ARISTOCRACY OF CHARACTER

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 52, 2 March 1934, Page 6

ARISTOCRACY OF CHARACTER

Plato, for the government of his model republic, relied upon the services of- the superior philosophers. ■ /They would seek neither material reward, nor special, rank or honour^! They would, in fact, be loath to leave the ; : lofty,. altitudes , of: philosophy to comedown to guide the mass of the1 people-in material things; but they.| would .fecognisei'that'this was their! duty. , In: a somewhat similar'way Mr., H.- G. .Wells^ in 'iis "Modern: Utopia" has a voluntary nobility, the' members of which submit themselves; to a stern discipline' and have, no reward but" the honour of service. It is such ideals as tliese which humanity j is always seeking,' though the attainment may of ten : fall ' far short of expectations. The Hon. A. Shawj evidently had this in mind when he-1 spoke yesterday of character as the third root of Empire, the greatest of all, going deeper than the rest. "For it was on the steadiness, the courage, and the initiative, the strength and the:loyalty of our fathers," he said, "that- our'heritage was founded. .v■•;-:■ ;-.:.Y0u,-haveI.: what has well been called the greatest of all aristocracies, the aristocracy of character.".; It. is; this aristocracy which has ' led-.Great Britain once again to give' to the world an example, of steadiness' under fire.. '\ It--has been quietly sustaining New Zealand in our economic izero^hbutv: : By-, its 'leadership, the Dominion, may?,enierge from tlie trial, poorer; materially, but .enriched in all-else. ■'But it is necessary that the democracy shouidicecognise that such an ar^f(6di;acy ; iisiiiattincbhsistent with popular government, and' may well prove its salvation. An aristocracy of character serving democracy appears indeed the only alternative £o autocracy. ,