286 HUMANISM xvi 



to his kind. It springs from our inadequate control of 

 the forces of nature, and can be relieved only by the 

 gradual growth of the knowledge which is power. If the 

 Socialists could prevail upon the nations of the earth 

 to abandon the folly of their internecine strife, to put 

 down their monstrous armaments, and to devote a tithe 

 of their annual cost to scientific research, they would 

 achieve more for the advancement of humanity, and 

 even for their own aims, in twenty years, than they 

 are likely to accomplish by centuries of merely political 

 agitation. 



But, even in dealing with those evils which are either 

 social in their nature or capable of being mitigated by 

 social expedients, we must be cautious. We must beware 

 of letting our sentiment run away with our logic, and 

 of adopting a philosophy which would ultimately stultify 

 and sterilize all efforts at reform. We must not, therefore, 

 allow our sympathy for the weak to unman us. We 

 must not allow our pity for the degraded to drag us down. 

 In making allowances for the victims of unfavourable 

 circumstances we must seek to brace, and not to relax, 

 their powers of resistance. We must, therefore, preach 

 Freedom to them and not Fatalism, Effort and not 

 Acquiescence. Still less must we ourselves begin by 

 acknowledging the omnipotence of Fate. We must not 

 despair of victory. We must vindicate the power of our 

 persistent efforts to reshape the world within us and 

 without us. In other words, we must uphold the reality 

 of Human Freedom. 



It is not, therefore, from any lack of sympathy with 

 the humanitarian aspects of Mr. Blatchford s argument 

 that it seems to us open to criticism. What we desire to 

 attack is the logical inconsequence of his position. What 

 we desire to show is that Robert Blatchford the Determinist 

 cuts the throat of Robert Blatchford the social reformer. 

 And what we desire to establish is that, whatever politics 

 we favour, any advocacy of practical interference with the 

 existing order of nature, nay our whole rational life, 

 presupposes and implies the reality of our Freedom and 



