[6] Ethics, Bk. viii. chap.  I. [Greek:  physei t’ enyparchein eoike ... ou ponon en anthropois alla kai en ornisi kai tois pleistois ton zoon, kai tois homoethnesi pros allela, kai malista tois anthropois ... eoike de kai tas poleis synechein he philia, kai hoi nomothetai mallon peri auten spoudazein e ten dikaiosynen].

The tactics of an election consist largely of contrivances by which this immediate emotion of personal affection may be set up.  The candidate is advised to ’show himself continually, to give away prizes, to ’say a few words’ at the end of other people’s speeches—­all under circumstances which offer little or no opportunity for the formation of a reasoned opinion of his merits, but many opportunities for the rise of a purely instinctive affection among those present.  His portrait is periodically distributed, and is more effective if it is a good, that is to say, a distinctive, than if it is a flattering likeness.  Best of all is a photograph which brings his ordinary existence sharply forward by representing him in his garden smoking a pipe or reading a newspaper.

A simple-minded supporter whose affection has been so worked up will probably try to give an intellectual explanation of it.  He will say that the man, of whom he may know really nothing except that he was photographed in a Panama hat with a fox-terrier, is ’the kind of man we want,’ and that therefore he has decided to support him; just as a child will say that he loves his mother because she is the best mother in the world,[7] or a man in love will give an elaborate explanation of his perfectly normal feelings, which he describes as an intellectual inference from alleged abnormal excellences in his beloved.  The candidate naturally intellectualises in the same way.  One of the most perfectly modest men I know once told me that he was ‘going round’ a good deal among his future constituents ’to let them see what a good fellow I am.’  Unless, indeed, the process can be intellectualised, it is for many men unintelligible.

[7] A rather unusually reflective little girl of my acquaintance, felt, one day, while looking at her mother, a strong impulse of affection.  She first gave the usual intellectual explanation of her feeling, ’Mummy, I do think you are the most beautiful Mummy in the whole world,’ and then, after a moment’s thought, corrected herself by saying, ’But there, they do say love is blind.’

A monarch is a life-long candidate, and there exists a singularly elaborate traditional art of producing personal affection for him.  It is more important that he should be seen than that he should speak or act.  His portrait appears on every coin and stamp, and apart from any question of personal beauty, produces most effect when it is a good likeness.  Any one, for instance, who can clearly recall his own emotions during the later years of Queen Victoria’s reign, will remember a measurable increase of his affection