CONTENTS 



PAGE 



in the scholarship of boys at the same school, . . . .119 



and similarly in practical life . . . . . .119 



Enough men, as it is, have equal opportunities, to show how unequal 



men are in their powers of using them . . . .120 



No doubt a man may be ordinary in one respect and great in another ; 120 

 but the majority are not great in any . . . . .121 



The measure of a man's greatness as an agent of social progress is the 



overt results actually produced by him . . . . 121 



A selfish doctor, if successful, is greater than a devoted doctor, if 



unsuccessful . . . . . . .122 



The fact that many men who produce no social results seem better and 

 more brilliant than many men who do produce them, makes some 

 argue that these results require no greatness for their production . 122 

 But the most efficient forms of greatness have often nothing brilliant 



about them . . . . . . .123 



A lofty imagination is often the enemy to practical efficiency ; .124 



and great efficiency is often independent of exceptional intellect . 125 



Intellect is required for progress, e.g. in invention ; . . . 125 



but the inventor by himself is often helpless, . . . .125 



and has to ally himself with men whose exceptional gifts are unimpres- 

 sive and even vulgar ...... 126 



Greatness is not one quality, but various combinations of many . 127 



Greatness, then, is merely those qualities which, in any domain of pro- 

 gress, make the few more efficient than the many . . .127 

 The great-man theory, then, merely asserts that if some men were not 



more efficient than most men, no progress would take place at all 128 

 But great men, in spite of these differences, all promote progress in the 



same way ........ 128 



CHAPTER II 



PROGRESS THE RESULT OF A STRUGGLE NOT FOR SURVIVAL, 



BUT FOR DOMINATION 

 In order to see how the great man promotes progress, we must consider 



that whilst the fittest survivor only promotes it . . 130 



by living, whilst others die, .... .130 



the great man promotes progress by helping others to live . . 131 



He promotes progress not by what he does himself, but by what he 



helps others to do . . . . . . .132 



