Nietzsche, on the other hand,
attributes to the strong man that scorn against weakness which
only exists among invalids. It is not, however, of the secondary
merits of the great German philosopher, but of the primary merits
of the Bow Bells Novelettes, that it is my present affair to speak.
The picture of aristocracy in the popular sentimental novelette seems
to me very satisfactory as a permanent political and philosophical guide.
It may be inaccurate about details such as the title by which a baronet
is addressed or the width of a mountain chasm which a baronet can
conveniently leap, but it is not a bad description of the general
idea and intention of aristocracy as they exist in human affairs.
The essential dream of aristocracy is magnificence and valour;
and if the Family Herald Supplement sometimes distorts or exaggerates
these things, at least, it does not fall short in them.
It never errs by making the mountain chasm too narrow or the title
of the baronet insufficiently impressive. But above this
sane reliable old literature of snobbishness there has arisen
in our time another kind of literature of snobbishness which,
with its much higher pretensions, seems to me worthy of very much
less respect. Incidentally (if that matters), it is much
better literature.
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