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235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
222
The
word
hypocrisy
is
perhaps
most
of
all
applied
to
our
behaviour
in
matters
of
sexual
morality,
and
here
with
specially
flagrant
misuse.
Multitudes
of
Englishmen
have
thrown
aside
the
national
religious
dogma,
but
very
few
indeed
have
abandoned
the
conviction
that
the
rules
of
morality
publicly
upheld
in
England
are
the
best
known
in
the
world.
Any
one
interested
in
doing
so
can
but
too
easily
demonstrate
that
English
social
life
is
no
purer
than
that
of
most
other
countries.
Scandals
of
peculiar
grossness,
at
no
long
intervals,
give
rich
opportunity
to
the
scoffer.
The
streets
of
our
great
towns
nightly
present
an
exhibition
the
like
of
which
cannot
be
seen
elsewhere
in
the
world.
Despite
all
this,
your
average
Englishman
takes
for
granted
his
country's
moral
superiority,
and
loses
no
chance
of
proclaiming
it
at
the
expense
of
other
peoples.
To
call
him
hypocrite,
is
simply
not
to
know
the
man.
He
may,
for
his
own
part,
be
gross-minded
and
lax
of
life;
that
has
nothing
to
do
with
the
matter;
he
believes
in
virtue.
Tell
him
that
English
morality
is
mere
lip-service,
and
he
will
blaze
with
as
honest
anger
as
man
ever
felt.
He
is
a
monument
of
self-righteousness,
again
not
personal
but
national.
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