book. It contents itself with giving a general idea of my thought, and gives very few references to facts and arguments to prove or illustrate what has been brought forward.
I asked myself whether I ought not to reconstruct and enlarge my work by the addition of such arguments and facts. If, however, that had to be done, it would mean delaying the publication of the work for an indefinite period; because to carry out this work I should require two years quiet, undisturbed labour. We are, however, coming to a time when for every Social-Democrat quiet and undisturbed work will be impossible—when our work will be continual fighting. Neither did I desire that the publication should be put off for too long a time, in view of the influence which has been gained in our ranks by the Ethics of Kant, and I, consequently, hold it necessary to show the relations which exist between the Materialist Conception of History and Ethics.
Consequently, I have resolved to allow the little book to appear. In order, however, to show that with this not all is said which I might have said on Ethics, and that I hold myself in reserve to deal with the subject more fully in a period of greater calm, I call the present work simply an attempt—an essay. Certainly, when these quieter times will come is not discernible at present, as I have already remarked. At this very time the myrmidons of the Czar are zealously at work to rival the deeds of the Albas and Tillys during the religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries—not in
