In beginning these high endeavours, men have always been like children groping in the dark. Yet the failures of one generation have frequently shown the way to success in the next. The International attempted the great task of the present epoch of the world in its most difficult form. We need not be surprised that its success was partial; and we may with confidence expect that the lessons taught by it will prove most helpful for the future. In truth the International had only suffered a brief eclipse. The various socialistic societies all over the world continued to be fully conscious of the international character of the movement in which they were engaged. Without a formal organisation they represented the claims and aspirations of the same class, had common sympathies, and pursued like aims. While differing greatly in methods of action, and even in principle, they felt that they belonged to the same stream of historic effort and tendency. The international movement soon began again to find expression in congresses representing the different countries. Such was the congress at Ghent in 1877, which was not marked by any noteworthy feature. Greater than any socialist congress previously held were those which assembled at Paris in 1889, the centenary of the Revolution, on the 14th of July, the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille. There were two congresses, one representing, as far as any difference of principle was concerned, the more uncompromising Marx school, the other consisting of delegates who are not indisposed to co-operate with other democratic parties. But the cleavage of principle was by no means definite; the difference between the two meetings originated largely in personal matters, especially as regards the French socialist parties, which issued the invitations. The immediate occasion of disagreement related to the manner of proving the mandates of the members. Both congresses advocated an energetic collectivism, while both also urged more practical measures for the protection of labour, such as Sunday rest, an eight-hours working-day, etc. The Marx congress consisted of 395 delegates, and the other congress of about six hundred delegates from the various countries of the civilised world. International Congresses followed at Brussels in 1891, at Zürich in 1893, and in London in 1896. Both at Brussels and London there was much disorder, caused chiefly by the presence of a considerable number of delegates with anarchist sympathies, and proving too clearly that the International of Workers was like the Concert of Europe, not yet ready to march.