MEANS OF THE GREAT MAN'S INFLUENCE 153 



pleasures, or other advantages which its potentially Book n 

 great men will feel to be worth working for. 



In the second place, since the great man, as we and also that 



i . c j -v . they cannot 



have seen, is an agent of progress and civilisation dominate 

 only because he influences others because he guides b^JomTp'a?- 

 their speculative beliefs, and in certain respects tlcular means- 

 commands their actions the society or community 

 to which the great man belongs must be such as not 

 only to supply him with a motive for exercising this 

 influence, but also to enable him to secure for him- 

 self the means by which it may be exercised ; and, 

 furthermore, the means in question must be of a 

 kind which will enable the rival great men to bring 

 their respective capacities to a decisive practical 

 test, so that the influence of the most efficient may 

 establish itself, and that of the less efficient cease. 



Now the whole question of motive we will deal Nowtheques- 



11 -.-IT- -11 r i tion of motive 



with later on. We will for the present put tt we wfli treat 

 altogether aside. We will assume a natural impulse At present we 



on the part of all great men to develop their powers 



to the utmost, and employ them in influencing the question of 



others, wholly independent of any other reward 



than such a minimum of sustenance and comfort as is 



physically essential to their efficiency ; and we will 



confine our attention altogether to the question of 



the means by which the influence of the great men 



over the majority is obtained. 



Human progress, however, being a complex thing, These vary in 

 and taking place in different domains of activity, of social 

 the means by which the great man influences others ac 

 will vary with the nature of the results which his 



