Translator's Preface.
The object of the following treatise is to show that Christianity is progressive; not fully developed at first, but brought to maturity by the action of the human mind, like the seed of the plant by the productive power of the earth. Christ says, "the kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up he knoweth not how; for the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear."
The seed of Christianity is the doctrine of "Social Love:" the fruit is the establishment of the "Social System."
The original and unique principle, "Love thy neighbour as thyself," was divulged personally by Christ, but could not be reduced to practice till men had elaborated the arts and sciences, and so systematized them all that they could act conjointly, instead of individually; for men can never love one another till their interests are all one, and individual competition has ceased. Hence an anti-Christian, or anti-Social, reign must come before the true reign of the Social System, which is "the Christ." In the first stage of Christianity, we only teach love; in the second, we practise it. These two are one—the seed and the fruit; for the one cannot be developed without the other.
In this anti-Christian, or anti-Social reign, the physical or brute power rules over the moral; for men are rivals in trade, rivals in interest, rivals in affection, and nothing but brute power can subdue them. In
