An Error of Mr. Herbert Spencer’s 202 A Philosophic Truth, but an Economic Falsehood 204 Whole body of Successful Inventors a very small Minority 206 Ability and Opportunity 208 Ability not produced by Opportunity 209 Ability the Maker of its own Opportunities 210 Ability as a matter of Character 212 Function of such Ability 213 Characters not equalised by Education or Opportunity 214 Progress due solely to the Few 216 Progress in the Iron Industry 217 Early Applications of Ability to British Iron Production 218 Ability opposed by the Age instead of representing it 220 Isolated Action of Ability 222 Arkwright and his associates 223 The Value of Watt’s Patent as estimated by his Contemporaries 224 Industrial Progress the work of the Few only 226 IV. The Conclusion arrived at in the preceding Book restated. The Annual Amount produced by Ability in the United Kingdom— Grades of Ability 228 Proportion of Able Men to Labourers 230 A Rough Calculation 231 More than half our National Income produced by a Small Minority 232 BOOK IV THE REASONABLE HOPES OF LABOUR—THEIR MAGNITUDE, AND THEIR BASIS I. How the Future and Hopes of the Labouring Classes are bound up with the Prosperity of the Classes who exercise Ability—