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235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
114
The
task
before
us
is
no
light
one.
Can
we,
whilst
losing
the
class,
retain
the
idea
it
embodied?
Can
we
English,
ever
so
subject
to
the
material,
liberate
ourselves
from
that
old
association,
yet
guard
its
meaning
in
the
sphere
of
spiritual
life?
Can
we,
with
eyes
which
have
ceased
to
look
reverently
on
worn-out
symbols,
learn
to
select
from
among
the
grey-coated
multitude,
and
place
in
reverence
even
higher
him
who
"holds
his
patent
of
nobility
straight
from
Almighty
God"?
Upon
that
depends
the
future
of
England.
In
days
gone
by,
our
very
Snob
bore
testimony
after
his
fashion
to
our
scorn
of
meanness;
he
at
all
events
imagined
himself
to
be
imitating
those
who
were
incapable
of
a
sordid
transaction,
of
a
plebeian
compliance.
But
the
Snob,
one
notes,
is
in
the
way
of
degeneracy;
he
has
new
exemplars;
he
speaks
a
ruder
language.
Him,
be
sure,
in
one
form
or
another,
we
shall
have
always
with
us,
and
to
observe
his
habits
is
to
note
the
tenor
of
the
time.
If
he
have
at
the
back
of
his
dim
mind
no
living
ideal
which
lends
his
foolishness
a
generous
significance,
then
indeed--videant
consules.
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