376 ARISTOCRACY AND EVOLUTION 



Book iv deny the power that has been claimed during this 

 ha P ter 4 centur y f or fa e many, but to recognise that this 

 power does not stand alone, and that those other 

 powers represented by the wealthy few are not only 

 essential to the wealth of the few themselves, but 

 also to the prosperity, and most emphatically to the 

 progress, of all. 



The recogni- The progress of all, instead of being incompatible 

 that the reia- with the fact that the positions of all have no tend- 



ency to become equal, assumes, on the contrary, a 

 more an d more practicable aspect in proportion to 

 fundamentally the accuracy with which this fact is recognised ; and 



altered 



that such is the case shall, in conclusion, be briefly 

 shown by reference to the theory of progress which 

 at present deceives the socialists. This theory, 

 which was formulated by Karl Marx, bases itself on 

 the fact, which is indubitable, that the industrial 

 systems of the civilised races of the world have 

 undergone great changes in the past, and may there- 

 fore be expected to undergo changes as great in 

 the future. The three most marked stages in the 

 sequence of change referred to are slavery, feudalism, 

 and capitalism ; and the practical conclusion drawn 

 from them by the socialists is that as feudalism arose 

 out of slavery, and capitalism arose out of feudalism, 

 (especially so will socialism arise out of capitalism. This argu- 



when we con- . , . , _ . . - 



sider the facts ment is merely another example of those self-con- 



fusions by which the socialists are distinguished as 

 attention 6 )* reasoners. It is an argument which depends for its 

 whole apparent point on the defective manner in 

 which these various systems socialism included 



