ioo THE COMING OF SOCIALISM 



and various and more sacred. The more highly developed 

 an individual's morality, that is, the more his will is 

 socialised, the more his property and person find their use 

 and function in social activities. And, on the other hand, 

 a developed society accords more independence to its 

 members than any other. It recognizes more of their 

 rights, and it is more strenuous in their defence. So 

 complete is the self-alienation of the State, that it will 

 maintain the rights of its citizen against itself. He can 

 confront its actions with its laws by help of the laws ; 

 and, by constitutional means, he can arraign the State- 

 that-is before the State-that-ought-to-be. In short, in the 

 right that it accords its citizens, the State gives a con- 

 vincing example of the evolution of spiritual subjects by 

 fortifying their opposites against themselves ; for it plants 

 itself in its own members. Even " private property " 

 illustrates the concurrent growth of both the subjective 

 and objective aspects of spirit. 



I must now endeavour to apply our principle to one 

 of the gravest social problems of our time. 



Amongst the social changes most desired and most 

 feared in our times is that interference with individual 

 rights, or that extension of communal activity, implied in 

 the word ' ' Socialism." Both those who desire and those 

 who fear this change are prone to regard it as inevitable, 

 and as taking place with an accelerating velocity. The 

 new economic conditions arising from industrial combina- 

 tions, the vastness and compactness of the organisations 

 both of capital and labour, and the shock of their impact 

 when they collide, seem to many reflective people to 

 threaten both the freedom of the individual and the sta- 

 bility of the State. It is concluded, and often unwillingly 



