreed with me. But +perhaps it may some of it be "wrote sarcastic." I have heard tell there +is a thing called irony. + + + + +IX. + +_THE ROMANCE OF THE CLASH OF RACES._ + + +The world has expanded faster in the last thirty years than in any +previous age since "the spacious days of great Elizabeth." And with its +expansion, of course, our ideas have widened. I believe Europe is now in +the midst of just such an outburst of thought and invention as that +which followed the discovery of America, and of the new route to India +by the Cape of Good Hope. But I don't want to insist too strongly upon +that point, because I know a great many of my contemporaries are deeply +hurt by the base and spiteful suggestion that they and their fellows are +really quite as good as any fish that ever came out of the sea before +them. I only desire now to call attention for a moment to one curious +result entailed by this widening of the world upon our literary +productivity--a result which, though obvious enough when one comes to +look at it, seems to me hitherto to have strangely escaped deliberate +notice. + +In one word, the point of which I speak is the comparative +cosmopolitanisation of letters, and especially the introduction into +literary art of the phenomena due to the Clash of Races. + +This Clash itself is the one picturesque and novel feature of our +otherwise somewhat prosaic and machine-made epoch; and, therefore, it +has been eagerly seized upon, with one accord, by all the chief +purveyors of recent literature, and especially of fiction. They have +espied in it, with technical instinct, the best chance for obtaining +that fresh interest which is essential to the success of a work of art. +We were all getting somewhat tired, it must be confessed, of the old +places and the old themes. The insipid loves of Anthony Trollope's +blameless young people were beginning to pall upon us. The jaded palate +of the Anglo-Celtic race pined for something hot, with a touch of fresh +spice in it. It demanded curried fowl and Jamaica peppers. Hence, on the +one hand, the sudden vogue of the novelists of the younger +countries--Tolstoi and Tourgenieff, Ibsen and Bjornson, Mary Wilkins and +Howells--who transplanted us at once into fresh scenes, new people: +hence, on the other hand, the tendency on the part of our own latest +writers--the Stevensons, the Hall Caines, the Marion Crawfords, the +Rider Haggards--to go far afield among the lower races or the later +civilisations for the themes of their romances. + +Alas, alas, I see breakers before me! Must I pause for a moment in the +flowing current of a paragraph to explain, as in an aside, that I +include Marion Crawford of set purpose among "our own" late writers, +while I count Mary Wilkins and Howells as Transatlantic aliens? +Experience teaches me that I must; else shall I have that annoying +animalcule, the microscopic critic, coming down upon me in print with +his petty objection that "Mr. Crawford is an American." Go to, oh, blind +one! And Whistler also, I suppose, and Sargent, and, perhaps, Ashmead +Bartlett! What! have you read "Sarracinesca" and not learnt that its +author is European to the core? 'Twas for such as you that the Irishman +invented his brilliant retort: "And if I was born in a stable would I be +a horse?" + +Not merely, however, do our younger writers go into strange and novel +places for the scenes of their stories; the important point to notice in +the present connection is that, consciously or unconsciously to +themselves, they have perceived the mighty influence of this Clash of +Races, and have chosen the relations of the civilised people with their +savage allies, or enemies, or subjects, as the chief theme of their +handicraft. 'Tis a momentous theme, for it encloses in itself half the +problems of the future. The old battles are now well-nigh fought out; +but new ones are looming ahead for us. The cosmopolitanisation of the +world is introducing into our midst strange elements of discord. A +conglomerate of unwelded ethnical elements usurps the stage of history. +America and South Africa have already their negro question; California +and Australia have already their Chinese question; Russia is fast +getting her Asiatic, her Mahommedan question. Even France, the most +narrowly European in interest of European countries, has yet her +Algeria, her Tunis, her Tonquin. Spain has Cuba and the Philippines. +Holland has Java. Germany is burdening herself with the unborn troubles +of a Hinterland. And as for England, she staggers on still under the +increasing load of India, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, the West +Indies, Fiji, New Guinea, North Borneo--all of them rife with endless +race-questions, all pregnant with difficulties. + +Who can be surprised that amid this seething turmoil of colours, +instincts, creeds, and languages, art should have fastened upon the +race-problems as her great theme for the moment? And she has fastened +upon them everywhere. France herself has not been able to avoid the +contagion. Pierre Loti is the most typical French representative of this +vagabond spirit; and the question of the peoples naturally envisages +itself to his mind in true Gallic fashion in the "Mariage de Loti" and +in "Madame Chrysantheme." He sees it through a halo of vague sexual +sentimentalism. In England, it was Rider Haggard from the Cape who first +set the mode visibly; and nothing is more noteworthy in all his work +than the fact that the interest mainly centres in the picturesque +juxtaposition and contrast of civilisation and savagery. Once the cue +was given, what more natural than that young Rudyard Kipling, fresh home +from India, brimming over with genius and with knowledge of two +concurrent streams of life that flow on side by side yet never mingle, +should take up his parable in due course, and storm us all by assault +with his light field artillery? Then Robert Louis Stevenson, born a +wandering Scot, with roving Scandinavian and fiery Celtic blood in his +veins, must needs settle down, like a Viking that he is, in far Samoa, +there to charm and thrill us by turns with the romance of Polynesia. The +example was catching. Almost without knowing it, other writers have +turned for subjects to similar fields. "Dr. Isaacs," "Paul Patoff," "By +Proxy," were upon us. Even Hall Caine himself, in some ways a most +insular type of genius, was forced in "The Scapegoat" to carry us off +from Cumberland and Man to Morocco. Sir Edwin Arnold inflicts upon us +the tragedies of Japan. I have been watching this tendency long myself +with the interested eye of a dealer engaged in the trade, and therefore +anxious to keep pace with every changing breath of popular favour: and I +notice a constant increase from year to year in the number of short +stories in magazines and newspapers dealing with the romance of the +inferior races. I notice, also, that such stories are increasingly +successful with the public. This shows that, whether the public knows it +or not itself, the question of race is interesting it more and more. It +is gradually growing to understand the magnitude of the change that has +come over civilisation by the inclusion of Asia, Africa, and Australasia +within its circle. Even the Queen is learning Hindustani. + +There is a famous passage in Green's "Short History of the English +People" which describes in part that strange outburst of national +expansion under Elizabeth, when Raleigh, Drake, and Frobisher scoured +the distant seas, and when at home "England became a nest of singing +birds," with Shakespeare, Spenser, Fletcher, and Marlow. "The old sober +notions of thrift," says the picturesque historian, "melted before the +strange revolutions of fortune wrought by the New World. Gallants +gambled away a fortune at a sitting, and sailed off to make a fresh one +in the Indies." (Read rather to-day at Kimberley, Johannesburg, +Vancouver.) "Visions of galleons loaded to the brim with pearls and +diamonds and ingots of silver, dreams of El Dorados where all was of +gold, threw a haze of prodigality and profusion over the imagination of +the meanest seaman. The wonders, too, of the New World kindled a burst +of extravagant fancy in the Old. The strange medley of past and present +which distinguishes its masques and feastings only reflected the medley +of men's thoughts.... A 'wild man' from the Indies chanted the Queen's +praises at Kenilworth, and Echo answered him. Elizabeth turned from the +greetings of sibyls and giants to deliver the enchanted lady from her +tyrant, 'Sans Pitie.' Shepherdesses welcomed her with carols of the +spring, while Ceres and Bacchus poured their corn and grapes at her +feet." Oh, gilded youth of the Gaiety, _mutato nomine de te Fabula +narratur_. Yours, yours is this glory! + +For our own age, too, is a second Elizabethan. It blossoms out daily +into such flowers of fancy as never bloomed before, save then, on +British soil. When men tell you nowadays we have "no great writers +left," believe not the silly parrot cry. Nay, rather, laugh it down for +them. We move in the midst of one of the mightiest epochs earth has ever +seen, an epoch which will live in history hereafter side by side with +the Athens of Pericles, the Rome of Augustus, the Florence of Lorenzo, +the England of Elizabeth. Don't throw away your birthright by ignoring +the fact. Live up to your privileges. Gaze around you and know. Be a +conscious partaker in one of the great ages of humanity. + + + + +X. + +_THE MONOPOLIST INSTINCTS._ + + +In the first of these after-dinner _causeries_ I ventured humbly to +remark that Patriotism was a vulgar vice of which I had never been +guilty. That innocent indiscretion of mine aroused at the moment some +unfavourable comment. I confess I was sorry for it. But I passed it by +at the time, lest I should speak too hastily and lose my temper. I recur +to the subject now, at the hour of the cigarette, when man can discourse +most genially of his bitterest enemy. And Monopoly is mine. Its very +name is hateful. + +I don't often say what I think. At least, not much of it. I don't often +get the chance. And, besides, being a timid and a modest man, I'm afraid +to. But just this once, I'm going to "try it on." Object to my opinions +as you will. But still, let me express them. Strike--but hear me! + +Has it ever occurred to you that one object of reading is to learn +things you never thought of before, and would never think of now, unless +you were told them? + +Patriotism is one of the Monopolist Instincts. And the Monopolist +Instincts are the greatest enemies of the social life in humanity. They +are what we have got in the end to outlive. The test of a man's place in +the scale of being is how far he has outlived them. They are surviving +relics of the ape and tiger. But we must let the ape and tiger die. We +must begin to be human. + +I will take Patriotism first, because it is the most specious of them +all, and has still a self-satisfied way of masquerading as a virtue. But +after all what is Patriotism? "My country, right or wrong; and just +because it is _my_ country." It is nothing more than a wider form of +selfishness. Often enough, indeed, it is even a narrow one. It means, +"My business interests against the business interests of other people; +and let the taxes of my fellow-citizens pay to support them." At other +times it is pure Jingoism. It means, "_My_ country against other +countries! _My_ army and navy against other fighters! _My_ right to +annex unoccupied territory over the equal right of all other people! +_My_ power to oppress all weaker nationalities, all inferior races!" It +_never_ means anything good. For if a cause is just, like Ireland's, or +once Italy's, then 'tis the good man's duty to espouse it with warmth, +be it his own or another's. And if a cause be bad, then 'tis the good +man's duty to oppose it tooth and nail, irrespective of your +"Patriotism." True, a good man will feel more sensitively anxious that +justice should be done by the particular State of which he happens +himself to be a member than by any other, because he is partly +responsible for the corporate action; but then, people who feel deeply +this joint moral responsibility of all the citizens are not praised as +patriots but reviled as unpatriotic. To urge that our own country should +strive with all its might to be better, higher, purer, nobler, juster +than other countries around it--the only kind of Patriotism worth a +brass farthing in a righteous man's eyes--is accounted by most men both +wicked and foolish. + +Patriotism, then, is the collective or national form of the Monopolist +Instincts. And like all those Instincts, it is a relic of savagery, +which the Man of the Future is now engaged in out-living. + +Property is the next form. That, on the very face of it, is a viler and +more sordid one. For Patriotism at least can lay claim to some +expansiveness beyond mere individual interest; whereas property stops +dead short at the narrowest limits. It is not "Us against the world!" +but "Me against my fellow-citizens!" It is the final result of the +industrial war in its most hideous avatar. Look how it scars the fair +face of our England with its anti-social notice-boards, "Trespassers +will be prosecuted!" It says, in effect, "This is my land. God made it; +but I have acquired it and tabooed it. The grass on it grows green; but +only for me. The mountains rise beautiful; no foot of man, save mine and +my gamekeepers', shall tread them. The waterfalls gleam fresh and cool +in the glen: avaunt there, you non-possessors; _you_ shall never see +them! All this is my own. And I choose to monopolise it." + +Or is it the capitalist? "I will add field to field," he says, in +despite of his own scripture; "I will join railway to railway. I will +juggle into my own hands all the instruments for the production of +wealth that I can lay hold of; and I will use them for myself against +the producer and the consumer. I will enrich myself by 'corners' on the +necessaries of life; I will make food dear for the poor, that I myself +may roll in needless luxury. I will monopolise whatever I can seize, and +the people may eat straw." That temper, too, humanity must outlive. And +those who can't outlive it of themselves, or be warned in time, must be +taught by stern lessons that their race has outstripped them. + +As for slavery, 'tis now gone. That was the vilest of them all. It was +the naked assertion of the Monopolist platform: "You live, not for +yourself, but wholly and solely for me. I disregard your life entirely, +and use you as my chattel." It died at last of the moral indignation of +humanity. It died when a Southern court of so-called justice formulated +in plain words the underlying principle of its hateful creed: "A black +man has no rights which a white man is bound to respect." That finally +finished it. We no longer allow every man to "wallop his own nigger." +And though the last relics of it die hard in Queensland, South Africa, +Demerara, we have at least the satisfaction of knowing that one +Monopolist Instinct out of the group is pretty well bred out of us. + +Except as regards women! There, it lingers still. The Man says even now +to himself:--"This woman is mine. If she ventures to have a heart or a +will of her own, woe betide her! I have tabooed her for life; let any +other man touch her, let her look at any other man--and--knife, +revolver, or law court, they shall both of them answer for it!" There +you have in all its natural ugliness another Monopolist Instinct--the +deepest-seated of all, the vilest, the most barbaric. She is not yours: +she is her own: unhand her! The Turk takes his offending slave, sews her +up in a sack, and flings her into the Bosphorus. The Christian +Englishman drags her shame before an open court, and divorces her with +contumely. Her shame, I say, in the common phrase, because though to me +it is no shame that any human being should follow the dictates of his or +her own heart, it is a shame to the woman in the eyes of the world, and +a life of disgrace she must live thenceforward. All this is Monopoly and +essentially slavery. As man lives down the Ape and Tiger stage, he will +learn to say, rather: "Be mine while you can; but the day you cease to +feel you can be mine willingly, don't disgrace your own body by yielding +it up where your soul feels loathing; don't consent to be the mother of +children by a father you despise or dislike or are tired of. Let us kiss +and part. Go where you will; and my good will go with you!" Till the man +can say that with a sincere heart, why, to borrow a phrase from George +Meredith, he may have passed Seraglio Point, but he hasn't rounded Cape +Turk yet. + +You find that a hard saying, do you? You kick against freedom for wife +or daughter? Well, yes, no doubt; you are still a Monopolist. But, +believe me, the earnest and solemn expression of a profound belief never +yet did harm to any one. I look forward to the time when women shall be +as free in every way as men, not by levelling down, but by levelling up; +not, as some would have us think, by enslaving the men, but by +elevating, emancipating, unshackling the women. + +There is a charming little ditty in Louis Stevenson's "Child's Garden of +Verse," which always seems to me to sum up admirably the Monopolist +attitude. Here it is. Look well at it:-- + + "When I am grown to man's estate + I shall be very proud and great, + And tell the other girls and boys, + Not to meddle with _my_ toys." + +That is the way of the Monopolist. It catches him in the very act. He +says to all the world: "Hands off! My property! Don't walk on my grass! +Don't trespass in my park! Beware of my gunboats! No trifling with my +women! I am the king of the castle. You meddle with me at your peril." + +"Ours!" not "Mine!" is the watchword of the future. + + + + +XI. + +"_MERE AMATEURS._" + + +"He was a mere amateur; but still, he did some good work in science." + +Increasingly of late years I have heard these condescending words +uttered, in the fatherland of Bacon, of Newton, of Darwin, when some +Bates or Spottiswoode has been gathered to his fathers. It was not so +once. Time was when all English science was the work of amateurs--and +very well indeed the amateurs did it. I don't think anybody who does me +the honour to cognise my humble individuality at all will ever be likely +to mistake me for a _laudator temporis acti_. On the contrary, so far as +I can see, the past seems generally to have been such a distinct failure +all along the line that the one lesson we have to learn from it is, to +go and do otherwise. I am one on that point with Shelley and Rousseau. +But it does not follow, because most old things are bad, that all new +things and rising things are necessarily and indisputably in their own +nature excellent. Novelties, too, may be retrograde. And even our +great-grandfathers occasionally blundered upon something good in which +we should do well to imitate them. The amateurishness of old English +science was one of these good