[begin page 108]

To be vested with enormous authority is a fine thing; but to have the on-looking world consent toⒶalteration in the MS it is a finer. The tower-episode solidifiedⒶalteration in the MS my power, and made it impregnable.Ⓐalteration in the MS If any were perchanceⒶalteration in the MS disposed to be jealous and critical before that, they experienced a change of heart, now. There was not any oneⒶalteration in the MS in the kingdom who would have considered it good judgmentⒶalteration in the MS to meddle with my matters.Ⓐalteration in the MS

I was fast getting adjusted to my situation and circumstances. For a time, I used to wake up, mornings, and smile at my “dream,” and listen for the Colt’s factory-whistle; but that sort of thing played itself out, gradually, and at last I was fully able to realize that I was actually living in the sixth century, and in Arthur’s court, not a lunatic asylum. After that, I was just as much at home in that century as I could have been in any other; and as for preference, I wouldn’t have traded it for the [begin page 109] twentieth. Look at the opportunities here for a man of knowledge, brains, pluck and enterprise to sail in and grow up with the country. The grandest field that ever was; and all my own; not a competitor nor the shadow of a competitorⒶrejected substantive Ⓐtextual note; not a man who wasn’t a babyⒶalteration in the MS to me in acquirements and capacities: whereas, what would I amount to in the twentieth century? I should be foreman of a factory, that is about all;Ⓐalteration in the MS and could drag a seine down street any day and catch a hundred better men than myself.

What a jump I had made! I couldn’t keep fromⒶalteration in the MS thinking about it, and contemplating it, just as one does who has struck oilⒶalteration in the MS. There was nothing back of meⒶalteration in the MS that could approach it, unless it might be Joseph’s caseⒺexplanatory note; and Joseph’sⒶalteration in the MS only approached it, it didn’t equal it, quite. For it stands to reason that as Joseph’s splendid financial ingenuities advantaged nobody but the king, the general public must have regarded him with a good deal of disfavor; whereas I had done my entireⒶalteration in the MS public a kindness in sparing the sun, and was popularⒶalteration in the MS by reason of it.

I was no shadow of a king; I was the substance, the king himself was the shadow. My power was colossal; and it was not a mere name, as such things have generally been, it was the genuine article. I stood here, at the very spring and source of the second great period of the world’s history; and could see the trickling stream of that history gather, and deepen, and broaden, and roll its mighty tides down the farⒶalteration in the MS centuries; and I could note the upspringing of adventurers like myself in the shelter of its long array of thrones: De MontfortsⒺexplanatory note, Gavestons, MortimersⒺexplanatory note, VilliersesⒺexplanatory note; the war-making, campaign-directingⒶalteration in the MS wantonsⒶemendation of FranceⒺexplanatory note, and Charles the Second’s sceptre-wielding drabsⒶemendation Ⓔexplanatory note; butⒶalteration in the MS nowhere in the procession was my full-sized fellow visible. I was a Unique; and glad to know that that fact could not be dislodgedⒶalteration in the MS or challenged for thirteen centuries and a half, for sure.

Yes, in power I was equal to the king. At the same time there was another power that was a trifle stronger than both of us put together. That was the Church. I do not wish to disguise that fact. I couldn’t, if I wanted to. But never mind about that, now; it will show up, in its proper place, later on. It didn’tⒶrejected substantive cause me any trouble in the beginning —at least any of consequence.

Well, it was a curious country, and full of interest. And the people! They were the quaintest and simplestⒶalteration in the MS and trustingest race; why they were nothing but rabbits. It was pitiful for a person born in a wholesome freeⒶalteration in the MS atmosphere to listen to their humble and hearty outpourings [begin page 110] of loyalty toward their king and ChurchⒶemendation and nobility: as if they had any more occasion to love and honorⒶalteration in the MS king and ChurchⒶemendation and noble than a slave has to love and honor the lash, or a dog has to love and honor the stranger that kicks him!Ⓐemendation Why, dear me,Ⓐalteration in the MS any kind of royalty, how-soever modified, any kind of aristocracy, howsoeverⒶemendation pruned, is rightly an insult; butⒶalteration in the MS if you are born and brought up under that sort of arrangementⒶalteration in the MS you probably never find it out for yourself, and don’t

believe it when somebody else tellsⒶrejected substantive you. It is enough to make a body ashamed of his race to think of the sort of frothⒶemendation Ⓐalteration in the MS that has always occupied its thrones without shadow of right or reason, and the seventh-rate people that have always figured as its aristocracies—a companyⒶalteration in the MS of monarchs and nobles who, as a rule, would have achieved only poverty and obscurity if left like their betters to their own exertions.

