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 



