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States of America, or even in British India, where two different races
are in presence; or, again, the case of the sexes, where we cannot
assume as self-evident, that the organic differences are irrelevant to
political or social ends. So far as we are concerned, we may take it
for granted that the differences which emerge are not due to any causes
antecedent to and overriding the differences due to different social
positions. If we can say justly (as has been said) that a poor man is
generally more charitable in proportion to his means, or, again, that
he is, as a rule, a greater liar or a greater drunkard than the rich
man, the difference is not due to a difference of breed, but to the
education (in the widest sense) which each has received. So long as
that difference remains, we must take account of it for purposes of
obtaining the maximum efficiency. We must not make the poor man a
professor of mathematics, or even manager of a railway, because he has
talents which, if trained, would have qualified him for the post; but
we may and must assume that an equal training would do as much for the
poor man as for the rich; and the question is, how far it is desirable
or possible to secure such equality.

Now, from the point of view of securing a maximum efficiency, it seems
to be a clearly desirable end that the only qualities which should
indisputably help to determine a man's position in life, should also be
those which determine his fitness for working in it efficiently. In
Utopia, it should be the rule that each man shall do what he can do
best. If one man is a gamekeeper and another a prime minister, it
should be because one has the gifts of a gamekeeper and the other the
gifts of a prime minister: whereas, in the actual state, as we all
know, the gamekeeper often becomes the prime minister, while the
potential prime minister is limited to looking after poachers. But I
also urge that we must take into account the actual and not the
potential qualities at any given moment. The inequality may be obviated
by raising the grade of culture in all classes; but we must not assume
that there is an actual equality where, in fact, there is the widest
possible difference. In short, I assert that it is our duty to try to
make men equal; though I deny that we are clearly justified in assuming
an equality. By making them equal, I do not, of course, mean that we
should try to make them all alike. I recognise, with Mill and every
se