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The most of King Arthur’s British nation were slaves, pureⒶalteration in the MS and simple, and bore that name,Ⓐalteration in the MS and wore the iron collar on their necks; and the rest were slaves in fact, but without the name; they imagined themselves men and freemen, and called themselves soⒶalteration in the MS. The truth was, the nation as a body was in the world for one object, and one only: to grovel before king and ChurchⒶemendation and noble; to slave for them, sweat blood for them, starve that they might be fed, work that they might play, drink misery to the dregs that they might be happy, go naked that they might wear silks and jewels, pay taxes that they might be spared from payingⒶemendation them, be familiar all their lives with the degrading languageⒶalteration in the MS and postures of adulation that they might walk in pride and think themselves the gods of this world. And for all this, the thanks they got were cuffs and contempt; and so poor-spirited were they that they took even this sort of attention as an honor.

Inherited ideas are a curious thing, and interesting to observe and examine. I had mine, the king and his people had theirs. In both cases they flowed in ruts worn deep by time and habit, and the man who should have proposedⒶalteration in the MS to divert them by reason and argument would have hadⒶalteration in the MS a long contract on his hands. For instance, those people had inherited the idea that all men without title and a long pedigree, whether they had great natural gifts and acquirements or hadn’t, were creatures of no more consideration than so many animals, bugs, insects; whereas I had inherited the idea that human dawsⒶalteration in the MS who canⒶalteration in the MS consent to masquerade in theⒶalteration in the MS peacock-shams of inherited dignities and unearned titles, are of no good but to be laughed at. The way I was looked upon was odd, but it was natural. You know how the keeper and the public regard the elephant in the menagerie: well, that is the idea. They are full of admiration of his vast bulk and his prodigious strength; they speak with pride of the fact that he can do a hundred marvels which are far and away beyondⒶalteration in the MS their own powers; and they speak with the same pride of the fact that in his wrath he is able to drive a thousand men before him: but does that make him oneⒶalteration in the MS of them? No; the raggedest tramp in the pit would smile at the idea. He couldn’t comprehend it; couldn’t take it in; couldn’t in any remote way conceive of it. Well, to the king, the noblesⒶrejected substantive, and all the nation, down to the very slaves and tramps, I was just that kind of an elephant, and nothing more. I was admired, also feared; but it was as an animal is admired and feared. The animal is notⒶalteration in the MS reverenced, neither was I; I was [begin page 112]

