Keeping Up with William: In which the Honorable Socrates Potter Talks of the Relative Merits of Sense Common and Preferred — Socrates — John Shaqi
Keeping Up with William: In which the Honorable Socrates Potter Talks of the Relative Merits of Sense Common and Preferred
Socrates · en
“I wish you to note that she went to bed at nine. Do you think that a
modern girl would knock off at nine? Not at all. She sticks to her task
until midnight and even longer. Abigail had only to be an ordinary human
being with nothing to do but work. The modern girl must have the beauty
of a goddess, the grace of a gazelle, the digestion of an ostrich, the
endurance of a horse and the remorse of a human being. It is a large
contract. “We are all familiar with the diary of a modern girl. Its
average day would be about as follows: Got up. Neck felt like a string
on a toy balloon. Had some toast and coffee. Had my hair dressed and
nails manicured. Put a new ribbon on my dog and walked him around the
block. Went to meeting of the charity committee. Learned that there
were many people out of work. Went to see the doctor who warned me about
overeating and late hours. Same old chestnut! Lunched with Mabel. Ate
half a pound of chocolates and so much cake that the butler had a
frightened look. Home again. Dressed. Went with mama to a lecture on the
insane. Mama woke me at five. It was all over. Went to Gladys's tea.
Danced half an hour. Home again. Dressed. Spent fifteen minutes with
papa and my dog. Went with Harry and mama to Gwendolyn's party. Danced
until midnight. Home at one. Nearly frozen. Talk about long hours and
poor pay and insufficient clothing; this reminds one of the story of
Washington's army in the worst winter of the revolution.
“Now, both of these girls toiled.
“The one in productive work with the wool and the flax. It was done
mostly for the comfort of others. The modern girl wears herself out
supering. Do you know what it means to super? It is to follow the
exacting industry of being superior.”
“Superior to what?” I asked.
“To productive work,” he went on. “Their toil is all in the service of
themselves and in pursuit of their own pleasure.
“That's what's the matter with this old earth. For many years more
than half its people have been supering--wasting their time in busy
idleness--on the high road to deviltry. You don't have to think twice
to decide that it is about the most dangerous of all crimes, my friend,
because it is the straight way to all crime. It leads direct to deceit,
theft, adultery and murder. It kills the sense of brotherhood in the
heart of man. It kills the spirit of Democracy. The world is being
strafed for it, in my opinion.
“Now the center and headquarters of all supering is Prussia--the home of
the superman--and Bill Hohenzollern, the Godful, is the head and front
of the whole push.
“There are two kinds of superiority--real and assumed. Real superiority
is largely unconscious of itself. It can never be inherited--there's the
important fact about it. You will recall that there are only three cases
on record of a great father begetting a great son. The son is apt to
have a sense of inherited superiority. It destroys everything worth
while in him.