In the course of an ongoing discussion over at the Corner, John Derbyshire has had cause to recall a passage from one of Evelyn Waugh's essays on Kipling:
He was a conservative in the sense that he believed civilization to be something laboriously achieved which was only precariously defended. He wanted to see the defences fully manned and he hated the liberals because he thought them gullible and feeble, believing in the easy perfectibility of man and ready to abandon the work of centuries for sentimental qualms.
