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235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
225
The
political
services
of
Puritanism
were
inestimable;
they
will
be
more
feelingly
remembered
when
England
has
once
more
to
face
the
danger
of
political
tyranny.
I
am
thinking
now
of
its
effects
upon
social
life.
To
it
we
owe
the
characteristic
which,
in
some
other
countries,
is
expressed
by
the
term
English
prudery,
the
accusation
implied
being
part
of
the
general
charge
of
hypocrisy.
It
is
said
by
observers
among
ourselves
that
the
prudish
habit
of
mind
is
dying
out,
and
this
is
looked
upon
as
a
satisfactory
thing,
as
a
sign
of
healthy
emancipation.
If
by
prude
be
meant
a
secretly
vicious
person
who
affects
an
excessive
decorum,
by
all
means
let
the
prude
disappear,
even
at
the
cost
of
some
shamelessness.
If,
on
the
other
hand,
a
prude
is
one
who,
living
a
decent
life,
cultivates,
either
by
bent
or
principle,
a
somewhat
extreme
delicacy
of
thought
and
speech
with
regard
to
elementary
facts
of
human
nature,
then
I
say
that
this
is
most
emphatically
a
fault
in
the
right
direction,
and
I
have
no
desire
to
see
its
prevalence
diminish.
On
the
whole,
it
is
the
latter
meaning
which
certain
foreigners
have
in
mind
when
they
speak
of
English
prudery--at
all
events,
as
exhibited
by
women;
it
being,
not
so
much
an
imputation
on
chastity,
as
a
charge
of
conceited
foolishness.
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