Social inequalities are partly due to circumstances; • 48 but most people will admit that congenital inequalities in talent have much to do with them • 48 Why then insist on this fact? • 49 Because this fact is precisely what our contemporary sociologists ignore, • 49 as Mr. Spencer shows us by his distinct admissions and assertions, as well as by the character of his conclusions • 50 His condemnation of the great-man theory is a removal of all congenital inequalities from his field of study; • 51 and he actually defines an aggregate as being composed of _approximately equal units_ • 52 His failure and that of others, as practical sociologists, arises from their building on this false hypothesis • 53 CHAPTER III GREAT MEN, AS THE TRUE CAUSE OF PROGRESS The ignoring of natural inequalities is a deliberate procedure. Let us see how it is defended • 55 Let us examine Mr. Spencer’s defence of it • 55 He defends it in two ways; • 55 (1) by saying that the great man does not really do what he seems to do; • 55 (2) by saying that what he seems to do is not really much • 56 He admits that the great man does do something exceptional in war; • 57 but denies that he does anything exceptional in the sphere of peaceful progress • 57 But how does the great man fulfil his function in war? By ordering others • 58 The great man, in peace, does precisely the same thing • 59 Mr. Spencer, for example, orders the compositors who put his books into type • 59 The inventor orders the men by whom his inventions are manufactured • 60 The great man of business orders his employees • 61 The hotel-keeper orders his staff • 62 All these men resemble the great military commander; and if the latter is a social cause, so are the former • 63 Next, as to the contention that the great man is the proximate cause only, and not the true cause— • 63 This, as Mr. Spencer and three popular writers of to-day show us, • 64 resolves itself into four arguments: • 65 (1) That every first discovery involves all that have gone before it; • 66 (2) that the discoverer’s ability itself is the product of past circumstances; • 66 (3) that often the same discovery is made by several men at once; • 66 (4) that the difference between the great and the ordinary man is slight • 66 Simultaneous discovery only shows that several great men, instead of one, are greater than others • 67 The extent of the great man’s superiority depends on how it is measured • 68 It may be slight to the speculative philosopher, but to the practical man it is all-important • 69 As for the two other arguments, which admit the great man’s greatness, but deny that it is his own, • 71 they are both true speculatively, but are practically untrue, or irrelevant; • 71 just as statements of averages and classification of goods may be true and relevant for one purpose, and false and irrelevant for another • 72