As hinted above, there is such a thing as an upper-class atmosphere, in the sense of a state of mind regarding social questions, initiated by the more successful money-winners and consciously or unconsciously imposed upon business and professional people at large. Most of us exist in this atmosphere and are so pervaded by it that it is not easy for us to understand or fairly judge the sentiment of the hand-working classes. The spokesmen of radical doctrines are, in this regard, doing good service to the public mind by setting in motion counterbalancing, if not more trustworthy, currents of opinion. If any one of business or professional antecedents doubts that he breathes a class atmosphere, let him live for a time at a social settlement in the industrial part of one of our cities—not a real escape but as near it as most of us have the resolution to achieve—reading working-class literature (he will be surprised to find how well worth reading it is), talking with hand-working people, attending meetings, and in general opening his mind as wide as possible to the influences about him. He will presently become aware of being in a new medium of thought and feeling; which may or may not be congenial but cannot fail to be instructive. FOOTNOTES: [119] The Spirit of Laws, book v, chap. 6. [120] Henry D. Lloyd, Man the Social Creator, 255. [121] _Idem_, 246. Lloyd was rather a prophet than a man of science, but there is a shrewd sense of fact back of his visions. [122] Such a one “Lässt jeden ganz das bleiben was er ist; Er wacht nur drüber das er’s immer sei Am rechten Ort; so weiss er aller Menschen Vermögen zu dem seinigen zu machen.” “He lets every one remain just what he is, but takes care that he shall always be it in the right place: thus he knows how to make all men’s power his own.” Schiller, Wallenstein’s Lager, I, 4. CHAPTER XXIV ON THE ASCENDENCY OF A CAPITALIST CLASS—CONTINUED THE INFLUENCE OF AMBITIOUS YOUNG MEN—SECURITY OF THE DOMINANT CLASS IN AN OPEN SYSTEM—IS THERE DANGER OF ANARCHY AND SPOLIATION?—WHETHER THE SWAY OF RICHES IS GREATER NOW THAN FORMERLY—WHETHER GREATER IN AMERICA THAN IN ENGLAND. In any society where there is some freedom of opportunity ambitious young men are an element of extreme importance. Their numbers are formidable and their intelligence and aggressiveness much more so: in short, they want an opening and are bound to get it.