most helped to make the ideas of the world we are living in?
A series of short weekly articles in seven parts by Bernard Wall, describes the ideas of a number of representative figures of the nineteenth century whose influence is still paramount in the world to-day.
The series opened last week with a critical study of the Rousseau. s of Jean-Jacques This week Joseph de Maistre, who replied to Rousseau's ideal of democracy with the ideal of Christendom.
Then comes Marx (a German Jew), the author of Capital which is the bible of the Communists to-day and of Soviet Russia. What Rousseau was to the French revolution Marx was to the Russian Revolution.
Marx will be followed by Friedrich Nietzsche (a German), whose real influence is only coming to be realised in Europe to-day after fifty years. From Nietzsche derives largely a current of thought which is almost the exact opposite of Marx's thought, a current which tends to find its realisation in Fascism.
Finally there are two other very different writers who both express tendencies which are very strong to-day. One is Tolstoy (a Russian), one of the greatest examples of the Puritan in all time, who was the upholder of a theory of Gospel Christianity and nonresistance.
The other is H. G. Wells, whose ideal of technical progress sums up what great masses of people feel about life to-day.
What is right with these various conflicting theories, and where do they go wrong? The object of the series is to try to answer that question.