登陆注册
5162900000006

第6章 CASTE(2)

vast tracts of the centre of Europe were lying desert; the population was diminished for several generations.The trading classes, ruined by the long war, only asked to be let live, and make a little money.The nobility, too, only asked to be let live.They had lost, in the long struggle, not only often lands and power, but their ablest and bravest men; and a weaker and meaner generation was left behind, to do the governing of the world.Let them live, and keep what they had.If signs of vigour still appeared in France, in the wars of Louis XIV.they were feverish, factitious, temporary--soon, as the event proved, to droop into the general exhaustion.If wars were still to be waged they were to be wars of succession, wars of diplomacy; not wars of principle, waged for the mightiest invisible interests of man.The exhaustion was general; and to it we must attribute alike the changes and the conservatism of the Ancien Regime.To it is owing that growth of a centralising despotism, and of arbitrary regal power, which M.de Tocqueville has set forth in a book which I shall have occasion often to quote.To it is owing, too, that longing, which seems to us childish, after ancient forms, etiquettes, dignities, court costumes, formalities diplomatic, legal, ecclesiastical.Men clung to them as to keepsakes of the past--revered relics of more intelligible and better-ordered times.If the spirit had been beaten out of them in a century of battle, that was all the more reason for keeping up the letter.They had had a meaning once, a life once; perhaps there was a little life left in them still; perhaps the dry bones would clothe themselves with flesh once more, and stand upon their feet.At least it was useful that the common people should so believe.There was good hope that the simple masses, seeing the old dignities and formalities still parading the streets, should suppose that they still contained men, and were not mere wooden figures, dressed artistically in official costume.And, on the whole, that hope was not deceived.More than a century of bitter experience was needed ere the masses discovered that their ancient rulers were like the suits of armour in the Tower of London--empty iron astride of wooden steeds, and armed with lances which every ploughboy could wrest out of their hands, and use in his own behalf.

The mistake of the masses was pardonable.For those suits of armour had once held living men; strong, brave, wise; men of an admirable temper; doing their work according to their light, not altogether well--what man does that on earth?--but well enough to make themselves necessary to, and loyally followed by, the masses whom they ruled.No one can read fairly the "Gesta Dei per Francos in Oriente," or the deeds of the French Nobility in their wars with England, or those tales--however legendary--of the mediaeval knights, which form so noble an element in German literature, without seeing, that however black were these men's occasional crimes, they were a truly noble race, the old Nobility of the Continent; a race which ruled simply because, without them, there would have been naught but anarchy and barbarism.To their chivalrous ideal they were too often, perhaps for the most part, untrue: but, partial and defective as it is, it is an ideal such as never entered into the mind of Celt or Gaul, Hun or Sclav; one which seems continuous with the spread of the Teutonic conquerors.They ruled because they did practically raise the ideal of humanity in the countries which they conquered, a whole stage higher.They ceased to rule when they were, through their own sins, caught up and surpassed in the race of progress by the classes below them.

But, even when at its best, their system of government had in it--like all human invention--original sin; an unnatural and unrighteous element, which was certain, sooner or later, to produce decay and ruin.The old Nobility of Europe was not a mere aristocracy.It was a caste: a race not intermarrying with the races below it.It was not a mere aristocracy.For that, for the supremacy of the best men, all societies strive, or profess to strive.And such a true aristocracy may exist independent of caste, or the hereditary principle at all.We may conceive an Utopia, governed by an aristocracy which should be really democratic; which should use, under developed forms, that method which made the mediaeval priesthood the one great democratic institution of old Christendom;bringing to the surface and utilising the talents and virtues of all classes, even to the lowest.We may conceive an aristocracy choosing out, and gladly receiving into its own ranks as equals, every youth, every maiden, who was distinguished by intellect, virtue, valour, beauty, without respect to rank or birth; and rejecting in turn, from its own ranks, each of its own children who fell below some lofty standard, and showed by weakliness, dulness, or baseness, incapacity for the post of guiding and elevating their fellow-citizens.Thus would arise a true aristocracy; a governing body of the really most worthy--the most highly organised in body and in mind--perpetually recruited from below: from which, or from any other ideal, we are yet a few thousand years distant.

But the old Ancien Regime would have shuddered, did shudder, at such a notion.The supreme class was to keep itself pure, and avoid all taint of darker blood, shutting its eyes to the fact that some of its most famous heroes had been born of such left-handed marriages as that of Robert of Normandy with the tanner's daughter of Falaise.

