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organization of society, especially in the form advocated by 

 Robert Owen as the ideal of the future, I was yet so much 

 influenced by the individualistic teachings of Mill and Spencer, 

 and the loudly proclaimed dogma, that without the constant 

 spur of individual competition men would inevitably become 

 idle and fall back into universal poverty, that I did not bestow 

 much attention upon the subject, having, in fact, as much 

 literary work on hand as I could manage. But at length, in 

 1889, my views were changed once for all, and I have ever 

 since been absolutely convinced, not only that socialism is 

 thoroughly practicable, but that it is the only form of society 

 worthy of civilized beings, and that it alone can secure for 

 mankind continuous mental and moral advancement, together 

 with that true happiness which arises from the full exercise 

 of all their facilities for the purpose of satisfying all their 

 rational needs, desires, and aspirations. 



The book that thus changed my outlook on this question 

 was Bellamy's " Looking Backward," a work that in a few 

 years had gone through seventeen editions in America, but 

 had only just been republished in England. On a first read- 

 ing I was captivated by the wonderfully realistic style of the 

 work, the extreme ingenuity of the conception, the absorbing 

 interest of the story, and the logical power with which the 

 possibility of such a state of society as that depicted was 

 argued and its desirability enforced. Every sneer, every 

 objection, every argument I had ever read against socialism 

 was here met and shown to be absolutely trivial or altogether 

 baseless, while the inevitable results of such a social state in 

 giving to every human being the necessaries, the comforts, the 

 harmless luxuries, and the highest refinements and social 

 enjoyments of life were made equally clear. As the mere 

 story had engrossed much of my attention, I read the whole 

 book through again to satisfy myself that I had not over- 

 looked any flaw in the reasoning, and that the conclusion was 

 as clearly demonstrated as it at first sight appeared to be. 

 Even as a story I found it bore a second almost immediate 

 perusal, a thing I never felt inclined to give any book before 

 (except, I think, in the case of Herbert Spencer's " Social 



