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| CONINGSBY, by Benjamin Disraeli (1844)
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BOOK IV
CHAPTER I.
A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some
great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of
Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique
world, Art.
In modern ages, Commerce has created London; while Manners, in the most
comprehensive sense of the word, have long found a supreme capital in the
airy and bright-minded city of the Seine.
What Art was to the ancient world, Science is to the modern: the
distinctive faculty. In the minds of men the useful has succeeded to the
beautiful. Instead of the city of the Violet Crown, a Lancashire village
has expanded into a mighty region of factories and warehouses. Yet,
rightly understood, Manchester is as great a human exploit as Athens.
The inhabitants, indeed, are not so impressed with their idiosyncrasy as
the countrymen of Pericles and Phidias. They do not fully comprehend the
position which they occupy. It is the philosopher alone who can conceive
the grandeur of Manchester, and the immensity of its future. There are yet
great truths to tell, if we had either the courage to announce or the
temper to receive them.