272 ARISTOCRACY AND EVOLUTION 



Book iv a weasel. Greatness, then, is simply the possession 

 and exercise by such and such a person, in an 

 exceptional degree, of some faculty or assortment of 

 faculties, the rudiments of which are possessed by 

 all. And the reason why it is necessary to insist on 

 and the use of this fact here is that, as a consequence of it, the use 



exceptional i 1 r i 



powers is con- which the great man makes of his exceptional 



the use <rf powers or, in other words, their whole efficient 



powers 7 existence depends on certain causes which are 



relatively, though not absolutely, similar to those on 



which depends the use which the ordinary man 



makes of his. 



NOW let us Let us, then, consider the powers of the ordinary 



take the most ". 



universal man first, and let us take as examples of them those 



possessed by powers or faculties which are most universally dis- 



those used in tributed amongst the human race namely, the powers 



acquiring the foy wn i cn the rudest populations obtain enough 



simplest food. * 



food to live upon. Now such faculties, practically 

 universal as they are, would be potential only, not 

 actual, if it were not for two things. These are 

 certain appetites or desires, having a physiological 

 origin, on the one hand, and the external conditions 

 on the other, which make the satisfaction of those 

 appetites, or the fulfilment of those desires, a possi- 

 bility. Thus if men could live without eating, and 

 had no desire for food, those special faculties would 



Man's powers be dormant which are now exercised in agriculture ; 



m agriculture anc j t hi s mea ns that for all practical purposes they 



would be latent * i r j 



unless man would not exist at all. These faculties would also not 



wanted food . , . . r r . 



and the earth's exist at all, no matter what men s desire for food 

 cultivable. might be, if the whole of the earth's crust had 



