Ss. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE )\ 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Deceived AUG 171892 . ,8 9 
 
 \ 
 Accessions No. / f4- $ Qla&s No. 
 
SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 BV 
 
 PHILIP DELBERT 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 FREDERICK WINGFIELD 
 
 UHIVBRSITT 
 
 o u b o u 
 
 EDEN, REMINGTON & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESEKVKll 
 
 1891 
 

'Gnothi seauton.' Socrates. 
 ' The proper study of mankind is man.' Popi. 
 
 ' The glory of a great people consists in great deeds while they 
 preserve the purity of their blood, of their traditions, and of their 
 genius. ' Proudhon. 
 
TO 
 
 THE MEMORY OF 
 HIS GRANDPARENTS 
 
 JEAN-JACQUES BOIGNERES 
 
 AND 
 
 ANNA CLAY 
 
 THIS WORK 
 
 IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
ERRATA 
 
 Page 8, Line 8. For 'mens sano,' read 'mens sana ' 
 
 2G, 3. Kead ' in f orm ' 
 
 44, Note. Eead 'ch. v. p. 144.' 
 
 ,, 45, Line 10. For ' transformable, ' read 'trans- 
 missible ' 
 
 81, 11. For 'This evolution,' read 'that 
 evolution ' 
 
 ,,83, ,, 3. For 'empires,' read ' Empire' 
 
 84, 2. For ' The,' read ' and the ' 
 
 ,,101, 13. For 'alike, 'read 'equally' 
 
 ,, 102, 9. For 'Everywhere,' read ' but every- 
 where ' 
 
 ,, 110, ,, 3. For ' State,' read ' the State ' 
 
 ,,134, ,. 17. For 'were, 'read 'was' 
 
 ,,169, 1. For 'Liberty, 'read 'the sentiment 
 of liberty ' 
 
 , , 192, , , 2. For ' their irruption, ' read ' the 
 irruption of steam ' 
 
 205, ,, 3. Confr. page 128 
 
 ,,277, 9. For 'or,' read 'of ' 
 
 ,, ,, 10. For 'superfices,' read 'superficies' 
 
 302, ,, 20. For 'a,' read 'the' 
 
or THB 
 WI7BRSI.T7' 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY PREFACE ..... xi 
 
 PREFACE xvii 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE, FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES, AND 
 
 NATURE. ATTEMPTS TO ESTABLISH IT. ERRONEOUS 
 
 VIEWS AS TO STARTING POINT. DIVERGENCE IN 
 
 THE SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTIONS OF LAMARCK AND 
 DARWIN. EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTIONS. DE- 
 PENDENCY OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION ON INORGANIC 
 
 EVOLUTION. DEFINITION OF MAN. RESULTING 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF THIS DEFINITION AND THEIR APPLI- 
 CATION TO EVOLUTION. EVOLUTION IN ITS BEAR- 
 INGS UPON MAN AND HUMAN ACTIONS. SOCIOLOGICAL 
 
 CONCEPTION OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL I 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 GERMANY 
 
 ITS PART IN THE EMANCIPATION OF MAN IN THE 
 MORPHOLOGY OF CHRISTIANITY. GOTHIC ART. 
 THE REFORMATION. PRINTING. ITS SOCIAL AND 
 POLITICAL EVOLUTION . . . 84 
 
CONTENTS 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 ITS PART IN CIVILISATION. COURSE OF ITS EVOLUTION. 
 
 THE CHURCH. THE REVOLUTION. THE SOCIAL 
 
 AND POLITICAL EVOLUTION OF FRANCE . 108 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 ENGLISH CHARACTER. COMPARISON WITH THAT OF 
 THE FRENCH. EFFECTS OF THEIR DIVERGENCE 
 UPON THE EVOLUTION OF EITHER COUNTRY. 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL RESULT. -- EXPLANATION OF 
 
 COUNTER-CURRENTS IN CIVILISATION. SOCIAL 
 
 AND POLITICAL EVOLUTION IN ENGLAND . . 153 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 THE CAUSES OF POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL 
 TRANSFORMATIONS IN EUROPE. QUESTIONS OF 
 
 RACE. ASSIMILATION OF SOCIAL TO ANIMAL AND 
 
 VEGETABLE ORGANISMS. CROSS-BREEDING AND 
 
 HYBRIDATION. REVOLUTIONS VIEWED AS IRREGULAR 
 
 VARIATIONS. REVERSION TO TYPE. EVOLUTION 
 
 LEADS POLITICALLY TO FEDERAL, AND ECONOMI- 
 CALLY TO FEDERATIVE FORMS. NEW CROSSES OF 
 RACES AND CLASSIFICATION OF GROUPS ACCORDING 
 TO CONTINENTS . . . . . 189 
 
 CHAPTER Y 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 
 
 STATEMENT OF THIS PHILOSOPHY. BONNET'S THEORY 
 
 OF ABSTRACTION. THEORY OF EXPLANATION. 
 
 EXPOSE OF CERTAIN PHENOMENA OF ATAVISM. 
 THEIR APPLICATION TO SOCIAL EVOLUTION 226 
 
CONTENTS ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 POPULAR SUFFRAGE 
 
 ITS MACHINERY, ABUSES, AND REFORMATION 251 
 
 CONCLUSION . , . . . . 288 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 LAMARCK. DEFINITIONS OF SPECIES. - - PIERRE 
 
 JURIEU. ROGER BACON. FRERET ON FRANKISH 
 
 DESCENT. THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS INHERITED BY 
 
 HENRY IV AND MADAME DE MAINTENON. RACIAL 
 ENMITIES TRANSMITTED BY HEREDITY. THE EVOLU- 
 TION OF THE IDEA OF LABOUR . . ' 31 1 
 
INTRODUCTORY PREFACE 
 
 THE idea that pervades this work may be expressed as 
 follows : If the present be dependent upon the past 
 and the future upon both, it should be possible by the 
 aid of certain laws of evolution that yet remain to be 
 defined to deduce from the two former terms the third. 
 Otherwise the word evolution would have no real sig- 
 nification, and evolution would not exist. But, as we 
 do recognise its universal applicability in Nature, it 
 must also exist for societies and their political institu- 
 tions ; for society is but a natural condition. 
 
 The discovery of the laws that must govern social or 
 political evolution may then be viewed as a possibility : 
 and, if such possibility be admitted, it may become a 
 reality by the aid of scientific thought. 
 
 In all times and with every people, the attempts at 
 
xii INTRODUCTORY PREFACE 
 
 the solution of political problems have entailed such 
 serious consequences, that a diminution of the hazards, 
 or in other words of the cost of such experiments, 
 may well warrant the tentative efforts of this essay. 
 The natural phenomenon of race has been selected as 
 the pivot, or main factor, in all political movements : 
 and stress has throughout been laid upon the necessity 
 of an aristocracy, that shall be neither spurious nor 
 ephemeral. Whatever be the form of any government, 
 monarchical or republican, no society can be durable, 
 or even possible, without an aristocracy : that is to 
 say, a minority that shall direct ; for a people without 
 an aristocracy is in the condition of a ship without a 
 rudder. The prosperity of the people depends upon 
 the character of their aristocracies. They will be happy, 
 powerful, or wretched according to the industrious, 
 high-minded, or feeble disposition of the latter. Refusal 
 to recognise this truth must entail failure upon all 
 political schemes.* 
 
 While the necessity for an aristocracy is maintained, 
 the conditions of its existence are held to be essentially 
 variable in obedience to the law of Nature. The bases 
 of aristocracies cannot be always similar, either in time 
 
 * The word ' Aristocracy ' is used here in the strictly Greek sense. 
 * The power of the best, i.e., of the most capable.' Ed. 
 
INTRODUCTORY PREFACE xiii 
 
 or space; they must vary as the period or the charac- 
 teristics of the race may differ and, as elements of 
 social life, they must conform to the exigencies of social 
 and political conditions. Necessity, the ruling law of 
 nature, will direct their appearance and disappearance 
 at the proper psychological moment. 
 
 The motto of one of the oldest ducal families in 
 France is ' Ferro non Auro,' a sentiment highly anti- 
 pathetic to the claims of modern plutocracy, but one 
 that marks a stage in civilisation. Gold has now suc- 
 ceeded to iron ; the money-safe has replaced the castle- 
 keep. We may anticipate, without being accused of 
 resorting to menace, that if the latter has been com- 
 pelled to yield to the force of circumstances, the former 
 may in its turn succumb to the same influences ; for 
 events do not seem to promise a lengthened existence 
 to the oligarchy of wealth, so powerful at the present 
 moment. Reflection as to what should follow would 
 suggest the advent of an aristocracy by selection the 
 natural means by which such an aristocracy might be 
 realised. The artificial means that have been as yet 
 employed have failed signally. Popular suffrage, in a 
 more or less unlimited form, has nowhere been attended 
 with very satisfactory results; because although quali- 
 fied to pass an opinion upon circumstances, it is some- 
 
xiv INTRODUCTORY PREFACE 
 
 what incompetent to form a judgment upon the capa- 
 cities of individuals, an attribute which is essentially 
 aristocratic. It becomes then a duty to seek the 
 remedy for this defect. Under the influence of the 
 modern democratic current the test of competition has 
 been substituted for the rights of birth and for 
 political patronage, and again we have met with 
 failure. Competition cannot, any more than favour, 
 confer those qualities that are inherent in aristocracies, 
 for aristocracy implies innate qualities and qualities 
 should alike imply time. Any man may be en- 
 nobled or be made a minister within the few minutes 
 that are required for the preparation and signature of 
 the patent, but the class from which gentlemen and 
 statesmen are produced is not formed in this summary 
 fashion. The idea of an apprenticeship to a, statesman 
 is not only a glaring absurdity, but upon the loftiest 
 heights of Statesmanship or strategy, in the very highest 
 sphere of political or military genius, there is no place save 
 for a few privileged persons almost invariably born in the 
 upper classes, because in them alone can those innate 
 qualities be acquired, which enable their possessors to 
 maintain their position upon such elevated pinnacles. 
 True that we all descend from the same original source ; 
 but the diamond and coal are equally composed of 
 
INTRODUCTORY PREFACE xv 
 
 carbon, although their intrinsic qualities and value so 
 widely differ.* 
 
 Why should we accept in our social organisation the 
 principles that we should decline to recognise in the 
 transactions of mercantile life, and exchange the lump 
 of coal against the gem, and place the first comer in the 
 post that should be reserved for the true aristocrat 1 
 
 To those persons who do not look beyond the normal 
 functions of societies these comments may appear to be 
 irrelevant ; but we learn from history that the normal 
 course of all societies is occasionally disturbed and, if 
 a large number of persons has always displayed the 
 ambition to be admitted to the ranks of the dominant 
 aristocracy, a far larger section of the community has 
 in those moments of disturbance expressed the desire 
 to sweep that aristocracy away. It is but right that 
 we should remind the latter of the absolute need of an 
 efficient aristocracy in every social organism whatever 
 the nature of that class may be ; and the former will 
 do well to recollect that, whenever a nation may resolve 
 to be rid of its aristocracy, it is but probable that the 
 character and conditions of this class were not quite as 
 satisfactory to the entire nation as they had appeared 
 
 * It is to the intrinsic values and qualities, and not to the utility of 
 these substances that we refer. Ed. 
 
xvi INTRODUCTORY PREFACE 
 
 to that aristocracy to be. It is of this character and 
 the variable conditions of this indispensable aristocracy 
 that we speak, and not of the individuals that compose 
 the class. 
 
 An aristocracy by selection, the only aristocracy that 
 the rising democratic tide would probably deign to 
 respect, appears to be the only resource left to us. The 
 principles upon which it should be constituted remain 
 to be discovered, and some light may be thrown upon 
 this subject in the following pages. 
 
 One word more in. conclusion. The theory of the 
 sovereignty of the people has almost everywhere effaced 
 that of divine right. While the latter had at one time 
 a real value, the influence of the former is now supreme ; 
 but we cannot admit that is the sole sovereignty entitled 
 to our respect. It is but the sovereignty of numbers 
 and, if such rule is to be predominant, let us at least 
 know accurately what these numbers are. The chapter 
 on popular suffrage will show how this may be done. 
 
 FRED. WINGFIELD. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE is in truth the philosophy of Science, 
 or rather of the Sciences, in the sense that it will 
 gradually be completed by means of all the methods 
 and all the principles that the abstract and the concrete 
 sciences have drawn from the study of organic and 
 inorganic nature. By this we mean that the study of 
 social aggregates and of the highly complex phenomena 
 of societies compels us to borrow from all the sciences, 
 and especially from those that treat of life and mind, 
 those principles and laws by which we may turn from 
 the particular to the general and thereby attain an 
 insight into the causes of social actions through the 
 analogies which we shall have discovered by our know- 
 ledge of Nature in general. 
 
 The reader will therefore meet in this book with 
 
 
xviii PREFACE 
 
 expressions hitherto reserved for employment in special 
 sciences, such as physiology, mechanics, etc., not only 
 on account of the above reasons, but also because every 
 science requires a special phraseology and Social Science 
 does not yet enjoy this privilege. The reason lies in its 
 rudimentary condition and in the absence of approved 
 definition : for scientific language is the result of the 
 general acceptance of a certain number of conventional 
 terms, and social facts have up to the present moment 
 been expressed in the language of common use. 
 
 If every science demands a special language, every 
 science also requires a definition and is based on these 
 two conditions ; method is but a subsequent considera- 
 tion ; no study in fact can be pursued until the nature 
 of the task and the point from which we are to start 
 have been first determined. 
 
 We hold that Social Science is simply the study of 
 Societies. This definition might at first sight appear to 
 be a pleonasm, but reflection will show that these 
 words convey a special meaning. Montesquieu could 
 contemptuously remark that ' the people always require 
 religions and police regulations.' The probability is 
 that this aphorism will ever remain a truth. But in 
 addition to political laws societies must conform to 
 natural laws, which are not embodied in any code but 
 
PREFACE xix 
 
 require to be discovered. Every society, like every 
 living organism, has its peculiar mode of existence, 
 anatomy, physiology and instincts. The study of these 
 subjects and the search for these natural laws do not 
 constitute a pleonasm, for they imply what Social 
 Science really is. 
 
 The Introduction is devoted to the attempt to dis- 
 cover inductively the general principles that should 
 guide us in this study of societies ; and is followed by 
 an analytical survey of the three most representative 
 forms of Society from a point of view that we have 
 selected with special reference to our subject. We 
 have then deduced from our preliminary observations 
 the laws of political evolution as we conceive them to 
 be ; and, finally, we have endeavoured to illustrate the 
 principles of social evolution by certain phenomena of 
 natural heredity. To complete a work principally 
 devoted to the study of political evolution, we have 
 added a chapter which deals with the question of 
 popular suffrage and the principles on which it should 
 be based, principles so widely ignored at the present 
 day. 
 
 With regard to some portion of this work, it has 
 not been written with any pretension to prophecy ; 
 it is simply an attempt to gain a foresight into social 
 
xx PREFACE 
 
 facts by scientific methods and means; and, if such 
 foresight be verified by events, it is probable that the 
 path that we have traced will be in truth that which 
 Social Science must follow. 
 
 PHILIP DELBERT. 
 
SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 'f-OOOO-1- 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 MAN must be studied precisely in the same manner 
 as the properties of bodies are investigated by the 
 natural philosopher, or as their composition is 
 determined by the chemist; hence it is that socio- 
 logical questions require the same attentive ex- 
 amination that natural science and chemistry 
 demand. In plain truth Social Science should not 
 be treated as a philosophy only, but as a science in 
 itself, and as the first of all sciences. There is 
 nothing left for comparative physiology to teach 
 us about man, and it cannot do more than de- 
 monstrate the analogy of organs and the similitude 
 
 A 
 
2 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 of functions. Philosophy has given us all it had 
 to give in the way of methods and systems, but 
 when we look for a science we find but matter for 
 the study of mental phenomena of an abstract 
 order ; and, while Philosophy has supplied the 
 methods, it has not furnished the means by which 
 they may be successfully employed, nor has it 
 shown us their mode of application. These modes 
 vary, as men and epochs differ, as the qualities 
 inherent in those who use them are dissimilar, as 
 widely in fact as the diversities of human 
 character stand apart.* 
 
 We may then conclude that the study of these 
 diversities must be the starting point of Social 
 Science. Reduced to its simplest interpretation 
 this science may be defined by the Socratic dictum 
 of 'Know thyself'} but with the addition of these 
 
 * The principle of divergence of character pervades all nature, from 
 the lowest groups to the highest. (Wallace, Darwinism). Ed. 
 
 t These words were inscribed upon the temple of Delphi, and were 
 adopted by Socrates as the precept which should direct his philosophi- 
 cal studies. Ed. 
 
INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 words 'Know others, compare and conclude,' while 
 we ensure the accuracy of our conclusions by the 
 most rigid tests and critical standards. Astronom}* 
 rests entirely upon the fundamental principle that 
 ' Bodies attract each other directly as to their mass 
 and inversely as to the squares of their distances.' 
 If Social Science has failed hitherto in giving any 
 such positive results and solid assumptions, investi- 
 gators did not succeed simply because they had 
 laboured in every direction but the right one. 
 When Aristotle said that 'Man is an intelligent 
 animal," he did not imply that intelligence is the 
 sole faculty of man, but that his own countrymen 
 were especially intelligent. When Descartes asserts 
 that the starting point in all reasoning about the 
 mind must lie in his dictum, ' cogilo ergo sum' ' I 
 think, therefore I exist/ we are not told to believe 
 that thought is the final cause of man's existence. 
 Hobbes maintained that man is * a combative 
 animal,' because already in his country the struggle 
 
4 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 for existence appeared to him to be unusually severe; 
 and, when Franklin affirmed man to be a 'tool- 
 making animal,' he did not mean to suggest that 
 we should assume that man was created and placed 
 here for the sole purpose of manufacturing tools, 
 but rather that such occupation happened to be the 
 principal business of his fellow countrymen. 
 
 Our expressions are generally confined to what 
 we immediately perceive around us or to our own 
 particular feelings. The attempt to ' know thyself,' 
 even if exercised superficially, reveals to us concrete 
 realities, and leads to the expression of sociological 
 truths by a dim disclosure of the qualities and 
 defects of different races ; but if we approach the 
 question in a scientific spirit, and apply it to the 
 observation of human phenomena, we possess the 
 key to Social Science. The study of our fellow 
 men is of the highest value, either by direct obser- 
 vation, or by a criticism of their opinions upon 
 themselves and others. Oddly enough, men are 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 ever prone to publish their own merits and to 
 detect, by. preference, the short-comings of their 
 neighbours. And what are these shortcomings in 
 others to which we object ? and what is it that we 
 consider to be a defect ? Simply the possession 
 on their part of qualities which are wanting in us, 
 of qualities as to which we are defective. The 
 spirit of the word conveys our sense of the quality, 
 and etymology shows us how aptly a double mean- 
 ing may be concealed in the scope of one word. In 
 the comparison of these opinions, which men may 
 hold about themselves and others, lies the founda- 
 tion of a science, for we have just seen that, accord- 
 ing to the function which appeared to have specially 
 devolved on each people in the economy of civilisa- 
 tion, different appreciations have been formed as 
 to the utilitarian part of man. and as to the various 
 forms which his ruling thought might assume. 
 As the qualities of some become the defects of 
 others, we may infer that their sum total sup- 
 
6 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 plies the constituents which are indispensable to 
 civilisation, inasmuch as they represent the factors 
 of which civilisation is in various degrees the 
 product. 
 
 From this inference we conclude: first, that 
 we may confidently expect that the realisation 
 of a social science will probably be found more 
 effectual than any religion as yet has proved in 
 weaning mankind from their internicine struggles; 
 and secondly, that this fundamental principle may 
 be established that, if the brain be unit} r , the 
 mental functions are at once various and vari- 
 able* Various we have seen they must be, for 
 races differ in mind ; and variable, because civil- 
 isations obey the general laws of evolution. 
 Variations indicate the progressive stages whose 
 affiliation constitutes the current of civilisation ; 
 and civilisation thus becomes the resultant in 
 space and the consequence in time of the multiple 
 
 * Ofr. infra. 
 
INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 and multiplied growths of the human brain. In 
 this continual growth consists in fact a true im- 
 mortality of the soul, and such growth is both 
 quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative in its 
 relation to matter in so far as the development 
 of the human brain cannot be independent of the 
 development of the human body ; qualitative, in 
 so far as it is of a spiritual nature, and but the 
 condensation of the intellectual efforts of pre- 
 ceding ages. The perpetual discussions of the 
 materialist and the spiritualist can carry us no 
 further. 
 
 Two other consequences can yet be deduced : 
 first, that our intellectual efforts, of whatever 
 nature they may be, or even if apparently unpro- 
 ductive, are never useless ; and secondly, that in 
 future selection will be the ever mutable yet ever 
 progressive aim which shall direct the tendencies 
 of society. The immediate result of tendencies so 
 directed will then be shown by a marked change 
 
8 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 in the moral sentiments in vogue as well as in 
 social order, for we shall not only deal with 
 aesthetics from a moral point of view, but aesthetics 
 themselves will have become a part of ethics. 
 
 Science which is but the art by which human 
 foresight is restricted to its narrowest limits will 
 then give a practical value to that ancient formula 
 of ideal perfection, ' Mens sano in corpore sano,' by 
 introducing into the bond of marriage the influence 
 of selection to the prejudice of that of hazard or of 
 wealth. Through selection w r e may discover a 
 higher physiological value in the charm of form, 
 and possibly succeed in the production of a true 
 aristocracy that shall rise superior to all others on 
 account of its solid influence, because Nature, 
 Science and Society will have combined towards 
 its production. It is strange that man who has 
 effected the improvement of certain species by the 
 development of special serviceable qualities through 
 the adaptation of the principle of selection to the 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 attainments of his particular purpose should never 
 have thought of a similar application to his own 
 kind. 
 
 Anyhow, such social progress must be the out- 
 come of a superior civilisation to that which we 
 now enjoy ; both because the means by which such 
 selection is to be effected have not as yet been 
 fixed, and because some time must elapse before 
 the acceptance of such an idea can be in sympathy 
 with our habits. Civilisation advances in com- 
 munities by successive stages of growth, but the 
 time comes when growth is suspended and decline 
 at once begins and continues in a direct ratio to the 
 decrease of those forces which have contributed to 
 the growth ; other forces take their place, but it is 
 then under a new phase of civilisation. Although 
 diversely,* societies are subject to the laws which 
 
 * The Australian's boomerang does not describe the same curve 
 that the shell pursues from the cannon's mouth, although the two 
 curves are but forms of motion. Societies, like bodies, move, rise and 
 fall, and it is possible that some day their courses will be graphically 
 defined. Ed. 
 
io SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 govern falling bodies, for the simple reason that 
 gravity is the first of all terrestrial forces. 
 
 It will not be possible to learn the processes of 
 these qualitative and quantitative growths until 
 the laws of human selection are known, but Social 
 Science will help us where philosophy and phy- 
 siology can be of no service. As the brain is one, 
 the laws of moral selection could not be other than 
 those of physical selection, i.e., must follow the 
 same principles. But as the functions of the mind 
 are diverse, and as these diversities are best shown 
 by racial differences, these laws of moral selection 
 may be discovered in a judicious crossing of races 
 because, in short, the attainment of the greatest 
 amount of valuable qualities is the object to be 
 kept in view. We can thus reduce the question 
 of selection to two points. First, do any moral 
 qualities correspond with, or result from any 
 physical qualities ? Secondly, what are the physi- 
 cal and moral qualities which predominate in any 
 
INTRODUCTION 1 1 
 
 particular race or individual ? If the same race 
 displays at the same time certain physical and 
 moral qualities, which are peculiar to it, the second 
 question will partly supply an answer to the first, 
 provided always that we have reasoned inductively 
 and corroborated. our facts by the help of analogy. 
 Do these deductions harmonise with the advice 
 of Socrates, and did he, in speaking as he did, 
 consider the subject from our point of view ? His 
 idea was very different. Had he confined himself 
 to his advice, we might have supposed that his 
 intention was to indicate a method of self-observa- 
 tion, which should be applicable to the study of 
 human phenomena; Socrates then was in reality 
 the originator of Social Science ; he appears to us 
 simply as its forerunner. Born of a race imbued 
 with synthetic feeling and at a time when religious 
 sentiment ran high, Socrates, when he supplied the 
 germ of Social Science, could only perceive in it a 
 moral principle, a means of directing our faculties 
 
12 SOCIAL EVOLUTION' 
 
 to a good purpose. As a moralist he was on the 
 right path, for from the study of our qualities and 
 defects the improvement of the individual and 
 consequently of society must spring, for the ad- 
 vancement of the latter is but the sum total of 
 individual improvements. From the knowledge 
 of ourselves we can determine our special vocations, 
 and thus apply the energy of the individual to the 
 benefit of the community; for the application of 
 his energies to his own good will enhance the 
 value of his contribution to the public welfare. 
 The advice of Socrates was excellent, but he did 
 not show us how to put it into practice. 
 
 It has been said of him that he brought down 
 Philosophy from heaven to earth. Undoubtedly 
 he was the first to disentangle philosophy from 
 the religious element in which it was involved, and 
 to urge his hearers to study their own selves and 
 so divert their attention from* subtle definitions 
 of pantheistic properties. But, if their attention 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 was so diverted towards philosophy, and the study 
 of man was suggested as the fitting object, he 
 failed to impart to them a scientific direction, 
 inasmuch as he confounded Religion and Phil- 
 osophy in his teachings. In those pantheistic 
 times each new discovery in Physics, each pro- 
 perty in natural science, became the attribute of 
 some God, and Science was made subservient to 
 Religion. He tried to separate both Religion and 
 Philosophy from Science, but Philosophy, which 
 had till then been absorbed in physical subjects, 
 became in his hands a moral code, and in descend- 
 ing from heaven dragged Religion in its train. 
 Socrates did devote himself to a study of the 
 soul, but as he conceived it to be an integral 
 part of the divine intelligence, a delegation to us 
 from the divinity, he found in human faculties 
 the evidence of divine attributes, and in man the 
 final cause of God. The germ of Social Science 
 bad come into existence, but its right path had 
 
i 4 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 yet to be defined. A great step had nevertheless 
 been made. Man had learnt to recognise his 
 own personality, and analytical inquiry, suggested 
 by Pantheism, assumed a wider development. 
 Socrates had intuitively hit upon the method, 
 and reason and observation were to reduce it to 
 more perfect shape, as new ideas should arise to 
 illumine the path upon which he had launched 
 the spirit of human inquisitiveness, the parent of 
 all science. All progress, scientific or social, has 
 been effected by such means. 
 
 From the earliest times men have watched and 
 observed, and their powers of vision were even 
 superior then to what they are now ; but magni- 
 fying glasses were wanting for the detection of the 
 intricate composition of organic and inorganic 
 matter, and without the wonderful discoveries in 
 modern optics Science could not have advanced in 
 this direction. This remark applies equally to in- 
 tellectual observation. From time to time a, so to 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 say, ' magnifying idea '* must circulate and quicken 
 the investigating power of man in the different 
 branches of science. At certain moments it is the 
 analytical, at others the synthetical spirit which 
 produces it. The development of knowledge 
 depends upon the improvement of our methods, 
 and Social Science will prove productive of great 
 results only when the operations of induction and 
 deduction, as the means by which the human brain 
 can work, shall be thoroughly appreciated. Great 
 progress has attended the adoption of the experi- 
 mental method, but the discovery of the above 
 magnifying idea is independent of the existence of 
 any method. At the utmost can it be asserted 
 that method does facilitate the production of this 
 idea, and for a long time circumstances were un- 
 favourable thereto. The condemnation of Socrates 
 did not stimulate others to attack the popular 
 prejudices, and thus Social Science, of which 
 
 * Cfr. ch. v. 
 
16 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 he had sown the seed but which had already grown 
 awry, died with him for lack of a successor. The 
 intuitive mind of Socrates was too far in advance 
 of his age, and the precious maxim 'that we should 
 know ourselves' failed during centuries to attract 
 attention or to evoke a new idea. 
 
 When Athenian civilisation was exhausted and 
 the Roman intellect was contented with the sim- 
 plicity of Stoicism, no one could discern a connexion 
 between philosophy and the doctrine of Lucretius 
 that ' nothing is lost, nothing is created.' These 
 words led people to confound a real principle for a 
 mere opinion and, had the principle been recognised, 
 no one would have imagined that the laws which 
 govern matter could also govern mind, and that 
 evolution rules at once both mind and matter ; nor 
 a fortiori could anyone discover that the idea of 
 evolution was virtually included in those words. 
 But, Science had not as yet claimed the experi- 
 mental method as its handmaid ; this was reserved 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 for Bacon, and up to his date human knowledge 
 had not advanced since the days of Socrates, in so 
 far as the inter-relation of internal phenomena 
 and their connection with external phenomena 
 were concerned, nor as to the part which observa- 
 tion should play in philosophical studies. Thus 
 Social Science was not destined to date its origin 
 from the times of Bacon, although valuable data 
 were being accumulated for future use. Like 
 Socrates, Bacon devoted himself to the subject ; but 
 while the one led Social Science astray, the other 
 left it on one side for reasons that were precisely 
 - inverse. Bacon gives the method, but fails to 
 apply it. True to his ruling passion for details, 
 he recognises in the Divinity in the Soul and in 
 Nature three distinct entities. Of the Divinity he 
 does not treat, as it is the special province of 
 Religion, and in this respect he is in advance of 
 the Socratic epoch. But, in compliance with the 
 
 analytical tendencies of his countrymen, he insists 
 
 B 
 
1 8 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 upon a distinction between natural and human 
 phenomena, and holds the objective and subjective 
 operations of the mind to be governed by separate 
 laws. He expressly states that we contemplate 
 nature by a direct ray, the soul by a reflected ray, 
 and the Divinity by a bent ray. If this be so our 
 conception of the Divinity would be obtained, so to 
 say, by a process of refraction. 
 
 The views of men must differ, either as their 
 judgment is obscured by prejudice or as they may 
 be influenced by any national or racial tendency. 
 Scientific observation nevertheless could have but 
 one method, the same in every respect for all 
 phenomena and for all periods. It might have 
 existed thousands of years ago had man but dis- 
 covered the process, but, as it is the result of the 
 progress of the human brain, it can only be attained 
 by a gradual and general advance in the methods 
 employed in every branch of Science. 
 
 Thus scientific observation, the product of time. 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 imposes itself upon space and also depends thereon, 
 because it is the consequence of the progress 
 effected in time by different forms of civilisation, 
 as well as of the general development of different 
 races in space.* 
 
 We can now detect the cause of the tardy 
 growth and development of Science from the fact 
 that each race has its own peculiar views. Locke 
 and Hobbes, imbued with the Baconian philosophy 
 and endowed with the same qualities which had 
 directed the spirit of his system, confined their 
 attention to the familiar works of preceding 
 philosophers. From the phenomena which came 
 under his observation Hobbes concluded, and very 
 naturally assumed, that, as men were but com- 
 bative animals, force should predominate over right. 
 Locke, upon the other hand, who rightly considered 
 that observation was the key to successful experi- 
 
 * According to Kant, space and time are fundamental modes of 
 thought, or, to use his exact expression, ' imperative categories.' Ed. 
 
