body of facts in our present experience, from which we can judge the manner of that settlement. In this brief outline of the Socialist state as the writer, in common with many of his associates, conceives it, there are many gaps. The temptation to fill in the outline somewhat more in detail is strong, but that is beyond the borderland which divides scientific and Utopian methods. The purpose of the outline is mainly to show that the ideal of the Socialism of to-day is something far removed from the network of laws and the oppressive bureaucracy commonly imagined; something wholly different in spirit and substance from the mechanical arrangement of human relations imagined by Utopian romancers. If the Socialist propaganda of to-day largely consists of the advocacy of laws for the protection of labor and dealing with all kinds of evils, it must be remembered that these are to _ameliorate conditions in the existing social order_. Many of the laws for which Socialists have most strenuously fought have their _raison d'etre_ in the conditions of capitalist society, and would be quite unnecessary under Socialism. If a reference to one's personal work may be pardoned, I will cite the matter of the feeding of school children, in the public schools, at the public expense. I have, for many years, advocated this measure, which is to be found in most Socialist programmes, and which the Socialists of other countries have to a considerable extent carried into practical effect. Yet, I am free to say that the plan is not my ideal of the manner in which children should be fed. It is, at best, a palliative, a necessary evil, rendered necessary by the conditions of capitalist society. One hopes that in the Socialist regime, home life would be so far developed as to make possible the proper feeding and care of all children in their homes. This is but an illustration. The Socialist ideal of the state of the future, when private property is no longer an instrument of oppression used by the few against the many, is not a life completely enmeshed in a network of government, but a life controlled by government as little as possible; not a life ruled and driven by a powerful engine of laws, but a life as spontaneous and free as possible--a maximum of personal freedom with a minimum of restraint. "These things shall be! A loftier race Than e'er the world hath known shall rise With flower of freedom in their souls And light of science in their eyes."[196] FOOTNOTES: [180] Cf. _Das Erfurter Program_, by Karl Kautsky. [181] Cf. Ensor's _Modern Socialism_, page 351. [182] _Labour and Capital: a Letter to a Labour Friend_, by Goldwin Smith, D.C.L. (Macmillan, 1907). The reader of Professor Smith's little book is referred, for the Socialist answer to his criticisms, to a small volume by the author of this book: _Capitalist and Laborer: an Open Letter to Professor Goldwin Smith_, D.C.L. (Kerr, _Standard Socialist Series_), 1907.