How could a man do anything unless he had some environment?
Unless he had some past, how could he exist at all?
Mr.Bellamy and his friends, when considering matters in this light, are not too extreme in their conclusions.

On the contrary, they are too modest.

For men, if they were really isolated from their social inheritance and environment, could not only do but little; they could do absolutely nothing.

The admission, therefore, that for practical purposes they must be held to do something at all events, is an admission wrung from our philosophers by the exigencies of common-sense.

As such, then, let us accept it; and what will our conclusion be?
It will be this: that whatever it may be which the ordinary man produces, and in whatever sense he produces it, the great man, in the same sense, produces a great deal more.