the world that all social institutions are fluid and
not fixed. As Karl Marx said in the preface to the first edition of
Capital: "The present society is no solid crystal, but an organization
capable of change, and is constantly changing," and again in the preface
to the second edition, "Every historically developed social form is in
fluid movement." This is the theory of Evolution in its broadest sense,
and it has struck a death-blow to the conception of Permanence so dear
to the hearts of the bourgeoisie who love to sing to their Great God,
Private Property, "As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen." "_Saecula saeculorum._" "For the Ages of
Ages."

Before natural science had thus revolutionized the intellectual
atmosphere, great men proclaiming the doctrines of modern socialism
might have been rained down from Heaven, but there would have been no
socialist movement. In fact many of its ideas had found utterance
centuries before, but the economic conditions, and consequently the
intellectual conditions were not ripe, and these ideas were still-born,
or died in infancy.

The general acceptance of the idea that all things change, that
property, marriage, religion, etc., are in process of evolution and are
destined to take on new forms prepared the way for Socialism. A man who
has read Wallace and Darwin is ready to read Marx and Engels.

Now the story of the birth of Darwinism is itself a proof of the fallacy
of the Great Man theory, and a signal confirmation of the view that new
ideas, theories and discoveries emanate from the material conditions.
The role of the great man is still an important one. We need the men who
are capable of abstract thought, capable of perceiving the essential
relations and significance of the facts, and of drawing correct
inductions from them. Such men are rare, but there are always enough of
them to perform these functions. And the Great Man, born out of due
time, before the material and economic conditions are ripe for him, can
effect nothing. When the conditions are ripe, the new idea always occurs
to more than one man; that is, the same conditions and facts force the
same idea upon different minds. It is true there is always some one man
who gives this idea its best expression or best marshals the evidence of
the facts in its support, and the idea usually becomes inseparably
linked with his name. In this way does our race express its gratitude to
i