[1086] This group found its earliest recruits among the young pastors who ministered in the great industrial towns (M. Wilfred Monod at Rouen and M. Gounelle at Roubaix, for example), and thus found itself in close touch with poverty, suffering, and discontent. But several laymen have also joined it, among them being a son of the economist who was regarded as the doyen of the Liberal school—Frédéric Passy.
The Christian Socialist group publishes a journal of its own, entitled L’Espoir du Monde.
[1087] “‘For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren,’ writes St. Paul; in other words, ‘I do not want to be saved alone, and I shall be completely saved only when humanity as a whole has been saved.’ And so the evangelical doctrine would subordinate the full realisation of my personal salvation to the salvation of others.” (W. Monod, La Notion apostolique du Salut.)
[1088] Or, as he epitomises it elsewhere, “It is useless to speak of giving ourselves until we are certain that we own ourselves.”
[1089] Ruskin himself did not think that his doctrines were only of slight importance. The introduction to Munera Pulveris (1862) contains the following words: “The following pages contain, I believe, the first accurate analysis of the laws of Political Economy which has been published in England.”
See also the preface to Unto This Last, which has for its sub-title “Four Essays on the First Principles of Political Economy.”
[1090] There are a great number of novels dealing with social questions. For the English novels bearing on this topic see M. Cazamian, Le Roman social.
[1091] So much was this the case with Ruskin that Mme. Brunhes has published a book called Ruskin et la Bible, and Tolstoy on his side has an edition of the Gospels to his credit which is said to be much nearer the original than the ordinary version of the canon.
[1092] See Fors Clavigera, passim. Tolstoy writes in a similar strain. Money is just a conventional sign giving the right or the possibility of claiming the service of others. But although money is all-powerful in the matter of exploiting the worker it is quite useless when it comes to a question of furthering his well-being. There is a curious development of this thesis in Tolstoy’s What is to be Done?
[1093] “All this has come of the spreading of that thrice accursed, thrice impious doctrine of the modern economist, that ‘To do the best for yourself, is finally to do the best for others.’ Friends, our great Master said not so.” (Ruskin, Crown of Wild Olive, Lecture II).