20 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 ment, subsequently came to the erroneous con- 
 clusion that .all method consisted in observation 
 and that reflection must be the sole form of 
 thought. Both looked upon ideas as the products 
 of sensation, and laboured hard to prove the truth of 
 what Bacon had merely insinuated. They did but 
 give expression to the qualities inherent in their 
 race and followed, though in a different manner, 
 the false path of the Cartesian school, which taught 
 that thought was the only form of intellectual 
 activity and reasoning the sole method of philo- 
 sophic investigation. 
 
 As to Social Science, it had not advanced upon 
 its leading principle. Socrates had indeed advo- 
 cated the ' Know thyself,' but had never added 
 ' Know others, compare and conclude.' Bacon 
 argued that philosophy and religion should not be 
 confounded together, and thoroughly acted up to 
 this suggestion, for he did not occupy himself with 
 either subject, and, while he showed us a method, 
 
INTRODUCTION 2 1 
 
 omitted to employ it. Socrates gave us valuable 
 advice, but did not show us any method for its use. 
 Bacon gave the method, but no advice as to its use. 
 From one epoch to the other no new idea had shed 
 its light on mankind, while, as matters stood, one 
 word would have sufficed ; but no one spoke 
 decisively until we come to Darwin. 
 
 Like Bacon, Darwin devotes his mind to scien- 
 tific study and above all to natural phenomena. 
 Like Hobbes, but more successfully, he has built 
 his system on the struggle for existence, but where 
 Hobbes could detect but the aim of man's existence 
 and, in defiance of morality, justified the right of 
 strength, Darwin could point out the results of 
 such a struggle, the principle of selection. 
 
 The theory of transformations had already been 
 initiated by Lamarck, but, as subsequently developed 
 by Darwin, it became the wider idea of evolution.* 
 
 * Vide Appendix Note A. 
 
 Evolution is a general term and of general application. Transfor- 
 mation must be taken in a particular and specific sense. Crystals and 
 
22 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 However, before we indicate the philosophical issue 
 of this doctrine, it will be advisable to explain the 
 scientific difference which exists between the two 
 natural systems of Lamarck and Darwin, particu- 
 larly as we consider it to be necessary for the 
 explanation of our subject. Each selected his 
 own starting point and, for the reasons already 
 given, it is to the difference of birthplace and their 
 
 societies evolve ; the form in the first case, and the manners in the 
 second, will differ at any two separate epochs of their existence. 
 Transformation is of more special application to Zoology. Silkworms 
 transform themselves, the chrysalides into insects, and do not evolve 
 as the change of form does not affect the species of the silk worm, 
 but is its property and one of the conditions of the existence of the 
 species. We may further say, that the word ' Transformation ' is 
 applied to the change of organs, which are but a part of the whole, 
 the species ; whilst evolution applies to the complete animal, viewed as 
 the species. Social Science has as yet no special language of its own 
 and the terms which may be required for its service must in many 
 instances be borrowed_from other sciences, and their applicability 
 must depend upon the circumstances and conditions under which they 
 are employed. 
 
 In justice to the memory of Robert Chambers it should be recorded 
 that in the year 1844 a most remarkable work ' The Vestiges of Crea- 
 tion ' had been published anonymously. The author's name was not 
 divulged until 1883. In this work the theories of ' Progressive 
 development ' and of the ' Transition of Species ' were first given to 
 the world. The idea which was to fructify in the brain of Darwin was 
 thus enunciated. ' Apart from all theorising about the absolute char- 
 acter of the thing called "Species," do not facts show a transibility 
 and inter-communion of forms totally at variance with the general 
 opinions as to fixity which now reign in the Scientific world ? ' Ed. 
 
INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 respective descent that this divergence is, in our 
 opinion, to a great measure attributable.* 
 
 Above all it is as an animal that we must con- 
 
 * The great French naturalist, Lamarck, published an elaborate 
 work, the ' Philosophic Zoologique,' in which he endeavoured to prove 
 that all animals whatever are descended from other species of animals. 
 He attributed the change of species chiefly to the effect of changes in 
 the condition of life such as climate, food, etc., and especially to 
 the desires and efforts of the animals themselves to improve their 
 condition, leading to a modification of form or size in certain parts, 
 owing to the well-known physiological law that all organs are 
 strengthened by constant use, while they are weakened, or even com- 
 pletely lost, by disuse. 
 
 In the view of Darwin, the origin of species is the result of natural 
 selection. The theory itself is exceedingly simple and the facts on 
 which it rests though excessively numerous individually and co-ex- 
 tensive with the entire organic world yet come under a few simple 
 and easily understood classes. These facts are, First ; the enormous 
 powers of increase, in geometrical progression, possessed by all or- 
 ganisms ,and the inevitable struggle for existence among them ; and, 
 in the second place, the occurrence of much individual variation com- 
 bined with the hereditary transmission of such variations. From 
 these two great classes of facts, which are universal and indisputable, 
 there necessarily arises, as Darwin termed it, the preservation of 
 favoured races in the struggle for life, ' the continuous action of 
 which, under the ever-changing conditions of the organic and inorganic 
 universe, necessarily leads to the formation or development of new 
 species. ' 
 
 In the concluding chapter of the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin ob- 
 serves, ' I have now recapitulated the facts and considerations which 
 have thoroughly convinced me that species have been modified during 
 a long course of descent. This has been effected chiefly through the 
 natural selection of numerous successive slight, favourable variations ; 
 aided, in an important manner, by the inherent effects of the use and 
 disuse of parts ; and, in an unimportant manner that is in relation 
 to adaptive structures, whether past or present by the direct action 
 of external conditions and by variations, which seem to us, in our 
 ignorance, to arise spontaneously. ' Wallace (Darwinism). Ed. 
 
24 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 aider man ; and by animal we mean the species, 
 race or nation. It is strange that we have not yet 
 realised that the ideas, as well as the tastes and 
 characters of men, must first depend upon the dif- 
 ference of their origin; for, if we admit that the 
 issue of the alliance of an Englishman with a 
 Russian wife will differ from that of the same 
 Englishman with a Spanish woman, we must admit 
 that this difference will not be confined to the 
 features or complexions of their progeny, but will 
 extend to their characters and intelligence. Speak- 
 ing in more general terms, it will be difficult to 
 deny that the genius and political spirit of the 
 English nation would have been very different 
 from what they are, had the conquest of England 
 been effected by the Franks, instead of by the 
 Normans ; and, following up this train of thought, 
 should we not be disposed to believe that, had 
 Lamarck been English, he would have taken the 
 Darwinian view, and that Darwin would have 
 
INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 reasoned as Lamarck has clone had he been a 
 native of France ? Both authors have written upon 
 the same subject at an interval of some fifty years, 
 both men were equally distinguished in the same 
 branch of science ; but each selected a widely dif- 
 ferent stand-point on the same question, because 
 each directed his observation according to the view 
 most acceptable to the special genius of his own 
 race and nation. Lamarck lays most stress upon 
 the ideas of environment and of space ; the thoughts 
 of Darwin are rather absorbed in the notion of 
 selection, and mainly of the effect of time. 
 
 Lamarck asserted that an y change in the 
 environment, or existing conditions, produced a 
 transformation of certain organs, because this 
 change had .modified the condition of existence 
 to any creature and compelled it to adapt its 
 formation to its new environments. Lamarck had 
 thus confined his theory to a change of the 
 objective conditions, in which animals are placed, 
 
26 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 and concluded that the result of any change in 
 the environments is the realisation of a change 
 ii form ; and this is the scientific idea that 
 characterises the system of Lamarck. Darwin, 
 on the other. hand, contends that Selection is the 
 consequence of the obligatory struggle for exis- 
 tence and reproduction imposed upon all animals, 
 and that the weakest or worst constituted 
 organisations are thereby eliminated. From this 
 obligation to adapt their organisation to these 
 struggles a transformation of their organisms 
 results. Darwin does not tell us the manner in 
 which animals, under the influence of selection, 
 attain a higher form, but simply insinuates that 
 the change is possible, and that therefore it is 
 but too probable that such alterations of form 
 should occur in every species, and evolution is 
 but the connection and perpetuation of these 
 successive transformations. 
 
 We can see how Darwin prefers to dwell upon 
 
INTRODUCTION 27 
 
 the subjective conditions of these transformations 
 in living organisms. The continuance of such con- 
 ditions or, in other words, the perpetuity of these 
 struggles, lead in time to the permanent modifica- 
 tion of forms, and herein lies the scientific concep- 
 tion of Darwin.* We thus find that changes in 
 the environment exist as objective causes and that 
 certain modifications are due to subjective causes, 
 and both causes must alike have their share and 
 influence in the transformation of living creatures. 
 But whether these changes in the environment be 
 of a slow or rapid nature, whether they result in 
 the actual displacement of living creatures, or in 
 an obligatory adaptation of their forms to the 
 altered circumstances, they must be considered as 
 the effects of causes acting slowly and of forces 
 acting continuously ; for if these changes display 
 themselves in space, they are successive as to time. 
 
 * It is worthy of observation that in the English language the pos- 
 sessive pronoun is subjective, in the French it is objective. Ed. 
 
28 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 These changes, or revolutions, result from chemical 
 or physical transformations and are inevitable 
 accidents, representing the effects of inorganic 
 evolution ; the idea of Evolution is thus of wider 
 scope arid more general than that of transforma- 
 tions. 
 
 The causes of this inorganic, as well as of 
 organic, evolution, have yet to be discovered, but 
 the transformations of living creatures are un- 
 deniable facts, and selection is the true consequence 
 of the struggles for existence. We have yet to 
 learn how this evolution is effected, and to this end 
 must know the relations which connect selection 
 with modifications and, in plain words, discover how 
 transformations are produced. However this may 
 be, we can say that the changes in the environ- 
 ments are the results of inorganic evolution, 
 and the transformations of living creatures are the 
 consequences of organic evolution. And as changes 
 in the environment necessitate all other changes, as 
 
INTRODUCTION 29 
 
 they exercise, so to speak, an authority over all 
 the productions of nature, so do they imply organic 
 transformations. Organic evolution must therefore 
 depend upon inorganic evolution: changes and 
 transformations, results and consequences, are in- 
 timately connected. Some depend more upon space 
 others rather upon time, the entities which every- 
 where and always co-operate in the work of Nature, 
 but in different and unequal proportions. 
 
 Herein lies the pith of the question of Evolution. 
 Numbers* give simply the common and multiple 
 measure, by which these relations of time and space 
 can be adapted to the limited conception of man. 
 The infinite is but the immeasurable ; in space it is 
 the negation of the finite, and, in time, it is the 
 demonstration of the impotence of horology and 
 the insufficiency of calendars. These remarks do 
 but illustrate the works of Lamarck and Darwin, 
 
 * Time, Space and Niimber are the three last entities with which 
 man has to deal. Ed. 
 
30 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 and inculcate the idea that everything in Nature, 
 animate or inanimate, is subject to the laws which 
 govern time and space. Whatsoever the political 
 changes which may occur, all our liberties are 
 limited by the laws of falling bodies, and in 
 ultimate analysis are contained in this formula of 
 physics ; S = \ G T 2 ; * by this we mean that as 
 the force of gravity governs the laws of equilibrium, 
 which are the inevitable conditions to which, in all 
 time and space, animals and matter are subjected, 
 so this same force is superior to all others, whether 
 physical or social, that man either has undergone 
 or may experience. The slightest infringement of 
 its principles entails certain discomfiture; badly 
 designed houses fall to the ground, and if geology 
 teaches us that the largest animals have been of 
 an aquatic character, it is probable that this was 
 so because, in compliance with the principle of 
 Archimedes, they were partially exempted from the 
 
 *S. Space. G. Force of Gravity. T. Time. 
 
INTRODUCTION 31 
 
 action of this force. Now as the different organs 
 of the human body are endowed with different and 
 special densities and centres of gravity, gravitation 
 must affect the human brain to a different extent as 
 the race may be the inhabitants of a champaign or 
 a mountainous country, and thus influences continu- 
 ally, but in different ways, the action of the human 
 brain. So it is that this force of gravity surpasses 
 all others and regulates at the same time the 
 organic as jwell as the inorganic changes in 
 nature. 
 
 To return to our subject, the scientific idea which 
 predominates in the Darwinian theory, and the 
 relation between it and preceding or kindred ideas, 
 have been shown ; but in order that such ideas 
 should assist the discussion of Social Science, a 
 philosophic idea must be found which shall be at 
 once the consequence of preceding philosophical 
 evolution, and the resultant of the scientific idea 
 of Darwin and of previous considerations. 
 
32 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 From Socrates to Bacon, and from Bacon to 
 Darwin, one idea is perceptible in all systems of 
 philosophy. Man is ever seeking the definition of 
 man, and ever trying to explain the functions of 
 the mind and to discover a method by which he 
 may bring to light this definition out of the jumble 
 of ideas, which have confused the human brain 
 since the dawn of civilisation. Instinctively and 
 by intuition, man started on the right path, for 
 this definition is indispensable to the elaboration of 
 a Social Science, for this simple reason. In the 
 inductive sciences, among which the natural sciences 
 are classed, the definition is at the end, is the object 
 of our research and the result of our observation. 
 In the deductive sciences, such as mathematics, the 
 definition is at the beginning, is the starting point 
 of all reasoning and includes all possible deductions. 
 In those sciences which partake of both methods, 
 and Social Science is the very type of this class, 
 the definition must be midway, and a definition is 
 
INTRODUCTION 33 
 
 indispensable to the clear comprehension of any 
 subject. 
 
 As this latter science is that of human phenomena, 
 it is important that we should know from what 
 point of view man is to be considered, our notions 
 concerning him expressed and the definition of him 
 be given. Inductively we can arrive at this defini- 
 tion, and deductively we can draw our conclusions, 
 The inductive process has proved by no means 
 easy. Philosophers have at times combined subjects 
 that should have been kept distinct, and have as 
 often acted in an inverse manner. Of the three 
 conceptions that man has successively formed and 
 held, either separately or together, of Nature, the 
 Deity and Man, Socrates kept the first distinct, and 
 confounded the other two. Bacon did distinguish 
 between the three, and enjoined a distinct method 
 of observation for each. Before the time of Socrates 
 nature was the object of all study, but the school 
 
 of Socrates studied man. His successors studied 
 
 C 
 
34 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 nature, but in her bearings upon man. Bacon 
 brings us back to the study of Nature, and lastly 
 Darwin studies man, but in his relation alone to 
 Nature. Man is no longer the final cause of the 
 Deity, he is but the consequence of prior organic 
 evolution. 
 
 When freed from all discussions upon genera and 
 species and raised above all premature biological 
 assumptions, the main idea which we gather from 
 the work of Darwin is this : 
 
 ' Man is a product of Nature.' 
 
 Here we have the magnifying idea of which we 
 have spoken and such must henceforward be the 
 definition of man for the followers of Social Science. 
 It is undoubtedly antagonistic to all philosophy 
 which is saturated with religious views and teaches 
 man's participation in the divine essence ; but it is 
 an assertion of abundant promise to Science, and 
 full of purport to human progress. We may say 
 
INTRODUCTION 35 
 
 with truth that with Darwin Philosophy comes 
 down from heaven to earth, and that this time 
 religion and philosophy have parted company. If 
 it be scientifically 'proved that the more remote 
 ancestors of man have been related to those of the 
 gorilla, the biblical maxim, that God made man 
 after his own image, becomes a sad misapplication 
 of words. But if philosophy descends from heaven 
 it is with the object of being practical. Social 
 Science can be better employed than in attacking 
 belief or in wounding convictions. Those who do 
 believe are invited to retain their belief, and we 
 will proceed to give the immediate conclusions 
 deducible from this new definition of man.* 
 
 Man, as the product of an evolution, transforms 
 himself ; and as he is the irreducible element of all 
 
 * Bishop Temple has not hesitated to assert his conviction that man, 
 like the rest of the animal creation, as confirmed by the similarity of 
 type, is no exception to the general rule of evolution, and that in his 
 eyes ' there is something more majestic, and more befitting of Him, to 
 whom a thousand years are as one day, thus to impress His will once 
 for all on His creation, and provide for all its countless varieties by 
 this one original impress, than by special acts of creation and to be 
 perpetually modifying what he had previously made.' Ed. 
 
36 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 communities, all political and social forms, on 
 which he depends both in time and space, must 
 follow the evolution of the individual. The study 
 of this evolution falls within the scope of Social 
 Science, on which also will be entailed the pacific 
 task of obviating those changes or revolutions, 
 which are but the violent disruption of forms no 
 longer compatible with the evolution of ideas. As 
 the direct consequence of this definition, we may 
 assume that 
 
 ' Man as a product of Nature must obey natural 
 laws both in his individual and collective 
 capacity.'* 
 
 Other inferences can be drawn from this principle, 
 for if it prescribes that man must first be studied 
 as an animal, it does not enjoin us to confine our- 
 selves to his organic transformations. Man is far 
 more than an animal. In addition to his animal in- 
 stincts and wants he has ideas and passions. We 
 
 * Cfr. p. 196. 
 
INTRODUCTION 37 
 
 know that instincts and wants are modified, as are 
 the organs which give rise to them and as the 
 environments, on which they depend, may vary; 
 and precisely as his material wants are changed so 
 do his ideas modify themselves. If certain organs 
 become rudimentary, and possibly disappear, so 
 certain ideas, at one time predominant, gradually 
 waste in vigour and finally disappear from the 
 human brain to be replaced by other notions. The 
 forms of thought or ideas are governed by the 
 same laws, and the latter act in relation to the 
 former as do instincts with respect to our organs. 
 It could not be otherwise; for ideas are but the 
 results of the activity of those intellectual or 
 spiritual forms, which unite to compose the soul, 
 If the brain be unity, the forms of thought are 
 manifold and, if ideas be the product of the brain, 
 we must admit that, if they do change their form, 
 the processes of thought which generate them are 
 also modified. 
 
38 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 These processes can never disappear, because, as 
 one idea vanishes, another does take its place ; but 
 in time and space these processes do alternately 
 develop and decline. One will develop as another 
 decreases, and in this way human thought is modi- 
 fied and the growth of the human brain is accom- 
 plished under the aegis of time and space. Obser- 
 vation and analysis must decide this increase and 
 decrease, this growth and waste ; but the object of 
 Social Science is to find the reason, and to explain 
 the mechanism. 
 
 These remarks, which relate to pure psychology, 
 were required to enable us to grasp the relation 
 which exists between the growth and decline of 
 certain ideas and certain conditions of the brain, 
 and to prove the influence which evolution must 
 exercise over the mechanism of thought. We see 
 that evolution is the linked connection of certain 
 changes, or a series of modifications of form, and 
 the deductions to be drawn from the preceding 
 
INTRODUCTION 39 
 
 definition of Man, in his relations to all political 
 and social forms and their transformations, will 
 best prove to us how fertile is this conception of 
 evolution. If 'nothing be lost and nothing be 
 created it is because 'Everything changes, everything 
 decreases and everything increases ' ; and, to ensure 
 that this be so, it is necessary that ' Everything 
 should come in succession and everything be linked 
 together.' * 
 
 The modification of political and social forms is 
 connected with the evolution of ideas, which in 
 their turn depend upon the evolution of the human 
 brain, and is due to the various influences which re- 
 gulate the different races of mankind. This subject 
 entails an arduous investigation of psychological 
 questions, which require a practical illustration of 
 the dictum ' Know thyself/ and magnificent, we 
 must say, as have been the results of the analytical 
 
 * Thus it is that the idea of evolution is virtually contained in the 
 preceding quotations from Lucretius. Ed. 
 
40 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 process in Physics and Natural Science in the field 
 of contingencies, it has proved absolutely barren of 
 result in the study of morals, for the following 
 reason: The observation of self is ever deceptive 
 from the difficulty which we experience in emanci- 
 pating our feelings, and in rejecting the prejudices 
 inherent in our nature, for prejudice is the greatest 
 obstacle to Scientific development. Herbert 
 Spencer has denounced in his ' Principles of 
 Sociology ' the prejudices which are due to religion, 
 caste, class and race. To such prejudices Socrates 
 succumbed, and expiated with his life a doctrine of 
 the highest morality, that was interpreted as an 
 attempt upon the laws of his State. In his time, as 
 in later days, the ' State ' meant the persons whose 
 interests were antagonistic to the acceptance of his 
 teaching. 
 
 An objection might be raised by the refutation 
 of which we shall succeed, far better than by any 
 demonstration of principles, in pointing out the 
 
INTRODUCTION 41 
 
 view which Social Science adopts regarding man. 
 Granted, some may say, that you can find an 
 intellect so devoid of prejudice as to be competent 
 to undertake and to achieve this study, what 
 interest or advantage could it have for the com- 
 munity at large ? We should obtain the analysis 
 of an individual, when we require innumerable 
 observations under analogous conditions an 
 impossibility and we should be called upon to 
 resolve certain questions in statistics which are 
 from their nature insolvable a priori. Now Rous- 
 seau supplies the argument to meet this objection. 
 In the excess of his vanity, he once uttered this 
 characteristic complaint : . Our step-mother Nature 
 is busy only with species and neglects the indi- 
 vidual/* So Nature never busied herself about 
 Rousseau! If this \^ere so, it would be a matter 
 for deep regret that France did not follow her 
 
 * ' So careful of the type she seems, 
 So careless of the single life. ' 
 
 Tennyson, In Memoriam. Ed. 
 
42 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 example, but this, unfortunately for her, was not 
 to prove the case. Everyone was occupied with 
 Rousseau. Society gave him one name, the Church 
 another. Science gibbeted his folly, and all France 
 read the ' Social Contract.' Fools admired it, and 
 political knaves turned it to their advantage, so 
 that Nature in sooth took especial trouble about 
 him. If Science did pass its judgment on his 
 absurdities, it was Nature that conferred them 
 upon him, for she made him a product of the 
 eighteenth century and a Genevese, when she 
 might have produced him as a Frenchman in the 
 fourteenth, and given him to the literary world 
 in a Jess sophisticated form. 
 
 Now the objection which we have given is but 
 specious, if we go back to our definition of Man. 
 To say that man cannot apply himself to himself 
 is but to invert the phrase of Rousseau, and to say 
 that man cannot apply himself to study of nature 
 of which he is the product. Rousseau's words are 
 
INTRODUCTION 43 
 
 false as they stand or when inverted, and this 
 Genevese deceived himself, while he perpetually 
 deceived others. Man should study himself as 
 a product of nature as well as a member of 
 society, and as a factor of a product called species, 
 which is again a production of nature. Social 
 Science deals with man as a being that has under- 
 gone, by transmission through his ancestors, the 
 transformations which Society has experienced in 
 the past, and who is still subject to the modifica- 
 tions which society, unconsciously to itself, still 
 undergoes. We may then assert that 
 
 ' M an at all periods of his existence represents the 
 species which has exercised the most direct 
 influence upon him.' 
 
 Species is, in fact, represented in the case of man 
 by nationalities, or by races ; but as Nature does 
 not do things by halves, she does not give to the 
 progeny of any man a nose, or any other feature, 
 
44 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 which shall be a compromise between the noses or 
 other features of his parents, but the nose of either 
 one or the other of them, or that of one of their 
 immediate ancestors on either side. Nature pro- 
 ceeds by synthesis and by differentiation only, and 
 it follows that, at a given moment in the existence 
 of man, the moral characteristics, which will exert 
 the strongest influence over him, will belong to 
 this or that race, which has contributed to the 
 composition of his individuality. Family is the 
 substitute for different races, and the nation is the 
 temporary and varying compound of a certain 
 number of races.* Classes may be said to represent 
 in society political and economic functions, or more 
 correctly speaking their forms, and, like races, are 
 destined to be modified and to disappear. 
 
 If it be asked on what foundation the above 
 assertion is based, we must reply that it is as sound 
 as the definition of species, which is still unsettled; 
 
 * Cfr. ch. v, vi. 
 
INTRODUCTION 45 
 
 but serves, view it as we may,* to support our 
 principle, because, in plain truth, this definition is 
 but a mere statement of fact. If species be repre- 
 sented amongst us by nationalities, or by races, (as 
 we may choose to view the question), it is fixed for 
 man, as it is for animals, by certain characteristics, 
 which once acquired are transmitted by inheritance. 
 These characteristics are not indeed of perpetual 
 duration, because everything is subject to change, 
 but they do exist in time and space and are trans- 
 formable. Some are retained for a long period and 
 may be deemed quasi-permanent ; while others are 
 sooner modified in obedience to the general laws of 
 evolution. It is these characteristics which deter- 
 mine the species of the individuals, and enable us 
 to identify them wherever they may be found. If 
 this principle be not conceded, we must recognise 
 each individual as the creature of chance, and 
 bound by no fixed laivs of descent or community, 
 
 * Vide Appendix. Note B. 
 
4 6 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 in which case the idea of species, the outcome of 
 human observation, could never have been hatched 
 in the brain of man. Humanity does not revert to 
 the past ; it descends, and characteristics once fixed 
 are definitively acquired.* Biology has thrown its 
 light upon pre-historic times,f and possibly Social 
 Science, which will benefit by the 'discoveries of 
 Biology, may in turn render valuable service to the 
 students of this latter science. 
 
 When it is said that an individual represents the 
 
 * It must be so, or they could not reappear, and their reappearance 
 is the consequence of a pre-existing state. Humanity thus descends, 
 because we designate as descent the affiliation of the subsequent to 
 the precedent ; and it cannot ascend or revert, because these ante- 
 cedent characteristics reappear only to a certain extent, that is to 
 say, the preceding form is never resumed 'in toto,'but is utilised by 
 nature. Nature does not retrace her steps ; she creates, but does not 
 recreate. Ed. 
 
 t The laws of biology explain to us, by analogy, what the forms of 
 human existence must have been in pre-historic times, and the process 
 by which primitive communities, the embryos of modern society, were 
 formed. The tranformations of the species, or of the human race, 
 have exercised a preponderating influence upon general history, i.e. 
 upon the exploits and deeds of man. Paloeontology is properly the 
 geological history of animals upon earth, of the natural history of 
 species which have disappeared such as the Mammoth, auroch, etc., 
 etc., and the paloaontology of history is simply the, as yet unknown, 
 period of time, that preceded the historic age. Biology, as the science 
 of life, will help us in the elucidation, by analogy, of the causes of his- 
 torical movements. Ed. 
 
INTRODUCTION 47 
 
 species, we mean that, in a nation for instance, 
 permanent characteristics distinguish each member 
 of it, and this principle may be illustrated by the 
 following quotations. Strabo, speaking of the 
 ancient Gauls, pronounces them to be : 'easily moved, 
 indignant against injustice, and ever ready to take 
 the part of their oppressed neighbours.' No one 
 at this day will dispute the truth of this opinion 
 expressed some nineteen hundred years ago, for it 
 is the character of their descendants the modern 
 French, who liberated Greece, freed Italy at Sol- 
 ferino, and were ready to set all Europe in flames, 
 in 1848, for the cause of Polish liberty. 
 
 Dion Cassius, again, treats the Gauls as ' a bold 
 unsteady race,' and Cato the elder describes them 
 as ' a nation passionately addicted to two pursuits : 
 hard fighting and clever talking.' Proudhon re- 
 proached his countrymen with their love of ideal- 
 ism, and surely the eighteenth century, the essen- 
 tially French century -as the sixteenth was that 
 
48 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 of Leo X, was the period in their history in which 
 the tendency to idealise was the most marked. 
 
 Are not the special characteristics of race equally 
 persistent in the historical career of certain 
 nations, and what does Tacitus observe in drawing 
 a comparison between the Gaul and the German ? 
 'Both are brave in battle; but the Gaul fights 
 fairly, while the German prefers to resort to 
 ambushes or stratagems.' Velleius Paterculus goes 
 further and describes the Germans as ' natum 
 mendacio genus.' The opinions of Tacitus and 
 Velleius are sufficiently antecedent to recent events 
 to be entitled to some credit upon the ground of 
 impartiality.* 
 
 We find that the characteristics which have 
 evoked such comments still survive. Thus these 
 characteristics are of a permanent nature, and will 
 constantly reappear in the history of every people, 
 
 * We find it difficult to endorse at this day all the opinions of 
 authors who lived in the first century of our Era. ED. 
 
INTRODUCTION 49 
 
 and especially in critical times when passions run 
 high. With nations, as with individuals, we find 
 certain moral qualities to be hereditary, and we 
 style them vices and virtues. They are the re- 
 sultants of forces which have acted for centuries 
 past, and still continue in activity. 
 
 Now to what are these forces to be attributed if 
 not to the soil, which affects the race ? While to the 
 combined influence of soil and race the genius of 
 every people is due. Special qualities find their 
 origin in one or the other influence. The influence 
 of the soil preponderates, whatever the variations 
 of climate, invariably slow, may be; but a race in 
 the course of centuries may undergo modifications. 
 or rather transformations. These transformations 
 comply with certain laws, which must be discovered 
 if the doctrine of evolution is ever to be. usefully 
 applied to politics : and these laws must be deduced 
 from the study of racial fusions, the potent factor 
 in all organic transformations. The sagacious 
 
 WVER31T7 
 
So SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Montesquieu was fully alive to the influence of 
 latitude upon legislation ; for laws depend upon 
 morals, and morals vary as latitudes differ. ' Bad 
 legislators,' he says, ' favour, and good law-makers 
 restrain, the vices due to climate.' Now, as it is 
 impossible to suppress these vices, the advice may 
 be good, but the system admits of doubt ; because 
 we cannot throw impediments in the way of natural 
 causes, but must be content to direct them towards 
 our common <K>od ; and this is the true solution of 
 
 r"> 7 
 
 the difficulty, because it is based upon the principles 
 of liberty.* 
 
 The analogy between certain events and their 
 simultaneous occurrence will also supply valuable 
 hints, and direct the mind in its attempt to dis- 
 cover the general laws amidst the intricacies of 
 historical facts. Does not the fact that the Re- 
 formation and the Renascence were contemporary 
 bring into relief that constant antagonism of the 
 
 * See ch. iv. 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 T 
 
 Germanic to the Latin genius ? A moral opposition, 
 in truth in the time of Luther, but as violent as, 
 though less brutal than, that of Alaric's day. The 
 Germanic croakings, to use the expression of 
 Chateaubriand, irritated the Medici absorbed in 
 art under their serene Italian sky. But while 
 Leo X gave his name to the age, Luther, the 
 genius of the North, stern and cold, impressed 
 upon it his power. The obvious difference in these 
 displays of character and national tendencies 
 supplies the proof of the influences of climate 
 and soil. ' Sheltered by small mountain chains of 
 limestone, broken at intervals and teeming With 
 springs,' says Cuvier, 'in the midst of the smiling 
 valleys of Greece and Italy, in lands enriched 
 with every production of living nature, Philosophy 
 and Art arose.'* ' An excess of cold/ says M. de 
 Laveleye,t ' will diminish the activity of Nature, 
 
 * Cuvier, ' Eloge de Verner.' 
 t Professor in the University of Liege. 
 
