to put it
as what it is, as the imperfect and still growing development of the
social idea, of the collective Good Will in man. I have tried to
indicate its relation to politics, to religion, to art and literature,
to the widest problems of life. Its broad generalizations are simple
and I believe acceptable to all clear-thinking minds. And in a way
they do greatly simplify life. Once they have been understood they
render impossible a thousand confusions and errors of thought and
practice. They are in the completest sense of the word, illumination.

But Socialism is no panacea, no magic "Open Sesame" to the millennium.
Socialism lights up certain once hopeless evils in human affairs and
shows the path by which escape is possible, but it leaves that path
rugged and difficult. Socialism is hope, but it is not assurance.
Throughout this book I have tried to keep that before the reader.

Directly one accepts those great generalizations one passes on to a
jungle of incurably intricate problems, through which man has to make
his way or fail, the riddles and inconsistencies of human character,
the puzzles of collective action, the power and decay of traditions,
the perpetually recurring tasks and problems of education. To have
become a Socialist is to have learnt something, to have made an
intellectual and a moral step, to have discovered a general purpose in
life and a new meaning in duty and brotherhood. But to have become a
Socialist is not, as many suppose, to have become generally wise.
Rather in realizing the nature of the task that could be done, one
realizes also one's insufficiencies, one's want of knowledge, one's
need of force and training. Here and in this manner, says Socialism, a
palace and safety and great happiness may be made for mankind. But it
seems to me the Socialist as he turns his hand and way of living
towards that common end knows little of the nature of his task if he
does so with any but a lively sense of his individual weakness and the
need of charity for all that he achieves.

In that spirit, and with no presumption of finality, this little book
of explanations is given to the world.

THE END

RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,

BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E.,

AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

SYNDICALISM

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION

BY

J. RAMSAY MACDONALD. M.P.

_Cloth, 1s. net._

_A clear and concise explanation of what Syndicalism means, with a
Critical Examination of i