Thus not only have the poor an increasing chance of rising into the upper ranks of life, but the upper classes are beginning to regard occupations, at one time beneath their notice, as, after all, most suited to the less bright and capable of their children, so that there is a greater passing up and passing down of the ladder of life than was the case some fifty years ago. The surgeon and medical practitioner were at one time looked down upon and classed with the shopkeepers, and trade in all its branches was viewed as a necessary occupation, but only to be undertaken by the uneducated and unrefined. But nowadays parents are taking what appears to be a more commonsense view of the question. Their sons cannot all of them be landed proprietors, clergymen, lawyers, or soldiers, and they are, therefore, sent to banks and offices and breweries, or may be they are exported to grow oranges or to mind sheep in one of the colonies. Positions in life once looked down upon are now thought better of, for men and women do not speak ill of the positions which may be occupied by their children or by their near relatives.
But while it would appear that we are beginning to give fuller play to individual power and industry, no one would be prepared for a moment to assert that these qualities have as yet free scope for their action. Still the tendency has recently been in the direction of a breaking up of the more artificially imposed barriers between class and class, so that wealth and power is more readily accessible to those who were once debarred from all hope of it by birth; while the children of the well-to-do can take up positions which were at one time thought to be quite unworthy of them. This, then, seems to be the tendency of modern democratic effort, but it is very questionable whether the result eventually achievable is one which, if understood, will be very acceptable to the democracy. Class distinctions of a very artificial kind are, undoubtedly, being rapidly destroyed, but only by the reconstruction of others of a most enduring character. The advantages which the future holds out are, as they always have been, to the few and not to the many, for the struggle and competition is still there, and all cannot come in abreast. By a more complete and thorough sifting from all classes of the capable and intelligent, we are forming, and shall continue rapidly to form an aristocracy of real worth and distinction, separated more and more sharply from the masses, as each generation goes by.
We can hardly doubt that the more capable will always have at their disposal more to satisfy their wants than the relatively incapable masses will have, for society will always continue to expend upon the musical composer or upon the skilful engineer a care which would be thrown away upon a man capable of only a limited development, since the resources of a community, nay of the whole earth itself, are strictly limited, and a due proportion only of these resources must be utilised as necessity dictates. It is quite possible that the present standard of comfort of the labouring classes may be in the future greatly raised, and their horizon widened; still, relatively to others, they will always be poor. If everyone is able to dress in silk and to eat lamb and green peas, then this privilege will cease to be valued, for we set store not on what we possess, but on what we do not possess. The field and town labourers to-day eat better food, dress better, and have far greater advantages than had their fathers, yet relatively to other classes they remain what their fathers were. They are “poor men,” they pity themselves, and the more ambitious strive for what they see others in possession of. At the present time the poor man may, with some show of reason and hope of succeeding in greater things, be discontented with his lot, and wish for other pursuits and other advantages, for which he may feel himself to be, and in many cases is, most aptly fitted; but if the present tendencies continue, whereby the best amongst them rise to higher things as the necessary consequence of their ambition, there will not be found amongst the labourers of the future any considerable number left who will have sufficient innate capacity to undertake pursuits requiring much mental effort and bodily skill. Class will then be separate from class by real organic differences, and the idea of social equality, ridiculous enough as it now appears to most of us, will then have become a demonstrated absurdity, as having contained the impossible idea that things that are unlike can be at the same time alike.
[Those who Succeed are Not Always the Best.]
We cannot leave this question of the struggle between one individual and another without noticing a point of great interest and importance. We have seen that society is giving to the capable of all classes increased facilities to acquire wealth and position, and is tending to form of this capable section an upper class.
Now, unfortunately, this selection is carried out only on certain lines, and it does not follow that this upper class will invoke our entire sympathy and approbation. In biological works we frequently hear of the “survival of the fittest,” and the expression is used by biologists in quite a special and technical sense. It does not mean of necessity that the most active or intelligent always survive; indeed, this is far from being a rule of universal application. Often the most fit are inactive and mentally inert, as when the tame duck with useless wings and the mole with useless eyes is preserved while others die off. In these cases the wings and eyes are useless, and, although the animals looked at by themselves would appear to have become less excellent, yet in view of their surroundings they have a better chance than would be the case were their endowments of a higher order. Biologists use then the term “fit,” simply in the sense of “fit to get on in the world,” and often intrinsically inferior animals and men are “fit” in this sense of the term.
Now, those who are to form this upper class, or classes, of which we have been speaking, will be fit in the technical meaning of the word, for they will have been able best to conform to the conditions necessary for their advancement laid down by society at large. Whether or not these fit will form an aristocracy of high merit will depend upon the kind of conditions with which they have to comply, in fact it will depend upon the selection that society makes.
Does it not appear that the present tendency is rather to give an advantage to the man who is capable, pushing and diplomatic; are we not selecting men with qualities of value in a struggle, qualities which savour still rather of talons and claws, while we are careless of qualities which we have learned already to value as those of a higher order? In following out a train of reasoning like this, where there are no means of obtaining definite evidence, one can only go upon the general impressions of life which it has been in our power to obtain. Do not these impressions force us to believe that the man who most invariably gets on best is he who untiringly follows out his own advantage, who has one end and aim in life, which he pursues regardless of everything else; and that a course of life like this necessarily implies selfishness and want of regard for the well-being of others? We see so many men around us of the greatest capacity, unselfish and unblemished at the same time, and yet they do not get on, but are passed by men who, in most ways their inferiors, possess instinctively the power to follow out in detail that course which leads quickest to success. How often do we not hear of the generosity of the poor, and of the way in which they assist each other in need and sickness? Do we ever ask ourselves if it could not more truly be said that the generous are the poor, that generosity almost of necessity implies a temperament unsuited to the neck to neck struggle which society is increasingly imposing upon those of her citizens who aspire to be rich?
Therefore, although we may be thoroughly in sympathy with the democratic changes just alluded to, and may view these as necessarily preludes to a better condition of things, we must not shut our eyes to their dangers, and must not be deceived into looking upon them as capable of achieving by themselves very desirable or final results.