on the Coming Civilization. 37t 



here and now. To this end he would abolish all forms of 

 force ; for the central principle of his Christianity is non- 

 resistance. He would have no governments then, no armies, 

 no distinctions of nationality, no legal contracts, no com- 

 pulsory education, no public building of roads even. He 

 would have no one lead any course of life that would neces- 

 sitate disagreeable work on the part of any other. So he 

 even discards linen shirts ; though why it is any less dis- 

 agreeable to wash woolen ones is not quite apparent. He 

 regards modern civilization as all a mistake. Science, philos- 

 ophy, literature, art, all are " vanity." The contented mind 

 and the inoffensive life of the common worker for the com- 

 mon wants of every day — this is his ideal. 



I spent a Sunday afternoon and evening last summer* 

 with Mr. William Morris, the poet, the artist, the Socialist,, 

 of London. I went out with him and stood by his side 

 while he preached to a crowd on the street against the 

 wrongs of the existing order of society. His artist soul is 

 offended by the ugliness and discomfort of our present 

 civilization. He has heard the cry of the London poor. 

 Said he to me, " There are five hundred thousand people in 

 London who do not know what they are going to eat to- 

 morrow." This against a background of barbaric and use- 

 less splendor on the part of the nobility and the rich ! It is 

 some sort of socialistic rearrangement of the world which 

 he seeks, that shall make labor once more the joy of an artist 

 in his work, instead of the drudgery of a beast of burden 

 whipped on by the lash of hunger. He rejoices in every 

 sign of what he regards as the increasing hardship of the 

 present system, in hope of that day when the people will 

 bear it no longer. 



One of the most completely wrought-out and fascinating 

 dreams of the future with which I am acquainted is told by 

 Mr. Edward Bellamy, in his book, entitled " Looking Back- 

 ward." This is the ideal of State Socialism, or what is 

 coining to be called Nationalism. The Nation owns every- 

 thing and does everything. Nobody is rich and nobody is 

 poor. With the certainty of abundant support in perpetu- 

 ity, all motive for personal accumulation is taken away. 

 All are educated; and, though each works for the whole, 

 and though all kinds of work are honorable, free play is 

 still left for individual taste and personal ambition. It is 



*1888. 