同类推荐
  • 随息居重订霍乱论

    随息居重订霍乱论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Doctor Thorne

    Doctor Thorne

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Gathering of Brother Hilarius

    The Gathering of Brother Hilarius

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 新官到任仪注

    新官到任仪注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 深衣考误

    深衣考误

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 倾世狐妖对对配

    倾世狐妖对对配

    只能说,这个世界疯狂了!十八岁生日,老天的礼物就是让她掉进下水道!!掉进下水道就算了!居然还让她狗血的穿越!穿越她也认了,你妹的居然让她穿到了妖界!这都算了!为什么要让她嫁给这个狐狸精!她大声的say!NO!但是这个狐狸精居然说:“我就娶你了,怎么样!”钥语韵直接气节!晕倒……
  • 豪门千金奉旨穿越:四嫁酷王爷

    豪门千金奉旨穿越:四嫁酷王爷

    豪门千金乔云裳被后妈设计穿越到古代西寒国一罪女身上后,又遭邪恶法师暗算,她成为一根“刺”,一种用女子身子做成的销魂刺!奉旨再次穿越后遇到了冷擎宇,传闻里的冷酷王爷。于是,恩恩怨怨,曲曲折折,真情谁付出?假意谁识别?谁知道翻云覆雨后,究竟那销魂刺是谁的祸伤?幽声叹,真真是一曲情殇凄婉唱,万般缠绵最心伤!
  • 台湾资料清德宗实录选辑

    台湾资料清德宗实录选辑

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 雾满西楼

    雾满西楼

    魔界之主花兮觉得管理一方很心累,便偷偷溜到人界。听到讨论围剿魔教,花兮觉得亲切,决定去“魔教”助他们一臂之力。路上遇见了刚刚化为人形的少年燕绥之,还结识了迟九、于秋,四人行热闹是热闹。渐渐的花兮察觉自己喜欢上了燕绥,可是,在她的眼里,燕绥只是一个凡人,最终决定,等他死后,去抢他的魂,让他随她回去魔界。却不知燕绥之早已谋划许久,就差她主动送上门!
  • 中国近代史

    中国近代史

    20世纪的中国与世界,都遭遇了两千年未有之大变局。本书以中国的近代化为线索,将百年来国家的演变和人物故事娓娓道来,没有枯燥的考据,没有史料的堆砌,尽显对国家前途、民族命运和社会发展趋势的关切。特别是作者对近代国人所做的自强努力及其失败原因的分析更是远见卓识,至今发人深省。
  • 晋人援蜀记

    晋人援蜀记

    春去夏来,日子平常。柴米油盐酱醋茶,一方水土养一方人。五月十二日前晌,京城里是个麻阴天儿。我匆匆赶往人民大会堂,从西门进了吉林厅。军旅作家徐剑一部新作,讲今年春季里,南方发生特大冰雪灾害,国家电网十万将士拼死抗灾送电,艰苦卓绝。在大会堂举行作品首发式进而展开研讨,规格甚高,是为了表达对死难英烈和家属们的敬重。座中时闻泣泪声。文学界人士都在发言中谈,国家多磨难,民众有良知。
  • 花谢月如初之皇后万岁

    花谢月如初之皇后万岁

    一场蓄意的谋杀,令她意外穿越。什么?!代价进宫?!好吧,算我倒霉,嫁就嫁吧,但那个爱找茬的皇上是怎么一回事儿啊?阴谋诡计什么的,其实我很害怕的好不好。不死之身?神仙的补偿?难道我是主角上身?RP太好?但是,我不要补偿,让我回家好不?怎么这个世界就我一个是单纯的傻子吗?!任你们唬弄,任你们欺骗吗?!为什么只把我一个人蒙在鼓里……【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 伅真陀罗所问宝如来三昧经

    伅真陀罗所问宝如来三昧经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 爱你成痴,冷少的逃妻

    爱你成痴,冷少的逃妻

    他不过是第一眼开始,就想要拥有她最美的笑容。而她却从一开始,就想要逃离。有一种爱叫做斯德哥尔摩综合症,她知道自己深陷其中。但残存的理智告诉她,这绝对不是幸福的相处模式。他禁锢了她的自由,却仿佛永远也得不到她的心。终于,他痛苦地转身,南溪,我放了你……
  • 首席的独宠娇妻

    首席的独宠娇妻

    时光回到慕容语嫣还在慕容妈妈的肚中的18年前,慕容振邦也就是慕容爸爸,他的公司还只是个经营稍见起色的小食品工厂,慕容氏夫妻俩还正为工厂忙的焦头烂额呢,却发生了一件改变了那个还未出世的慕容语嫣小朋友一辈子人生大事的的事情,人生逆转竟在此刻了。