Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
112
XXII.
For
a
nation
of
this
temper,
the
movement
towards
democracy
is
fraught
with
peculiar
dangers.
Profoundly
aristocratic
in
his
sympathies,
the
Englishman
has
always
seen
in
the
patrician
class
not
merely
a
social,
but
a
moral,
superiority;
the
man
of
blue
blood
was
to
him
a
living
representative
of
those
potencies
and
virtues
which
made
his
ideal
of
the
worthy
life.
Very
significant
is
the
cordial
alliance
from
old
time
between
nobles
and
people;
free,
proud
homage
on
one
side
answering
to
gallant
championship
on
the
other;
both
classes
working
together
in
the
cause
of
liberty.
However
great
the
sacrifices
of
the
common
folk
for
the
maintenance
of
aristocratic
power
and
splendour,
they
were
gladly
made;
this
was
the
Englishman's
religion,
his
inborn
pietas;
in
the
depths
of
the
dullest
soul
moved
a
perception
of
the
ethic
meaning
attached
to
lordship.
Your
Lord
was
the
privileged
being
endowed
by
descent
with
generous
instincts,
and
possessed
of
means
to
show
them
forth
in
act.
A
poor
noble
was
a
contradiction
in
terms;
if
such
a
person
existed,
he
could
only
be
spoken
of
with
wondering
sadness,
as
though
he
were
the
victim
of
some
freak
of
nature.
The
Lord
was
Honourable,
Right
Honourable;
his
acts,
his
words
virtually
constituted
the
code
of
honour
whereby
the
nation
lived.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
