To understand Socialism is to endeavour to lead a better life, to regret the vileness of our present ways, to seek ill for none, to desire truth and purity and honesty, to despise this selfish civilisation and to comprehend what living might be. Understanding Socialism will not make people at once what men and women should be but it will fill them with hatred for the unfitting surroundings that damn us all and with passionate love for the ideals that are lifting us upwards and with an earnest endeavour to be themselves somewhat as they feel Humanity is struggling to be.
All that any religion has been to the highest thoughts of any people Socialism is, and more, to those who conceive it aright. Without blinding us to our own weaknesses and wickednesses, without offering to us any sophistry or cajoling us with any fallacy, it enthrones love above the universe, gives us Hope for all who are downtrodden and restores to us Faith in the eternal fitness of things. Socialism is indeed a religion—demanding deeds as well as words. Not until professing socialists understand this will the world at large see Socialism as it really is.
If this book assists the Union Prisoners assistance Fund in any way or if it brings to a single man or woman a clearer conception of the Religion of Socialism it will have done its work. Should it fail to do either it will not be because the Cause is bad, for the cause is great enough to rise above the weakness of those who serve it.
J.M.
CONTENTS
PART I. THE WOMAN TEMPTED HIM.
CHAPTER I. Why Nellie Shows Ned Round. CHAPTER II. Sweating In The Sydney Slums. CHAPTER III. Shorn Like Sheep. CHAPTER IV. Saturday Night In Paddy's Market. CHAPTER V. Were They Conspirators? CHAPTER VI. "We Have Seen The Dry Bones Become Men." CHAPTER VII. A Medley of Conversation. CHAPTER VIII. The Poet And The Pressman. CHAPTER IX. "This Is Socialism!" CHAPTER X. Where The Evil Really Lies. CHAPTER XI. "It Only Needs Enough Faith." CHAPTER XII. Love And Lust.
PART II. HE KNEW HIMSELF NAKED.
CHAPTER I. The Slaughter Of An Innocent. CHAPTER II. On The Road To Queensland. CHAPTER III. A Woman's Whim. CHAPTER IV. The Why Of The Whim. CHAPTER V. As The Moon Waned. CHAPTER VI. Unemployed. CHAPTER VII. "The World Wants Masters." CHAPTER VIII. The Republican Kiss. CHAPTER IX. Ned Goes To His Fate.
"On the Flinders.