The Socialistic Method. 27d 



injury to the commonweal not to nse this agency to the 

 best advantage. 



It is difficult, I may say practically impossible, to sep- 

 arate and define distinctively the terms Communism and 

 Socialism. Both terms are used, and have been used more 

 jiarticularly in the past, to indicate the governing principle 

 of certain voluntary and local establishments, and both are 

 used, and especially at the present time, to indicate action 

 by the State by the official power whatever it may be. 

 Of both there have been and are all conceivable degrees, 

 from Brook Earm and the Fourierite Phalansteries, to the 

 Socialistic State of Lassalle, Karl Marx and the Inter- 

 national. 



Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn-law Rhymer, thus expresses 

 his idea of a communist : 



"What is a Communist? One who has yearnings 

 For equal division of unequal earnings : 

 An idler or bungler, or both, he is willing 

 To fork out his penny and pocket your shilling." 



Now this, though a perfectly true pictvire of a multitude of 

 Communists or Socialists, is wholly false as regards many 

 others. 



As the line which separates Communism from Socialism 

 cannot be discovered, so the line is frequently indistinct 

 between these and Anarchism ; or, rather, many persons 

 consider tliemselves both Anarchists and Socialists, although, 

 as I shall try to show a little later, nothing could be more 

 incongruous if we take the modern sense of Socialism as 

 Collectivism or NationalisTii. 



There are four descriptions of persons who are to be 

 noted as together composing the body, the members of which 

 classify themselves under these various titles : First, a large 

 number of uninstructed persons filled with the spirit of 

 unrest, and mainly desirous of bettering their personal con- 

 dition in any way that may be handy ; secondly, another 

 large number of persons, also uninstructed, but sympathetic, 

 who seize upon any scheme which seems to offer a prospect 

 of promoting the general good ; thirdly, a smaller number 

 of persons, who are ready to play the demagogue for their 

 personal advantage at the cost of any cause which they 

 can make tributary to it; and fourthly, a small number of 

 thinkers and students who are generally familiar with the 

 teachings of history but are for the most part guided by 

 their feelings. 



