CONTENTS xxv 



PAGE 



we are not degrading the average man. We are merely asserting that 



these powers form but a small part of life .... 260 

 Socialists can object to this conclusion only because it establishes the 



claim of exceptional men to exceptional wealth . . . 262 



They cannot have any theoretical objections to it, for they are beginning 



to recognise the importance of the exceptional man themselves, . 263 

 and only obscure the fact for purposes of popular agitation . . 264 



o far, however, as the reasoning of this book has gone already, no 



claim has been made for the great man to which socialists need 



object ;........ 264 



for we have assumed that he keeps none of the exceptional wealth he 



makes, for himself, ...... 265 



but that he works exactly on the terms the socialists would dictate to 



him ........ 266 



It now remains to consider whether he would really do so . 266 



BOOK IV 



CHAPTER I 



THE DEPENDENCE OF EXCEPTIONAL ACTION ON THE ATTAIN- 

 ABILITY OF EXCEPTIONAL REWARD, OR THE NECESSARY 

 CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE MOTIVES TO ACTION AND 

 ITS RESULTS. 



Great men differ from ordinary men in degree only, not in kind, . 271 

 and the use of exceptional powers is conditioned like the use of ordinary 



powers ........ 272 



Now let us take the most universal powers possessed by man, viz. those 



used in acquiring the simplest food .... 272 



Man's powers in agriculture would be latent unless man wanted food 



and the earth's surface were cultivable .... 272 

 Thus the exercise of the simplest faculties depends on the want of 



some certain object, and the possibility of attaining it . . 273 



If this is true of the commonest faculties which aim at supplying 



necessaries, much more is it true of rare faculties which aim at 



producing superfluities ...... 273 



