mple_, _The Reconstruction of Belief_--Passages from The
_Veil of the Temple_.

A year or so after the publication of _Aristocracy and Evolution_ I
found myself taking by accident quite a new departure. I was offered and
accepted a place on the board of a small company, and was thus abruptly
summoned from the world of economic philosophy to that of practical
action. The object of the company was to perfect and introduce an
invention which, had it been properly developed as a mechanism and
skillfully dealt with otherwise, might well have become popular. The
general idea was certainly sound enough. With regard to this all
concerned were unanimous. But as soon as the project assumed a minutely
practical form all sorts of difficulties arose. The mechanism was one
which might be constructed in a number of alternative ways, and,
according to the way chosen, the cost of manufacture would vary very
considerably, and its use to the general public would vary to a degree
still greater. Since the board comprised several engineers, a
successful manufacturer of pianos, and a lawyer highly respected in the
domain of local government, I imagined that these preliminary
difficulties would very soon be solved. I was, however, much mistaken.
Each director had some idea of his own, which clashed with the ideas of
others, not indeed as to fundamentals, but purely as to incidental
details. This rendered concerted action as impossible as it would have
been had the differences related not to means, but to ends; and nobody
united in himself sufficient technical knowledge with sufficient moral
initiative to harmonize these conflicting elements, and thus to render
concerted action practicable. The enterprise, in consequence, soon came
to an end, certain of the directors bearing most of the loss. But I, at
all events, got something for my money in the way of an instructive
experience. It was an experience which illustrated by fact what I had
previously insisted on as a matter of general theory--namely, that no
enterprise undertaken by a number of persons can possibly succeed unless
it has some man of exceptional strength at the head of it, who will use
the wits of others according to his own judgment; and, further, that
this man's strength must be of a very peculiar kind, which has nothing
to do with the qualities, moral or intellectual, which make their
possessors illustrious in other domains of life.

This taste of business experience did