ABSTRACT
Sir Henry Maine, in his book on Popular Government, takes occasion to point out how rare a phenomenon progress really is. Political idealists are those who not only are dissatisfied with their social and political conditions, but also entertain very definite ideas as to what those conditions ought to be, and are striving to realize their ideal. To this small but important class many of us in Canning Town belong. The weakness of political idealism is that it tends to exaggerate the force of circumstances. The end of Society—the completed social character—will be achieved when all earth’s teeming millions have become the living embodiment of the principle of “all for each and each for all.” Every step towards the widening of human sympathies is gained at the cost of painful effort and resolute self-sacrifice. The struggle of the men is not with circumstance, but with themselves, and it is in this inward conflict that the interest of tragedy consists.
