538 LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



great men which decides even whether there shall be any pro 

 gress. It is conceivable that Greece, or that Christian Europe, 

 might have been progressive in certain periods of their history 

 through general causes only : but if there had been no 

 Mahomet, would Arabia have produced Avicenna or Averroes, 

 or Caliphs of Bagdad or of Cordova ? In determining, how 

 ever, in what manner and order the progress of mankind shall 

 take place if it take place at all, much less depends on the 

 character of individuals. There is a sort of necessity established 

 in this respect by the general laws of human nature ; by the 

 constitution of the human mind. Certain truths cannot be 

 discovered, or inventions made, unless certain others have 

 been made first; certain social improvements, from the nature 

 of the case, can only follow, and not precede, others. The 

 order of human progress, therefore, may to a certain extent 

 have definite laws assigned to it : while as to its celerity, or 

 even as to its taking place at all, no generalization, extending 

 to the human species generally, can possibly be made ; but only 

 some very precarious approximate generalizations, confined to 

 the small portion of mankind in whom there has been anything 

 like consecutive progress within the historical period, and de 

 duced from their special position, or collected from their par 

 ticular history. Even looking to the manner of progress, the 

 order of succession of social states, there is need of great flexi 

 bility in our generalizations. The limits of variation in the 

 possible development of social, as of animal life, are a subject 

 of which little is yet understood, and are one of the great pro 

 blems in social science. It is, at all events, a fact, that different 

 portions of mankind, under the influence of different circum 

 stances, have developed themselves in a more or less different 

 manner and into different forms ; and among these determining 

 circumstances, the individual character of their great specula 

 tive thinkers or practical organizers may well have been one. 

 Who can tell how profoundly the whole subsequent history of 

 China may have been influenced by the individuality of Con 

 fucius ? and of Sparta (and hence of Greece and the world) 

 by that of Lycurgus ? ^ 



Concerning the nature and extent of what a great man 



