296 BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN PROBLEMS 



more unfair in the distribution of her natural gifts 

 than is really the case, and looking at the mass of 

 unendowed humanity, the philosopher may be hard- 

 pressed for an explanation and justification of so 

 many lives of so little promise. But there may be 

 discerned in these masses of men and women some 

 elements of compensation and grandeur in the larger 

 uses which they subserve. For are they not the ma- 

 terial from which talent and genius are recruited, 

 at least in large degree ? The wealthy and fortunate 

 classes, having appropriated the ordinary prizes, 

 are off their guard at least to the extent that they 

 relax in the developmental struggle to which they 

 owe their success. Their children are likewise dis- 

 armed in the silent competition of mental ascendency. 

 The hard-worked people, of modest or unrecognized 

 abilities, inured to daily sacrifices, under the unre- 

 lenting spur of necessity, are culture media for 

 human selection. In this wise do the humble make 

 their contribution to the progress of the world's 

 aristocracy of nervous systems, a few great minds 

 being always in process of emergence from the 

 undistinguished masses. For these human contri- 

 butions they are repaid by the help they derive from 

 the great men they have helped to raise. And so the 

 cycle repeats itself the few of great gifts leading 

 and elevating the many, the many contributing to 

 replenish the small ranks of the greatly gifted who 

 have learned to use their gifts. 



The problem of education is humanity's greatest 