52 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 and proportionately increase, by the law of neces- 
 sity, the activity of man.' Liberty, the greatest 
 motive power to this end, is more essentially of 
 Northern origin ; while Equality is more specially 
 a characteristic of Southern races. A^ain this 
 
 o 
 
 simultaneousness, to which we have alluded, 
 illustrates the rule that action and reaction are 
 equal, if we view them as the resultants of an 
 aggregate of forces which have been in action 
 for centuries. The maintenance of this equili- 
 brium is indispensable to civilisation, and both 
 Liberty and Equality are necessarily dependent 
 upon its preservation. 
 
 Before we pass to the hereditary and inevitable 
 causes which affect the evolution of a race, addi- 
 tional stress must be laid upon the influence of 
 soil ; for not only may we be led to inquire as to 
 the proportional influence of each cause, but also 
 whether they be not in some wise connected with 
 each other. 'Our granitic districts,' says Cuvier, 
 
INTRODUCTION 53 
 
 'affect the habits of daily life in a different manner 
 to what occurs on limestone soils. The inhabitant 
 of Limousin or of Low Brittany will never learn 
 to house and to feed himself, or even to think, as a 
 native of Champagne or of Normandy will do.' 
 Such was the opinion of the author of ' Les He- 
 volutions du Globe ' upon the influence of soil on 
 the race. What better examples can we adduce in 
 support of this view than those which the great 
 men of France afford ? A foreigner, Goethe, has 
 said of Voltaire : * He was destined by his very 
 nature to present the most perfect type of all the 
 qualities, which characterise and exalt his nation, 
 and to become the representative of France before 
 the entire world.' Now Voltaire was a Parisian by 
 birth, a native of the town which has been called 
 by some the heart and brain of France and which 
 absorbs its genius ; a city which has been gradually 
 developing itself for centuries from the combined 
 resources of the nation, for Paris is both socially 
 
54 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 and politically the centre of gravity of France. 
 Built upon the chalk formation, which extends to 
 the 'plateau' of Champagne, Paris fed her illus- 
 trious son, as a mother feeds her child, with the 
 nectar of its hills, and Voltaire's wit sparkles like 
 the wine to which Champagne has given its name. 
 The judicious taste of Montaigne and of Mon- 
 tesquieu was due to the grape of Bordeaux ; the 
 strong and generous vintage of Burgundy inspired 
 the genius of Proudhon. Wine is, as it were, the 
 blood of France, and imparts to her children the 
 qualities of their native soil. 
 
 To the assertion that great men display the 
 characteristics of their race and reflect the qualities 
 of their native soil we can add another considera- 
 tion: that of their simultaneous appearance on the 
 scene. Why was Montesquieu not a contemporary 
 of Rabelais or of Louis XI ? And by what higher 
 reason can we explain the singular coincidence that 
 the works of Montesquieu, Rousseau and Voltaire 
 
INTRODUCTION 55 
 
 form a triology in which History foresaw the 
 advent of the Revolution ? So it is that certain 
 men seemed to appear in the nick of time, either 
 to direct or to bring about certain events, and come 
 as it were at a stated moment. The ideas whicli 
 they proclaim fall upon soil prepared for their 
 reception, and, between this moral movement and 
 its results, we ask ourselves whether it be the men 
 who originate the ideas, or whether some unknown 
 cause does not at particular moments excite certain 
 ideas in certain minds, with a selective regard to 
 their capacity ? 
 
 Diderot and Danton were contemporaries, and so 
 were Milton and Cromwell. The same spirit and 
 love of freedom animated the soldier and the poet ; 
 and the fiery zeal of Diderot may be traced in the 
 boisterous eloquence of Danton. Milton and Diderot 
 remind us of the birds that screech before a coming 
 storm and, in human affairs as in Nature, tempests 
 have their causes and storms their reason. Lucre- 
 
56 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 tius had already warned us 'Sic nikil ex nihilo,in 
 nihilum nil posse reverti* When this harbinger 
 of Darwin affirmed that ' nothing is lost and 
 nothing is created,' he formulated a ruling principle 
 which Condorcet completed when he said that 
 4 the destinies of the human race must be calculated 
 from its past history.' Revolutions are the product 
 of slowly acting causes, of which no one at the 
 time recognises the continuous efficiency. 
 
 4 In the existence of all human societies/ says M. 
 Fustel de Ooulanges,* ' a vast number of revolutions 
 have occurred of which history makes no mention. 
 Writers did not record them because they were 
 effected slowly, insensibly and without any visible 
 struggle. Revolutions nevertheless they were, deep 
 and hidden, which stirred the depths of human 
 society while its surface remained unruffled, but 
 which were not recognised even by the generations 
 that assisted in the work. History cannot acknow- 
 
 * ' La cite antique.' 
 
INTRODUCTION 57 
 
 ledge them until long after their accomplishment ; 
 for it is only by a comparison of two epochs in the 
 life of any people that such marked differences are 
 recognised, as must prove incontestably that in the 
 interval a great revolution has been achieved.' 
 
 But if nothing is lost everything may be re- 
 covered, and in virtue of the principle of identity, 
 to which we have already alluded, the permanent 
 characteristics of a race will supply us with a cer- 
 tain number of data which will serve our purpose, 
 as do the measuring poles of the engineer. If from 
 the simultaneous appearance of great men, whom 
 we may view as the heralds of national thought or 
 of the necessities of the time, we consider the 
 analogy between historic incidents occurring under 
 identical circumstances, we shall be enabled to give 
 a number of these standard points which will 
 suffice for our determination of evolution. The 
 revolutions, for instance, which have occurred in 
 France during the last eighty years prove her con- 
 
58 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 dition to be unstable, and it is so because successive 
 governments are in continual opposition to the 
 national aspirations. If we seek the reason of this 
 fact, we must conclude that the causes which in- 
 duced the Great Revolution of 1780 have survived 
 that social movement, and their persistence must 
 prove that this Revolution did not then bestow on 
 France what it ought to have conferred, and Re- 
 volution must be accepted as the explosion of the 
 national genius still hampered by old forms. At 
 such critical moments patriotism attains the dig- 
 nity of a religion, and we may infer that in such 
 conjunctures the true and irreducible forms of the 
 constitution adapted to the wants of the country 
 present themselves to the minds of all. 
 
 In the course of her glorious, but often painful, 
 history France submitted to two treaties of a 
 specially afflictive nature. (1), The treaty of Bre- 
 tigny, signed in 1360, whereby the provinces of 
 Aunis and Poitou with Calais and Boulogne were 
 
INTRODUCTION 59 
 
 ceded to England, and (2), The treaty of Frankfort, 
 signed in 1871, whereby Metz and Strasburg with 
 Alsace and Lorraine were abandoned to Germany. 
 Both treaties were attended by the two most for- 
 midable insurrections of the lower classes that 
 have occurred in France. The first was that under 
 Etienne Marcel, the second under the Commune on 
 the 18th March 1871, and the circumstances which 
 brought about this second rising are familiar to 
 everyone. As to the first we will quote two 
 criticisms by different authors, at distant periods 
 of time, upon the state of affairs at that epoch. 
 ' Such was the kingdom of France, plundered and 
 pillaged on all sides. No one knew which path to 
 take without the risk of being unhorsed.'* ' The 
 provinces and towns/ says Lavallee,-[- ' left to their 
 own resources, thought of their own safety alone, 
 and took but little heed of the public interest. 
 
 * Froissart lib. III. 
 t Professor of History at the Military College of St Cyr. 
 
60 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Never at any time did royalty take so small a part 
 in the government of the country.' The connection 
 between the two events shows that similar con- 
 ditions produce similar results. At either epoch 
 no treaty could be made until ardent patriotism 
 had been curbed, and the lower classes, abandoned 
 by their natural protectors, flew instinctively to 
 those political forms which they conceived to be 
 necessary to their salvation. These forms were no 
 conception of the moment ; they had for long been 
 cherished from a belief in their efficiency. Does 
 not the early history of France support the view 
 that the Great Revolution, the child of the third 
 Estate, sprang from a similar movement in the 
 ' Communes ' ? A people that enjoys its municipal 
 and provincial privileges is really free, and such 
 freedom is the best antidote to Revolution; for all 
 the Revolutions which France has experienced have 
 been but repetitions of the natural disinclination of 
 the nation to the centralisation of political power 
 
INTRODUCTION 6r 
 
 since the days of the Roman occupation. Revol- 
 utions, moreover, not only indicate that a people 
 is discontented with the existing political forms 
 but they are also the most prominent stages in all 
 national life. ' A people never dies,' said Proudhon, 
 in his political paraphrase of the words of Lucretius; 
 but a nation may disappear, and we must judge 
 whether any event in the life of a people be but a 
 stage in their evolution, or a symptom of dis- 
 solution. For this reason we must examine criti- 
 cally these stages, and, as nothing is lost no less in 
 the moral sphere than in the order of nature, we 
 shall find that the authority which has shaped the 
 mental training of a people, and the causes which 
 have modified that authority, continually brii:g 
 back to us former conditions of society.* 
 
 It is clearly seen that whenever authority loses 
 its force, forms of a permanent character assume 
 
 * It will be shown in the Fourth Chapter how and why these con- 
 ditions will recur. 
 
62 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 its place. Revolutions are but the disruptions of 
 authority, and do not occur unless that authority 
 has ceased to suffice, or has always failed to 
 suffice, for the wants of the national character 
 and the necessities of the time. If the exercise 
 of authority be a necessary condition of society, 
 and indispensable to civilisation, the causes of its 
 modification are in fact the elements of its con- 
 servation, or rather of its advance both in time 
 and space, otherwise civilisation would come to 
 a stand-still. We must consider revolutions from 
 this point of view, because we shall then be able 
 to explain the evolution of different nations, and 
 to account for their having ceased to take a part 
 in the promotion of civilisation. Arrived at the 
 term of their evolution, such nations fall into 
 the morphology of history, unless fresh physical 
 currents, or migrations, infuse with fresh blood 
 new ideas, and, even in such cases, they do but 
 follow an external movement replacing that which 
 
INTRODUCTION 63 
 
 for a long time had ceased to exist among them- 
 selves. Authority which had directed their mental 
 education had exhausted its energy, and utterly 
 degenerated. Revolutions are the fruit of certain 
 ideas, which have by degrees invaded the largest 
 number of minds, a condition as indispensable aa 
 that these ideas should come into existence. 
 Authority is the instrument of aristocracies ; revo- 
 lution is the engine of democracies. Aristocracy 
 and democracy are l\\z flow and ebb of civilisation, 
 and their currents may be clearly defined. One 
 acts as an element of organisation or of creation, 
 the other as an element of destruction or of 
 variability, otherwise evolution would be in- 
 explicable. The sentiment of duty preponderates 
 in aristocracies, with democracies that of their 
 rights predominates One period in the existence 
 of an}' people will show the aristocratic tendency 
 as compared with another that will betray the 
 democratic sentiment. The passage from one stage 
 
64 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 to the other we shall call the point of variability, 
 and revolutions supply the successive stages by 
 which we can fix this point. This much as regards 
 Time. 
 
 As to Space, one people is essentially aristocratic, 
 as compared with another of a democratic nature. 
 Both are in an equal degree constituent elements 
 of civilisation, but one people may hasten the 
 period of its Evolution by its complete submission 
 to the arbitrary will of an aristocracy and its con- 
 sequent inability to break the bonds of such highly 
 restrictive authority, while another will succumb 
 to democratic excesses. In either case civilisation 
 takes her flight. ' No power,' says Chateaubriand, 
 ' that falls, not by chance but by the effect of time, 
 by a gradual change in conditions or ideas, can 
 ever be re-established.' Such is the work of 
 democracy, and it may happen that no power can 
 ever afterwards take its place, and dissolution 
 must then ensue. On the other hand, aristocracy 
 
INTRODUCTION 65 
 
 in the conventional sense, or autocracy, may 
 stifle the germs of life in a people, and we much 
 doubt whether a person who should speak of demo- 
 cracy to the negroes of Dahomey, or to the subjects 
 of the Shah of Persia would find any one to under- 
 stand him. With the first, evolution of the brain 
 has not commenced, as they remain inaccessible to 
 civilisation ; whereas, with the second, it is at an 
 end. The Persian once enjoyed a civilisation far 
 more ancient than our own but it has disappeared, 
 and our forefathers, who acquired it, have trans- 
 mitted it to us. It can be seen that a philosophy 
 which has completed its teaching will degenerate 
 into scepticism, and so every civilisation which has 
 attained its apogee must decay, and must end in the 
 prostration of the nation that founded it. Yet 
 that same civilisation, which it had enjoyed, may 
 reappear in races yet to come. 
 
 Animals, like men, transmit their specific char- 
 acteristics, but these transmissions, limited to 
 
 E 
 
66 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 instincts and confined to habits, do not exceed the 
 bounds of the species and could not in any wise 
 be interpreted in a wider sense than as specific 
 civilisations. Mankind forms that particular species 
 of animals which is independent of the influence of 
 seasons, which can subjectively originate wants, 
 and cross both in time and in space its special 
 civilisations. This natural distinction leads to a 
 moral difference, viz : the capacity of one people 
 to transmit to another a civilisation, such civili- 
 sation being the soul of each society, and such 
 transmission and acceptance being the proof of the 
 ability of humanity to effect progressively its own 
 intellectual improvement. Civilisation is thus the 
 leading characteristic of Humanity. 
 
 It does not then appear unreasonable to imagine 
 civilisation to represent the dogma of the immor- 
 tality of the soul, as well from the collective as 
 from the individual aspect. The two are really 
 identical, as we have remarked. The immortality 
 
INTRODUCTION 67 
 
 of the soul then becomes to us an essentially con- 
 crete reality, and will replace a theory which 
 possessed a temporary value when it raised the 
 mind of man, grovelling in bestiality, to higher 
 aims, but which no longer suffices to meet the 
 requirements of modern thought. Morality will 
 reap whatever religion may lose, and mankind will 
 be the gainers. It is impossible to repeat too often 
 the great truth, that collective progress is but the 
 sum of the advance of the individuals. The 
 progress of the individual thus becomes the aim of 
 all social efforts. That great idea, the immortality 
 of the soul, which has yet been held out to us as 
 the approval in another world of what we may 
 have done in this, and was thus interpreted as the 
 most valuable though negative factor in the attain- 
 ment of social tranquillity, will now become from 
 our point of view the most active element in the 
 pursuit of practical morality. 
 
 Can it be in any Paradise such as the Poet 
 
68 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 has imagined, or the Priest believed in, that man 
 will receive the reward of his well-intentioned 
 efforts, or is it in the various circles of hell,* as 
 Dante has pictured, that he will meet the punish- 
 ment reserved for offenders against society ? Will 
 he not rather be rewarded and punished in his own 
 posterity ? Upon the ground of the transmission 
 of qualities by inheritance man would find his own 
 advantage in the development of his own moral 
 qualities, and in the endeavour to do good. Could 
 this simple philosophy become the rule, our philo- 
 progenitive tendencies would be tempered by a 
 solicitude for the moral development of our 
 descendants and, when combined with that fore- 
 sight which is inherent in mankind, they would 
 act more powerfully upon human conscience than 
 
 * How different has been the conception of a future state as enter- 
 tained by the supporters of various creeds ! The Catholics would con- 
 sign to Hell all those who differ from their doctrines, and the Protest- 
 ants would send thither all their own reprobates, while to the Moslem 
 Paradise is to be the Home of gratuitous polygamy, and to the Bud- 
 dhist it will offer the luxury of an eternal sleep. Ed. 
 
INTRODUCTION 69 
 
 all the religions which have as yefc been preached. 
 Moral, intellectual and physical qualities are surely 
 as valuable acquisitions as riches can be. On the 
 one hand every aristocracy that ignores the 
 necessity of self improvement and does not partici- 
 pate in the progress of the hour must admittedly 
 decay. While on the other hand it would be pre- 
 posterous to assume that an aristocracy founded 
 upon the principles of selection could prove inferior 
 to one that took its rise in the conventional agree- 
 ment of society or on the preponderance of wealth. 
 Interested motives have always governed the 
 world, and probably always will ; but morality, by 
 which we mean the laws adapted to the improve- 
 ment of humanity, may be brought into agreement 
 with those feelings of interest which, in ninety-nine 
 cases out of a hundred, direct the actions of man. 
 This might be effected by the ' philosophy of 
 nature,' which is based upon the observation of 
 social facts. 
 
70 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 If we then hold the soul to be immortal, let us 
 view it also as an object of physical transmission,* 
 and as the principal agent of civilisation. If we 
 admit that the soul, or mind, of humanity is the 
 same now as in prehistoric times, we must accept 
 the idea that the living souls of the beings who 
 preceded us have been utterly extinguished. But 
 if, on the contrary, we recognise that it is now of a 
 different nature, more complex and of a higher 
 character, we must believe in a positive immortality 
 of the soul which shall be essentially of this world, 
 and shall be as moral as the other and in all 
 probability more practical. This much we may 
 infer from philological relations, which prove the 
 relationship of races, and the transmission of ideas 
 by inheritance and gradual growth. Words are 
 but the vehicles to convey ideas, and the adoption 
 of a large number of words, borrowed from an older 
 
 * The musical talent of seven generations of Bachs is thus accounted 
 for, and hereditary transmission is alike exemplified in the families of 
 Herschel, Cassini, and others. Ed. 
 
INTRODUCTION 71 
 
 language in use among a people whose civilisation 
 is of ancient date into a newer tongue employed 
 by a nation of more recent formation, serves as a 
 proof of the inoculation of civilisation through the 
 principle of inheritance, because this inoculation 
 could not have been effected unless certain qualities 
 had been previously inherited. These qualities 
 must be acquired by descent, and they, so to say, 
 necessarily confirm and establish the immortality 
 of the moral faculties, which we call the soul. 
 If the taste or passion for ardent spirits and 
 narcotics can be imparted to any people, the ideas 
 and the wants of civilisation, and the expression of 
 such sentiments in words, cannot be inculcated in 
 them unless they are as qualified for their reception, 
 as they had proved to be in the former instance. 
 Human nature may be so degraded, or may be so 
 deteriorated, (as we have seen in the cases of the 
 negro and the Persian), as to be incompetent to en- 
 tertain the idea of liberty, and the moral qualities 
 
72 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 of such persons may become insensible to the real 
 wants or blessings of civilisation, in which case the 
 necessity for words to give expression to such feelings 
 could not possibly be experienced. These wants 
 may, it is true, originate in the habit of imitation, 
 a quality shared by animals, but they cannot be 
 durable, nor can they become inherent in the species 
 or race, save through the agency of inheritance. 
 It is obvious that the development of such wants 
 and ideas must depend upon the amount of in- 
 tellectual progress. They cannot anywhere spring 
 all at once into existence in a complete form, but 
 must result from the action of descent, and be the 
 inherited consequence of the crossing of certain 
 physical and moral qualities in the past, and this 
 inheritance substantiates the immortality of the 
 soul or it amounts to nothimg. The Cossack still 
 adheres to his repulsive food because he has never 
 inherited the refinement of any epicurean ancestors, 
 and no barbarian or uneducated person throughout 
 
INTRODUCTION 73 
 
 the world can appreciate the beauties of a Rem- 
 brandt or a Raphael, or comprehend the merit of a 
 Swift or a Voltaire, so long as his ignorance and 
 rude conceptions disqualify- him for the attempt. 
 All efforts to instruct such untutored minds would 
 be ineffectual. A brain will conceive x or accept 
 certain ideas incompatible with the quality of other 
 brains according to the particular share of human 
 capacity which it may individually have inherited. 
 Such capacity is but the indeterminate consequence 
 and the indefinite resultant of the numerous cross- 
 ings of races and individuals throughout 'time and 
 space. 
 
 European languages have borrowed all words 
 that are connected with Pagan civilisation from 
 the Greek and Latin tongues, which themselves 
 are derived from the Sanscrit, precisely as all our 
 European races have issued from the heights of 
 Central Asia, and on this identity in the origin 
 of European nations and languages the force of 
 
74 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 this reasoning is based : and just as language is 
 the embodiment of ideas, which without its aid 
 would have perished, but which with its help 
 might survive those who first imagined them, so 
 can civilisation survive the society which brought 
 it into existence, precisely as the soul survives the 
 body. 
 
 Body and soul appear and disappear together. 
 The first returns to earth, the second bequeaths 
 its quota to the general sum of vices and virtues, 
 those inseparable attendants upon the progressive 
 movements of humanity ; and both have played 
 their part as causes and effects in the physical and 
 moral destiny of the species.* The barren dis- 
 cussions of the spiritualists and materialists are 
 too pitiful. It is the old story of the Scholiasts 
 
 * It must be the duty of the Church to learn the ethical necessities 
 of the hour to deduce and to apply the moral lessons. This duty is in 
 accord with her mission, and will tax her insight into the more hidden 
 springs of human action. It will substitute for the perfunctory repe- 
 tition of our ancient liturgy, a more practical commentary upon 
 our social necessities, and a more energetic exposition of Christian 
 morality. Ed. 
 
INTRODUCTION 75 
 
 and the adversaries of Aristotle, and either party 
 would gladly exterminate a large proportion of 
 their opponents in their hopes to bring the re- 
 mainder under one or the other banner. To such 
 persons Materialism and Spiritualism constitute 
 alike two religions. The immortality of the soul 
 is absolute, but the materialist, for some unknown 
 reason is pleased to deny it, and the spiritualist 
 in his passion for theology, is content to lose it 
 without regret in spheres beyond his ken. Neither 
 of them can be accused of any want of imaginative 
 power.* 
 
 Pythagoras saw the difficulty and, probably im- 
 bued with the ideas professed later by Lucretius 
 shrewdly sought to preserve the doctrine of the 
 immortality of the human soul, that better part of 
 
 * The materialists maintained that the destruction of matter 
 involved that of the spirit. The spiritualists asserted the indepen- 
 dence of the spirit, but did not define its origin, nor its end. The 
 intermediate view, in its wish to preserve the utility of immortality, 
 seeks for a real design, so as to give a practical meaning to the 
 idea. Ed. 
 
76 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 ourselves, by the invention of the theory of metem- 
 psychosis. He should have refrained from ' so 
 much honour and such great indignity.' But he 
 allowed his observational powers to be swamped 
 by the flood of his imagination, precisely as deistic 
 philosophy is prompted to depict the human soul 
 as a telegraphic despatch addressed to the Divinity, 
 or as an invisible kite. 
 
 Such persons decline to see that their system 
 does not agree with the idea which they have 
 formed of the Divinity. The retort of Geoffroy St 
 Hilaire to Cuvier when the latter, in compliance 
 with the views of Napoleon, refused to recognise 
 the truth, i.e. the theory of Evolution, is directly 
 applicable to them. ' Will the Creator recommence 
 his six days work ?' exclaimed the evolutionist to 
 the author of l Les Revolutions du Globe;' yet 
 such a task would be obligatory upon the Creator 
 after each successive cataclysm, or his work would 
 be doomed to disappear for ever. In the same way 
 
INTRODUCTION 77 
 
 ft 
 
 when a civilisation disappears, does all civilisation 
 cease to exist, and does humanity return perman- 
 ently to barbarism ? We know that it does not, 
 that civilisation still continues, and that it is the 
 consequence in time of all the progress that has 
 been effected in space. Each stage of progress 
 must then be successively embodied in the human 
 brain, and consequently it is impossible to admit 
 that the soul is transported to unknown spheres. 
 In following up this train of thought can we bring 
 ourselves to believe that, when World and Life had 
 once been created, the Creator was to occupy him- 
 self with the appearance and disappearance of 
 individuals ? was He to apportion their respective 
 intellectual capacities, distribute to each his pre- 
 destined functions and re-make at every moment 
 what man had either made or unmade ? Is 
 humanity unable to control its own actions, or is it 
 to await the decree of Providence before it attempts 
 to effect its own improvement ? And is the 
 
78 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Divinity to grant to Rousseau, for instance, after 
 his death a compensation for what had been, as he 
 alleged, denied to him during his life, so that by 
 special intervention a place might be found else- 
 where for his adulterated genius ? This special 
 interference, which does not occur in the ordinary 
 modifications of the world in which we live, nor in 
 the course of human events, would then be dis- 
 played to serve the purpose of a single individual ! 
 The soul would then be held inferior to nature, 
 which can transform herself and renew herself 
 continuously ! Such a theory is inadmissible. Let 
 all who remain unconvinced reflect upon these 
 words of Herbert Spencer : ' The origin of the 
 great man is natural ; and immediately this is 
 recognised, he must be classed with all other 
 phenomena in the society that gave him birth as a 
 product of its antecedents. Along with the whole 
 generation of which he forms a minute part along 
 with its institutions, language, knowledge, manners 
 
INTRODUCTION 79 
 
 and its multitudinous arts and appliances, he is a 
 resultant of an enormous aggregate of forces that 
 have been co-operating for ages. True, if you 
 please to ignore all that common observation, 
 verified by physiology, teaches ; if you assume 
 that two European parents may produce a negro 
 child, or that from woolly-haired prognathous 
 Papuans, may come a straight-haired infant of 
 Caucasian type ; you may assume that the advent 
 of the great man can occur anywhere, and under 
 any condition. If, disregarding those accumulated 
 results of experience, which current proverbs and 
 the generalisations of psychologists alike express, 
 you suppose that a Newton might be born in a 
 Hottentot family, that a Milton might spring up 
 among the Andamanese, that a Howard or a Clark - 
 son might have Fijian parents, then you may proceed 
 with facility to explain social progress as caused by 
 the actions of the great man. But if all biological 
 science, enforcing all popular belief, convinces 
 
8o SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 you tli at by no possibility will an Aristotle come 
 from a father and mother with facial angles of fifty 
 degrees, and that out of a tribe of cannibals, whose 
 chorus for a feast of human flesh is a kind of 
 rhythmical roaring, there is not the remotest chance 
 of a Beethoven arising; then you must admit that 
 the genesis of the great man depends upon the long 
 series of complex influences which has produced the 
 race in which he appears, and the social state into 
 which that race has slowly grown. If it be a fact 
 that the great man may modify his nation, in its 
 structure and actions, it is also a fact that there 
 must have been those antecedent modifications con- 
 stituting national progress before he could be 
 evolved. Before he can re-make his society, his 
 society must make him. So that all those changes 
 of which he is the proximate initiator have their 
 chief causes in the generations he descended from. 
 If there is to be anything like a real explanation 
 of these changes, it must be sought in that aggre- 
 
INTRODUCTION 81 
 
 gate of conditions, out of which both he and they 
 have arisen.' * 
 
 Is not this lucid explanation of the genesis of a 
 great man equally applicable to the evolution of 
 human progress ? It would be irrational on our 
 part to consider genius to be a gift to the individ- 
 ual, and to be a donation from the Divinity to the 
 community a practical illustration of the theory 
 of D.V. rather than to believe that it is the result- 
 ant of racial qualities, and a natural product of the 
 evolution of preceding generations. This evolution 
 does establish the immortality of the soul, by the 
 survival of the Spirit through the growths of the 
 human brain, we hold to be the natural conclusion 
 from a moral view. If the brain itself be one, its 
 functions are yet various and variable. And if 
 the immortality of the soul be a fact, that immor- 
 tality will subject the human soul to perpetual 
 change, and at the same time will be displayed in a 
 
 * H. Spencer, 'Study of Sociology,' ch. ii. 
 
82 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 variety of results, for every nation and every race 
 have their own peculiar views, characters and 
 civilisations. 
 
 Three races in the morphology of Christianity 
 have been the chief constituent elements in modern 
 civilisation. From the summit of the Pamir heights, 
 when the human race appeared upon those hills 
 which were the first to rear their heads above the 
 waste of waters, the gulf stream of human progress 
 has flowed steadily on to us. It has followed in 
 the wake of successive nations as they rolled on- 
 wards, and it has from age to age transmitted on 
 to us the heritage of nations that have vanished or 
 been transformed. Civilisations have, no doubt, 
 their laws of atavism, and it is probable that their 
 constituent qualities multiply and increase in com- 
 pliance with the laws which govern the develop- 
 ment of man. The stream of progress flows from 
 South to North, but the morphological strata stretch 
 from East to West. Nations must move like plants, 
 
INTRODUCTION 83 
 
 towards the light, and if the rays of the sun attract 
 the latter, nations are drawn towards the beams of 
 civilisation, and ' westward the course of empires 
 takes its way.' 
 
 We shall best exemplify the peculiar forms of 
 human thought and national evolution by illustra- 
 tions drawn from the three great nations that 
 constitute the force of modern Europe, and we will 
 commence with Germany. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 GERMANY 
 
 ' The German dreams, meditates, and comes to blows.' 
 
 WHEN Chateaubriand said, ' Germany is the land 
 of genius and dreams. The more unintelligible the 
 misty abstractions of her deepest thought, the 
 more enthusiastic is the reception which they meet 
 with among those who pretend to understand them ' 
 he did not unfairly criticise the exuberance of 
 German enthusiasm. This feeling has been stimu- 
 lated by a philosophy which Voltaire defines as 
 follows : ' When a person who does not under- 
 stand a subject endeavours to explain the same to * 
 another, who understands it no better, this is 
 German philosophy.' 
 
GERMANY 85 
 
 Since the days of Luther the German ponders 
 over the Bible and revels in its perusal. But 
 happily for the world, the love of music has inter- 
 posed to temper this peculiar tendency of the 
 German intellect. 
 
 An unmelodious language, prejudicial to bright 
 thought, has contributed in no slight degree to the 
 actual condition of national art beyond the Rhine. 
 In despair of any comprehensible expression of his 
 feelings, the German flies to harmony, and finds 
 his consolation in symphonies and counterpoint. 
 ' He is a German/ said V T oltaire, ' and I wish him 
 more wit and fewer consonants.' Music has not 
 conferred the gifts of wit upon the German ; it was 
 be}*ond its power, and contrary to its tendencies, 
 but it has exerted a mighty influence upon his 
 genius. 
 
