No democracy ever has survived, or ever will survive, without
an aristocracy at the heart of it. Not an aristocracy of birth
and privilege, but one of worth and intelligence; not a band of
hereditary lords, but a company of well-chosen leaders. Their value
will depend not so much upon their technical knowledge and skill
as upon the breadth of their mind, the clearness of their thought,
the loftiness of their motives, the balance of their judgment, and
the strength of their devotion to duty. For the cultivation of these
things I say--pardon the apparent contradiction of what _you_
said--I say the study of the classics has been and still is of the
greatest value."
"What did George Washington know about the classics?" Hardman
interrupted sharply. "He was one of your aristocrats of democracy,
I suppose?"
"He was," answered the professor blandly, "and he knew more about
the classics than, I fear, you do, my dear Hardman. At all events,
he understood what was meant when he was called 'the Cincinnatus
of the West'--and he lived up to the ideal, otherwise we should
have had no American Republic.
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