things now in course of abolition by the +fashionable process of Germanisation. + +Don't imagine it was only for France that 1870 was fatal. The sad +successes of that deadly year sent a wave of triumphant Teutonism over +the face of Europe. + +I suppose it is natural to man to worship success; but ever since 1870 +it is certainly the fact that if you wish to gain respect and +consideration for any proposed change of system you must say, "They do +it so in Germany." In education and science this is especially the case. +Pedants always admire pedants. And Germany having shown herself to be +easily first of European States in her pedant-manufacturing machinery, +all the assembled dominies of all the rest of the world exclaimed with +one voice, "Go to! Let us Germanise our educational system!" + +Now, the German is an excellent workman in his way. Patient, laborious, +conscientious, he has all the highest qualities of the ideal +brick-maker. He produces the best bricks, and you can generally depend +upon him to turn out both honest and workmanlike articles. But he is not +an architect. For the architectonic faculty in its highest developments +you must come to England. And he is not a teacher or expounder. For the +expository faculty in its purest form, the faculty that enables men to +flash forth clearly and distinctly before the eyes of others the facts +and principles they know and perceive themselves, you must go to France. +Oh, dear, yes; we may well be proud of England. Remember, I have already +disclaimed more than once in these papers the vulgar error of +patriotism. But freedom from that narrow vice does not imply inability +to recognise the good qualities of one's own race as well as the bad +ones. And the Englishman, left to himself and his own native methods, +used to cut a very respectable figure indeed in the domain of science. +No other nation has produced a Newton or a Darwin. The Englishman's way +was to get up an interest in a subject first; and then, working back +from the part of it that specially appealed to his own tastes, to make +himself master of the entire field of inquiry. This natural and +thoroughly individualistic English method enabled him to arrive at new +results in a way impossible to the pedantically educated German--nay, +even to the lucidly and systematically educated Frenchman. It was the +plan to develop "mere amateurs," I admit; but it was also the plan to +develop discoverers and revolutionisers of science. For the man most +likely to advance knowledge is not the man who knows in an encyclopaedic +rote-work fashion the whole circle of the sciences, but the man who +takes a fresh interest for its own sake in some particular branch of +inquiry. + +Darwin was a "mere amateur." He worked at things for the love of them. +So were Murchison, Lyell, Benjamin Franklin, Herschel. So were or are +Bates, Herbert Spencer, Alfred Russel Wallace. "Mere amateurs!" every +man of them. + +In an evil hour, however, our pastors and masters in conclave assembled +said to one another, "Come now, let us Teutonise English scientific +education." And straightway they Teutonised it. And there began to arise +in England a new brood of patent machine-made scientists--excellent men +in their way, authorities on the Arachnida, knowing all about everything +that could be taught in the schools, but lacking somehow the supreme +grace of the old English originality. They are first-rate specialists, I +allow; and I don't deny that a civilised country has all need of +specialists. Nay, I even admit that the day of the specialist has only +just begun. He will yet go far; he will impose himself and his yoke upon +us. But don't let us therefore make the grand mistake of concluding that +our fine old English birthright in science--the birthright that gave us +our Newtons, our Cavendishes, our Darwins, our Lyells--was all folly and +error. Don't let us spoil ourselves in order to become mere second-hand +Germans. Let us recognise the fact that each nation has a work of its +own to do in the world; and that as star from star, so one nation +differeth from another in glory. Let each of us thank the goodness and +the grace that on his birth have smiled, that he was born of English +breed, and not a German child. + +"Don't you think," a military gentleman once said to me, "the Germans +are wonderful organisers?" "No," I answered, "I don't; but I think +they're excellent drill-sergeants." + +There are people who drop German authorities upon you as if a Teutonic +name were guarantee enough for anything. They say, "Hausberger asserts," +or "According to Schimmelpenninck." This is pure fetichism. Believe me, +your man of science isn't necessarily any the better because he comes to +you with the label, "Made in Germany." The German instinct is the +instinct of Frederick William of Prussia--the instinct of drilling. Very +thorough and efficient men in their way it turns out; men versed in all +the lore of their chosen subject. If they are also men of transcendent +ability (as often happens), they can give us a comprehensive view of +their own chosen field such as few Englishmen (except Sir Archibald +Geikie, and he's a Scot) can equal. If I wanted to select a learned man +for a special Government post--British Museum, and so forth--I dare say +I should often be compelled to admit, as Government often admits, that +the best man then and there obtainable is the German. But if I wanted to +train Herbert Spencers and Faradays, I would certainly _not_ send them +to Bonn or to Berlin. John Stuart Mill was an English Scotchman, +educated and stuffed by his able father on the German system; and how +much of spontaneity, of vividness, of _verve_, we all of us feel John +Stuart Mill lost by it! One often wonders to what great, to what still +greater, things that lofty brain might not have attained, if only James +Mill would have given it a chance to develop itself naturally! + +Our English gift is originality. Our English keynote is individuality. +Let us cling to those precious heirlooms of our Celtic ancestry, and +refuse to be Teutonised. Let us discard the lessons of the Potsdam +grenadiers. Let us write on the pediment of our educational temple, "No +German need apply." Let us disclaim that silly phrase "A mere amateur." +Let us return to the simple faith in direct observation that made +English science supreme in Europe. + +And may the Lord gi'e us Britons a guid conceit o' oorsel's! + + + + +XII. + +_A SQUALID VILLAGE._ + + +Strange that the wealthiest class in the wealthiest country in the world +should so long have been content to inhabit a squalid village! + +I'm not going to compare London, as Englishmen often do, with Paris or +Vienna. I won't do two great towns that gross injustice. And, indeed, +comparison here is quite out of the question. You don't compare Oxford +with Little Peddlington, or Edinburgh with Thrums, and then ask which is +the handsomest. Things must be alike in kind before you can begin to +compare them. And London and Paris are not alike in kind. One is a city, +and a noble city; the other is a village, and a squalid village. + +No; I will not even take a humbler standard of comparison, and look at +London side by side with Brussels, Antwerp, Munich, Turin. Each of those +is a city, and a fine city in its way; but each of them is small. Still, +even by their side, London is again but a squalid village. I insist upon +that point, because, misled by their ancient familiarity with London, +most Englishmen have had their senses and understandings so blunted on +this issue, that they really don't know what is meant by a town, or a +fine town, when they see one. And don't suppose it's because London is +in Britain and these other towns out of it that I make these remarks: +for Bath is a fine town, Edinburgh is a fine town, even Glasgow and +Newcastle are towns, while London is still a straggling, sprawling, +invertebrate, inchoate, overgrown village. I am as free, I hope, from +anti-patriotic as from patriotic prejudice. The High Street in Oxford, +Milsom Street in Bath, Princes Street in Edinburgh, those are all fine +streets that would attract attention even in France or Germany. But the +Strand, Piccadilly, Regent Street, Oxford Street--good Lord, deliver us! + +One more _caveat_ as to my meaning. When I cite among real towns +Brussels, Antwerp, and Munich, I am not thinking of the treasures of art +those beautiful places contain; that is another and altogether higher +question. Towns supreme in this respect often lag far behind others of +less importance--lag behind in those external features and that general +architectural effectiveness which rightly entitle us to say in a broad +sense, "This is a fine city." Florence, for example, contains more +treasures of art in a small space than any other town of Europe; yet +Florence, though undoubtedly a town, and even a fine town, is not to be +compared in this respect, I do not say with Venice or Brussels, but even +with Munich or Milan. On the other hand, London contains far more +treasures of art in its way than Boston, Massachusetts; but Boston is a +handsome, well-built, regular town, while London--well, I will spare you +the further repetition of the trite truism that London is a squalid +village. In one word, the point I am seeking to bring out here is that a +town, as a town, is handsome or otherwise, not in virtue of the works of +art or antiquity it contains, but in virtue of its ground-plan, its +architecture, its external and visible decorations and places--the +Louvre, the Boulevards, the Champs Elysees, the Place de l'Opera. + +Now London has no ground-plan. It has no street architecture. It has no +decorations, though it has many uglifications. It is frankly and simply +and ostentatiously hideous. And being wholly wanting in a system of any +sort--in organic parts, in idea, in views, in vistas--it is only a +village, and a painfully uninteresting one. + +Most Englishmen see London before they see any other great town. They +become so familiarised with it that their sense of comparison is dulled +and blunted. I had the good fortune to have seen many other great towns +before I ever saw London: and I shall never forget my first sense of +surprise at its unmitigated ugliness. + +Get on top of an omnibus--I don't say in Paris, from the Palais Royal to +the Arc de Triomphe, but in Brussels, from the Gare du Nord to the +Palais de Justice--and what do you see? From end to end one unbroken +succession of noble and open prospects. I'm not thinking now of the +Grande Place in the old town, with its magnificent collection of +mediaeval buildings; the Great Fire effectively deprived us of our one +sole chance of such an element of beauty in modern London. I confine +myself on purpose to the parts of Brussels which are purely recent, and +might have been imitated at a distance in London, if there had been any +public spirit or any public body in England to imitate them. (But +unhappily there was neither.) Recall to mind as you read the strikingly +handsome street view that greets you as you emerge from the Northern +Station down the great central Boulevards to the Gare du Midi--all built +within our own memory. Then think of the prospects that gradually unfold +themselves as you rise on the hill; the fine vista north towards Sainte +Marie de Schaarbeck; the beautiful Rue Royale, bounded by that charming +Parc; the unequalled stretch of the Rue de la Regence, starting from the +Place Royale with Godfrey of Bouillon, and ending with the imposing mass +of the Palais de Justice. It is to me a matter for mingled surprise and +humiliation that so many Englishmen can look year after year at that +glorious street--perhaps the finest in the world--and yet never think to +themselves, "Mightn't we faintly imitate some small part of this in our +wealthy, ugly, uncompromising London?" + +I always say to Americans who come to Europe: "When you go to England, +don't see our towns, but see our country. Our country is something +unequalled in the world: while our towns!--well, anyway, keep away from +London!" + +With the solitary and not very brilliant exception of the Embankment, +there isn't a street in London where one could take a stranger to admire +the architecture. Compare that record with the new Boulevards in +Antwerp, where almost every house is worth serious study: or with the +Ring at Cologne (to keep close home all the time), where one can see +whole rows of German Renaissance houses of extraordinary interest. What +street in London can be mentioned in this respect side by side with +Commonwealth Avenue or Beacon Street in Boston; with Euclid Avenue in +Cleveland, Ohio; with the upper end of Fifth Avenue, New York; nay, even +with the new Via Roma at Genoa? Why is it that we English can't get on +the King's Road at Brighton anything faintly approaching that splendid +sea front on the Digue at Ostend, or those coquettish white villas that +line the Promenade des Anglais at Nice? The blight of London seems to +lie over all Southern England. + +Paris looks like the capital of a world-wide empire. London, looks like +a shapeless neglected suburb, allowed to grow up by accident anyhow. And +that's just the plain truth of it. 'Tis a fortuitous concourse of +hap-hazard houses. + +"But we are improving somewhat. The County Council is opening out a few +new thoroughfares piecemeal." Oh yes, in an illogical, unsystematic, +English patchwork fashion, we are driving a badly-designed, unimpressive +new street or two, with no expansive sense of imperial greatness, +through the hopelessly congested and most squalid quarters. But that is +all. No grand, systematic, reconstructive plan, no rising to the height +of the occasion and the Empire! You tinker away at a Shaftesbury Avenue. +Parochial, all of it. And there you get the real secret of our futile +attempts at making a town out of our squalid village. The fault lies all +at the door of the old Corporation, and of the people who made and still +make the old Corporation possible. For centuries, indeed, there was +really no London, not even a village; there was only a scratch +collection of contiguous villages. The consequence was that here, at the +centre of national life, the English people grew wholly unaccustomed to +the bare idea of a town, and managed everything piecemeal, on the petty +scale of a country vestry. The vestryman intelligence has now overrun +the land; and if the London County Council ever succeeds at last in +making the congeries of villages into--I do not say a city, for that is +almost past praying for, but something analogous to a second-rate +Continental town, it will only be after long lapse of time and violent +struggles with the vestryman level of intellect and feeling. + +London had many great disadvantages to start with. She lay in a dull and +marshy bottom, with no building stone at hand, and therefore she was +forecondemned by her very position to the curse of brick and stucco, +when Bath, Oxford, Edinburgh, were all built out of their own quarries. +Then fire destroyed all her mediaeval architecture, leaving her only +Westminster Abbey to suggest the greatness of her losses. But +brick-earth and fire have been as nothing in their way by the side of +the evil wrought by Gog and Magog. When five hundred trembling ghosts of +naked Lord Mayors have to answer for their follies and their sins +hereafter, I confidently expect the first question in the appalling +indictment will be, "Why did you allow the richest nation on earth to +house its metropolis in a squalid village?" + +We have a Moloch in England to whom we sacrifice much. And his hateful +name is Vested Interest. + + + + +XIII. + +_CONCERNING ZEITGEIST._ + + +A certain story is told about Mr. Ruskin, no doubt apocryphal, but at +any rate characteristic. A young lady, fresh from the Abyss of +Bayswater, met the sage one evening at dinner--a gushing young lady, as +many such there be--who, aglow with joy, boarded the Professor at once +with her private art-experiences. "Oh, Mr. Ruskin," she cried, clasping +her hands, "do you know, I hadn't been two days in Florence before I +discovered what you meant when you spoke about the supreme +unapproachableness of Botticelli." "Indeed?" Ruskin answered. "Well, +that's very remarkable; for it took me, myself, half a lifetime to +discover it." + +The answer, of course, was meant to be crushing. How should _she_, a +brand plucked from the burning of Bayswater, be able all at once, on the +very first blush, to appreciate Botticelli? And it took the greatest +critic of his age half a lifetime! Yet I venture to maintain, for all +that, that the young lady was right, and that the critic was wrong--if +such a thing be conceivable. I know, of course, that when we speak of +Ruskin we must walk delicately, like Agag. But still, I repeat it, the +young lady was right; and it was largely the unconscious, pervasive +action of Mr. Ruskin's own personality that enabled her to be so. + +It's all the Zeitgeist: that's where it is. The slow irresistible +Zeitgeist. Fifty years ago, men's taste had been so warped and distorted +by current art and current criticism that they _couldn't_ see +Botticelli, however hard they tried at it. He was a sealed book to our +fathers. In those days it required a brave, a vigorous, and an original +thinker to discover any merit in any painter before Raffael, except +perhaps, as Goldsmith wisely remarked, Perugino. The man who went then +to the Uffizi or the Pitti, after admiring as in duty bound his High +Renaissance masters, found himself suddenly confronted with the Judith +or the Calumny, and straightway wondered what manner of strange wild +beasts these were that some insane early Tuscan had once painted to +amuse himself in a lucid interval. They were not in the least like the +Correggios and the Guidos, the Lawrences and the Opies, that the men of +that time had formed their taste upon, and accepted as their sole +artistic standards. To people brought up upon pure David and +Thorvaldsen, the Primavera at the Belle Arti must naturally have seemed +like a wild freak of madness. The Zeitgeist then went all in the +direction of cold lifeless correctness; the idea that the painter's soul +counted for something in art was an undreamt of heresy. + +On your way back from Paris some day, stop a night at Amiens and take +the Cathedral seriously. Half the stately interior of that glorious +thirteenth century pile is encrusted and overlaid by hideous gewgaw +monstrosities of the flashiest Bernini and _baroque_ period. There they +sprawl their obtrusive legs and wave their flaunting theatrical wings to +the utter destruction of all repose and consistency in one of the +noblest and most perfect buildings of Europe. Nowadays, any child, any +workman can see at a glance how ugly and how disfiguring those floppy +creatures are; it is impossible to look at them without saying to +oneself: "Why don't they clear away all this high-faluting rubbish, and +let us see the real columns and arches and piers as their makers +designed them?" Yet who was it