THE SOCIAL REFORMER 23 



Brought for the first time into contact with the merciless 

 forces of economic competition, and the physical misery 

 and moral wretchedness of much of modern city life, the 

 more generous youths, nurtured on the ideals of Christi- 

 anity, are naturally, nay, almost inevitably, led to condemn 

 the whole social system which produces these evils. No 

 remedy seems to them to be possible short of a general 

 overturn ; and they dream of some new social beginning 

 upon some entirely new basis of common brotherhood and 

 common possessions, where greed and injustice can find 

 no foothold. The strong ethical temperament is always 

 prone to impatience with the evil of the world, and to cry, 

 " How long, O Lord, how long?" 



Nor can we measure our debt to these moral enthusiasts, 

 who shake the torpor from our social creeds and disturb 

 the complacency with which we suffer the customary evils 

 of others. But they may be bringers of mischief all the 

 same, and society may have a perfect right to defend itself 

 against them. Every society wrongs itself if it yields to 

 anything except to its own better condition ; and it can 

 accept no service except that which is continuous with the 

 social forces that have brought it thus far on its way. ; 

 And this means that the world can be helped only by those 

 who link themselves to the good that is already present 

 within it and warring with its wrongs. It is an axiom of 

 fruitful research and a postulate of real reform that their 

 starting-point shall be in things as they are. The wiser 

 our social work, the more we shall believe in reform, and 

 the less we shall trust in revolution ; and the better we 

 understand revolutions, the clearer we shall see that, so 

 far as they have had lasting value, they were simply 

 eyolution^with its steps somewhat hastened. 



