the highest, the dominating law, is merely the ratification of an _order of nature_, of a natural law of the first rank, over which no arbitrary fiat, no "modern idea," can exert any influence. In every healthy society there are three physiological types, gravitating toward differentiation but mutually conditioning one another, and each of these has its own hygiene, its own sphere of work, its own special mastery and feeling of perfection. It is _not_ Manu but nature that sets off in one class those who are chiefly intellectual, in another those who are marked by muscular strength and temperament, and in a third those who are distinguished in neither one way or the other, but show only mediocrity--the last-named represents the great majority, and the first two the select. The superior caste--I call it the _fewest_--has, as the most perfect, the privileges of the few: it stands for happiness, for beauty, for everything good upon earth. Only the most intellectual of men have any right to beauty, to the beautiful; only in them can goodness escape being weakness. _Pulchrum est paucorum hominum_:[30] goodness is a privilege. Nothing could be more unbecoming to them than uncouth manners or a pessimistic look, or an eye that sees _ugliness_--or indignation against the general aspect of things. Indignation is the privilege of the Chandala; so is pessimism. "_The world is perfect_"--so prompts the instinct of the intellectual, the instinct of the man who says yes to life. "Imperfection, whatever is _inferior_ to us, distance, the pathos of distance, even the Chandala themselves are parts of this perfection." The most intelligent men, like the _strongest_, find their happiness where others would find only disaster: in the labyrinth, in being hard with themselves and with others, in effort; their delight is in self-mastery; in them asceticism becomes second nature, a necessity, an instinct. They regard a difficult task as a privilege; it is to them a _recreation_ to play with burdens that would crush all others.... Knowledge--a form of asceticism.--They are the most honourable kind of men: but that does not prevent them being the most cheerful and most amiable. They rule, not because they want to, but because they _are_; they are not at liberty to play second.--The _second caste_: to this belong the guardians of the law, the keepers of order and security, the more noble warriors, above all, the king as the highest form of warrior, judge and preserver of the law. The second in rank constitute the executive arm of the intellectuals, the next to them in rank, taking from them all that is _rough_ in the business of ruling--their followers, their right hand, their most apt disciples.--In all this, I repeat, there is nothing arbitrary, nothing "made up"; whatever is to the _contrary_ is made up--by it nature is brought to shame.... The order of castes, the _order of rank_, simply formulates the supreme law of life itself; the separation of the three