ABSTRACT
The individual’s power to choose or create the position in life that is his by virtue of inherited and acquired property is very limited. The process of acquisition is a moralising influence, because it incites the individual to work and to the steady fulfilment of duty in the service of his calling. The sentiment of political duty, with the moral effect that it exerts on the personality, cannot be absolutely constant. The development of political virtues through the influence of certain professions thus appears to partake of the nature of a special privilege belonging to certain favoured individuals. Like his position as a citizen, a man’s share in universal intellectual interests is largely determined by his property and his occupation. Intellectual cultivation, however, like property and employment, must differ for different men. The moral influence of philosophy, the higher mathematics, and philology of general culture is essentially different.
