one, if possible,
who will tell the people they are blind and foolish, and neither
flatter them nor batten on them. I have my heritage--an order I belong
to. I have the blood of a line of handicraftsmen in my veins, and I
want to stand up for the lot of the handicraftsmen as a good lot,
in which a man may be better trained to all the best functions of
his nature, than if he belonged to the grimacing set who have
visiting-cards, and are proud to be thought richer than their
neighbors."

That the leading aim of _Felix Holt_ is to show the nature of true social
reform may be seen in the address made by Felix at the election, and even
more distinctly in the address put into his mouth in _Blackwood's Magazine_
for 1868. In the election speech Felix gives it as his belief that if
workingmen "go the right way to work they may get power sooner without
votes" than with them, by the use of public opinion, "the greatest power
under heaven." The novel points out the social complications of life, the
influence of hereditary privileges and abuses, and how every attempt at
reform is complicated by many interests, and is likely to fall into the
hands of demagogues who use the workingmen for their own purposes. The
address of Felix in _Blackwood's_ is really a commentary on the novel, or
rather a fine and suggestive summary of the moral, social and political
idea; it was meant to inculcate.

In _Felix Holt_, George Eliot would teach the world that true social reform
is not to be secured by act of Parliament, or by the possession of the
ballot on the part of all workingmen. It is but another enforcement of the
theory that it is not rights men are to seek after, but duties; that social
and political reform is not to be secured by insistence on rights, but by
the true and manly acceptance of altruism. Felix Holt is a social reformer
who is not a demagogue, who does not seek office or personal advancement,
but who wishes to show by his own conduct how a larger life is to be won.
He would introduce universal education; he would teach the great principles
of right living, physically and morally; he would inculcate the spirit of
helpfulness and mutual service. As a brave, earnest, self-sacrificing,
pure-minded lover of humanity, he is an inspiring character. George Eliot
evidently wished to indicate in his creation what can be done by workingmen
towards the uplifting of their own class. A better social order, s