Coningsby; Or, The New GenerationDisraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield
General
Coningsby; Or, The New Generation
Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield
Great Britain -- Fiction; Political fiction; Politicians -- Fiction
Sidonia was well aware that in the five great varieties into which
Physiology has divided the human species; to wit, the Caucasian, the
Mongolian, the Malayan, the American, the Ethiopian; the Arabian tribes
rank in the first and superior class, together, among others, with the
Saxon and the Greek. This fact alone is a source of great pride and
satisfaction to the animal Man. But Sidonia and his brethren could
claim a distinction which the Saxon and the Greek, and the rest of
the Caucasian nations, have forfeited. The Hebrew is an unmixed race.
Doubtless, among the tribes who inhabit the bosom of the Desert,
progenitors alike of the Mosaic and the Mohammedan Arabs, blood may be
found as pure as that of the descendants of the Scheik Abraham. But the
Mosaic Arabs are the most ancient, if not the only, unmixed blood that
dwells in cities.
An unmixed race of a firstrate organisation are the aristocracy of
Nature. Such excellence is a positive fact; not an imagination, a
ceremony, coined by poets, blazoned by cozening heralds, but perceptible
in its physical advantages, and in the vigour of its unsullied
idiosyncrasy.
In his comprehensive travels, Sidonia had visited and examined the
Hebrew communities of the world. He had found, in general, the lower
orders debased; the superior immersed in sordid pursuits; but he
perceived that the intellectual development was not impaired. This gave
him hope. He was persuaded that organisation would outlive persecution.
When he reflected on what they had endured, it was only marvellous
that the race had not disappeared. They had defied exile, massacre,
spoliation, the degrading influence of the constant pursuit of gain;
they had defied Time. For nearly three thousand years, according to
Archbishop Usher, they have been dispersed over the globe. To the
unpolluted current of their Caucasian structure, and to the segregating
genius of their great Law-giver, Sidonia ascribed the fact that they
had not been long ago absorbed among those mixed races, who presume
to persecute them, but who periodically wear away and disappear, while
their victims still flourish in all the primeval vigour of the pure
Asian breed.
Shortly after his arrival in England, Sidonia repaired to the principal
Courts of Europe, that he might become personally acquainted with
the monarchs and ministers of whom he had heard so much. His position
insured him a distinguished reception; his personal qualities
immediately made him cherished. He could please; he could do more, he
could astonish. He could throw out a careless observation which would
make the oldest diplomatist start; a winged word that gained him the
consideration, sometimes the confidence, of Sovereigns. When he had
fathomed the intelligence which governs Europe, and which can only be
done by personal acquaintance, he returned to this country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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