THE PAGAN ETHIC 87 



asked for the final rejection of the conception that 

 all men are equal, and of the demand in politics that 

 all men shall have equality of opportunity. For 

 the conception and the demand were, he said, 

 "founded in natural falsehood." * 



(3) Mr. Bateson asserted, therefore, that in 

 civilization in the future, again to repeat his words, 

 " the aim of social reform must be, not to abolish 

 class, but to provide that each individual shall so 

 far as possible get into the right class and stay 

 there, and usually his children after him." a 



As we regard these proposals carefully they almost 

 take our breath away. For it will be observed 

 that what Mr. Bateson demanded in the midst of 

 one of the oldest and most influential centres of 

 learning and culture in the West was, in effect, 

 nothing less than the stultification of the character- 

 istic principles which have brought the whole 

 modern world of the civilization of the West into 

 existence. He demanded in particular, it will be 

 observed, the stultification of that fundamental 

 assumption of equality with which the Bishop of 

 Winchester identifies Western progress and which 

 underlies every characteristic demand and pro- 

 gramme of Western democracy. The details with 

 which Mr. Bateson supplemented his proposals, such 

 1 op. cit., p. 28. * Op. cit., p. 32. 



