New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-16

MS WDTk would ne useless RE iilSIt IS wen
to carry the work yard or even a foot higher ne
other would have accomplished nothing
attempts at minimizing the degrees and Importance
of the intellectual inequalities Of mankind In the
purely speculative sphere they may nave some
meaning. but & the practical sphere they have
There still remains, however, az a4Cument. urgS
with the same purpose which IS very IrG4uen9tly
atfer how consIdarabIs the eryai NAV be be-
tween the congenita powers OF the exceptional man
and the average man, the former are really mueh
extension of opportunity the supply of them would
be indefinitely increased Now the HFso tnne 20
would point the possibility OF ever establish
of tic socialists Ii would merely point to the
possibility Of establishing more numerous eco
The question, however which I here will ask you
consider is not the Consequences Of this contcn
ton il admit but the question Of how tar i
receives any countenance from facts Accident ana
make OF talent succeed, and another,
here concerns is the exceptions, but the rule:
In broad and general way, does the equalzIng OF
the higher forms of talent? In connection with this
question We have abundant experience to appeal
to. OF the greatest religious teachers that the
world has ever known, the one was tho son OF
the days of Gautama ana Paul Of Tarsus, have the
greet religo4s teachers borne any Proporulon 10
sons? or let US take any college of music The
Who nroft In, tho same nst,ctore docs every wear
provide us with q hundred Mebas or PedereWsklS!
An even better example perhaps, is provided us
Napoleon every Private tas Carried the ied mar
shals baton in his knapsacll Has the last century
the career of Bouanger. II ever opportunity was
Ind evcry6ng IN his favor excePt the power to
make use of anything. No doubt the extension OF
acquire powers Which We're once the monopoly Of
the few. Thus to-day almost everybody possesses
millions Of great writers-thinkers like Kant or
Bacon, poets like Goethe or novelists IKE Dickens
or BaZac. The general effect Of greater equalza-
99n or UNITY TSsfm0ts tnf eject Oh so o
Switzerland thousand feet higher above the sea
would be ,onsiderabe: but Chamounix would bo
no nearer to the summit Of Mont Blanc than it IS
VIEWS OF HERBERT SPENCER.
oT Pqss on to ha faga SG as5 9t ars
he waoiiv nefectuai apart from their social en-
with socalistc thinkers only. Indeed the writer
who has expressed this argument with most force
and precision was so far as his personal inten-
lions went one OF TIE most bitter opponents o. tf
entire prograInme Of socialism. refer to Hefperl
Spencer. And yet, curiously enough. no one has
ment now in question than he. Let mo give. you
one OF the most remarkable passages IN which no
he takes IS not strictly an economic one but 1T
s b 41 II lplgs 70 egUHoig erbHrt spen
Ger, take the case Of Shakespeare Given a Shake
speare,' he says, and what dramas could he have
written without the multitudinous conditions OF
scendng 70 him from the past, without the Ian
guage which hundred generations had developed
not have got very far with his .M6chanique Ce-
leste, unless he had been aided by the slowly de-
back TO its beginnings among the ancient Egyp-
Herbert Spencer could not have put the socla!lsto
View OF the matter more clearly; and the answer
Gus, but contains the solution OF the entire problem
WIllc!l we are scIsslhs II taxes me FORM OF
life, the traditions Of England and it's language as
all these have produced dramas Ike King Lear
or Hamlet" unless England had happened TO
All Of shakespcare's Contemporaries possessed the
the same past but ont Of these ' Conditions one man
alone was capable Of eciting The results ELECTED by
great work Is similar The real explanation OF the
same time and in the same society is an INFERIOR
OF the past ana an aosorber OF tho surrounding
the present in very different degrees. They inherit
degree in which thew acquire and yItarlze IL: the
language ot the past only in accordance with tbc-
own power Of manipulating IT. the whole gifts OF
H RSgn OF lntan@ na'ae si{s the,r own X we
sPfncers phiosophizing IS at once JUST and sig
mark ana has no signidcanee yyhatsosyor. '''' '''
ment more. which taking the existence Of excep-
exceonaI claims nat NAV H in1iI a AIN
here am afraid that we shall be unable to give
with that OF thinkers or any other school; the
We are coming t' belongs to he new s6caIisis and
70 me new socialists alone. ] viii give II 10 you
and J. could not take more favorable example Of
the world. Mr.. Webb is one or those who. thongh
tey reject the doctrine of Marx, that all rroduc-
mYs tH9Tt Is absolutely equal IN productivity, and
% iltpnuCll"h ueT' remains The personal monopoly
81 INA ne calls business ABILITY. maintain never
Is socialism which does not reward all men equally.
thougn II must DE conceded that some men produce
IN proportion "A is talented he is 10 get less
than he produce. ana IN proportion he is stupid
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