that put them there, those unspeakable +angels in muslin drapery, those fly-away nymphs and graces and seraphim? +Why, the best and most skilled artists of their day in Europe. And +whence comes it that the merest child can now see instinctively how out +of place they are, how disfiguring, how incongruous? Why, because the +Gothic revival has taught us all by degrees to appreciate the beauty and +delicacy of a style which to our eighteenth century ancestors was mere +barbaric mediaevalism; has taught us to admire its exquisite purity, and +to dislike the obstrusive introduction into its midst of incongruous and +meretricious Bernini-like flimsiness. + +The Zeitgeist has changed, and we have changed with it. + +It is just the same with our friend Botticelli. Scarce a dozen years +ago, it was almost an affectation to pretend you admired him. It is no +affectation now. Hundreds of assorted young women from the Abyss of +Bayswater may rise any morning here in sacred Florence and stand +genuinely enchanted before the Adoration of the Kings, or the Venus who +floats on her floating shell in a Botticellian ocean. And why? Because +Leighton, Holman Hunt, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Madox Brown, Strudwick, +have led them slowly up to it by golden steps innumerable. Thirty years +ago the art of the early Tuscan painters was something to us Northerners +exotic, strange, unconnected, archaeological. Gradually, it has been +brought nearer and nearer to us on the walls of the Grosvenor and the +New Gallery, till now he that runs may read; the ingenuous maiden, +fished from the Abyss of Bayswater, can drink in at a glance what it +took a Ruskin many years of his life and much slow development to attain +to piecemeal. + +That is just what all great men are for--to make the world accept as a +truism in the generation after them what it rejected as a paradox in the +generation before them. + +Not, of course, that there isn't a little of affectation, and still more +of fashion, to the very end in all of it. An immense number of people, +incapable of genuinely admiring anything for its own sake at all, are +anxious only to be told what they "ought to admire, don't you know," and +will straightway proceed as conscientiously as they can to get up an +admiration for it. A friend of mine told me a beautiful example. Two +aspiring young women, of the limp-limbed, short-haired, aesthetic +species, were standing rapt before the circular Madonna at the Uffizi. +They had gazed at it long and lovingly, seeing it bore on its frame the +magic name of Botticelli. Of a sudden one of the pair happened to look a +little nearer at the accusing label. "Why, this is not Sandro," she +cried, with a revulsion of disgust; "this is only Aless." And +straightway they went off from the spot in high dudgeon at having been +misled as they supposed into examining the work of "another person of +the same name." + +Need I point the moral of my apologue, in this age of enlightenment, by +explaining, for the benefit of the junior members, that the gentleman's +full name was really Alessandro, and that both abbreviations are +impartially intended to cover his one and indivisible personality? The +first half is official, like Alex.; the second affectionate and +familiar, like Sandy. + +Still, even after making due allowance for such humbugs as these, a vast +residuum remains of people who, if born sixty years ago, could never by +any possibility have been made to see there was anything admirable in +Lippi, Botticelli, Giotto; but who, having been born thirty years ago, +see it without an effort. Hundreds who read these lines must themselves +remember the unmistakable thrill of genuine pleasure with which they +first gazed upon the Fra Angelicos at San Marco, the Memlings at Bruges, +the Giottos in the Madonna dell' Arena at Padua. To many of us, those +are real epochs in our inner life. To the men of fifty years ago, the +bare avowal itself would have seemed little short of affected silliness. + +Is the change all due to the teaching of the teachers and the preaching +of the preachers? I think not entirely. For, after all, the teachers and +the preachers are but a little ahead of the age they live in. They see +things earlier; they help to lead us up to them; but they do not wholly +produce the revolutions they inaugurate. Humanity as a whole develops +consistently along certain pre-established and predestined lines. Sooner +or later, a certain point must inevitably be reached; but some of us +reach it sooner, and most of us later. That's all the difference. Every +great change is mainly due to the fact that we have all already attained +a certain point in development. A step in advance becomes inevitable +after that, and one after another we are sure to take it. In one word, +what it needed a man of genius to see dimly thirty years ago, it needs a +singular fool not to see clearly nowadays. + + + + +XIV. + +_THE DECLINE OF MARRIAGE._ + + +Men don't marry nowadays. So everybody tells us. And I suppose we may +therefore conclude, by a simple act of inference, that women in turn +don't marry either. It takes two, of course, to make a quarrel--or a +marriage. + +Why is this? "Young people nowadays want to begin where their fathers +left off." "Men are made so comfortable at present in their clubs." +"College-bred girls have no taste for housekeeping." "Rents are so high +and manners so luxurious." Good heavens, what silly trash, what puerile +nonsense! Are we all little boys and girls, I ask you, that we are to +put one another off with such transparent humbug? Here we have to deal +with a primitive instinct--the profoundest and deepest-seated instinct +of humanity, save only the instincts of food and drink and of +self-preservation. Man, like all other animals, has two main functions: +to feed his own organism, and to reproduce his species. Ancestral habit +leads him, when mature, to choose himself a mate--because he loves her. +It drives him, it urges him, it goads him irresistibly. If this profound +impulse is really lacking to-day in any large part of our race, there +must be some correspondingly profound and adequate reason for it. Don't +let us deceive ourselves with shallow platitudes which may do for +drawing-rooms. This is philosophy, even though post-prandial. Let us try +to take a philosophic view of the question at issue, from the point of +vantage of a biological outlook. + +Before you begin to investigate the causes of a phenomenon _quelconque_, +'tis well to decide whether the phenomenon itself is there to +investigate. + +Taking society throughout--_not_ in the sense of those "forty families" +to which the term is restricted by Lady Charles Beresford--I doubt +whether marriage is much out of fashion. Statistics show a certain +decrease, it is true, but not an alarming one. Among the labouring +classes, I imagine men, and also women, still wed pretty frequently. +When people say, "Young men won't marry nowadays," they mean young men +in a particular stratum of society, roughly bounded by a silk hat on +Sundays. Now, when you and I were young (I take it for granted that you +and I are approaching the fifties) young men did marry; even within this +restricted area, 'twas their wholesome way in life to form an attachment +early with some nice girl in their own set, and to start at least with +the idea of marrying her. Toward that goal they worked; for that end +they endured and sacrificed many things. True, even then, the long +engagement was the rule; but the long engagement itself meant some +persistent impulse, some strong impetus marriage-wards. The desire of +the man to make this woman his own, the longing to make this woman +happy--normal and healthy endowments of our race--had still much +driving-power. Nowadays, I seriously think I observe in most young men +of the middle class around me a distinct and disastrous weakening of the +impulse. They don't fall in love as frankly, as honestly, as +irretrievably as they used to do. They shilly-shally, they pick and +choose, they discuss, they criticise. They say themselves these futile +foolish things about the club, and the flat, and the cost of living. +They believe in Malthus. Fancy a young man who believes in Malthus! They +seem in no hurry at all to get married. But thirty or forty years ago, +young men used to rush by blind instinct into the toils of +matrimony--because they couldn't help themselves. Such Laodicean +luke-warmness betokens in the class which exhibits it a weakening of +impulse. That weakening of impulse is really the thing we have to +account for. + +Young men of a certain type don't marry, because--they are less of young +men than formerly. + +Wild animals in confinement seldom propagate their kind. Only a few +caged birds will continue their species. Whatever upsets the balance of +the organism, in an individual or a race tends first of all to affect +the rate of reproduction. Civilise the red man, and he begins to +decrease at once in numbers. Turn the Sandwich Islands into a trading +community, and the native Hawaiian refuses forthwith to give hostages to +fortune. Tahiti is dwindling. From the moment the Tasmanians were taken +to Norfolk Island, not a single Tasmanian baby was born. The Jesuits +made a model community of Paraguay; but they altered the habits of the +Paraguayans so fast that the reverend fathers, who were, of course, +themselves celibates, were compelled to take strenuous and even +grotesque measures to prevent the complete and immediate extinction of +their converts. Other cases in abundance I might quote an I would; but I +limit myself to these. They suffice to exhibit the general principle +involved; any grave upset in the conditions of life affects first and at +once the fertility of a species. + +"But colonists often increase with rapidity." Ay, marry, do they, where +the conditions of life are easy. At the present day most colonists go to +fairly civilised regions; they are transported to their new home by +steamboat and railway; they find for the most part more abundant +provender and more wholesome surroundings than in their native country. +There is no real upset. Better food and easier life, as Herbert Spencer +has shown, result (other things equal) in increased fertility. His +chapters on this subject in the "Principles of Biology" should be read +by everybody who pretends to talk on questions of population. But in new +and difficult colonies the increase is slight. Whatever compels greater +wear and tear of the nervous system proves inimical to the reproductive +function. The strain and stress of co-ordination with novel +circumstances and novel relations affect most injuriously the organic +balance. The African negro has long been accustomed to agricultural toil +and to certain simple arts in his own country. Transported to the West +Indies and the United States, he found life no harder than of old, if +not, indeed, easier. He had abundant food, protection, security, a kind +of labour for which he was well adapted. Instead of dying out, +therefore, he was fruitful, and multiplied, and replenished the earth +amazingly. But the Red Indian, caught blatant in the hunting stage, +refused to be tamed, and could not swallow civilisation. He pined and +dwined and decreased in his "reservations." The change was too great, +too abrupt, too brusque for him. The papoose before long became an +extinct animal. + +Is not the same thing true of the middle class of England? Civilisation +and its works have come too quickly upon us. The strain and stress of +correlating and co-ordinating the world we live in are getting too much +for us. Railways, telegraphs, the penny post, the special edition, have +played havoc at last with our nervous systems. We are always on the +stretch, rushing and tearing perpetually. We bolt our breakfasts; we +catch the train or 'bus by the skin of our teeth, to rattle us into the +City; we run down to Scotland or over to Paris on business; we lunch in +London and dine in Glasgow, Belfast, or Calcutta. (Excuse imagination.) +The tape clicks perpetually in our ears the last quotation in Eries; the +telephone rings us up at inconvenient moments. Something is always +happening somewhere to disturb our equanimity; we tear open the _Times_ +with feverish haste, to learn that Kimberleys or Jabez Balfour have +fallen, that Matabeleland has been painted red, that shares have gone +up, or gone down, or evaporated. Life is one turmoil of excitement and +bustle. Financially, 'tis a series of dissolving views; personally 'tis +a rush; socially, 'tis a mosaic of deftly-fitted engagements. Drop out +one piece, and you can never replace it. You are full next week from +Monday to Saturday--business all day, what calls itself pleasure (save +the mark!) all evening. Poor old Leisure is dead. We hurry and scurry +and flurry eternally. One whirl of work from morning till night: then +dress and dine: one whirl of excitement from night till morning. A snap +of troubled sleep, and again _da capo_. Not an hour, not a minute, we +can call our own. A wire from a patient ill abed in Warwickshire! A wire +from a client hard hit in Hansards! Endless editors asking for more +copy! more copy! Alter to suit your own particular trade, and 'tis the +life of all of us. + +The first generation after Stephenson and the Rocket pulled through with +it somehow. They inherited the sound constitutions of the men who sat on +rustic seats in the gardens of the twenties. The second +generation--that's you and me--felt the strain of it more severely: new +machines had come in to make life still more complicated: sixpenny +telegrams, Bell and Edison, submarine cables, evening papers, +perturbations pouring in from all sides incessantly; the suburbs +growing, the hubbub increasing, Metropolitan railways, trams, bicycles, +innumerable: but natheless we still endured, and presented the world all +the same with a third generation. That third generation--ah me! there +comes the pity of it! One fancies the impulse to marry and rear a family +has wholly died out of it. It seems to have died out most in the class +where the strain and stress are greatest. I don't think young men of +that class to-day have the same feelings towards women of their sort as +formerly. Nobody, I trust, will mistake me for a reactionary: in most +ways, the modern young man is a vast improvement on you and me at +twenty-five. But I believe there is really among young men in towns less +chivalry, less devotion, less romance than there used to be. That, I +take it, is the true reason why young men don't marry. With certain +classes and in certain places a primitive instinct of our race has +weakened. They say this weakening is accompanied in towns by an increase +in sundry hateful and degrading vices. I don't know if that is so; but +at least one would expect it. Any enfeeblement of the normal and natural +instinct of virility would show itself first in morbid aberrations. On +that I say nothing. I only say this--that I think the present crisis in +the English marriage market is due, not to clubs or the comfort of +bachelor quarters, but to the cumulative effect of nervous +over-excitement. + + + + +XV. + +_EYE_ VERSUS _EAR_. + + +It is admitted on all hands by this time, I suppose, that the best way +of learning is by eye, not by ear. Therefore the authorities that +prescribe for us our education among all classes have decided that we +shall learn by ear, not by eye. Which is just what one might expect from +a vested interest. + +Of course this superiority of sight over hearing is pre-eminently true +of natural science--that is to say, of nine-tenths among the subjects +worth learning by humanity. The only real way to learn geology, for +example, is not to mug it up in a printed text-book, but to go into the +field with a geologist's hammer. The only real way to learn zoology and +botany is not by reading a volume of natural history, but by collecting, +dissecting, observing, preserving, and comparing specimens. Therefore, +of course, natural science has never been a favourite study in the eyes +of school-masters, who prefer those subjects which can be taught in a +room to a row of boys on a bench, and who care a great deal less than +nothing for any subject which isn't "good to examine in." Educational +value and importance in after life have been sacrificed to the teacher's +ease and convenience, or to the readiness with which the pupil's +progress can be tested on paper. Not what is best to learn, but what is +least trouble to teach in great squads to boys, forms the staple of our +modern English education. They call it "education," I observe in the +papers, and I suppose we must fall in with that whim of the profession. + +But even the subjects which belong by rights to the ear can nevertheless +be taught by the eye more readily. Everybody knows how much easier it is +to get up the history and geography of a country when you are actually +in it than when you are merely reading about it. It lives and moves +before you. The places, the persons, the monuments, the events, all +become real to you. Each illustrates each, and each tends to impress the +other on the memory. Sight burns them into the brain without conscious +effort. You can learn more of Egypt and of Egyptian history, culture, +hieroglyphics, and language in a few short weeks at Luxor or Sakkarah +than in a year at the Louvre and the British Museum. The Tombs of the +Kings are worth many papyri. The mere sight of the temples and obelisks +and monuments and inscriptions, in the places where their makers +originally erected them, gives a sense of reality and interest to them +all that no amount of study under alien conditions can possibly equal. +We have all of us felt that the only place to observe Flemish art to the +greatest advantage is at Ghent and Bruges and Brussels and Antwerp; just +as the only place to learn Florentine art as it really was is at the +Uffizi and the Bargello. + +These things being so, the authorities who have charge of our public +education, primary, secondary, and tertiary, have decided in their +wisdom--to do and compel the exact contrary. Object-lessons and the +visible being admittedly preferable to rote-lessons and the audible, +they have prescribed that our education, so called, shall be mainly an +education not in things and properties, but in books and reading. They +have settled that it shall deal almost entirely and exclusively with +language and with languages; that words, not objects, shall be the facts +it impresses on the minds of the pupils. In our primary schools they +have insisted upon nothing but reading and writing, with just a +smattering of arithmetic by way of science. In our secondary schools +they have insisted upon nothing but Greek and Latin, with about an equal +leaven of algebra and geometry. This mediaeval fare (I am delighted that +I can thus agree for once with Professor Ray Lankester) they have thrust +down the throats of all the world indiscriminately; so much so that +nowadays people seem hardly able at last to conceive of