upon the process of formation and transformation of
society; and that evidently in a fashion altogether objective and
independent of our approval or disapproval. It is a dynamic of a special
class to speak like the positivists who are so dainty with expressions
of this sort but are often dominated by the new phrases which they have
put out. The different socialist forms of thought and action which have
appeared and disappeared in the course of the centuries, so different in
their causes, their aspects, and their effects, are all to be studied
and explained by the specific and complex conditions of the social life
in which they were produced. Upon a close examination it is seen that
they do not form one single whole of continuous process because the
series is frequently interrupted by changes in the social fabric and by
the disappearance and breaking off of the tradition. It is only since
the French Revolution that socialism presents a certain unity of
process, which appears more evident since 1830 with the definite
political supremacy of the capitalist class in France and England and
which finally becomes obvious, we might say even palpable, since the
rise of the International. Upon this road the Manifesto stands like a
colossal guide post bearing a double inscription: on one side the first
sketch of the new doctrine which has now made the circle of the world;
on the other, the definition of its relations to the forms which it
excludes, without giving, however, any historic account of them.

The vital part, the essence, the distinctive character of this work are
all contained in the new conception of history which permeates it and
which in it is partially explained and developed. By the aid of this
conception communism, ceasing to be a hope, an aspiration, a
remembrance, a conjecture, an expedient, found for the first time its
adequate expression in the realization of its very necessity, that is to
say, in the realization that it is the outcome and the solution of the
struggles of existing classes. These struggles have varied according to
times and places and out of them history has developed; but, they are
all reduced in our days to the single struggle between the capitalist
bourgeoisie and the workingmen inevitably forced into the ranks of the
proletariat. The Manifesto gives the genesis of this struggle; it
details its evolutionary rhythm, and predicts its final result.

In that conception of history is embodied the