THE PUBLIC SERVANT 



significance. In short, we have been so long accustomed to 

 associate the idea of greatness with extent of mere authority 

 or power over men that we have difficulty in associating it 

 closely with the idea of service to men. 



Yet true greatness is to be determined in character and 

 measured in extent by the amount of service which a man in 

 his life work renders to humanity. True, we will all agree in 

 a measure with the thought when thus broadly put. We 

 admit, when pressed, that to call those who have had extensive 

 authority, great for that reason alone, is savage, if not wicked. 

 But all thru the years and the generations and the centuries 

 this idea of greatness because of service has had only a dim 

 and wavering and interrupted acceptance in the minds of men. 

 Its recognition is clearer and wider today than it ever was be- 

 fore, yet we cannot be sure even now that this wider recogni- 

 tion and readier acceptance of the idea will be any more perma- 

 nent than in previous generations. We hope so. If it is not, it 

 will mean that the progress of mankind is checked again so far 

 as the attainment of cultural and civilized ideals is concerned. 



The explanation of the anomaly in our moral attitude, as 

 described above, is of course not far to seek. The beneficial 

 results of the service of man to his kind are likely to be seen 

 only after his own generation has passed away. The effects 

 of the exercise of power and authority, on the other hand, are 

 evident in the present. We see and feel them before we see 

 and feel the effects of good service. We can measure the 

 effects of true greatness only after the lapse of a long period ; 

 yet the estimate of the character and attribute of an individual 

 is usually determined, in the first instance at any rate, by the 

 people of his own generation. The slowly accumulating bene- 

 fits of goodly influence and quiet service make less impression 

 in the minds of men than does the spectacular and startling 

 immediate display of power. 



Not unconnected with the line of thought that I have just 

 brought out is the common attitude of the citizens of a democ- 



43 



