absurdity for brilliancy, have discarded common-sense, let
their imaginations run riot, and outbid one another for notoriety.

The complaints of the Socialists about the unequal distribution of
wealth are as old as is humanity itself. Since the earliest times
demagogues have endeavoured to obtain a following by working upon the
misery, envy, short-sightedness, and passions of the poor, by
promising them equality and boundless wealth to be obtained by the
simple process of seizing and dividing up the property of the
well-to-do. The identical arguments and proposals which are now put
forward in the name of Marx, and of modern "scientific" Socialism, as
something new and original may be found throughout literature since
the very dawn of history.[1276] However, history teaches us that,
although countless Socialistic experiments have been made, all
attempts at enriching the poor by spoliation and at creating an
artificial equality among men have proved a failure. They have
invariably ended in national ruin, and have left the masses poorer and
more miserable than ever. The reason of this universal failure is
obvious. Man cannot reconstruct Nature. He may violate, but cannot
alter, the laws of Nature. Inequality rules throughout Nature, and it
seems as little possible to equalise the fortunes, as it is to
equalise the bodily and mental powers, of men. We all are the slaves
of Nature. The inequality of natural gifts and the division of labour
are the principal causes of the division of men into classes and of
the unequal distribution of wealth. Nature is only governed by obeying
her. We can certainly diminish poverty, but we cannot, for any length
of time, maintain an artificial equality among naturally unequal men.

The first duty of the State, as of the individual, is
self-preservation. British Socialism, being by those teachings which
it addresses to its supporters a revolutionary doctrine in the worst
sense of the term, and therefore a purely destructive factor, must
unconditionally be resisted and combated. However, at the same time
all that can be done must be done to alleviate the distress of the
British masses, which is undoubtedly very great, and which makes them
exceedingly receptive to the revolutionary doctrines of Socialism. As
it would require too much space to deal with the social problem in
Great Britain in its entirety, only a few of the most important points
can be touched upon.

The greatest scourge of the