any intelligible sense, has, I think, been much
exaggerated. The importance of his theories, considered as an
ingredient in modern German Chauvinism, is not so considerable, I
should imagine, as is sometimes thought.

We come now to the movement already alluded to as a set-off and,
within certain boundaries at least, a counteractive of the degeneracy
exhibited in the German character since the foundation of the present
Imperial system. The rise and rapid growth of the Social Democratic
movement is perhaps the most striking fact in the recent history of
Germany. The same may be said, of course, of the growth of Socialism
everywhere during the same period. But in Germany it has for a
generation past, or even more, occupied an exceptional position, alike
as regards the rapidity of its increase, its direct influence on the
masses, and its party organization. Modern Socialism, as a party
doctrine, is, moreover, a product of the best period of
nineteenth-century German thought and literature. Its three great
theoretical protagonists, Marx, Engels, and their younger
contemporary, Lassalle, all issued from the great Hegelian movement of
the first half of the nineteenth century. Their propagandist
activity, literary and otherwise, was in the German language. The
analysis of the present capitalist system, forming the foundation of
the demand for the communization of the means of production,
distribution, and exchange, as resulting in a _human_ society as
opposed to a _class_ society, and ultimately in the extinction of
national barriers in a world-federation of socialized humanity--these
principles were first appreciated, as a world-ideal, by the
proletariat of Germany, and they have unquestionably raised that
proletariat to an intellectual rank as yet equalled by no other
working-class in the world.

It must be admitted, however, that with the colossal growth of the
Social Democratic party in Germany in numbers and the introduction
into it of elements from various quarters, a certain deterioration,
one may hope and believe only temporary, has become apparent in its
quality. This applies, at least, to certain sections of the party. A
sordid practicalism has made itself felt, due to a feverish desire to
play an important role in the detail of current politics. Personal
ambition and the mechanical working of the party system have also had
their evil influence in the movement in recent years. Nevertheless, we
have reason to beli