Functional socialism

MOTIVE 99

lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honour. Whilst we applaud a man who has risen —‘‘risen from the ranks” is the usual phrase—we treat an obviously ambitious man with considerable suspicion. To show ambition is regarded as a mild form of exhibitionism. In history and literature the word takes on an almost sinister meaning, something implacable, without conscience, or consideration, or memory. “Lowliness,” said Brutus of Cesar, “is young ambition’s ladder,

Whereto the climber-upward turns his face; But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend.

On the other hand, an unselfish ambition—Wilberforce and slavery, for example—is not regarded as an ambition, but as a mission. It seems as though a mission comes from God and an ambition from the Devil. We are—forgive us—as quick to thwart the one as the other.

I think it probable that our habit of tripping up the man of ambition or the man with a mission is rooted in the struggle for existence. It is a symptom of scarcity. We fear the ambitious man may lead us into a danger which will hurt us and benefit him, whilst the man with a mission may seriously injure important interests to our loss. All of which, in given circumstances, is true. But the question must be answered whether, in new circumstances, with