seraph might reply:

'"Ah, yes! I used to sweep a crossing up your street. I asked you for a
copper once, and you told me to go--not where you find me."

'It would be a little awkward for the Snob: things often are; but
he would soon get over it. His sense of locality, you perceive, is
extremely acute. He may not always know at a glance exactly what men are
in themselves, but he can always tell _where_ they are. If you put one
of Madame Tussaud's waxworks into a front seat, or on a Woolsack, or on
a Board of Directors, the English would venerate it more than most real
persons. Their sensibilities are so strong that the merest symbol stirs
them. A noble lord need not do anything remarkable; but he is in the
front row, and if he just radiates ability, that is quite enough. And
he can't help radiating "ability;" it is one of his characteristics, and
has become automatic.'

'What is automatic?'

'Automatic! Oh, it means acting of its own accord, without any effort of
the will to make it work. Automatic actions may go on a very long time
without stopping, sometimes for ever. If I continued in this strain much
longer it might get automatic too: speaking often does, especially with
Members of Parliament. It is as if they were wound up to say similar
things one after the other, like musical-boxes, by reflex action, and
you never know when they will give up. The automatic method has this
advantage, that when you have had some experience of an automaton, you
can always tell--suppose that it is wound up, for instance, to speak
on a motion--what it will probably say next, and certainly how it will
vote, and that gives you a sense of calm peace. It is a method very
common among stump orators, because it comes cheaper in the long run.
But there are other things--novel-writing, for instance. Novelists, many
of them, are wound up at the beginning to write novels periodically, and
the action gradually gets feebler and feebler, till at last it stops. It
does not, however, generally stop till they die, and that is why we have
so many bad novels from some writers. All authors, though, don't write
automatically, any more than all clergymen preach automatically. But it
is a very easy habit to fall into: I have done it myself more than once.
Of course it is very useful, and very inexpensive, and an immense saving
of energy, and one would advise the rising generation to cultivate it
as much as possible, that their years may be long in the