I can't see that the race is breaking down or giving out.

Consider how their political morals have been pulled up since the days of the rotten boroughs; consider how their court-life is now high and decent, and think what it once was.

British trade is larger this year than it ever was, Englishmen are richer then they ever were and more of them are rich.

They write and speak and play cricket, and govern, and fight as well as they have ever done--excepting, of course, the writing of Shakespeare.
Another conclusion that is confirmed the more you see of English life is their high art of living.

When they make their money, they stop money-making and cultivate their minds and their gardens and entertain their friends and do all the high arts of living--to perfection.