on "Socialism and Art," and another on "Socialism

and Science."

He trusts that, notwithstanding these and other defects, its publication may not be considered wholly unwarranted.

JOHNSTONE LODGE, CRAIGMILLAR PARK,

EDINBURGH.

December, 1894.

CHAPTER I.

WHAT IS SOCIALISM?

SOCIALISM is undoubtedly spreading. It is, therefore, right and expedient that its teachings, its claims, its tendencies, its accusations and promises, should be honestly and seriously examined. There may, indeed, be persons who think that to treat of it at all is unwise, and will only help to propagate it. Such is not my opinion. It seems to me that there are good and true elements in Socialism; and these I wish to see spread, and hope that discussion will contribute to their diffusion. There are also, in my judgment, bad and false elements in Socialism; and I have not so poor an opinion of human nature as to believe that the more these are scrutinised the more will they be admired.

I propose to discuss Socialism in a way that will be intelligible to working men. It appeals specially to them. It is above all their cause that its advocates undertake to plead, and their sympathies that they seek to gain. It is on the ground that it alone satisfies the claims of justice in relation to the labouring classes that Socialists urge the acceptance

of their system. I cast no doubt on the sincerity of their professions or the purity of their motives in this respect. I believe that Socialism has its deepest and strongest root in a desire for the welfare of the masses who toil hard and gain little. I grant freely that it has had among its adherents many men of the stuff of which heroes and martyrs are made: men who have given up all to which ordinary men cling most tenaciously, and who have welcomed obloquy and persecution, poverty and death itself, for what they deemed the cause of righteousness and brotherhood. But the best-intentioned men are sometimes greatly mistaken; and Socialism might prove the reverse of a blessing to working men, although those who are pressing it on them may mean them well. At all events, those who are so directly appealed to regarding it seem specially called to try to form as correct a judgment on it as they can, and to hear what can be said both against it and for it.

This is all the more necessary because of what Socialism aims at and undertakes to do. It is not a system merely of amendment, improvement, reform. On the contrary, it distinctly pronounces every system of that sort to be inadequate, and seeks to produce an entire renovation of society, to effect a revolution of momentous magnitude. It does not propose simply to remedy defects in the existing condition of our industrial and social life. It holds that condition to be essentially wrong, radically unjust and, therefore, demands that its whole character be changed; that society organise itself