- ness."[1] In this quality Meredith was by no means lacking,
but his ironic mood was inclined to the caustic and merciless.
One of his devices is to substitute for the old mock-heroic a new mock-syllogistic, more in accord with modern imagination. The great doctrine of Natural Selection is applied to human courtship, as exemplified by one of the Fittest.[2]
"Science thus—or it is better to say, an acquaintance with
science—facilitates the cultivation of aristocracy. Consequently
a successful pursuit and a wresting of her from a body
of competitors, tells you that you are the best man. What is
more, it tells the world so.
"Willoughby aired his amiable superlatives in the eye of Miss Middleton; he had a leg."
Under the seductive opportunity of table talk Sir Willoughby
again falls a victim to the inductive method. This
time he is airing his opinion of the French, drawing an
elaborate analogy from the character of a national sample
now officiating in the Patterne kitchen. The general validity
of his conclusion is admitted by his modest secretary:[3]
"'A few trifling errors are of no consequence when you are
in the vein of satire,' said Vernon. 'Be satisfied with knowing
a nation in the person of a cook.'"
But Sir Willoughby still has twin peaks of eminence to
surmount: one he achieves when he describes himself to
- ↑ Lettters, II, 501. In another he speaks of the fine irony of French criticism, which "instructs without wounding any but the vanitous person": and adds that "England has little criticism beyond the expression of likes and dislikes, the stout vindication of an old conservatism of taste." Ibid., 569.
- ↑ The Egoist, 43. (The "leg" of course referring to Mrs. Jenkinson's famous epigram).
- ↑ The Egoist, 113.
