PROLOGUE
Tms essay is an attempt to clear the ground for a better and
fuller appreciation of that which gives Marxism its living
unity-namely, the Dialectical Materialist Method. Its
special feature is that it seeks to show what this method is
by means of an examination of what it did in the hands of
Marx and Engels. It considers the Dialectical Materialist
Method in action in the theoretical practice of these its first
elaborators, and following them (so far as falls within its
purpose) that of their disciples, Lenin and Stalin.
No pretence is made that this essay is in any way final or
authoritative. Very much to the contrary : it is in every
respect an essay, a venture-an attempt at a provisional
exploration of a field which no British Marxist has hitherto
attempted on anything but a most perfunctory scale. It is
therefore liable to all the faults and mischances necessarily
attending such provisional essays. None the less it is-an
attempt ! If its demerits-whatever they may be-provoke
others better qualified to cover the ground in a more worthy
manner it will have more than served its purpose.