There was at any rate no prejudice at
the onset. "English Ladies and Gentlemen," he said, "I am in the
unenviable position of having to say hard things to you for about
an hour and a half together, if I do not drive you from your seats
before my lecture is done. And this is the more the pity because I
could talk to you for three hours about your country and not say an
unpleasant word. His Lordship has told you that flattery is not my
purpose. Neither is praise, which would not be flattery. Why should
I collect three or four thousand people here to tell them of
virtues the consciousness of which is the inheritance of each of
them? You are brave and generous,--and you are lovely to look at,
with sweetly polished manners; but you know all that quite well
enough without my telling you. But it strikes me that you do not
know how little prone you are to admit the light of reason into
either your public or private life, and how generally you allow
yourselves to be guided by traditions, prejudices, and customs
which should be obsolete. If you will consent to listen to what one
foreigner thinks,--though he himself be a man of no account,--you
may perchance gather from his words something of the opinion of
bystanders in general, and so be able, perhaps a little, to rectify
your gait and your costume and the tones of your voice, as we are
all apt to do when we come from our private homes, out among the
eyes of the public.
Pages:
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787