hostile or at least unfavorable to it? We do not say ondency, but simply to illustrate the position and its Amid the morbid leveling of the times, few signs ul as the growing strength of the higher education; 'I to recognize with what it has to contend. In the democratic society two counter-influences are appara curse, and the other a blessing: First, those sudIs of accumulated wealth which break with sinister broad distribution of property which once formed nd, secondly, this recent reënforcement of trained Each confronts the other; for culture is no friend/ th, and most of the mountains of gold and silver we n are in the keeping of those who are very ill fitted o the profit of civilization.

e-to use that inadequate word for want of a bethave said, to contend with formidable difficulties. ns of ambition among us are stimulated to the utzes held before them are enormous. The faculties ney-making, and those that lead to political notoished from political eminence, have every opporincentive. Ability, poor and obscure, may hope ealth, rule over mines, railroads, and cities, and lories of official station. As a consequence, we › of rich men and an abundance of clever poli? would not be misunderstood. We have no ainst self-made men. There are those among he highest respect and the warmest gratitude. on the highest pinnacle of civilization, they rces, immediate or remote, from which our gs. Yet there are achievements to which 1 exceptional cases. We have had but one hat great man had failings from which difd have delivered him. Nor was Franklin full-fledged.

that win material success are spurred to

Great fault is found with men of education and social position, because they withdraw from public life and abandon the field to men half taught and sans aveu. Tried by the standard of ideal perfection they ought, for the good of the country, to sacrifice inclination, peace, and emolument, go down into the arena, and jostle with the rest in the scrub-race of American politics, even if victory brings them no prize which they greatly care to win. Such men we have. Those who to-day save our politics from absolute discredit do so, in one degree or another, at a personal sacrifice. If the conflicts and the rewards of public life have something to attract them, they have also a great deal to repel. They enter a career where the arts of political management are of more avail than knowledge, training, and real ability; or, in other words, where the politician carries the day and not the statesman; where fitness for a high place is not the essential condition of reaching it, and where success must often be bought by compliances repugnant to them. The public service is paid neither by profit nor by honor, except such profit and honor as those best fitted to serve the public hold in slight account. It is only in the highest walks of political life that honor is to be found at all. For the rest, it might almost be said that he who enters them throws on himself the burden of proof to show that he is an honest man. More and more, we drift into the condition of those unhappy countries where "the post of honor is a private station;" and perhaps at this moment there is no civilized nation on earth of which this saying holds more true.

Out of this springs a double evil: bad government first, and then an increasing difficulty in regaining a good one. Good government cannot be maintained or restored unless the instructed and developed intellect of the country is in good degree united with political habits and experience. The present tendency is to divorce it from them; and this process of separation, begun long ago, is moving on now more rapidly than ever. Within a generation the quality of public men has sunk conspicuously. The masses have grown impatient of personal eminence, and look for leaders as nearly as may be like themselves. Young men of the best promise have almost ceased to regard politics as a career. This is not from want of patriotism. When the Union was in danger there were none who hastened to its defense with more

ardent and devoted gallantry, rejoicing to serve their country in a field where it was to be served by manhood and not by trickery. Peace came, they sheathed their swords, and were private citizens again. They would die in the public service, but they would not live in it.

In fact, the people did not want them there. The qualities of the most highly gifted and highly cultivated are discarded for cheaper qualities, which are easier of popular comprehension, and which do not excite jealousy. Therefore the strongest incentive to youthful ambition, the hope of political fame, is felt least by those who, for the good of the country, ought to feel it most. The natural results follow. A century ago three millions of people produced the wise, considerate, and temperate statesmanship on which our nationality is built. Now we are forty millions, and what sort of statesmanship these forty millions produce let the records of Congress show. The germs of good statesmanship are among us in abundance, but they are not developed, and, under our present system and in the present temper of our people, they cannot be developed. The conditions of human greatness are difficult to trace, but one thing is reasonably sure: it will not grow where it is not wanted. It may be found in a republic that demands the service of its best and ablest, but not in one that prefers indifferent service of indifferent men, and pleases itself with the notion that this is democratic equality.

