144 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAr. VI 



individualism and compulsory socialism. The key to 

 the position, of course, lies in the examination of the 

 premisses upon which these superstructures are raised, 

 and history shows that — 



So far from the preservation of liberty and property 



and the securing of equal rights being the chief and most 

 conspicuous object aimed at by the archaic politics of 

 which we know anything, it would be a good deal nearer 

 the truth to say that they were federated absolute 

 monarchies, the chief purpose of which was the mainten- 

 ance of an established church for the worship of tlie 

 family ancestors. 



These articles stirred up critics of every sort and 

 kind ; socialists who denounced him as an individualist, 

 land nationalisers who had not realised the difference 

 between communal and national ownership, or men 

 who denounced him as an arm-chair cynic, careless 

 of the poor and ignorant of the meaning of labour. 

 Mr. Spencer considered the chief attack to be directed 

 against his position; the regimental socialists as 

 against theirs, and 



as an attempt to justify those who, content with the 

 present, are opposed to all endeavours to bring about any 

 fimdamental cliange in our social arrangements {ib. p. 423). 



So far from this, he continues : — 



Those who have had the patience to follow me to the 

 end will, I trust, have become aware that my aim has 

 been altogether different. Even the best of modem 

 civilisations appears to me to exhibit a condition of man- 

 kind which neither embodies any worthy ideal nor even 



