Note 23 — ARISTOCRACY.
Reading edition
That there are many bright personal exceptions, makes nothing against the truth of the general conclusion. Genius and virtue are superior to contingent circumstance; and the Russels, the Hollands, and the Darnleys, are not to be placed in the common muster-roll of the class to which they belong. The vice, however, is in the system, and not in the individuals, and we daily feel its influence even on the liberal and enlightened; who, when called upon to decide between privilege and the people, are too apt to have their judgments warped by the peculiarity of their position.