es which does not exist. Far
from tending to clear and simple lines of cleavage, modern society
exhibits a more and more complex interweaving of interests, and it is
impossible for a modern revolutionist to assail "property" in the
interest of "labour" without finding that half the "labour" to which he
appeals has a direct or indirect interest in "property." As to the
future, mechanical Socialism conceives a logically developed system of
the control of industry by government. Of this all that need be said is
that the construction of Utopias is not a sound method of social
science; that this particular Utopia makes insufficient provision for
liberty, movement, and growth; and that in order to bring his ideals
into the region of practical discussion, what the Socialist needs is to
formulate not a system to be substituted as a whole for our present
arrangements but a principle to guide statesmanship in the practical
work of reforming what is amiss and developing what is good in the
actual fabric of industry. A principle so applied grows if it has seeds
of good in it, and so in particular the collective control of industry
will be extended in proportion as it is found in practice to yield good
results. The fancied clearness of Utopian vision is illusory, because
its objects are artificial ideas and not living facts. The "system" of
the world of books must be reconstructed as a principle that can be
applied to the railway, the mine, the workshop, and the office that we
know, before it can even be sensibly discussed. The evolution of
Socialism as a practical force in politics has, in point of fact,
proceeded by such a reconstruction, and this change carries with it the
end of the materialistic Utopia.

Official Socialism is a creed of different brand. Beginning with a
contempt for ideals of liberty based on a confusion between liberty and
competition, it proceeds to a measure of contempt for average humanity
in general. It conceives mankind as in the mass a helpless and feeble
race, which it is its duty to treat kindly. True kindness, of course,
must be combined with firmness, and the life of the average man must be
organized for his own good. He need not know that he is being organized.
The socialistic organization will work in the background, and there will
be wheels within wheels, or rather wires pulling wires. Ostensibly there
will be a class of the elect, an aristocracy of character and intellect
which will fill the civi