Below the Salt

A fictional conversation between Dyce Lashmar, a would-be Liberal MP, and his father, an Anglican vicar and political sceptic.

“Yet, Dyce, when I think of the Sermon on the Mount—" He paused again, holding his pipe in his hand, unlit, and looking before him with wide eyes.

"I respect that as much as anyone can," said Dyce, gravely.

"As much as anyone can—who doesn't believe it." His father took him up with gentle irony. "I don't expect the impossible. You cannot believe in it; for you were born a post-Darwinian. Well, your religion is temporal; let us take that for granted. You do not deny yourself; you believe that self-assertion to the uttermost is the prime duty."

“Provided that self-assertion be understood aright. I understand it as meaning the exercise of all my civic faculties.”

“Which, in your case, are faculties of command, faculties which point you to the upper seat, Dyce. Tom Bullock, my gardener, is equally to assert himself, but with the understanding that his faculties point to the bottom of the table, where the bread is a trifle stale, and butter sometimes lacking. Yes, yes: I understand. Of course you will do your very best for Tom; you would like him to have what the sweet language of our day calls a square meal. But still he must eat below the salt; there you can’t help him.”

George Gissing - Our Friend the Charlatan (1901)


The elitist nature of Liberal political games haven’t change much since Gissing’s day. Dyce Lashmar is the ambitious charlatan of the book’s title. 

In our day, modern charlatans push Net Zero as a means to ensure that the vast majority of the population remains below the salt forever.