^ 



CHAPTER XXVIII 



TRUE INDIVIDUALISM — THE ESSENTIAL PRELIMINARY OF A 

 REAL SOCIAL ADVANCE 



Now that we have entered the last year of this our 



Nineteenth Century, in many respects the most eventful 



century for good and evil the world has witnessed, most 



thinking men are looking forward with anxious hope as to 



what of real good the Twentieth Century may have in 



store for humanity. Any words of hopeful guidance as to 



how we may help to bring about such good ; any indication 



of the true path to such social regeneration as may not 



only enable the middle classes to reach a still higher pitch 



\\ of refinement, but may raise up the masses from the 



\ deadly slough of want, misery, starvation and crime in 



which so many millions are now floundering, often from no 



\ fault of their own and in the midst of the most wealthy 



— 'and most civilized countries in the world, — will certainly 



be welcome to the humane and thoughtful in all modern 



societies. 



It is clear, that if we wish to do any real good, we must 



r^^^cease to deal in generalities, or to suggest mere palliatives. 



\ We must seek for the fundamental error in our social 



V system which has led to the damning result, that, in the 



' latter half of the nineteenth century there has been a far 



greater mass of human misery arising directly from want 



— and an equal, perhaps greater, amount in proportion to 



population — than in the preceding century. This is 



clearly indicated by the figures given by the statistician 



Mulhall in 1883, in a paper read at the British Association. 



