II

I have said that it was the economists whofurnished the scientific pretext by which thepractical man could solve the contradictionbetween egoism and socialism which emergedout of the philosophising of the eighteenthcentury and the decay of revealed religion.But having said this for shortness’ sake, Ihasten to qualify it. This is what theeconomists are supposed to have said. No suchdoctrine is really to be found in the writingsof the greatest authorities. It is what thepopularisers and the vulgarisers said. It iswhat the Utilitarians, who admitted Hume’ segoism and Bentham’ s egalitarianism at thesame time, were driven to believe in, if theywere to effect a synthesis . 1 The language of

1 One can sympathise with the view of Coleridge , assummarised by Leslie Stephen, that “ the Utilitarians destroyed every element of cohesion, made Society astruggle of selfish interests, and struck at the very rootsof all order, patriotism, poetry, and religion.”

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