310 MODERN ECONOMICS 



that no one should possess more than an equitable 

 share. That is to say, wealth should be distri- 

 buted without reference to the differences of 

 character and strength that exist between the 

 impulses of different individuals. One man 

 requires much, another little, to make him happy : 

 to one ambition is more than art, to another both 

 these are less than change : one finds change in 

 travel, another in games, a third in a novel. 

 Under a socialistic regime these varieties of taste 

 could not be considered in fixing the share of each 

 individual : passions would be eliminated as con- 

 tributory industrial forces, and industry would 

 need to be its own reward. The community 

 undoubtedly includes a large number of indivi- 

 duals in whom the industrial impulse is so strongly 

 developed as to urge them to work irrespective of 

 personal advantage. But, judging from the facts 

 of common experience, the greater proportion 

 will not work unless this impulse is reinforced by 

 selfish considerations, and there are not a few 

 who will not work except under the stress of 

 necessity or compulsion. A hive of bees displays 

 unselfish industry : but they are moved by 

 directive instinct, whereas the behaviour of man 

 is the product of a multiplicity of impulses. Can 

 we believe that his relations with other men might 

 be arranged so as to rest upon one of them only ? 

 In exceptional cases such a fabric can be built up : 

 the monastic system is based upon the ascetic 

 impulse : the Indians of Paraguay were discip- 

 lined in the minutest details of life by their 

 reverence for their Jesuit masters. But the con- 

 struction is essentially unstable, and cannot endure 

 unless human nature is, so to speak, emasculated. 

 Our hopes for the future must fall short of Utopia, 

 and we must be content with the less heroic 

 prospects of lessening evil and increasing good. 



