HEREDITY AND POLITICS 153 



our greatest men are as little likely to be appreciated 

 by as to appreciate the average electorate. Great 

 soldiers and sailors, able administrators from home and 

 colonial life, eminent economists and sociologists with 

 knowledge of practical affairs, men of science capable 

 of applying their stores of learning, should all prepon- 

 deratingly and directly be represented in the govern- 

 ment of a country. 



Secondly, to obtain consideration for the claims of 

 the future, it is difficult to see how some application of 

 the hereditary principle can be foregone. Judging 

 from history, the representatives of distinguished 

 families are probably our most valuable national 

 asset. The inheritance of responsibility, combined 

 with the inheritance of privilege, was the earliest as 

 well as one of the most effective methods evolved by 

 the human race for obtaining a continuity of tradition 

 and securing to the community the advantages of the 

 instinctive habit of considering the family, especially in 

 its future development, as apart from the individual 

 in his relation to the present. 



It is unwise to make constitutions on theoretical 

 considerations, but if we were asked to determine the 

 function of any two coexistent chambers in a modern 

 state, we should say that, broadly speaking, one should 

 represent and deal with the present population and its 

 needs, the other should have in its charge the main- 

 tenance of the best racial traditions and the duty of 

 exercising by legislative function a wise foresight over 

 the future destinies of the nation. Which of these 

 two should have the last word is, clearly, a matter of 

 individual opinion. 



