The Ideal State 227 



work of social amelioration accomplished. On the 

 other hand, progress must not be too long hindered 

 or delayed, as the inevitable result is social discontent, 

 which, if not pacified, must result in revolution. We 

 are not likely to have such violent manifestations 

 of popular wrath in England, because the non-progres- 

 sive party has always allowed the advance of reform 

 whenever it became evident that the people were 

 determined it should come, and thus social discon- 

 tent has never become sufficiently strong to result in 

 precipitate and revengeful acts. But while this is true, 

 it must be acknowledged that the names of all who 

 have trod the hard, toilsome path and fought the 

 weary uphill fight on behalf of the poor, down- 

 trodden, overworked, underpayed toiling millions 

 of men and women are not sufficiently borne in our 

 memories. These names ought to be the outstanding 

 on the banner of history. 



The action of such men is all the more noble in that 

 there is little or no acknowledgment of their services ; 

 it is only possible under the stimulus of a great ideal ; 

 the attainment of the end is for them sufficient re- 

 ward, and it is good it is so, for how otherwise could they 

 face the lifelong obloquy meted out to them by their 

 own class ? It would be possible to give many in- 

 stances in which a scion of the aristocracy, from pure 

 conviction, has adopted the toilsome path and fought 

 the good fight, from pure conviction, only to find 

 that his own caste have reviled and slandered his 

 reputation for no obvious reason beyond his desire to 

 alter the present-day condition of things and thereby 

 increase the happiness of men. And hitherto this 

 has invariably been the case when a man acts in 

 response to the appeal of the altruistic ideal, and 

 opposes the purely materialistic self-interest of those 

 who have " great possessions." 



