disappointment, and social jealousy. Again, the broad line of gentility,
which now corresponds most closely with the old distinction of nobility,
is determined by such a number of considerations,--birth, connexions,
means, manners, education, with the arbitrary, though almost essential,
condition of not being engaged in retail trade,--that those who are just
excluded by it are apt to feel their position somewhat unintelligible,
and, therefore, all the more galling to their pride and self-respect It
would be curious to ascertain what proportion of the minor
inconveniences and vexations of modern life is due to the perplexity, on
the one side, and the soreness, on the other, created by the
exclusiveness of class-distinctions. That these distinctions are an
evil, in themselves, there can, I think, be no doubt. Men cannot, of
course, all know one another, much less be on terms of intimacy with one
another, and the degree of their acquaintance or intimacy will always be
largely dependent on community of tastes, interests, occupations, and
early associations. But these facts afford no reason why one set of men
should look down with superciliousness and disdain on another set of men
who have not enjoyed the same early advantages or are not at present
endowed with the same gifts or accomplishments as themselves, or why
they should hold aloof from them when there is any opportunity of
common action or social intercourse. The pride of class is eminently
unreasonable, and, in those who profess to believe in Christianity,
pre-eminently inconsistent. It will always, probably, continue to exist,
but we may hope that it will be progressively modified by the advance of
education, by the spread of social sympathy, and by a growing habit of
reflexion. The ideal social condition would be one in which, though men
continued to form themselves into groups, no one thought the worse or
the more lightly of another, because he belonged to a different group
from himself.

Connected with exaggerated class-feeling are abuses of-esprit de
corps_. Unlike class-feeling, _esprit de corps_ is, in itself, a good.
It binds men together, as in a vessel or a regiment, a school or a
college, an institution or a municipality, and leads them to sacrifice
their ease or their selfish aims, and to act loyally and cordially with
one another in view of the common interest. It is only when it
sacrifices to the interests of its own body wider interests still, and
s