that Meredith was able to see the absurdity in egoism, which is the form of the malady induced by vanity. And this perception, as a modern critic observes, is the source of the contrast between two well-known egoists,—Sir Charles Grandison and Sir Willoughby Patterne:[1]
"Both, superficially viewed, are the same type: a male paragon
before whom a bevy of women burn incense. But O the
difference! Grandison is serious to his author, while Meredith,
in skinning Willoughby alive like another Marsyas, is once and
for all making the worship of the ego hateful."
If one should ask, remembering the necessity for self-assertion
in the exacting requirements of our human destiny,
why so indispensable a thing as egoism should be ridiculous,
Meredith has his answer ready:[2]
"Nay, to be an exalted variety is to come under the calm
curious eye of the comic spirit, and to be probed for what you
are."
It is in "imposing figures" that the malign imps "love
to uncover ridiculousness." Moreover,—[3]
"They dare not be chuckling while Egoism is valiant, while
sober, while socially valuable, nationally serviceable. They
wait."
This turn of the satiric road from the hypocritical to the
sentimental side of deceit marked a passage not only
through traits of character, as already noted, but through
the realm of institutions, where it might at first seem to be
more out of place. But there is no reason why organizations
should not be as sentimental as the individuals of
