many things, in its present state; but so far as the average Socialist
is concerned, he may be defined as an idealist who turns to materialism,
that is, to mass, to carry his idealism out. The world having discovered
two great ideals in the New Testament, the service of all men by all
other men, and the infinite value of the individual, the Socialist
expects to carry out one of these ideals by destroying the other.

The principle that an infinitely helpful society can be produced by
setting up a row of infinitely helpless individuals is Socialism, as the
average Socialist practises it. The average Socialist is the type of the
eager but effeminate reformer of all ages, because he seeks to gain by
machinery things nine tenths of the value of which to men is in gaining
them for themselves. Socialism is the attempt to invent conveniences
for heroes, to pass a law that will make being a man unnecessary, to do
away with sin by framing a world in which it would be worthless to do
right because it would be impossible to do wrong. It is a philosophy of
helplessness, which, even if it succeeds in helplessly carrying its
helplessness out--in doing away with suffering, for instance--can only
do it by bringing to pass a man not alive enough to be capable of
suffering, and putting him in a world where suffering and joy alike
would be a bore to him.

But the main importance of Socialism in this connection lies in the fact
that it does not confine itself to sociology. It has become a complete
philosophy of life, and can be seen penetrating with its subtle satire
on human nature almost everything about us. We have the cash register to
educate our clerks into pure and honest character, and the souls of
conductors can be seen being nurtured, mile after mile, by
fare-recorders. Corporations buy consciences by the gross. They are hung
over the door of every street car. Consciences are worked by pulling a