CHAPTER XII.

SOCIAL SPIRIT.

No phenomenon of the closing years of the nineteenth century is more promising for the moral and intellectual future of the race than the earnest discussion of socialism. The Higher Individualism implies a deepening interest in methods that have long been followed for the upraising of the poor and the ignorant, and in new methods logically consistent with these. A sign of the prosperity of civilized man, for only those who are successful can be asked to spend much time in improving the lot of others, — the active social spirit of our day denotes the greater humanizing of mankind, and the larger extent to which practical Christianity is leavening our modern life. Conscious and deliberate effort by the educated and the well-to-do to improve, more quickly than has before been found possible, the lot of the less fortunate and the less capable is a power sure of continuance and increased efficiency. It is, nevertheless, to be kept in subjection to reason. When, carried away by generous feeling or by the whirl of self-conceit, many go so far as to assure us that improvement in the lot of the "destitute classes" is the one thing needful for the salvation of civilized man, we must demur. The one thing needful, the one thing indispensable, for the very uplifting of the "destitute classes" themselves is that the progress of civilization continue to

be at least as rapid as it has been in times gone by. If any more considerable improvement in the lot of the poor and the ignorant is to be made, it must be due to a large increase in the speed and vigor of the civilizing process. This cannot be effected unless every road be made plain and smooth before all the individual talent and force of character that modern man possesses. If civilized society should so far lose that sense of proportion in which reason essentially consists as to make its chief object the alleviation of the poverty of the poor, instead of the increase of the wealth of the whole community, it would dig a pit into which both rich and poor would speedily tumble.

The method of civilization, long since substantially determined by centuries of experience, requires certain intellectual qualities, such as sober acceptance of the actual facts of man's environment, trust in human nature as it is, and readiness to follow the lead of unusual talent or character. There is, probably, some kind of reason for the existence of the idle classes in the fashionable world, whose one motive seems to be anxiety for a new amusement more expensive than the last. Leaving these drones and butterflies out of view, and fixing our thought upon the men who in the world of trade, commerce and finance actually lead the industrial development of these United States, the railway captains, the great manufacturers and the far-seeing bankers; considering, in another direction, those who write the histories, the essays, the biographies, —yes, even the poems and novels of the day; considering, too, the men who devote themselves to the fine arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture; reviewing in our minds the very large number who sustain the cause of religion and philanthropy in a

thousand different ways, giving their time, their money, and themselves to humane pursuits; considering, once more, the lonely astronomer in his observatory, the scientist in his laboratory, and every like devotee of pure knowledge; - we see activities and tendencies as worthy of encouragement and fostering as the comfort of the thousands upon thousands of Nature's less than average workmanship. No gospel needs to be preached in this luxurious age more vigorously than the gospel of the "dignity of labor" (a phrase unhappily falling into disrepute among handworkers themselves). But there is extreme need, also, that the hand should not dream of exalting itself above the head. Modern civilization is not due to mere distension of muscle; it is primarily the fruit of the intense action of the human brain, and the great mass of mankind can follow no surer path of welfare than that of high respect for the patient inventor, the busy manufacturer, and the master of commerce or finance, who may seem to be working purely for their own good, but whose efforts can never benefit themselves without producing an improvement in the lot of their fellow-men.

It is obvious to the clear-sighted, as Dr. Schäffle has insisted,1 that in our humane concern for the wel

1 "An active endeavor to improve the condition of the industrial proletariat is a praiseworthy undertaking of the highest order, but it has not so imperious and overweening a significance that the whole historic development of society should be shattered, and everything else be set at stake because of it. If we bear this in mind, we shall find a complete justification for many things in the existing state of society which are in themselves offensive, and which would not be admissible in the ideal construction of the best systems of Production and Distribution in the abstract. The economic system of any people has to be

fare of those now lagging in the rear of civilization there is danger of exaggerating their importance beyond all proportion. The human race has always had more than a desirable number of the incapable, and the intellectually and morally deficient. In the few millions of years which, the scientists kindly tell us, remain for this round earth, it is not probable that all such persons will be improved out of existence. Poverty, ignorance and inefficiency are relative terms, and until human nature, in its endless variety and complexity, has been entirely remade after one pattern, we must expect infinite variety in the circumstances and conditions of individuals. It is of prime importance in modern life that the moral and intellectual leaders of human progress should be encouraged to continue their leadership in every possible Most of all is this needful in democratic countries. It is a matter of vital consequence, not only to the poor but also to the classes that are now wellto-do and successful, that all the resources of talent should be employed to alleviate and brighten our human lot. To this end, every plain dictate of Nature -Nature, the most severe and unrelenting of aristocrats, who pays little heed to "petulant schemes" of equality and uniformity to which sentimentalists would postpone "Time's slow proof" should be obeyed. None are more deeply concerned than the masses that such obedience be ready and complete.

way.

in harmony with all other sides of the national life, of which, indeed, it is the regulated and orderly system of support and nourishment. It must be subservient to the imperious needs of Religion, Politics, Law, Education, Art, and family life, both socially and for individuals." The Impossibility of Social Democracy, p. 113.

The fundamental antecedent to any form of rational social betterment must be a willingness on the part of the individual to think upon the lot of other men with a lively and sympathetic interest. Experience shows that a certain degree of material comfort is almost indispensable, with the great mass of mankind, for the manifestation of any considerable degree of such interest. When the simple effort to obtain bread for the day or the year requires the full strength and ability of the individual, there is little room for altruism and small chance of one's putting himself, imaginatively, in the other man's place. So great is the number, however, of the well-to-do in our country, as compared with the number of the positively indigent, that the appeal to the comfortable and prosperous classes to interest themselves, individually and coöperatively, in the welfare of their weaker brethren is, as it should be, incessant. It may be impossible to improve civilization in that extreme geometrical proportion which the eager philanthropist often imagines. None the less do we need to combat steadfastly the native tendency of the prosperous man to be satisfied with himself. He is only too prone to consider the comfort of others as of little consequence if that large self which includes his family is luxuriously appareled, royally housed, and gratified with the obsequiousness mankind is ever ready to exhibit to wealth. But here we have to deal, not with any transient or superficial phenomenon of a passing year or generation, but with that "old Adam," as the theologians once delighted to call it, of selfishness. Yet while the preacher denounces "self" and "sin" as equivalent, the man of science and even the man of philosophy more contentedly recognize that human nature is