really believe in their own lordliness, and that at any point in the
system one may find men with hands for any man's tip, provided it is
only sufficiently large! Even then!--How is that going to react upon
our children's social conduct?

In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred they will accept the system
still, they will accept it with mental reservations. They will see that
to repudiate the system by more than a chance word or deed is to become
isolated, to become a discontented alien, to lose even the qualified
permission to do something in the world. In most cases they will take
the oaths that come in their way and kiss the hands--just as the
British elementary teachers bow unbelieving heads to receive the
episcopal pat, and just as the British sceptic in orders will achieve
triumphs of ambiguity to secure the episcopal see. And their reason for
submission will not be absolutely despicable; they will know there is
no employment worth speaking of without it. After all, one has only one
life, and it is not pleasant to pass through it in a state of futile
abstinence from the general scheme. Life, unfortunately, does not end
with heroic moments of repudiation; there comes a morrow to the
Everlasting Nay. One may begin with heroic renunciations and end in
undignified envy and dyspeptic comments outside the door one has
slammed on one's self. In such reflections your children of the
exceptional sort, it may be after a youthful fling or two, a "ransom"
speech or so, will find excellent reasons for making their peace with
things as they are, just as if they were utterly commonplace. They know
that if they can boast a knighthood or a baronetcy or a Privy
Councillorship, they will taste day by day and every day that respect,
that confidence from all about them that no one but a trained recluse
despises. And life will abound in opportunities. "Oh, well!" they will
say. Such things give them influence, consideration, power to do