There is
pride in the latter group of impulses and not in the former; the
former are always a little apologetic. Fear, Indulgence, Jealousy,
these are the First Three Limitations of the soul of man. And the
greatest of these is Jealousy, because it can use pride. Over them
the Life Aristocratic, as I conceive it, marches to its end. It
saves itself for the truth rather than sacrifices itself
romantically for a friend. It justifies vivisection if thereby
knowledge is won for ever. It upholds that Brutus who killed his
sons. It forbids devotion to women, courts of love and all such
decay of the chivalrous idea. And it resigns--so many things that
no common Man of Spirit will resign. Its intention transcends these
things. Over all the world it would maintain justice, order, a
noble peace, and it would do this without indignation, without
resentment, without mawkish tenderness or individualized enthusiasm
or any queen of beauty. It is of a cold austere quality, commanding
sometimes admiration but having small hold upon the affections of
men.
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