MAN DEPENDS ON SOCIETY 271 



hardy will try to fix them in a definition. But I should try 

 to account for the Individualist by saying that he has only 

 an obscure vision of the dependence of the individual upon 

 society ; and the Socialist, by saying that he has only an 

 obscure vision of the dependence of society upon him. 

 The former, at the heart of him, believes he can get on 

 pretty well without society ; he wants to be let alone by 

 it and to carry on his private affairs without its inter- 

 ference ; and he would fain resist the extension of public 

 enterprise, because it seems to invade the personal province. 

 He has a very strong view of his private rights, and a 

 less strong sense of his public duties. Indeed, his duty 

 to society is apt to take the form of charity., which he may 

 dispense, or not, according to the promptings of a 

 benevolent heart. 



The Socialist is not so easily described. He is apt to 

 desire the profits of Individualism without its pains ; and 

 his mind is less clear even to himself than that of the 

 Individualist. It ranges more widely and adventurously. 

 But he is much impressed with the evils that individualism 

 brings. Individual enterprise is to him the outcome of 

 private greed, and brings competition and collision, and 

 Hard hearts and merciless methods. He would have the 

 work of the world done, of course, and its rewards dis- 

 tributed. But the work must be done, and its fruits 

 enjoyed, not so much by any one in particular, for that 

 might bring back private enterprise, as by every one in 

 general. The extension of municipal and State enterprise 

 seems good to him for the very reason that it seems evil 

 to his opponent : it narrows the_sphere of the private will, 

 which he holds to be at_bgttom bad. 



Neither description is kind ; but neither is intended to 



