But from bad literature he might learn to govern empires and look
over the map of mankind.
There is one rather interesting example of this state of things
in which the weaker literature is really the stronger and the stronger
the weaker. It is the case of what may be called, for the sake
of an approximate description, the literature of aristocracy;
or, if you prefer the description, the literature of snobbishness.
Now if any one wishes to find a really effective and comprehensible
and permanent case for aristocracy well and sincerely stated,
let him read, not the modern philosophical conservatives,
not even Nietzsche, let him read the Bow Bells Novelettes.
Of the case of Nietzsche I am confessedly more doubtful.
Nietzsche and the Bow Bells Novelettes have both obviously
the same fundamental character; they both worship the tall man
with curling moustaches and herculean bodily power, and they both
worship him in a manner which is somewhat feminine and hysterical.
Even here, however, the Novelette easily maintains its
philosophical superiority, because it does attribute to the strong
man those virtues which do commonly belong to him, such virtues
as laziness and kindliness and a rather reckless benevolence,
and a great dislike of hurting the weak.
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