of the situation is
that not a voice has been raised against professors of philology, who
write on finance, against Bishops dealing with land settlement, against
doctors when they re-map Europe, against barristers, businessmen....
These may say anything they like; they are plain, hard-headed men, while
our heads are soft enough to admit a new idea.

To define the attitude of the press is in modern times to define the
attitude of the State. From our point of view this is frigid. In
America, there are no means of gauging a novelist's position, for
American classification rests upon celebrity and fortune. Ours rests
upon breeding and reliability. America is more adventurous; Britannia
rides in a chariot, while the American national emblem foreshadowed the
aeroplane. And so, in the United States it may profit a man as well to
be a Jack London as an Elihu Root. America has no means of recognising
status, while in England we have honours. We distribute a great many
honours, and indeed the time may come, as Mr Max Beerbohm says, when
everybody will be sentenced to a knighthood without the option of a
fine. Honours are rather foolish things, monuments that create a need
for circumspection; they are often given for merits not easily
perceived, but still they are a _rough_ test of status. Setting aside
money, which is the primary qualification, and justifies Racine in
saying that without money honour is nothing but a disease, a title is a
fairly clear sign of distinction. Sir Edward Shackleton, Sir Douglas
Haig, Sir Frederick Treves, Lord Reading, Sir William Crookes, Lord
Lister, all those titles are obvious recognition of prominence in Polar
Exploration, the Army, the Law, Medicine, Research, as the case may be;
there are scores of Medical Knights, many Law Lords, many Major Generals
and Admirals endowed with the Knight Commandership of the Bath. We do
not complain. They deserve their honours, most of them. They deserve
them more than the politicians who have received for long service
rewards that ability could not give them, than the Lord Mayors who are
titled because they sold, for instance, large quantities of kitchen
fenders. When we consider the arts, we observe a discrepancy. The arts
do not ask for honours; they are too arrogant, and know that born
knights cannot be knighted. Only they claim that an attempt should be
made to honour them, to grant them Mr Gladstone's and Mr Chamberlain's
privilege of refusing honours.