90 THE COMING OF SOCIALISM 



In the present Article I shall first test the truth of this 

 view of the concurrent realisation of the self and the not- 

 self by reference to Private Property, and then illustrate 

 the significance of it by applying it to the general relations 

 of Individualism and Socialism. 



Private property manifestly provides a crucial instance 

 for testing the truth of our principle. Here, if anywhere, 

 the concurrent realisation of the self and the not-self is 

 impossible ; for the very essence of private property 

 appears to be an unmitigated assertion of exclusive rights. 

 Surely, it will be said, what is mine is not another's, and 

 what is another's is not mine. The privacy of property 

 disappears when it is made common ; its community when 

 it is made private. 



The only exception, the only property which can be both 

 mine and another's is " spiritual" property, if the term can 

 be allowed. Men may share the same opinions, seek and 

 secure the same moral or social ends, and each grow richer 

 thereby. The share of each in spiritual spoils grows with 

 their distribution. No individual becomes ignorant by 

 teaching others ; nor do the wills which unite in the pur- 

 suit of a common good lose either their privacy or their 

 spontaneity. 



But material property seems to have nothing of this 

 character. Gold or land cannot be mine unless it is not 

 another's, nor another's unless it is not mine. It can be- 

 come another's only if I relinquish it or am deprived of it. 

 Nor does it matter whether that " other " be another 

 individual, or a civic community, or a State. 



In this contrast between material property, such as land 

 or gold, and spiritual property, such as knowledge or 

 virtue, we come once more upon the essential distinction 