any other than a +linguistic education as possible. You will hear many good folk who talk +with contempt of Greek and Latin; but when you come to inquire what new +mental pabulum they would substitute for those quaint and grotesque +survivals of the Dark Ages, you find what they want instead is--modern +languages. The idea that language of any sort forms no necessary element +in a liberal education has never even occurred to them. They take it for +granted that when you leave off feeding boys on straw and oats you must +supply them instead with hay and sawdust. + +Not that I rage against Greek and Latin as such. It is well we should +have many specialists among us who understand them, just as it is well +we should have specialists in Anglo-Saxon and Sanskrit. I merely mean +that they are not the sum and substance of educational method. They are +at best but two languages of considerable importance to the student of +purely human evolution. + +Furthermore, even these comparatively useless linguistic subjects could +themselves be taught far better by sight than by hearing. A week at Rome +would give your average boy a much clearer idea of the relations of the +Capitol with the Palatine than all the pretty maps in Dr. William +Smith's Smaller Classical Dictionary. It would give him also a sense of +the reality of the Latin language and the Latin literature, which he +could never pick up out of a dog-eared Livy or a thumb-marked AEneid. You +have only to look across from the top of the Janiculum, towards the +white houses of Frascati, to learn a vast deal more about the Alban +hills and the site of Tusculum than ever you could mug up from all the +geography books in the British Museum. The way to learn every subject on +earth, even book-lore included, is not out of books alone, but by actual +observation. + +And yet it is impossible for any one among us to do otherwise than +acquiesce in this vicious circle. Why? Just because no man can +dissociate himself outright from the social organism of which he forms a +component member. He can no more do so than the eye can dissociate +itself from the heart and lungs, or than the legs can shake themselves +free from the head and stomach. We have all to learn, and to let our +boys learn, what authority decides for us. We can't give them a better +education than the average, even if we know what it is and desire to +impart it, because the better education, though abstractly more +valuable, is now and here the inlet to nothing. Every door is barred +with examinations, and opens but to the golden key of the crammer. Not +what is of most real use and importance in life, but what "pays best" in +examination, is the test of desirability. We are the victims of a +system; and our only hope of redress is not by sporadic individual +action but by concerted rebellion. We must cry out against the abuse +till at last we are heard by dint of our much speaking. In a world so +complex and so highly organised as ours, the individual can only do +anything in the long run by influencing the mass--by securing the +co-operation of many among his fellows. + +Meanwhile, I believe it is gradually becoming the fact that our girls, +who till lately were so very ill-taught, are beginning to know more of +what is really worth knowing than their public-school-bred brothers. For +the public school still goes on with the system of teaching it has +derived direct from the thirteenth century; while the girls' schools, +having started fair and fresh, are beginning to assimilate certain newer +ideas belonging to the seventeenth and even the eighteenth. In time they +may conceivably come down to the more elementary notions of the present +generation. Less hampered by professions and examinations than the boys, +the girls are beginning to know something now, not indeed of the +universe in which they live, its laws and its properties, but of +literature and history, and the principal facts about human development. +Yet all the time, the boys go on as ever with Musa, Musae, like so many +parrots, and are turned out at last, in nine cases out of ten, with just +enough smattering of Greek and Latin grammar to have acquired a +life-long distaste for Horace and an inconquerable incapacity for +understanding AEschylus. One year in Italy with their eyes open would be +worth more than three at Oxford; and six months in the fields with a +platyscopic lens would teach them strange things about the world around +them that all the long terms at Harrow and Winchester have failed to +discover to them. But that would involve some trouble to the teacher. + +What a misfortune it is that we should thus be compelled to let our +boys' schooling interfere with their education! + + + + +XVI. + +_THE POLITICAL PUPA._ + + +I have picked up on the moor the chrysalis of a common English +butterfly. As I sit on the heather and turn it over attentively, while +it wriggles in my hands, I can't help thinking how closely it resembles +the present condition of our British commonwealth. It is a platitude, +indeed, to say that "this is an age of transition." But it would be +truer and more graphic perhaps to put it that this is an age in which +England, and for the matter of that every other European country as +well, is passing through something like the chrysalis stage in its +evolution. + +But, first of all, do you clearly understand what a chrysalis is driving +at? It means more than it seems; the change that goes on within that +impassive case is a great deal more profound than most people imagine. +When the caterpillar is just ready to turn into a butterfly it lies by +for a while, full of internal commotion, and feels all its organs slowly +melting one by one into a sort of indistinguishable protoplasmic pulp; +chaos precedes the definite re-establishment of a fresh form of order. +Limbs and parts and nervous system all disappear for a time, and then +gradually grow up again in new and altered types. The caterpillar, if it +philosophised on its own state at all (which seems to be very little the +habit of well-conducted caterpillars, as of well-conducted young +ladies), might easily be excused for forming just at first the +melancholy impression that a general dissolution was coming over it +piecemeal. It must begin by feeling legs and eyes and nervous centres +melt away by degrees into a common indistinguishable organic pulp, out +of which the new organs only slowly form themselves in obedience to the +law of some internal impulse. But when the process is all over, and--hi, +presto!--the butterfly emerges at last from the chrysalis condition, +what does it find but that instead of having lost everything it has new +and stronger legs in place of the old and feeble ones; it has nerves and +brain more developed than before; it has wings for flight instead of +mere creeping little feet to crawl with? What seemed like chaos was +really nothing more than the necessary kneading up of all component +parts into a plastic condition which precedes every fresh departure in +evolution. The old must fade before the new can replace it. + +Now I am not going to work this perhaps somewhat fanciful analogy to +death, or pretend it is anything more than a convenient metaphor. Still, +taken as such, it is not without its luminosity. For a metaphor, by +supplying us with a picturable representation, often enables us really +to get at the hang of the thing a vast deal better than the most solemn +argument. And I fancy communities sometimes pass through just such a +chrysalis stage, when it seems to the timid and pessimistic in their +midst as if every component element of the State (but especially the one +in which they themselves and their friends are particularly interested) +were rushing violently down a steep place to eternal perdition. Chaos +appears to be swallowing up everything. "The natural relations of +classes" disappear. Faiths melt; churches dissolve; morals fade; bonds +fail; a universal magma of emancipated opinion seems to take the place +of old-established dogma. The squires and the parsons of the +period--call them scribes or augurs--wring their hands in despair, and +cry aloud that they don't know what the world is coming to. But, after +all, it is only the chrysalis stage of a new system. The old social +order must grow disjointed and chaotic before the new social order can +begin to evolve from it. The establishment of a plastic consistency in +the mass is the condition precedent of the higher development. + +Not, of course, that this consideration will ever afford one grain of +comfort to the squires and the parsons of each successive epoch; for +what _they_ want is not the reasonable betterment of the whole social +organism, but the continuance of just this particular type of squiredom +and parsonry. That is what they mean by "national welfare;" and any +interference with it they criticise in all ages with the current +equivalent for the familiar Tory formula that "the country is going to +the devil." + +Sometimes these great social reconstructions of which I speak are forced +upon communities by external factors interfering with their fixed +internal order, as happened when the influx of northern barbarians broke +up the decaying and rotten organism of the Roman Empire. Sometimes, +again, they occur from internal causes, in an acute, and so to speak, +inflammatory condition, as at the French Revolution. But sometimes, as +in our own time and country, they are slowly brought about by organic +development, so as really to resemble in all essential points the +chrysalis type of evolution. Politically, socially, theologically, +ethically, the old fixed beliefs seem at such periods to grow fluid or +plastic. New feelings and habits and aspirations take their place. For a +while a general chaos of conflicting opinions and nascent ideas is +produced. The mass for the moment seems formless and lawless. Then new +order supervenes, as the magma settles down and begins to crystallise; +till at last, I'm afraid, the resulting social organism becomes for the +most part just as rigid, just as definite, just as dogmatic, just as +exacting, as the one it has superseded. The caterpillar has grown into a +particular butterfly. + +Through just such a period of reconstruction Europe in general and +Britain in particular are now in all likelihood beginning to pass. And +they will come out at the other end translated and transfigured. Laws +and faiths and morals will all of them have altered. There will be a new +heaven and a new earth for the men and women of the new epoch. Strange +that people should make such a fuss about a detail like Home Rule, when +the foundations of society are all becoming fluid. Don't flatter +yourself for a moment that your particular little sect or your +particular little dogma is going to survive the gentle cataclysm any +more than my particular little sect or my particular little dogma. All +alike are doomed to inevitable reconstruction. "We can't put the +Constitution into the melting-pot," said Mr. John Morley, if I recollect +his words aright. But at the very moment when he said it, in my humble +opinion, the Constitution was already well into the melting-pot, and +even beginning to simmer merrily. Federalism, or something extremely +like it, may with great probability be the final outcome of that +particular melting; though anything else is perhaps just as probable, +and in any case the melting is general, not special. The one thing we +can guess with tolerable certainty is that the melting-pot stage has +begun to overtake us, socially, ethically, politically, +ecclesiastically; and that what will emerge from the pot at the end of +it must depend at last upon the relative strength of those unknown +quantities--the various formative elements. + +Being the most optimistic of pessimists, however, I will venture (after +this disclaimer of prophecy) to prophesy one thing alone: 'Twill be a +butterfly, not a grub, that comes out of our chrysalis. + +Beyond that, I hold all prediction premature. We may guess and we may +hope, but we can have no certainty. Save only the certainty that no +element will outlive the revolution unchanged--not faiths, nor classes, +nor domestic relations, nor any other component factor of our complex +civilisation. All are becoming plastic in the organic plasm; all are +losing features in the common mass of the melting-pot. For that reason, +I never trouble my head for a moment when people object to me that this, +that, or the other petty point of detail in Bellamy's Utopia or William +Morris's Utopia, or my own little private and particular Utopia, is +impossible, or unrealisable, or wicked, or hateful. For these, after +all, are mere Utopias; their details are the outcome of individual +wishes; what will emerge must be, not a Utopia at all, either yours or +mine, but a practical reality, full of shifts and compromises most +unphilosophical and illogical--a practical reality distasteful in many +ways to all us Utopia-mongers. "The Millennium by return of post" is no +more realisable to-day than yesterday. The greatest of revolutions can +only produce that unsatisfactory result, a new human organisation. + +Yet, it is something, after all, to believe at least that the grub will +emerge into a full-fledged butterfly. Not, perhaps, quite as glossy in +the wings as we could wish; but a butterfly all the same, not a crawling +caterpillar. + + + + +XVII. + +_ON THE CASINO TERRACE._ + + +I have always regarded Monte Carlo as an Influence for Good. It helps to +keep so many young men off the Stock Exchange. + +Let me guard against an obvious but unjust suspicion. These remarks are +not uttered under the exhilarating effect of winning at the tables. +Quite the contrary. It is the Bank that has broken the Man to-day +at Monte Carlo. They are rather due to the chastening and +thought-compelling influence of persistent loss, not altogether +unbalanced by a well-cooked lunch at perhaps the best restaurant in any +town of Europe. I have lost my little pile. The eight five-franc pieces +which I annually devote out of my scanty store to the tutelary god of +roulette have been snapped up, one after another, in breathless haste, +by the sphinx-like croupiers, impassive priests of that rapacious deity, +and now I am sitting, cleaned out, by the edge of the terrace, on a +brilliant, cloudless, February afternoon, looking across the zoned and +belted bay towards the beautiful grey hills of Rocca-bruna and the +gleaming white spit of Bordighera in the distance. 'Tis a modest +tribute, my poor little forty francs. Surely the veriest puritan, the +oiliest Chadband of them all, will allow a humble scribbler, at so cheap +a yearly rate, to purchase wisdom, not unmixed with tolerance, at the +gilded shrine of Fors Fortuna! + +For what a pother, after all, the unwise of this world are wont to make +about one stranded gambling-house, in a remote corner of Liguria! If +they were in earnest or sincere, how small a matter they would think it! +Of course, when I say so, hypocrisy holds up its hands in holy horror. +But that is the way with the purveyors of mint, cumin, and anise; they +raise a mighty hubbub over some unimportant detail--in order to feel +their consciences clear when business compels them to rob the widow and +the orphan. In reality, though Monte Carlo is bad enough in its way--do +I not pay it unwilling tribute myself twice a year out of the narrow +resources of The Garret, Grub Street?--it is but a skin-deep surface +symptom of a profound disease which attacks the heart and core in London +and Paris. Compared with Panama, Argentines, British South Africans, and +Liberators, Monte Carlo is a mole on the left ankle. + +"The Devil's advocate!" you say. Well, well, so be it. The fact is, the +supposed moral objection to gambling as such is a purely commercial +objection of a commercial nation; and the reason so much importance is +attached to it in certain places is because at that particular vice men +are likely to lose their money. It is largely a fetish, like the +sinfulness of cards, of dice, of billiards. Moreover, the objection is +only to the _kind_ of gambling. There is another kind, less open, at +which you stand a better chance to win yourself, while other parties +stand a better chance to lose; and that kind, which is played in great +gambling-houses known as the Stock Exchange and the Bourse, is +considered, morally speaking, as quite innocuous. Large fortunes are +made at this other sort of gambling, which, of course, sanctifies and +almost canonises it. Indeed, if you will note, you will find not only +that the objection to gambling pure and simple is commonest in the most +commercial countries, but also that even there it is commonest among the +most commercial classes. The landed aristocracy, the military, and the +labouring men have no objection to betting; nor have the Neapolitan +lazzaroni, the Chinese coolies. It is the respectable English +counting-house that discourages the vice, especially among the clerks, +who are likely to make the till or the cheque-book rectify the little +failures of their flutter on the Derby. + +Observe how artificial is the whole mild out-cry: how absolutely it +partakes of the nature of damning the sins you have no mind to! Here, on +the terrace where I sit, and where ladies in needlessly costly robes are +promenading up and down to exhibit their superfluous wealth +ostentatiously to one another, my ear is continuously assailed by the +constant _ping, ping, ping_ of the pigeon-shooting, and my peace +disturbed by the flapping death-agonies of those miserable victims. Yet +how many times have you heard the tables at Monte Carlo denounced to +once or never that you have heard a word said of the poor mangled +pigeons? And why? Because nobody loses much money at pigeon-matches. +That is legitimate sport, about as good and as bad as pheasant or +partridge shooting--no better, no worse, in spite of artificial +distinctions; and nobody (except the pigeons) has any interest in +denouncing it. Legend has it at Monte Carlo, indeed, that when the +proprietors of the Casino wished to take measures "pour attirer les +Anglais" they held counsel with the wise men whether it was best to +establish and endow an English church or a pigeon-shooting tournament. +And the church was in a minority. Since then, I have heard more than one +Anglican Bishop speak evil of the tables, but I have never heard one of +them say a good word yet for the boxed and slaughtered pigeons. + +Let me take a more striking because a less hackneyed case--one that +still fewer people would think of. Everybody who visits Monte Carlo gets +there, of course, by the P.L.M. If you know this coast at all you will +know that P.L.M. is the curt and universal abbreviation for the Paris, +Lyon, Mediterranee Railway Company--in all probability the most gigantic +and wickedest monopoly on the face of this planet. Yet you never once +heard a voice raised yet against the company as a company. Individual +complaints get into the _Times_, of course, about the crowding of the +_train