274 ARISTOCRA C Y AND E VOL UTION 



Book iv produces. Columbus, for instance, as the records of 

 his life show us, would never have braved the Atlantic 

 if the society of his time, though in the end it rewarded 

 him ill, had not rendered an enormous reward both 

 in money and rank possible a reward which he 

 specifically bargained for in the event of his enter- 

 prise being successful. And similarly in the case of 

 society, then, great men in general, unless society is so constituted 

 orkm as to render some reward or other the natural or 

 possible result of the exercise of certain exceptional 



to ma K the faculties, and unless this reward shall be one which 



reward they 



desire possible, the great men shall think worth working for, their 

 exceptional faculties will remain potential only. 

 That is to say, their faculties will be practically 

 non-existent, and the community will be as helpless 

 as it would be if it had no great men at all. 



in so doing Now here we have what is virtuallya genuine social 



society uncon- T . i i i T> 



sciousiy makes contract. It is not, indeed, such a contract as Rousseau 

 tract wlthTts dreamed of. It was never made deliberately at any 

 great men ; period of history by two independent parties coming 

 together for the purpose. It was the result of a 

 gradual and quite unconscious process. Ordinary 

 men, having experienced the advantages of being 

 directed by great men, submitted instinctively to 

 such conditions as the great men demanded, and 

 instinctively offered them, or allowed them to retain 

 possession of, such rewards as were necessary to 

 stimulate them to further action. But these proceed- 

 ings were a bargain, a social contract none the less, 

 although they were not recognised as such ; and they 

 constitute a bargain still a bargain which is continu- 



