Professor Mackenale concluded his series of lectures on “Social Philosophy” on Monday evenings. The subject of the evening was “social ideals.” There were three sets of ideals, began the Professor, the aristocratic and the democratic, the national and the international. The items of each of these sets were commonly supposed to be antagonistic. The fact was not so. A harmony underlay the seemingly opposites. In aristocracy, the rulers had need to be statesmen with practical wisdom, knowledge of men, men who had the confidence of the people. That meant some sort of selection by people. The democratic ‘fraternity’ was the basis of citizenship and equality and liberty had ultimately to be interpreted in terms of fitness and opportunity which subserved the aristocratic ideal. He had already dealt with the socialistic and individualistic ideal in his previous lectures; and as regards the national and international ideals, the trend was towards the international. But the international ideal itself contained an element of nationalism in that it allowed local self-government and so forth.
