ABSTRACT
The axiological dimension of the noble and the common belongs by no means to the class of moral values alone. Nobility of character is what language designates as magnanimity, generosity, largeheartedness, high-mindedness, because there is no word for it except such one-sided figurative expressions. The higher development of the human type always depends upon the actual tendency of the noble. It necessarily clashes with the interest of those who are accounted “good,” and is always to some extent aloof from the community at large and stands in open opposition to the universality of their standards. In nobility man possesses the power of freeing his own development, the unfoldment of his type, from mere accident, from blind necessity, and, by foresight, of prescribing the ends to be pursued; at the same time he possesses the still higher power of working efficiently towards these apprehended goals.
