NOTES 317 



fool is really a waste product — of no use as a citizen, and one who ends by living 

 upon others and clamouring for his rights ; and the nation which contains too 

 many such people naturally goes down in the world. We are also too fond of 

 claiming a right to hold our own opinion. There is no such right. A capacity 

 for sound judgment can be earned only with great labour by the study of almost 

 all branches of knowledge combined with an express intention to practise the 

 art of weighing evidences and arguments against each other before forming 

 conclusions. But the opinions of most men seem to be born with them, like their 

 nose. When a man claims a right to hold an opinion he really claims a right to 

 be considered a capable judge. A nation which admires fools (though I suspect 

 poor Mr. Bull is not always such a fool as he would like to be considered) will 

 therefore seldom have sound opinions, and it is notorious that England is the 

 home and generator of every kind of crank, from the party politician to the anti- 

 vivisectionist. These imposters often thrive well, become members of parliament, 

 journalists, schoolmasters, and priests, retard education, science, colonial develop- 

 ment, 1 and, finally, disgrace the country to which they belong, first because they 

 exist and still more because they are listened to. Personally, I can respect an 

 opinion only if I can respect the man who holds it ; and I cannot respect any man 

 who is culpably ignorant or who shows no desire to train his judgment. 



Together with these reforms, we should like to see in this country a much 

 higher regard for work, discipline, and good manners, and, what Goethe praised 

 so much, reverence for achievement. They all go together. The fact is that we 

 have carried the doctrine of individualism (originally a sound one) to excess. To 

 be a man, a man must be more than himself. The rights-monger, the fool, the 

 character-monger, the idler, the liberty-monger, the cub — all consist only of their 

 self. The free and independent person, and the man who is as good as you, are 

 not wanted much longer. We are not separate stars, but only atoms in contact 

 with each other. 



The war has already burnt off much of this old stubble. And the young Briton 

 in khaki — is another being. He knows ten times what he did. He can command 

 and be commanded. Healthy, burnt, active, experienced in realities, he is yet 

 modest, courteous to all he meets, respectful to seniors, and even acknowledges 

 that he has superiors in the world ; for he has given his little self, his life, and his 

 rights unreservedly into the large hand of his country, and has received in return 

 the only right there is — that of self-respect. A nation in arms and a nation of 

 gentlemen. Reconstruction after the war ! — this is reconstruction now, and the 

 best we can have. 



We owe it to the Germans. Let us be just to them. They have always 

 taught that duty (to their own Government) is above rights, and we have called 

 them slaves for their obedience. Unfortunately they used the great power which 

 this principle gave them for the basest of purposes. The supreme wrong which 

 they have inflicted on humanity has been that they taught virtue the service of 

 evil ; and that will be their epitaph in history. 



Here are some more possible details of reconstruction. A real effort should be 

 made to abolish slums, the great defect of British and American civilisation, and 

 probably of democracy — apparently due principally to the fact that town councils 

 are dominated by jobbers. There is also the drink problem : of which the 

 solution appears to me to lie in the abolition of our secret drinking dens called 



1 For example, the important sanitary measure of segregation for white men 

 in the tropics has long been opposed by cranks, because it would be wrong for 

 white men to separate themselves from their coloured fellow-subjects ! 



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