334 



ARISTOCRACY AND E VOL UTION 



Book iv 



Thus to pro- 



lowers the 

 wages of those 

 employed, 



creasing the 





partner, it would not be enlarged, when there were 

 nQ j etters to CO py, by the accession of ten young men 

 who could copy letters beautifully. In the second 

 place, even at times when the national business is 

 growing, and the demand for these accomplishments 

 is for the moment greater than the supply, any 

 attempt by the State to make their development 

 general would produce a supply indefinitely greater 

 than the demand. Thus to multiply the number 

 of labourers' sons possessing accomplishments that 

 would fit them for the work of clerks would not be 

 to increase the number of young men who would 

 wear black coats, and sit on stools in offices, instead 

 o f working in factories, or laying bricks, or plough- 



. ..... 



ing. Instead of raising the position of the plough- 

 boy to the same level as the clerk's, it would lower 

 the clerk's salary to the level of the plough-boy's 

 wages ; and clerk and plough-boy would be alike 

 sufferers by the process. 



The beneficial effects, then, to be looked for from 

 an equalisation of opportunity have been exaggerated 

 by democratic thinkers because they have failed to 

 perceive those facts. They have confounded the de- 

 velopment of accomplishments which might conceiv- 

 ably ,be acquired by all with the development of 

 faculties which, even potentially, are possessed by 

 a few only. They see that education can increase 

 the number of possible clerks, and they have there- 

 fore imagined that it can, with similar ease and 

 certainty, increase the number of efficient men of 

 genius. It must, however, be distinctly stated that 



