Page:Conventional Lies of our Civilization.djvu/137

Rh normal times, for a number of talented men to attain to positions of trust and responsibility at the very blossoming-time of their life. For the aristocrat has over the obscure mass of the nameless multitude, the advantage of notoriety, which he finds in his cradle when he is born, while the unknown son of the people is usually obliged to devote the best years of his life to the task of winning it by a grievous waste of vital energies and deterioration of character. In the natural course of events the position won by the plebeian as the result of his life struggle, is the same as that where the patrician begins his career, and consequently the latter enters upon the fulfillment of its duties with all his youth and energy unimpaired, while the former has lost all his in the effort to get there.

Still another advantage to the commonwealth is derived from the existence of an hereditary aristocracy. The possession of an illustrious and honored name is usually a guarantee that the person to whom it belongs will have a surer and more correct comprehension of duty and a higher ideal of humanity, than an individual of a more obscure origin. Of course this universal rule can not be applied to all cases. A prince or duke of the most ancient pedigree may be a scamp, and the son of a day-laborer, or even some foundling picked up in a city gutter, may be the most brilliant example of dignity of character and self-abnegating heroism ever seen. But the former case is the exception and of the latter I know nothing as long as it is not proved. Suppose there is a position vacant that will require in its incumbent courage, reliability and fidelity to duty. I, with my fellow-citizens, am called upon to elect him. Several candidates present themselves, but I know none personally; one is a descendant of an aristocratic family, the other bears a name which I hear now for the first time. If I in such a case,