THE ACTUALISING OF POTENTIAL TALENT 327 



Such being the case, then, the material civilisa- Book iv 

 tion of a country the wealth of the few or the pro- 

 gressive comfort of the many depends on the ex- indeed the 



, . , . 1 1 -,-1 i wealth of the 



tent to which its potentially great wealth-producers, country de- 

 as they come into the world, generation after genera- m e n n % te Vtiaiiy 



tion, are induced by circumstances to develop their f 1 " 63 - 1 ** P r - 

 * aucers actual- 



exceptional talents, and devote them to the main- ising their 



r _ talents and 



tenance and improvement of the productive process, producing the 

 For those, therefore, who regard the material wel- Jllses them. 

 fare of a community as the test and basis of its 

 welfare in all other ways, the abiding social problem 

 is always this : how to adjust circumstances in such 

 a way that the smallest possible number of these 

 potentially great wealth-producers may be wasted, 

 and the largest possible number may be induced to 

 exert themselves to the utmost. 



One set of conditions essential to this result has it is therefore 



.,1,1! , . obvious that 



been described already those, that is to say, by wealth win 

 which the possession of wealth is secured to the 

 producers of it, and the persons to whom they leave 

 it. But to these must be added another set of an tl l eo PP ortunit y 



of actuahsmg 



entirely distinct character that is to say, the con- their produc- 



... 1-11 i tive powers. 



ditions which, the motive to exertion being given, 

 shall render exertion of the kind required possible for 

 the largest number who happen to be theoretically 

 capable of it. Now modern democratic thinkers 

 have supplied the world with a formula by which, 

 in their judgment, these conditions are sufficiently 

 indicated. This formula is "equality of oppor- 

 tunity," and we cannot begin our consideration of 

 the question better than by taking this as a starting- 



