n one baby out of every four
ceases to die in our manufacturing towns, when lives of sordid care
are banished altogether from the earth, and when the "sense of humour"
and the cult of Mark Tapley which flourishes so among these things
will be in danger of perishing from disuse....

But the reader sees now what Socialism is in its essentials, the
tempered magnificence of the constructive scheme to which it asks him
to devote his life. It is a laborious, immense project to make the
world a world of social justice, of opportunity and full living, to
abolish waste, to abolish the lavish unpremeditated cruelty of our
present social order. Do not let the wit or perversity of the
adversary or, what is often a far worse influence, the zeal and
overstatement of the headlong advocate, do not let the manifest
personal deficiencies of this spokesman or that, distract you from the
living heart in Socialism, its broad generosity of conception, its
immense claim in kinship and direction upon your Good Will.

Sec. 2.

For the convenience of those readers who are in the position of
inquirers, I had designed at this point a section which was to contain
a list of the chief objections to Socialism--other than mere
misrepresentations--which are current now-a-days. I had meant at first
to answer each one fully and gravely, to clear them all up
exhaustively and finally before proceeding. But I find now upon
jotting them down, that they are for the most part already anticipated
by the preceding chapters, and so I will note them here, very
compactly indeed, and make but the briefest comment upon each.

There is first the assertion, which effectually bars a great number of
people from further inquiry into Socialist teaching, that _Socialism
is contrary to Christianity_. I would urge that this is the absolute
inversion of the truth. Christianity involves, I am convinced, a
practical Socialism if it is honestly carried out. This is not only my
conviction, but the reader, if he is a Nonconformist, can find it set
out at length by Dr. Clifford in a Fabian tract, _Socialism and the
Teaching of Christ_; and, if a Churchman, by the Rev. Stewart Headlam
in another, _Christian Socialism_. He will find a longer and fuller
discussion of this question in the Rev. R. J. Campbell's _Christianity
and Social Order_. In the list of members of such a Socialist Society
as the Fabian Society will be found the names of clergy of the
principal Christian denomi