ABSTRACT
it would be no paradox to say that the great men of thought or action are few, and that consequently the fate of human societies is bound up with that of their aristocracies. Nor is it paradoxical to add that we must not here think of the old closed hereditary aristocracies of blood, but rather of open aristocracies, continually renewing themselves, whose members, when their work is done, die, or if they survive their office retire into private life. To contrast the masses with this aristocracy, as if they were a herd, a many-headed monster to be repressed and bound and deluded, is the pose of aesthetes and minor poets, as it was the unlucky habit of the decadent absolute monarchies. But if the aristocracy of which we speak is an open one, if it is recruited from the so-called masses, it clearly cannot treat them as enemies or foreigners nor as worthless matter to be trampled under foot and haughtily over-ridden. In fact, these are all platitudes, but still it is true that it is the duty of an aristocracy to educate the masses.