The irrepressible optimist, who discovers in every disease of the state a blessing in disguise, will say that eminent abilities are unnecessary in democracies. We commend him to a short study of the recent doings of Congress, and, if this cannot dispel his illusion, his case is beyond hope. This same illusion, in one shape or another, is wide-spread through all the realm of Demos, where we sometimes hear the value of personal eminence of any kind openly called in question, on the ground that the object of popular government is the good of the many and not of the few. This is true, but it remains to ask what the good of the many requires. It does not require that the qualities most essential to the conduct of national affairs should be dwarfed and weakened; but that they should be developed to the utmost, not merely as a condition of good government, but because they are an education to the whole people. To admire a brazen demagogue sinks the

masses, and to admire a patriot statesman elevates them. Example is better than schooling; and, if average humanity is encouraged in the belief that there is nobody essentially much above itself, it will not rise above its own level. A low standard means low achievement. In every one of the strata into which civilized society must of necessity be divided there are men capable of a higher place, and it is injustice to those whom Nature has so favored not to show them the heights to which they may aspire. What they do see clearly enough are the factitious heights of wealth and office; what they need also to see are those of human nature in its loftiest growth.

A nation is judged by its best products. To stand in the foremost rank, it must give to the human race great types of manhood, and add new thought to the treasury of the world. No extent of territory, no growth of population, no material prosperity, no average of intelligence, will ever be accepted as substitutes. They may excite fear, wonder, or even a kind of admiration, but they will never win or deserve the highest place.

Our civilization is weak in the head, though the body is robust and full of life. With all the practical vigor and diffused intelligence of the American people, our cultivated class is inferior to that of the leading countries of Europe; for not only does the sovereign Demos think he can do without it, but he is totally unable to distinguish the sham education from the real one. The favorite of his heart is that deplorable political failure, the “selfmade man," whom he delights to honor, and to whom he confides the most perplexed and delicate interests, in full faith that, if he cannot unravel them, then nobody else can. He thinks that he must needs be a person of peculiar merit and unequaled vigor. His idea of what constitutes him is somewhat singular. He commends as self-made the man who picks up a half education at hap-hazard; but if, no matter with what exertion, he makes use of systematic and effective methods of training and instructing himself, then, in the view of Demos, he is self-made no longer.

The truth is, liberal education is at a prodigious disadvantage among us. In its nature it is only the beginning of a process that should continue through life; of a growth that will bear its fruit only in the fullness of time. Of what avail to nurse and enrich the young tree, if its after-years are to be spent in a soil

and climate hostile or at least unfavorable to it? We do not say this in despondency, but simply to illustrate the position and its necessities. Amid the morbid leveling of the times, few signs are so hopeful as the growing strength of the higher education; but it is well to recognize with what it has to contend. In the platitudes of democratic society two counter-influences are apparent-the one a curse, and the other a blessing: First, those sudden upheavals of accumulated wealth which break with sinister portent that broad distribution of property which once formed our safety; and, secondly, this recent reënforcement of trained intelligence. Each confronts the other; for culture is no friend of vulgar wealth, and most of the mountains of gold and silver we have lately seen are in the keeping of those who are very ill fitted to turn them to the profit of civilization.

But culture-to use that inadequate word for want of a better-has, as we have said, to contend with formidable difficulties. The lower forms of ambition among us are stimulated to the utmost. The prizes held before them are enormous. The faculties that lead to money-making, and those that lead to political notoriety as distinguished from political eminence, have every opportunity and every incentive. Ability, poor and obscure, may hope to win untold wealth, rule over mines, railroads, and cities, and mount to all the glories of official station. As a consequence, we have an abundance of rich men and an abundance of clever politicians. Again, we would not be misunderstood. We have no wish to declaim against self-made men. There are those among them who deserve the highest respect and the warmest gratitude. If rarely themselves on the highest pinnacle of civilization, they are generally the sources, immediate or remote, from which our best civilization springs. Yet there are achievements to which they are equal only in exceptional cases. We have had but one Franklin; and even that great man had failings from which different influences would have delivered him. Nor was Franklin a product of democracy full-fledged.

While the faculties that win material success are spurred to the utmost, and urged to their strongest development, those that find their exercise in the higher fields of thought and action are far from being so. For the minds that mere wealth and mere notoriety cannot satisfy, the inducements are weak and the diffiVOL. CXXVII.-NO. 263.

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