power before seeking to grasp it."

"Granted, granted," broke in Hardman, impatiently poking the fire.
"You can't say anything about Germany too severe to suit me. Whatever
she needed to keep her from committing the criminal blunder of
this war, it is certain that she did not get it. The blunder was
made and the price must be paid. But what I say now, as I said at
the beginning, is that Latin and Greek are dead languages. For us,
for the future, for the competitions of the modern industrial and
social era, the classics are no good. For a few ornamental persons
a knowledge of them may be a pleasing accomplishment. But they are
luxuries, not necessaries. They belong to a bygone age. They have
nothing to tell us about the things we most need to know--chemistry
and physics, engineering and intensive agriculture, the discovery
of new forms and applications of power, the organization of labor
and the distribution of wealth, the development of mechanical skill
and the increase of production--these are the things that we must
study. I say they are the only things that will count for success
in the new democracy."

"That is what _you_ say," replied Professor De Vries dryly.
"But the wisest men of the world have said something very different.
No democracy ever has survived, or ever will survive, without
an aristocracy at the heart of it. Not an aristocracy of birth
and privilege, but one of worth and intelligence; not a band of
hereditary lords, but a company of well-chosen leaders. Their value
will depend not so much upon their technical knowledge and skill
as upon the breadth of their mind, the clearness of their thought,
the loftiness of their motives, the balance of their judgment, and
the strength of their devotion to duty. For the cultivation of these