To this vast residuum we give the name of
'Populace.'" In thus dividing the nation, he is careful to point out
that in each class we may from time to time find "aliens"--men free from
the prejudices, the faults, the temptations of the class in which they
were born; elect souls who, unhindered by their antecedents, share the
higher life of intellectual and moral aspiration.
But, after making this exception, he traces in all three classes the
presence and working of the same besetting sin. All alike, by a dogged
persistence in doing as they like, have come to ignore the existence of
Authority or Right Reason; and this irrecognition of what ought to be
the rule of life operates not only in the political sphere, but also,
and conspicuously, in the spheres of morals, taste, society, and
literature. Self-satisfaction blinds all classes. All alike believe
themselves infallible, and there is no sovereign organ of opinion to set
them right. The fundamental ground of our erroneous habits, and our
unwillingness to be corrected, is "our preference of doing to thinking,"
The mention of this preference leads us to the subject of Chapter IV,
"Hebraism and Hellenism.
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