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235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
103
It
was
a
striking
and
unpleasant
illustration
of
social
differences.
Could
such
a
thing
happen
in
any
country
but
England?
I
doubt
it.
The
sufferer
was
of
decent
appearance,
and,
with
ordinary
self-command,
might
have
taken
his
meal
in
the
restaurant
like
any
one
else,
quite
unnoticed.
But
he
belonged
to
a
class
which,
among
all
classes
in
the
world,
is
distinguished
by
native
clownishness
and
by
unpliability
to
novel
circumstance.
The
English
lower
ranks
had
need
be
marked
by
certain
peculiar
virtues
to
atone
for
their
deficiencies
in
other
respects.
XVIII.
It
is
easy
to
understand
that
common
judgment
of
foreigners
regarding
the
English
people.
Go
about
in
England
as
a
stranger,
travel
by
rail,
live
at
hotels,
see
nothing
but
the
broadly
public
aspect
of
things,
and
the
impression
left
upon
you
will
be
one
of
hard
egoism,
of
gruffness
and
sullenness;
in
a
word,
of
everything
that
contrasts
most
strongly
with
the
ideal
of
social
and
civic
life.
And
yet,
as
a
matter
of
fact,
no
nation
possesses
in
so
high
a
degree
the
social
and
civic
virtues.
The
unsociable
Englishman,
quotha?
Why,
what
country
in
the
world
can
show
such
multifarious,
vigorous
and
cordial
co-operation,
in
all
ranks,
but
especially,
of
course,
among
the
intelligent,
for
ends
which
concern
the
common
good?
Unsociable!
Why,
go
where
you
will
in
England
you
can
hardly
find
a
man--nowadays,
indeed,
scarce
an
educated
woman--who
does
not
belong
to
some
alliance,
for
study
or
sport,
for
municipal
or
national
benefit,
and
who
will
not
be
seen,
in
leisure
time,
doing
his
best
as
a
social
being.
Take
the
so-called
sleepy
market-town;
it
is
bubbling
with
all
manner
of
associated
activities,
and
these
of
the
quite
voluntary
kind,
forms
of
zealously
united
effort
such
as
are
never
dreamt
of
in
the
countries
supposed
to
be
eminently
"social."
Sociability
does
not
consist
in
a
readiness
to
talk
at
large
with
the
first
comer.
It
is
not
dependent
upon
natural
grace
and
suavity;
it
is
compatible,
indeed,
with
thoroughly
awkward
and
all
but
brutal
manners.
The
English
have
never
(at
all
events,
for
some
two
centuries
past)
inclined
to
the
purely
ceremonial
or
mirthful
forms
of
sociability;
but
as
regards
every
prime
interest
of
the
community--health
and
comfort,
well-being
of
body
and
of
soul--their
social
instinct
is
supreme.
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