rth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the
waters cover the sea.--_Isaiah._

But we are not going to attain Socialism at one bound. The
transition is going on all the time, and the important thing
for us, in this explanation, is not to paint a picture of the
future--which in any case would be useless labor--but to
forecast a practical programme for the intermediate period, to
formulate and justify measures that shall be applicable at
once, and that will serve as aids to the new Socialist
birth.--_W. Liebknecht._

At the head of this letter I have copied two passages to which I want
you to give particular attention, Jonathan. The first consists of a
part of a very beautiful word-picture, in which the splendid old
Hebrew prophet described his vision of a perfect social state. In his
Utopia it would no longer be true to speak of Nature as being red of
tooth and claw. Even the lion would eat straw like the ox, so that
there might not be suffering caused by one animal preying upon
another. Whenever I read that chapter, Jonathan, I sit watching the
smoke-wreaths curl out of my pipe and float away, and they seem to
bear me with them to a land of seductive beauty. I should like to live
in a land where there was never a cry of pain, where never drop of
blood stained the ground.

There have been lots of Utopias besides that of the old Hebrew
prophet. Plato, the great philosopher, wrote _The Republic_ to give
form to his dream of an ideal society. Sir Thomas More, the great
English statesman and martyr, outlined his ideal of social relations
in a book called _Utopia_. Mr. Bellamy, in our own day, has given us
his picture of social perfection in _Looking Backward_. There have
been many others who, not content with writing down their ideas of
what society ought to be like, have tried to establish ideal
conditions. They have established colonies, communities, sects and
brotherhoods, all in the earnest hope of being able to attain the
perfect social state.

The greatest of these experimental Utopians, Robert Owen, tried to
carry out his ideas in this country. It would be well worth your while
to read the account of his life and work in George Browning Lockwood's
book, _The New Harmony Communities_. Owen tried to get Congress to
adopt his plans for social regeneration. He addressed the members of
both houses, taking with him models, plans, diagrams and statistics,
showing exactly