 Einseitigkeit is the bugbear of German thought. 
 The bare possibility of one-sidedness has inspired a 
 craving to consider every subject from a double 
 
86 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 aspect, and to avert thereby all tendency to self- 
 deception. The German intellect is the incarnation 
 of polarity ; it must view everything under two 
 aspects : from the light as from the dark, from the 
 positive as well as from the negative, from the 
 subjective as well as from the objective points of 
 view. Music is not amenable to any such im- 
 putation ; so German thought dwells instinctively 
 on the keys of sol and fa and delights to soar 
 amidst flats and sharps. And so while Lieder and 
 Sonaten are the passion, Franconian legends and 
 Rhenish songs have become the glory of Germany. 
 But this, as a national occupation, is not re- 
 munerative, and the German feels from time to 
 time that he must take a turn among his neighbours. 
 Tired of inactivity and excited by music he shouts 
 the ' Wacht arn Rhein,' and is off to the wars 
 and fresh conquests. This aggressive spirit has 
 been gratified by large accessions of territory; 
 but the retention of such acquisitions may give 
 
GERMANY 87 
 
 rise to dangerous complications in days to 
 come. 
 
 The Germans fight under the pressure of necessity. 
 Caesar complained in his Commentaries that they 
 did not consider brigandage beyond the limits of 
 their own territory to be a crime. Now the German 
 finds in war the satisfaction of his coarser appetites, 
 and with him their gratification replaces the im- 
 pulse of conviction. Heroism has been described 
 as imagination in the soldier, j Now imagination is 
 not the product of pure want, which has supplied 
 so many recruits to the profession of arms in 
 Germany; so when the Teuton could no longer 
 pillage on his own account he became a hireling. 
 Caesar employed German mercenaries in his wars 
 in Gaul : to them he owed his victory in the plains 
 of the Saone, and by their help he secured the 
 surrender of Alesia. During the religious struggle 
 in Europe the German reiters and landsknechts 
 served those who paid them best, and up to the 
 
fc8 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 time of the Revolution German regiments were in 
 the pay of France, and German legions have fought 
 for England since then. At the present day the 
 German army is but a conglomeration of these 
 bands, which were originally enrolled ages ago 
 with a view to profitable enterprise in the way of 
 plunder. 
 
 The Prussian displays some remarkable points of 
 resemblance to the ancestral Vandal. War has al- 
 ways been the principal trade of Germany, although 
 music has supplied the largest item in her exports. 
 The Germans are averse to believe that they are 
 in any w r ay amenable to the charge of barbarism, 
 arid this error is prejudicial to their interests, 
 for statesmen have profited by it to exploit them 
 under the plea of glory, and to inflict the heaviest 
 tyranny upon them. Glory becomes expensive at 
 the price of liberty, and, although it may be incon- 
 testable from their point of view, their neighbours 
 may be permitted to question it upon moral grounds. 
 
GERMANY 89 
 
 The Germans may see in M. de Bismarck a second 
 Napoleon, a man predestined to secure the perman- 
 ent supremacy of Germany; but others will persist 
 in viewing them as the depredators of Europe, 
 because the causes of the old struggle between 
 Teuton arid Gaul, so graphically exposed by Caesar 
 and Tacitus, still influence the maintenance of such 
 an enormous military force in Germany. 
 
 Less clever than the diplomatist in disguising 
 his inmost thoughts his veteran colleague, a soldier, 
 inadvertently let slip the truth. At a sitting of 
 the Reichstag in the month of April 1884, when 
 the increase of the military establishment was 
 under discussion, and before a hostile majority, 
 M. de Moltke, in the hope of carrying the vote, ex- 
 claimed unreservedly: 'The German army brought 
 home, in 1871, five thousand millions of francs.' 
 No German could resist such an argument, and the 
 credit was at once voted. Is it not right to assert 
 after this, that the theory that armies are intended 
 
90 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 to enrich their country is truly worthy of, let us 
 say, the Vandals ? 
 
 Germany deceives herself in the belief that 
 Alsace-Lorraine belong to the Germanic family. 
 French they are, French they will ever be, since it 
 was for France that they fought and bled in the 
 revolutionary campaigns. Strasburg was the first 
 to hear the notes of the Marseillaise; at Sarre- 
 Louis, ' the bravest of the brave,' Michael Ney, first 
 saw the light, while to this day Germany still 
 smarts under the blows of the renowned generals 
 who have sprung from that martial soil. 
 
 When, upon the night of Valmy, Goethe thus 
 addressed the bystanders in the bivouac: ' To-day, 
 and on this spot, begins a new era in the history 
 of the world,' Germany, by the voice of her greatest 
 poet, recognised the existence of a greater contest 
 than any mere struggle between two rival nations. 
 Such a struggle as that between Louis XV and 
 the Great Frederic closed at Rosbach ; and, if 
 
GERMANY <,i 
 
 Prussia was humiliated at Jena, it was Brunswick 
 who courted disaster when he threatened to re- 
 establish Royalty, or to burn Paris, at the moment 
 when Europe was convulsed by the mightiest 
 movement that had ever agitated the world. 
 Germany seems to forget that with the great 
 French Revolution a new international law came 
 into existence, and that nations are no longer 
 bartered as cattle. Yet for two centuries had she 
 struggled for the triumph of liberty of conscience. 
 Did not the spirit of the Reformation arm the hand 
 of Gustavus Adolphus, and the treaty of West- 
 phalia set its seal to the great principle that German 
 genius had established ? How comes it then that 
 Germany does not see that the two great principles 
 of the French Revolution, political liberty and the 
 establishment of nationalities, must likewise triumph 
 in order to complete the evolution of Europe ? 
 But the chapter that was opened at the close of 
 the last century, and entitled the ' Declaration of 
 
92 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the Rights of Man/ is not yet concluded, and the 
 struggle will continue between the fading forms of 
 German military absolutism* and the sovereignty 
 of the people as proclaimed by France, until political 
 liberty is established in Europe. Who can forget 
 the haughty reply of the French Constituent 
 Assembly to the insolent challenge of Brunswick ? 
 ' Go ! tell them it is liberty, and not fire and sword, 
 that we will bring among them !' When that day 
 comes Alsace-Lorraine will be free, for they are the 
 offspring of the Revolution. 
 
 If in the German character a love of depredation 
 still lurks, it is no less true that we must recognise 
 therein that powerful sense of liberty, to which we 
 owe the first emancipation of the human intellect 
 in modern times, the Reformation and its first 
 emancipation in the domain of art, the Gothic 
 style of architecture. In the age of their barbarism 
 
 * A military aristocracy controls more than ever the fortunes of 
 modern Germany. Ed. 
 
GERMANY 93 
 
 this sentiment first found expression, and to their 
 instinctive aversion to einseitigkeit it may be 
 attributed. 
 
 It is related that in Germany bands of lawless 
 warriors were formed under the pressure of want 
 and with the object of plunder. After a successful 
 foray a distribution of spoil took place ; to secure 
 the former, and to insure their interests in the 
 latter, the members elected a chief the Franks 
 did so by acclamation and the clashing of their 
 arms but his authority expired at the termination 
 of the expedition, or, in other words, after the 
 division of the booty. Disputes at that moment 
 not unfrequently occurred, and any display of 
 authority savoured of usurpation. The expression, 
 ' a German's quarrel/ is not an idle saying and is 
 -of long standing. The shares in the spoil were 
 decided by lot, but discontented rapacity would 
 revenge itself by violence or fraud. Anyhow one 
 point is clear, that the band, tribe or nation existed 
 
94 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 previously to the leadership, and that the authority 
 of the chief originated in, depended on and ended 
 with the agreement of his followers or tribe. To 
 Koman absolutism, which proclaimed 'the good 
 pleasure of the Prince to be the law/ the genius of 
 the Germans replied that ' the national will must 
 be the rule.' When Clovis received the rite of 
 baptism, the majority of his companions abandoned 
 him, as the ceremony was in their eyes equivalent 
 to the investure of royalty. Alaric and Genseric, 
 the Goth and Vandal, who successively ravaged and 
 pillaged Catholic Rome were Arians, and Arianism 
 may be considered as the first expression of the 
 reformed tenets. 
 
 Monarchy is essentially French and sprang 
 from the union of Frankish barbarism with the 
 absolutism of Rome, as we shall find later on in 
 the chapter which treats of France. Germany did 
 but follow the political movement initiated by 
 Clovis, continued by Louis XI, and completed by 
 
GERMANY 95 
 
 Richelieu, under the compulsion to adapt herself to 
 the struggle for national existence and to accept 
 centralisation. The day must come when, as in 
 France, she will dispense with Royalty. 
 
 Ideas demand a certain lapse of time for their 
 acceptance. Quickness of apprehension is evidently 
 not the German's forte ; but equally as by the aid 
 of monarchy he has achieved the unification of his 
 country, so will he in due time comprehend the 
 French Revolution, which, imperceptibly to the 
 people and even to statesmen, still continues its 
 course throughout the world. 
 
 The division of labour is a natural factor in the 
 elaboration of human progress, and may be traced 
 in the historical career of every nation. The 
 genius of Germany is philosophic; political genius 
 is more peculiar to France. The life of nations is 
 governed by the general laws of nature ; as in 
 physics we have to deal with the laws which 
 control the 'properties of bodies, and in chemistry 
 
96 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 with the laws which govern the composition and 
 the action of different elements towards each other, 
 may we not regard nations as bodies composed 
 of different races, and these races again as elements 
 which correspond in a nation to the bases, acids 
 and salts in chemistry ? The German race, to 
 speak accurately, dissolves itself in its surroundings 
 wherever it may be. The French and English 
 nationalities, both composite bodies, and each par- 
 taking to some extent of the Frank or Saxon 
 elements, do not assimilate themselves to their 
 surroundings, or at least in a far slighter degree. 
 It would be hazardous to assert that the German 
 element has in the one case acted as might do an 
 acid ; and in the other as a base; but, whatever be 
 the reason, we may fairly apply to this subject the 
 principles of chemistry by analogy, if it be nob 
 permissible to utilise them as arguments in the 
 analysis of political questions. 
 
 In a true political sense it is worthy of remark 
 
GERMANY 97 
 
 that the respective behaviour of the two German 
 elements, which amalgamate in the composition of 
 the French and English nations, was widely differ- 
 ent in these two countries. In the first, the Franks, 
 who formed a victorious aristocracy, assumed the 
 part which was afterwards played by the Normans 
 in England; while the Saxons or Angles pursued 
 the same conduct that the Romans had adopted in 
 France, a system of emancipation but with a dia- 
 metrically opposite tendency. 
 
 The German has indeed played no small part in 
 the liberation of mankind. We accept the Gothic 
 art as another protest on his part against Roman 
 absolutism, and an assertion in piles of stone of his 
 sense of freedom. This art, the Gothic style, and 
 the Reformation are the immediate productions of 
 German genius. Gothic architecture was to art 
 what the Reformation was to religion, although 
 the pointed arch dates from the thirteenth, and the 
 
 Reform but from the fifteenth, century. Germany 
 
 G 
 
98 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 had learned to construct temples in honour of a new 
 faith before she had formulated its precepts : so 
 true is it that the Reformed principles and Gothic 
 art are but two characteristics of the same idea. 
 This historical inversion is indeed German in char- 
 acter. The idea was apparently more easily repre- 
 sented in stone than expressed in appropriate 
 language. 
 
 1 The Principle of Gothic art,' says M. Vitet, ' is 
 found in emancipation, freedom, the spirit of asso- 
 ciation and a community in feelings purely native 
 and entirely national. The other style, the Roman, 
 springs from dogma, and not from the native soil; 
 from Belief, and not from custom. It prevails by 
 right of clerical conquest, and has no principle be- 
 yond the Church and her canons.' ' The original 
 style/ according to M. Vaudoyer, ' marks the ro- 
 mantic epoch of Christianity. It appears as an art 
 that seeks to escape the tyrannical authority of the 
 Church and to abandon itself to the sway of Feeling. 
 
GERMANY 99 
 
 The semi-circular arch was accepted as the fixed and 
 invariable form : the pointed arch is the free inde- 
 terminate shape, which can lend itself to unlimited 
 modifications.' 
 
 M. Vaudoyer proceeds to discuss the origin of 
 the pointed arch, and declines to attribute it to the 
 researches of science. We will appeal to Einseiti- 
 gkeit. 
 
 The strict simplicity of the semi-circular Roman 
 arch was repulsive and offensive to German genius 
 through its rigid illiberality. A round head-dress 
 does not suit a square head. As we enter, or leave, 
 a Roman church, the centre nave presents the inva- 
 riable semi-circle ; but when we look to the smaller 
 and narrower naves, to the right and left of the axis, 
 (einseitigJceit again), we see by perspective, on 
 either side of us, a true ogive, of which the angle 
 increases or diminishes as we advance or recede. 
 By dint of reflection the German could thus have 
 found peace for his restless spirit. The semi-circle 
 
ioo SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 would no longer trouble him : the curvilinear form, 
 the product of this semi-circle and of his cherished 
 duplex observation would be and must be archi- 
 tectural truth. The German, doubtless one of 
 easy faith, who could thus, lost in thought, make 
 this discovery as his eyes wandered over the 
 building but rarely rested on the pulpit, must have 
 been transported with delight when he commun- 
 icated the information to his fellow-countrymen. 
 The idea, however it may have originated, was 
 hailed with rapture. Gothic Churches rose on all 
 sides, and magnificent monuments were reared in 
 this outburst of enthusiasm. Thanks to the ogive, 
 the bays \rere elevated and the spires rose to 
 loftier heights, as if to carry still nearer to heaven 
 the supplications of suffering humanity. Strange 
 indeed the destiny of German genius ! Duplex in 
 its essence, its manifestations spring from causes 
 diametrically opposite. 
 
 The Reformation was an inconsistency which the 
 
GERMANY lot 
 
 logical mind of the French could not accept. On 
 Germany devolved the task of the conversion of a 
 misgiving into a creed, and thus doubt and belief 
 have found a home in Germany. From an histori- 
 cal point of view, the Reformation is the first 
 negation expressed by modern thought : from the 
 religious point, and the remark applies to the 
 substitution of Gothic for Roman art, the Refor- 
 mation marks that property of variation, which 
 Christianity, as all that is durable must do, con- 
 tained within itself as the means of its own modi- 
 fication. 
 
 Saint Paul and Saint Augustine are alike 
 apostles, but Catholicism in its entirety is con- 
 tained in the saying of Saint Augustine ' Credo quia 
 abswrdum ; ' 'I believe and understand not/ Saint 
 Paul on the other hand prescribed the exact formula 
 of Protestantism when he wrote, ' Let every man 
 be fully persuaded in his own mind,' (Rom. xiv 
 5). Saint Augustine proclaimed the infallibility of 
 
io2 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the Pope when Saint Paul had already evoked a 
 Luther. The German brain could not break the 
 mould in which religion had been shaped ; the 
 German genius could not complete the task which 
 it had undertaken. 
 
 The Reformation said to man, ' Thou shall not 
 believe against thy will ; ' To Germany is due this 
 first step in the emancipation of man. The reaction 
 in France was of a purely political nature. Every- 
 where its influence was deeply felt; for Voltaire 
 observed that, ' It was not until after Luther's time 
 that laymen presumed to dogmatise.' 
 
 If Luther * appeared in fit season to remodel 
 dogma and worship in the century that followed 
 the disappearance of the middle ages and the 
 consequent modifications in laws and customs, 
 Gutemberg and Schoeffer had by their discoveries 
 facilitated the work of Luther. While Gutemberg 
 
 * It should not be forgotten that the teaching of Wickliffe and 
 Huss had prepared the public mind for the reception of Luther's 
 doctrines. Ed. 
 
GERMANY 103 
 
 invented printing and furnished for the propa- 
 gation of new ideas the most wonderful engine of 
 diffusion, as Schwartz by the invention of gun- 
 powder had introduced an equally marvellous engine 
 of destruction, Schoeffer, by the introduction of cast 
 in the place of cut type, enhanced the value of the 
 discovery. Thanks to the art of printing, which 
 seemed to have been designed for the propagation 
 of the new doctrines, Reform spread rapidly. Ger- 
 many inspired the idea ; Germany raised her arm 
 to ensure its triumph, and at the same time pre- 
 sented to man the most perfect instrument for its 
 expansion. Germany by these two discoveries had 
 remodelled the conditions of the entire world. 
 
 Yet to Luther, while he hailed the advent of so 
 powerful an ally, the satisfaction was not unalloyed. 
 ' Printing,' he said, ' is the highest, the supreme, 
 gift (summum et supremum donum) by which 
 God forwards the promises of the gospel. It is the 
 last flame to illuminate our world before it is 
 
i 04 SOCIAL E VOL UT10N 
 
 extinguished in eternity. Thanks be to God that 
 it has beamed upon us as the end draws nigh!'* 
 Although these words convey a deep insight into 
 the future, they betray a strange misgiving. The 
 Reformer would appear to shrink from his work, 
 and to experience the sentiment which invariably 
 attends every important change in religious, poli- 
 tical, or social matters. Man cannot abandon the 
 opinions in which he has been born and bred 
 without a pang of bitterness and regret. But for 
 the obstinacy and unskilf illness of the Court of 
 Rome Luther would have been defeated. Man- 
 kind is essentially conservative, and for this reason 
 has survived, the destruction that has been so often 
 imminent. The feeling of preservation predomi- 
 nates over that of demolition, and on the edge of 
 the precipice a secret instinct compels man to halt. 
 But more curious still is the fact that, on the advent 
 of any great social change, every people engaged in 
 
 * Michelet, ' Memoires <le Luther.' 
 
GERMANY 105 
 
 some great transformation has inclined to the 
 belief that the end of all things was at hand. On 
 the eve of the year one thousand, on the threshold 
 of the dark period of the middle ages, the oM 
 chroniclers relate how the churches were abandoned 
 to ruin, and dates were fixed in public records for 
 the approaching dissolution of the world, ' termino 
 mundi appropinquante.' The end of the world 
 does not corne to us, but an end to a world then in 
 existence ; and none are able to fix precisely the 
 exact point at which the new succeeds the old, so 
 interwoven are the phenomena of common life and 
 the incidents of time. 
 
 The period of the Reformation was the time 
 when Christianity stood in greatest peril from the 
 Turk, for the East, provoked by the crusades, then 
 retaliated upon the West. Luther appealed to the 
 patriotic spirit of Germany, and Christianity that 
 had escaped the dangers of misbelief, was in a 
 great measure rescued from the unbeliever by the 
 
ic6 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 courage of her Protestant neophytes. Germany 
 had not only reanimated Christianity, but had 
 proved herself to be the rampart of civilisation. 
 The gratitude of the entire world is but the fitting 
 tribute to her exertions. 
 
 The movement produced by the Reformation 
 was of a purely aristocratic character in Germany. 
 ' Martin Luther,' says Chateaubriand, ' who created 
 a religion for princes and nobles, was the son of a 
 peasant.' This fact was indispensable to its suc- 
 cess. The new religion won to its side the lower 
 classes because the idea sprang from them, and the 
 nobles because they found their account in it. 
 And it was to these last that Luther addressed 
 himself, for, on the title page of his memorial, he 
 appealed 'To the nobles of Germany upon the im- 
 provement of Christianity.' For them alone did 
 the movement assume a character of social import- 
 ance. The Suabian peasants who looked for some- 
 thing beyond religious reform, and the Anabaptists 
 
GERMANY 107 
 
 of Munster, who were driven to madness by Luther's 
 preaching, were both alike crushed with the full 
 approval of the great Reformer, and the nobles 
 divided among themselves the property of the 
 clergy. Even had the Reformation been acceptable 
 to the logical sense of Frenchmen, its aristocratic 
 character would have obliged them to reject 
 it. 
 
 The duality of the German mind is a fact. It is 
 at once, religious and sceptical, analytical and 
 synthetical in philosophy, feudal and democratic 
 in politics, of all shades between Csesarism and 
 Socialism, and in this latter point the national 
 evolution displays also at once individualist and 
 collectivist tendencies. 
 
 We should express graphically this duality by 
 an hyperbola. Einseitigkeit will live and last as 
 long as Germany exists. 
 
 The German is migratory ; Fraternity is the 
 dominant characteristic of the race. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 ' The Frenchman thinks, reasons, and fights. ' 
 
 His language, clear as the sky, and limpid as his 
 wine, clothes with appropriate grace the readiness 
 of his w r it. Marvellous as an instrument of rea- 
 soning power, it is occasionally abused. ' I think, 
 therefore I exist/ said Descartes, and thus com- 
 menced his philosophy with a syllogism. The 
 spirit of rebellion, which stirred Descartes to reject 
 the yoke of the ancient philosophy, sprang from 
 the land of Gaul. It has often kept the world on 
 the alert : and has inspired the valour of France 
 upon a hundred fjelds and wherever she carried 
 her civilising influence. 
 
FRANCE 109 
 
 The Frenchman cannot be said to be indifferent 
 to religion, but his passion for logic does not allow 
 him to accept, as incontrovertible truths, dogmas 
 which cannot be substantiated by the arguments 
 of Reason. And still, surprising as it might seem, 
 in no other country has the Church displayed such 
 evidence of her power. But as it is in a political 
 sense that such power has always been exercised, 
 the history of the Church may be said to be in- 
 separable from that of France. 
 
 The execrable scenes of St Bartholomew, which 
 aroused in Europe such general reprobation, were 
 but a continuation of the work commenced by the 
 Capetian dynasty under the direction of the Church 
 and completed by Richelieu, with the exception of 
 an afterstroke from the hand of Louis XIV. They 
 are an episode* in that struggle of the Latin genius, 
 represented more prominently by the clergy and the 
 publicists of the middle class against the predomin- 
 
 * Cfr. Thierry. ' Histoire du Tiers Etat.' 
 
no SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 ence of Germanic influence (as represented by the 
 feudal nobility) in the management of the State ; 
 for State itself was an invention of that middle 
 class, and dated from the development of the 
 'communes,' when the first attempt was made by 
 the citizens for the acquisition of political power. 
 The clear sense of Proudhon summed up the issue of 
 this movement and pithily condensed the history 
 of the struggle of the third estate for its own 
 emancipation in these words, * It was you citizens, 
 that pitted the "Communes "against the castle, and 
 the King against the great vassals ; and thereby 
 destroyed the feudal system.' In this struggle of 
 the third estate against the nobility the Church, 
 itself of Roman origin, gave her secret support to 
 the citizens, the Latin or Gallo-Roman element. 
 
 In every age, religious prejudices have served only 
 as a pretext. At the time of the Reformation as the 
 Guises were Catholics, Conde * and Coligny became 
 
 The candid admission of Louis de Conde" leaves no doubt upon 
 this point. ' If the Guises were to take it into their heads to become 
 Huguenots, I should turn Catholic the next day. Ed. 
 
FRANCE in 
 
 Protestants through a mere resumption of the old 
 feudal rivalry. Only, if the former held for royalty 
 the latter, true descendants of the old Frankish 
 barons, recognised in the Reformation the means 
 and opportunity by which the Royal supremacy 
 could be overthrown. Although the question was 
 avowedly one of religion, the old struggle between 
 the Latin genius and the German spirit was revived. 
 If Pol trot de Mere', a Huguenot gentleman, struck 
 dead that champion of royalty Duke Fnii^ois of 
 Guise the Balafre, Henry III caused, twenty-five 
 years subsequently, Duke Henry to be assassinated 
 as a traitor to the Royal person, although a faithful 
 adherent to the cause of Royalty. The object of 
 Duke Henry was no secret. He would have trans- 
 ferred the crown from the last Valois to the House 
 of Lorraine to the exclusion of the Bourbon line. 
 
 The period of these religious wars was fertile in 
 outrages of every description, and from massacres 
 to assassinations, and from assassinations to execu- 
 
1 1 2 SOCIA L E VOL UTION 
 
 tions, we perceive clearly how the triumph rested 
 eventually with the crown, and was due to the 
 support of the citizen party, who invariably sided 
 with royalty ar*d missed no opportunity of striking 
 down the nobility, whose oppression had become 
 intolerable. Monarchy is the true work of the 
 Church. The Church established, protected and 
 dominated it, and the ruin of the crown may be in 
 part attributed to this utter self-abandonment. 
 But on how many occasions did not the Church 
 prove its saviour ? After the reign of Charlemagne 
 when feudalism took its rise, and partially in con- 
 sequence of the destruction of the great central 
 authority, the monarchy was but too often at the 
 mercy of the pugnacious spirit of feudalism and 
 might have vanished in these disputes, had the 
 Church not interfered and imagined the Crusades. 
 At the Council of Clermont in Auvergne, the 
 French Pope, Urban II, addressing the great barons, 
 invited them to leave for distant Palestine. ' Go 
 
FRANCE 113 
 
 and display in such a noble war the skill and 
 courage of which you make such lamentable use in 
 your intestine quarrels.' They left in crowds and 
 returned in vastly diminished numbers to find that 
 the monarch was supreme, and to see people, 
 princes, and monarch alike subservient to the 
 Church* 
 
 The principles and the interests of the Church 
 required that France should be a kingdom, for the 
 complete supremacy of the Church could be secured 
 only by a force which should crush all opposition. 
 ' Bow thy head, proud Sicarnbrian, adore what thou 
 hast burnt, and burn what thou hast adored ' was 
 the harsh order of St. Remi, when he baptised 
 Clovis and consecrated him as King. The Sicam- 
 brian could but obey. The Church had converted 
 the rough and crude material of barbarism into a 
 soft and plastic substance, which she had moulded 
 after her own image. Her principle is One, One 
 
 * Vide Appendix Note C. 
 
 IT 
 
ii 4 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 faith and One God. The Church is Catholic, 
 i.e. universal, but One. Beyond her pale there is 
 no salvation : Rome is her centre. She is exclusive ; 
 as there is l>ut One faith, there can be but One 
 authority. In the eyes of the Church Royalty was 
 inseparable from baptism, and since the days of 
 Clovis no Head of the State could govern in France 
 who was not of the Roman Catholic Church.* 
 
 Monarchy born in France, democratic and 
 centralising at the same time as we see it now in 
 modern Europe, is but the product of Frankish 
 barbarism and Roman absolutism. The altar pre- 
 ceded the throne in France, and it was but right 
 that Voltaire and Diderot should precede Mira- 
 beau and Danton. 'There is but one Monarchy 
 in Europe,' said Chateaubriand, 'that of France. 
 All the others are but her offspring and will dis- 
 appear with their parent;' while the judgment of 
 
 * Note. This is a formal article in the Concordat, a real diplomatic 
 treaty, between the Pope and Napoleon still in force. Ed. 
 
FRANCE 115 
 
 Chateaubriand, who was a royalist at heart, may 
 well have been correct for the following reason. 
 
 It is in France that the political evolution of 
 Europe must be studied, for it is there that it 
 begun, there that it has displayed itself most pro- 
 minently, and there that its action has been most 
 clearly marked. In compliance with that law of 
 division of labour, which controls the destinies of 
 every race, political genius seemed to be the special 
 heritage of the French. Religion, \vhich has every- 
 where exercised such powerful influence on the mind 
 of man, has been in France but a factor in politics. 
 The real origin of the Crusades has already been 
 established and, if we turn to the age of Louis XIV, 
 we detect the hand of the Church in the systematic 
 policy of the crown. ' Divide et impera' was the 
 motto of the Romans, and they conquered the 
 world. The Church appropriated the device and 
 has mastered France. 
 
 Louis XIV by his policy had unconsciously 
 
u6 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 divided the nobility into two classes. The one, 
 wealthy or endowed with benefices, and attracted to 
 or centralised in Versailles, had become his court, 
 and by the influence of that corruption which cul- 
 minated under Louis XV was gradually sinking into 
 menial subserviency. The other, poor and proud 
 or industrious and rich, equally disaffected and 
 indisposed to submit as it was mainly com- 
 posed of Huguenots, was marked out as victims to 
 the ; Dragonnades ' and the ' Lettres-de-Cachet ' ; 
 and while the English nobility, were establishing 
 an aristocracy which was to supply the warmest 
 adherents to "Restored Monarchy, that of France 
 degenerated into a caste, a noble order only, 
 and thus the throne deprived of its support soon 
 crumbled to the ground. Absolute Monarchy and 
 an exclusive caste were destined to perish simul- 
 taneously. The progress of events but too 
 often escape control, and the best calculated 
 measures frequently give results but little in 
 
FRANCE 117 
 
 accordance with anticipation. While the Church was 
 intent upon the subjection of the Monarchy within 
 such limits as might insure the integrity of her 
 power, she did not see* that her absolute policy 
 would defeat the object she kept in view ; and, when 
 unexpected disaster occurred, she could not refrain 
 from following the same mistaken principles. Thus 
 it happened that, when by means of the Revolu- 
 tion the third estate had established itself on the 
 ruins of Monarchy and of feudal institutions, the 
 Church continued to play her part, and, jealously 
 t.live to the protection of her ancient influence 
 from further attack, won over and enthralled to 
 her service the class that had attained to power, 
 
 * The Church in spite of her vast intelligence would appear to have 
 ignored up to the present moment the indisputable existence of the 
 laws of political gravitation. Equally as the movements of the 
 heavenly bodies are gov erned by the action of centrifugal and centri- 
 petal forces, political centralisation and decentralisation must pre- 
 serve an exact ratio, in order that the evolution of any society may be 
 effected in a gradual and regular measure. But the Church has 
 ever laboured under the erroneous impression that the absolute prin- 
 ciples of dogma could be applied to the determination of political 
 questions. Ed. 
 
1 1 8 SOCIAL E VOL VT10N 
 
 the third estate. With a view to maintain her own 
 predominence and to preserve the Monarchy, her 
 own especial creation, a compromise was effected 
 and conditions assented to, (the Concordat), which 
 should ensure this double result, and promote the 
 interests of this third class, to whom a larger sphere 
 of action must thenceforward be accorded. 
 
 The limits of such action the Church alone 
 could fix: for long experience in the art of 
 government and the management of men had 
 disclosed to her the secret. The Church has her 
 peculiar science and above all that of her own 
 interests. To the service of her knowledge of 
 human action, a knowledge as strictly secret as 
 that of the confessional, she has devoted the 
 most admirable engine of compulsion in the 
 form of a discipline even more remarkable for its 
 pliancy than for its strength. A cosmopolitan 
 organisation, perfected by her powers of observation, 
 cultivated by time and served by unrivalled diplo- 
 
FRAME 119 
 
 m a tic talent, was able to devise the means which 
 should convert a formidable movement, such as 
 Revolution, to her own advantage. Her course of 
 action was based upon experience. She knew well 
 that but for the authority of the Emperors,* recog- 
 nised as Gods by the tributaries to Rome, and but 
 for the Roman conquest, which united all nations 
 in a common bondage, Christianity could not have 
 taken root. The divine emperors had been, succes- 
 sively, objects of adoration until the barbarian 
 heard the words of Christ and took to heart the 
 lesson which they teach, ' Render unto Caesar the 
 things which are Caesar's ; and unto God the things 
 which are God's.' The separation of Church and 
 state was inculcated in these words, and a revolu- 
 tionary measure, in one sense, was this new doctrine. 
 It did ordain temporal submission and the payment 
 of tribute to the Emperors, but deprived them of a 
 large portion of their power, that spiritual authority 
 
 * Compare Bossuet's ' Discours sur 1'Histoire Universflle.' 
 
