This chapter discusses a broad ethical tradition which has played a significant role in legitimating the formation and ongoing work of generations of educational and other leaders. For want of a better term, this ethic may be described as a philosophy of practical, working idealism. The ideal of service was part of an implicit social contract in which a most male minority, by virtue of a unique combination of birth, upbringing, circumstance and social standing, was groomed for, and monopolised, leadership. The service impulse, by contrast, while it may sometimes function a way of clothing greatness or as a vehicle for its attainment is a different impulse. The commitment may be to particular ends, except that the pursuit of ideals entails immanence rather than transcendence, or a disposition towards working with and within the necessities of life imposed by reality.