“And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a Lie.” Bible : 2 Thess., 2:11. ABOUT thirty years ago, some European workmen and 11 erudite doctors appeared in America, bringing with them the seeds of an oriental plant-Socialism. These seeds were cast upon the hot-beds of our large cities and, being nourished by national calamities, produced a flower of so strange a nature that many dread the fruits which it may bear. Learned men, especially economists, have filled pages of their books with descriptions of the effects of Socialism, and every weapon of human wit and wisdom has been employed in argument against it. In vain the plant still grows. This fact, as well as the impossibility of bringing home to learned or illiterate Socialists the simplest truths regarding human institutions, should convince careful observers that Socialism has its roots in the human will—a blind natural force, a power which can overrule the intellect and render it impervious to reason. Since Socialism promises to end human sufferings as far as they come from want; and since its precepts give general direction to volition and determine the scope of all ideas of right and wrong: we may class it among the religious systems which from time to time were propagated among men, with the promise to make them happier than they had been before, . provided their precepts, however strange, were obeyed. |