Teutonic race.

For the rest, events seem but too likely to repeat themselves again
and again all over the world, in the same hopeless circle.
Aristocracies of mere birth decay and die, and give place to
aristocracies of mere wealth; and they again to "aristocracies of
genius," which are really aristocracies of the noisiest, of mere
scribblers and spouters, such as France is writhing under at this
moment. And when these last have blown off their steam, with mighty
roar, but without moving the engine a single yard, then they are but
too likely to give place to the worst of all aristocracies, the
aristocracy of mere "order," which means organised brute force and
military despotism. And, after that, what can come, save anarchy,
and decay, and social death?

What else?--unless there be left in the nation, in the society, as
the salt of the land, to keep it all from rotting, a sufficient
number of wise men to form a true working aristocracy, an aristocracy
of sound and rational science? If they be strong enough (and they
are growing stronger day by day over the civilised world), on them
will the future of that world mainly depend. They will rule, and
they will act--cautiously we may hope, and modestly and charitably,
because in learning true knowledge they will have learnt also their
own ignorance, and the vastness, the complexity, the mystery of
nature. But they will be able to rule, they will be able to act,
because they have taken the trouble to learn the facts and the laws
of nature. They will rule; and their rule, if they are true to
themselves, will be one of health and wealth, and peace, of prudence
and of justice. For they alone will be able to wield for the benefit
of man the brute forces of nature; because they alone will have