de luxe_, the breach of faith as to places, and the discomforts +of the journey; but never a glimmering conception seems to flit across +the popular mind that here is a Colossal Wrong, compared to which Monte +Carlo is but as a flea-bite to the Asiatic cholera. This chartered abuse +connects the three biggest towns in France--Paris, Lyon, Marseilles--and +is absolutely without competitors. It can do as it likes; and it does +it, regardless--I say "regardless," without qualification, because the +P.L.M. regards nobody and nothing. Yet one hears of no righteous +indignation, no uprising of the people in their angry thousands, no +moral recognition of the monopoly as a Wicked Thing, to be fought tooth +and nail, without quarter given. It probably causes a greater aggregate +of human misery in a week than Monte Carlo in a century. Besides, the +one is compulsory, the other optional. You needn't risk a louis on the +tables unless you choose, but, like it or lump it, if you're bound for +Nice or Cannes or Mentone, you must open your mouth and shut your eyes +and see what P.L.M. will send you. Our own railways, indeed, are by no +means free from blame at the hands of the Democracy: the South-Eastern +has not earned the eternal gratitude of its season-ticket holders; the +children of the Great Western do not rise up and call it blessed. +(Except, indeed, in the most uncomplimentary sense of blessing.) But the +P.L.M. goes much further than these; and I have always held that the one +solid argument for eternal punishment consists in the improbability that +its Board of Directors will be permitted to go scot-free for ever after +all their iniquities. + +I am not wholly joking. I mean the best part of it. Great monopolies +that abuse their trust are far more dangerous enemies of public morals +than an honest gambling-house at every corner. Monte Carlo as it stands +is just a concentrated embodiment of all the evils of our anti-social +system, and the tables are by far the least serious among them. It is an +Influence for Good, because it mirrors our own world in all its naked, +all its over-draped hideousness. There it rears its meretricious head, +that gaudy Palace of Sin, appropriately decked in its Haussmanesque +architecture and its coquettish gardens, attracting to itself all the +idle, all the vicious, all the rich, all the unworthy, from every corner +of Europe and America. But Monte Carlo didn't make them; it only gathers +to its bosom its own chosen children from the places where they are +produced--from London, Paris, Brussels, New York, Berlin, St. +Petersburg. The vices of our organisation begot these over-rich folk, +begot their diamond-decked women, and their clipped French poodles with +gold bangles spanning their aristocratic legs. These are the spawn of +land-owning, of capitalism, of military domination, of High Finance, of +all the social ills that flesh is heir to. I feel as I pace the terrace +in the broad Mediterranean sunshine, that I am here in the midst of the +very best society Europe affords. That is to say, the very worst. The +dukes and the money-lenders, the Jay Goulds and the Reinachs. The +idlest, the cruellest: the hereditary drones, the successful +blood-suckers. But to find fault with them only for trying to +win one another's ill-gotten gold at a fair and open game of +_trente-et-quarante_, with the odds against them, and then to say +nothing about the way they came by it, is to make a needless fuss about +a trifle of detail, while overlooking the weightiest moral problems of +humanity. + +Whoever allows red herrings like these to be trailed across the path of +his moral consciousness, to the detriment of the scent which should lead +him straight on to the lairs of gigantic evils, deserves little credit +either for conscience or sagacity. My son, be wise. Strike at the root +of the evil. Let Monte Carlo go, but keep a stern eye on London +ground-rents. + + + + +XVIII. + +_THE CELTIC FRINGE._ + + +We Celts henceforth will rule the roost in Britain. + +What is that you mutter? "A very inopportune moment to proclaim the +fact." Well, no, I don't think so. And I'm sorry to hear you say it, for +if there _is_ a quality on which I plume myself, it's the delicate tact +that makes me refrain from irritating the susceptibilities of the +sensitive Saxon. See how polite I am to him! I call him sensitive. But, +opportune or inopportune, Lord Salisbury says we are a Celtic fringe. I +beg to retort, we are the British people. + +"Conquered races," say my friends. Well, grant it for a moment. But in +civilised societies, conquerors have, sooner or later, to amalgamate +with the conquered. And where the vanquished are more numerous, they +absorb the victors instead of being absorbed by them. That is the +Nemesis of conquest. Rome annexed Etruria; and Etruscan Maecenas, +Etruscan Sejanus organised and consolidated the Roman Empire. Rome +annexed Italy; and the _Jus Italicum_ grew at last to be the full Roman +franchise. Rome annexed the civilised world; and the provinces under +Caesar blotted out the Senate. Britain is passing now through the +self-same stage. One inevitable result of the widening of the electorate +has been the transfer of power from the Teutonic to the Celtic half of +Britain. I repeat, we are no longer a Celtic fringe: at the polls, in +Parliament, we are the British people. Lord Salisbury may fail to +perceive that fact, or, as I hold more probable, may affect to ignore +it. What will such tactics avail? The ostrich is not usually counted +among men as a perfect model of political wisdom. + +And _are_ we, after all, the conquered peoples? Meseems, I doubt it. +They say we Celts dearly love a paradox--which is perhaps only the +sensible Saxon way of envisaging the fact that we catch at new truths +somewhat quicker than other people. At any rate, 'tis a pet little +paradox of my own that we have never been conquered, and that to our +unconquered state we owe in the main our Radicalism, our Socialism, our +ingrained love of political freedom. We are tribal not feudal; we think +the folk more important than his lordship. The Saxon of the south-east +is the conquered man: he has felt on his neck for generations the heel +of feudalism. He is slavish; he is snobbish; he dearly loves a lord. He +shouts himself hoarse for his Beaconsfield or his Salisbury. Till +lately, in his rural avatar, he sang but one song-- + + "God bless the squire and his relations, + And keep us in our proper stations." + +Trite, isn't it? but so is the Saxon intelligence. + +Seriously--for at times it is well to be serious--South-Eastern England, +the England of the plains, has been conquered and enslaved in a dozen +ages by each fresh invader. Before the dawn of history, Heaven knows +what shadowy Belgae and Iceni enslaved it. But historical time will serve +our purpose. The Roman enslaved it, but left Caledonia and Hibernia +free, the Cambrian, the Silurian, the Cornishman half-subjugated. The +Saxon and Anglian enslaved the east, but scarcely crossed over the +watershed of the western ocean. The Dane, in turn, enslaved the Saxon in +East Anglia and Yorkshire. The Norman ground all down to a common +servitude between the upper and nether millstones of the feudal +system--the king and the nobleman. At the end of it all, Teutonic +England was reduced to a patient condition of contented serfdom: it had +accommodated itself to its environment: no wish was left in it for the +assertion of its freedom. To this day, the south-east, save where +leavened and permeated by Celtic influences, hugs its chains and loves +them. It produces the strange portent of the Conservative working-man, +who yearns to be led by Lord Randolph Churchill. + +With the North and the West, things go wholly otherwise. Even Cornwall, +the earliest Celtic kingdom to be absorbed, was rather absorbed than +conquered. I won't go into the history of the West Welsh of Somerset, +Devon, and Cornwall at full length, because it would take ten pages to +explain it; and I know that readers are too profoundly interested in the +Shocking Murder in the Borough Road to devote half-an-hour to the origin +and evolution of their own community. It must suffice to say that the +Devonian and Cornubian Welsh coalesced with the West Saxon for +resistance to their common enemy the Dane, and that the West Saxon +kingdom was made supreme in Britain by the founder of the English +monarchy--one Dunstan, a monk from the West Welsh Abbey of Glastonbury. +Wales proper, overrun piecemeal by Norman filibusterers, was roughly +annexed by the Plantagenet kings; but it was only pacified under the +Welsh Tudors, and was never at any time thoroughly feudalised. +Glendower's rebellion, Richmond's rebellion, the Wesleyan revolt, the +Rebecca riots, the tithe war, are all continuous parts of the ceaseless +reaction of gallant little Wales against Teutonic aggression. "An alien +Church" still disturbs the Principality. The Lake District and +Ayrshire--Celtic Cumbria and Strathclyde--only accepted by degrees the +supremacy of the Kings of England and Scotland. The brother of a Scotch +King was Prince of Cumbria, as the elder son of an English King was +Prince of Wales. Indeed, David of Cumbria, who became David I. of +Scotland, was the real consolidator of the Scotch kingdom. Cumbria was +no more conquered by the Saxon Lothians than Scotland was conquered by +the accession of James I. or by the Act of Union. That means absorption, +conciliation, a certain degree of tribal independence. For Ireland, we +know that the "mere Irish" were never subjugated at all till the days of +Henry VII.; that they had to be reconquered by Cromwell and by William +of Orange; that they rebelled more or less throughout the eighteenth +century; and that they have been thorns in the side of Tory England +through the whole of the nineteenth. As for the Highlands, they held out +against the Stuarts till England had rejected that impossible dynasty; +and then they rallied round the Stuarts as the enemies of the Saxon. +General Wade's roads and the forts in the Great Glen, aided by a few +trifles of Glencoe massacres, kept them quiet for a moment. But it was +only for a moment. The North is once more in open revolt. Dr. Clark and +the crofters are its mode of expressing itself. + +Nor is that all. The Celtic ideas have remained unaltered. Of course, I +am not silly enough to believe there is any such thing as a Celtic race. +I use the word merely as a convenient label for the league of the +unconquered peoples in Britain. Ireland alone contains half-a-dozen +races; and none of them appear to have anything in common with the Pict +of Aberdeenshire or the West-Welsh of Cornwall. All I mean when I speak +of Celtic ideas and Celtic ideals is the ideas and ideals proper and +common to unconquered races. As compared with the feudalised and +contented serf of South-Eastern England, are not the Irish peasant, the +Scotch clansman, the "statesman" of the dales, the Cornish miner, free +men every soul of them? English landlordism, imposed from without upon +the crofter of Skye or the rack-rented tenant of a Connemara hillside, +has never crushed out the native feeling of a right to the soil, the +native resistance to an alien system. The south-east, I assert, has been +brutalised into acquiescent serfdom by a long course of feudalism; the +west and north still retain the instincts of freemen. + +As long as South-Eastern England and the Normanised or feudalised Saxon +lowlands of Scotland contained all the wealth, all the power, and most +of the population of Britain, the Celtic ideals had no chance of +realising themselves. But the industrial revolution of the present +century has turned us right-about-face, has transferred the balance of +power from the secondary strata to the primary strata in Britain; from +the agricultural lowlands to the uplands of coal and iron, the cotton +factories, the woollen trade. Great industrial cities have grown up in +the Celtic or semi-Celtic area--Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, +Bradford, Sheffield, Belfast, Aberdeen, Cardiff. The Celt--that is to +say, the mountaineer and the man of the untouched country--reproduces +his kind much more rapidly than the Teuton. The Highlander and the +Irishman swarm into Glasgow; the Irishman and the Welshman swarm into +Liverpool; the west-countryman into Bristol; Celts of all types into +London, Southampton, Newport, Birmingham, Sheffield. This eastward +return-wave of Celts upon the Teuton has leavened the whole mass; if you +look at the leaders of Radicalism in England you will find they bear, +almost without exception, true Celtic surnames. Chartists and Socialists +of the first generation were marshalled by men of Cymric descent, like +Ernest Jones and Robert Owen, or by pure-blooded Irishmen like Fergus +O'Connor. It is not a mere accident that the London Socialists of the +present day should be led by Welshmen like William Morris, or by the +eloquent brogue of Bernard Shaw's audacious oratory. We Celts now lurk +in every corner of Britain; we have permeated it with our ideas; we have +inspired it with our aspirations; we have roused the Celtic remnant in +the south-east itself to a sense of their wrongs; and we are marching +to-day, all abreast, to the overthrow of feudalism. If Lord Salisbury +thinks we are a Celtic fringe he is vastly mistaken. But he doesn't +really think so: 'tis a piece of his ponderous Saxon humour. Talk of +"Batavian grace," indeed! Well, the Cecils came first from the fens of +Lincolnshire. + + + + +XIX. + +_IMAGINATION AND RADICALS._ + + +Conservatism, I believe, is mainly due to want of imagination. + +In saying this, I do not for a moment mean to deny the other and equally +obvious truth that Conservatism, in the lump, is a euphemism for +selfishness. But the two ideas have much in common. Selfish people are +apt to be unimaginative: unimaginative people are apt to be selfish. +Clearly to realise the condition of the unfortunate is the beginning of +philanthropy. Clearly to realise the rights of others is the beginning +of justice. "Put yourself in his place" strikes the keynote of ethics. +Stupid people can only see their own side of a question: they cannot +even imagine any other side possible. So, as a rule, stupid people are +Conservative. They cling to what they have; they dread revision, +redistribution, justice. Also, if a man has imagination he is likely to +be Radical, even though selfish; while if he has no imagination he is +likely to be Conservative, even though otherwise good and kind-hearted. +Some men are Conservative from defects of heart, while some are +Conservative from defects of head. Conversely, most imaginative people +are Radical; for even a bad man may sometimes uphold the side of right +because he has intelligence enough to understand that things might be +better managed in the future for all than they are in the present. + +But when I say that Conservatism is mainly due to want of imagination, I +mean more than that. Most people are wholly unable to conceive in their +own minds any state of things very different from the one they have been +born and brought up in. The picturing power is lacking. They can +conceive the past, it is true, more or less vaguely--because they have +always heard things once were so, and because the past is generally +realisable still by the light of the relics it has bequeathed to the +present. But they can't at all conceive the future. Imagination fails +them. Innumerable difficulties crop up for them in the way of every +proposed improvement. Before there was any County Council for London, +such people thought municipal government for the metropolis an insoluble +problem. Now that Home Rule quivers trembling in the balance, they think +it would pass the wit of man to devise in the future a federal league +for the component elements of the United Kingdom; in spite of the fact +that the wit of man has already devised one for the States of the Union, +for the Provinces of the Dominion, for the component Cantons of the +Swiss Republic. To the unimaginative mind difficulties everywhere seem +almost insuperable. It shrinks before trifles. "Impossible!" said +Napoleon. "There is no such word in my dictionary!" He had been trained +in the school of the French Revolution--which was _not_ carried out by +unimaginative pettifoggers. + +To people without imagination any change you propose seems at once +impracticable. They are ready to bring up endless objections to the mode +of working it. There would be this difficulty in the way, and that +difficulty, and the other one. You would think, to hear them talk, the +world as it stands was absolutely perfect, and moved without a hitch in +all its bearings. They don't see that every existing institution just +bristles with difficulties--and that the difficulties are met or got +over somehow. Often enough while they swallow the camel of existing +abuses they strain at some gnat which they fancy they see flying in at +the window of Utopia or of the Millennium. "If your reform were +carried," they say in effect, "we should, doubtless, get rid of such and +such flagrant evils; but the streets in November would be just as muddy +as ever, and slight inconvenience might be caused in certain improbable +contingencies to the duke or the cotton-spinner, the squire or the +mine-owner." They omit to note that much graver inconvenience is caused +at present to the millions who are shut out from the fields and the +sunshine, who are sweated all day for a miserable wage, or who are +forced to pay fancy prices for fuel to gratify the rapacity of a handful +of coal-grabbers. + +Lack of imagination makes people fail to see the evils that are; makes +them fail to realise the good that might be. + +I often fancy to myself what such people would say if land had always +been communal property, and some one now proposed to hand it over +absolutely to the dukes, the squires, the game-preservers, and the +coal-owners. "'Tis impossible," they would exclaim; "the thing wouldn't +be workable. Why, a single landlord might own half Westminster! A single +landlord might own all Sutherlandshire! The hypothetical Duke of +Westminster might put bars to the streets; he might impede locomotion; +he might refuse to let certain people to whom he objected take up their +residence in any part of his territory; he might prevent them from +following their own trades or professions; he might even descend to such +petty tyranny as tabooing brass plates on the doors of houses. And what +would you do then? The thing isn't possible. The Duke of Sutherland, +again, might shut up all Sutherlandshire; might turn whole vast tracts +into grouse-moor or deer-forest; might prevent harmless tourists from +walking up the mountains. And surely free Britons would never submit to +_that_. The bare idea is ridiculous. The squire of a rural parish might +turn out the Dissenters; might refuse to let land for the erection of +chapels; might behave like a petty King Augustus of Scilly. Indeed, +there would be nothing to