Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/403

 DIFFICULTIES OF INDIVIDUALISM 381 of doing in the industrial what has already been done in the political world, the democratic answer is 'Solvitur ambulando; ' only that is done at any time which is proved to be then .and there practicable; only such advance is made as the progress in the sense of public duty permits. But that progress is both our hope and our real aim: the development of individual character is the Socialist's' odd trick' for the sake of which he seeks to win all others. Industrial democracy must therefore necessarily be gradual in its development; and. cannot for long ages be absolutely complete. The progress of Socialism may be compared, indeed, to the approximation of the hyperbola to its asymptote: the time may never arrive when individual is entirely merged in collective ownership, but it is matter of common observation that every attempt to grapple with the' difficulties' of our existing civilization brings us nearer to that goal. SIDNEY EBB