The principle of aristocratic morality is to preserve for the glory of its escutcheon all the splendour it deems requisite. It does not trouble itself as to the means by which that escutcheon gains in radiance, because it has made a virtue of its pride. The superadded adornments trouble it with no pangs of conscience, because for it duty consists in the integrity of appearances. This morality is not, in the main, more false in conception than that of the bourgeois; it is the guardian of appanage as the other is the guardian of selfish interests.
The morality of Courts consists in preserving tradition intact, and it does not hesitate to sacrifice individuals to the Cause which is one, unchangeable, and imperative. It is thus a morality extraordinary, having authority above right and outside duty.
But whatsoever constitutes the quality deemed essential, whether it be the commercial and industrial stability of the bourgeois, the true or false splendour of the nobleman’s escutcheon, or the more or less artificial halo of the Court, it is none the less true that class morality is daily obliged to yield to circumstances and bend to conditions.
Being one of the manifestations of human action, morality is necessarily subject to the law of living according to such and such an epoch. It has to adapt itself to change. For this reason personal interest, selfishness, pride of birth, and the idea of being above humanity must all, in spite of their rules, conform to new conceptions of altruism and idealism, for there is no moral finality.
To speak truly, every individual bears the moral sense within himself, but he has to remember that the sanction of moral judgment is one of the most important factors of civilisation and progress, and cannot be dissociated to-day from the scientific element.
Nothing leads men more astray than to let them believe that certain persons or certain things injurious to society are desirable.
The personal interest of the merchant is not adapted to the artisan’s life conditions; an escutcheon is not a thing to be coveted by the worker; and the right called “Divine” diminishes in no degree the right of a people. On the contrary, class morality is hostile to the new moral ideas answering to new social needs; this is the reason why its value has depreciated, because humanity is making a constant effort towards an ideal which it creates and changes according to the difficulties of the way, and because the straight road leads to righteousness.