SOCIAL INEQUALITIES PERMANENT 323 



will render it less exceptional as the object of an Bookiv 

 ambitious and strenuous man's desire. 



In other words, that graduation of social circum- 

 stances, those differences in ways of living, in habits, 

 manners, accomplishments, and social functions, 

 which have their physical basis in varying degrees 

 of wealth, and give to civilised society what is its 

 present, as it has been its past character these 

 graduations of social circumstances, which it is the 

 cherished dream of the socialists to do away with, 

 are indestructible so long as civilisation lasts. If 

 they perish, civilisation will perish also ; when civil- 

 isation is restored they will reappear along with it ; 

 and however they may be modified or adjusted, 

 they can never be even approximately effaced. 



It is the facts briefly indicated in the present 

 chapter which the socialists of to-day are principally 

 distinguished by ignoring ; and it is these facts 

 which render socialism for ever impossible. 



This truth, when once generally recognised, will 

 lead to many practical consequences, of which the 

 most immediately important will be dealt with in 

 the following chapter. 



