Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1887 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

1 86 The English Admirals
and a very proud history ; and Columbus
thought so highly of it, that he enjoined his
heirs to sign themselves by that title as long
as the house should last
But it is the spirit of the men, and not
their names, that I wish to speak about in
this paper. That spirit is truly English ;
they, and not Tennyson's cotton-spinners or
Mr. D'Arcy Thompson's Abstract Bagman,
are the true and typical Englishmen. There
may be more Jiead of bagmen in the country,
but human beings are reckoned by number
only in political constitutions. And the
Admirals are typical in the full force of the
word. They are splendid examples of virtue,
indeed, but of a virtue in which most English-
men can claim a moderate share ; and what
we admire in their lives is a sort of apotheosis
of ourselves. Almost everybody in our land,
except humanitarians and a few persons
whose youth has been depressed by excep-
tionally aesthetic surroundings, can understand
and sympathise with an Admiral or a prize-
fighter. I do not wish to bracket Benbow