average man doesn't lead an out-of-door life, doesn't as a rule, use his
strength, but is, as a rule, comparatively cultivated--not in the towns,
but in the agricultural districts. As for the English sailor--except
when the Royal Navy catches and cultivates him--ask Mr. Brinkworth,
who has served in the merchant navy, what sort of specimen of the moral
influence of out-of-door life and muscular cultivation _he_ is."

"In nine cases out of ten," said Arnold, "he is as idle and vicious as
ruffian as walks the earth."

Another cry from the Opposition: "Are _we_ agricultural laborers? Are
_we_ sailors in the merchant service?"

A smart reverberation from the human echoes: "Smith! am I a laborer?"
"Jones! am I a sailor?"

"Pray let us not be personal, gentlemen," said Sir Patrick. "I am
speaking generally, and I can only meet extreme objections by pushing
my argument to extreme limits. The laborer and the sailor have served my
purpose. If the laborer and the sailor offend you, by all means let them
walk off the stage! I hold to the position which I advanced just now. A
man may be well born, well off, well dressed, well fed--but if he is an
uncultivated man, he is (in spite of all those advantages) a man with
special capacities for evil in him, on that very account. Don't mistake
me! I am far from saving that the present rage for exclusively muscular
accomplishments must lead inevitably downward to the lowest deep of
depravity. Fortunately for society, all special depravity is more or
less certainly the result, in the first instance, of special temptation.
The ordinary mass of us, thank God, pass through life without being
exposed to other than ordinary temptations. Thousands of the young