304 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES 



But I must turn for a moment before I close to our other 

 critic, who is, as a rule, at the other end of the social scale 

 and advocates methods of revolution. 



To himjjvould say, as I have already hinted in a single 

 sentence, that his qne_hppe lies nqt_in overturning the 

 relations that bind man to man in society,bu^Jnjnoralizmg 

 them. His own method is moreeasy, I admit : it is almost 

 always more easy to overturn than to improve. But after 

 every social overturn comes the restoration, and restoration, 

 as a rule, very much on old lines. The main relations that 

 now divide man from man, giving to each his own station 

 and rights and duties, are essential to society. If they 

 are destroyed they must be restored, for society cannot 

 exist without them. But they may be moralized, j some- 



times believe that it_is the_ one paramount enterprise of 



society to moralize jtsjnstitutions, and that it will find no 



rest till it achieves this task. And by this I mean that the 

 ordinary, daily connexions in which man is bound to man 

 in his business, in public works, in offices, in his avocation 

 as master or servant, as capitalist or labourer, the pursuit 

 of which constitutes the very substance of his life, must be 



such as to develop, and not to crush or corrupt, the man- 



hood that is in them. 



Benevolence descending upon the needy from above has 

 its value. It is good, at least for the West End, that it 

 should wrap its skirts more closely around it and occasion- 

 ally visit the slums of the East. Tax the land, if that is 

 just, provide houses for the homeless, and pensions for 

 needy age, if you are sure that by these means you do not 

 defeat your ends. But neither voluntary gifts nor com- 

 pulsory legislation can reach the social evils if the stable 

 relations amongst which we make our bread are not made 



