Faith is not so
bounteous a commodity in this world that we can afford to treat
even its unfamiliar manifestations with contempt. And when a
movement is hot with life, when it stirs common men to their
depths, look out! look out!
Up to that time I had never known much of the practical workings
of Socialism; and the main contention of its philosophy has never
accorded wholly with my experience in life.
But the Socialism of to-day is no mere abstraction--as it was,
perhaps, in the days of Brook Farm. It is a mode of action. Men
whose view of life is perfectly balanced rarely soil themselves
with the dust of battle. The heat necessary to produce social
conflict (and social progress--who knows?) is generated by a
supreme faith that certain principles are universal in their
application when in reality they are only local or temporary.
Thus while one may not accept the philosophy of Socialism as a
final explanation of human life, he may yet look upon Socialism
in action as a powerful method of stimulating human progress. The
world has been lagging behind in its sense of brotherhood, and we
now have the Socialists knit together in a fighting friendship as
fierce and narrow in its motives as Calvinism, pricking us to
reform, asking the cogent question:
"Are we not all brothers?"
Oh, we are going a long way with these Socialists, we are going
to discover a new world of social relationships--and then, and
then, like a mighty wave; will flow in upon us a renewed and more
wonderful sense of the worth of the individual human soul.
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