Page:Studies in socialism 1906.djvu/184

134 through the victory of the proletariat, and the proletariat can only complete its being through the victory of Socialism,

To the ever more pressing question, "How shall Socialism be realised?" we must then give the preliminary answer, "By the growth of the proletariat to which it is inseparably joined." This is the first and essential answer; and whoever refuses to accept it wholly and in its true sense necessarily places himself outside of Socialist life and thought. And this answer, vague though it is, is not empty of meaning, because it implies the obligation of each one of us to be diligent in helping forward to our utmost the thought, the organisation, the activity, and the life of the labouring classes. Indeed, in a certain sense, this answer is the only sure one. For it is impossible for us to know with any certainty by exactly what means, in what manner, and at what moment, our political and social evolution will reach the Communist ideal. But what is certain is that the evolution is hastened, the forward movement vivified, enlarged, and deepened by everything that increases the intellectual, economic, and political power of the proletariat.

But this first answer, important and valid as it is, is not a sufficient one. Because the proletariat has already grown in numbers and force and because it has begun to make its power felt in the machinery of economics and politics, for that very reason the question arises, "What shall be the