is associates had been laboring and suffering for many years, no
doubt the circle of his admirers and readers would not be much
wider in 1920 than it was in 1916. Lenin would probably be the
first to admit--nay, insist--that the material circumstance that
enables a certain individual to assert himself is the prime element
in building his reputation. So that, if the Russian Revolution had
not taken the course it did take, Lenin, with exactly the same
mental and idealogical preparation, might have remained a
relatively unknown man.

Those who on the one hand interpret life from the naturalistic or
materialistic point of view, and those who on the other hand interpret
it from the supernaturalistic viewpoint need not and generally do not
differ as widely as is commonly supposed.

Materialism is the name for two totally different things, which are
constantly confused. There is, in the first place, materialism as a
theory of the universe--the theory that matter is the source and
the substance of all things. That is (if you associate "force" or
"energy" or "motion" with your "matter," as every materialist does)
a perfectly arguable theory. It has not the remotest connection
with the amount of wine a man drinks or the integrity of his life.

But we also give the name of materialism to a certain disposition
of the sentiments, which few of us admire, and which would kill the
root of progress if it became general. It is the disposition to
despise ideals and higher thought, to confine one's desires to
selfish and sensual pleasure and material advancement. There is no
connection between this materialism of the heart and that of the
head.

For whole centuries of Christian history whole nations believed
abundantly in spirits without it having the least influence on
their morals; and, on the other hand, materialists like Ludwig
Buchner, or Vogt, or Moleschott, were idealists (in the moral
sense) of the highest order. Look around you and see whether the
belief or non-belief (for the Agnostic is in the same predicament
here) in spirit is a dividing-line in conduct. There is no ground
in fact for the confusion, and it has wrought infinite
mischief.--McCabe.

As to their philosophy concerning the origin, sustenance and governance
of the universe, communists are almost to a man mater