Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Toadyism.
TOADYISM .
In the social , as in the individual , constitution , maladies have certain epochs , at which either themselves arrive at a crisis or throw off other shoots which eliminate subsequent species of evil . The increase of wealth , therefore , and the aids to luxury afforded byartistic improvement having given a fillip to national selfishness ,
this last has grown more exorbitant in its demands for power , rank , and pleasure , and now worships the idol in others which it desires itself to possess , condescending to perpetually augmented baseness and servility whereby to compass its ends . In all ages of the world the aphorism of Shakspeare has been proved true : —
Plate sin with golcj ^ strong staff justice Hurtless breaks ; clothe it in rags ,, a pigmy ' s spear Will pierce it !" But this universal truth does not prevent our abasement before the image of gold or power becoming lower and lower ; and when the
last bone in the back of our dignity is broken , and we ignore folly , pay our addresses to incompetency , offer ourselves to be kicked by tyranny , swear fealty to falsehood , if only a coronet covers the asssailant , or a title dignify the insult , —when we reach even the point of preferring stultified indifference and fatuity in peers to
honourable efficiency and manly straightforwardness in commoners , we then become in every sense of the word " toadies . " It is a word which owes its birth to the prevalence of the disorder it denotes ; hence its usage is so common at present . It is associated with , and indeed springs from , unprincipled ignorance of the true nobility of virtue , or from mistaken notions as to the good being the expedient . A man either imagines there can bo nothing higher than to know a prince , or that his acquaintance is sure to bring such
inevitable benefits as will well compensate for the insult of being vol . u , 2 u
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Toadyism.
TOADYISM .
In the social , as in the individual , constitution , maladies have certain epochs , at which either themselves arrive at a crisis or throw off other shoots which eliminate subsequent species of evil . The increase of wealth , therefore , and the aids to luxury afforded byartistic improvement having given a fillip to national selfishness ,
this last has grown more exorbitant in its demands for power , rank , and pleasure , and now worships the idol in others which it desires itself to possess , condescending to perpetually augmented baseness and servility whereby to compass its ends . In all ages of the world the aphorism of Shakspeare has been proved true : —
Plate sin with golcj ^ strong staff justice Hurtless breaks ; clothe it in rags ,, a pigmy ' s spear Will pierce it !" But this universal truth does not prevent our abasement before the image of gold or power becoming lower and lower ; and when the
last bone in the back of our dignity is broken , and we ignore folly , pay our addresses to incompetency , offer ourselves to be kicked by tyranny , swear fealty to falsehood , if only a coronet covers the asssailant , or a title dignify the insult , —when we reach even the point of preferring stultified indifference and fatuity in peers to
honourable efficiency and manly straightforwardness in commoners , we then become in every sense of the word " toadies . " It is a word which owes its birth to the prevalence of the disorder it denotes ; hence its usage is so common at present . It is associated with , and indeed springs from , unprincipled ignorance of the true nobility of virtue , or from mistaken notions as to the good being the expedient . A man either imagines there can bo nothing higher than to know a prince , or that his acquaintance is sure to bring such
inevitable benefits as will well compensate for the insult of being vol . u , 2 u