e, to expect experience, both sweet and bitter, to
desire the goal rather than the prize; and to find the jewels of
patience, hopefulness, and wisdom by the way, where one had least
expected them.

XVI

Humanity--Individuality--The Average

Hugh, one Sunday, in walking alone outside Cambridge, went for some
considerable time behind a party of young men and boys, who were out
for a stroll. He observed them with a disgustful curiosity. They were
over-dressed; they talked loudly and rudely, and, so far as Hugh could
hear, both coarsely and unamusingly. They laughed boisterously, they
made offensive remarks about humble people who passed them. It was the
height of humour to push each other unexpectedly into the ditch at the
side of the road, and then their laughter became uproarious. It was
harmless enough, but it was all so ugly and insolent, that Hugh thought
that he had seldom seen anything which was so singularly and supremely
unattractive. The performance seemed to have no merit in it from any
point of view. These youths were no doubt exulting in the pride of
their strength, but the only thing that they really enjoyed was that
the people who met them should be disconcerted and distressed. Making
every allowance for thoughtlessness and high spirits, it seemed
unnecessary that these qualities should manifest themselves so
unpleasingly. Hugh wondered whether, as democracy learned its
strength, humanity was indeed becoming more vulgar, more inconsiderate,
more odious. Singly, perhaps, these very boys might be sensible and
good-humoured people enough, but association seemed only to develop all
that was worst in them. And yet they were specimens of humanity at its
strongest and cheerfullest. They were the hope of the race--for the
same thing was probably going on all over England--and they would no
doubt develop into respectable and virtuous citizens; but the spectacle
of their joy was one that had no single agreeable feature. These
loutish, rowdy, loud-talking, intolerable young men were a blot upon
the sweet day, the pleasant countryside. Probably, Hugh thought, there
was something sexual beneath it all, and the insolence of the group was
in some dim way concerned with the instinct for impressing and
captivating the female heart. Perhaps the more demure village maidens
who met them felt that there was something dashing and even chivalrous
about these young squires.

There came into Hugh's mind t