6l2 



LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



sage of one of his early essays, (let me 

 add that it was one which he did not 

 himself choose to reprint,) gives ex- 

 pression to the doctrine of the abso- 

 lute inoperativeness of great men, 

 more unqualified, I should think, than 

 has been given to it by any writer of 

 equal abilities. He compares them 

 to persons who merely stand on a 

 loftier height, and thence receive the 

 sun's rays a little earlier than the 

 rest of the human race. "The sun 

 illuminates the hills while it is still 

 below the horizon, and truth is dis- 

 covered by the highest minds a little 

 before it becomes manifest to the 

 multitude. This is the extent of their 

 superiority. They are the first to 

 catch and reflect a light which, with- 

 out their assistance, must in a short 

 time be visible to those who lie far 

 beneath them."* If this metaphor 

 is to be carried out, it follows that if 

 there had been no Newton the world 

 would not only have had the New- 

 tonian system, but would have had it 

 equally soon, as the sun would have 

 risen just as early to spectators in the 

 plain if there had been no mountain 

 at hand to catch still earlier rays. 

 And so it would be if truths, like the 

 sun, rose by their own proper motion, 

 without human effort, but not other- 

 wise. I believe that if Newton had 

 not lived, the world must have waited 

 for the Newtonian philosophy until 

 there had been another Newton or 

 his equivalent. No ordinary man, 

 and no succession of ordinary men, 

 could have achieved it. I will not 

 go the length of saying that what 

 Newton did in a single life might not 

 have been done in successive steps by 

 some of those who followed him, each 

 singly inferior to him in genius. But 

 even the least of those steps required 

 a man of great intellectual superiority. 

 Eminent men do not merely see the 

 coming light from the hill-top ; they 

 mount on the hill-top and evoke it ; 

 and if no one had ever ascended 

 thither, the light, in many cases, 



* Essay on Dryden, in Mitcellaneous 

 JFritings, i. i86. 



might never have risen upon the 

 plain at all. Philosophy and reli- 

 gion are abundantly amenable to 

 general causes ; yet few will doubt 

 that had there been no Socrates, no 

 Plato, and no Aristotle, there would 

 have been no philosophy for the next 

 two thoxisand years, nor in all pro- 

 bability then ; and that if there had 

 been no Christ and no St Paul, there 

 would have been no Christianity. 



The point in which, above all, the 

 influence of remarkable individuals is 

 decisive, is in determining the celerity 

 of the movement. In most states of 

 s^iety it is the existence of great men 

 which decides even whether there 

 shall be any progress. It is conceiv- 

 able that Greece, or that Christian 

 Europe, might have been progressive 

 in certain periods of their history 

 through general causes only ; but if 

 there had been no Mahomet, would 

 Arabia have produced Avicenna or 

 Averroes, or Caliphs of Bagdad or of 

 Cordova? In determining, however, 

 in what manner and order the pro- 

 gress of mankind shall take place, if 

 it take place at all, much less depends 

 on the character of individuals. There 

 is a sort of necessity established in 

 this respect by the general laws of 

 human nature, by the constitution of 

 the human mind. Certain truths can- 

 not be discovered or inventions made 

 unless certain others have been made 

 first ; certain social improvements, 

 from the nature of the case, can only 

 follow, and not precede, others. The 

 order of human progress, therefore, 

 may to a certain extent have definite 

 laws assigned to it ; while as to its 

 celerity, or even as to its taking place 

 at all, no generalisation, extending to 

 the human species generally, can pos- 

 sibly be made, but only some very 

 precarious approximate generalisa- 

 tions, confined to the small portion 

 of mankind in whom there has been 

 anything like consecutive progress 

 within the historical period, and de- 

 duced from their special position, or 

 collected from their particular history. 

 Even looking to the via'^mer of pro* 



