THE DEFENCE 215 



and prejudice, and caste and tradition." History being 

 continuous for it, its hope for the future lies in making 

 the most of the present, and in drawing out its better 

 meaning, which is the promise and potency of the future. 

 But such a course never has appeared honest to the root- 

 and-branch political rhetorician, nor to those prophets who 

 come to destroy and not to fulfil. Hence Idealism has 

 seemed to Mr. Hobhouse to "react against the plain, 

 human, rationalistic way of looking at life and its prob- 

 lems," and to be " sapping intellectual and moral sincerity." 

 Why does this theory not condemn old things right away ? 

 It would be so much more satisfactory to have done with 

 the " old theology" and the " old politics," and to burn the 

 barn in order to kill the rats. But Idealism cannot advocate 

 cataclysmic changes. I believe it would conserve most of 

 our present institutions, most of the relations in which the 

 citizens of the State stand to one another, most even of the 

 international relations between State and State, unsatis- 

 factory as they are. It would by no means abolish private 

 property, or proclaim that there shall be masters no more 

 and men no more, or tamper with the family as some 

 Socialists desire ; it would not destroy the far less ideal 

 cash-relations that hold in the sphere of commerce and the 

 competitive industries ; it would not even merge the 

 nations together, or pronounce patriotism a sin against 

 humanity. 



On the other hand, it is entirely false to say that Idealism 

 would introduce no change in these matters, and it is 

 utterly vain to expect that it will please the Conservative. 

 For evolution in its view preserves the identity of animal, 

 plant, man or State only through the constant transforma- 

 tion of every cell and fibre within them. Hence, there is a 



