"
"Ah! dismiss from your mind those fallacious fancies," said
Egremont. "The People are not strong; the People never can be
strong. Their attempts at self-vindication will end only in
their suffering and confusion. It is civilisation that has
effected, that is effecting this change. It is that increased
knowledge of themselves that teaches the educated their social
duties. There is a dayspring in the history of this nation
which those who are on the mountain tops can as yet perhaps
only recognize. You deem you are in darkness, and I see a
dawn. The new generation of the aristocracy of England are
not tyrants, not oppressors, Sybil, as you persist in
believing. Their intelligence, better than that, their hearts
are open to the responsibility of their position. But the
work that is before them is no holiday-work. It is not the
fever of superficial impulse that can remove the deep-fixed
barriers of centuries of ignorance and crime. Enough that
their sympathies are awakened; time and thought will bring the
rest. They are the natural leaders of the People, Sybil;
believe me they are the only ones."
"The leaders of the People are those whom the People trust,"
said Sybil rather haughtily.
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