to an ideal of excellence is the most hopeful quality of human nature, so the satisfied repose on the fictitious supposition of such excellence is the most hopeless. Being, as Meredith adds, "a perfectly natural growth of a fat soil," it lacks the stimulus of a rebuff that turns earth's smoothness rough, and perceives no necessity for striving or daring.
On this assertive side sentimentality is related to egoism. But the relation is difficult to express, for egoism is another complexity that baffles analysis. Self-respect and attention to one's own affairs are basic and indispensable virtues; while conversely, altruism is often but egoism in disguise and of all things the most sentimental. We may conclude, however, that it is egoism pushed to its two extremes, vanity on the one side and selfishness on the other, that is the satirizible sort. It is to the vanity wing that sentimentality is more closely connected, as the assumption it makes is usually that of our own superiority in possession and attainment, our own sincerity of motive, and our own immunity from ordinary consequences. Such is the attitude of the sentimental egoists, of which Meredith gives us a full complement.
The Countess de Saldar is abused by the exposure of her schemes, but resolute:[1]
"Still to be sweet, still to smile and to amuse,—still to give
her zealous attention to the business of the diplomatist's Election,
still to go through her church service devoutly, required
heroism; she was equal to it, for she had remarkable courage;
but it was hard to feel no longer at one with Providence."
Wilfred Pole, by Wilming Weir in the moonlight, vows
his love for Emilia:[2]
