IV 



THE COMING OF SOCIALISM 



THE progress of social reform must be slow and uncertain, 

 so long as the nature of society is not understood ; and 

 society can not be understood till the methods of science 

 are substituted for the empiricism which distinguishes the 

 right way from the wrong only by trying both. 



This was the subject of our first Article. 



Even science must fail to interpret society unless it 

 adopts as its regulative hypothesis the principle which has 

 produced society. It must, therefore, cease to employ the 

 mechanical metaphors derived from " Nature," and seek in 

 the conception of rational spirit its only clue. 



This was the theme of our second Article. 



But spirit itself has been mechanically understood, even 

 by many Idealists ; for they have opposed the activities by 

 which spirit unites its objects with itself to those by which 

 it asserts and establishes facts against itself. They have 

 proved that the real world is ideal, but not that the ideal 

 world is real. They have shown that spirit makes all 

 things into elements in its own life, but not that in doing 

 so it deepens and enriches their independent objective 

 significance. 



This was shown in our third Article. 



