The only economic principle which seemed at first clear to these brave men was their conviction of the unchristian character of the prevailing economic system. It was, as Kingsley said, a "narrow, conceited, hypocritical, anarchic, and atheistic view of the universe." Of positive teaching they had little to offer. "I do not see my way," said Maurice, "farther than this: Competition is put forth as the law of the universe; that is a lie." Thus, the original position of this group was one of expectant opportunism. By a fortunate coincidence, however, the English coöperative movement-devised, as must always be proudly remembered, by the humblest of hand-workers, without the counsel of the learned-was just beginning its history of extraordinary expansion, and in the spirit of this industrial enterprise Maurice found an expression for his social Christianity. Competition," said Kingsley, "means death; coöperation means life." The English opportunists gave the strength of their leadership to the coöperative movement, and found satisfaction for their Christian socialism in a practical scheme which they themselves had not devised.

Sympathetic opportunism, however, does not exhaust the resources of Christian thought concerning the social question. Beyond the readiness to use whatever way of service may offer itself lie many deliberate attempts to give to the social question a systematic interpretation in terms Maurice,' said Kingsley. 'I aim only to teach to others what I get from him.' 'I live to interpret him to the people of England.'"

of Christianity. They may proceed either by denying the extreme revolutionary doctrine, or by accepting it; in either case there is a distinct meeting of the economic issue and a definite intervention, in the name of religion, in the affairs of the industrial life. On the one hand is what may be called the scientific reaction, the renewed examination, that is to say, of the facts which create the social question, and the interpretation of them as facts of the moral and personal life rather than of the economic and social order. Of this direction of research an important illustration may be recalled in the work of the French engineer, Le Play.1 This distinguished inquirer was not only of the first rank in his scientific calling, but was also a devout Catholic. No sooner had the storm of revolution in France spent its force than Le Play applied to the facts of social disorder the same scientific examination which he had already given to the geology of Europe. With amazing

1 Le Play, "Les Ouvriers Européens,” 2e ed., 1879; “La Réforme Sociale," 3 vols., 1872; C. de Ribbe, "Le Play d'après sa correspondance," 1884; Curzon, "Frédéric le Play, sa méthode, sa doctrine, son œuvre, son esprit," 1899; Quarterly Journal of Economics, IV, 408, H. Higgs (and Appendix); "La Réforme Sociale, Bulletin des Unions de la Paix Sociale, fondée par F. le Play." The Musée Social, founded in 1895 by the Comte de Chambrun, and occupying his palace, 5 Rue las Casas, Paris, perpetuates in its library and its varied investigations the methods of Le Play. See Bödicker, "Le Comte de Chambrun et le Musée Social, Paris," 1896; "Statuts du Musée Social," 1896; "Chronique du Musée Social, Paris," Arthur Rousseau, 14 Rue Soufflot. See also C. Jannet, "Le Socialisme d'état et la réforme sociale,” ze ed., 1890

industry and unprecedented range of observation he studied the conditions of domestic and industrial life, in many countries and under many phases of civilization, and tabulated in minute detail the budget of income and expenditure which represented the economic condition of typical lives. His results were in undisguised opposition to the revolutionary dogmas which had already become conspicuous in France. The social question, he concluded, was not fundamentally one of economic transformation or of the abolition of privileges, but one of domestic integrity, industrial thrift, moral education, and living religion. The issue was ethical rather than economic; the security of a country like France was to lie in the vitality of its family stocks, in greater prudence in expenditure, in productive skill, and in faith in the moral order of the world. The scientific liberalism of Le Play gained at once large hearing. It approved itself to the instinctive conservatism of the Church, and it has been perpetuated, with much statistical and historical learning, by many distinguished disciples.

Yet even in France, and within the Catholic Church itself, this reactionary opposition to the collectivist creed has of late given way to a more sympathetic view. Whatever may be said of domestic virtues and moral education, there has seemed to many Christians no possibility of defining the social question in these terms alone. The specific problem of industrial change, it has been felt, must be met, and met in the name of the

Christian Church. The Church must have a social programme; there must be a Christian doctrine of economics; the revolutionary social movement must be tempered and deepened by the spirit of Christian faith. These are the convictions which have expressed themselves in the general type of thought known as Christian socialism, and which have united, in unanticipated fellowship, Catholics and Protestants, Germans and Frenchmen, conservative ecclesiastics and radical preachers.

The first determined note of this new Christian programme was struck in Germany; not, as might be anticipated, by a Protestant reformer, but by a Catholic prelate. Several reasons may be suggested for this interesting historical fact. The Catholic Church has maintained throughout its history a continuous tradition of organic responsibility, and in this respect was peculiarly prepared to receive and interpret the conception of industrial unity which marks the modern social question. The Catholic Church, moreover, was in Germany the party of protest; and its exclusion from political control gave it a freer hand for social agitation than was permitted to an Established Church. Even before the revolution of 1848, the French Abbé Lamennais1 had announced a

1 Nitti, "Catholic Socialism," p. 99 ff.; Nathusius, "Die Mitarbeit der Kirche an der Lösung der sozialen Frage,” 1897, s. 121; Kaufmann, "Christian Socialism," 1888, p. 35 ff.; Mazzini's "Essays" (Camelot edition, 1887), p. 73: "Wherefore, thought Lamennais, the mission of the Peoples, and their disposition toward order and justice, being recognized — wherefore should the Church refuse

new mission for his religion, and had found in the alarming watchwords, "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality," not merely the signs of social revolution, but the summons to a revival of Christianity. His voice, however, was of one crying in a wilderness of conservative tradition, and his teaching was condemned by Gregory XVI. As the social question grew more distinct in form and the working-people of Germany were won to the socialist cause, the Catholic Church renewed its sympathetic interest. At the very beginning of the new period, Lassalle, always more of an idealist than Marx, had proposed his scheme of working-men's productive associations, subsidized by the State,

a scheme at first welcomed by the German Social Democracy, but soon supplanted by more comprehensive plans of revolution. Lassalle's suggestion, however, was a seed which took root in strange soil. Baron von Ketteler,1 Archbishop of Mayence, a gallant prince of the Church, found in Lassalle's proposal the suggestion of an economic programme for the Church itself. In his notable book, "The Labour Question and Christianity," he accepted the principle, and often the language, of the socialist scheme. The self-help proposed by the Liberals of his day for poverty to regulate their movements, to preside over the action of this providential instinct of the multitudes?"

1 Ketteler, "Die Arbeiterfrage und das Christentum," 4. Aufl., 1890; Girard, "Ketteler et la Question Ouvrière," 1896; Kaufmann, "Christian Socialism," 1888, p. 108; Rae, "Contemporary Socialism," p. 224; Nitti, “Catholic Socialism,” p. 100 ff.