278 THE GOSPEL, AND THE SOCIAL CREED OF SCIENCE. 



of a remarkable kind and of great importance might be* 

 brought about in a comparatively brief space of time, the 

 doctrine of slow social evolution notwithstanding. With- 

 out any change in the social structure, which, with 

 Herbert Spencer, we think undesirable, though we do 

 not, with him, think it impossible, a great improvement 

 in the general condition of the mass of mankind might 

 be realized in a moderate space of time. Without con- 

 fiscation of property, without any necessity for attempting 

 to evolve a new social order out of the antecedent social 

 chaos, which the socialist revolution would first usher in, 

 and which, by advanced Continental anarchists and 

 nihilists, is contemplated with so much serenity, not to 

 say satisfaction of spirit, there might still be, well on the 

 safe side of chaos, and far short of socialism, or even in 

 a direction opposite to it, a greatly accelerated rate of 

 social progress, and, to go no higher, a great improve- 

 ment in men's material fortune. And there might be all 

 this accompanied by the greatest of all guarantees of 

 order, namely, the wider diffusion, through the body and 

 soul of society, both of clearer perceptions and a more 

 general practice of the great social virtue of justice, the 

 only final condition of stable equilibrium in society. The 

 general diffusion of clear ideas of justice, and the embodi- 

 ment of justice in laws and institutions, would itself 

 alone constitute this greatest improvement. 



But for the realization of this, it is not socialism that 

 is required. What we really want is, in fact, a better 

 development of the present system, imperfectly described 

 as one of individualism and competition. Tf it were 

 really one of individualism, with the reward for real 

 individual effort and ability, things would be somewhat 

 just. We want individualism better developed, rather 

 than socialism for which human nature is unsuited. But 



