error, that practical ideals must have as their foundation theoretic ideals (all italics in the text). Here we must prove that Stammler uses an untenable double book-keeping in which the entries do not balance. And this we must prove by a positive demonstration,—1st, That and how the spiritual phenomena must work in the chain of cause and effect; 2d, That and how in the historic materialism—which must be carefully distinguished from common materialism—a practical idealism is not only possible, but necessary.
"In such cases the ideal acquires in man a quite all-powerful impetus. And it retains its power of a forward motor even if the goal to be achieved cannot be reached in the way looked for; because it enhances the powers and impels to find other ways of solution, when those originally hoped for prove inadequate. This is the reason why the goal of Socialism, the emancipation from the yoke of capitalism and the establishment of a more harmonious social order, could seize upon the masses so powerfully, impel them forward and elevate them even while the present system continues (heute bereits emporzuheben vermochte). . . . This ideal in social life is the Socialistic ideal of to-day. Socialism requires the nationalization of the means of production not for the material reason that the proletarian should be able to eat and to drink more comfortably. The Erfurter Program, to which the whole German Party adheres, states most emphatically that the socialization of the means of production is necessary in order to transform the capitalistic mode of production from a 'source of misery to a source of the highest well-being and harmonious development of man.'" ············· "We must not overlook the phrase 'harmonious development.' . . . If this be the case, it is evident that we may require the nationalization of the means of production only in so far as it serves our aim as a harmonious development. This nationalization is a means only, and not an end in itself. The ideal for the sake of which nationalization is desirable, is human perfection. And this ideal is a necessary motive power to further development;—a motive power which is as well an effect of evolution as it is a necessity to the further realization of our aim."
"Not only is historical materialism, therefore, far from destroying practical idealism, but on the contrary, it raises it to such a power over the mind and clarifies it to such a
