You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind-legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men.

Beerbohm’s epigram plays on the difference between an individual and a crowd. A single sheep forced upright still remains a sheep—mere posture cannot confer humanity, character, or independent judgment. But if you arrange a whole flock the same way, the mass can resemble “a crowd of men,” suggesting how easily collective appearances can be manufactured. The joke sharpens into social criticism: crowds often look humanly purposeful while behaving mechanically, driven by imitation and herd instinct. Beerbohm implies that conformity can simulate the outward signs of rational agency, even when the underlying mentality is unthinking. The line satirizes public opinion and mass movements, where numbers and uniformity create an illusion of dignity or authority.