THIS book, as its name indicates, comprises essays old as well as new. Rather more than a third of the contents of the volume have already been published in a little book now some years out of print, bearing the title Outspoken Essays. As regards this portion of the present work, only those alterations which were indispensably necessary have been made, the author preferring to let the pieces in question remain as far as possible as they were originally written. The consequence of this is, of course, that examples and illustrations impliedly drawn from current events, in reality date some ten years back. The above remark especially applies to the essay entitled The Monstrous Regiment of Womanhood and the police and law cases there cited. To have obviated this would have involved complete rewriting, which the author felt was the more unnecessary, as precise parallels to the typical cases adduced may be readily discovered by any one who cares to take the trouble to glance through a newspaper file of the past twelve months. The tone of public opinion and the principle on which the law is administered have not sensibly changed in the matter in question during the last decade.
The suggestions contained in the essay on Early Christianity and Modern Socialism may be supplemented to-day by a perusal of some works of recent scholarship that have since appeared, such as Professor Dill’s Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, and M. Gaston Boissier’s La Religion Romaine. For the rest the author ventures to think the suggestions in question will not have lost any of their point for those who are interested in following up the analogies indicated as obtaining between the modern movement and that of the first centuries of the Christian era.
Concerning the Natural History of the Nonconformist Conscience, it may be pointed out that the history of English public opinion during the Boer War has since afforded a sinister commentary on the outline sketch given ten years back of the origin and history of that notorious ethical product. Yet while the mass of British Nonconformity during the war showed up to the old hypocrisy in a luridly odious guise, it would be unfair not to recognise the individual cases of Nonconformist ministers, who were prepared to sacrifice everything and face ruin rather than bow the knee to the foul Jingo idol. These, however, were exceptional men, of whom it may be truly said that, if not “the world,” at least the Nonconformist Conscience, was unworthy of them.
The rest of the essays forming the bulk of the present volume speak for themselves. Some of them have appeared already in Socialist and other periodicals, others now see the light for the first time. In putting them forward in their present form, the author hopes that, amid the wide range of subjects he has briefly touched upon from the point of view of modern Socialism, readers may be found who will gather, at least here and there, a hint or suggestion which may fertilise in their own minds and yield useful results to the progress of Socialistic thought and the spread of Socialistic doctrine in this country. If such is the case, his object will have been attained.
Last updated on 13.1.2006