exercised in conformity with and in furtherance of the economic powers which created it, giving them full play, so that their latent forces may fully develop and give to society all the benefit there is contained in them.
This dominion of the class which controls the production of society is due not only to the coercive power it possesses over the other members of society by reason of such control, and of the control of society's means of subsistence and comfort which result therefrom, but also to its persuasive powers. From the standpoint of interest it must be admitted that its interests lie along the road of the progress of society, and therefore coincide with the interests of society as a whole. From the higher, "ideal," standpoint its position is also impregnable: what it obtained by might has in due course of time become its right by the rule of prescription, (euphoneously known as "tradition,") the greatest and most potent source of right, as it requires no evidence of title and works itself into the very inner consciousness of man and becomes co-extensive with his feelings. To help and augment this natural feeling of its right, the dominating class, which controls the spiritual food of society along with the material, inculcates the ideas of its rights into the members of society artificially. So that the whole of society is usually permeated with the ideas of the dominating class.
But "the world do move." Man, in his struggle with nature for its domination, is very inventive. His inventiveness (its tempo) will depend on many circumstances, but is almost continual, resulting in an almost constantly progressing change of the tools wherewith he exploits nature. With the change of tools he changes the methods, and sometimes the field of his exploitation. The change does not, however, come suddenly. The new, improved, tools, and the new methods which they bring with them, are being slowly perfected and brought into use, and slower still are the new fields of exploitation becoming popular. But the march of the new economic force embodied in the new tool is irresisti-