120 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 which had conferred divinity upon them. When 
 the barbarians, in after times, disputed over the 
 spoils of the Roman Empire, all temporal authority 
 had, so to say, disappeared, while the spiritual 
 power enjoyed the vigour of youth, although 
 it had passed into new hands. Paganism had laid 
 the train to which Christianity was to apply the 
 match. Centralism is ever destined to be the pre- 
 lude to an appalling crash. 
 
 Flushed with victory, the Church pounced upon 
 Gaul as her richest prey, and at the close of the 
 ninth century one third of the soil of Gaul was in 
 her hands. She seized the heritage of the Caesars, 
 which, without her, would have been irrevocably 
 lost. To ensure its preservation, she adopted their 
 policy : but for their power, which she did not 
 }'et possess, she substituted persuasion and wile, in 
 which she had already become an adept. 
 
 Submission to the ruler was inculcated as a 
 moral duty. The provinces were united by the tie 
 
FRANCE 121 
 
 of One faith under the watchful eye of the Church, 
 and this religious bond of union passed insensibly 
 into the administrative tie which should bind them 
 into one nation. The power of the Prince was 
 blended with that of the Church, and the latter 
 took good care to remind the former of this fact 
 when such admonition might be expedient; for a 
 theocratic spirit in the form of government would 
 ensure the submission of both king and noble. 
 
 The Church and Crown were bound by the con- 
 tract which had established Royalty; and, did the 
 kings display a desire to relax the stringency of its 
 terms, the threatened withdrawal of her perpetual 
 sanction proved to be the most efficient weapon of 
 the Church. The squabbles of the Valois with the 
 Church and the history of the League are equally 
 in point. Henry IV* did get the upper hand, but 
 he was obliged to submit; he would never have 
 ascended the throne had he not abjured his creed, 
 
 * Vide Appendix Note C. 
 
 
122 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 and renounced all disposition to resist the selfish 
 policy of the Church in her advance to complete 
 centralisation.* 
 
 In the old world urban government and religious 
 authority were inseparable. As the separation of 
 the two was the starting point and the essential 
 principle of Christianity, so the separation of 
 Church and State in their modern forms will mark 
 its end. Of this the Church was so convinced that 
 she spared no efforts to obtain of Napoleon the 
 renewal of the old tacit agreement, which had 
 existed since the days of Clovis and which was 
 broken by the Revolution. It was the Church 
 again that through the medium of Sieyes had sug- 
 gested the creation of Departments in the hope of 
 stifling the nominal autonomy of the Provinces, 
 
 * If we turn to the Scandinavian kingdoms and study the dissen- 
 sions which there prevailed at the commencement of the middle ages, 
 we shall find Christianity supported by the kings who are aiming at 
 centralisation and organisation, while the minor princes fight for 
 Paganism and Independence. A. H. Johnson. 'Normans in 
 Europe.' Ed. 
 
FRANCE 123 
 
 whose old spirit of independence, kid to rest during 
 ten centuries of serfdom and monarchical oppres- 
 sion, had been called to life in the turmoil of the 
 Revolution. There had been thirty-two Provinces ; 
 eighty-six Departments were to be substituted in 
 their place. The governors, ' baillis/ and seneschals 
 of the Frankish invasion were to be replaced by 
 prefects, judges and functionaries of the Roman 
 conquest. Officials increased by this extension of 
 administrative powers, for the perils which the 
 Church had incurred did but induce her to load 
 the conquered with heavier chains. ' That man,' 
 said Napoleon of Robespierre, ' has more method 
 than people think.' This assumed astonishment 
 does not disguise the acuteness of the remark. 
 Robespierre most undoubtedly did possess method 
 in his ideas, yet Napoleon was the result of 
 Robespierre. If the General Bonaparte was at first 
 the sword of the Revolution, the Emperor Napoleon 
 in his turn became, by the same claim as that of 
 
i2 4 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the Jacobin lawyer, the instrument of that me- 
 thodical spirit, which constitutes the strength of 
 the Church and enables her to enforce her will. 
 
 What purpose could the Jacobin Robespierre 
 have had in view when he decreed the worship of 
 the Supreme Being and of the Goddess Reason, 
 and devised a liturgy in which Deism clashed with 
 buffoonery, unless he wished to reconcile the French 
 to religious worship, and to pave the way for the 
 re-establishment of the altars of the Roman Catholic 
 Church ? The spirit of the Church became incarnate 
 in the Jacobins,* the brood which she had hatched : 
 
 * The Jacobin Club which eventually dominated the Revolution 
 derived its name from an old convent of the order of Jacobins in 
 which its members were accustomed to meet. The selection of such 
 a locality and title appear to have been unusually apposite, for an 
 author named Cardinal, who lived in the time of the Albigensian 
 conflict in the 12th century, has given us in a curious work, styled 
 ' Mas Jacopi ' the following criticism upon the monks of that order. 
 ' The Jacobins do little else than dispute as to which is the best wine 
 and have established a court for the decision of this question. Any 
 one who may presume to find fault with them is condemned as a 
 heretic Vaudois. Their daring as inquisitors in the hope of penetrat- 
 ing our secrets renders them more and more formidable to us.' Set 
 aside the halo of sanctity, we have here the portrait of Robespierre 
 and his spies. Ed. 
 
FRANCE 125 
 
 it inspired their plots, animated their theories and 
 drove them to the murder of the Girondins, the 
 upholders of Federalist principles. The Jacobin 
 chant fashioned on the decalogue, and so often 
 heard in the dark days of their tyranny during 
 ' the terror,' ended with these characteristic words, 
 
 Thou shalt hunt down the Royalist,' 
 And bring to bay the Federalist.' 
 
 and these were styled the Jacobin commandment?. 
 The objects of the Girondin party was to direct the 
 Revolution towards the development of the provin- 
 cial franchises and to rid the country of political 
 centralisation ; but the Girondins stood condemned 
 from the day when the Revolution lost all command 
 over its proceedings and fell into the hands of the 
 mob and of dictators. The execution of the Giron- 
 dins may be called the Saint-Bartholomew of the 
 Revolution. We cannot vilify by a better name 
 the assassination of an entire party, effected by the 
 
126 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 grossest perfidy of the hired spy and by the basest 
 passions which can disgrace humanity.* 
 
 While the youth of the country, which furnished 
 the Provincial levies, was battling on the frontier, the 
 Jacobins in Paris availed themselves of the oppor- 
 tunity to throw over the Provinces the meshes of 
 centralisation. Napoleon had but to draw the net 
 more tightly. Did not the Jacobins represent 
 by such a policy the old Roman tradition and 
 become the instruments of the Church ; and at what 
 period has not the Church as a political power, as a 
 
 * The Jacobins and the Girondins formed the two great parties 
 which competed for the political control of the Revolution. The 
 leaders of the first were Robespierre, St Just, Tallien and Couthon, 
 while Vergniand, Camille Desmoulins, Barbaroux and Buzot were the 
 chiefs of the second faction. The principles of the Jacobin may be 
 condensed into the theory that * one uniform political rule must be 
 applied to all the races and divisions of one and the same nation, ' in 
 opposition to the tenets of the Girondins that ' for the different races 
 or countries, components of one nation, different and peculiar political 
 regulation should be designed.' The Girondins' view was the correct 
 one, although they were defeated. Principles which may hold good 
 as to judicial legislation may not be equally true as to the laws which 
 affect political questions, because the first conform principally to what 
 the state of the civilisation of any people may then happen to be, a 
 variable condition, and they therefore depend upon time ' but the 
 second are essentially dependent upon space, which must ever be of a 
 varied nature. Ed. 
 
FRANCE 127 
 
 state within a state, pursued the principles of cen- 
 tralisation ? Her greatest effort in that direction 
 
 & 
 
 was during the reign of! Louis XIV. Before that 
 time Charlemagne at her instigation had estab- 
 lished the amalgamation of the free or allodial 
 lands, and thus prepared the way for feudalism.* 
 Of the scattered disconnected fiefs Feudalism 
 formed large estates which were eventually 
 absorbed into the domain of Monarchy, in obedi- 
 ence to the inevitable laws of political attraction 
 
 * The fundamental principles of feudal society were contained in 
 this formula : 
 
 ' No lord without land, 
 No land without a lord,' 
 
 which is the expression of the self-assertion of brute force by conquest 
 and appropriation of the spoil. By this system of feudal hierarchy 
 every one was dependent upon some other person. The peasant was 
 attached to the soil ; and if the man himself could not be sold, the 
 land might be, and he passed with the land to the purchasers, so that 
 serfdom of these Christian times represents the slavery of the old 
 world. The barons owed homage to their superior, count or duke, 
 who in his turn might himself owe homage to another baron in case 
 any of his lands were dependencies upon the estate of this baron. 
 This inter-dependence came to be interminable, but it was the only 
 condition by which some semblance of order could be maintained in a 
 society which would not admit any rights but those of brute 
 force. Ed. 
 
128 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 and gravitation. When Monarchy in its turn 
 succumbed, Napoleon, guided by the same influence 
 and in pursuit of the same method prepared the 
 ground for a Feudalism of finance by the adoption 
 of his Code, which was to be the genesis of the 
 centralisation of capital. Under the auspices of 
 the Church and after an experience of Royalty the 
 nation did but return to a Feudalism of another 
 character. Centuries apart the Frankish Emperor 
 and the Roman Emperor set to work in the same 
 spirit; true to herself the Church, now as then, 
 watched and waited anxiously lest her prey should 
 escape her. Once the property of the Franks, 
 France had now become a Roman Chattel,* and 
 conquest had succeeded to conquest after an inter- 
 mediary stage of Revolution. 
 
 Such was the course of political evolution in 
 France, under the aegis of the Church, from the 
 
 * Koman in the sense that old Roman forms and principles were 
 re-introduce J into France. Ed. 
 
FRANCE 129 
 
 times of Clovis to the end of the Revolution. 
 True that her position in these last days was 
 supremely perilous, but she showed that the danger 
 was not insurmountable. However formidable 
 the attack upon her existence, she proved that the 
 action of long standing forces cannot be summarily 
 overthrown. 
 
 Moreover able men, devoted to her interest, were 
 always available at the proper moment to her 
 service. It is to the priest Sieyes that France owes 
 the Republic, one and indivisible, as it was he 
 who comprised the whole aim of the Revolution in 
 this formula, ' What is the third estate ? Nothing. 
 What ought it to be ? Everything.' 
 
 Here we have again the doctrine of centralisa- 
 tion in the interests of a monopoly, i.e. of a class : 
 ' All or nothing ' is what Sieyes, the priest, required 
 for the Third Estate. 'Out of the Church no 
 salvation,' is the religious formula. 'All or 
 
 nothing ' became the political maxim. Sound 
 
 I 
 
i 3 o SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 reasoning this, and to what end ? If every person 
 in the nation thought the same, and entertained 
 similar notions of his own social importance, all 
 classes would be in a permanent state of war. 
 But does not this prove that the political spirit 
 of the Church survived the Revolution, and that 
 the Revolution was but the fulfilment of the pre- 
 diction of abbe Sieves ? It has been said that the 
 Church had defined the limits which the Revolu- 
 tion should not exceed, and Sieves it was who 
 spoke in her name. It was Robespierre who 
 cleared the ground and it was Napoleon who 
 erected the edifice. Just as monarchy is the pro- 
 duct of Frankish barbarism grafted on to Roman 
 absolutism, so is Jacobinism the product of that 
 principle of Unity maintained by the Church and 
 the sophisms of the ' Social Contract/ Robespierre 
 was not only a disciple of Rousseau, he was also a 
 lawyer, a 'togatus.' Lawyers are the nurslings of 
 the Roman code ; they defend, as is notorious, the 
 
FRANCE 131 
 
 truth or falsehood indifferently, justice or injustice 
 without scruple. The fallacies of Rousseau could 
 not fall on better soil, for they are rhetoricians of 
 the same stamp as those who ventured to dispute 
 with Socrates. We may say with truth that, as 
 the founders of this system called Jacobinism, the 
 effect of which was to lead France invariably to 
 every kind of political disorders, Rousseau and 
 Robespierre were inspired by the logical spirit and 
 education of the nation. In the course of the 
 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Bar, the 
 University, every institution destined to affect 
 political life and to supply men for public functions, 
 in one word, the classes which comprised the third 
 estate in the social order as opposed to the nobility, 
 who held the sword and shed their blood in battle, 
 all became schoolmen, and swore. by Aristotle. By 
 the side of Amyot and Rabelais devoted to the 
 literature of Greece, by the side of Ronsard who 
 pathetically praised the beauties of her tongue, the 
 
132 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 philosophical pursuits of the middle ages were con- 
 fined to the works of Aristotle, and philosophy 
 itself was almost limited to the study of logic. 
 Reasoning thus overwhelmed reason. ' Summum 
 jus, summainjuriaf Reason, that faculty which 
 could alone engender liberty, slowly wasted awa}^, 
 so that this period of intellectual gestation, and of 
 the national education, was followed by political 
 results that were antagonistic to liberty. 
 
 If the loud laugh of Homer breaks forth in 
 Rabelais we shall surely find later on the fallacies 
 of the Scholiasts repeated in that legislative fiction 
 known as the 'Social Contract.' If Aristotle be 
 the inventor of the syllogism, that unrivalled in- 
 strument of deductive reasoning, as dear to thinkers 
 as it is dangerous to thought, it is Descartes who 
 has supplied its rules. Greek thought revived 
 in French brains. Its qualities of taste, of wit, and 
 of merry jest fascinated the French, but with their 
 attendant defects. Aristotle ruled over the middle 
 
FRANCE 133 
 
 ages as Calvin swayed Geneva to the prejudice of 
 science and of liberty. Fanaticism did not hesitate 
 to punish those who presumed to differ from his 
 views, and Ram us had bitter experience of this 
 error. A doubt as to the infallibility of Aristotle 
 was not permissible. Reason and truth were com- 
 pelled to bow before authority, and intelligence 
 was forced to submit to reputation. The beauties 
 of the Greek tongue, which gave expression to the 
 happiest gifts of intellect, were with such students 
 more conducive to frivolous conceits and play of 
 words than to sound reflection. As a consequence 
 the writers of that day, lay and clerical, neglected 
 those works of Aristotle which contained the trea- 
 sures of his observation, and preferred to quibble 
 over the subtleties of Logic.* 
 
 Reflection is that form of thought which relies 
 upon experiment and observation. ' Truth/ says 
 Bacon, ' is the daughter of Time and not of 
 
 * Vide Appendix Note D. 
 
i 3 4 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Authority.' All authority when unchecked and 
 uncontrolled, as was that of Aristotle, must prove 
 disastrous. Observation alone can supply that 
 indispensable control in scientific or philosophic 
 subjects, and the influence of Aristotle effectually 
 forbade its exercise. Reason, which is to be so 
 matured, was thus less cultivated than was mere 
 reasoning; whereas the latter faculty if unaccom- 
 panied by reason is too often but a useless function 
 of the brain, as Aristotle himself admits when he 
 asserts that, * a syllogism is the arrangement of 
 several propositions, and not the creation of a new 
 proposition.' This abuse of the mental exercise 
 of disputation which French intelligence endured 
 for the period of two centuries, at that period of 
 its development which corresponds to the youth of 
 man, were attended by most injurious results. 
 Authority and logic were ever afterwards held 
 superior to freedom of thought and reason; whereas 
 the predominance of these latter faculties is the 
 
FRANCE 135 
 
 truest criterion of a keen sense of observation 
 either in a race or in the individual. A man who 
 does observe is invariably more amenable to reason 
 than one who is incompetent to do the same. 
 
 The forms of thought are affected in a similar 
 manner to those organic forms which by exercise 
 or disuse are developed or become rudimentary; 
 and if we consider that, apart from the question of 
 time, the intellectual development of any people in 
 no way differs from that of an individual, and 
 must experience the same phases, and pass suc- 
 cessively through periods of growth and decrease 
 in subordination to each other, we may find that 
 social psychology and the historic evolution of 
 thought and language may be clearly understood 
 through the fresh light thus thrown upon them. 
 This is, however, so true that Descartes himself, 
 whose name inaugurates that new birth of philo- 
 sophy which annihilated the influence of the 
 middle ages, after he had laid down the rules by 
 
136 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 which his new method should be governed, did not 
 hesitate to violate them in a flagrant manner, and 
 neglect to base his deductions upon accurate obser- 
 vation. The influence of his education and of his 
 race proved too strong for his genius as a thinker. 
 In an opposite sense the same psychological fact 
 reappears in Hobbes and the followers of Bacon. 
 
 We must remark that authority and logic are 
 usually inter-cunnected, for authority must be 
 logical in its obligatory agreement with itself, and 
 logic is necessarily authoritative, as its only object 
 is to enforce an argument. Deduction, the soul of 
 the syllogism, is especially appreciated by those 
 people who admire force ; and as a mode of reason- 
 ing is essentially feminine. It requires more readi- 
 ness of wit than depth, more craft than power, and 
 it throws into relief the more superficial qualities 
 of the intellect, which may be considered as orna- 
 mental rather than profitable to their possessor. 
 
 At the same time the synthetic talent of the 
 
FRANCE 137 
 
 nation, whose most characteristic memorial is the 
 Encyclopaedia, was too well gratified by the 
 deductive method to be ever able to abandon its 
 use. The consequences of this pre-occupation of the 
 intellect in the study of logic, and of this abuse 
 of a single mode of reasoning, were to place at the 
 service of that ruling passion among the French, 
 Equality, every reason, good, bad or indifferent* 
 which might be acceptable to tiair views and 
 agree with their inclinations. 
 
 A yearly division or distribution of the land 
 took place among the Gauls. ' The object being/ 
 says Caesar, 'that the lower people should be 
 satisfied by the possession of wealth equal to that 
 of the more important men.' If we interpret in a 
 political sense all the deductions from premises of 
 a strictly levelling character, which, so to say, 
 exclude the idea of true Liberty, we shall find that 
 they will lead us eventually to centralisation, unity 
 and despotism, of which the absolute form is 
 
i 3 8 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 autocracy; and socially they will lead to com- 
 munism, the most perfect form of which is to be 
 found in a religious community. Neither the one 
 nor the other form is suitable to a country that is 
 really free, and the one and the other are in reality 
 antagonistic to human progress. 
 
 Rousseau, Sieyes, Robespierre and Bonaparte 
 are the names which mark the successive stages 
 through which Equality has passed, as distinct 
 from Liberty. Equality and Liberty are both con- 
 sistent with Mature, and are as necessary to the 
 equilibrium of the faculties of the individual as to 
 the regular action of the government, the organ of 
 the society in which he lives. 
 
 Jacobinism, which is the outcome of the principles 
 of unity advocated by the Church and of the 
 growth of those acquired forces which are favour- 
 able to its development, traded upon those defects, 
 which, with nations as with individuals, represent 
 with their corresponding qualities the two aspects 
 
FRANCE 139 
 
 of the same passion. Jealousy and envy, two of the 
 slightest defects of Jacobinism, are the immediate 
 products of that feeling of equality when pushed 
 to its farthest limits, and viewed as a leading tenet 
 of government. The Revolution has been com- 
 pared to Saturn, who devoured his own children. 
 The simile is most exact if we but glance at the 
 statement of the ultimate fate of the Presidents of 
 the Convention: it reads as follows: 
 
 Guillotined 
 Suicides 
 Transported 
 Imprisoned 
 Raving Madmen 
 Outlawed . 
 
 18 
 3 
 8 
 6 
 4 
 
 22 
 
 Total 61 
 
 The explanation is obvious. The passion of 
 equality is too often represented in the individual 
 by the sentiments of envy and jealousy, words 
 which express that feeling which declines to 
 recognise in others an incontestable superiority. 
 Equality before the law and in the struggles for 
 
140 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 existence is the only equality consistent with 
 political freedom, and this much is the moral aim 
 of all political and social progress. Men are un- 
 equally gifted, and ever will be. It is useless to 
 seek for equality in this direction, for inequality is 
 not merely a natural phenomenon innate in man, 
 but it is one of the main conditions of human 
 progress. The animals that are not subjected to 
 this law, or to a less extent, remain animals, 
 being on an equal footing as to their wants and 
 passions. Beaumarchais defined the superiority of 
 man to other animals by the observation that 'Man 
 was prone to love at all seasons and could drink 
 when he was not thirsty,' and this definition, 
 although satirical, serves to discredit the deductions 
 of Rousseau relating to Natural Equality. 
 
 The pursuit of such equality resembles the task 
 of Penelope. The day on which it is attained will 
 be the close of human evolution. 
 
 What can be said in favour of a system which 
 
FRANCE 141 
 
 should be based solely on equality, and thus 
 deprive all superior beings of all social value ? 
 In revolutionary times the eminent men, whose 
 policy is obstructive, are considered as obstacles 
 and are suppressed. 'It was by dint of talent/ 
 says Lavalle'e, ' that the Girondins delayed their 
 condemnation;' but when Girondins and Dan ton, 
 Mountain and Plain, had disappeared, there was no 
 alternative to Napoleon and Despotism. There 
 the political level is absolute, and what the people 
 mistake for equality is but the degradation of 
 servitude. When the clique had devoured each 
 other and one only survived, the monopoly became 
 a fact. Here is the formula, Equality = Unity = 
 Despotism, for equality without liberty is but 
 servitude. 
 
 In such a political system mediocrity must pre- 
 vail. Experience has taught us that Jacobinism must 
 result in a war of classes and continually provoke 
 revolutions, for in its main tenet government 
 
142 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 becomes the monopoly of a party. ' Come with 
 us, or go your own way. No salvation but in our 
 Creed.' This is the watch-word of the Jacobins' 
 political faith. 
 
 On the other hand, Liberty untempered by any 
 sentiment of Equality may give rise, as it does in 
 England, to the worst abuses. There again we 
 may say, ' Summum jus summa injuria!' Liberty 
 Avithout Equality is but the right of the strongest. 
 
 Where is the truth, the happy medium, to be 
 found ? Only in the exact relation in which the 
 two should stand, or, in plain words, in Nature 
 herself. The Frenchman possessed of exceptional 
 intelligence, gifted with refined taste and attached 
 to his native soil, has sought to enjoy the greatest 
 amount of happiness therein. Constantly occupied 
 with the idea of his own emancipation, he peace- 
 fully believes the Republic to be the most complete 
 form of political equality and the proper means of 
 attaining his social evolution. But then arises the 
 
FRANCE 143 
 
 interminable question as to what is to be the 
 form of that Republic ? Some wish that it be 
 simply conservative, others that it should be of 
 a more scientific character. One claims that ifc 
 should be Radical, another that it should be a 
 Commonwealth of the peasantry, each one fashion- 
 ing it after his own idea according to the exigences 
 of the time, and also after his own fancy and 
 education. But all are continually revolving in 
 the old Jacobin orbit and are prepared to sacri- 
 fice the entire country to the caprices of a minority, 
 and no one dares to lay a sacrilegious hand upon 
 the accepted system. The people see with astonish- 
 ment a train of functionaries, who are continually 
 being relieved of their duties and replaced by 
 others according to the pleasure of the rulers of 
 the day, but who all agree in treating the inhabi- 
 tants as natives of a conquered country. One 
 department is often sacrificed to another, for no 
 reason beyond the good pleasure of the central 
 
i 4 4 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 power, and all favours are reserved for this latter 
 department, if its Parliamentary representatives 
 can but lay their hands on office. This is perforce 
 one of the consequences of centralisation and of 
 Parliamentarism, for the disadvantages of Demo- 
 cratic governments consists admittedly in the 
 continual change of its personnel and in the 
 pretensions of every one, with reason or without, 
 to have a share in the government of the country. 
 Small factions and cliques are formed in Parlia- 
 ment in order to facilitate this assumption of power 
 and that everyone may have his turn of laying his 
 country under contribution, for they all imagine 
 the wealth of the nation to be unlimited arid the 
 public treasure to be inexhaustible. This Govern- 
 ment of coteries, this exclusiveness of the respective 
 parties, so jealously sustained to the grave de- 
 triment of the general welfare, is what may be ac- 
 curately described as the Jacobin political system. 
 The consequences of such a state of affairs have 
 
FRANCE 145 
 
 led the nation into an indebtedness of forty 
 milliards or forty thousand million francs or six- 
 teen hundred millions sterling, (for State, Depart- 
 mental and Communal purposes) threatening it 
 with bankruptcy and precipitating it into unpre- 
 cedented disasters, which no responsibility has ever 
 interposed to mitigate. Such a system is a mon- 
 archy without its advantages. Kings are often 
 restrained through fear of losing their crowns ; but 
 in Republican France no authority is interposed to 
 protect the common interests of the nation. The 
 whole system is on the joint-stock principle, and 
 financial anarchy is the order of the day. The 
 ministers resign their offices but, as not the slightest 
 value is set on their heads and their fortunes are 
 beyond reach, no retribution beyond the curses of 
 the nation and the judgment of history can attain 
 them. Sorry consolation this, when the chances of 
 invasion or of bankruptcy or the possibility of both 
 
 at once are contemplated. A parallel might be 
 
 K 
 
J 4 6 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 found in the history of the smaller States of 
 America, where the acquisition of power resembles 
 somewhat an attack on a mail coach, but there is 
 some excuse at least for their shortcomings on the 
 ground of defective civilisation. 
 
 Must we therefore conclude that democracies are 
 necessarily predestined to endure such political 
 deceptions and to forego the blessings of stable 
 government and public integrity? Would it not 
 be preferable to suppose that they require forms 
 of government of their own ? 
 
 Nations have indeed never been formed but by 
 conquest, and the amalgamation of different races 
 has never been effected by their voluntary cohesion. 
 But the development of any such nation into the 
 highest form of civilisation is to be achieved only 
 by the general agreement of all the races that con- 
 stitute the nation ; such agreement is known to us 
 as Federalism, and a federal government is the one 
 best adapted to democracies. 
 
FRANCE 147 
 
 For this reason we are led to believe that the 
 political evolution of France will end in the re- 
 placement of the Republic, One and Indivisible, 
 by a Federal Republic. As religious freedom leads 
 to political liberty, so does political liberty conduce 
 to economic liberty which must not be confounded 
 with Free Trade, a mere commercial system and 
 in this political regeneration an economic organi- 
 sation suited to the wants of modern industry may 
 probably come to light. Thus do we see that pro- 
 gress of every kind is connected in space and 
 is successive in time, and by such means is Social 
 Evolution effected. 
 
 The tone of French courage is essentially personal, 
 because it is generally the incarnation of an idea. 
 To achieve the triumph of an idea is accepted as 
 the special mission of the French in the domain of 
 modern progress. Idea is the immediate product 
 of intelligence, as wit is its quintessence ; in arts 
 and sciences it takes the form of invention. 
 
148 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 In the field of invention France has taken a most 
 distinguished share, but, logical and not practical 
 as Frenchmen are, they do not benefit by discovery 
 but leave to others the advantages of its application. 
 Dominated by the idea of political enfranchisement 
 the Frenchman is ever disposed to fight; when 
 transported and stimulated by such a passion, the 
 ' Furia Francese ' displays his impulsive imagi- 
 nation. Yet his nature is feminine ; and his sym- 
 pathy with the weak and oppressed impels him to 
 fight for their liberation. True to her feminine 
 instincts France has always sought adventures 
 either political or military : and such must be the 
 verdict of other nations on the character of the 
 French. 
 
 The ' Gesta Dei per Francos' have become cele- 
 brated ; ' Heaven is too high, and France too far 
 off! ' was the despairing cry of Poland, when Kos- 
 ciusko fell. But the most brilliant homage ever 
 paid to her is to be found in the verses of Shake- 
 
FRANCE 149 
 
 speare, the greatest poet of England, if not of all 
 mankind. 
 
 ' France, whose armour conscience buckled on, 
 Whom zeal and charity brought into the field, 
 As God's own soldier ! ' 
 
 King John. Act 3. Sc. 2. 
 
 Lamartine did but paraphrase this sentiment 
 unconsciously when he said, 'When Providence 
 wills that an idea should enlighten the world, it is 
 first kindled in the heart of a Frenchman.' The 
 great French Revolution did not proclaim the rights 
 of the Frenchman but the rights of man, and it 
 was in no view to conquest or to pillage that the 
 idea had originally been conceived. Opinions may 
 differ on this point, but Bonaparte was in truth 
 but the sword of the Revolution. Voltaire had 
 overthrown the altar; Napoleon overturned the 
 thrones. When foreign nations saw his soldiers 
 encamped within their churches and thrones fall to 
 pieces like houses built of cards, they understood 
 that the principles by which the altar was rever- 
 
i5o SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 enced as the symbol of immutability, and the 
 throne respected as the emblem of authority, were 
 but doctrines at the mercy of a revolted people. 
 Their idols at last lay shattered on the ground. 
 
 Pillage and rapine were not the motives which 
 induced France at that moment to take up arms.* 
 ' When the army of the Sambre and Meuse entered 
 Amsterdam,' says Jomini, ' that city, so reputed 
 for its wealth, witnessed with unqualified ad- 
 miration ten battalions of these soldiers without 
 shoes or stockings, without the necessary clothing, 
 and obliged to conceal their nakedness with wisps 
 of plaited straw, enter in triumph, to the sound of 
 martial music, within their walls ; then pile their 
 arms and bivouac for hours on the public squares 
 in the midst of snow and ice, and wait in resigna- 
 tion and without a murmur until their wants could 
 be attended to or quarters be provided for them.' 
 
 * What is true of the Revolutionary armies as to pillage does not 
 apply to those of Napoleon, still less to those of his generals. Ed. 
 
FRANCE 151 
 
 (Jomini, vol. vi. p. 215). Could such men have 
 risen in arras for the mere love of spoil and plunder, 
 when at the cost of untold sufferings they bestowed 
 political freedom upon the world ? 
 
 The Revolution proclaimed!*) man : ' Thou shalt 
 not obey against thy will.' 
 
 To France then belongs the second great step in 
 the work of the enfranchisement of mankind. 
 
 The Frenchman does not emigrate; he is the 
 human type of the sedentary species. His principle 
 faculty is Intelligence ; his dominant social feeling 
 is Equality. In philosophy his method is especially 
 synthetic and his reasoning deductive. 
 
 Three classes have composed or still compose 
 the nation. 
 
 1. The Nobility, whose feeling of caste is that of 
 honour. ' Honour,' says Montesquieu, ' is the main- 
 spring of Monarchy/ The essential characteristic 
 of this nobility is, or rather was, its descent from 
 the ancient Franks. 
 
152 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 2. The Bourgeoisie, or Citizen class, whose feeling 
 of caste is dignity. It is the ' Qtium cum dignitate ' 
 of the Tusculans and should indicate a Roman 
 descent. 
 
 3. The People, whose innate sentiment is probity. 
 The social evolution is collectivist: to describe it 
 
 graphically we should employ the ellipse. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 ' The Englishman observes, reflects, and stands his ground.' 
 
