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235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
206
Then
Englishman's
need
of
"comfort"
is
one
of
his
best
characteristics;
the
possibility
that
he
may
change
in
this
respect,
and
become
indifferent
to
his
old
ideal
of
physical
and
mental
ease,
is
the
gravest
danger
manifest
in
our
day.
For
"comfort,"
mind
you,
does
not
concern
the
body
alone;
the
beauty
and
orderliness
of
an
Englishman's
home
derive
their
value,
nay,
their
very
existence,
from
the
spirit
which
directs
his
whole
life.
Walk
from
the
village
to
the
noble's
mansion.
It,
too,
is
perfect
of
its
kind;
it
has
the
dignity
of
age,
its
walls
are
beautiful,
the
gardens,
the
park
about
it
are
such
as
can
be
found
only
in
England,
lovely
beyond
compare;
and
all
this
represents
the
same
moral
characteristics
as
the
English
cottage,
but
with
greater
activities
and
responsibilities.
If
the
noble
grow
tired
of
his
mansion,
and,
letting
it
to
some
crude
owner
of
millions,
go
to
live
in
hotels
and
hired
villas;
if
the
cottager
sicken
of
his
village
roof,
and
transport
himself
to
the
sixth
floor
of
a
"block"
in
Shoreditch;
one
sees
but
too
well
that
the
one
and
the
other
have
lost
the
old
English
sense
of
comfort,
and,
in
losing
it,
have
suffered
degradation
alike
as
men
and
as
citizens.
It
is
not
a
question
of
exchanging
one
form
of
comfort
for
another;
the
instinct
which
made
an
Englishman
has
in
these
cases
perished.
Perhaps
it
is
perishing
from
among
us
altogether,
killed
by
new
social
and
political
conditions;
one
who
looks
at
villages
of
the
new
type,
at
the
working-class
quarters
of
towns,
at
the
rising
of
"flats"
among
the
dwellings
of
the
wealthy,
has
little
choice
but
to
think
so.
There
may
soon
come
a
day
when,
though
the
word
"comfort"
continues
to
be
used
in
many
languages,
the
thing
it
signifies
will
be
discoverable
nowhere
at
all.
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