at is erroneous in the Marxian interpretation of history,
which tacitly assumes that acquisitiveness is the source of all
political actions. It is clear that many men willingly forego wealth
for the sake of power and glory, and that nations habitually sacrifice
riches to rivalry with other nations. The desire for some form of
superiority is common to almost all energetic men. No social system
which attempts to thwart it can be stable, since the lazy majority
will never be a match for the energetic minority.

What is called "virtue" is an offshoot of vanity: it is the habit of
acting in a manner which others praise.

The operation of material conditions may be illustrated by the
statement (Myers's _Dawn of History_) that four of the greatest
movements of conquest have been due to drought in Arabia, causing the
nomads of that country to migrate into regions already inhabited. The
last of these four movements was the rise of Islam. In these four
cases, the primal need of food and drink was enough to set events in
motion; but as this need could only be satisfied by conquest, the four
secondary passions must have very soon come into play. In the
conquests of modern industrialism, the secondary passions have been
almost wholly dominant, since those who directed them had no need to
fear hunger or thirst. It is the potency of vanity and love of power
that gives hope for the industrial future of Soviet Russia, since it
enables the Communist State to enlist in its service men whose
abilities might give them vast wealth in a capitalistic society.

Intelligence modifies profoundly the operation of material conditions.
When America was first discovered, men only desired gold and silver;
consequently the portions first settled were not those that are now
most profitable. The Bessemer process created the German iron and
steel industry; inventions requiring oil have created a demand for
that commodity which is one of the chief influences in international
politics.

The intelligence which has this profound effect on politics is not
political, but scientific and technical: it is the kind of
intelligence which discovers how to make nature minister to human
passions. Tungsten had no value until it was found to be useful in the
manufacture of shells and electric light, but now people will, if
necessary, kill each other in order to acquire tungsten. Scientific
intelligence is the cause of this change.

The progress or retrogression of