Page:Conventional Lies of our Civilization.djvu/151

hand of toil, by cornering the markets, or, in the most respectable case, they become manufacturers on a large scale and extort their millions from their hundreds or thousands of wretched pauper-laborers. And what sort of people are those who obtain recognition from the prince for their services in peace or war? They are always, I say always, without exceptions, clammy mollusc-souls, slimy, cringing hangers-on, who spend their lives in stifling every sentiment of manly independence, culling out every trace of pride and self-esteem, abasing themselves before any one superior to them in station and imitating his peculiarities to flatter themselves into his favor, counterfeiting extravagant loyalty to his person, and finally, as a fitting crown for the services of a lifetime, spent in crawling in the mire, they beg for a title of nobility. Men who are made of good, solid, humanized substance, with a stiff back-bone, who can not be peaceful and happy when they are not acting out their true nature, such men will never condescend to deny their own individuality and ape the opinions of those who happen to be above them, flattering, intriguing, begging, and, by these means, the only ones that are sure of success, win the royal good-will. The prince selects such men when he has posts of danger and responsibility to fill, but forgets them when he has favors to bestow. These men press forward and are ready to sacrifice everything when it is a question of serving the country; but they do not turn their hands over to attract the monarch's glance in processions and parades. So that a patent nobility is an institution which is to the human kind, what horse-racing is to horse-breeding. Those who win the race, and are selected to raise a new breed, are however the possessors of qualities which a common father might wish for his son, so that he might make his way in the world, as it is called, but which no