Change, not Deterioration. 147 



quite willing to admit that the standard which we prac- 

 tically reach is somewhat modified. I would say, going 

 back to my previous illustration, that Olive and Pattern 

 were rather deviations from the average stamp of their 

 own day, just as Meifod Molly and Perseverance are not 

 specially typical of the present day. If I may use a 

 geometrical illustration, we have not moved either towards 

 perfection, or further away from it along a straight line. 

 Rather we have travelled over part of the circumference 

 of a circle of which the standard of perfection is the centre. 

 We have gained some advantage and lost others. Neck, 

 shoulders, and outline were points that we always aimed at ; 

 to-day we get them much oftener. We still try to get well 

 sprung ribs and compact frames ; we oftener miss them. 



" For surely it is not needful to point out that change is 

 not necessarily deterioration. We sometimes hear it said, 

 ' Look at that dog ; how utterly unlike Jock or Tyrant,' or 

 some other past celebrity. Very well ; he may be unlike, 

 and yet a very good dog. He may have got what the 

 other dog wanted, even though he misses some of his 

 predecessor's best points. We did not think the old heroes 

 standards of perfection in their own day. Why should they 

 be brought up in judgment against their successors? Just 

 in the same way did the mentors of one's childhood cast in 

 one's teeth some half mythical generation of faultless 

 predecessors. 



" ' Whene'er Miss Betty does a fault, 

 Lets drop a knife or spills the salt, 

 Thus by her mother she'll be chid : 

 'Tis what Vanessa never did ! ' 



"The critic of terriers who contrasts the iron present with a 

 golden past only illustrates a common law of human thought. 



L 2 



