I once read that the saint sets the standard for holiness, the genius for intellectual creativity and the aristocrat for good manners. By “good manners” I don't mean how you hold your knife and fork, but the refinement and courtesy with which you treat your fellow men.
The French phrase “noblesse oblige” emphasises the obligation of noble birth to act responsibly towards the other classes.
In our egalitarian society this notion now seems archaic. Nonetheless, reading the Telegraph obituary earlier this month of Gerald Grosvenor, the sixth Duke of Westminster, I was reminded of it.
