Page:Socialism, Its Growth and Outcome - William Morris and Ernest Belfort Bax (1909).djvu/31

 Rh the commercial period, which has created and is now creating such a vast mass of discontent, not only amongst the working classes who suffer directly from the oppression that is a necessary part of it, but also in various and sometimes discordant forms amongst the well-to-do, who on the face of things are benefited by its working. We propose to finish the book by giving our own impressions both of the immediate issue of the present stir and commotion in socio-political life, and also of what may be reasonably expected from the new society when it has at last supplanted the ever-increasing confusion of the present day. Only it must be premised that this last part can be nothing more than the expression of our own individual views, and that we do not claim any further weight for it. Although it has been often attempted, it is impossible to build up a scheme for the society of the future, for no man can really think himself out of his own days; his palace of days to come can only be constructed from the aspirations forced upon him by his present surroundings, and from his dreams of the life of the