Page:Further India; (IA furtherindia00clif).pdf/177

with to correct his earlier impressions, it is melancholy to remember that many others, who have imbibed the same opinions in youth, have never had occasion or opportu- nity to revise and alter them. The inherited and unrea- soning dislike of the average English schoolboy for Frenchmen is undeniably strong, but it is of a wholly different brand to the hate which here may be seen to in- spire the opinions of Francis Garnier; and the ordinary Englishman of our own time puts such prejudices off when he comes to man's estate together with other things. of the child. The fervid virulence of angry hate which finds its expression in the following quotations has no home among ourselves, and the mere fact that we are in- clined to laugh at such frenzies unquestionably adds fuel to the flame. It is the Englishman's almost contemptu- ous indifference to the dislike of which he is the object, and his inability to return the sentiment in kind, which contribute so largely to his unpopularity abroad.

But Garnier's tirade, for all its insensate hatred of Eng- land, for all its boyishness, all its folly, gives token of other more estimable qualities. There is here the enthu- siasm, the optimism, the tremendous self-confidence, the generous ambition which are bred of youth and inexpe- rience, and above all we see Garnier in the character that made him great, as the dreamer of dreams who is yet a man of action bent upon giving concrete form to his im- aginings. His aim was nothing less than the total destruction of England, and he hoped to that end to form a confraternity which should bring about a consummation so devoutly to be wished.