Thomas Wentworth Higginson, The new world and the new book

[110] and such an influence may exist equally under any government. Beaconsfield and Gladstone, Cleveland and Blaine, represent hosts of sincere and unselfish admirers, and, on the other hand, of bitter opponents. If the enthusiasm be greater in England, so is the hostility; no American statesman, not even Jefferson or Jackson, ever was the object of such utter and relentless execration as was commonly poured on Gladstone in England a year or two ago in what is called ‘the best society,’ where Sir Edwin Arnold's ideals are supposed to be most prevalent.

No class distinctions can do anything but obscure such ideals as this. The habit of personal reverence—such reverence, for instance, as the college boy gives to a favorite teacher— is not only independent of all social barriers, but makes them trivial. I remember that, some ten years ago, when I was travelling by rail within sight of Princeton College, a young fellow next me pointed it out eagerly, and said to me, ‘I suppose that there are in that college two of the very greatest thinkers of modern times.’ I asked their names, knowing that one