ics are of a higher order we can hardly expect the
best minds in the nation to feel any attraction to a political career.
More and more the professional politician, the narrow man, the man of
the loud voice and the one idea, the man who has few instincts of
honesty in his mind and no movement of high and disinterested patriotism
in his soul, will press himself upon the attention of democracy and by
intimidating his leaders and brow-beating his opponents force his way
onward to office.

The consideration of this grave peril to the moral character of our
public life brings me to my brief conclusion.

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER XIV

CONCLUSION

_"While the advances made by objective science and its industrial
applications are palpable and undeniable all around us, it is a
matter of doubt and dispute if our social and moral advance towards
happiness and virtue has been great or any."_--MARK PATTISON.

After all, a nation gets the politics that it deserves. The fault is not
in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings. If the tone of
public life is a low one it is because the tone of society is not a high
one. The remedy, then, is not "Sack the lot," but rather, "Repent, lest
a worse thing befall thee."

It seems to me that a beginning in moral and social reformation might be
made if aristocracy could be encouraged to affirm its ancient rights by
the performance of its inherent duties.

We are a nation without standards, kept in health rather by memories
which are fading than by examples which are compelling. We still march
to the dying music of great traditions but there is no captain of
civilization at the head of our ranks. We have indeed almost ceased to
be an army marching with confidence towards the enemy, and have become a
mob breaking impatiently loose from the discipline and ideals of our
past.

Aristocracy, it must be boldly said, has played traitor to England. It
has ceased to lead, and not because it has been thrust from its rightful
place by the rude hand of democracy, but because it has deliberately
preferred the company of the vulgar. No one has pulled it down, it has
itself descended. It has lost its respect for learning, it has grown
careless of manners, it has abandoned faith in its duty, it is conscious
of no solemn obligations, it takes no interest in art, it is indifferent
to science, it is sick of effort, it has surrendered gladly and
gratefully to the ma