xii] SHROPSHIRE AND JACK MYTTON 175 



the fundamental evil is the kind of sanctity we attach to 



property, however accumulated and however spent. Hence 



no real reform is ever suggested ; and those who go to the 



root of the matter and see that the evil is in the very fact of 



inheritance itself, are scouted as socialists or something worse. 



The inability of ordinary political and social writers to follow 



out a principle is well shown in this matter. It is only a few 



years since Mr. Benjamin Kidd attracted much attention to 



the principle of " equality of opportunity " as the true basis 



of social reform, and many of the more advanced political 



writers at once accepted it as a sound principle and one that 



should be a guide for our future progress. Herbert Spencer, 



too, in his volume on "Justice," lays down the same principle, 



stating, as "the law of social justice" that "each individual 



ought to receive the benefits and evils of his own nature and 



consequent conduct ; neither being prevented from having 



whatever good his actions normally bring him, nor allowed to 



shoulder off on to other persons whatever ill is brought to 



him by his actions." This, too, has, so far as I am aware, 



never been criticized or objected to as unsound, and, in fact, 



the arguments by which it is supported are unanswerable. 



Yet no one among our politicians or ethical writers has openly 



adopted these principles as a guide for conduct in legislation, 



or has even seen to what they inevitably lead. Stranger still, 



neither Mr. Kidd nor Herbert Spencer followed out their 



own principle to its logical conclusion, which is, the absolute 



condemnation of unequal inheritance. Herbert Spencer even 



declares himself in favour of inheritance as a necessary 



corollary of the right of property rightfully acquired ; and he 



devotes a chapter to " The Rights of Gift and Bequest." 



But he apparently did not see, and did not discuss the 



effect of this in neutralizing his "law of social justice," 



which it does absolutely. I have myself fully shown this in a 



chapter on " True Individualism : the Essential Preliminary 



of a Real Social Advance" in my "Studies Scientific and 



Social." 



It is in consequence of not going to the root of the 

 matter, and not following an admitted principle to its logical 



