Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
“In the Author we recognize an advanced thinker of arare and high order.”—Westminster Review.
“We earnestly advise all to read this admirable book.”—WeeklyDespatch.
“The story in the life in La Maison is very well told.”—LiteraryWorld.
“In the chapter on Unselfish Love there are some soundand sensible views which might well be adopted withoutwaiting for the advent of The Unitary Home.”—Times.
“Decidedly entertaining.”—Manchester Examiner.
Social Problems are the chief interest and studyof my life.
In 1885 I published in London a work entitledScientific Meliorism and the Evolution of Happiness.
The world of thought has acquired new knowledgesince then; and many social changes have occurred.The present volume is not a replica of that work,although, as before, my aim has been to gather togetherthe currents of meliorism pursuing diversecourses throughout society and to throw upon thesethe light of fresh knowledge gained by investigatorsof economic and social science; and, above all, thelight emanating from philosophic thinkers who recognizethat the path of improved outward conditions,and the path of inward progress for man, lie parallelto each other. It is my belief that in this dawningepoch of conscious evolution man may, if he sochooses, push forward the actual life of to-day andmerge it into the ideal life of to-morrow.
There has recently occurred a widespread