EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Miss Edith Johnstone's letter very clearly exposes the fallacy underlying the optimism which confuses equality of opportunity with equality of capacity to use the opportunity. I remember discussing this subject with Mr. Llewelyn Davies (how many years ago I do not care to enumerate), when he was rector of Christ Church, St. Marylebone, and he touched upon some of the points which he very soon afterwards elaborated in his masterly Hulsean Lectures on Order and Growth. There he showed that, to begin with, men are not born equal ; and that there is nothing in the revealed counsel of God to indicate that the Creator meant men to be equal so far as their earthly life is concerned. Rather the contrary. The whole structure of the world, including humanity, appears to be built upon inequality. Nor can equality of opportunity be taken advantage of by everyone any more than equality of birth and natural endowments can be guaranteed to everyone. The resources of a country might be squandered in offering opportunities to those who are unable or unwilling to make the effort to use them. By all means offer the opportunities to those who have the will and the capacity to make use of them, but do not imagine that even thereby you will arrive at a Utopia of equality.—I am, Sir, &c., T. HERBERT BINDLEY.
Denton, Harleston, Norfolk.
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