354 



ARISTOCRA C Y AND E VOL UTION 



Book IV 

 Chapter 4 



Another 

 answer is that 

 if inequality in 

 the possession 

 of the most 

 coveted prizes 

 of life implies 

 misery 

 amongst the 

 majority, this 

 evil would be 

 intensified 

 rather than 

 mitigated by 

 socialists, who 

 would substi- 

 tute unequal 

 honour for 

 unequal 

 wealth. 



not by any development in their own productive 

 powers, but solely by the talents and activity of an 

 exceptionally gifted minority, who will enable the 

 ordinary man to earn more whilst labouring for 

 fewer hours, because they will, by directing his 

 labour to more and more advantage, secure from 

 equal labour an ever- increasing product. The 

 conclusion, therefore, is not that the majority in any 

 progressive community may not look forward to 

 indefinitely better conditions, but merely that their 

 condition will not depend on themselves, and that, 

 though the conditions of all may be bettered, they 

 will never be even approximately equal. 



What, then, of the argument that, however condi- 

 tions may be bettered, yet if exceptional conditions 

 are still objects of exceptional desire, the want of 

 these objects of desire will cause a sense of privation 

 amongst the majority ? 



To this really important question there are two 

 answers. 



The first is, that the conclusion now before us 

 the conclusion that certain of the most coveted 

 prizes of life will always be for the few only is, 

 whatever may be its consequences, true ; and that 

 its truth is nowhere more clearly evidenced than in 

 the ideal State, as presented to us by the extremest 

 socialists. For we shall find that whatever in the 

 way of equalised incomes these statesmen of cloud- 

 land promise to their imaginary citizens, they do 

 not even suggest that the most coveted social prizes 

 shall be distributed more equally than they are at 



