to-day, preach wisdom and justice for the morrow. So imperfect does
the present seem to them, and so obvious are the possibilities of the
future, that they look forward confidently to the overthrow of the old
social forms, and the establishment, in their places, of a new
society, the embryo of which is already germinating within the old
social shell.

The old culture relies on tradition, custom, and the normal
conservatism of the masses of mankind, The new culture relies on
concepts of justice, truth, liberty, love, brotherhood. Eighteenth
century, Feudal France was filled with the prophecies of a form of
society that would supplant Feudalism. Nineteenth century Russia, in
the grip of a capitalist burocracy, proved to be the centre for the
revolutions of the early twentieth century. The new culture, growing
at first under the shadow of the old, gradually assumes larger and
larger proportions until it takes all of the sunlight for itself,
throwing the old culture into the shadow of oblivion.

Each ruling class knows these facts,--knows that the old must give
place to the new; knows that the living, ruling culture of to-day will
be the history of the day after tomorrow, yet because of the vested
interests which they rely upon for their power, and because they are
satisfied to have the deluge come after them, they oppose each
manifestation of the new culture and strain every nerve to make the
temporary organization of the world permanent. The more vigorously the
new culture thrives, the more eagerly do the representatives of the
old order strive to destroy it.


IV.