I write "political work," and once more I would repeat that it is to the field of electioneering and parliamentary politics under present conditions that this section refers. The ultimate purpose of Socialism can rely upon no cla.s.s because it aims to reconst.i.tute all cla.s.ses. In a Socialist State there will be no cla.s.s doomed to mere "labour," no cla.s.s privileged to rule and decide. For every child there will be fair opportunity and education and scope to the limit of its possibilities. To the best there will be given difficulty and responsibility, honour and particular rewards, but to all security and reasonable work and a tolerable life. The interests and cla.s.s traditions upon which our party distinctions of to-day rely must necessarily undergo progressive modification with every step we take towards the realization of the Socialist ideal.
-- 4.
So this general account of Socialism concludes. I have tried to put it as what it is, as the imperfect and still growing development of the social idea, of the collective Good Will in man. I have tried to indicate its relation to politics, to religion, to art and literature, to the widest problems of life. Its broad generalizations are simple and I believe acceptable to all clear-thinking minds. And in a way they do greatly simplify life. Once they have been understood they render impossible a thousand confusions and errors of thought and practice. They are in the completest sense of the word, illumination.
But Socialism is no panacea, no magic "Open Sesame" to the millennium.
Socialism lights up certain once hopeless evils in human affairs and shows the path by which escape is possible, but it leaves that path rugged and difficult. Socialism is hope, but it is not a.s.surance.
Throughout this book I have tried to keep that before the reader.
Directly one accepts those great generalizations one pa.s.ses on to a jungle of incurably intricate problems, through which man has to make his way or fail, the riddles and inconsistencies of human character, the puzzles of collective action, the power and decay of traditions, the perpetually recurring tasks and problems of education. To have become a Socialist is to have learnt something, to have made an intellectual and a moral step, to have discovered a general purpose in life and a new meaning in duty and brotherhood. But to have become a Socialist is not, as many suppose, to have become generally wise.
Rather in realizing the nature of the task that could be done, one realizes also one"s insufficiencies, one"s want of knowledge, one"s need of force and training. Here and in this manner, says Socialism, a palace and safety and great happiness may be made for mankind. But it seems to me the Socialist as he turns his hand and way of living towards that common end knows little of the nature of his task if he does so with any but a lively sense of his individual weakness and the need of charity for all that he achieves.
In that spirit, and with no presumption of finality, this little book of explanations is given to the world.
THE END
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
_SHORT STORIES_
The Plattner Story and others Tales of s.p.a.ce and Time The Stolen Bacillus and other Stories Twelve Stories and a Dream
_ROMANCES_
The Time Machine The Island of Dr. Moreau The War of the Worlds The Wonderful Visit The Invisible Man The First Men in the Moon The Food of the G.o.ds The Sea Lady When the Sleeper Wakes In the Days of the Comet
_NOVELS_
Love and Mr. Lewisham Kipps
_SOCIOLOGICAL AND SOCIALIST ESSAYS_
Antic.i.p.ations Mankind in the Making A Modern Utopia The Future in America