of
stirpiculture, to breed all human beings to a common type, so that
they would all be tall or short, fat or thin, light or dark, according
to choice, it would not be a very desirable ideal, would it? And if we
could get everybody to think exactly the same thoughts, to admire
exactly the same things, to have exactly the same mental powers and
exactly the same measure of moral strength and weakness, I do not
think _that_ would be a very desirable ideal. The world of human
beings would then be just as dull and uninspiring as a waxwork show.
Imagine yourself in a city where every house was exactly like every
other house in all particulars, even to its furnishings; imagine all
the people being exactly the same height and weight, looking exactly
alike, dressed exactly alike, eating exactly alike, going to bed and
rising at the same time, thinking exactly alike and feeling exactly
alike--how would you like to live in such a city, Jonathan? The city
or state of Absolute Equality is only a fool's dream.

No sane man or woman wants absolute equality, friend Jonathan, for it
is as undesirable as it is unimaginable. What Socialism wants is
equality of opportunity merely. No Socialist wants to pull down the
strong to the level of the weak, the wise to the level of the less
wise. Socialism does not imply pulling anybody down. It does not
imply a great plain of humanity with no mountain peaks of genius or
character. It is not opposed to natural inequalities, but only to
man-made inequalities. Its only protest is against these artificial
inequalities, products of man's ignorance and greed. It does not aim
to pull down the highest, but to lift up the lowest; it does not want
to put a load of disadvantage upon the strong and gifted, but it wants
to take off the heavy burdens of disadvantage which keep others from
rising. In a word, Socialism implies nothing more than giving every
child born into the world equal opportunities, so that only the
inequalities of Nature remain. Don't you believe in _that_, my friend?

Here are two babies, just born into the world. Wee, helpless seedlings
of humanity, they are wonderfully alike in their helplessness. One
lies in a tenement upon a mean bed, the other in a mansion upon a bed
of wonderful richness. But if they were both removed to the same
surroundings it would be impossible to tell one from the other. It has
happened, you know, that babies have been mixed up in this way, the
child of a poor