Page:Dr Stiggins, His Views and Principles.pdf/47



you realised, do you think, the full extent to which we poison the streams at the very fountain-heads? Listen to this:—

"The history of England has been too often written in the 'drum and trumpet style,' and that of the English people too much neglected. Numberless books have been written, and the imagination racked to idealise in visionary style the doubtful deeds of a class who were quite apart from the real life of the nation. Romanticists deal with episodes in the careers of that class, adopt artificial standards of virtue and morals, and by their genius cast a glamour of greatness and nobility over deeds which, judged by a righteous standard, are little short of ruffianism."

Excellent, you say, but again I ask, do you quite see where these admirable