264 



ARISTOCRACY AND EVOLUTION 



Book III 

 Chapter 3 



and only 

 obscure the 

 fact for pur- 

 poses of 

 popular agita- 

 tion. 



So far, how- 

 ever, as the 

 reasoning of 

 this book has 

 gone already, 

 no claim has 



of this change, by means of those curious arguments 

 which find their chief exponent in Mr. Spencer, and 

 which have rendered sociology thus far so useless 

 as a practical science. But the change is but partly 

 hidden, nevertheless, even from themselves. 



Why, then, should they endeavour to hide it at 

 all ? Why should they shrink from a perfectly frank 

 avowal an avowal which they are constantly com- 

 pelled to make by implication that the great 

 man's power in wealth-production is what has been 

 described, and that every increase in the wealth of 

 civilised communities is due to him ? They shrink 

 from making this avowal for one reason only. This 

 reason is that their main practical object is to repre- 

 sent the possessions of the great man, or of the few, 

 as a treasure to which the few have no theoretical 

 right, and which can be, and ought to be, divided 

 amongst the many. They are therefore compelled, 

 by the necessities of popular agitation, to obscure the 

 part that the few have played in producing it, and 

 to pretend, so far as possible, that it is produced by 

 the undifferentiated many. If it were not for its 

 promise to the many of some indefinite pecuniary 

 gain, it may safely be said that socialism would have 

 been never heard of; and if this pecuniary promise 

 were made good, the demands of the socialists, as a 

 practical party, would be satisfied. 



And now having considered this, let the reader 

 look back at the claims that have, in our present 

 argument, been advanced for the great man thus far. 

 It will be seen that not a single claim has been 



