The name is absent

6 Making of the Complete Citizen

This is the secret strength of the family, the clan, the nation.
How powerful it is we have seen in our own time with awful
reality, when our finest youth gave up their life at the call
of the nation, which to them had no visible reality beyond
their home with its tradition and the environment of school,
village, or city.

The potency of the Family is universal, and it will, in spite
of recent attempts to dissolve it, remain dominant. But it
is stronger in older countries than in new. Where families
have been established for centuries we get an aristocracy
with supreme confidence. The very fact of the survival of
a family through generations induces the belief that it must
be of superior quality, that its traditions are of such value
that the possession of them carries a sort of divine right to
rule those of “lesser breed.” This is an undesirable con-
comitant of a good human characteristic, but now it is being
fast got rid of as education becomes more widespread.

Our new world also can show both the good and the bad
side of family pride. It is not altogether snobbery. It is an
impressive homage to progenitors whom in our loyalty we
believe to have been worthy, whose traditions of things
well done are a stimulus to us, and whose virtues we hope to
help to perpetuate. Pedigree-hunting is ridiculous, because
traditions that are really transmitted soon make themselves
felt ; character is its own seal to genuine descent.

Not the least interesting phase of the history of this con-
tinent is the reassertion of tradition on the disappearance of
the pioneer. The pioneer is eager to get away from civiliza-
tion and to start afresh. Conventions and conservative ways
he will have none of. He tries to shake off the hand of the
past from him. His face is towards the future. Intent on
his own surroundings, the pioneer establishes such modes of
action as will meet his urgent needs. The vigor of the fron-

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