We may be asked, since we have been continuously putting forward the doctrine of evolution throughout these pages, what Socialism in its turn will evolve. We can only answer that Socialism denies the finality of human progress, and that any particular form of Socialism of which we can now conceive must necessarily give way before fresh and higher developments, of the nature of which, however, we can form no idea. These developments are necessarily hidden from us by the unfinished struggle in which we live, and in which therefore for us the supreme goal must be Socialism as we have here expounded it. We would be the very last to wish to set any bounds to human ideals or 321 aspirations; but the Socialism which we can foresee, and which promises to us the elevation of mankind to a level of intelligent happiness and pleasurable energy unattained as yet, is to us enough as an ideal for our aspirations and as an incentive to our action.
Footnotes
- Cf. the article on “Sacrifice,” by Professor Robertson Smith, in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th edition.Back
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