prove that of themselves progressive ideas can lead society
only beyond the ideas of the old system and that "in order
to carry out ideas men are needed who dispose of a certain
practical force." (See p. 160 of the present edition.) The
proposition put forward in the book that the mass, the people,
is the real maker of the history of mankind is of paramount
importance. Marx and Engels show that the wider
•^ and the more profound a ch ange taking place in society~is ,
t he more numerous the mass effecting that changewill be. Lenin especially stressed the importance of this thought
and described it as one of the most profound and most im-
'^portant theses of historical materialism.