1 46 



ARISTO CRA CY AND E VOL UTION 



Book ii 

 The progres- 



confined en- 

 employers; 



and in every 

 progress u 



is confined to 



the leaders, 



who are led. 



gas, has superseded it not because it is the product 

 of more skilful labour, but because it is the product 

 of manual labour directed by a set of inventors and 

 employers, who, so far as regards certain social 

 requirements, direct it more successfully than another 

 set. The struggle which it represents is a struggle 

 between employers only. It does not, except by 

 accident, represent any struggle between the em- 

 ployed. 



And what is true of the struggle which produces 

 industrial progress, is true of that which produces 

 progress of all other kinds. Scientific knowledge 



.1 i j- 



increases m proportion as those exceptional indi- 

 viduals whose studies have brought them most near 

 to ^g truth are able to fight down the opinions of 

 the exceptional individuals who differ from them, 

 and to impress their own undisputed upon the world. 

 Such knowledge does not increase on account of 

 any struggle amongst the learners, which causes some 

 of them to become more and more apt in learning. 

 It grows on account of a struggle between philo- 

 sophers, each of whom aims at settling what the 

 learners shall learn. And with regard to religion 

 and politics the case is just the same. The pro- 

 gressive struggle is primarily between rival prophets 

 and politicians. The spread of Christianity, for 

 instance, was not brought about by Christian races 

 exterminating those that were not Christians. It 

 was brought about by Christian thinkers and teachers 

 discrediting the doctrines taught by thinkers and 

 teachers who were opposed to them. Free-trade, 



