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Jupiter, Allah, Vishnu, Sabaoth, it does not matter who, has given them
the passport to happiness. Fear them. Do not meddle with them, lest they
should meddle with you. Wretch! do you know what the man is who is happy
by right? He is a terrible being. He is a lord. A lord! He must have
intrigued pretty well in the devil's unknown country before he was
born, to enter life by the door he did. How difficult it must have been
to him to be born! It is the only trouble he has given himself; but,
just heavens, what a one!--to obtain from destiny, the blind blockhead,
to mark him in his cradle a master of men. To bribe the box-keeper to
give him the best place at the show. Read the memoranda in the old hut,
which I have placed on half-pay. Read that breviary of my wisdom, and
you will see what it is to be a lord. A lord is one who has all and is
all. A lord is one who exists above his own nature. A lord is one who
has when young the rights of an old man; when old, the success in
intrigue of a young one; if vicious, the homage of respectable people;
if a coward, the command of brave men; if a do-nothing, the fruits of
labour; if ignorant, the diploma of Cambridge or Oxford; if a fool, the
admiration of poets; if ugly, the smiles of women; if a Thersites, the
helm of Achilles; if a hare, the skin of a lion. Do not misunderstand my
words. I do not say that a lord must necessarily be ignorant, a coward,
ugly, stupid, or old. I only mean that he may be all those things
without any detriment to himself. On the contrary. Lords are princes.
The King of England is only a lord, the first peer of the peerage; that
is all, but it is much. Kings were formerly called lords--the Lord of
Denmark, the Lord of Ireland, the Lord of the Isles. The Lord of Norway
was first called king three hundred years ago. Lucius, the most ancient
king in England, was spoken to by Saint Telesphonis as my Lord Lucius.
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