What it is plain to see he dreads for England
is that her ever-swelling cities with their smoke
and foul air should breed — ^as no observer can
doubt they are breeding — a race less steady
even if more intelligent, less purposeful, less
patriotic, given to vain cries speedily forgotten,
calling only, when its toil is over, for corn
and circuses. It is when he imagines he sees
traces of such things that his love is changed
to anger against his country, that she seems
" built of putty, brass and paint," that he
attacks her with the scathing reproof of The
Islanders.
It is this energy that accounts for the small
part that women play in his work. Like his
favourite hero, the ' Brushwood Boy,' he
wants to play- his game without " petticoats
in the court." I say this despite my belief
that much nonsense has been talked as to his
attitude to women, but that I shall discuss
later on. One point in this connection may,
however, now be noticed. In their book on
him Messrs. G. F. Monkswood and George
Gamble say : " I have never met a woman that
was a Kiplingite, and I should not have be-
lieved it if I had. The writings of Rudyard
Kipling do not appeal to women, perhaps be-

46



LITERARY FOUNDATIONS

cause they are not intended so to do." My
own experience has been precisely the contrary.
