Fire has made all things new. We are surrounded by its gifts. My pen has passed through many fires before it reached my hand. All round me are traces of machinery and mechanism. The paper on which I write is calendered in the paper mills. I am aware that it is not as lasting as “hand-made” paper, and that it will not survive centuries of use like Gutenberg’s bibles. But what matter? If there is anything worthy of survival in what I write it will survive, even though it may require to be cast in bronze. If it is good it will be _aere perennius_. Mankind may be likened to a vast army on the march. It is preceded by: (1) Pathfinders, called explorers, inventors, and discoverers, whose business it is to find new avenues of development and achievement. Then come the (2) Commanders with their staff of Organizers. These direct and co-ordinate the movements of the masses in directions judged to be for the general welfare. They are followed by (3) The Rank and File, consisting of those who live and work along accepted and well-established lines in all grades of society, taking no risks and making no changes. (4) The Stragglers, or those who work for themselves alone, without reference to the needs and prospects of the community. Among these must be classed the squatters and backwoodsmen, and small crofters and peasants who grow their own food and weave their own cloth. They do not belong to civilized society, though they do no harm to it and cannot quite escape its influence. (5) The Campfollowers and Vultures, who have no regard for the welfare of the community, but prey upon it for their own ends. Classes (1) and (2) are by far the most important and valuable constituents of the human race. They are the growing element, the “cambium,” the grey matter of the brain. Whoever has sufficient originality to strike out an original course, combined with loyalty to humanity at large or to a smaller community; whoever is capable of leadership, whether in war or peace, art or commerce, industry or politics; whoever can lead others forward and inspire them with courage to face difficulties――he belongs to the _élite_ of mankind, to whatever grade of society he may belong. Far behind his class come the rank and file of commonplace drudges, who work in a rut and submit to being led like sheep. They may be clerks, domestic servants, trade union operatives, pensioners, or small investors. They form the large, undistinguished, but useful mass of humanity. Many kings have belonged to this class.