f
marvellous, like a child. With this, however, we have at present
nothing to do. What we have to do with is the unfortunate fact that
among no persons is it more wanting than among Socialists, Christian
and other. The isolated or scattered protest for a complete change in
social order, the continual harping on one string, the necessarily
jaundiced contemplation of a system already condemned, and above all,
the haunting pessimistic whisper of a possible hopelessness of
overcoming the giant forces of success, all these impart undeniably
to the modern Socialist a tone excessively imperious and bitter. Nor
can we reasonably blame the average money-getting public for their
impatience with the monotonous virulence of men who are constantly
reviling them for not living communistically, and who after all, are
not doing it themselves. Willingly do we allow that these latter
enthusiasts think it impossible in the present state of society to
practise their ideal, but this fact, while vindicating their
indisputable sincerity, throws an unfortunate vagueness and
inconclusiveness over their denunciations of other people in the same
position. Let us compare with this arrogant and angry tone among the
modern Utopians who can only dream "the life," the tone of the early
Christian who was busy living it. As far as we know, the early
Christians never regarded it as astonishing that the world as they
found it was competitive and unregenerate; they seem to have felt
that it could not in its pre-Christian ignorance have been anything
else, and their whole interest was bent on their own standard of
conduct and exhortation which was necessary to convert it. They felt
that it was by no merit of theirs that they had been enabled to enter
into the life before the Romans, but simply as a result of the fact
that Christ had appeared in Galilee and not in Rome. Lastly, they
never seem to have entertained a doubt that the message would itself
convert the world with a rapidity and ease which left no room for
severe condemnation of the heathen societies.

With regard to the second merit, that of activity, there can be
little doubt as to where it lies between the planner of the Utopia
and the convert of the brotherhood. The modern Socialist is a
visionary, but in this he is on the same ground as half the great men
of the world, and to some extent