

2o6 ARISTOCRACY AND EVOLUTION 



Book in centre. It is^ equally evident that no practical 



conclusion as to the claims and prospects of labour 



for the could be drawn by considering what would happen 



wouidTaveto if the labourers could live without food. Now since 



labour whether no f ooc } j s producible without labour, a population 



the great men 



were there or which does not labour is just as impossible a con- 

 ception as a population which does not require to 

 eat ; and no practical conclusions can be arrived at 

 by supposing it to exist ; but populations which have 

 developed and submitted themselves to no great 

 men, not only can exist, but have existed, and do 

 exist to-day ; and thus we are reasoning in a 

 strictly practical way when we consider what would 

 be produced by the average men if the great man 

 ceased to direct them, but we are reasoning to no 

 practical purpose at all by considering what would 

 The cessation happen if the average men ceased to labour. The 

 man's Staence latter or the majority of them would have to 

 labour in any case, whether there were any great 

 man to direct tne i r labour or no ; and the supposition 

 is not ; o f their labouring is bound up with the supposition 



of their existence. The sole practical alternatives 

 which can in the present case be conceived and 

 reasoned from are average men labouring under the 

 direction of the great man's talents, or the same men 

 labouring blindly as best they can by themselves. 

 as we see by These alternatives are being constantly exempli- 

 examptes. fied in the actual life of communities. We may see 

 men to-day, not only amongst savages, but amongst 

 the peasantries of civilised countries, such as Russia, 

 India, and parts of Ireland and the Scottish islands, 



