concerning those who lend not; the notion of the world of those whom it
will not reckon among the righteous,--it said, ‘This won’t do!’ And so
in all time will the lovers of polished Liberalism speak concerning the
intense and lonely prophet.”
This is no longer the Bagehot who could “write across a sheet” with
Sydney Smith. It is now a Bagehot whose heart is turned away from the
cudgeling Whigs to see such things as are hidden from the bearers of
cudgels, and revealed only to those who can await in the sanctuary of a
quiet mind the coming of the vision.
Single specimens of such a man’s writing do not suffice, of course,
even as specimens. They need their context to show their appositeness,
the full body of the writing from which they are taken to show the mass
and system of the thought. Even separated pieces of his matter prepare
us, nevertheless, for finding in Bagehot keener, juster estimates of
difficult historical and political characters than it is given the
merely exact historian, with his head full of facts and his heart
purged of all imagination, to speak. There is his estimate of the
cavalier, for example: “A cavalier is always young. The buoyant life
arises before us, rich in hope, strong in vigor, irregular in action:
men young and ardent, ‘framed in the prodigality of nature;’ open
to every enjoyment, alive to every passion, eager, impulsive; brave
without discipline, noble without principle; prizing luxury, despising
danger; capable of high sentiment, but in each of whom the
‘addiction was to courses vain;
His companies unlettered, rude, and shallow;
His hours filled up with riots, banquets, sports,
And never noted in him any study,
Any retirement, any sequestration
From open haunts and popularity.’
The political sentiment is part of the character; the essence of
Toryism is enjoyment.... The way to keep up old customs is to enjoy old
customs; the way to be satisfied with the present state of things is to
enjoy the present state of things. Over the cavalier mind this world
passes with a thrill of delight; there is an exultation in a daily
event, zest in the ‘regular thing,’ joy at an old feast.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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