"And is weakness considered despicable among you?" he pursued.

"In every community it is despised practically, if not theoretically," I
tried to explain. "The great thing that America has done is to offer the
race an opportunity--the opportunity for any man to rise above the rest
and to take the highest place, if he is able." I had always been proud of
this fact, and I thought I had put it very well, but the Altrurian did not
seem much impressed by it.

He said: "I do not see how it differs from any country of the past in
that. But perhaps you mean that to rise carries with it an obligation
to those below 'If any is first among you, let him be your servant.' Is it
something like that?"

"Well, it is not quite like that," I answered, remembering how very little
our self-made men as a class had done for others. "Every one is expected
to look out for himself here. I fancy that there would be very little
rising if men were expected to rise for the sake of others, in America.
How is it with you in Altruria?" I demanded, hoping to get out of a
certain discomfort I felt in that way. "Do your risen men generally devote
themselves to the good of the community after they get to the top?"

"There is no rising among us," he said, with what seemed a perception of
the harsh spirit of my question; and he paused a moment before he asked in
his turn: "How do men rise among you?"

"That would be rather a long story," I replied. "But, putting it in the
rough, I should say that they rose by their talents, their shrewdness,
their ability to seize an advantage and turn it to their own account."