ad level to
which the law is ever seeking to confine them, and by some
brilliant stroke become something higher and more remarkable
than their fellows? The secret of that great restlessness
which is one of the most disagreeable accompaniments of life
in democratic countries, is in fact due to the eagerness of
everybody to grasp the prizes of which in aristocratic
countries, only the few have much chance. And in no other
society is success more worshiped, is distinction of any kind
more widely flattered and caressed.

In democratic societies, in fact, excellence is the first
title to distinction; in aristocratic ones there are two or
three others which are far stronger and which must be stronger
or aristocracy could not exist. The moment you acknowledge
that the highest social position ought to be the reward of the
man who has the most talent, you make aristocratic
institutions impossible.

All that was buoyant and creative in American life would be lost if we
gave up the respect for distinct personality, and variety in genius, and
came to the dead level of common standards. To be "socialized into an
average" and placed "under the tutelage of the mass of us," as a recent
writer has put it, would be an irreparable loss. Nor is it necessary in
a democracy, as these words of Godkin well disclose. What is needed is
the multiplication of motives for ambition and the opening of new lines
of achievement for the strongest. As we turn from the task of the first
rough conquest of the continent there lies before us a whole wealth of
unexploited resources in the realm of the spirit. Arts and letters,
science and better social creation, loyalty and political service to the
commonweal,--these and a thousand other directions of activity are open
to the men, who formerly under the incentive of attaining distinction by
amassing extraordinary wealth, saw success only in material display.
Newer and finer careers will open to the ambitious when once public
opinion shall award the laurels to those who rise above their fellows in
these new fields of labor. It has not been the gold, but the getting of
the gold, that has caught the imaginations of our captains of industry.
Their real enjoyment lay not in the luxuries which wealth brought, but
in the work of construction and in the place which society awarded them.
A new era will come if schools and universities ca