As a matter of fact, it was said
that they were really better, but the people would not have them
because they were his; and one of the theories of English
manliness is that the constant pressure from above has toughened
the spirit and enabled Englishmen to stand up stouter and
straighter each in his place, just as it is contended elsewhere
that the aesthetic qualities of the human race have been
heightened by its stresses and deprivations in the struggle of
life.
For my own part, I believe neither the one theory nor the other.
People are the worse for having people above them, and are the
ruder and coarser for having to fight their way. If the triumph
of social inequality is such that there are not four men in
London who are not snobs, it cannot boast itself greater than the
success of economic inequality with ourselves, among whom the
fight for money has not produced of late a first-class poet,
painter, or sculptor. The English, if they are now the manliest
people under the sun, have to thank not their masters but
themselves, and a nature originally so generous that no abuse
could lastingly wrong it, no political absurdity spoil it.
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