best form or Socialism in its best form can accomplish, to be qualified
to decide which of the two will be the ultimate form of human society."

More than thirty years had passed since this had been written, and
whilst the evils of private property, so vividly depicted by Mill,
showed no signs of mitigation, the remedies he anticipated had made no
substantial progress. The co-operation of the Rochdale Pioneers had
proved a magnificent success, but its sphere of operations was now
clearly seen to be confined within narrow limits. Profit-sharing then as
now was a sickly plant barely kept alive by the laborious efforts of
benevolent professors. Mill's indictment of the capitalist system, in
regard to its effects on social life, was so powerful, his treatment of
the primitive socialism and communism of his day so sympathetic, that it
is surprising how little it prepared the way for the reception of the
new ideas. But to some of his readers, at any rate, it suggested that
there was an alternative to the capitalistic system, and that Socialism
or Communism was worthy of examination.[3]

The Socialism of Robert Owen had made a profound impression on the
working people of England half a century earlier, but the tradition of
it was confined to those who had heard its prophet. Owen, one of the
greatest men of his age, had no sense of art; his innumerable writings
are unreadable; and both his later excursions into spiritualism, and the
failure of his communities and co-operative enterprises, had clouded his
reputation amongst those outside the range of his personality. In later
years we often came across old men who had sat at his feet, and who
rejoiced to hear once more something resembling his teachings: but I do
not think that, at the beginning, the Owenite tradition had any
influence upon us.