26 ARISTOCRA C Y AND E VOL UTION 



Book i orthodox ; and the really important foe which social 

 science has to fight against is the great-man theory, 

 not the theocratic. Accordingly, it is by a criticism 

 of the great-man theory that he introduces us to the 

 theory of society, which is in his estimation true, 

 and which alone presents social phenomena to us as 

 amenable to scientific treatment. 



The great-man theory is summed up by him in 

 the following quotation from Carlyle : " As I take 

 it, universal history, the history of what man has 

 accomplished in this world, is at bottom the history 

 of the great men who have worked here" " This" 

 observes Mr. Spencer, " not perhaps distinctly 

 formulated, but everywhere implied, is the belief 

 in which nearly all are brought up" ; and it is, he 

 declares, as incompatible as the theocratic theory 

 itself with any belief in the possibility of a social 

 science, or any comprehension of what such a 

 science is ; for either the great man is regarded 

 as the miraculous instrument of the Deity, a kind 

 for if the a P - of il deputy - God" in which case we have " theo- 



pearance of . . . . . . 



the great man cracy once removed ; or else his greatness, though 

 regarded as a natural phenomenon, is regarded as 



depends on Qne wnose occurrence is so far fortuitous, that a 



him, must be 



incalculable great man of any given kind of greatness might 

 appear in one age or nation just as well as in 

 another ; and in this case, if social changes depend 

 on the great man's actions, these changes will be as 

 fortuitous as the great man's own appearance, and 

 will as little admit of any scientific calculation. 



If, however, the great man is regarded as a 