prevent an American alien from buying up +square miles of purple heather in Scotland, and shutting the inhabitants +of these British Isles out of their own inheritance. Sites might be +refused for needful public purposes; fancy prices might be asked for +pure cupidity. Speculators would job land for the sake of unearned +increment; towns would have to grow as landlords willed, irrespective of +the wants or convenience of the community. Theoretically, I don't even +see that Lord Rothschild mightn't buy up the whole area of Middlesex, +and turn London into a Golden House of Nero. Your scheme can't be +worked. The anomalies are too obvious." + +They are indeed. Yet I doubt whether the unimaginative would quite have +foreseen them: the things they foresee are less real and possible. But +they urge against every reform such objections as I have parodied; and +they urge them about matters of far less vital importance. The existing +system exists; they know its abuses, its checks and its counter-checks. +The system of the future does not yet exist; and they can't imagine how +its far slighter difficulties could ever be smoothed over. They are not +the least staggered by the appalling reality of the Duke of Westminster +or the Duke of Sutherland; not the least staggered by the sinister power +of a conspiracy of coal-owners to paralyse a great nation with the +horrors of a fuel famine. But they _are_ staggered by their bogey that +State ownership of land might give rise to a certain amount of jobbery +and corruption on the part of officials. They think it better that the +dukes and the squires should get all the rent than that the State should +get most of it, with the possibility of a percentage being corruptly +embezzled by the functionaries who manage it. This shows want of +imagination. It is as though one should say to one's clerk, "All your +income shall be paid in future to the Duke of Westminster, and not to +yourself, for his sole use and benefit; because we, your employers, are +afraid that if we give you your salary in person, you may let some of it +be stolen from you or badly invested." How transparently absurd! We want +our income ourselves, to spend as we please. We would rather risk losing +one per cent. of it in bad investments than let all be swallowed up by +the dukes and the landlords. + +It is the same throughout. Want of imagination makes people exaggerate +the difficulties and dangers of every new scheme, because they can't +picture constructively to themselves the details of its working. Men +with great picturing power, like Shelley or Robespierre, are always very +advanced Radicals, and potentially revolutionists. The difficulty _they_ +see is not the difficulty of making the thing work, but the difficulty +of convincing less clear-headed people of its desirability and +practicability. A great many Conservatives, who are Conservative from +selfishness, would be Radicals if only they could feel for themselves +that even their own petty interests and pleasures are not really +menaced. The squires and the dukes can't realise how much happier even +they would be in a free, a beautiful, and a well-organised community. +Imaginative minds can picture a world where everything is so ordered +that life comes as a constant aesthetic delight to everybody. They know +that that world could be realised to-morrow--if only all others could +picture it to themselves as vividly as they do. But they also know that +it can only be attained in the end by long ages of struggle, and by slow +evolution of the essentially imaginative ethical faculty. For right +action depends most of all, in the last resort, upon a graphic +conception of the feelings of others. + + + + +XX. + +_ABOUT ABROAD._ + + +The place known as Abroad is not nearly so nice a country to live in as +England. The people who inhabit Abroad are called Foreigners. They are +in every way and at all times inferior to Englishmen. + +These Post-Prandials used once to be provided with a sting in their +tail, like the common scorpion. By way of change, I turn them out now +with a sting in their head, like the common mosquito. Mosquitoes are +much less dangerous than scorpions, but they're a deal more irritating. + +Not that I am sanguine enough to expect I shall irritate Englishmen. +Your Englishman is far too cock-sure of the natural superiority of +Britons to Foreigners, the natural superiority of England to Abroad, +ever to be irritated by even the gentlest criticism. He accepts it all +with lordly indifference. He brushes it aside as the elephant might +brush aside the ineffective gadfly. No proboscis can pierce that +pachydermatous hide of his. If you praise him to his face, he accepts +your praise as his obvious due, with perfect composure and without the +slightest elation. If you blame him in aught, he sets it down to your +ignorance and mental inferiority. You say to him, "Oh, Englishman, you +are great; you are wise; you are rich beyond comparison. You are noble; +you are generous; you are the prince among nations." He smiles a calm +smile, and thinks you a very sensible fellow. But you add, "Oh, my lord, +if I may venture to say so, there is a smudge on your nose, which I make +bold to attribute to the settlement of a black on your intelligent +countenance." He is not angry. He is not even contemptuously amused. He +responds, "My friend, you are wrong. There is never a smudge on my +immaculate face. No blacks fly in London. The sky is as clear there in +November as in August. All is pure and serene and beautiful." You +answer, "Oh, my lord, I admit the force of your profound reasoning. You +light the gas at ten in the morning only to show all the world you can +afford to burn it." At that, he gropes his way along Pall Mall to his +club, and tells the men he meets there how completely he silenced you. + +And yet, My Lord Elephant, there is use in mosquitoes. Mr. Mattieu +Williams once discovered the final cause of fleas. Certain people, said +he, cannot be induced to employ the harmless necessary tub. For them, +Providence designed the lively flea. He compels them to scratch +themselves. By so doing they rouse the skin to action and get rid of +impurities. Now, this British use of the word Abroad is a smudge on the +face of the otherwise perfect Englishman. Perchance a mosquito-bite may +induce him to remove it with a little warm water and a cambric +pocket-handkerchief. + +To most Englishmen, the world divides itself naturally into two unequal +and non-equivalent portions--Abroad and England. Of these two, Abroad is +much the larger country; but England, though smaller, is vastly more +important. Abroad is inhabited by Frenchmen and Germans, who speak their +own foolish and chattering languages. Part of it is likewise pervaded by +Chinamen, who wear pigtails; and the outlying districts belong to the +poor heathen, chiefly interesting as a field of missionary enterprise, +and a possible market for Manchester piece-goods. We sometimes invest +our money abroad, but then we are likely to get it swallowed up in +Mexicans or Egyptian Unified. If you ask most people what has become of +Tom, they will answer at once with the specific information, "Oh, Tom +has gone Abroad." I have one stereotyped rejoinder to an answer like +that. "What part of Abroad, please?" That usually stumps them. Abroad is +Abroad; and like the gentleman who was asked in examination to "name the +minor prophets," they decline to make invidious distinctions. It is +nothing to them whether he is tea-planting in the Himalayas, or +sheep-farming in Australia, or orange-growing in Florida, or ranching in +Colorado. If he is not in England, why then he is elsewhere; and +elsewhere is Abroad, one and indivisible. + +In short, Abroad answers in space to that well-known and definite date, +the Olden Time, in chronology. + +People will tell you, "Foreigners do this"; "Foreigners do that"; +"Foreigners smoke so much"; "Foreigners always take coffee for +breakfast." "Indeed," I love to answer; "I've never observed it myself +in Central Asia." 'Tis Parson Adams and the Christian religion. Nine +English people out of ten, when they talk of Abroad, mean what they call +the Continent; and when they talk of the Continent, they mean France, +Germany, Switzerland, Italy; in short, the places most visited by +Englishmen when they consent now and again to go Abroad for a holiday. +"I don't like Abroad," a lady once said to me on her return from Calais. +Foreigners, in like manner, means Frenchmen, Germans, Swiss, Italians. +In the country called Abroad, the most important parts are the parts +nearest England; of the people called Foreigners, the most important are +those who dress like Englishmen. The dim black lands that lie below the +horizon are hardly worth noticing. + +Would it surprise you to learn that most people live in Asia? Would it +surprise you to learn that most people are poor benighted heathen, and +that, of the remainder, most people are Mahommedans, and that of the +Christians, who come next, most people are Roman Catholics, and that, of +the other Christian sects, most people belong to the Greek Church, and +that, last of all, we get Protestants, more particularly Anglicans, +Wesleyans, Baptists? Have you ever really realised the startling fact +that England is an island off the coast of Europe? that Europe is a +peninsula at the end of Asia? that France, Germany, Italy, are the +fringe of Russia? Have you ever really realised that the +English-speaking race lives mostly in America? that the country is +vastly more populous than London? that our class is the froth and the +scum of society? Think these things out, and try to measure them on the +globe. And when you speak of Abroad, do please specify what part of it. + +Abroad is not all alike. There are differences between Poland, Peru, and +Palestine. What is true of France is not true of Fiji. Distinguish +carefully between Timbuctoo, Tobolsk, and Toledo. + +It is not our insularity that makes us so insular. 'Tis a gift of the +gods, peculiar to Englishmen. The other inhabitants of these Isles of +Britain are comparatively cosmopolitan. The Scotchman goes everywhere; +the world is his oyster. Ireland is an island still more remote than +Great Britain; but the Irishman has never been so insular as the +English. I put that down in part to his Catholicism: his priests have +been wheels in a world-wide system; his relations have been with Douai, +St. Omer, and Rome; his bishops have gone pilgrimages and sat on Vatican +Councils; his kinsmen are the MacMahons in France, the O'Donnels in +Spain, the Taafes in Austria. Even in the days of the Regency this was +so: look at Lever and his heroes! When England drank port, County Clare +drank claret. But ever since the famine, Ireland has expanded. Every +Irishman has cousins in Canada, in Australia, in New York, in San +Francisco. The Empire is Irish, with the exception of India; and India, +of course, is a Scotch dependency. Irishmen and Scotchmen have no such +feelings about Abroad and its Foreigners as Londoners entertain. But +Englishmen never quite get over the sense that everybody must needs +divide the world into England and Elsewhere. To the end no Englishman +really grasps the fact that to Frenchmen and Germans he himself is a +foreigner. I have met John Bulls who had passed years in Italy, but who +spoke of the countrymen of Caesar and Dante and Leonardo and Garibaldi +with the contemptuous toleration one might feel towards a child or an +Andaman Islander. These Italians could build Giotto's campanile; could +paint the Transfiguration; could carve the living marble on the tombs of +the Medici; could produce the Vita Nuova; could beget Galileo, Galvani, +Beccaria; but still--they were Foreigners. Providence in its wisdom has +decreed that they must live Abroad--just as it has decreed that a +comprehension of the decimal system and its own place in the world +should be limitations eternally imposed upon the English intellect. + + + + +XXI. + +_WHY ENGLAND IS BEAUTIFUL._ + + +As I strolled across the moor this afternoon towards Waverley, I saw +Jones was planting out that bare hillside of his with Douglas pines and +Scotch firs and new strains of silver birches. They will improve the +landscape. And I thought as I scanned them, "How curious that most +people entirely overlook this constant betterment and beautifying of +England! You hear them talk much of the way bricks and mortar are +invading the country; you never hear anything of this slow and silent +process of planting and developing which has made England into the +prettiest and one of the most beautiful countries in Europe." + +What's that you say? "Astonished to find I have a good word of any sort +to put in for England!" Why, dear me, how irrational you are! I just +_love_ England. Can any man with eyes in his head and a soul for beauty +do otherwise? England and Italy--there you have the two great glories of +Europe. Italy for towns, for art, for man's handicraft; England for +country, for nature, for green lanes and lush copses. Was it not one +that loved Italy well who sighed in Italy-- + + "Oh, to be in England now that April's there?" + +And who that loves Italy, and knows England, too, does not echo +Browning's wish when April comes round again on dusty Tuscan hilltops? +At Perugia, last spring, through weeks of tramontana, how one yearned +for the sight of yellow English primroses! Not love England, indeed! +Milton's England, Shelley's England; the England of the skylark, the +dog-rose, the honeysuckle! Not love England, forsooth! Why, I love every +flower, every blade of grass in it. Devonshire lane, close-cropped down, +rich water-meadow, bickering brooklet: ah me, how they tug at one's +heartstrings in Africa! No son of the soil can love England as those +love her very stones who have come from newer lands over sea to her +ivy-clad church-towers, her mouldering castles, her immemorial elms, the +berries on her holly, the may in her hedgerows. Are not all these bound +up in our souls with each cherished line of Shakespeare and Wordsworth? +do they not rouse faint echoes of Gray and Goldsmith? Even before I ever +set foot in England, how I longed to behold my first cowslip, my first +foxglove! And now, I have wandered through the footpaths that run +obliquely across English pastures, picking meadowsweet and fritillaries, +for half a lifetime, till I have learned by heart every leaf and every +petal. You think because I dislike one squalid village--"The Wen," stout +English William Cobbett delighted to call it--I don't love England. You +think because I see some spots on the sun of the English character, I +don't love Englishmen. Why, how can any man who speaks the English +tongue, and boasts one drop of English blood in his veins, not be proud +of England? England, the mother of poets and thinkers; England, that +gave us Newton, Darwin, Spencer; England, that holds in her lap Oxford, +Salisbury, Durham; England of daisy and heather and pine-wood! Are we +hewn out of granite, to be cold before England? + +Upon my soul, your unseasonable interruption has almost made me forget +what I was going to say; it has made me grow warm, and drop into poetry. + +England, I take it, is certainly the prettiest country in Europe. It is +almost the most beautiful. I say "almost," because I bethink me of +Norway and Switzerland. I say "country," because I bethink me of Rome, +Venice, Florence. But, taking it as country, and as country alone, +nothing else approaches it. Have you ever thought why? Man made the +town, says the proverb, and God made the country. Not so in England. +There, man made the country, and beautified it exceedingly. In itself, +the land of south-eastern England is absolutely the same as the land of +Northern France--that hideous tract about Boulogne and Amiens which we +traverse in silence every time we run across by Calais to Paris. Chalk +and clay and sandstone stretch continuously under sea from Kent and +Sussex to Flanders and Picardy. The Channel burst through, and made the +Straits of Dover; but the land on either side was and still is +geologically and physically identical. What has made the difference? +Man, the planter and gardener. England is beautiful by copse and +hedgerow, by pine-clad ridge and willow-covered hollow, by meadows +interspersed with great spreading oaks, by pastures where drowsy sheep, +deep-fleeced and ruddy-stained, huddle under the shade of ancestral +beech-trees. Its loveliness is human. In itself, I believe, the actual +contour of England cannot once have been much better than the contour of +northern France--though nowadays it is hard indeed to realise it. +Judicious planting, and a constant eye to picturesque effect in scenery, +have made England what she is--the garden of Europe. + +Of course there are parts of the country which owed, and still owe, +their beauty to their wildness--Dartmoor, Exmoor, the West Riding of +Yorkshire, the Surrey hills, the Peak in Derbyshire. Yet even these +depend more than you would believe, when you take them in detail, on the +art of the forester. The view from Leith Hill embraces John Evelyn's +woods at Wotton: the larches that cover one Jura-like gorge were set +there well within your and my memory. But elsewhere in England the hand +of man has done absolutely everything. The American, when he first +visits England, is charmed on his way up from Liverpool to London by the +exquisite air of antique cultivation and soft rural beauty. The very +sward is moss-like. Thoroughly wild country, indeed, unless bold and +mountainous, does not often please one. It is apt to be bare, +unattractive, and desolate. Witness the Veldt, the Steppes, the +prairies. You may go through miles and miles of the States and Canada, +where the wildness for the most part rather repels than delights you. I +do not say everywhere; in places the wilderness will blossom like a +rose; boggy margins of lakes, fallen trunks in the forest overgrown with +wild flowers, make scenes unattainable in our civilised England. Even +our roughest scenery is comparatively man-made: our heaths are game +preserves; our woodlands are thinned of superfluous underbrush; our +moors are relieved by deliberate plantations. But England in her own way +is unique and unrivalled. Such parks, such greensward, such grassy +lawns, such wooded tilth, are wholly unknown elsewhere. Compare the +blank fields and long poplar-fringed high roads of central France with +our Devon or our Warwickshire, and you get at once a just measure of the +vast, the unspeakable difference. + +And man has done it all. Alone he did it. Often as I take my walks +abroad--and when I say abroad I mean in England--I see men at work +dotting about exotics of variegated foliage on some barren hillside, and +I say to myself, "There, before my eyes, goes on the beautifying of +England." Thirty years ago, the North Downs near Dorking were one bare +stretch of white chalky sheep-walk; half of them still remain so; the +other half has been planted irregularly with copses and spinneys, which +serve to throw up and enhance the beauty of the unaltered intervals. +Beech and larch in autumn tints set off smooth patches of grass and +juniper. Within the last few years, the downs about Leatherhead have +been similarly diversified. Much of the loveliness of rural England is +due, one must frankly confess, to the big landlords. Though the great +houses love us not, we must allow at least that the great houses have +cared for the trees in the hedge-rows, and for the timber in the +meadows, as well as for the covert that sheltered their pheasants, their +foxes, and their gamekeepers. But almost as much of England's charm is +due to individual small owners or occupiers. 