Then, by a like prodigious stroke
of volition, the inhabitants of the enchanted island universally
agree that there is a class of them which can be called out of
their names in some sort of title, bestowed by some ancestral or
actual prince, and can forthwith be something different from the
rest, who shall thenceforth do them reverence, them and their
heirs and assigns, forever. By this amusing process, the realm of
faery is constituted, a thing which could not have any existence
in nature, yet by its existence in fancy becomes the most
absolute of human facts.
It is not surprising that, in the conditions which ensue,
snobbishness should abound; the surprising thing would be if it
did not abound. Even with ourselves, who by a seven years'
struggle burst the faery dream a century ago, that least erected
spirit rears its loathly head from the dust at times, and in our
polite press we can read much if we otherwise see nothing of its
subtle influence. But no evil is without its compensating good,
and the good of English snobbishness is that it has reduced
loyalty, whether to the prince or to the patrician, from a
political to a social significance.
Pages:
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220