On the other hand, the lap-dog condition, whether in dogs or in
men, is certainly unfavourable to the growth of the higher
virtues. Safety and comfort are good, indeed, for the good; for
the brave, the self-originating, the earnest. They give to such a
clear stage and no favour, wherein to work unhindered for their
fellow-men. But for the majority, who are neither brave, self-
originating, nor earnest, but the mere puppets of circumstance,
safety and comfort may, and actually do, merely make their lives
mean and petty, effeminate and dull. Therefore their hearts must
be awakened, as often as possible, to take exercise enough for
health; and they must be reminded, perpetually and importunately,
of what a certain great philosopher called, "whatsoever things are
true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, and of good report;" "if
there be any manhood, and any just praise, to think of such
things."

This pettiness and dulness of our modern life is just what keeps
alive our stage, to which people go to see something a little less
petty, a little less dull, than what they see at home. It is,
too, the cause of--I had almost said the excuse for--the modern
rage for sensational novels. Those who read them so greedily are
conscious, poor souls, of capacities in themselves of passion and
action for good and evil, for which their frivolous humdrum daily
life gives no room, no vent. They know too well that human nature
can be more fertile, whether in weeds and poisons, or in flowers
and fruits, than it is usually in the streets and houses of a
well-ordered and tolerably sober city. And because the study of
human nature is, after all, that which is nearest to everyone and
most interesting to everyone, therefore they go to fiction, since
they cannot go to fact, to see what they themselves might be had