'Tis they who have planted +the grounds about villa or cottage; they who have stocked the sweet old +gardens of yew and box, of hollyhock and peony; they who have given us +the careless rustic grace of the English village. Still, one way or +another, man has done it all, whether in grange or in manor-house, in +palatial estate or in labourer's holding. Look at the French or Belgian +hamlet by the side of the English one; look at the French or Belgian +farm by the side of our English wealth in wooded glen or sheltered +homestead. Bricks and mortar are _not_ covering the whole of England. +That is only true of the squalid purlieus and outliers of London, +whither Londoners gravitate by mutual attraction. If you _will_ go and +live in a dingy suburb, you can't reasonably complain that all the +world's suburban. Being the most cheerful of pessimists, a dweller in +the country all the days of my life, I have no hesitation in expressing +my profound conviction that within my memory more has been done to +beautify than to uglify England. Only, the beautification has been quiet +and unobtrusive, while the uglification has been obvious and +concentrated. It takes half a year to jerry-build a dingy street, but it +takes a decade for newly-planted trees to give the woodland air by +imperceptible stages to a stretch of country. + + + + +XXII. + +_ANENT ART PRODUCTION._ + + +Yesterday, at Bordighera, I strolled up the hills behind the town to +Sasso. It is a queer little cluster of gleaming white-washed houses that +top the crest of a steep ridge; and, like many other Italian villages, +it makes a brave show from a distance, though within it is full of evil +smells and all uncleanness. But I found it had a church--a picturesquely +ugly and dilapidated church; and without and within, this church was +decorated by inglorious hands with very naive and rudimentary frescoes. +The Four Evangelists were there, in flowing blue robes; and the Four +Greater Prophets, with long white beards; and the Madonna, appearing in +most wooden clouds; and the Patron Saint tricked out for his Festa in +gorgeous holiday episcopal vestments. That was all--just the common +everyday Italian country church that everybody has seen turned out to +pattern with manufacturing regularity a hundred times over! Yet, as I +sat among the olive-terraces looking down the steep slope into the +Borghetto valley, and across the gorge to the green pines on the Cima, +it set me thinking. 'Tis a bad habit one falls into when one has nothing +better to turn one's mind to. + +We English, coming to Italy with our ideas fully formed about everything +on heaven and earth, naturally say to ourselves, "Great heart alive, +what sadly degraded frescoes! To think the art of Raphael and Andrea del +Sarto should degenerate even here, in their own land, to such a childish +level!" But we are wrong, for all that. It is Raphael and Andrea who +rose, not my poor nameless Sasso artists who sank and degenerated. Italy +was capable of producing her great painters in her own great day, just +because in thousands of such Italian villages there were work-a-day +artisans in form and colour capable of turning out such ridiculous daubs +as those that decorate this tawdry church on the Ligurian hilltop. + +We English, in short, think of it all the wrong way uppermost. We think +of it topsy-turvy, beginning at the end, while evolution invariably +begins at the beginning. The Raphaels and Andreas, to put it in brief, +were the final flower and fullest outcome of whole races of church +decorators in infantile fresco. + +Everywhere you go in Italy, this truth is forced upon your attention +even to the present day. Art here is no exotic. It smacks of the soil; +it springs spontaneous, like a weed; it burgeons of itself out of the +heart of the people. Not high art, understand well; not the art of +Burne-Jones and Whistler and Puvis de Chavannes and Sar Peladan. +Commonplace everyday art, that is a trade and a handicraft, like the +joiner's or the shoemaker's. Look up at your ceiling; it's overrun with +festoons of crude red and blue flowers, or it's covered with cupids and +graces, or it bristles with arabesques and unmeaning phantasies. Every +wall is painted; every grotto decorated. Sham landscapes, sham loggias, +sham parapets are everywhere. The sham windows themselves are provided, +not only with sham blinds and sham curtains, but even with sham +coquettes making sham eyes or waving sham handkerchiefs at passers-by +below them. Open-air fresco painting is still a living art, an art +practised by hundreds and thousands of craftsmen, an art as alive as +cookery or weaving. The Italian decorates everything; his pottery, his +house, his church, his walls, his palaces. And the only difference he +feels between the various cases is, that in some of them a higher type +of art is demanded by wealth and skill than in the others. No wonder, +therefore, he blossomed out at last into Michael Angelo's frescoes in +the Sistine Chapel! + +To us English, on the contrary, high art is something exotic, separate, +alone, _sui generis_. We never think of the plaster star in the middle +of our ceiling as belonging even to the same range of ideas as, say, the +frescoes in the Houses of Parliament. + +A nation in such a condition as that is never truly artistic. The artist +with us, even now, is an exceptional product. Art for a long time in +England had nothing at all to do with the life of the people. It was a +luxury for the rich, a curious thing for ladies' and gentlemen's +consumption, as purely artificial as the stuccoed Italian villa in which +they insisted on shivering in our chilly climate. And the pictures it +produced were wholly alien to the popular wants and the popular +feelings; they were part of an imported French, Italian, and Flemish +tradition. English art has only slowly outgrown this stage, just in +proportion as truly artistic handicrafts have sprung up here and there, +and developed themselves among us. Go into the Cantagalli or the Ginori +potteries at Florence, and you will see mere boys and girls, untrained +children of the people, positively disporting themselves, with childish +glee, in painting plates and vases. You will see them, not slavishly +copying a given design of the master's, but letting their fancy run riot +in lithe curves and lines, in griffons and dragons and floral +twists-and-twirls of playful extravagance. They revel in ornament. Now, +it is out of the loins of people like these that great artists spring by +nature--not State-taught, artificial, made-up artists, but the real +spontaneous product, the Lippi and Botticelli, the hereditary craftsmen, +the born painters. And in England nowadays it is a significant fact that +a large proportion of the truest artists--the innovators, the men who +are working out a new style of English art for themselves, in accordance +with the underlying genius of the British temperament, have sprung from +the great industrial towns--Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester--where +artistic handicrafts are now once more renascent. I won't expose myself +to further ridicule by repeating here (what I nevertheless would firmly +believe, were it not for the scoffers) that a large proportion of them +are of Celtic descent--belong, in other words, to that section of the +complex British nationality in which the noble traditions of decorative +art never wholly died out--that section which was never altogether +enslaved and degraded by the levelling and cramping and soul-destroying +influences of manufacturing industrialism. + +In Italy, art is endemic. In England, in spite of all we have done to +stimulate it of late years with guano and other artificial manures, it +is still sporadic. + +The case of music affords us an apt parallel. Till very lately, I +believe, our musical talent in Britain came almost entirely from the +cathedral towns. And why? Because there, and there alone, till quite a +recent date, there existed a hereditary school of music, a training of +musicians from generation to generation among the mass of the people. +Not only were the cathedral services themselves a constant school of +taste in music, but successive generations of choristers and organists +gave rise to something like a musical caste in our episcopal centres. It +is true, our vocalists have always come mainly from Wales, from the +Scotch Highlands, from Yorkshire, from Ireland. But for that there is, I +believe, a sufficient physical reason. For these are clearly the most +mountainous parts of the United Kingdom; and the clear mountain air +seems to produce on the average a better type of human larynx than the +mists of the level. The men of the lowland, say the Tyrolese, croak like +frogs in their marshes; but the men of the upland sing like nightingales +on their tree-tops. And indeed, it would seem as if the mountain people +were always calling to one another across intervening valleys, always +singing and whistling and shouting over their work in a way that gives +tone to the whole vocal mechanism. Witness Welsh penillion singing. And +wherever this fine physical endowment goes hand in hand with a delicate +ear and a poetic temperament, you get your great vocalist, your Sims +Reeves or your Patti. But in England proper it was only in the cathedral +towns that music was a living reality to the people; and it was in the +cathedral towns, accordingly, during the dark ages of art, that +exceptional musical ability was most likely to show itself. More +particularly was this so on the Welsh border, where the two favouring +influences of race and practice coincided--at Gloucester, Worcester, +Hereford, long known for the most musical towns in England. + +Cause and effect act and react. Art is a product of the artistic +temperament. The artistic temperament is a product of the long +hereditary cultivation of art. And where a broad basis of this +temperament exists among the people, owing to intermixture of +artistically-minded stocks, one is liable to get from time to time that +peculiar combination of characteristics--sensuous, intellectual, +spiritual--which results in the highest and truest artist. + + + + +XXIII. + +_A GLIMPSE INTO UTOPIA._ + + +You ask me what would be the position of women in an ideal community. +Well, after dinner, imagination may take free flight. Suppose, till the +coffee comes, we discuss that question. + +Woman, I take it, differs from man in being the sex sacrificed to +reproductive necessities. + +Whenever I say this, I notice my good friends, the women's-rights women, +with whom I am generally in pretty close accord, look annoyed and hurt. +I can never imagine why. I regard this point as an original inequality +of nature, which it should be the duty of human society to redress as +far as possible, like all other inequalities. Women are not on the +average as tall as men; nor can they lift as heavy weights, or undergo, +as a rule, so much physical labour. Yet civilised society recognises +their equal right to the protection of our policemen, and endeavours to +neutralise their physical inequality by the collective guarantee of all +the citizens. In the same way I hold that women in the lump have a +certain disadvantage laid upon them by nature, in the necessity that +some or most among them should bear children; and this disadvantage I +think the men in a well-ordered State would do their best to compensate +by corresponding privileges. If women endure on our behalf the great +public burden of providing future citizens for the community, the least +we can do for them in return is to render that burden as honourable and +as little onerous as possible. I can never see that there is anything +unchivalrous in frankly admitting these facts of nature; on the +contrary, it seems to me the highest possible chivalry to recognise in +woman, as woman, high or low, rich or poor, the potential mother, who +has infinite claims on that ground alone to our respect and sympathy. + +Nor do I mean to deny, either, that the right to be a mother is a sacred +and peculiar privilege of women. In a well-ordered community, I believe, +that privilege will be valued high, and will be denied to no fitting +mother by any man. While maternity is from one point of view a painful +duty, a burden imposed upon a single sex for the good of the whole, it +is from another point of view a privilege and a joy, and from a third +point of view the natural fulfilment of a woman's own instincts, the +complement of her personality, the healthy exercise of her normal +functions. Just as in turn the man's part in providing physically for +the support of the woman and the children is from one point of view a +burden imposed upon him, but from another point of view a precious +privilege of fatherhood, and from a third point of view the proper +outlet for his own energy and his own faculties. + +In an ideal State, then, I take it, almost every woman would be a +mother, and almost every woman a mother of not more than about four +children. An average of something like four is necessary, we know, to +keep up population, and to allow for infant mortality, inevitable +celibates, and so forth. Few women in such a State would abstain from +maternity, save those who felt themselves physically or morally unfitted +for the task; for in proportion as they abstained, either the State must +lack citizens to carry on its life, or an extra and undue burden would +have to be cast upon some other woman. And it may well be doubted +whether in a well-ordered and civilised State any one woman could +adequately bear, bring up, and superintend the education of more than +four young citizens. Hence we may conclude that while no woman save the +unfit would voluntarily shirk the duties and privileges of maternity, +few (if any) women would make themselves mothers of more than four +children. Four would doubtless grow to be regarded in such a community +as the moral maximum; while it is even possible that improved +sanitation, by diminishing infant mortality and adult ineffectiveness, +might make a maximum of three sufficient to keep up the normal strength +of the population. + +In an ideal community, again, the woman who looked forward to this great +task on behalf of the race would strenuously prepare herself for it +beforehand from childhood upward. She would not be ashamed of such +preparation; on the contrary, she would be proud of it. Her duty would +be no longer "to suckle fools and chronicle small beer," but to produce +and bring up strong, vigorous, free, able, and intelligent citizens. +Therefore, she must be nobly educated for her great and important +function--educated physically, intellectually, morally. Let us forecast +her future. She will be well clad in clothes that allow of lithe and +even development of the body; she will be taught to run, to play games, +to dance, to swim; she will be supple and healthy, finely moulded and +knit in limb and organ, beautiful in face and features, splendid and +graceful in the native curves of her lissom figure. No cramping +conventions will be allowed to cage her; no worn-out moralities will be +tied round her neck like a mill-stone to hamper her. Intellectually she +will be developed to the highest pitch of which in each individual case +she proves herself capable--educated, not in the futile linguistic +studies which have already been tried and found wanting for men, but in +realities and existences, in the truths of life, in recognition of her +own and our place among immensities. She will know something worth +knowing of the world she lives in, its past and its present, the +material of which it is made, the forces that inform it, the energies +that thrill through it. Something, too, of the orbs that surround it, of +the sun that lights it, of the stars that gleam upon it, of the seasons +that govern it. Something of the plants and herbs that clothe it, of the +infinite tribes of beast and bird that dwell upon it. Something of the +human body, its structure and functions, the human soul, its origin and +meaning. Something of human societies in the past, of institutions and +laws, of creeds and ideas, of the birth of civilisation, of progress and +evolution. Something, too, of the triumphs of art, of sculpture and +painting, of the literature and the poetry of all races and ages. Her +mind will be stored with the best thoughts of the thinkers. Morally, she +will be free; her emotional development, instead of being narrowly +checked and curbed, will have been fostered and directed. She will have +a heart to love, and be neither ashamed nor afraid of it. Thus nurtured +and trained, she will be a fit mate for a free man, a fit mother for +free children, a fit citizen for a free and equal community. + +Her life, too, will be her own. She will know no law but her higher +instincts. No man will be able to buy or to cajole her. And in order +that she may possess this freedom to perfection, that she may be no +husband's slave, no father's obedient and trembling daughter, I can see +but one way: the whole body of men in common must support in perfect +liberty the whole body of women. The collective guarantee must protect +them against individual tyranny. Thus only can women be safe from the +bribery of the rich husband, from the dictation of the father from whom +there are "expectations." In the ideal State, I take it, every woman +will be absolutely at liberty to dispose of herself as she will, and no +man will be able to command or to purchase her, to influence her in any +way, save by pure inclination. + +In such a State, most women would naturally desire to be mothers. Being +healthy, strong, and free, they would wish to realise the utmost +potentialities of their own organisms. And when they had done their duty +as mothers, they would not care much, I imagine, for any further outlets +for their superfluous energy. I don't doubt they would gratify to the +full their artistic sensibilities and their thirst for knowledge. They +would also perform their duties to the State as citizens, no less than +the men. But having done these things I fancy they would have done +enough; the margin of their life would be devoted to dignified and +cultivated leisure. They would leave to men the tilling of the soil, the +building and navigation of marine or aerial ships, the working of mines +and metals, the erection of houses, the construction of