s, good
order and social growth.

Her conception of the organic social life of the race is one of great
value. It led her to believe in the possibility of a social organization in
the future based on science, and better capable of meeting all the wants of
mankind than the more personal and competitive methods have done. This
belief in the organic unity of the race is not necessarily positivist in
its character, for Hegel entertained it as fully as does Herbert Spencer.
The larger social life will come, however, as individuals are moved to lead
the way, and not alone as the result of a general evolutionary process. On
its mental side, her social theory is to be regarded with grave suspicions,
for it brings all minds to the same level. No mind of commanding influence
is to be found in her books. No powerful intellect gives greatness to any
of her plots. Her Felix Holt is not a man of original and positive thought.
We accept, but do not enthusiastically admire him. Deronda is a noble
character, but he in no sense represents the largest things of which a
social leader is capable. He disappoints and is weak, and he has no power
to create the highest kind of leadership. In other words, he is not a great
man. The world's reformers have been of another temper and mettle. He is no
Mazzini, no Luther. George Eliot's social theories loft no room for such
men. They were superfluous in her social system. The man not to be
explained by heredity and tradition had no place in her books; and no
genius, no great man, can ever be explained by heredity and tradition
alone.

George Eliot evidently desired to destroy individualism as a social force.
The individual, according to her teaching, is to renounce himself for the
sake of the race. He is to live, not as a personal being, but as a member
of the social organization; to develop his altruistic nature, not to
perfect his personal character. The finer flavor of personality is brushed
mercilessly away by this method.

Reason needs to be justified in opposition to her excessive praise of
feeling. Meanwhile, the capacity of man to live a life higher than that of
his social state is to be asserted. He is indeed a member of humanity, but
humanity does not absorb him to the cost of his personality. Life is strong
in those ages in which the individual is able to assert his own
personality, in opposition to what is imperfect and untrue in the life of
his time. This failure to recognize the worth