122 MAN THE ANIMAL 



years ago: "The future of this nation, as the future of the world, 

 is bound up with the hope of a true democracy that builds itself 

 on liberty." 



IV 



But is this going to be the path of the future evolution of 

 human sociality? Or is it going always to be merely the silly sort 

 of abstract ideal symbolizing what does not really exist, that 

 cynical pseudo-Machiavellians say it is and always has been? 

 Being acutely conscious that "the coasts of history are strewn 

 with the wrecks of predictions launched by historians and phi- 

 losophers," as Lord Bryce once said, I have no present intention 

 of cracking a bottle of champagne on the prow of a prophecy. 

 But I should like to discuss briefly some of the difficulties and 

 possibilities of the case. Let the discussion start with a question: 

 Why is it that the adoption and practical operation of the idea 

 of democracy has encountered so many difficulties, when it has 

 all along enjoyed the esteem and approval not alone of philoso- 

 phers, but of sensible men almost universally? The answer to 

 this question seems to me to be bound up with certain funda- 

 mental biological considerations that have already been discussed 

 in these lectures but without specific application to the present 

 problem. The first and most important of these is that men vary, 

 and widely, in their capacities and talents to get a living as well 

 as in their opportunities. A primary function of all social organi- 

 zation is to expand and so far as possible equalize the opportuni- 

 ties for all individuals in the group to get their livings. In 

 particular it is a basic tenet of the philosophy of democracy to 

 do this. But no conceivable amount or kind of organization is 

 ever going to equalize the innate differences between men in 

 capacity, ability, or talent. Social theories and patterns of or- 

 ganization may categorically deny the existence of such differ- 

 ences, or may seek to smother and overwhelm them by systems 

 that give equal rewards for extremely unequal services or per- 

 formance of whatever sort. But this is mass self-delusion, un- 

 worthy of grown men. The real biological fact is that some men 



