selfishness, his arrogant familiarity and effrontery, and his sensuous
sentiment. He is a mean-souled and cynical camp-follower of the army of
King Demos, every day expanding, every day more objectionable in his
insolent assurance. Originally designed as an illustration of the
'Arryism of the rougher classes, then promoted to be characteristic of
the low sort of shop-lad and still lower kind of mechanic "with views"
of a clear-cut kind within the narrow limits of his materialistic
philosophy, he has developed into a type of character--almost, indeed,
into a type of humanity. And as 'Arryism is rife in every walk of
society, so 'Arry's experiences have become more informed, but not for
that reason more cultivated or more refined. And therein lies the one
inevitably weak point of Mr. Milliken's invention. Like Frankenstein, he
seems to have created a Monster, who has outgrown the purpose he was
originally intended to serve. For when he finds himself considering the
'Arryism of the "upper classes," he is bound, by his otherwise admirable
convention, to retain the Cockney slang of which he is such a master,
even though the speaker is supposed to have advanced so far in his views
and knowledge of life as to be able to discuss matters of art, science,
and literature. For, be it observed, a bank-'oliday at the Welsh 'Arp,
"wich is down 'Endon wy," is no longer a spree for him, however
uproarious the "shindy," and however ready his "gal" may be to sit on
his knee and "change 'ats" to the accompaniment of cornet and
concertina. He travels--on the cheap, of course--but still he travels,
and discusses Venus of Milo, and 'Igh Art, and the philosophic questions
of the "dy," and resolves all his meditations into the "motter" that
"Socierty's all right." Without soul, without ideality, without
aspiration, save of the baser sort, he represents no good quality nor
redeeming virtue but physical health--the promise, it may at least be
hoped, of a posterity that in the future, perchance, may justify his
existence. He is the raw, the offensively raw, material from which
respectable and useful descendants may eventually be made. At present
Mr. Milliken shows the 'Arryism that is permeating and fouling all
classes, almost to the highest; but there the convention fails--only
because it _is_ a convention--for 'Arry is made to fill the part which
has more recently, and perhaps with greater fitness, been accorded to
the Bounder.[46]

But, apart f