should then have a state of Grecian life amongst us in which every man individually would attain in a moderate degree all the purposes of the sane understanding,--but in which all the purposes of the sane understanding would be but moderately attained. What I mean is this:--let all the objects of the understanding in civil life or in science be represented by the letters of the alphabet; in Grecian life each man would separately go through all the letters in a tolerable way; whereas at present each letter is served by a distinct body of men. Consequently the Grecian individual is superior to the modern; but the Grecian whole is inferior: for the whole is made up of the individuals; and the Grecian individual repeats himself. Whereas in modern life the whole derives its superiority from the very circumstances which constitute the inferiority of the parts; for modern life is _cast_ dramatically: and the difference is as between an army consisting of soldiers who should each individually be competent to go through the duties of a dragoon--of a hussar--of a sharp-shooter--of an artillery-man--of a pioneer, &c. and an army on its present composition, where the very inferiority of the soldier as an individual--his inferiority in compass and versatility of power and knowledge--is the very ground from which the army derives its superiority as a whole, viz. because it is the condition of the possibility of a total surrender of the individual to one exclusive pursuit. In science therefore, and (to speak more generally) in the whole evolution of the human faculties, no less than in Political Economy, the progress of society brings with it a necessity of sacrificing the ideal of what is excellent for the individual, to the ideal of what is excellent for the whole. We need therefore not trouble ourselves (except as a speculative question) with the comparison of the two states; because, as a practical question, it is precluded by the overruling tendencies of the age--which no man could counteract except in his own single case, _i.e._ by refusing to adapt himself as a part to the whole, and thus foregoing the advantages of either one state or the other. [1] FOOTNOTE