Oh, yes, in all the ages the peoples of Europe have been diligently taught to avoid reasoning about the shams of monarchy and nobility, been taught to avoid examining them, been taught to reverence them; and now, as a natural result, to reverence them is second nature.
In order to shock them it is sufficient to inject a thought of the opposite kind into their dull minds.

For ages, any expression of so-called irreverence from their lips has been sin and crime.

The sham and swindle of all this is apparent the moment one reflects that he is himself the only legitimately qualified judge of what is entitled to reverence and what is not.

Come, I hadn't thought of that before, but it is true, absolutely true.

What right has Goethe, what right has Arnold, what right has any dictionary, to define the word Irreverence for me?
What their ideals are is nothing to me.