The triumph was a short one, however, and the cause of this exultation was to prove a mortal blow to his Socialist faith. If class struggle was the main agent of progress and class differences the cause of such struggle, there could be no progress, no movement, when class differences had been abolished. So painful was the conclusion that he must have tried to reject it. When classes should be abolished, every thing would be for the best, granted that it could come to be. His incursion into the history of the past had given him the one chance his realistic mind had been waiting for to realise that perfection does not exist, that perfection cannot exist, since it is only from the deficiencies of a form of society that the idea of what is to be the next form of society can arise. Obviously, it is by the inconvenience of an actual law that the next law is called into being. Life would have, therefore, to be static when the actual state of society would be perfect. A question remained and indeed was of moment. Could life be static? The answer could not have waited long for so sharp an observer of life. Life is dialectic. The nature of life was manifest to him in the arts. De Sanctis had taught him to see that, whilst the very power of his own individuality was compelling him to realise that nothing is done but by single men acting, acting however as members of the various collectivities which determined their personalities. He could no longer think of choosing a religion and imposing it on his followers; they had one at hand which had been prepared for them by history. Little by little the truth came. Men did not act for mankind, they acted for their family, for their religion, for their country; they acted to better their conditions or to prevent them from getting worse. To release Man from his traditions was equivalent to taking the roots of a tree from the ground, and condemning it to dry, moulder and rot. Was, then, Socialism a drug of such a kind that it could only do harm? Surely it had done wonders for the wretched lower classes of Italy! Then the outbreak of the European War spurred him to take the step which had become inevitable. His mind was ready; his genius had reached maturity; circumstances would do the rest. * * * * *