Do you agree–“There is a natural aristocracy among men.The grounds of this are virtue and talents”?
Not entirely. I would agree that there is a natural aristocracy among men and women, but I would change “virtue and talents” to “brains and talents.” In other words, I firmly believe in the concept of meritocracy and further believe that smart and talented people are not so dumb as to ignore, completely, the ethical rules of human conduct that some other people might call “virtue.” Of course, in centuries past, “virtu,” to use the old Italian word, was not synonomous with “virtue” in the modern English sense of morality.
