Mackechnie. — A Poet's Socialism. 381 



plans of government which suppose great reformation in the 

 manners of mankind are plainly imaginative." This is very 

 apphcable, as will be evident if you take the trouble of compar- 

 ing the social schemes elaborated and put forward, in all ear- 

 nestness of purpose, by such theorists as Saint-Simon, Fourier, 

 Lassalle, Karl Marx, and other German, French, and English 

 socialists, with those which are admittedly imaginative — such, 

 for instance, as Moore's " Utopia," Lord Bacon's " New At- 

 lantis," Campanella's dream founded on a superior moral 

 basis, the flying people of Peter Wilkins, Johnson's " Eas- 

 selas in the Happy Valley," and works of that class. They 

 all alike lead us into a region far removed from the earth, 

 where the visionary preponderates, if it does not, mdeed, reign 

 supreme. 



Another feature marking very clearly the imaginative cha- 

 ractei- of these schemes is the sudden, not to say miraculous, 

 reformation or transformation of human nature, by assuming 

 that every one is equally good, of equal capacity — mind and 

 body — and by eliminating all selfishness and self-seeking from 

 individuals. Aiad this characteristic is further evidenced by 

 the wondrous facility with which the transformation is ef- 

 fected. Eeforraers deem it only necessary to say, " Just sub- 

 stitute ' servant ' for ' master ' ; make poverty wealth and 

 wealth poverty ; unloose man from overt and covert be ; and 

 straight out of social confusion true order would spring." 

 Nothing more need be done. The transformation is com- 

 plete. 



Another general feature which it is painful to observe in 

 the majority of these social schemes, from Plato to Mr. 

 William Morris, is the determination on the part of the 

 propounders to degrade women to the utmost. The domestic 

 tie is to be severed, domestic virtue ignored, the love of off- 

 spring destroyed, and women reduced to mere generating- 

 machines. "By two tests," says De Quincey, "is man 

 raised above the brutes — First, as a being capable of religion 

 (which presupposes him a being endowed with reason) ; 

 secondly, as a being capable of marriage." These capa- 

 cities meet with no recognition at the hands of social re- 

 formers. We do our best to ignore the one, and the other 

 is, as a natural consequence, adversely affected. The number 

 of marriages in some communities where religion is little 

 thought of or respected becomes lessened considerably. 



The persistent dream of universal happiness is a singular 

 and most interesting phase of human thought. It exercises 

 over most minds a very fascinating influence. Men are for 

 ever seeking a region where " all that poets feign of bliss and 

 joy " may be realised in this world. But these dreams are 

 only prismatic-hued pictures of restless imaginations, moved 



