My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

SOCIALISM 327ever since been absolutely convinced, not only thatsocialism is thoroughly practicable, but that it is theonly form of society worthy of civilized beings, andthat it alone can secure for mankind continuousmental and moral advancement, together with thattrue happiness which arises from the full exercise ofall their faculties for the purpose of satisfying all theirrational needs, desires, and aspirations.The book that thus changed my outlook on thisquestion was Bellamy's " Looking Backward," a workthat in a few years had gone through seventeeneditions in America, but had only just been republishedin England. On a first reading I was captivatedby the wonderfully realistic style of the work,the extreme ingenuity of the conception, the absorbinginterest of the story, and the logical power withwhich the possibility of such a state of society as thatdepicted was argued and its desirability enforced.Every sneer, every objection, every argument I hadever read against socialism was here met and shownto be absolutely trivial or altogether baseless, whilethe inevitable results of such a social state in givingtoevery human being the necessaries, the comforts,the harmless luxuries, and the highest refinementsand social enjoyments of life were made equally clear.IFrom this time I declared myself a socialist, andmade the first scientific application of my convictionin my article on "Human Selection" in the FortnightlyReview (September, 1890). This article calledforth several expressions of approval, which I highlyvalue. It forms the last chapter of vol. i. of my" Studies, Scientific and Social."Inow read many other books on socialism, butthat which Impressed me as being the most completeand thoroughly reasoned exposition, both of the