human
I know nothing about it, said Roger,
gpt
It seems he did not consent.
human
Nothing could have been more unfortunate for either of them than such a marriage. Melmotte will probably be in the 'Gazette' before long, and my cousin not only has not a shilling, but could not keep one if he had it.
gpt
You think Melmotte will turn out a failure.
human
A failure! Of course he's a failure, whether rich or poor;--a miserable imposition, a hollow vulgar fraud from beginning to end,--too insignificant for you and me to talk of, were it not that his position is a sign of the degeneracy of the age. What are we coming to when such as he is an honoured guest at our tables?
gpt
At just a table here and there,
human
No;--it is not that. You can keep your house free from him, and so can I mine. But we set no example to the nation at large. They who do set the example go to his feasts, and of course he is seen at theirs in return. And yet these leaders of the fashion know,--at any rate they believe,--that he is what he is because he has been a swindler greater than other swindlers. What follows as a natural consequence? Men reconcile themselves to swindling. Though they themselves mean to be honest, dishonesty of itself is no longer odious to them. Then there comes the jealousy that others should be growing rich with the approval of all the world,--and the natural aptitude to do what all the world approves. It seems to me that the existence of a Melmotte is not compatible with a wholesome state of things in general.
gpt
He has given ú200, said the Bishop,
human
Clap-trap!
gpt
The money is not clap-trap, my friend. I presume that the money is really paid.
human
I don't feel at all sure of that.
gpt
Our collectors for clerical charities are usually stern men,--very ready to make known defalcations on the part of promising subscribers. I think they would take care to get the money during the election.
human
And you think that money got in that way redounds to his credit?
gpt
Such a gift shows him to be a useful member of society,--and I am always for encouraging useful men.
human
Even though their own objects may be vile and pernicious?
gpt
There you beg ever so many questions, Mr. Carbury. Mr. Melmotte wishes to get into Parliament, and if there would vote on the side which you at any rate approve. I do not know that his object in that respect is pernicious. And as a seat in Parliament has been a matter of ambition to the best of our countrymen for centuries, I do not know why we should say that it is vile in this man. Roger frowned and shook his head.
human
Of course Mr. Melmotte is not the sort of gentleman whom you have been accustomed to regard as a fitting member for a Conservative constituency. But the country is changing.
gpt
It's going to the dogs, I think;--about as fast as it can go.
human
We build churches much faster than we used to do.
gpt
Do we say our prayers in them when we have built them?
human
It is very hard to see into the minds of men, said the Bishop;
gpt
I suppose men will go to heaven, my Lord, by doing as they would be done by.
human
There can be no safer lesson. But we must hope that some may be saved even if they have not practised at all times that grand self-denial. Who comes up to that teaching? Do you not wish for, nay, almost demand, instant pardon for any trespass that you may commit,--of temper, or manner, for instance? and are you always ready to forgive in that way yourself? Do you not writhe with indignation at being wrongly judged by others who condemn you without knowing your actions or the causes of them; and do you never judge others after that fashion?
gpt
I do not put myself forward as an example.
human
I apologise for the personal form of my appeal. A clergyman is apt to forget that he is not in the pulpit. Of course I speak of men in general. Taking society as a whole, the big and the little, the rich and the poor, I think that it grows better from year to year, and not worse. I think, too, that they who grumble at the times, as Horace did, and declare that each age is worse than its forerunner, look only at the small things beneath their eyes, and ignore the course of the world at large.
gpt
But Roman freedom and Roman manners were going to the dogs when Horace wrote.
human
But Christ was about to be born, and men were already being made fit by wider intelligence for Christ's teaching. And as for freedom, has not freedom grown, almost every year, from that to this?
gpt
In Rome they were worshipping just such men as this Melmotte. Do you remember the man who sat upon the seats of the knights and scoured the Via Sacra with his toga, though he had been scourged from pillar to post for his villainies? I always think of that man when I hear Melmotte's name mentioned. Hoc, hoc tribuno militum! Is this the man to be Conservative member for Westminster?
human
Do you know of the scourges, as a fact?
gpt
I think I know that they are deserved.
human
That is hardly doing to others as you would be done by. If the man is what you say, he will surely be found out at last, and the day of his punishment will come. Your friend in the ode probably had a bad time of it, in spite of his farms and his horses. The world perhaps is managed more justly than you think, Mr. Carbury.
gpt
My Lord, I believe you're a Radical at heart,
human
Very likely,--very likely. Only don't say so to the Prime Minister, or I shall never get any of the better things which may be going.