2 20 FORMULAS OF THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 



wealth and the growth of leisured classes, possessing 

 that leisure (o-)(oX>7) and freedom from the soul-de- 

 stroying drudgery (^(Bavava-la) which the Greeks so well 

 perceived to be essential to the highest developments 

 of the human soul, i.e., in this more perfect society 

 more perfect developments of individuality become 

 possible, and if our leisured classes have not hither- 

 to made a particularly good use of their oppor- 

 tunities, the fault once more lies in the society 

 which has educated them perversely. Our social 

 reformers are too apt to forget that their labours in 

 raising the lower classes are likely to be to a large 

 extent wasted, while the social ideal the upper 

 classes put before the masses is one of '* sport " and 

 merely animal enjoyment. 



§ 8. If, again, we consider the second great 

 factor in social progress, the growth of knowledge 

 and of the consequent command over the material 

 conditions of life, we find that it is closely bound up 

 with a proper correspondence between the indi- 

 vidual and his social medium. 



Knowledge can only be accumulated in a society 

 sufficiently wealthy and civilized to support a 

 leisured class which can cultivate knowledge. Only 

 a highly elaborated social order offers the induce- 

 ments necessary to the cultivation of the sciences, 

 and secures the fruits of discovery. Hence it is only 

 in such a society that knowledge can be permanent. 

 A society which is so little of a society that violence 

 reigns supreme, and the arbitrary aggressions of 

 individuals upon others remain unchecked, can 

 neither itself acquire knowledge nor maintain the 

 knowledge it possesses. Hence the path of pro- 

 gress is closed to it, its members remain immersed 

 in brutish ignorance and Cyclopian barbarism. On 