not even respectedⒶalteration in the MS. I had no pedigree, no inherited title; so,Ⓐalteration in the MS in the king’s and the nobles’Ⓐalteration in the MS eyes I was mere dirt; the people regarded me with wonder and awe, but there was no reverenceⒶalteration in the MS mixed with it; through the force of inherited ideas they were not able to conceive of anything being entitled to that except pedigree and lordship. There [begin page 113] you see the hand of that awful power, the Roman Catholic Church. In two or threeⒶalteration in the MS little centuries it had converted a nation of men to a nation of worms. Before the day of the Church’s supremacy in the world, men were men, and held their heads up, and had a man’sⒶalteration in the MS pride, and spirit, and independence; and what of greatness and positionⒶalteration in the MS a person got, he got mainlyⒶalteration in the MS by achievement, not by birthⒶemendation.Ⓐalteration in the MS But then the Church came to the front, with an axe to grind; and sheⒶalteration in the MS was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a cat—or a nation: she invented “divine right of kings,” and propped it allⒶalteration in the MS around, brick by brick, with the Beatitudes—wrenching them from their good purpose to make them fortify an evil one; she preached (to the commoner,) humility, obedience to superiors, the beauty of self-sacrifice; she preached (to the commoner,) meekness under insult; preached (still to the commoner, always to the commoner,) patience, meanness of spirit, non-resistance under oppression; and she introduced heritable ranks and aristocracies, and taught all the Christian populations of the earth to bow down to them and worship them. Even down to my birth-century that poison was still in the blood of Christendom, and the best of English commoners was still contentⒶalteration in the MS to see his inferiors impudentlyⒶalteration in the MS continuing to hold a number of positions, such asⒶalteration in the MS lordships and the throne, to which the grotesque laws of his country did not allowⒶtextual note him to aspire; in fact he was not merely contented with this strange condition of things, he was even able to persuade himself that he was proud of it. It seems to show that there isn’t anything you can’t stand, if you are only born and bred to it. Of course that taint, that reverence for rank and title, had been in our American blood, too—I know that; but when I left America it had disappearedⒶalteration in the MS—at least to all intents and purposes.Ⓐalteration in the MS The remnant of it was restricted to the dudes and dudesses.Ⓐemendation When a disease has worked its way down to that level, it may fairly be said to be out of the system.

But to return to my anomalous position in KingⒶemendation Arthur’s kingdom. Here I was, a giant among pigmies, a man among children,Ⓐalteration in the MS a master intelligence among intellectual moles:Ⓐalteration in the MS byⒶalteration in the MS all rational measurement the one and only actually great man in that whole British world; and yet there and then, just as in the remote England of my birth-time, the sheep-witted earl who could claim long descent from a king’s lemanⒶemendation,Ⓐalteration in the MS acquired at second-handⒶemendation from the slums of London, was a better man than I was. Such a personage was fawned upon in Arthur’s realmⒶalteration in the MS and [begin page 114] reverentlyⒶalteration in the MS looked up to by everybody, even though his dispositions were as mean as his intelligence, and his morals as base as his lineage. There were times when he could sit down in the king’s presence; but I couldn’t. I could have got a title easily enough, and that would have raised me a large step in everybody’s eyes; even in the king’s, the giver of it. But I didn’t ask for it; and I declined it when it was offered. I

couldn’t have enjoyed such a thing, with my notions; and it wouldn’t have been fair, anyway, because as far back as I could go, our tribe had always been short of the bar sinisterⒶemendation. I couldn’t have felt really and satisfactorily fine and proud and set-up over any title except one that should come from the nation itself, the only legitimate source; and such an oneⒶrejected substantive I hoped to win; and in the course of years of honest and honorable endeavor, I didⒶalteration in the MS win it and did wear itⒶalteration in the MS with a high and clean [begin page 115] pride. This title fell casually from the lips of a blacksmith, one day, in a village; was caught up as a happy thought and tossed from mouth to mouth with a laugh and anⒶalteration in the MS affirmative vote; in ten days it had swept the kingdom, and was become as familiar as the king’s name. I was never known by any other designation afterwardⒶrejected substantive, whether in the nation’s talk or in grave debate upon matters of state at the council board of the sovereign. This title, translated into modern speech, would be The Boss. Elected by the nation. That suited me. And it was a pretty high title. There were very few The’s, and I was one of them. If you spoke of the duke, or the earl, or the bishop, how could anybody tell which one you meant? But if you spoke of The King or The QueenⒶalteration in the MS or The Boss, it was different.

Well, I liked the king, and as king I respected him—respected the office; at least respected it as much as I was capable of respecting any unearned supremacy;Ⓐalteration in the MS but as men Ⓐalteration in the MS I looked down upon him and his noblesⒶalteration in the MS—privately. And he and theyⒶalteration in the MS liked me, and respected my office;Ⓐalteration in the MS but as anⒶalteration in the MS animal, without birth or sham title, they looked down upon me—and were not particularly private about it, either. I didn’t charge for my opinion about them, andⒶemendation they didn’t charge for their opinion about me: the account was square, the books balanced, everybody was satisfied.