The practical craving for wealth is naturally confined to those who have some talent for creating it, and the pain caused by its absence is naturally confined to such men • 368 The socialistic theories merely cause a barren and artificial discontent, • 368 which interferes with that harmonious progress on which the welfare of the many depends • 369 These theories make enemies of classes who would otherwise be allies, and the cause of true social reform suffers incalculable injury • 370 The object of the present work is to show the fallacy of the theoretic basis of existing socialistic discontent and socialistic aspirations; • 371 and to show that the many are not a self-existent power, • 372 but depend for all the powers they possess on the co-operation of the few, • 373 whose rights are as sacred, and whose power is as great, as their own • 375 The recognition of the fact that the relations and positions of classes can never be fundamentally altered • 376 (especially when we consider the facts of history to which Karl Marx drew attention) • 376 shows us not only how chimerical are the hopes of the socialists, but what solid grounds there are for the hopes of more rational reformers • 378 BOOK I {3} CHAPTER I THE FUNDAMENTAL ERROR IN MODERN SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY The interest with which the world in general, throughout the middle portion of this century, has watched the progress of the various positive sciences, would, when we consider how abstruse these sciences are, seem strange and almost inexplicable if it were not for one fact. This fact is the close and obvious bearing which the conclusions of the sciences in question have on traditional Christianity, and, indeed, on any belief in immortality and the divine government of the world. The popular interest in science remains still unabated, but the most careless observer can hardly fail to perceive that the grounds of it are, to a certain extent, very rapidly changing. They are ceasing to be primarily religious, and are becoming primarily social. The theories and discoveries of the _savant_ which are examined with the greatest eagerness are no longer those which affect our {4} prospects of a life in heaven, but those which deal with the possibility of improving our social conditions on earth, and which appeal to us through our sympathies, not with belief or doubt, but with the principles which are broadly contrasted under the names of conservative and revolutionary.