roads, railways, +and communications, perhaps even the entire manufacturing work of the +community. Medicine and the care of the sick might still be a charge to +some; education to most; art, in one form or another, to almost all. But +the hard work of the world might well be left to men, upon whom it more +naturally and fitly devolves. No hateful drudgery of "earning a +livelihood." Women might rest content with being free and beautiful, +cultivated and artistic, good citizens to the State, the mothers and +guardians of the coming generations. If any woman asks more than this, +she is really asking less--for she is asking that a heavier burden +should be cast on some or most of her sex, in order to relieve the +minority of a duty which to well-organised women ought to be a +privilege. + +"But all this has no practical bearing!" I beg your pardon. An ideal has +often two practical uses. In the first place, it gives us a pattern +towards which we may approximate. In the second place, it gives us a +standard by which we may judge whether any step we propose to take is a +step forward or a step backward. + + + + +XXIV. + +_OF SECOND CHAMBERS._ + + +A Second Chamber acts as a drag. Progress is always uphill work. So we +are at pains to provide a drag beforehand--for an uphill journey. + +There, in one word, you have the whole philosophy of Second Chambers. + +How, then, did the nations of Europe come to hamper their legislative +systems with such a useless, such an illogical adjunct? In sackcloth and +ashes, let us confess the truth--we English led them astray: on us the +shame; to us the dishonour. Theorists, indeed (wise after the fact, as +is the wont of theorists), have discovered or invented an imaginary +function for Second Chambers. They are to preserve the people, it seems, +from the fatal consequences of their own precipitancy. As though the +people--you and I--the vast body of citizens, were a sort of foolish +children, to be classed with infants, women, criminals, and imbeciles (I +adopt the chivalrous phraseology of an Act of Parliament), incapable of +knowing their own minds for two minutes together, and requiring to be +kept straight by the fatherly intervention of Dukes of Marlborough or +Marquises of Ailesbury. The ideal picture of the level-headed peers +restraining the youthful impetuosity of the representatives of the +people from committing to-day some rash act which they would gladly +repent and repeal to-morrow, is both touching and edifying. But it +exists only in the minds of the philosophers, who find a reason for +everything just because it is there. Members of Parliament, I have +observed, seem to know their own minds every inch as well as earls--nay, +even as marquises. + +The plain fact of the matter is, all the Second Chambers in the world +are directly modelled upon the House of Lords, that Old Man of the Sea +whom England, the weary Titan, is now striving so hard to shake off her +shoulders. The mother of Parliaments is responsible for every one of +them. Senates and Upper Houses are just the result of irrational +Anglomania. When constitutional government began to exist, men turned +unanimously to the English Constitution as their model and pattern. That +was perfectly natural. Evolutionists know that evolution never proceeds +on any other plan than by reproduction, with modification, of existing +structures. America led the way. She said, "England has a House of +Commons; therefore we must have a House of Representatives. England has +also a House of Lords; nature has not dowered us with those exalted +products, but we will do what we can; we will imitate it by a Senate." +Monarchical France followed her lead; so did Belgium, Italy, +civilisation in general. I believe even Japan rejoices to-day in the +august dignity of a Second Chamber. But mark now the irony of it. They +all of them did this thing to be entirely English. And just about the +time when they had completed the installation of their peers or their +senators, England, who set the fashion, began to discover in turn she +could manage a great deal better herself without them. + +And then what do the philosophers do? Why, they prove to you the +necessity of a Second Chamber by pointing to the fact that all civilised +nations have got one--in imitation of England. Furthermore, it being +their way to hunt up abstruse and recondite reasons for what is on the +face of it ridiculous, they argue that a Second Chamber is a necessary +wheel in the mechanism of popular representative government. A foolish +phrase, which has come down to us from antiquity, represents the +populace as inevitably "fickle," a changeable mob, to be restrained by +the wisdom of the seniors and optimates. As a matter of fact, the +populace is never anything of the sort. It is dogged, slow, +conservative, hard to move; it advances step by step, a patient, +sure-footed beast of burden; and when once it has done a thing, it never +goes back upon it. I believe this silly fiction of the "fickleness" of +the mob is mainly due to the equally silly fictions of prejudiced Greek +oligarchs about the Athenian assembly--which was an assembly of +well-to-do and cultivated slave-owners. I do not swallow all that +Thucydides chooses to tell us in his one-sided caricature about Cleon's +appointment to the command at Sphacteria, or about the affair of +Mitylene; and even if I did, I think it has nothing to do with the +question. But on such utterly exploded old-world ideas is the whole +modern argument of the Second Chamber founded. + +Does anybody really believe great nations are so incapable of managing +their own affairs for themselves through their duly-elected +representatives that they are compelled to check their own boyish ardour +by means of the acts of an irresponsible and non-elective body? Does +anybody believe that the House of Commons works too fast, and gets +through its public business too hurriedly? Does anybody believe we +improve things in England at such a break-neck pace that we require the +assistance of Lord Salisbury and Lord St. Leonards to prevent us from +rushing straight down a steep place into the sea, like the swine of +Gadara? If they do, I congratulate them on their psychological acumen +and their political wisdom. + +What the Commons want is not a drag, but a goad--nay, rather, a +snow-plough. + +No; the plain truth of the matter is this: all the Second Chambers in +the world owe their existence, not to any deliberate plan or reason, but +to the mere accident that the British nobles, not having a room big +enough to sit in with the Commons, took to sitting separately, and +transacted their own business as a distinct assembly. With so much +wisdom are the kingdoms of the earth governed! How else could any one in +his senses have devised the idea of creating one deliberative body on +purpose to mutilate or destroy the work of another? to produce from time +to time a periodical crisis or a periodical deadlock? There is not a +country in the world with a Second Chamber that doesn't twice a year +kick and plunge to get rid of it. + +The House of Lords was once a reality. It consisted of the +ecclesiastical hierarchy--the bishops and mitred abbots; with the +official hierarchy--the great nobles, who were also great satraps of +provinces, and great military commanders. It was thus mainly made up of +practical life-members, appointed by merit. The peers, lay and +spiritual, were the men who commended themselves to the sovereign as +able administrators. Gradually, with prolonged peace, the hereditary +element choked and swamped the nominated element. The abbots +disappeared, the lords multiplied. The peer ceased to be the leader of a +shire, and sank into a mere idle landowner. Wealth alone grew at last to +be a title to the peerage. The House of Lords became a House of +Landlords. And the English people submitted to the claim of +irresponsible wealth or irresponsible acres to exercise a veto upon +national legislation. The anomaly, utterly indefensible in itself, had +grown up so slowly that the public accepted it--nay, even defended it. +And other countries, accustomed to regard England--the Pecksniff among +nations--as a perfect model of political wisdom, swallowed half the +anomaly, and all the casuistical reasoning that was supposed to justify +it, without a murmur. But if we strip the facts bare from the glamour +that surrounds them, the plain truth is this--England allows an assembly +of hereditary nobodies to retard or veto its legislation nowadays, +simply because it never noticed the moment when a practical House of +administrative officers lapsed into a nest of plutocrats. + +Mend or end? As it stands, the thing is a not-even-picturesque mediaeval +relic. If we English were logical, we would arrange that any man who +owned so many thousand acres of land, or brewed so many million bottles +of beer per annum, should _ipso facto_ be elevated to the peerage. Why +should not gallons of gin confer an earldom direct, and Brighton A's be +equivalent to a marquisate? Why not allow the equal claim of screws and +pills with coal and iron? Why disregard the native worth of annatto and +nitrates? Baron Beecham or Lord Sunlight is a first-rate name. As it is, +we make petty and puerile distinctions. Beer is in, but whiskey is out; +and even in beer itself, if I recollect aright, Dublin stout wore a +coronet for some months or years before English pale ale attained the +dignity of a barony. No Minister has yet made chocolate a viscount. At +present, banks and minerals go in as of right, while soap is left out in +the cold, and even cotton languishes. If the Chancellor of the Exchequer +put up titles to auction, while abolishing the legislative function of +the Lords, there would be millions in it. But as we English are not +logical, our mending would probably resolve itself into fatuous +tinkering. We might get rid of the sons, but leave the fathers. We might +flood the Lords with life peers, but leave the veto. Such tactics are +too Britannic. "Stone dead hath no fellow!" + + + + +XXV. + +_A POINT OF CRITICISM._ + + +A few pages back, I ventured to remark that in Utopia or the Millennium +the women of the community would probably be supported in common by the +labour of the men, and so be secured complete independence of choice and +action. When these essays first appeared in a daily newspaper, a Leader +among Women wrote to me in reply, "What a paradise you open up to us! +Alas for the reality! The question is--could women ever be really +independent if men supplied the means of existence? They would always +feel they had the right to control us. The difference of the position of +a woman in marriage when she has got a little fortune of her own is +something miraculous. Men adore money, and the possession of it inspires +them with an involuntary respect for the happy possessor." + +Now I got a great many letters in answer to these Post-Prandials as they +originally came out--some of them, strange to say, not wholly +complimentary. As a rule, I am too busy a man to answer letters: and I +take this opportunity of apologising to correspondents who write to tell +me I am a knave or a fool, for not having acknowledged direct their +courteous communications. But this friendly criticism seems to call for +a reply, because it involves a question of principle which I have often +noted in all discussions of Utopias and Millennia. + +For my generous critic seems to take it for granted that women are not +now dependent on the labour of men for their support--that some, or even +most of them, are in a position of freedom. The plain truth of it +is--almost all women depend for everything upon one man, who is or may +be an absolute despot. A very small number of women have "money of their +own," as we quaintly phrase it--that is to say, are supported by the +labour of many among us, either in the form of rent or in the form of +interest on capital bequeathed to them. A woman with five thousand a +year from Consols, for example, is in the strictest sense supported by +the united labour of all of us--she has a first mortgage to that amount +upon the earnings of the community. You and I are taxed to pay her. But +is she therefore more dependent than the woman who lives upon what she +can get out of the scanty earnings of a drunken husband? Does the +community therefore think it has a right to control her? Not a bit of +it. She is in point of fact the only free woman among us. My dream was +to see all women equally free--inheritors from the community of so much +of its earnings; holders, as it were, of sufficient world-consols to +secure their independence. + +That, however, is not the main point to which I desire just now to +direct attention. I want rather to suggest an underlying fallacy of all +so-called individualists in dealing with schemes of so-called +Socialism--for to me your Socialist is the true and only individualist. +My correspondent's argument is written from the standpoint of the class +in which women have or may have money. But most women have none; and +schemes of reconstruction must be for the benefit of the many. So-called +individualists seem to think that under a more organised social state +they would not be so able to buy pictures as at present, not so free to +run across to California or Kamschatka. I doubt their premiss, for I +believe we should all of us be better off than we are to-day; but let +that pass; 'tis a detail. The main thing is this: they forget that most +of us are narrowly tied and circumscribed at present by endless +monopolies and endless restrictions of land or capital. I should like to +buy pictures; but I can't afford them. I long to see Japan; but I shall +never get there. The man in the street may desire to till the ground: +every acre is appropriated. He may wish to dig coal: Lord Masham +prevents him. He may have a pretty taste in Venetian glass: the flints +on the shore are private property; the furnace and the implements belong +to a capitalist. Under the existing _regime_, the vast mass of us are +hampered at every step in order that a few may enjoy huge monopolies. +Most men have no land, so that one man may own a county. And they call +this Individualism! + +In considering any proposed change, whether imminent or distant, in +practice or in day-dream, it is not fair to take as your standard of +reference the most highly-favoured individuals under existing +conditions. Nor is it fair to take the most unfortunate only. You should +look at the average. + +Now the average man, in the world as it wags, is a farm-labourer, an +artisan, a mill-hand, a navvy. He has untrammelled freedom of contract +to follow the plough on another man's land, or to work twelve hours a +day in another man's factory, for that other man's benefit--provided +always he can only induce the other man to employ him. If he can't, he +is at perfect liberty to tramp the high road till he drops with fatigue, +or to starve, unhindered, on the Thames Embankment. He may live where he +likes, as far as his means permit; for example, in a convenient court +off Seven Dials. He may make his own free bargain with grasping landlord +or exacting sweater. He may walk over every inch of English soil, with +the trifling exception of the millions of acres where trespassers will +be prosecuted. Even travel is not denied him: Florence and Venice are +out of his beat, it is true; but if he saves up his loose cash for a +couple of months, he may revel in the Oriental luxury of a third-class +excursion train to Brighton and back for three shillings. Such +advantages does the _regime_ of landlord-made individualism afford to +the average run of British citizen. If he fails in the race, he may +retire at seventy to the ease and comfort of the Union workhouse, and be +buried inexpensively at the cost of his parish. + +The average woman in turn is the wife of such a man, dependent upon him +for what fraction of his earnings she can save from the public-house. Or +she is a shop-girl, free to stand all day from eight in the morning till +ten at night behind a counter, and to throw up her situation if it +doesn't suit her. Or she is a domestic servant, enjoying the glorious +liberty of a Sunday out every second week, and a walk with her young man +every alternate Wednesday after eight in the evening. She has full leave +to do her love-making in the open street, and to get as wet as she +chooses in Regent's Park on rainy nights in November. Look the question +in the face, and you will see for yourself that the mass of mothers in +every community are dependent for support, not upon men in general, but +upon a single man, their husband, against whose caprices and despotism +they have no sort of protection. Even the few women who are, as we say, +"independent," how are they supported, save by the labour of many men +who work to keep them in comfort or luxury? They are landowners, let us +put it; and then they are supported by the labour of their farmers and +ploughmen. Or they hold North-Western shares; and then they are +supported by the labour of colliers, and stokers, and guards, and +engine-drivers. And so on throughout. The plain fact is, either a woman +must earn her own livelihood by work, which, in the case of the mothers +in a community, is bad public policy; or else she must be supported by a +man or men, her husband, or her labourers. + +My day-dream was, then, to make every woman independent, in precisely +the same sense that women of property are independent at present. Would +it give them a consciousness of being unduly controlled if they derived +their support from the general funds of the body politic, of which they +would be free and equal members and voters? Well, look at similar cases +in our own England. The Dukes of Marlborough derive a heavy pension from +the taxes of the country; but I have never observed that any Duke of +Marlborough of my time felt himself a slave to the imperious taxpayer. +Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace is justly the recipient of a Civil List +annuity; but that hasn't prevented his active and essentially +individualist brain from inventing Land Nationalisation. Mr. Robert +Buchanan very rightly draws another such annuity for good work done; but +Mr. Buchanan's name is not quite the first that rises naturally to my +lips as an example of cowed and cringing sycophancy to the ideas and +ideals of his fellow-citizens. No, no; be sure of it, this terror is a +phantom. One master is real, realisable, instant; but to be dependent +upon ten million is just what we always describe as independence. + + +THE END. + + PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. + EDINBURGH AND LONDON. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Post-Prandial Philosophy, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POST-PRANDIAL PHILOSOPHY *** + +***** This file should be named 18788.txt or 18788.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/7/8/18788/ + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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