The old sailor knew the ropes; even if he
knew the rope's end. Consequently, when any of these revolted, they were
concerned with things they knew, pains, practical impossibilities, or the
personal record.
But They Know
The apprentice cried "Clubs?" and cracked his neighbours' heads with the
precision and fineness of touch which only manual craftsmanship can give.
The housewives who flatly refused to cook the hot dinner knew how much or
how little, cold meat there was in the house. The sailor who defied
discipline by mutinying at the Nore did not defy discipline in the sense
of falling off the rigging or letting the water into the hold. Similarly
the modern proletariat, however little it may know, knows what it is
talking about.
But the curious thing about the educated class is that exactly what it
does not know is what it is talking about. I mean that it is startlingly
ignorant of those special things which it is supposed to invoke and keep
inviolate. The things that workmen invoke may be uglier, more acrid, more
sordid; but they know all about them. They know enough arithmetic to know
that prices have risen; the kind Levantine gentleman is always there to
make them fully understand the meaning of an interest sum; and the
landlord will define Rent as rigidly as Ricardo.
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