Mackechnie. — ^4 Poet's Socialism. Sll 



Art. XLV. — ^4 Poet's Socialism. 

 By E. a. Mackechnie. 



[Read before the Auckland Institiite.] 



Men with active imaginations have, in all ages of the world's 

 progress, derived pleasure from creating an ideal commu- 

 nity, dwelling in " a land where all things always seem'd the 

 same." The locality selected is frequently an " isle of bliss," 

 whose latitude and longitude are unknown ; and the imagined 

 inhabitants, and their modes of life, are shadowed forth, with 

 more or less clearness of outline, in either prose or verse. If 

 feelings of compassion are easily aroused in the mind of the 

 creator of such an ideal, his thoughts take the form of a 

 scheme for reorganizing society, coloured invariably (as we 

 might expect) in striking contrast with the evils produced by 

 our present social order. 



At the present day the laws and regulations I'elating — one 

 would have thought exclusively — to these ideal states seem 

 to claim the serious attention of statesmen as practical 

 measures likely to advance the good order, prosperity, and 

 happiness of mankind. The subject is a highly suggestive 

 one, and I have thought it might prove sufficiently attractive 

 to claim your attention for a few minutes this evening. 



That there is a vast change impending over society, for 

 good or evil, no observant person can fail to note. The 

 rapidity with which that change is approaching can well be 

 gauged by examining the socialistic doctrines put forth a few 

 years ago, and noting the :^"ay in which they were received 

 then and now. The " Political Justice " of William Godvi'in, 

 published in 1793, was declared to be an epoch-making book, 

 and to have changed the thoughts of the world ; but this 

 could hardly be unless previous literature on this subject had 

 been entirely forgotten, which was not the case. Plato, in 

 his " Republic," expressed much the same views some four 

 hundred years before the Christian era. Both these wa-iters 

 required equal justice and equal rights for all men ; and their 

 proposals in regard to women would, if carried out, have led 

 to their extreme degradation. 



In referring to these early social schemes I have no desire 

 to detract from the force or originality of Godwin's writings. 

 My object is to draw attention to the existence of simi- 

 lar ideas from remote periods, to the persistence with which 

 they haunt the human mind, and to the remarkable progress 

 they have made of late years towards fulfilment. Godwin's 



