46 ARISTOCRA C Y AND E VOL UTION 



Book i and become practical, not in virtue of their relation 

 to mankind generally, but in virtue of their relation 

 to each particular generation that is confronted by 

 them ; and a particular generation in any given 

 community, and the different classes into which the 

 community is divided, are made up respectively of 

 particular men and women. In asking, therefore, 

 TO answer this how the social arrangements we have been consider- 



question we . , i ' i i 



must examine ing have come to be what they are, we must not ask 



into the causes i i , i /- . i 



why such and in vague and general terms why a portion of the 



tions. 



aggregate occupies a position which contents 

 it, and another portion a position which exasper- 

 superior posi- ates it ; but we must consider the individuals of 

 which each portion, at any given time, is composed, 

 and begin the inquiry at the point at which they 

 begin it themselves. " Why am I Tom or Dick 

 or Harry included in that portion of the aggregate 

 which occupies an inferior position ? And why are 

 these men William or James or George more 

 fortunate than I, and included in the portion of 

 the aggregate which occupies a superior position ? " 

 To this question there are but three possible 

 answers. The inferior position of Tom or Dick 

 or Harry is due to his differing from William or 

 James or George in external circumstances, which 

 theoretically, at all events, might all be equalised 

 such, for example, as his education ; or it is due 

 to his differing from them in certain congenital 

 faculties, with respect to which men can never 

 be made equal as, for example, in his brain power 

 or his physical energy ; or it is due to his differing 



