wever, the
manger were, henceforth, to be regarded as alone holy, or the forms and
surroundings of popular life be accepted as the only abode of the
eternal spirit, or the embodiment of holy nature itself, it would be a
perversion of truth, a new orthodoxy, another schism. This much always
remains; the spirit of truth appears everywhere--in the manger and in
the pillared temple, in the library of the student and on the royal
throne in the glittering palace. Buddha, who was one of the greatest
benefactors and regenerators of mankind, and who, in the realm of
caste, maintained the equality of human rights, was the son of a king.

"And now to return to the question. Whenever a form of civilization has
attained its highest development and begins to show its defects, the
idea of complete revolution suggests itself. None but violent methods
are thought of, and, while the only object to be gained is the bringing
about of regeneration, by means of strata which have not yet been
exhausted, and which bring new strength to bear, it is deemed necessary
to go back to the beginning of all things. But the lower strata cannot,
of themselves, effect this regeneration. What is required of them is to
be constantly sending fresh strength to those above them. The great
masses, considered as such, cannot renew civilization. All that they
can do is to furnish new material. It is only in a limited sense that
the masses are the bearers of the spirit of the people. Individual men,
who have ever preserved their childlike simplicity of soul, just as
they received it from nature, and through subsequent development have
retained it unimpaired, will now and then rise from among the masses.
But the scientific spirit must be united with this childlike feeling,
and then an epoch, or an individual, forms a node by which this
development is not interrupted but from which it seems to take a new
start, forming, as it were, a new growth on the old stem. It is not the
people, as a mass, but a certain man or circle that concentrates the
spirit of the people within itself, and renews the same individually."

"Is not that aristocracy?" asked the king, in a soft, almost hesitating
voice.

"Your Majesty, I dread no term or idea that seems to be the result of
logical consistency. Call it an aristocracy, if you will, but it is a
democratic one, ever renewing itself. For those who, from generation to
generation, represent the spirit of the people, are not taken fro