together, until, at last, only a narrow passage remains in the middle of
the river, a passage through which hundreds of steamers shoot by one
another; all this is so vast, so impressive, that a man cannot collect
himself, but is lost in the marvel of England's greatness before he sets
foot upon English soil. {23}

But the sacrifices which all this has cost become apparent later. After
roaming the streets of the capital a day or two, making headway with
difficulty through the human turmoil and the endless lines of vehicles,
after visiting the slums of the metropolis, one realises for the first
time that these Londoners have been forced to sacrifice the best
qualities of their human nature, to bring to pass all the marvels of
civilisation which crowd their city; that a hundred powers which
slumbered within them have remained inactive, have been suppressed in
order that a few might be developed more fully and multiply through union
with those of others. The very turmoil of the streets has something
repulsive, something against which human nature rebels. The hundreds of
thousands of all classes and ranks crowding past each other, are they not
all human beings with the same qualities and powers, and with the same
interest in being happy? And have they not, in the end, to seek
happiness in the same way, by the same means? And still they crowd by
one another as though they had nothing in common, nothing to do with one
another, and their only agreement is the tacit one, that each keep to his
own side of the pavement, so as not to delay the opposing streams of the
crowd, while it occurs to no man to honour another with so much as a
glance. The brutal indifference, the unfeeling isolation of each in his
private interest becomes the more repellant and offensive, the more these
individuals are crowded together, within a limited space. And, however
much one may be aware that this isolation of the individual, this narrow
self-seeking is the fundamental principle of our society everywhere, it