into which it is divided. He takes into consideration the human beings with which these social forces work. This is, in fact, the essence of his theory of the class-struggle. In this respect the different social classes have, according to his theory, their bearings on the evolution of society.
In his analysis of the evolutionary tendencies of the capitalist system Marx notes and accentuates the presence of a tendency to eliminate the small bourgeois or middle-class which he believes to be rapidly disappearing. He lays great stress on this point, and evidently believes it to be a movement of very great importance in the evolution of capitalism towards socialism. A careful reading of Marx, however, will not fail to disclose the fact that Marx did not consider the complete disappearance of that class all-essential, and that it was only the disappearance of that particular middle-class of which he treated that he considered of any importance at all. In other words, it was not the entire absence of any middle-class or social stratum between the big capitalists and the workingmen, that he considered of importance for the realization of his socialist ideals, but it is the presence of a certain particular class, possessing certain particular characteristics (or at least its presence in any such great numbers as would lend it social strength) that he considered obnoxious to the movement of society toward socialism. In order to understand thoroughly the Marxian position on this question we must consider his general estimate of the different classes or strata of society as factors in the evolution of society from capitalism to socialism. And that, again, we can only understand if we consider them in the light of the Materialistic Conception of History. This we shall now proceed to do.
Our readers are already familiar with the Marxian philosophy of history from the discussion in the early chapters of this work. We have there shown the absurdity of the claim that Marx and his followers denied the influence of ideas on the course of history. Here we want to go a step
