Social democracy is not now precisely what it was when it lost Ferdinand Lassalle, its greatest agitator. Nevertheless, he is still its father. It is the product of his activity. Lassalle did not write history: he created it. He accomplished certain facts which no power can undo. He infused into the minds of German laborers new thoughts, ideas, aspirations. German emigrants become missionaries, and carry with them, as they believe, a gospel of hope and promise, wherever they go. They hold, as Lassalle taught them, “that they are the state, that all political power ought to be of and through and for them, that their good and amelioration ought to be the aim of the state, that their affair is the affair of mankind, that their personal interest moves and beats with the pulse of history, with the living principle of moral development.”[191] Thus have new factors, for good or for bad, entered into the life of the world, and with them we must deal. CHAPTER XIV. SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE THE DEATH OF LASSALLE. The last chapter contained a description of the desires and demands of the German social democratic party, without entering into any discussion of the careers and characters of its leaders or of the organizations which have been formed to support its programme. This chapter will treat of what may be called social democracy in the concrete. I shall first take up the external history of the political party which is designated by that name, and then enter into a consideration of its internal history. By its external history I mean an account of its outward life, as manifested in the field of politics; by its internal history I mean a description of the men who have led the party, and a presentation both of the ideas which have controlled it and the measures which it has adopted in its political and economic propaganda.