Q. See here, you must be a Socialist!
A. Yes. What of it?
Q. What of it! Why, I’m talking about Reverence, and you haven’t got
any. You’re not looking for the noblest utterances of mankind, you’re
looking for weapons with which to cut your way through the jungle of
contemporary hypocrisies!
A. Of course.
Q. Well, how do you expect me to prove my theory by you? You are
excused!
We’ll have to try again. There’s another one. Eager Young Immigrant,
thirsting for the treasures locked in our English tongue. Come here, my
lad.
Q. What books do _you_ read? Shaw and Veblen, by any chance?
A. No, sir. I’m going to the English Literature class at the social
settlement, and I’m reading the “Idylls of the King.” I’ve read
Addison’s Essays and Shakespeare, and I’m going to take up the Iliad.
Q. The classics, eh?
A. Yes, sir. All the things they study at college!
Q. H’m. Ever hear of Dr. Eliot’s Five-Foot Shelf?
A. Yes, sir--I own it.
Q. How much do you make a week?
A. Eighteen dollars.
Q. Thank you. That’s all!
And there you are!
But please don’t misunderstand me. Disparagement of the classics
as such is far from being the point of my remarks! One may regard
the piano as a noble instrument, and yet point out the unprecedented
sale of pianos during the war as an example of the influence of class
jealousy in interior decoration. For observe that it is not the
intrinsic merit of book or piano which wins the regard of the class
long envious of its “betters” and now able by a stroke of luck to
parade its class paraphernalia; it is the stamp of caste that makes it
desirable: an accordion, which merely makes music, would not serve the
purpose! That boy who owns Dr. Eliot’s Five-Foot Shelf does not want
mere vulgar enlightenment; he wants an acquaintance with such books as
have an aura of hereditary academic approval.
And it is for the same reason that Latin and Greek have so apparently
fixed a place in our public education. They were part of the system of
educating gentlemen’s sons in England; and what was good enough to be
threshed into the hides of gentlemen’s sons is good enough for us!