332 PROBLEMS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION 



depends largely on evolution ; it requires -the weeding out 

 through many generations of those who are unfitted for social 

 life. It requires also a code in which the highest moral law is 

 embodied, and to which the preacher can appeal so that each 

 generation as it grows up may be subjected to its ennobling 

 influence. But neither a noble code, nor the best of preaching 

 is by itself of much use, for morality consists in a postponement 

 of a man's own material interest or his pleasure to the interests 

 of others, and thus a lofty morality must be unacceptable to the 

 mass of men till long-continued elimination has weakened or got 

 rid of anti-social tendencies. 



We may now contrast the demands made by a great preacher 

 and a great mathematician of those whom they teach. The 

 great preacher demands that his hearers should rise to a standard 

 of life as high as, or not far below, his own. They must resist 

 temptations that are as great or, perhaps, greater than his. The 

 mathematician demands much less of his pupils. They must 

 work through and understand his solution of difficult problems. 

 But he does not expect the average pupil to come within miles 

 of himself in original power. There is all the difference in the 

 world between proving a proposition and merely understanding 

 the proof when it is clearly set out. Euclid was a being of a 

 different order from most of those who are capable of following 

 his proofs. Original work is so difficult: to profit by the 

 original work of others is, comparatively, so easy. The mass 

 of men are able to gain a passable knowledge of science, if 

 they have books and instructors at command : even the very 

 stupid are able by the turning of a handle to work machines 

 that only a genius could invent : and many of the fruits of 

 invention and discovery are spread before all the world im- 

 partially. Thus the highest intellects work for the rank and 

 file and the very fact that they can work for them must inevitably 

 bring it about that the average brain power in a nation is not 

 very high : the possession of a few brains of the first order is 

 enough. The nation will not be conquered and enslaved because 

 its average man is not a genius. But it is likely to be conquered 

 if the average character of its citizens is low. It is not enough 



