CIVILIZATION-WARD AND DIETZGEN 183 



idea of what constitutes the substance of civil- 

 ization. 



"Man, to be sure/' says Dietzgen, "is still 

 dependent on nature. Her tribulations are not 

 yet all overcome. Culture has yet a good deal 

 to do; aye, its work is endless. But we have 

 so far mastered the dragon, that we finally 

 succeeded in forging the weapon with which 

 it can be subdued; we know the way to tame 

 the beast into a useful domestic animal.'' 



What is this "weapon" which humanity has 

 forged and which constitutes the possibility 

 of its salvation? "This salvation," says Dietz- 

 gen, "was neither invented nor revealed, it has 

 grown of the accumulated labor of history. 

 It consists in the wealth of to-day which arose 

 glorious and dazzling in the light of science, 

 out of human flesh and blood, to save human- 

 ity. This wealth in all its palpable reality, is 

 the solid foundation of the hope of social- 

 democracy." 



And here lest there should seem to be a 

 plain contradiction between Dietzgen and 

 Ward, we will go further and see that Dietz- 

 gen, like Ward, does not mean merely those 

 items of wealth which happen to be in exist- 

 ence in the shape of tangible commodities. 



"The wealth of to-day does not consist In 

 the superb mansions, inhabited by the privi- 