 THE Englishman, whose nature is of a reflex 
 character, rarely obeys his first impulse but 
 generally follows his second thoughts in obedi- 
 ence to his proverbial maxim. Two currents of 
 blood would appear to flow in his veins, of which 
 one excites and the other allays his passion. His 
 mind is ever restless, always uneasy ; is surprised 
 by any accident and thrown off its balance until 
 reflection tempers the disturbance which the occur- 
 rence has created. The English genius is the 
 inverse of the French, or, we might say, they can 
 
154 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 best be shown by contrast. If the cause of these 
 revulsions of feeling be sought, we should attribute 
 them, first, to the climate. A heated iron must 
 eventually lose its heat, but if it be plunged into 
 cold water it will speedily be cooled. A man 
 under the influence of his passions will become 
 excited anywhere, but ice, and especially fog, must 
 exert a more powerful influence upon his reason 
 than the rays of the sun can do. 
 
 Racial influence must also enter largely into 
 these revulsions of feeling. The Celtic blood is 
 the first to be roused, but the Saxon has the last 
 word. The first proposes, but the second disposes. 
 It has been well said that the versatile rapidity, 
 brilliancy and imagination of the Celtic race have 
 been blended with the strength, endurance and' 
 perseverance of the Saxon stock. These reasons 
 cannot fail at once to strike everyone, but the true 
 explanation of these phenomena must be sought 
 elsewhere. 
 
ENGLAND 155 
 
 The genius of the French, the fruit of Intelligence, 
 is simple or rather synthetic and, being thus dis- 
 posed to unity and the ready grasp of any subject, 
 leaps rapidly from thought to action. With the 
 Frenchman, reflection cannot stay the impulse of the 
 thought, which must be gratified at once. This is 
 the ' furia francese' of which we have spoken; but, 
 in contrast to this disposition of an impulsive nature, 
 another national characteristic must be noted which 
 cannot be more clearly nor more accurately defined 
 than in the observation of Dion Cassius on the 
 Gallic character : 'The Gauls are in every matter 
 hurried away by their unruly passions, and cannot 
 control either their confidence or their fears. They 
 pass from audacity to sudden panic, and from terror 
 to insane temerity. The consequence of this frivol- 
 ous disposition is, that victory induces insufferable 
 pride, and defeat entails despondency.' Dion thus 
 gives us a view of the reverse side of the medal, 
 and he was right to point it out. 'The man of 
 
156 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Latin race,' says Proudhon, ' loves battle and 
 victory from pride; the Englishman from a passion 
 for absorption.' True idealists, the French love 
 glory for itself, and a Louis XIV or a Napoleon 
 could always seduce them by the charms of 
 victory. 
 
 With the Englishman, the moving thought which 
 guides the will varies with the wants due to climate, 
 soil and race : and the nature of this will imparts 
 in consequence to the dependent action a widely 
 different course. ' The indomitable courage of the 
 Britons/ says Macaulay, ' was never more steady, 
 nor more obstinate, than at the close of a doubtful 
 and bloody day.' Now the first impulse of the 
 Frenchman will generally decide- the action, and 
 in the action, under the dominion of an idea, the 
 initial movement is so violent that, if it be frus- 
 trated in its object, the effort requisite to achieve 
 his aim is often impaired. But as the force which 
 supplies this effort is limited, it follows that not 
 
ENGLAND 157 
 
 only should this effort be proportioned to the action, 
 but also be in due relation to the object to be 
 attained. In other words, the Frenchmen, as a 
 rule, act before they reflect. If their entire history 
 supports the observation of Dion Cassius, the cool 
 conduct of the Scotch piper in the thick of Water- 
 loo and the remark of Wellington at that trying 
 moment will equally account for not only the 
 difference between the two characters, but also 
 for every difference which distinguishes the two 
 nations. 
 
 Impulse is the quality that distinguishes the 
 French character, while Resistance is the more 
 peculiar characteristic of the Englishman. The 
 one, versatile by race and feminine in mind, has 
 begun the engagement in a generous spirit, without 
 thought of the consequences. The other awaits 
 the final hour ; but, that resolution once taken j 
 he becomes the living personification of ' alea 
 jacta est,' ' The die is cast.' This is not the ' Per- 
 
158 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 haps ' of Montaigne, but the fatalism of Shake- 
 speare, the stoicism of Borne. Reflection precedes 
 and resignation follows action whatever be the 
 result. There is no elation ; desperate as has been 
 the resistance, victory does not bring exultation. 
 A feeling of indifference as to the achievement 
 succeeds and, as the immediate realisation of com- 
 plete success suffices, the Englishman sings no 
 poeans either before or after victory. 15 ' 
 
 This reference to Waterloo suggests another 
 train of thought, for the great battles which decide 
 the destinies of nations are not the exclusive 
 province of the poet or historian, but the sociologist 
 may also claim to comment upon them. If the 
 skill of generals and the bravery of the soldier 
 there find free play, and if tactics and strategy 
 there boast their proudest illustration, it is on those 
 
 * A similar idea is expressed by Carlyle when he says, ' The English 
 are a dumb people. They can do great acts but not describe them. 
 Like the old Romans and some few others their epic poem is written 
 on the Earth's surface ; England, her mark. ' Ed. 
 
ENGLAND 159 
 
 fields that the long-standing quarrels and anti- 
 pathies of rival races are so often adjusted. The 
 verdict of eternal justice there decides the an- 
 tagonism of nations and regulates the differences 
 of humanity. 
 
 Driven by the Franks, the masters of Gaul, from 
 their adopted soil, the compatriots of Hollo, who 
 had become in their turn the masters of England, 
 could not forgive their conquerors for this com- 
 pulsory exodus from France. In this feeling the 
 war which lasted for one hundred years took its 
 rise and was waged to gratify the quarrels of the 
 rival nobles at the expense of two long-suffering 
 peoples. But in those plains of Belgium, whence 
 the Salian and Ripuarian Franks had emerged to 
 conquer Gaul, not only did the descendants of the 
 old competitors meet in conflict, but on that ground 
 was to be accomplished the revenge of the Celtic 
 tribes, who had been robbed of their country by 
 the victorious Romans. 
 
160 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 The defeat of Napoleon stands in contrast to the 
 victory of Caesar and at the same time marks the 
 effectual check to any repetition of aggression on 
 the part of the Latin element. On the field of 
 Waterloo the defeat of Vercingetorix was avenged 
 by Celtic soldiers. 
 
 When the ancient Druids, the priests and magis- 
 trates of old Gaul, were hunted down like wild 
 beasts by the Emperor Claudius as the inveterate 
 opponents to Roman rule ; when the natives had 
 been driven from Armorica, from the Channel 
 Islands and finally from Wales, the survivors 
 retreated to the fastnesses of the Grampian Hills, 
 the last refuge to unparalleled misfortune. Who 
 could then have dreamed that the unhappy 
 remnant of the Celtic race would ever take a part 
 in the destiny of civilisation ? Yet their hour was 
 to come in June 1815. In that struggle of giants 
 ihe Celtic battalions, shaken and broken by the 
 impetuous charges of Ney's cavalry, but with ranks 
 
ENGLAND 161 
 
 immediately reformed and with unwavering front 
 shattered on that day the fortunes of Napoleon. 
 France did recover from the blow, but the star of 
 Napoleon set to rise no more. Glorious as was 
 that battle it supplies an historic reason, for 
 history, like sociology, has nothing in common 
 with sentiment. 
 
 It is useless to dilate upon the arrival of Blucher> 
 or the inactivity of Grouchy. The greatest mili- 
 tary genius of modern times attributed his defeat 
 to fatality, and strove to defend 3iis reputation by 
 calumnious aspersions upon the conduct of his 
 generals. The day had well nigh closed ; the 
 faults of the one, or the opportune arrival of the 
 other, could not affect the stern resistance of the 
 Celtic regiments to the repeated onslaughts of the 
 Imperial Guard. On the plain of Waterloo Latins 
 and Germans, who had of old joined to crush the 
 Celt, once more engaged in conflict, but the glory 
 
 of the day remained with the Celtic soldier, who 
 
 L 
 
i6 2 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 after eighteen huri'Jred years reasserted the superi- 
 ority of his race. 
 
 This digression will serve to show how, while 
 philosophy may find a moral in the facts which 
 history relates, sociology will furnish the link 
 which shall connect the two. Sociology deals 
 with the qualities of mankind, and points out the 
 connection between men and facts in time and 
 space, by which the nature and characteristic 
 qualities of each race as well as the qualifications 
 which are indispensable to a useful display of 
 human activity may be most accurately ascer- 
 tained. The soldier should have the conception of 
 space and of the means at his disposal. The states- 
 man should rather possess that of time, of facts 
 comprised within the domain of history and of the 
 lessons which they teach. Judgment depends 
 mainly upon comparison; comparison, judgment, 
 analogy and apposition of ideas, all methods of 
 philosophy, are equally the processes to be em- 
 
ENGLAND 163 
 
 ployed in the investigation of Social Science. We 
 shall doubtless meet, by this method, with pheno 
 mena which are not peculiar to our time or races, 
 but which fall under general laws. The differ- 
 ence of time as displayed by new ideas and the 
 difference of race attributable to soil and climate 
 in no wise affect the laws which govern the 
 advance of civilisation, and thereby we may arrive 
 at the requisite explanation of the reflex character 
 of the Englishman. 
 
 Reflection does not precede, but follows, thought, 
 and, as a rule, precedes action. Reflection controls 
 action, for thought has no consequence so long as 
 it does not influence human activity. It will be 
 otherwise it' thought be free, but, if a man or race 
 is endowed with great activity, it may cost us dear 
 if we allow thought to indulge the caprice of fancy. 
 Thought then must be tempered by reflection. 
 Observation should therefore in every possible case 
 aid the mind, and, to that end, we must resort to 
 
164 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 analysis, and consequently it must follow that the 
 reasoning of such a man or of such a race will 
 become eventually more inductive than deductive. 
 Now, while the Frenchman leans to the deductive, 
 the Englishman employs in preference the in- 
 ductive method, the method par excellence of 
 Experimentation. 
 
 The employment of this method not only indi- 
 cates a race more prone to analysis than to 
 synthesis, but this use of analysis, which tends 
 to diffuse thought in opposition to synthesis which 
 concentrates it, explains why English thought 
 is deficient in mobility. At the same time we 
 may infer from what precedes that the com- 
 bined use of analysis and induction shows that 
 in the domain of the intellectual faculties, Will 
 with the Englishman prevails over Reason, for 
 Will is the faculty of activity, and activity is 
 more powerful in England than elsewhere. It 
 is not then surprising that thought with the 
 
ENGLAND 165 
 
 Englishman should assume the form of reflection, 
 for the reasons that have been given.* 
 
 Facts tend to support the above abstract 
 reasoning. Production in England exceeds the 
 limits attained in other countries, and production 
 is the material proof of activity. The famous 
 aphorism, 'Time is money/ corroborates this 
 opinion, and the poet expresses the national 
 sentiment when he sings : 
 
 ' Not enjoyment, and not sorrow 
 
 Is our destined end or way, 
 But to act that each to-morrow 
 Finds us further than to-day.' 
 
 4 Trust no future howe'er pleasant, 
 
 Let the dead past bury its dead, 
 Act act in the living present ! 
 Heart within, and God o'erhead ! ' 
 
 LONGFELLOW. * A Psalm of Life' 
 
 As men and facts confirm our inference, we will 
 conclude that : 
 
 * In the branch of Philosophy that we term Psychology the mind is 
 held to be constituted of three faculties styled Sensibility, Will 
 and Reason. Ed. 
 
1 66 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 1. Reflection indicates the predominance of will 
 over reason. 
 
 2. The effect of education upon the English 
 brain has resulted in the acquisition of a strong 
 sense of prevision, which is indispensable to the 
 development of the national activity. Hence 
 result : 
 
 3. The explanation of that uneasiness which 
 arises from any cause unanticipated by this pre- 
 vision and therefore disturbs the activity of the 
 Englishman. 
 
 4. The energetic action that springs from the 
 continued development of this activity. 
 
 5. The development of liberty and reflection ; 
 the one supplying the medium most favourable to 
 the exercise of the will, and the other providing 
 the best mode of directing it. 
 
 The divergence of the characters of the French 
 and English nations can be then thoroughly 
 
ENGLAND 167 
 
 explained by the difference in the gradation 
 of their faculties. In one case reason, in 
 the other will, predominates. Centuries have but 
 accentuated this distinction, and the great men 
 of either country personify these respective 
 qualities. 
 
 France has produced Descartes, the representative 
 of thought and logic: Pascal, that of thought and 
 invention. England claims her Newton, the cham- 
 pion of observation and discovery : Bacon, who, to 
 use the words of Proudhon, ' tends in his philosophy 
 to reduce all knowledge to positivism and all 
 science to industrialism:' Bacon, who built his 
 philosophy upon observation and induction. The 
 French, who prefer to live in the domain of thought, 
 are essentially logical ; the English, who prefer that 
 of activity, are as a consequence practical. In 
 France, equality, thought, idealism, inconstancy 
 and generosity have placed their stamp upon the 
 national character : in England, freedom, activity, 
 
1 68 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 prevision, positivism and egoism have combined 
 to mould it. 
 
 The mind in France, as in Greece, is feminine. 
 Art, letters, wit, taste and the inventive faculties, 
 all intellectual productions that depend on form, 
 have found a home in France, but they are all the 
 emblems of the feminine qualities. 
 
 On one side Aristotle and Descartes, Archimedes 
 and Pascal, ^Esop and La Fontaine, Homer and 
 Rabelais are ranged. 
 
 On the other side stand Socrates and Bacon, 
 Galileo and Newton, Dante and Shakespeare, 
 Lucretius and Byron. 
 
 We have placed Socrates in the second list 
 because he was repudiated by his own country- 
 men. There can be no better example of the 
 ostracising tendencies of democracies. ' My superi- 
 ority will never be forgiven,' said Mirabeau ; and 
 Socrates experienced the fate to which all men of 
 his standard must submit, if they be natives of a 
 
ENGLAND 169 
 
 country in which Liberty does not exist. If indeed 
 Mirabeau did sell himself to the Court, Philip of 
 Macedon fixed a special rate at which the public 
 orators at Athens could be bought. 
 
 In France the body politic is Roman, and mas- 
 culine : the mind is Greek and feminine. France 
 imitates Athens and believes equally in her own 
 genius. 
 
 In England the body politic resembles, legally, 
 the union of the small republics in Greece. Athens, 
 Thebes and Sparta enjoyed their peculiar legisla- 
 tion, and the Common Law still governs England.* 
 The law of Scotland differs widely in principle and 
 procedure from that of England. In the Isle of 
 Man the institutions of the early kings survive; 
 Jersey and Guernsey obey the laws of Hollo, and 
 the Isle of Man enjoys complete legislative in- 
 dependence ; while in Canada the royal ordinances 
 
 * The codification of English Statute, Common and Case-Law still 
 remains to be accomplished. Ed. 
 
1 7 o ROC I A L E VOL VTION 
 
 after the model of those of St Louis are still 
 observed as in the times of the Bourbon kings. 
 These facts show in what high estimation political 
 liberty is held among the English, and this liberty 
 proceeds from causes of a specially contingent 
 nature. 
 
 A free middle-class formed the most important 
 feature in the social organisation of the Saxons, 
 and to this the excellence of their local institutions 
 and the comparative weakness of their central 
 administration, as contrasted with the executive 
 machinery of the Normans, must undoubtedly be 
 attributed. It may not be too much to assert that 
 to this free middle-class the eventual enfranchise- 
 ment of the masses throughout Europe is mainty 
 due. We can find no instances of the existence of 
 such a class in the histories of Greece or Rome, of 
 a class endowed with similar privileges or admitted 
 to such extensive participation in the management 
 of affairs. Yet enquiry will show that in this 
 
ENGLAND 171 
 
 organisation of the state, divided into the three 
 orders of nobles, freemen, and thralls, the germs of 
 a feudal system are to be detected, which might 
 have been developed into a more or less complete 
 imitation of the tenure established on the Con- 
 tinent, even if the Norman Conquest had not 
 precipitated the introduction of such a principle. 
 But, while the Conqueror introduced the feudal 
 system of land tenure, he carefully opposed every 
 obstacle within his power to the independence of 
 his nobles and thus prepared the way, although 
 unwittingly, for the adoption at a later period of 
 what is now termed the constitutional form of 
 Government. The Barons did not appreciate this 
 distinction in the practice to be observed in England 
 as contrasted with that prevalent in France, where 
 it was held that the superiority in power should be 
 on the side of the Barons, and not with the King. 
 William had learned in Normandy that the King 
 of France was but a puppet in the hands of the 
 
T72 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 independent nobility, and the union of the Anglo- 
 Norman nation under one strong head and hand 
 he clearly saw to be indispensable to the safety of 
 his newly-acquired crown. Under the Norman 
 and the earlier Plantagenet kings rebellion followed 
 unsuccessfully upon rebellion, until the nobles 
 discovered that it was only by an alliance with 
 the orders beneath them that their efforts to 
 curb the growth of an irresponsible prerogative 
 could succeed ; and so, while the Church and the 
 lower classes in France united in favour of the 
 king against the nobility, the nobles and middle 
 classes in England wrung from a reluctant sovereign 
 the concession of those privileges, upon which the 
 national government is at present based. It hats 
 been truly said that, ' while in Franco the crown 
 began in weakness and ended in despotism, in 
 England it began in strength and ended in a 
 limited monarchy.' 
 
 The difference in the political evolution of the 
 
ENGLAND 173 
 
 two countries is in a great measure attributable to 
 the distinction in the origin of their respective 
 middle-classes. The third estate in France, which 
 being of Latin origin was on that account subjected 
 to the policy of the Church, was ever inclined to 
 the establishment of a central and absolute authority. 
 In England the middle-class, actuated by German 
 sentiment and inclinations, was always disposed to 
 promote institutions of a German character, which 
 should encourage individual liberty, as has been 
 already observed. We can thus see that on either 
 side of the channel it is not the opposite but the 
 inverse which has occurred. 
 
 From a moral point of view the contrast between 
 the results of the great Rebellion and those of the 
 great Revolution is equally instructive. After the 
 Rebellion of 1642 the English nobility became an 
 aristocracy and can be compared with the Roman 
 patriciate alone. Cromwell may well have ex- 
 perienced the bitterness of disappointed hope as 
 
174 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 he declined the assumption of a crown when ten- 
 dered to him in 1657, and may have contemplated 
 overtures to the royal family, for the successful 
 general might well question the security of his 
 dictatorship at the hands of men like Ludlow or 
 Sidney, Vane, Rich or Hutchinson. But the phantom 
 of Brutus and the vision of the assassin's knife 
 dispelled such thoughts and terrified the man who, 
 while he compassed the execution of his king, still 
 hesitated to affix his signature to the death-warrant. 
 Plots for his destruction, plots for the restoration 
 of the king, plots for the reconstruction of the 
 Republic betrayed sufficiently the national discon- 
 tent, but in a form which in his eyes savoured of 
 base ingratitude. Colonel Rich, when summoned 
 to appear before Cromwell's council, steadily refused 
 to take the oath that he would make no attempt 
 upon the person or the power of the usurper. 
 Ludlow, when threatened with committal to the 
 Tower, disputed Cromwell's authority. 'A justice 
 
ENGLAND 175 
 
 of the peace,' he exclaimed, ' might commit me, for 
 he is authorised by the law. But as to you, you 
 are not.' The love of liberty is here found in 
 unison with obedience to the law, and in no country 
 has this feeling of liberty been as deep-rooted or 
 earnest as in England. Men of action have proved 
 its vitality by their deeds ; statesmen have fostered 
 its existence in the nation and poets have sung its 
 virtues in passionate verse. 
 
 ' Oh ! Freedom is a noble thing ! 
 Freedom all solace to man gives, 
 He lives at ease that freely lives : 
 A noble heart may have none ease, 
 Nor naught else that may it please, 
 If freedom fail.' 
 
 So wrote Barbour, Chaplain to David Bruce and a 
 contemporary of Chaucer. The language is anti- 
 quated, but the sentiment betrays the vigour of 
 youth. 
 
 But liberty, like oppression, presents many as- 
 pects and in England, as elsewhere, its appeals have 
 
1 76 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 been occasionally of a brutal nature. The famous 
 pamphlet, ' Killing no Murder,' disquieted the 
 Protector and aggravated the perplexities that 
 harassed his existence. Did the same misgivings 
 and uneasiness as to the future, that preoccupied 
 the mind of Luther in his later years, embitter that 
 of Cromwell, or was it the conviction that the 
 work of the Revolution was slipping from his 
 grasp ? All the men w r ho had co-operated with 
 Cromwell for the triumph of the Rebellion unani- 
 mously turned against him when he wished to 
 establish a monarchical authority; their attitude 
 was so menacing, that Cromwell shrank from a 
 general proscription. They did not attack each 
 other, and the liberties of the country were thereby 
 saved. All these men died poor. All his old com- 
 panions looked askance at the dictator's affluence, 
 while, later on, Miicon was compelled to sell his 
 library to procure food. Cromwell was not sur- 
 rounded by the class that fawned upon Napoleon, 
 
ENGLAND 177 
 
 nor were his generals prototypes of the marshals of 
 the empire. The champions of the great Rebellion 
 were stoics, and stoicism was the sole philosophy 
 which at Rome dominated all the moral theories of 
 Greece. 
 
 Art is almost foreign to the English sense: 
 sport has replaced the games of the Circus 
 Maximus. Rome was supreme on land, England is 
 the mistress of the seas : and like Rome, it is in 
 her power alone that she has faith. In England 
 the body politic is Greek and feminine, the sceptre 
 being often held by Queens. The mind is Roman 
 and the character masculine. 
 
 We meet here with laws, as it were, of the ata- 
 vism of civilisation from nation to nation, while we 
 also determine the constituent elements of all 
 civilisation. One of these elements is feminine, in 
 the sense that it reproduces all the qualities, and 
 all the defects which are the more special proper- 
 ties of woman, and the other element, for pre- 
 
 M 
 
178 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 cisely the opposite reason, may be considered as 
 masculine. 
 
 Civilisation seems thus to obey the laws of 
 human development, which are still to be learnt 
 and which Social Science will surely discover. As 
 in a battery electricity proceeds from the contact 
 of the positive and of the negative poles, which 
 themselves originate in the connection of two 
 metals, and as it is exhibited in the form of two 
 currents, so does human thought partake, as it 
 were, of two natures or sexes inasmuch as it 
 proceeds both inductively or by deduction. 
 
 In like manner if we consider on the one hand 
 that the migrations, which establish communication 
 between different peoples, play with respect to 
 them the part which chemical liquids assume 
 towards the electrodes that produce the electric 
 currents, or which in physiology the generations 
 undistinguished by sex bear to those so distin- 
 guished : and if, on the other hand, we consider 
 
ENGLAND IT 9 
 
 that the movements which are known as the Scy- 
 thian immigrations have proved for Greece and 
 Italy what German immigrations have been to 
 England and to France, we may express the result 
 of such inferences in the accompanying diagram. 
 (See Appendix, Plan A.) 
 
 The Course of Civilisation is prescribed, in space, 
 by the geographical and physical analogy between 
 countries, as well as by the resemblance of soil, 
 which confer similar qualities upon their inhabi- 
 tants. It is effected, in time, by this moral sexu- 
 ality already cited, which is the consequence of these 
 qualities and depends upon conditions due to 
 necessities and surroundings. The special develop- 
 ment of activity in England finds its reason in 
 Nature itself. Cold, which diminishes the ac- 
 tivity of nature, increases that of man, for activity 
 is the daughter of want. The adaptation of species 
 to the environment, as established by Lamarck and 
 Darwin, is equally applicable in the domain of 
 
i8o SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 morals. The Englishman, as he requires more 
 heat, also requires more food ; and the prolific 
 properties of his nation have compelled him to 
 organise a system of labour upon a far larger scale 
 than is adopted by any other race, and hence the 
 great development of his activity. The theories 
 of Malthus, originated in England, prove this 
 much, that she is obliged to protect herself from 
 the dangers of an excessive population, while at 
 the same time she is compelled to extend herself 
 by colonial acquisitions. But this development of 
 her activity and these utilitarian proclivities have 
 encouraged, in the very midst of liberty, some 
 crying abuses. 
 
 The right of the strongest is supreme on the 
 northern side of the Channel. Landed property 
 does not change hands freely and is transmitted 
 by primogeniture. All the land that is not the 
 hereditary patrimony of the higher and older 
 families is mainly absorbed by the representatives 
 
ENGLAND 181 
 
 of Commerce or Finance and by wealthy colonists, 
 in whose hands the riches of the whole world 
 gradually accumulate. By degrees the large pro- 
 prietors have absorbed the smaller holders ; free- 
 trade has driven the rural populations into the 
 large towns, and, as in Italy, the Agrarian question 
 threatens to create trouble in England. Yet the 
 rural population constitutes the backbone of a 
 nation, and the error of English statesmen is to 
 have sacrificed agriculture to commerce and in- 
 dustry. We look now in vain for the class of 
 yeomen who composed the Ironsides of Cromwell, 
 Puritans and Roundheads, who put the gallant 
 Cavaliers of Rupert to the rout. Some may 
 have helped to people the larger towns, the 
 remainder, more happily for themselves and for 
 their descendants, have probably found in America 
 that immunity from oppression and that freedom 
 which were denied to them in their own country. 
 What shall we venture to say of that disgrace to 
 
1 82 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 modern civilisation, the loathsome quarter in the 
 East end of London, where misery exceeds in 
 horror all that imagination could conceive ? Irish 
 and English, Celt and Saxon, with German Jews 
 there herd and grovel in abject poverty or bestiality. 
 The dark picture, which La Bruyere drew of the 
 French peasants in the seventeenth century, is but 
 an idyl as contrasted with the realities of that 
 abominable region. Jacques Bonhomme who, in 
 the days of the Communes or at the inspiration 
 of Joan of Arc, defended foot by foot and inch by 
 inch the soil of France against the foreigner, 
 eventually won it and now holds it, thanks to the 
 Great Revolution. John Bull, who has no land, 
 nor even streets which light and air can penetrate, 
 still awaits his liberation, and may he not wait for 
 long. 
 
 Proudhon asked himself whether good and suffi- 
 cient reasons existed for a revolution in the nine- 
 teenth century. He replied in the affirmative, but 
 
ENGLAND 183 
 
 did not indicate the locality in which, nor the 
 means whereby, such revolution should be effected. 
 It is to England that this danger points, because in 
 England there are no peasants, in the stricter 
 acceptation of the term. There are labourers and 
 workmen at the offer of the highest bidder and in 
 quest of the highest wages. The nation is ever 
 threatened with slack seasons and stoppage of 
 work. Obliged by her position and soil to produce 
 under any circumstances, England has by the 
 cannon's mouth opened up in the more distant 
 countries outlets for her manufactures ; in Europe 
 and elsewhere she has done so through free-trade. 
 Her vessels cover the seas and her money fructifies 
 in every quarter, but England cannot stop that 
 production for a single day. If the outlets are 
 once closed, if her manufacturers cease to find 
 purchasers, if factories stop work and ships lie 
 idle in port, sailors will leave the sea for land, 
 miners will quit their shafts and artizans their 
 
1 84 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 mills to ask the reason why. That day England 
 will be at the mercy of events. 
 
 England can manufacture cheaply at the cost of 
 much human suffering. By free-trade she can 
 control the markets of the world ; but this 
 suffering will entail serious consequences and, 
 because she has so cleverly exploited the entire 
 world, it is her fate that she should now find herself 
 at its mercy. Her very existence indeed is now no 
 longer in her own hands. The two contingencies, 
 revolution and financial ruin, will probably occur 
 together ; but separately or combined, as it may 
 be, a cataclysm is far more probable than many 
 would be disposed to think. An attempt upon the 
 liberty of an Englishman cost Charles I his 
 head. Then it was but a question of their taxation, 
 what will it be when it becomes a question of food 
 or starvation ? 
 
 If we reflect upon what the countrymen of merry 
 Rabelais have done in the wav of revolution, have 
 
ENGLAND 185 
 
 we not a right to shudder at what the people who 
 produced Shakespeare might commit if their 
 passions were once let loose ?* ' To be or not to be ' 
 says Hamlet. England would do well to take to 
 heart more than ever those prophetic words of her 
 great poet, for already under Cromwell by the side 
 of the Puritans stood the Levellers, a class which 
 has survived Cromwell and increased since then. 
 It is moreover to-day not a question of liberty as 
 in the day of Cromwell that demands attention ; it 
 is nothing less than the question of hunger. So it 
 is to be feared that England may become the 
 theatre of the most terrible revolution that has 
 ever occurred in any country or at any time. 
 
 The encyclopedists preceded the Revolution in 
 France. In England the naturalists have already 
 pointed out the consequences of the struggle for 
 life in nature, and since then attention has been 
 
 * Eabelais provokes our mirth, but Shakespeare moves us to tears. 
 Ed. 
 
1 86 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 paid to their injurious effects upon society. It 
 was the people who first launched the idea, and 
 who have always been ready to rise in its defence 
 and justification. 
 
 Germany, impoverished by the Indulgences, pro- 
 duced Luther and philosophic liberty. 
 
 France, crushed by the weight of absolute 
 monarchy, produced Voltaire, and has won political 
 liberty. 
 
 England, a prey to the right of the strongest, has 
 produced Darwin, and will win social liberty. 
 
 We have but to turn to his works and realise 
 the value of a phrase, in which the expression of a 
 fact assumes the importance of a principle, to 
 understand the character of the coming social 
 transformation. ' The organs,' he says, ' that have 
 ceased to be of use are destined to disappear.' 
 This sentence not only contains the basis of every 
 law of evolution, but if it be applied to that 
 terrible problem, the struggle for existence, it gives 
 
ENGLAND 187 
 
 us the key to the solution of present social difficul- 
 ties. The English people, so remarkable for their 
 activity, murmur in louder tones each day that in 
 this struggle for existence, in which they in their 
 daily efforts succumb, others survive who take no 
 part in that fierce competition which for man is 
 called 'work' and so count as useless organs in 
 society. They are fully aware that it is not the 
 ' right to work,' as ignorant doctrinaires have 
 claimed, but the 'duty to work' that man must 
 recognise, with this corollary, the right to rest and 
 the right to gain. 
 
 To England will fall the third great step in the 
 enfranchisement of humanity. ' Thou shalt not 
 slave against thy will' This will be for man the 
 formula of the coming transformation in England. 
 
