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leavened the whole mass of society . And wealth may not only purchase noble alliance , but nobility itself . Mrs . Barbauld
complained that the spiritual Jacob ' s ladder was ' some rounds too short . ' The temporal Jacob's ladder is some rounds too long . It keeps a man looking upward , and mounting , or striving to mount , all his life . He thinks of nothing but how he may catch those above him , and distance those below him . ' By this
intermixture , ' says our author , < of the highest aristocracy with the more subaltern ranks of society , there are far finer and more numerous grades of dignity in this country than in any other . ' Title , descent , fashion , wealth , connexions , acquaintanceship , professions , occupations , all have their weight in determining the
station of an individual , and each struggles to make the most of his pretensions . * Thank heaven , I have no questionable connexions , ' said one whose balloon was mounting into the clouds of the social heaven ; it saved the trouble of throwing the ballast (overboard . Why are all the professions so overloaded , but because they are more respectable * than trade . And this same word , the everlasting symbol of excellence , what is its import ?
Ask our author . ' With us the word virtue is seldom heard , out of a moral essay ; I am not sure whether it does not excite a suspicion of some unorthodox signification , something heathen and in contradistinction to religion . The favourite word is " respectability ; " and the current meaning of " respectability" may certainly exclude virtue , but never a decent sufficiency of wealth . —vol . i . p . 34 .
It is remarked , in the same chapter , that Cobbett ' s felicity in nicknames could find no more contemptuous appellation for Mr . Sadler than that of the linendraper . No doubt it answered his purpose . So the great poetical professor of moral philosophy thought to annihilate the Westminster Review * by ascribing its establishment to the machinations of Place , the tailor , a man
whose acute and sturdy intellect will probably originate many things that will outlive even Blackwood's Magazine , and the Toryism of which it is the ablest champion . Mr . Bulwer is mistaken , we think , in ascribing that generous and chivalric disposition which the people of England have , and its nobility have not , to € our history and writers / to ' the spirit of antiquity * preserved by the multitude , while i the aristocracy preserve only the forms . ' ( vol . i . p . 50 . ) The cause is not so remote , and it is strange that the very instances to which he refers did not suggest it to his mind . With the exception of classes which seek the removal of their own grievances , the men
in this country , whose voices longest and loudest sustain the cry against injustice , are the better sort of mechanics . Their situation has many moral advantages . If good workmen , they are far less dependent than the small shopkeepers . They are under less temptation to servility . They read , think , and associate more
Untitled Article
Characteristics of English Aristocracy , 691
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1833, page 591, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2622/page/7/
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