Coningsby or the New Generation

Millbank was the son of one of the wealthiest manufacturers in / Lancashire. His father, whose opinions were of a very democratic bent, / sent his son to Eton, though he disapproved of the system of education / pursued there, to show that he had as much right to do so as any duke in / the land. He had, however, brought up his only boy with a due prejudice / against every sentiment or institution of an aristocratic character, / and had especially impressed upon him in his school career, to avoid the / slightest semblance of courting the affections or society of any member / of the falsely-held superior class.

The character of the son as much as the influence of the father, tended / to the fulfilment of these injunctions. Oswald Millbank was of a / proud and independent nature; reserved, a little stern. The early and / constantly-reiterated dogma of his father, that he belonged to a class / debarred from its just position in the social system, had aggravated the / grave and somewhat discontented humour of his blood. His talents were / considerable, though invested with no dazzling quality. He had not that / quick and brilliant apprehension, which, combined with a memory of rare / retentiveness, had already advanced Coningsby far beyond his age, / and made him already looked to as the future hero of the school. But / Millbank possessed one of those strong, industrious volitions whose / perseverance amounts almost to genius, and nearly attains its results. / Though Coningsby was by a year his junior, they were rivals. This / circumstance had no tendency to remove the prejudice which Coningsby / entertained against him, but its bias on the part of Millbank had a / contrary effect.