 England is the only country in Europe which 
 has not adopted the system of compulsory military 
 service. Such service and, in religious matters, the 
 confessional are especially odious to English feeling. 
 
i88 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 The English no longer court military adventures 
 as other nations still do ; not because the English- 
 man is less brave, but because he does not care 
 about any exhibition of his bravery ; although in 
 war his valour is invariably displayed in a dogged 
 resistance. The Englishman of these days displays 
 a preference for economical struggles which tend 
 more and more to replace military warfare. His 
 combativeness is absorbed by the instinct of pro- 
 ductiveness, by the pacific contests of labour, and 
 by the imperious necessity that by production and 
 exchange he may nourish an ever-increasing 
 population. 
 
 The English are a nation of colonists. 
 
 Their dominant faculty is the -will. 
 
 The prevalent social feeling is liberty. 
 
 Their method is analytic, and their reasoning 
 inductive. 
 
 The tendencies of their social evolution is indi- 
 vidualist. We should express it graphically by a 
 parabola. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 IT has been already pointed out* that Social Science 
 must be classed among those Sciences, to the pur- 
 suit of which the inductive and deductive processes 
 are to be simultaneously applied : and upon this 
 ground we have defined inductively the principles 
 upon which we must rely, viz., that the race is to 
 be viewed as the most important factor in all 
 human movements. It is in compliance with this 
 view that the characteristics of the three nations, 
 that have exerted the greatest influence upon 
 modern civilisation have been concisely delineated. 
 
 * Page 33. 
 
190 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Social Science is peculiarly analytical, and in its 
 pursuit synthesis cannot result otherwise than from 
 the correlation of analyses, because true synthesis 
 is attained by a posteriori and not by a priori 
 arguments. 
 
 That is to say, when the divisions of the subject 
 have been fixed, this science proceeds by successive 
 syntheses, that resume the analyses of the dif- 
 ferent parts of the subject from every point of view 
 that may be required. At each point of view 
 synthesis will naturally come into play, as the end 
 to which analysis is the means. The main object 
 being the discovery of the laws of political evolu- 
 tion, they should be found as natural deductions 
 from the principles already established. 
 
 Apart from the general idea of Evolution that 
 runs through this treatise, two principal facts may 
 be gathered from the preceding statements. First, 
 that changes in conditions compel communities, 
 equally as they do with organisms, to undergo a 
 
LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 191 
 
 change in form. Secondly, that certain phenomena 
 make their appearance in the course of political 
 evolution as if they were the symptoms of the 
 reversion of the community to antecedent political 
 types. Now what are these forms, and why this 
 reversion ? These are the terms of the problem of 
 political evolution* that awaits solution. 
 
 As to the economic causes that affect this 
 evolution, they are usually the result of the lament- 
 able mismanagement of governments and of the 
 continuous, as well as too rapid, concentration of 
 capital, and such were the causes which produced 
 the French Revolution.! They are also -attribut- 
 able to the discoveries, which completely alter 
 the general conditions of existence, and to the in- 
 vention of new means of production and destruc- 
 tion. In this way feudalism could not survive the 
 discovery of gunpowder, which destroyed the 
 
 * Cfr. Introduction. 
 
 t D'Argenson might well define the French monarchy to be an 
 ' expensive anarchy ' in the time of Louis XV. Ed. 
 
192 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 military value of its strongholds; and so, in our 
 day, the great industries, by their irruption into 
 the field of production, have led to a considerable 
 displacement of the working man and to distur- 
 bances in professional life, which have shaken the 
 equilibrium of Society. 
 
 Modern Society has moved too rapidly, in the 
 sense that moral progress and social development 
 have lagged behind economic progress and mecha- 
 nical improvements. Evictions on an increasing 
 scale among working men, produced in all manual 
 trades by the adoption of improved machinery, 
 have induced them to believe that there were too 
 expensive or useless wheels in the mechanism of 
 Society. To advance from this idea to their com- 
 plete suppression or to a great simplification of the 
 question, to proceed from this thought to the 
 action that constitutes a revolution, is in reality 
 but a question of time. 
 
 The economists, who have adopted the famous 
 
LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 193 
 
 ' what one sees/ and ' what one does not see/ as an 
 argument by which they can continue to repeat the 
 same assertion over and over again, have most 
 assuredly not seen. When it was pointed out to 
 them that the improvements in machinery and the 
 increase of the great industries tended to lower 
 more and more the number of the employed, 
 they replied that this reduction was fictitious, 
 because those who were unemployed would soon 
 find employment in other industries, that would be 
 created by these same improvements. If it be true 
 that the development of the great industries has 
 been commensurate with the improvements in 
 machinery, it is equally true that it has led to a 
 displacement of the working classes, which entails 
 much suffering : and that in increasing the number 
 of its customers, it has also imposed upon itself the 
 duty of providing for a larger number of persons 
 dependent upon it. Will it prove equal to these 
 
 new responsibilities ? We may safely assert the 
 
 N 
 
194 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 contrary, for industrial improvements and the 
 division of labour have created an excess of pro- 
 duction, that largely surpasses the wants of the 
 consumer. Consumption must digest production, 
 and this digestion requires time ; now time im- 
 plies for the working man a want of work, and 
 such difficulties must continue to increase. 
 
 Society at the present day is driven into a 
 . corner, and must confront the solution of an 
 apparently insolvable difficulty or submit to some 
 modifications of form. As always must be the 
 case these changes will be abrupt and violent, 
 because no steps have been taken to moderate the 
 acceleration of their development. Political econo- 
 mists and statesmen, who have relied upon their 
 views, are both largely to blame for this unfortu- 
 nate complication. Preoccupied with the questions 
 of Free Trade and Protection they both failed to 
 see that with any change in the means of pro- 
 duction, a corresponding alteration in the accumu- 
 
LA WS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 195 
 
 lation and the distribution of wealth and labour 
 must ensue ; and that the social organisation must 
 inevitably be remodelled. Economists will readily 
 repudiate any connection between their principles 
 and evolution, but, as the main object in politics 
 is to define this evolution, the laws of political 
 evolution will serve to point out to political 
 economy the solutions which it requires, for 
 political and economic solutions are intimately 
 connected. 
 
 It has been explained in the introduction to 
 this treatise that Kevolutions are but disruptures 
 of forms no longer in unison with the spirit of the 
 nation, and that these abrupt changes are due to 
 the resistance which these forms presented to the 
 aspirations of the masses. We have further seen 
 that they throw into relief the irreducible forms of 
 the natural constitution of the country, by which 
 is meant those political forms that are suitable 
 to the inhabitants of the soil :j and therefore this 
 
196 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 principle was propounded that, ' Man at every 
 period of his existence represents the race which 
 has exercised the most direct influence upon him!* 
 There can be no doubt that, if the principles 
 already laid down be applied to the principal 
 events in history which prove the influence of race 
 on all human phenomena, (that bear upon the 
 establishment and effacement of administrative 
 forms), to be persistent, the laws of political evol- 
 ution may be discovered. Man being, as we have 
 said, a product of nature must obey natural laws 
 in the exercise of his powers, both in his individual 
 as well as in his collective capacity.-)- As an 
 individual, he is bound by vital laws ; the 
 functions which maintain existence are obligatory 
 upon him, and he is compelled to provide for his 
 necessities. As a member of society, he depends 
 upon a code of laws which have converted him 
 
 * Cfr. p. 43 Introduction. 
 t Cfr. p. 34 Introduction. 
 
LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 197 
 
 into a social animal, and hold him in submission as 
 much by sentiment as by compulsion. These laws 
 represent the conditions by which alone society can 
 exist, and society is but an organism. 
 
 Production, consumption, exchange, and distribu- 
 tion of property are but the vital functions of 
 social organisms, and analogous to those of nutri- 
 tion, intercourse and reproduction in nature ; in fact 
 to all the functions which in every living organism 
 constitute the conditions of existence. These func- 
 tions cannot disappear without fatal injury to 
 society, but their organic forms are subject, as are 
 all other forms in nature, to modifications, changes 
 and alterations. Societies must conform to the 
 general laws which direct the evolution of form, 
 and govern the changes and transformations of 
 every organism. What are revolutions but changes 
 of form ? Some disappear and others take their 
 place. Evolution is the sum of slow and successive 
 changes in the forms which exercise the functions 
 
198 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 of the organism. Revolution, derived from the 
 Latin word revolvere, implies the idea of a 
 return. Evolution from evolvere implies the 
 notion of development Revolutions being mere 
 phenomena of evolution, and evolution and revolu- 
 tion standing towards each other in the light of 
 cause and effect and vice versa, what is the rela- 
 tion of this idea of reversion to the other idea of 
 development, as they appear to be contradictory ? 
 We have seen that revolutions tend to replace 
 forms, no longer compatible with the national 
 character, by others which might be suitable. The 
 development of this character, and in general of all 
 the characteristics which particularise a race, such 
 as the sentiment of equality, liberty or any similar 
 feeling, is the true cause of revolutions, which are 
 but changes of form, that may affect certain 
 functions in the existence of societies, but which 
 can never suppress through this fact the general 
 conditions of their existence. Now what are 
 
LA WS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 199 
 
 political forms or types but the laws and in- 
 stitutions ? If these can let loose such destructive 
 forces they cannot have enjoyed the approval of 
 the nation. They must have been imposed upon 
 the country, and apparently by strangers to the 
 soil. 
 
 Revolutions are but the struggles of races 
 against classes. Classes administer the functions 
 of government, which are the political forms im- 
 posed upon a country. Law is but the rule of the 
 class in power, and the class in power means the 
 rule of conquest. Revolutions are but evolutionary 
 phenomena in this struggle of a race against 
 domination, in its attempt to get rid of those 
 political and social forms that have been forced 
 upon it. We have seen that progress is the out- 
 come of cerebral evolution, and this evolution is 
 effected by the growth or decrease of certain in- 
 tellectual processes, which thereby conduce to the 
 production of new ideas or the elimination of an- 
 
200 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 tiquated notions. So we shall find that if we 
 associate this fact, that political evolution is 
 due to the development of certain forms at the 
 expense of others destined to disappear, with the 
 other facts which we have already established, that 
 monarchy was the product of Frankish barbarism 
 and Roman absolutism, and that the political 
 system, which dates from 1789, is a product of the 
 centralisation thus acquired and of the sophisms 
 of the Social Contract, the mechanism of this 
 evolution can be satisfactorily explained. 
 
 The struggles of races against the political forms 
 imposed upon them, or rather against the classes 
 which impose them, amount in reality to the 
 struggles of races between themselves, for class is 
 but the organisation of the winning side as a 
 governing body. The struggle then that actually 
 persists in the social organism is that of the 
 autochthon species against the foreign species. 
 
 It is therefore possible to establish a com- 
 
LA WS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 201 
 
 parison between these struggles for emancipation 
 from intolerable forms and the phenomena pro- 
 duced by the crossing of different species. We 
 are aware that this cross-breeding is practised by 
 us in the hope of obtaining new forms. It does 
 reproduce perfectly the conditions of the form that 
 has been imposed : only in these cases the forms 
 are not imposed upon a social organism but are 
 impressed upon a physiological base, upon 
 vegetable or animal organisms. The organic 
 functions continue their activity, while their forms 
 are modified : in a word, the physiological con- 
 ditions remain necessarily unimpaired, but the 
 morphological conditions are changed ; and these 
 changes, in proportion to the number of crosses, 
 will give the type of the transformations effected 
 in the organism of societies, since they are pro- 
 duced by the same causes, and under the same 
 conditions. 
 
 The crosses of animals, as well as those of plants, 
 
202 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 are of two kinds, cross-breeding or metissage, and 
 hybridation. Cross-breeding is the union of two 
 animals or plants belonging to different races of 
 the same species. Hybridation is the union of 
 individuals of different species. 
 
 The produce of cross-breeding is prolific ; that 
 from hybridation is most often sterile.* It is clear 
 that those two descriptions of crosses are widely 
 different in their action, and their peculiar pheno- 
 mena are now perfectly known, owing to the 
 conclusive experiments of scientific men. M. 
 Naudin tells us that when two hybrids, the pro- 
 duce of a first union between individuals of 
 different species, are crossed, their produce (should 
 the crossing be productive) will cease to be of a 
 mixed character, and will return in totality to the 
 one of the two parent species, or they will take 
 some after one, and some after the other, of the 
 
 * The sterility of mongrels, and the fertility of hybrids are com- 
 paratively rare events. Wallace's Darwinism. Ed. 
 
LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 203 
 
 parents. We call this recurrence or reversion to 
 the ancestral type. The eccentric variations, that 
 are sometimes seen in hybrids of the second and 
 third generation before their complete reversion to 
 one of the specific types, are known in science as 
 irregular variations. 
 
 M. Naudin crossed the yellow flowered toad-flax 
 (linaria vulgaris) with the purple-flowered species. 
 The hybrids from the first crossing were uniform 
 in character, and this character was intermediary 
 to the respective characters of the parent plants. 
 In the second generation inextricable confusion 
 presented itself. ' We found/ says M. Naudin, 
 ' every possible description of variation. Some 
 plants were stunted, and some were lank. The 
 foliage was both broad and narrow. The corollas 
 were deformed in different degrees, some dis- 
 coloured, others with unusual tints (true vegetable 
 anarchy !) and, out of all these combinations, no 
 two plants could be found precisely similar, al- 
 
204 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 though the first hybrids had been uniform. This 
 was a clear case of irregular variation, which is 
 incapable of producing individualities. These 
 hybrid plants did return eventually, some to the 
 yellow, the others to the purple toad-flax, and 
 furnished the phenomenon of the reversion to the 
 ancestral type' 
 
 Such is the law that governs cross-breeding, 
 that is to say, the transformation of the forms 
 imposed on animal and vegetable organisms. We 
 will now ask whether they be not applicable to 
 social organisms, and whether the facts which we 
 have enunciated do not, when stated in ordinary 
 terms and applied in a political sense, corroborate 
 our inclination to take a similar view of Social 
 Evolution. In the latter case these crosses are 
 undoubtedly effected among some millions of 
 beings and extend over many centuries, but the 
 law must surely be the same for all organisms. It 
 has been asserted in previous allusions to the 
 
LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 205 
 
 political system inaugurated in France* in 1789, 
 that it was but the sequence of conquest to conquest 
 through transitions of a revolutionary character. 
 And what are revolutions but irregular variations ? 
 French Monarchy is the product of Frank ish bar- 
 barism and Roman absolutism, a cross between 
 Frankish and Roman forms; and what has mon- 
 archy done, supported as it was by the middle 
 classes ? Monarchy has destroyed Feudalism, the 
 work of the Frankish conquest, the class govern- 
 ment of the Franks, and monarchy has terminated 
 in a revolution, that has wholly reinstated the 
 Roman form of government by class. The greater 
 portion of French institutions, and nearly every 
 law that now exists, is the work of the Roman 
 officials of 1800 years ago. It was the Roman 
 conquest that introduced into this country the 
 government of officials, and that organised that 
 
 * France has been selected as the country in which political evolu- 
 tion can best be demonstrated. Ed. 
 
206 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 system of taxes, which is the most perfect device 
 for what may be called the ' working ' of a 
 country and managing it after the most approved 
 fashion. French laws, codes, taxes and imposts 
 are at present nearly all of Roman origin. 
 
 Let us take the land tax. Established by the 
 Romans, and called the tribute or capitation of 
 the soil, it was never levied upon Roman or Italian 
 citizens. The conquered people became tributaries 
 to the Romans ; to-day they are called contribu- 
 taries to the national exchequer. What has become 
 of the capitation of the Plebeians, levied upon those 
 who possessed nothing ? To-day it goes by the 
 name of the personal tax ' cote personnelle.' The 
 tax on patents and the excise, the chrysargyron of 
 old, are the imposts on industry and trade. In short 
 it was the Roman who established the military 
 tax, the market tolls, the statute labour, and the 
 contributions in money or kind to municipal wants. 
 With the Romans some direct taxation was farmed 
 
LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 207 
 
 out to individuals, who were known as publicans 
 and were the predecessors of the old farmers 
 general, who in turn are now represented by the 
 concessionaries of to-day. The French retain 
 the octroi, or city toll, that special invention of 
 the Romans, the receipts from which were divided 
 between the State and the towns, and the popula- 
 tion of Gaul was warned by the most rigorous 
 measures of their obligation to meet this tax with 
 the greatest .punctuality. They had learned, to 
 their cost, that this tax was to the Romans the 
 most profitable result of conquest. 'Above all,' 
 says the law as found in the Codes of Justinian, 
 ' the governors must devote themselves with the 
 greatest vigilance to questions of fiscal interest ; ' 
 and, as if to add to the burden of submission, the 
 population was held responsible for the collection 
 of this tax. For the Celtic 'communes ' the Roman 
 municipalities were substituted, and the munici- 
 palities, which purported to be communal govern- 
 
208 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 merits, were in those days just what they are 
 now, mere instruments of the Roman government. 
 Their duty was to apportion the taxation, and 
 to ensure its payment. They were under the 
 immediate control of the Prefects, of diocesan 
 officials and their deputies, in a word, of the 
 Roman functionaries who were precisely identical 
 with those of our day. Ministries and offices, 
 the mainstays of Roman administration, were at the 
 summit of the hierarchy. The Celtic assemblies, 
 as representatives of their provinces, were confined 
 to the expression of their wishes, and their position 
 corresponds exactly to that of the present Councils 
 General as regards Parliament; that is to say, 
 towards the Central Government, for Parliament^ 
 is but the screen to the whole system. It is in- 
 disputable that the Revolution has proved to 
 France but the mere re-establishment of the forms 
 of government imposed upon her by the Romans. 
 We could show in the same manner that the 
 
LAWS OF POLITICAL VOLUTION 209 
 
 revolutions in England were due to similar causes, 
 and can be explained by the same reasons. Whom 
 do Cromwell and Monk represent but the Robes- 
 pierre and Bonaparte of England ? As Napoleon 
 became the Roman Emperor, Monk re-established 
 the political forms of the Saxon conquest. After 
 the Saxons had conquered British soil, the Norman 
 conquest followed and reduced Britons and Saxons 
 alike to the position of tributaries. Norman forms 
 subsisted until the Revolution of 1648, when the 
 Saxon government was restored and was confirmed 
 later on by the house of Orange. This revolution 
 was the work of the Anglo-Britons, who dis- 
 played a common desire to be rid of the Normans, 
 their former conquerors. 
 
 The political forms that prevail in modern 
 England partake far more of the character of the 
 Saxon institutions than they resemble those of the 
 Normans 4 * The first conquest to which Gaul sub- 
 
 * Cfr. Introduction. 
 
210 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 raitted was that by the Romans. Next came that 
 by the Franks, who subdued both Celts and 
 Romans. Conquered but still organised, the Romans, 
 although they differed from their allies in point of 
 race, joined themselves to the Celts to commence a 
 struggle against the Franks. In this way began 
 the association of two races, or two classes, against 
 one ; and this association, evolving in course of 
 time through the same vicissitudes that we re- 
 marked in the crosses of plants and with the same 
 irregular variations, led eventually to the elimina- 
 tion of the political forms introduced by the Franks. 
 At this juncture the Romans,* (who had, thanks 
 to this alliance, recovered their position), re-estab- 
 lished the Roman forms of a strictly centralising 
 character to the almost complete exclusion of the 
 Celtic forms, that were of a more liberal nature. 
 In the destruction of the Girondins by the Jacobin 
 party an illustration of the same principle may 
 
 * In the sense of the Latin race. 
 
LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 211 
 
 be found, and the fact may be recognised that the 
 original conquerors, who were of Latin race, refused 
 all participation in the spoils of victory to their 
 allies, who had so lately contributed to the triumph, 
 and treacherously re-established their domination 
 over those who in earlier times had been their sub- 
 missive subjects. The sense of injury is embittered 
 by the deeper feeling of hatred. Grounds for fresh 
 struggles are not far to seek, and specious motives 
 for some political change are readily forthcoming. 
 Evolution for these reasons still persists and will 
 result in the re-establishment of Celtic forms, 
 because by reason of well-known laws the tendency 
 of revolutions, (which are but effects of evolution), 
 is to revert to the type, and a reversion to the type 
 implies the resumption of Celtic forms. These 
 forms were essentially federal in character. Can 
 they not be re-established by certain phenomena of 
 a political character, precisely analogous to those 
 special phenomena of evolution that are styled 
 
2i2 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 phenomena of reversion, and to which allusion has 
 been already made in the case of the crosses 
 between certain flowers ? Such phenomena may 
 be embodied in the following laws upon the same 
 chronological principle that history pursues, 
 although such chronology is not invariably supplied 
 to the student of nature. 
 
 LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Law 1. Conquests stand to Revolutions in the 
 relation of cause to effect. 
 
 Law 2. Revolutions eliminate in succession the 
 political and social forms imposed by successive 
 conquests, and follow a chronological order inverse 
 to that in which the conquests have been effected. 
 
 Law 3. The elimination of the forms imposed 
 by that conquest, which occurred the first in date, 
 will result -in the return of the political forms 
 ivhich existed antecedently to that date. 
 
 If the struggles of classes are, according to our 
 
LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 213 
 
 view, means of evolution, the formation of classes 
 constitutes a mode of selection. In classes we find 
 races, and thus there are two descriptions of 
 bourgeoisie or citizens, whose respective careers 
 we shall find from history to have been widely 
 different ; the citizen by race and the citizen by 
 class. The first was represented during the 
 French Revolution and in history by the 
 Federalists and the Celts ; the second by the 
 Jacobins and the Romans or Latins. Evolution 
 will terminate in a revolution that will restore 
 Celtic forms through the association of the 
 citizens by race with the lower classes, for they 
 will be united by the same hatred of economic 
 injustice, and will act together in pursuit of the 
 same political and social object. 
 
 Can this resemblance of Society to the habits of 
 plants, this comparison of social with individual 
 organisms, be so complete, and are such indications 
 still to be treated as mere creations of the imagin- 
 
2i 4 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 ation ? Naturalists often do confound cross- 
 breeding with hybridation, and the effects of 
 atavism with irregular variations, and might we 
 not be victims to a similar delusion ? Not only is 
 this not the case, but we have a criterion which 
 the naturalist does not possess. We have to deal 
 here with the human species, and not with any- 
 ordinary one ; with a species that has both voice 
 and words, and of which the individual members 
 can particularise themselves by their actions or 
 their speech, can display their characteristics, pro- 
 claim their species and announce their race. 
 Social science can indeed lend material assistance 
 to her sister sciences. 
 
 At the commencement of the Eighteenth Cen- 
 tury, the age that produced the Revolution, a 
 certain Marquis de Boulainvilliers, disgusted in 
 all probability with the airs and graces which the 
 lawyers and their clerks thought fit to assume, and 
 without troubling himself further as to the true 
 
LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 215 
 
 interests of the monarchy, attacked violently the 
 third estate, and in a work styled ' The History of 
 the Ancient Government of France' positively laid 
 down the following propositions: '1st, The con- 
 quest of Gaul was the foundation of the State of 
 France in which we live, and whence we have 
 derived our primordial rights. 2nd, The French 
 (Franks) * established in the country a government 
 distinct from that of the conquered race, which was 
 reduced to servitude and condemned to labour and 
 the cultivation of the soil. 3rd, The Gauls are 
 mere subjects, the French, (descendants of the 
 original Franks), are the nobles, masters and lords. 
 4th, All the French (Franks) are free, having 
 always been Frank and comrades (comites). As 
 Clovis was but the general of an army of freemen 
 and had been selected with a view to greater 
 victories and larger plunder, the French (Franks) 
 were then and now are alone entitled to deliberate 
 
 * Vide Appendix Note E. 
 
216 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 and vote, and to enjoy the right of justice among 
 their equals (peers), and over the Gauls who live 
 upon their lands. 5th, All the kings of the third 
 race (Capetian) aimed steadily at the humiliation 
 of the French (Franks), and to this end laboured 
 to effect the destruction of the primitive laws and 
 ancient constitution of the state. Their descendants 
 have achieved the subjection of the French nation 
 (the nobility), and the administrations of Richelieu, 
 and of Louis the Fourteenth have done more in 
 fifty years to 'this end than all the attempts ]of 
 previous kings during twelve hundred years had 
 
 been able to effect.' 
 
 ^ 
 
 Had Sieyes ever seen this work, which made no 
 slight stir, and are we to take what follows as his 
 reply to it, or only as a note of defiance ? It is 
 known that, some short time before the Revolution, 
 Sieyes, a dignitary of the Roman Church and 
 encouraged in all probability by the threatening 
 aspect of affairs, had boldly ventured to exclaim ; 
 
LA WS OF POLITICAL E VOLUTION 2 1 7 
 
 ' The third Estate is in itself a nation, and a com- 
 plete Nation to boot. Should the aristocracy, at 
 the cost of that liberty of which they have shown 
 themselves to be unworthy, undertake to continue 
 the oppression of the people, I will ask of them, 
 By what right ? If I am told by the right of the 
 conqueror, I must admit that it would be going 
 rather far back. But the third estate need not 
 fear to refer to former times. It would go back 
 to the year which preceded the conquest and, 
 since its strength could to-day defy conquest, its 
 resistance to encroachments would be beyond 
 question more effectual. Why should we not send 
 back to the Franconian forests those families which 
 still assert the ridiculous pretension to be descended 
 from the conquering race, and to have inherited 
 the rights of conquest ? The nation thus purified 
 might find consolation, in my opinion, for the 
 thought that it was reduced to the descendants of 
 the Gaul and the Roman. In sober truth, if we 
 
218 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 care to dwell upon the distinctions of birth, might 
 we not explain to our benighted fellow citizens 
 that our descent from the Gauls and Romans 
 is as illustrious as that derived from the Sicambri, 
 the Welches, and other naked savages bred in the 
 forests of old Gerrnania ? They may reply that 
 the conquest has disarranged all such consider- 
 ations, and that nobility has passed to the party 
 of the conqueror. If this be so, I insist that it 
 should be made to pass to the other side. The 
 third estate will then become noble, in becoming 
 the conqueror in its turn.' 
 
 The Marquis de Boulainvilliers could not, for 
 the best of reasons, favour us with his reply, but 
 how would he have responded to the challenge of 
 a Celtic Boulainvilliers ? ' Out with the Franks 
 and out with the Romans ! * France has had 
 more than enough of those functionaries, deputies 
 
 * I.e. away with all political forms of both Franks and Komans. 
 -Ed. 
 
LA WS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 219 
 
 and ministers, who compose the tribe of schemers 
 and harpies that calls itself a government and 
 plunders the nation. She no longer requires that 
 justice which is not her own : nor those codes 
 which are but scales of taxes. She does not want 
 judges who are mere hair-splitters, and look upon 
 their countrymen as amenable to their jurisdiction, 
 in the same sense that the tax gatherer still 
 considers them as his prey and proper subjects for 
 the Poll-tax and Statute labour. Away with an 
 administration which is the rule of conquest ; 
 away with this republic one and indivisible, 
 which is but a system of swindling, multiple and 
 divisible. The State is ourselves. We must return 
 to our old Provinces, our old local Customs, our 
 ancient Liberties. We shall then have direct 
 Government. The taxes will be voted by ourselves; 
 our national militia will replace our standing 
 army ; our provincial assemblies will annually send 
 delegates to the Great Federal Council, which will 
 
220 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 in future, as it did of old, administer the business 
 of the nation, instead of to a corrupt Parliament.' 
 
 Such observations by a Celt, after a fusion ex- 
 tending over fifteen hundred years, would appear 
 at first sight to be untenable, were it not for the 
 phenomena of reversion that have been already 
 cited and explained. Whereas the arguments of 
 the two first speakers illustrate the close of one 
 epoch, the remark of the third indicates the com- 
 mencement of another period. Eventually, and 
 perhaps sooner than is expected, all European 
 nations will adopt in politics federal, and in 
 economics federative, institutions, and be united 
 in a confederated Europe ; for the time has come 
 when inorganic conditions herein represented by 
 economic conditions must impose these political 
 forms, and organic conditions will then everywhere 
 facilitate this change. The state of strife that 
 exists in Europe, not only in every country but 
 among all countries, is but the result, as has been 
 
LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 221 
 
 shown, of the simple fact that the political forms of 
 every country, both in their internal and external 
 bearings, are not in accord with the ideas of our 
 epoch, nor with the tempers of those countries. 
 As each nation is qualifying itself for a return to 
 Federal forms, there will be no impediment to their 
 union. We are exchanging hybridation for cross- 
 breeding and, as all crosses between races of the 
 same species will prove prolific, this will give rise 
 to a new political and social organism. The spirit 
 of true Socialism will supersede what will have 
 been the social conception of Christianity, as 
 Christianity succeeded to Paganism, as mammals 
 follow birds in the order of nature, and as stratum 
 succeeds to stratum in geological order. True 
 Socialism will be the adoption of Science in the 
 domain of politics and, up to the present moment, 
 politics have been little else than a question of 
 chance and opportune development. True Socialism 
 has not as yet passed beyond the stage of senti- 
 
222 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 ment; it is the irrepressible longing for a better 
 condition on the part of those who feel, or believe, 
 themselves to be injured by the action of economic 
 forces, and defrauded in the distribution of the 
 productions of society. The struggle must come, 
 but the new forms to follow cannot be established 
 until Social Science shall have imparted what it 
 has to teach, for it will be its duty to construct 
 the new frame of Society. 
 
 It has been laid down that organic evolution is 
 determined by inorganic forces. From an abstract 
 point of view, the latter are represented by eco- 
 nomic causes : from a concrete point of view by 
 the new combinations which have taken place in 
 the world. Sir James Hall* placed in a strong 
 tube, tightly closed, some carbonate of lime and, 
 having heated it to a high temperature, produced 
 a calcareous substance resembling marble. He 
 thus reproduced the conditions under which rocks 
 
 * Died 1832. 
 
LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 223 
 
 and crystals are formed in nature, and demon- 
 strated the process through which they had passed. 
 The heat and the pressure due to the liberation of 
 the carbonic acid had produced a fusion and a 
 new combination of the molecules, i.e., an altera- 
 tion in the state of the components. Analogous 
 conditions produce the same results in social 
 matters. 
 
 In the first place modern industry and the 
 expansion of intertrading have developed fresh 
 wants, while no steps have been taken to moderate 
 or satisfy those same wants. In the second place, 
 in the east and in the west, two nations compel 
 Europe to submit to a transformation. On the 
 east, Kussia, that must come towards civilisation 
 if civilisation will not go to her, turns eagerly, as 
 do all nations and all vegetation, towards the 
 vivifying influence of light. This enormous empire 
 extends from the borders of Europe to the limits 
 of Asia, and we know that the' Russian two-headed 
 
224 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 eagle keeps its eyes at the same time on the 
 east and on the west. Russia is attracted by 
 the charms of European progress, but she will 
 prefer to direct her course eastward, where she 
 may revive the smouldering embers of the an- 
 cient Hindoo civilisation, for the possibility of any 
 attempts on Europe will compel European nations 
 to unite in order to arrest her march westward. 
 
