-operate without strife in that
mutual friendship and good-fellowship which one finds but rarely,
even among those who are connected by the closest ties of affection
and blood relationship, unless self-interest acts as the determining
factor? Did not Plato found his ideal commonwealth upon perfectly wise
and virtuous men? "Does not Socialist society presuppose extraordinary
human beings, real angels, as regards unselfishness and gentleness,
joy of work and intelligence? Is not the Social Revolution, with the
present brutal and egoistical race of men, bound to become the signal
for desolating struggles for the booty or for general idleness in
which it would go to ruin?"[1203]

"Who is more ready to tilt against society than the average Socialist?
And if the individuals in it are so deeply imbued with a double dose
of original sin as not to be able to handle any part of distribution
and exchange, it follows that you cannot trust the individual."[1204]
"In a social State you must consider two things--man and his
surroundings. You often forget man, because you think it easier to
alter his surroundings. The real question is: Can you produce men fit
for the new social State?"[1205]

"Socialism postulates an intelligent democracy."[1206] "The
proletariat will require high intelligence, strong discipline, perfect
organisation of its great masses. We may expect that it will only
succeed when it will have developed these qualities in the highest
degree."[1207] "Socialists demand a higher morality than any now to be
found."[1208] "It is incumbent upon Socialism to recognise the
existence of an intellectual motive, and it must place that motive
above the economic, because without it the economic struggle would be
devoid of any constructive value; it would be a mere tug-of-war; it
would never bring us to Socialism. It would lead to a scramble for the
spoils and mutual throat-cutting."[1209] "If 'each for all and all for
each' be nothing more than a text for a banner or a motto for a wall;
if its truth has not captured the hearts and minds of men and women in
that new society, we shall be an official-ridden people with our eye
on the best posts in the State for ourselves or our sons; and we shall
be as pitiable in our spiritual deformity as we are in our economic
bondage."[1210] "Socialism demands more than that we should merely
import Socialistic institutions into our midst. It insists on a moral
regeneration of society of the mos