Jack's  sisters  laugh  at  Jones  on  the  cheap  and  clumsy  machine  which
he  has  the  honesty  and  the  moral  courage  to  put  up  with  because
he  is  a  poor  man ;  they  contrast  him  with  their  brother  on  his
Elswick.  Why  ?  Because  they  know  it  will  minister  to  Jack's
sense  of  superiority.  It  is  to  the  lower  sort  of  pride  that  flattery
appeals  ;  to  brute  arrogance,  to  the  mean  pleasure  of  seeing  others
at  a  disadvantage,  to  the  soothing  of  hurt  vanity  by  the  mortifica-
tion of  somebody  else.  Much  is  thrown  at  women  which  they  do
not  deserve,  but  they  cannot  be  acquitted  of  the  charge  that  their
flattery  and  indulgence  are  largely  responsible  for  the  self-indulgence
and  arrogance  of  others;  faults  which  would  appear  as  much  in
women  as  in  men,  but  that  they  do  not  receive  the  same  treatment
to  the  same  extent.  If  this  seems  a  digression,  let  it  be  remembered
that  we  are  speaking  of  the  Jingo ;  that  arrogance  is  the  keynote  of
Jingoism ;  and  that  a  few  words  on  a  common  cause  of  arrogance
may  not  therefore  be  out  of  place.
