vi ARISTO CRA C Y AND E VOL UTION 



bearings of an argument are more readily grasped 

 when its various parts are set forth with com- 

 parative brevity, than they are when the attention 

 claimed for each is minute enough to do it justice 

 as a separate subject of inquiry ; and it has 

 appeared to me that in the present condition of 

 opinion, prevalent social fallacies may be more 

 easily combated by putting the case against them 

 in a form which will render it intelligible to every- 

 body, and by leaving many points to be elaborated, 

 if necessary, elsewhere. 



I may also add that the conclusions here arrived 

 at, with whatever completeness they might have 

 been explained, elaborated, and defended, would not, 

 in my opinion, do more than partially answer the 

 questions to which they refer. This volume aims 

 only at establishing what are the social rights and 

 social functions, in progressive communities, of 

 the few. The entire question of their duties and 

 proper liabilities, whether imposed on them by 

 themselves or by the State, has been left untouched. 

 This side of the question I hope to deal with here- 

 after. It is enough to observe here that it is 

 impossible to define the duties of the few, of the 

 rich, of the powerful, of the highly gifted, and to 

 secure that these duties shall be performed by 

 them, unless we first understand the extent of the 

 functions which they inevitably perform, and admit 

 frankly the indefeasible character of their rights. 



