hensive review of this monumental work in these lectures. I will, however, as a conclusion of this lecture, attempt to present to you a rough but in no form exhaustive resumé of this masterwork, embracing the fundamental or quintessential principles upon which the theoretical structure of "Capital" is predicated, and which to-day are acclaimed as axiomatic truths of the Socialist philosophy. A knowledge of these philosophical and economic principles is absolutely indispensable and imperative to an intelligent understanding and appreciation of "Capital," and certainly a substantial aid in the study of the work. In the last half of my next and last lecture, I will endeavor to present to you an outline of a reading and Study course for the works of Marx, and let me emphasize here that a methodical and well-directed study of writings about and by Marx is also essential for a proper comprehension of "Capital."
To recapitulate part of my first lecture, in "Capital" Marx, in his search for the basic and causal conditions underlying the production and exchange of wealth in capitalist society, continued the labors started by the classics of bourgeois political economy, of whom Wm. Petty, Adam Smith and Ricardo are distinguished representatives, by dissecting the prevailing mode of production into its most elementary parts. He found that private property in the means of production is the cornerstone and historic peculiarity of capitalist society. With the aid of the Materialist Conception of History, he analyzed the social and historical position of the proletariat society, and was able to formulate the principles and tactics for this class in its struggle against the bourgeoisie. By fixing the status of the worker in present society and also exposing the surplus-value creating faculties of labor-power; by classifying the worker as a commodity—a living commodity that produces more than it consumes—Marx laid bare the source and magnitude of capitalist exploitation, and the social and historical function and significance of capital. By thus uncovering the origin of capitalist society and
