[Gutenberg 49263] • The Blight of Respectability / An Anatomy of the Disease and a Theory of Curative Treatment

Excerpt from The Blight of Respectability: An Anatomy of the Disease and a Theory of Curative Treatment

Shakspere, Dryden, Fielding, and Burns as respectable men? No great man has ever been, or ever can be, of the respectabilities, for the simple reason that the great are not ordinary, and the ordinary alone are respectable. Have you ever read or heard of a truly noble man or woman who was also respectable? Nobility of character and a reputation for respectability, the two things are utterly incompatible! Sup posing it possible for an original mind to pursue the preposterous chimera of respectability, where would such a mind find itself ultimately? Prone and lazy on the unclean straw of intellectual habits, an impotent among impotents, or a sheep among sheep.

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