336 



ARISTOCRACY AND EVOLUTION 



Book IV 

 Chapter 3 



discontent of certain special kinds ; and it is 

 necessary to discriminate carefully what these kinds 

 are. 

 The bad Now the kind of discontent which Conservatives 



results are the 111 111 i 



stimulating of generally have in view, when they denounce educa- 



not 



men, but in 

 men who are 

 really excep- 

 tional ; 



because they think it tends to promote it, is 

 by no means that from which danger really arises. 

 What they generally have in view is a discontent 

 with his circumstances which they think education 

 will produce in the average working man. In 

 reality, however, the primary danger of education is 

 not to be looked for in its effects upon average men 

 at all. It is to be looked for in its effects upon men 

 who are distinctly exceptional. 



In order to understand how this is, let the reader 

 reflect once more on one of the main truths that have 

 been insisted on in the present volume namely, that 

 though all progress is the work of great or exceptional 

 men, all great or exceptional men do not promote 

 progress equally, and some of them indeed do not 

 promote it at all. Progress results from the victory 

 of the fittest of these over the less fit in the struggle 

 to gain dominion over the thoughts and actions of 

 others. Let the reader reflect also on the analysis 

 that was given of the various qualities which go to 

 make up greatness that is to say, the qualities by 

 which dominion over others is obtained. It was 

 pointed out that greatness is a highly composite 

 thing ; that it need not necessarily imply any moral, 

 nor indeed any intellectual superiority ; and as an 

 illustration of this it was mentioned that many most 



