THE CONFLICT OF CLASSES 179 



who by birth should be models of correctness are 

 by no means so. There are other arguments which 

 are too obvious to allege. 



Whilst psychic adaptation will help to make 

 men every day different, and to carry on the work 

 of selection according to their capabilities, education 

 will every day make them more equal and united. 



I cannot define, nor does it concern us to know, 

 why the claim is advanced for the social equality of 

 the mankind of the future : it seems to me such 

 statements are made and repeated without anyone 

 taking the trouble to reflect upon them. Some 

 superior spirits, naturally scandalised by such a 

 Utopian idea, speak of this equality, but go no 

 further than to pass slight comments upon it. The 

 claim or statement that men can, or should be, or 

 wish to be equal, is as great a physical impossibility 

 as the impenetrability of bodies. Men never will 

 be equal, as that represents different stages in the 

 development of force at different points of time and 

 space. It is impossible that men of southern and 

 northern parts should be equal ; the man born by 

 the sea-shore will not be the same as he who is 

 born at the top of a mountain, since, inter alia, this 

 assumes a different mode of life, of sustenance, of 

 scenery, etc. 



And remembering what has been said of psychic 

 adaptation, how could it be possible that in the 



