lead the casual observer
into the belief that perhaps he is a gentleman: whereas it is notorious
that the Parisian artisan or labourer of the lower class is proud of
connecting himself conspicuously with his own order, and ostentatiously
acknowledging it, by adopting its usual costume. It is his way of
expressing an _esprit de corps_. The same thing is true very extensively
of Germans. And it sounds pretty, and reads into a sentimental
expression of cheerful contentedness, that such customs should prevail
on a great scale. Meantime I am not quite sure that the worthy Parisian
is not an ass, and the amiable German another, for thus meekly resigning
himself to the tyranny of his accidental situation. What they call the
allotment of Providence is, often enough, the allotment of their own
laziness or defective energy. At any rate, I feel much more inclined to
respect the aspiring Englishman or Scotchman that kicks against these
self-imposed restraints; that rebels in heart against whatever there may
be of degradation in his own particular employment; and, therefore,
though submitting to this degradation as the _sine qua non_ for earning
his daily bread, and submitting also to the external badges and dress of
his trade as frequently a matter of real convenience, yet doggedly
refuses to abet or countersign any such arrangements as tend to lower
him in other men's opinion. And exactly this is what he _would_ be doing
by assuming his professional costume on Sundays; the costume would then
become an exponent of his choice, not of his convenience or his
necessity; and he would thus be proclaiming that he glories in what he
detests. To found a meek and docile nation, the German is the very
architect wanted; but to found a go-ahead nation quite another race is
called for, other blood and other training. And, again, when I hear a
notable housewife exclaiming, 'Many are the poor servant girls that
have been led into temptation and ruin by dressing above their station,'
I feel that she says no more than the truth; and I grieve that it should
be so. Out of tenderness, therefore, and pity towards the poor girls, if
I personally had any power to bias their choice, my influence should be
used in counteraction to their natural propensities. But this has
nothing to do with the philosophic estimate of those propensities.
Perilous they are; but _that_ does not prevent their arising in
fountains that contain elements of possible grandeur, such a