MEANING OF TERM ORDINARY MAN 251 



taste, and skill equal to any possessed by the men Book in 



who are called great. They will reflect that these 



men represent not the few, but the many ; and they 



will angrily reject a theory which frankly denies to 



the many any of those forces which specifically make 



for progress. 



But this class of objections, which was already But they do 



, , . . . , not really do 



briefly glanced at when we were considering the so ; 

 precise points by which the great man is dis- 

 tinguished from the average man, will disappear 

 altogether when we take the matter conversely and 

 consider the precise points in which the average 

 man differs from the great man. 



In any discussion that aims at scientific precision for since th e 



.... , great man, as 



it is necessary to give to the principal terms used a here technically 



r , r . . , . . , defined, is the 



far more definite meaning than is given to them man who 



when they are used ordinarily ; for most words when 



used ordinarily have several meanings, but when P romote pro- 



used technically they must have only one. Any 



term, then, when used technically will of necessity 



specifically exclude a number of ideas and it may be 



very important ones which are frequently attached to 



it when it is used in conversation or general literature. 



This observation, as the reader will readily perceive, 



has a special application to our use of the term great 



man. The greatness of the great man, regarded as 



an agent of progress, is a quality, as has been said, 



which is to be measured by its overt results ; and its 



overt results consist of, and are brought about 



by, not what he does in his own person, but 



what he makes others do. It is needless to insist 



