Anonymous
Source: Social Democrat, August 1897, pp. 227-228;
Note: Although anonymous, the contents makes it clear that the article was written by a member of the Executive of the SDF.
Transcribed: by Graham Seaman, July 2023.
The death of Dr. Aveling removes from our midst one whose work on behalf of the working-class movement was marred and nullified by his own faults. It is a common theory that the public life of a man is a thing quite separate and apart from his private life, and though he may be a perfect scoundrel in his personal relations, this should not be allowed to weigh in any estimate of his public character. Fortunately, or unfortunately, this theory does not work out in practice, and an absence of moral character in private life reflects upon and injures a public career, no matter how brilliant. On the other hand, the innocent private life of some of the greatest rascals is held to offer some condonation of the infamy of their public career. Burglars and statesmen have been shown to have been kindly neighbours, exemplary husbands, devoted sons, and affectionate fathers, and we are asked to look with a lenient eye upon their great and manifold crimes out of consideration for their amiable, domestic character. While we cannot condone a man’s public crimes on account of his private virtues, neither can we entirely overlook personal backsliding on account of public services. A man’s character and career must be judged as a whole. Dr. Aveling was a man of exceptional powers and ability and of brilliant attainments. He was a talented writer and lecturer; a clever scientist and teacher, and an indefatigable worker. Yet it is doubtful if he did not do at least as much harm as good to any movement to which he attached himself.
Why Dr. Aveling had to abandon the prominent position he once held in the Freethought movement was never satisfactorily explained, but the antipathy of his colleague, Mr. Bradlaugh, to the Socialist views he had then adopted afforded sufficient reason, at least so far as Socialists were concerned.
In 1884 Dr. Aveling joined the Social-Democratic Federation, and worked actively in the movement, in lecturing, writing, and committee work. At the end of that year came the split, in which Aveling had played an active part, which led to the formation of the Socialist League. From that time on for some years Aveling worked devotedly in the Socialist League, although rumours against his character were frequently rife. The Socialist League drifted in a few years through Anarchism to dissolution, and most of the Social-Democrats who were once attached to that body joined the ranks of the Social-Democratic Federation. The feeling against Dr, Aveling, however, was as strong as ever, and it was not until 1896 that he was readmittted a member of a branch of the Social-Democratic Federation. In the meanwhile, however, he and his wife—for apart from the merely legal tie, Eleanor Marx was truly and devotedly his wife in every sense—were actively engaged in writing and lecturing for the working class movement, and at every International Congress they were prominent figures. For a time they worked with the Legal Eight Hours League, in connection with which some of the greatest demonstrations in London in favour of an eight hours’ day were held. On the formation of the Independent Labour Party Dr. Aveling joined the party, but was afterwards expelled by the Executive of that body. Here, again, the reason for the action taken was not evident, and to an impartial person Dr. Aveling was able to pose as an injured innocent,
It was after this, and some time in 1896, that the Executive of the S.D.F. noticing the increasing frequency of Dr. Aveling’s engagements to lecture for branches of the organisation, sought to put a stop to all further connection with him by an advice to the branches. So far from having the desired effect, however, the action of the Executive only strengthened Dr. Aveling’s position, as he defended himself with credentials from the most unexpected and most unimpeachable sources.
Although the Executive were convinced that they were right in their judgment—it is one thing to know you are right, but it is another thing to prove it—it was impossible to demonstrate the correctness of their view, and they were forced to accept Dr. Aveling as a colleague. From that time onwards Dr. Aveling and his wife worked earnestly and indefatigably in the S.D.F., and all hoped that he had for ever discarded the habits which had sullied his reputation in the past. His serious illness was a heavy burden to the devoted woman who tended him so sedulously, and a source of anxiety to all who had assumed terms of friendship with them both in the hope that many useful years of work in the future would atone for all that was black in the past, The sudden death by her own hand of Eleanor Marx Aveling came like a thunderbolt to those who had known intimately the clever, strong, self-reliant, earnest, whole-souled daughter of Marx; the disclosures of the actual circumstances leading up to her death were a revelation even to those who visited the Avelings in their home and fancied they knew them intimately. Anything more pleasing, but for the illness of Aveling himself, it would apparently have been impossible to contemplate. Yet behind this pleasant exterior was being enacted the sordid drama, the only bright feature of which was the devotion and Spartan self-dependence of the wife and nurse. We have witnessed the last scene of the sorry tragedy. How differently it might have fallen out, if the event of August 2 had only taken place five months earlier! Then hosts of friends would have mourned Aveling’s death, and his wife might have been living to day. Now how few will grieve, except that one with so great gifts has not left a nobler memory behind him!