long
sapped, is at least one obvious interpretation of the present
universal ferment of men's minds as to the imperfections of present
social arrangements. Not only are the toilers of the world engaged in
something like a world-wide insurrection, but true and humane men and
women, of every degree, are in a mood of exasperation, verging on
absolute revolt, against social conditions that reduce life to a
brutal struggle for existence, mock every dictate of ethics and
religion, and render wellnigh futile the efforts of philanthropy.

As an iceberg, floating southward from the frozen North, is gradually
undermined by warmer seas, and, become at last unstable, churns the
sea to yeast for miles around by the mighty rockings that portend its
overturn, so the barbaric industrial and social system, which has come
down to us from savage antiquity, undermined by the modern humane
spirit, riddled by the criticism of economic science, is shaking the
world with convulsions that presage its collapse.

All thoughtful men agree that the present aspect of society is
portentous of great changes. The only question is, whether they will
be for the better or the worse. Those who believe in man's essential
nobleness lean to the former view, those who believe in his essential
baseness to the latter. For my part, I hold to the former opinion.
_Looking Backward_ was written in the belief that the Golden Age lies
before us and not behind us, and is not far away. Our children will
surely see it, and we, too, who are already men and women, if we
deserve it by our faith and by our works.

EDWARD BELLAMY

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