64 ARISTO CRA C Y AND E VOL UTION 



Book j records of his life, or by any analysis of his peculiar 



Chapters faculties> 



We have already seen in a general way how this 

 feat of merging the great man in "the aggregate of 

 this, as Mr. conditions out of which he has arisen " is performed 

 by Mr. Spencer himself. Let us now turn for a 

 moment to three other writers who, though differ- 

 ing from him as to certain of his conclusions, have 

 with regard to this particular point done little else 

 than popularise and apply his teaching. 



"It needs only a little reflection" writes Mr. 

 Kidd, "to enable us to perceive that the marvellous 

 accomplishments of modern civilisation are primarily 

 tfte measure of the social stability and social efficiency , 

 and not of the intellectual pre-eminence of the peoples 

 who have produced them. . . . For it must be re- 

 membered that even the ablest men amongst us, whose 

 names go down to history connected with great dis- 

 coveries and inventions, have each in reality advanced 

 the sum of knowledge by only a small addition. In 

 the fulness of time, and when the ground has been 

 slowly and laboriously prepared for it, the great idea 

 fructifies and the discovery is made. It is, in fact, 

 the work not of one, but of a great number of persons. 

 How true it is that all the great ideas have been the 

 products of the time rather than of individuals may 

 be the more readily realised when it is remembered 

 that, as regards a large number of them, there have 

 been rival claims put forward for the honour of 

 authorship by persons who, working quite independ- 

 ently, have arrived at like results almost simultanc- 



