rue. Those who regard the histories of
societies as the histories of their great men, and think that these
great men shape the fates of their societies, overlook the truth that
such great men are the products of their societies. Without certain
antecedents--without a certain average national character, they neither
could have been generated nor could have had the culture which formed
them. If their society is to some extent re-moulded by them, they
were, both before and after birth, moulded by their society--were the
results of all those influences which fostered the ancestral character
they inherited, and gave their own early bias, their creed, morals,
knowledge, aspirations. So that such social changes as are immediately
traceable to individuals of unusual power, are still remotely traceable
to the social causes which produced these individuals; and hence, from
the highest point of view, such social changes also, are parts of the
general developmental process.

Thus that which is so obviously true of the industrial structure of
society, is true of its whole structure. The fact that "constitutions
are not made, but grow," is simply a fragment of the much larger fact,
that under all its aspects and through all its ramifications, society is
a growth and not a manufacture.

* * * * *

A perception that there exists some analogy between the body politic and
a living individual body, was early reached; and has from time to time
re-appeared in literature. But this perception was necessarily vague and
more or less fanciful. In the absence of physiological science, and
especially of those comprehensive generalizations which it has but
lately reached, it was impossible to discern the real parallelisms.

The central idea of Plato's model Republic, is the correspondence
between the parts of a society and the faculties of the human mind.
Classifying these faculties under the heads of Reason, Will, and
Passion, he classifies the members of his ideal society under what he
regards as three analogous heads:--councillors, who are to exercise
government; military or executive, who are to fulfil their behests; and
the commonalty, bent on gain and selfish gratification. In other words,
the ruler, the warrior, and the craftsman, are, according to him, the
analogues of our reflective, volitional, and emotional powers. Now
even were there truth in the implied assumption of a parallelism
between the structur