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tain methods are proposed—such as profitsharing, co-operation and state socialism, for all of which large claims are made by their advocates. We can by no means admit that these are specifics for the complete cure of social ills, yet we may frankly acknowledge that they contain about all the promise at present visible upon the industrial horizon. But are they not merely anodynes which at best can afford but a temporary and partial relief, and which contain within themselves the possibility of evils more fearful than those they are meant to assuage? For these associations are professedly to be founded upon the principle of self-interest, and nothing, so far as we can see, forbids a transference of the old strife to the new order. What reasons have we to suppose that an economic fuedalism will prove more favorable to human happiness than did the political feudalism of medieval times? Will Justice, Mercy and Love dwell more fully in the hearts of men when organized for their material advantage than has been the case in the struggle among individuals? There is no reason to believe it. The theory of association upon the principle of self-interest has been proven hollow and false. It can offer no hope to the aspirations of humanity.
To discover its golden age human imagination has ever looked backward to the infancy of the race. No longer is that delectable retrospection possible for by the clear light of scientific demonstration we see, when thus we look, the naked, shivering savage slowly and painfully emerging from the dense glooms of animalism. "Yet hope springs eternal in the human breast," and aspiring Man though he may no longer dream of return to an Eden lost turns his vision toward new Edens to be won. But his vista abruptly closes in mist or darkness. "He looks before and after and pines for what is not." He is unable to hope that there will be a dawn such as there has never been and no premonitory gleams of which he can discover amid the present gloom. In vain does the popular thoughtlessness of the world ceaselessly cry, 'Peace! Peace! All is well!' In vain do
sleek, well-fed poets sing the glories of the struggle and exhibit the disciplinary value of pain and sorrow. Suffering humanity cannot appreciate these truths. They seem but as the "barren sophistries of comfortables moles." In spite of optimistic exhortation a dull, leaden pessimism born of disappointed hope is rapidly enveloping human thought within its gloomy folds.
Are we then to abandon the high hopes which have nourished the courage of humanity? Shall we dissipate our aspirations in the dizzy dance of death or endure our hopelessness with the stolidity of despair?
We shall do neither; but believing in our heart of hearts, that Omnipotence is also Goodness, we will deny the universal validity of those principies which have led us into regions of thought so dismal. In opposition to Political Economy resting upon its foundations of Natural Science we will deny that selfishness and strife are the supreme laws of the world. In the name of Humanity's sovereign will and quenchless hope we will say unto Chemistry, 'Back unto thy bases and salts,—we are men, not atoms.'—And to Biology we will say, 'Concern yourself with plastidules and cells, of these you are master; but of mind and spirit thou knowest not nor can.' We will deny the legitimacy of that process by which are deduced from primitive stages of progress law for the interpretation of all subsequent development. We will revise the dictum of Rousseau and instead of saying "Back to Nature" we will say 'Forward to Nature.' We will refuse to admit that any observation of Simiads or Mollusks, however thorough and accurate, can yield principles upon which to elaborate a system of ethics for men. Instead of going back to the Tertiary or Paleozoic periods for our principles and then saying—These be the measures of all possibility for thee O Man!—We will take our stand upon the highest pinnacle reached by human thought and say to Man—Come up hither. We will interpret the lower through the higher. How foolish would we deem that pilot who should seek to steer by the line of foam