purity as no other system was hitherto able to attain for it." ············· The point I wish to make here is in relation to the horror with which the "sense of truth and justice," attributed by me to the uncorrupted human nature, inspired my adversary. If it were not for the fact that he probably considered himself among those whom I excepted from this horrible imputation, he would have said that I was another. . . . As it is, however, he limits himself to instructing us about the nature of the celebrated "small but ferocious pig," which is not exactly to the point, as I have never harbored any designs upon the fair name and reputation of my friend's protege, and informs us that an old writer is quoted as saying: "A dog is the only thing on this earth that loves you more than he loves himself." After having thus exhausted the wells of wisdom of all the ages, and after having cruelly enjoyed my humiliation, he introduces a "philosophical sow" to the utter discomfiture of all "idealists," whom my friend cordially hates.
However, one consolation still remains for me, discomfited as I am; and that is that I am in quite good company. There is for instance, J. Stern, a man who only recently was held out by George Plechanoff, that "narrowest" of the doctrinaires of materialism, as the model of a Socialist philosopher. In his book on the philosophy of Spinoza, published by the German party's publishing house, Stern takes the position I do. But, finally, here is Kautsky again, to share the odium of "noble-minded idealism." In his response to Bernstein, he says:
"The ideologists ceased to be a ruling class. But they have at the same time ceased to be a class altogether. They ceased to present a compact class with separate class-interests. They form an aggregation of individuals and coteries with the most widely different interests. As repeatedly said before, these interests touch partly with those of the Bourgeoisie, and partly with those of the proletariat. At the same time their education enables them the quicker to gain a higher standpoint in the contemplation of social development. Not actuated by pronounced class-interests, often acting on the basis of a deeper insight into the interdependence of social phenomena gained by mental work, the representatives of the intellectual classes (Intelligenz) feel themselves to be the representatives of the common interests of the community as opposed to the class-interests,—the rep-
