374 ARISTO CRA CY AND E VOL UTION 



Book iv ever disputes between these two parties may arise, 

 and however unreasonable or excessive on any given 

 occasion the claims of the few may seem to the 

 many, or the claims of the many to the few, neither 

 party shall regard the other as its opponent, excepting 

 with reference to the particular points at issue ; that 

 the few shall not deal with the many as though the 

 many, in asserting themselves, were rebels, nor the 

 many attack the few, as though the powers of the few 

 were usurpations. What is necessary is that each 

 should recognise its own position and its own 

 functions, and the position and the functions of 

 the other, as being, in a general sense, all equally 

 unalterable, and although admitting of indefinitely 

 improved adjustment, not admitting of any funda- 

 mental change. 



And what is true of the social forces that are in- 

 volved in the production of wealth, is true of those 

 that are involved in political government. In 

 political government, just as in the production of 

 wealth, the power of the few has a root in the 

 nature of things as indestructible as has that of the 

 many ; and though the few can produce progress 

 only when the many can co-operate with them, it is 

 not from the many that their power is primarily 

 derived. In the domain of speculative knowledge 

 this is self-evident. The ordinary brains are 

 pensioners of the few brains that are superior to 

 them ; and yet the superior brains are powerless 

 to produce social results, except in so far as the 

 ordinary brains respond to what their superiors 