 In the west we see a nation, young in years 
 but far advanced in civilisation, develop itself 
 beyond all reasonable anticipations. This nation, 
 while it enjoys the benefits of civilisation, has never 
 experienced the difficulties by which it is usually 
 attained. This people possessed railways before 
 it had completed roads, and constructed vast towns 
 along their lines, precisely as centuries ago the cities 
 of antiquity rose upon the banks of rivers, those 
 moving pathways of humanity. Mistress of new 
 lands and of subjects still young, America will 
 flood Europe with her productions, unless Europe 
 
LAWS OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION 225 
 
 forms an economic league to repel this new in- 
 vasion. Should she be repulsed, America will 
 probably overrun industrially the markets of the 
 Celestials, and instil the spirit of modern ideas 
 into the effete civilisation of China. 
 
 Boundless as may seem the horizon extended to 
 their view, Americans may well reflect that their 
 future is not exempt from peril. Internal conflicts, 
 such as the War of Secession, leave indelible traces 
 of their passage. The antagonism of North and 
 South recalls the phenomena of the Albigensian 
 strife, and America may yet regret the fall of 
 Robert Lee, when the permanent Union of widely 
 separated States shall have proved impracticable. 
 America has not experienced the yoke of con- 
 quest, but intestine racial contests may in her 
 case represent the rivalries of European nations, 
 and it is by the antagonism of races that political 
 evolution has been advanced. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 
 
 IN the preceding pages an idea, a method and a 
 theory have been advanced. The idea consists in 
 the question whether by the agency of induction 
 and deduction and by the use of synthesis and 
 analysis the human mind has not followed, as it 
 were by stages, a definite path. 
 
 At first most undoubtedly man was groping in 
 the dark, but the theories of Pythagoras proved 
 serviceable to others in succession down to the 
 time of Lamarck and Darwin. In this long 
 sequence of distinguished men, who widely differed 
 both in genius and character, an unbroken line 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 227 
 
 of similar moral ideas and similar scientific con- 
 ceptions is to be detected and suggests the notion 
 of philosophical relationship. When they are suc- 
 cessively reviewed it will be found that the human 
 mind has not varied. From time to time a genius 
 appears and illumines the path, that had become 
 somewhat obscured, by the suggestion of a new 
 idea which has been called ' the magnifying idea '* 
 from its analogy to magnifying glasses and their 
 intensifying power. Some persons may deny the 
 existence of this intellectual descent, but if they 
 will traverse the ground upon which this treatise 
 is based and attempt to disengage the leading idea 
 in the works of the great philosophers (the arti- 
 ficers of new ideas and thoughts), they may 
 possibly pursue the subject upon different lines, 
 but they will not escape the conviction that a 
 connection does exist between certain human 
 brains, and will be more disposed to incline 
 
 * Cfr. p. 15 Introduction. 
 
228 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 towards the conclusions that have been formed. 
 Philosophical study will be either at a standstill or 
 will be limited to mere monographs and subtle 
 repetitions of theory, nor will Social Science find a 
 starting point and base, unless this principle be 
 admitted that, 'Man is a product of nature,' a 
 principle by no means to be confounded with the 
 truism so often, and so uselessly, enunciated that, 
 ' Man is one of the forces of nature.' 
 
 Method consists in the acceptance of scientific 
 works and ethical ideas as being philosophical 
 species antecedently existing or actually in ex- 
 istence, in dealing with them in this light, and 
 in the subsequent application of the experimental 
 method to intellectual and moral phenomena, con- 
 sidered as being absolutely similar to phenomena 
 in physics, whether it be that they proceed from, 
 or complete or explain such physical phenomena. 
 From this point the track is clearly traced. The 
 inquiry into the possible relations between moral 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 229 
 
 and physical characters, the analysis of these 
 specific characteristics whether of individuals or 
 societies, and the synthesis to be formed thereon, 
 all depend upon well-known philosophical pro- 
 cedure. 
 
 This idea and this method lead to the object in 
 view, the exposition of a theory to be called the 
 philosophy of nature. But this designation must 
 be explained, for, in Yoltaire's words, the terms of 
 a definition itself require to be themselves defined. 
 
 The great Scientific movement of this century has 
 given rise to several new systems of philosophy. 
 The last and best known is that of Positivism, 
 against which Herbert Spencer in his Classifi- 
 cation of the Sciences breaks a lance for reasons of 
 his own. Positivism has laid down certain laws of 
 metaphysical evolution, that would appear to be 
 true; but we have yet to learn what is positive, 
 and what is not. When this point is settled a 
 philosophy or science must be found which shall 
 
2 3 o SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 prove competent to elucidate these supposed nega- 
 tive phenomena, and which will deserve to be called 
 positive if it furnishes any result, or negative if it 
 does not. We hear also of ' Scientifism/ but the 
 word expresses too much, or too little. Besides it 
 defines a mode and condition of the modern mind 
 rather than any special study that can be so desig- 
 nated, and indicates the tendency of contemporary 
 thought to apply the scientific and experimental 
 methods to the examination of every description of 
 phenomena. 
 
 There is no reason why the term ' Philosophy ' 
 should be relinquished, for men do not retain for so 
 long a period words which bear no meaning. 
 'Scientific philosophy' would not only be a pleonasm, 
 but in using it we should but revolve round the 
 question without going to the point. A defini- 
 tion should specify the object and aim, and should 
 enable the mind to grasp and explain to itself in a 
 few words the aim and object in question. Now 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 231 
 
 different sciences pursue different methods, and men 
 of science are unable to agree upon the meaning of 
 the word explanation, for the reason that explana- 
 tions vary according to the methods, and these 
 latter vary according to the various Sciences. 
 
 We are thus moving in a vicious circle. In 
 order to extricate ourselves from this position 
 and to grasp the importance of the question, some 
 passages from the work of Mr Edmond Perrier, 
 (Professor in the Museum of Natural History) 
 styled ' Zoological Philosophy before the time of 
 Darwin/ may be quoted with advantage. They 
 bear upon the intestine dissensions provoked in 
 that usually placid science by the appearance of 
 the ' Theory of Descent and the Variability of 
 Species/ 
 
 ' When we compare the different theories which 
 we have enumerated, all of which have for a 
 common object the explanation of the same 
 phenomena, we shall be surprised to find how 
 
232 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 widely different are the tendencies of their re- 
 spective authors. To any natural philosopher the 
 starting point of every theory must be a simple 
 phenomenon, of which the definite conditions and 
 laws have been laid down with the utmost pre- 
 cision, and of which the various modifications 
 under the most complex circumstances have to be 
 traced. Thus far all natural philosophers agree, 
 and all coincide with the aim and procedure of 
 chemists and astronomers. But the naturalists in 
 their own province appear to entertain the most 
 various ideas as to what is to be considered an 
 explanation and, when they establish a theory, 
 also appear to keep the most various objects in 
 view. 
 
 'We may say that these divergencies are the 
 inevitable consequences of the fact that, in the 
 study of natural history, the man who proposes 
 to learn the nature of creatures, more or less 
 similar to himself, is disposed to look upon him- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 233 
 
 self as the most perfect type of any living organism. 
 He is thus led to treat as explanations all the 
 analogies that he may discover to exist between 
 himself and the creatures whom he proposes to 
 study. 
 
 ' Now in the hypothesis of Descent, the problem 
 is exactly reversed and the method of explanation 
 is converted into that employed in experimental 
 sciences. Man is no longer the dominant type 
 in nature to which all other considerations are 
 to be referred ; he is the very creature that 
 requires explanation, the last term in the whole 
 theory, and the most difficult enigma that awaits 
 solution. Explanations do not consist in mere 
 comparisons or simple generalisations; they must 
 establish the relations of cause and effect between 
 the different phenomena/* 
 
 On the point of view which may be selected 
 must depend the issue, whether the question be 
 
 * E. Perrier, 'Zoological Philosophy before Darwin,' pp. 233, 234. 
 
234 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 one of science, of morals or of self-interest, for 
 as our ideas on any subject or object may differ, 
 so will our appreciations of the matter vary and 
 influence our judgment. Our ideas, on which 
 action depends, are strongly biassed by sentiment 
 and hence the necessity of that 'magnifying idea' 
 to which allusion has been made. 
 
 After the famous meeting of the Academy of 
 Sciences, in February 1830, when the quarrel, 
 which had been brewing for many years between 
 the followers and opponents of the theory of the 
 Variability of Species, broke out into open war, 
 the partisans of Cuvier and of Geoffroy St Hilaire 
 confronted each other; and from that time the 
 natural sciences have absorbed the attention of the 
 age. If the strife which then so deeply stirred the 
 minds of every civilised race still continues, and if 
 the solution of this question which affects all Social 
 Science is still expected but is still deferred, it is 
 for the reasons just stated that we are kept in 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 235 
 
 suspense. It is because our philosophical idea of 
 man and nature is still confused and involved in a 
 medley of absurd notions, partly religious, partly 
 sentimental and partly political. If we will but 
 turn our minds from this question of Descent, one 
 of pure Zoology, and adopt the principle that 
 ' Man is a product of Nature? we not only avoid 
 trenching upon Zoological ground but do not assail 
 religious belief. We shall find that many natural 
 problems, that have long since been solved, are 
 equally applicable to man and, although they for 
 a long time proved serious impediments to his 
 investigation of self, are now reduced to simplicity, 
 because the possibility of their being explained 
 and interpreted has been discovered. 
 
 What do we mean by explanation ? * Is it not 
 the process by which we may come to understand 
 
 * The question is an important one ; for explanation, added to in- 
 vention and discovery, supplies the third main feature of human 
 knowledge, and in point of importance is no whit inferior to the other 
 two. Ed. 
 
236 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the nature of an unknown phenomenon by refer- 
 ence to a well-known phenomenon (whatever may 
 be their order) so long as they are produced under 
 the same or analogous conditions, but with the 
 proviso that abstraction be accurately employed in 
 the separation of general conditions from special 
 peculiarities ? 
 
 Now for the true meaning of the term ' ab- 
 straction' we may refer to that lucid illustration 
 supplied by Bonnet : ' Tell the common crowd 
 that philosophers find it difficult to distinguish a 
 cat from a rose tree, they will ridicule the philoso- 
 phers, and will ask whether there can be anything 
 easier than to distinguish the one from the other. 
 Common people ignore the art of abstraction, and 
 judge from particular, while the philosopher judges 
 from general ideas. Reject from the notion of a 
 cat and from that of a rose tree all the properties 
 which make up in either case the species, genus 
 and class of each, and retain merely the more 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 237 
 
 general properties that characterise the animal, 
 it will be difficult to find any distinctive mark 
 between the cat and the rose tree.' Again he 
 says, ' Plants and animals are but modifications of 
 organised matter. They all partake of one same 
 essence, but the distinctive attribute is unknown 
 to us.'* 
 
 Thus wrote Bonnet, one of the most illustrious 
 predecessors of Lamarck, and it is impossible to 
 give a clearer illustration of the art of abstraction. 
 The essence of which he speaks is life itself, the 
 manifestations of which are indefinite in number 
 and form, while they obey a few simple laws. 
 This mode of understanding the word explanation 
 suffices to every science, because it is applicable to 
 every description of phenomena. Everything that 
 lives obeys the laws of life, and everything in 
 nature must obey natural laws. Thence the 
 necessity of discovering these laws, and of their 
 
 * Bonnet's ' Contemplations of Nature,' vol. ii. p. 74. 
 
238 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 application to social and political phenomena : 
 first, for their explanation and, secondly, for 
 their direction ; and upon these grounds the term 
 ' Philosophy of Nature ' has been selected. 
 
 So true is this philosophy that the opponents of 
 the doctrine of evolution unconsciously formulate 
 it in their arguments. ' Whenever a doubt arises 
 on the subject of Nature,' says M. de Quatrefages,* 
 'or in the signification of any phenomenon observed 
 in man, we are compelled to examine the corres- 
 ponding phenomena in the animal or vegetable 
 kingdoms. We must compare the latter with what 
 we experience in ourselves, and accept as conclusive 
 the results of this comparison. What is proved to 
 be true of other organised beings must necessarily 
 be true of man. To extend the least important of 
 its organs, the animal has to contend with gravity.' 
 He further adds, 'we rnay say that digestion is 
 but a series of chemical combinations, and breath- 
 
 * 'The Human Species, 'p. 19. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 239 
 
 ing a phenomenon of combustion; but this is 
 tantamount to saying that man in every function, 
 from the least to the greatest, obeys the laws 
 that antecedently govern both organic and in- 
 organic matter.' 
 
 The laws of political evolution which we deduced 
 from the phenomena of atavism, and those singular 
 phenomena of a reversion to the original type, 
 while they assimilate societies to animal and vege- 
 table organisms, are in reality but an application 
 of this ' philosophy of nature.' By these phenomena 
 of reversion through atavic transmission the want 
 of intellectual and moral balance, so frequently 
 observed in the characters of highly-gifted indi- 
 viduals, is readily to be explained. Their natures 
 would appear to be distorted, as were the plants to 
 which allusion has been made, by the persistent 
 conflict of two racial influences, antagonistic in 
 feeling and sentiment and incapable of any reci- 
 procal assimilation. Such persons would seem to be 
 
240 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 unable to possess any individual or special cha- 
 racter. Many other facts, however, which have as 
 yet defied explanation may receive it by the same 
 means. Those who have ever met M. Drumont 
 never fail to recognise the strange irony of fate, 
 which has made of the famous French Anti-Semite 
 one of the most marked representatives of the 
 Semitic race. Judging from 'externals only, and 
 without seeking explanation, this fact would ap- 
 pear calculated to discredit atavism to a great 
 extent, but if it be considered that Unions, those 
 crosses in the human race, are facts of individual 
 action, and that passion, which poets and artists 
 have in all times delineated as blind, can dominate 
 the hatred of race and religious prejudice, we can 
 conceive that an ancestor of M. Drumont may have 
 belonged to the Jewish race although he is himself 
 a violent anti-Semite and a fervent Catholic.* It 
 would not be more absurd to allow that the Catholic 
 
 * Vide Appendix. Note F. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 241 
 
 faith could at a given time be grafted upon Semitic 
 resentment, than to assert that a quince could never 
 produce pears, when we know that, by the inser- 
 tion of a simple bud, any one can produce in space 
 a precisely similar phenomenon. We do find in 
 nature forces which act as agents of transmission, 
 and so can another phenomenon be readily ex- 
 plained. The descendants of the Verdets, the 
 fanatical royalists of 1815 in the Vaucluse, are for 
 the most part converted at this day into zealous 
 Radicals. We read every day with surprise that 
 the bearers of the most aristocratic names are 
 involved in Revolutionary movements, and so like- 
 wise do we meet in politics and history with these 
 unexpected reversions as the consequences of ill- 
 assorted crosses. The race does frequently revert, 
 as if to punish in families the crimes of indi- 
 viduals, and on such grounds a moral argument 
 might be founded upon the theory of descent. 
 
 It might seem unprofitable with such convincing 
 
 Q 
 
242 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 facts before us to discuss the mechanism of political 
 evolution, if, in the treatment of new matter, -ex- 
 planation could ever be deemed superfluous. No 
 one now denies the influence of atavism, but little 
 inquiry is made as to its explanation and still less 
 as to its application to everything that concerns 
 man and society. The opponents of the doctrines 
 of evolution will supply us with arguments to sup- 
 port this view. De Quatrefages admits that ' with 
 animals a re-appearance of ancestral characteristics 
 after careful selection, extended over hundreds of 
 generations, is frequently caused by atavism. ' In 
 the case of man, and in the absence of this selection, 
 facts of a similar nature must d fortiori be pro- 
 duced/* We have now our ground conceded, and 
 this concession exempts us, d fortiori, from the 
 obligation to prove our point by hundreds of 
 generations. But another admission on his part is 
 worthy of remark. ' Atavism does at times dis- 
 
 * * Human Species,' p. 180. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 243 
 
 play itself among races that are considered to be 
 of the purest blood, and in consequence of a single 
 cross dating back for many generations/ Darwin 
 cites the instance of a breeder who had crossed his 
 hens with Malay blood, and then wished to get rid 
 of this foreign strain. After forty years of con- 
 tinuous efforts he had not succeeded, and the Malay 
 blood constantly reappeared in the produce of his 
 poultry yard. Now in this case he was dealing 
 with a limited number of individuals whose exist- 
 ence itself is of limited duration, and human skill 
 had tried its utmost to annihilate the efforts of 
 nature. What then must be the influence and 
 bearing of atavism when we have to deal with 
 individuals, whose existence is of far longer span^ 
 and who cannot be submitted to the test of experi- 
 ment ? 
 
 If we fix the average duration of a generation at 
 twenty-five years, and allow four to the century, 
 some forty-eight generations had passed away 
 
244 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 between the establishment of the Frankish con- 
 quest in the sixth century and the Revolution in 
 the eighteenth. If we remember that at the first 
 generation the number of ascendants, as we count 
 backwards, must be two, four at the second genera- 
 tion, eight at the third, sixteen at the fourth, and 
 so on, we shall find that in the sixteenth generation 
 under the reign of Louis IX, the Saint, in the time 
 of the Crusades, some sixty-six thousand men and 
 women unconsciously to themselves, and in ignor- 
 ance of each other's existence, had participated in 
 the formation of one single individual who, in his 
 capacity as a citizen of Paris, was to fight for the 
 cause of liberty in 1789. Clearly in this number 
 of progenitors the Frankish, Roman and Celtic 
 strains must bear different proportions; but it is 
 impossible to suppose that these different races did 
 not contribute, each its quota, to the eventual 
 result, the citizen of 1789. In calculating the pro- 
 portions most favourable to each, i.e. those in which 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 245 
 
 their respective shares should be exactly in propor- 
 tion to the number of their populations in the 
 country, we shall find the Franks to be the least, 
 and the Celts to be the most numerous. Again the 
 Frankish element would tend to decrease, while 
 the Celtic strain would increase continuously for 
 the following reasons.* 
 
 The Crusades had been devised by the Church, 
 a Bom an institution, with the object of exporting 
 to the East the pugnacious energy of the Franks, 
 and had succeeded in that object by a considerable 
 reduction in the number of that class. At an 
 early date, an aristocracy had been founded by 
 Feudalism, the work of the Frankish conquest. 
 Now the tendency of all aristocracies is to exclude 
 amalgamation with their order, and to confine their 
 alliances to members of their own class. The effect 
 of this social exclusiveness is so eminently restric- 
 tive, that the majority of families (we do not 
 
 * Cfr. ch. iv. 
 
246 SOCIAL EVOLVTION 
 
 speak of the reversion, or revival, of names and 
 titles) die out at the end of four hundred years. 
 As conquest imposes upon populations, already 
 provided with their own laws and customs, fresh 
 social and political forms at their immediate 
 expense, it is but natural that the conquered party 
 should seek to overthrow the new, in order to re- 
 establish their old, institutions. Now as the result 
 of this feeling and of these two currents flowing in 
 opposite directions, the one, the Frankish, which 
 leans to the maintenance of the conquest, will tend 
 to diminish; while the other, that of the Celts, 
 which seeks to overthrow it, will continue to in- 
 crease, and the moment must come when the latter 
 will get the better of the former. This moment 
 will be the dissolution of the conquest, and a re- 
 volution, which is nothing more in truth than a 
 phenomenon of natural evolution, must follow. 
 In course of time other conquests may occur to 
 modify this evolution, to defer its object, or to 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 247 
 
 complicate the results ; precisely as was the case, 
 when the conquest by the Franks succeeded to the 
 Roman Empire. The reasoning,* however, would 
 not be affected, and the cause and law would re- 
 main the same. Nature would strictly observe in 
 the course of evolution the conditions of time and 
 space, that would be imposed by these new 
 elements. If in Space we find countries where one 
 same race predominates, in Time we find clans in 
 races, which, like the veins of ore in mineralogy, 
 seem to be 'living lodes 't in the organism of society, 
 and at a given moment determine in politics some 
 unexpected movement. Herein lies the explana- 
 tion of the phrase employed in the Introduc- 
 tion, 'man represents the race or species which 
 has exercised the most direct influence upon him.'% 
 
 * This same reasoning would be equally appropriate to English 
 history and would account for the intermixture of Normans, Saxons 
 and Celts, and might be applied with equal force to any other country 
 in the same conditions. Ed. 
 
 t Vide Appendix. Note G. 
 t Cfr. p. 43. 
 
248 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 A conquest may be either violent in nature, 
 or be effected slowly ; may be either of a political 
 or economic kind; may be achieved by masses, 
 or result from infiltration ; but, be this as it may, 
 the social state will always be modified both in 
 its form and in its basis by objective, as well as 
 subjective, action. It may be said that in the 
 organisations, which are called societies, political 
 forms are exterior to the individual, and that the 
 same consequences cannot be drawn from their 
 obligatory modification, as are entailed by similar 
 modifications upon animal and vegetable organisms. 
 But the objection, apparently plausible, is in con- 
 tradiction to fact. Precisely as certain crosses, 
 i.e. the impression of the forms of certain species 
 upon other species, may modify their organisms to 
 the extent that their development and reproductive 
 powers will be arrested, so are certain political 
 forms capable of effecting the decay and dissolution 
 of nations. With similar effects the causes must 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 249 
 
 be similar and necessarily invite our attention. 
 Certain forms are suitable to certain species or to 
 certain nations in a political sense whilst other 
 forms are best adapted to other species. Hence, to 
 suit the expansiveness of life, arises that extraor- 
 . dinary variety of form in Nature, that true friend 
 to liberty. 
 
 The task of man is to discover at all times, and 
 in all situations, the political forms that will suit 
 him best. Democracies require the directing influ- 
 ence of an aristocracy which may be perfectly com- 
 patible with republican forms, while a monarchy 
 may be the most democratic form of government. 
 Bees live under a monarchy and ants in a republic. 
 The two species are equally industrious and diligent, 
 but the first have their drones and the second their 
 slaves. The drones remind us of Versailles, and 
 the slaves may recall Spartacus. The hives are 
 not exempt from parasites, nor was the ' Great 
 King' from courtiers; and many ant-hills must 
 
250 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 eventually experience the same evils that beset 
 the Roman people. 
 
 The Philosophy of Nature should have no terrors 
 for those who trust in the Deity. They should re- 
 member that when the extinguished sun shall fail 
 to supply to our earth the warmth indispensable 
 to human life, should man at that hour have 
 discovered the laws that regulated his existence 
 on this planet, he will have presented to the great 
 Creator the most remarkable memento of a world 
 that will have ceased to be inhabited. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 POPULAR SUFFRAGE 
 
 IT is necessary that in a work devoted to the dis- 
 cussion of the two important subjects, Evolution 
 and Politics, reference should be made to the ques- 
 tion of popular suffrage, both as to its action and 
 results. 
 
 The arbitrary authority of Feudalism was suc- 
 ceeded by the absolute power of royalty, which in 
 its turn gave way to the constitutional form of 
 Monarchy under Parliamentary restriction, and the 
 Parliamentary system itself is now threatened with 
 extinction by the violent irruption of the masses 
 into the political arena. An opinion has already 
 
252 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 been expressed in these pages that the political 
 combinations of the future would assume the form 
 of Federalism, and, to speak frankly, no other form 
 of government would seem to meet the require- 
 ments of the present day. But, whatever may be 
 the eventual issue, as the misapplication of any 
 force implies the possibility of danger, and to none 
 can this remark more correctly apply than to that 
 of popular suffrage, it is necessary that we should 
 learn the reason of such a failure which must pro- 
 ceed either from defective machinery or erroneous 
 principles. 
 
 As universal suffrage owes its origin to the 
 French Revolution, and as it was in France that it 
 was first employed to the material injury of the 
 country, it is thence that we must draw the con- 
 clusions that would suggest the remedies to be 
 adopted. 
 
 Rousseau was in truth the inventor of the theory, 
 which he enunciated in his Social Contract. In 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 253 
 
 that work he declares : ' The person who attempts 
 to form a nation should feel himself competent to 
 change, so to say, human nature, and to transform 
 each individual, who is in himself a perfect entity, 
 and partially responsible for a far larger whole, 
 from which he in a certain measure receives his 
 being and existence. Such a person must be com- 
 petent to alter the constitution of man, and to re- 
 invigorate it by the substitution of a partial and 
 moral existence in the place of that which he has 
 received from nature. Such a person must, in a 
 word, strip man of his own proper forces and give 
 him others that shall be foreign to him, and of 
 which he shall not be able to avail himself without 
 the help of others.' 
 
 This passage may be found word for word in 
 the chapter of the Social Contract, entitled 'The 
 Legislator.' Although it does not directly refer to 
 universal suffrage, we mentioned it as it shows the 
 frame of mind in which Rousseau undertook to 
 
254 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 improve the lot of suffering humanity, and to 
 acquire the knowledge of their real necessities. 
 The pretension to form a nation in the eighteenth 
 century is a convincing proof that Rousseau did 
 not shrink from impossibilities ; and, if at times 
 autocrats have been found willing to consign their 
 subjects to exile or the gaol it is more than pro- 
 bable that the idea of changing their nature had 
 never entered such Royal heads We will next 
 give Rousseau's views on the question of universal 
 suffrage. 
 
 'With respect to the proportional number of 
 votes by which this Will* may be announced, I 
 have laid down certain principles by which it can 
 be determined. The difference of one vote de- 
 stroys equality; one vote in opposition destroys 
 unanimity. But between unanimity and equality 
 there are several unequal divisions, by each of 
 which this proportional number can be fixed 
 
 * The will of the people. Ed. 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 255 
 
 according to the condition and requirements of the 
 political body. But in those deliberations which 
 must be decided on the spot, a majority of one vote 
 should decide the voting.'* 
 
 What Rousseau meant by the ' several unequal 
 divisions ' was simply the implicit recognition of 
 the existence of minorities, and may be accepted as 
 an admission, according to his ideas, of the right to 
 representation which they possess. We shall see 
 how he deals with this. The 'condition and re- 
 quirements of the political body,' is a euphemism 
 intended to disguise the embarrassment which 
 Rousseau felt in the presence of persons who were 
 agreed upon only one point, their right to differ 
 upon every possible subject. Unity is not of this 
 world, it presupposes identity which is absolute 
 equality, and is not to be found even in the 
 grains of sand on the sea-shore. As to the famous 
 majority of one, an indispensable and sufficient 
 
 * 'Contract Social' p. 315. Ed., Gamier. 
 
256 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 condition that the voting should be valid and the 
 election of the member be confirmed, Rousseau is 
 either too generous or too particular. 
 
 Taking up the list of Members elected to the 
 French Parliament in 1881, and selecting three at 
 hazard, we find that those elections were as 
 follows : 
 
 The Member for Florae polled 4,396 votes out of 11,222 electors on 
 
 register 
 
 The Member for Marmande 12,885 ,, 31,106 
 
 The Member for May enne 5,936 18,831 ,, 
 
 23,217 61,159 Total 
 
 We are evidently a long way off the famous 
 majority of one claimed by Rousseau, and yet all 
 these three so-called representatives are in the 
 same boat. One does not obtain a third of the 
 votes registered, the other two have a somewhat 
 higher average, but none of them have secured the 
 half. Who can believe that either morally or 
 numerically, in fact or in principle, these persons, 
 and the hundreds of other members who are in the 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 257 
 
 same condition, are the true representatives of the 
 country ? By the addition of the figures we find 
 that three deputies are commissioned by 23,217 
 voters to represent 61,159 electors, who themselves 
 do not constitute the entire number of persons 
 entitled to a vote. Is this a hoax ? How can this 
 be called universal suffrage ? and the nation not 
 discover that it is a rank political swindle ? But 
 politicians will not admit that in politics swindling 
 can exist. 
 
 Is it impossible to introduce a slight amount of 
 honesty into these matters ? Morality, in our 
 opinion, ought to take precedence of the suffrage 
 and should control its exercise, for it is based upon 
 the fundamental principle that every right has its 
 duty. The right of voting is admitted by all 
 parties, but the right of voting implies the 'moral 
 duty to vote, and thereby the right to be represented. 
 Why does the elector avail himself so little of that 
 
 former right ? Because he feels, though he cannot 
 
 R 
 
258 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 explain the feeling, that his second right, that of 
 heing represented, is abrogated by the process by 
 which the votes are taken. The elector is so 
 conscious of some deception that he becomes in- 
 different to the exercise of his right. He does not 
 know before he votes whether his party opinions 
 will ensure a majority, and still less has he any 
 security that, in the event of such majority, the 
 representative whom he has helped to elect will 
 not be the first to betray him. 
 
 Under these circumstances, is the obligation to 
 vote to be considered as compulsory upon the 
 elector, and is the law to interfere, as has been fre- 
 quently proposed, by the imposition of a penalty ? 
 We deny that it is to be a question of penalty, of 
 force and of authority, turn as we may in the 
 eternal treadmill of the Jacobin system. Such a 
 penalty would be both absurd and illusory, for it 
 would be as difficult to enforce as to regulate. 
 Every man would then vote for himself. To 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 259 
 
 abstain from voting, or to vote for oneself, which 
 is it to be ? In either case we come to the end 
 of universal suffrage and, as sophistry must con- 
 clude in a negation or an absurdity, we should 
 not find ourselves more advanced than before. 
 
 By what means then can the proper exercise of 
 this right be secured ? Surely, the elector would 
 never be so blind to his own interests as to abstain, 
 if this right conferred upon him any substantial 
 part in the representation of the nation. There 
 are two means by which this may be secured : the 
 representation of minorities, and the responsibility 
 of the member. As to the rights of the minorities, 
 they are treated to-day much in Rousseau's fashion. 
 ' By the counting of the votes,' he says, ' we arrive 
 at the expression of the general will. When the 
 opinion that may be contrary to my own carries 
 the day, it proves to me simply that I was mis- 
 taken, and that what I thought to be the general 
 opinion was not really so. // my own particular 
 
260 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 views had been successful I should have done some- 
 thing very different to what 1 wished to do, and 
 in that case I should not have been free ! ' * This 
 is a candid confession as to the value of liberty : 
 another step, and Rousseau would have apologised 
 for having ventured to hold an opinion of his own ! 
 Every elector should peruse and re-peruse these 
 words of wisdom, for they contain the whole 
 machinery of the suffrage. He will find in them 
 the reason why he is not represented when the 
 champion of his opinions is beaten only by a few 
 votes; and why, if the ballot be held upon a 
 departmental list of candidates t instead of by 
 electoral districts, the list of his choice is ousted 
 from all share in the representation, and he him- 
 self evicted from all participation in the electoral 
 sovereignty. If the law allot twenty-five members 
 to a department (county), and three lists are pre- 
 
 * ' Contrat Social,' p. 315. 
 
 t Called 'Scrutin de Liste.' The difference between the two 
 systems is explained at length later on. 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 261 
 
 sented, and if each on the ballot obtains a nearly 
 equal number of votes, all the electors find them- 
 selves represented by the candidates on that list 
 which has obtained the majority of votes, although 
 the second and third lists combined will have 
 received a number of votes largely in excess of 
 those recorded in favour of the winning list. The 
 disappointed elector is not entitled to protest, for he 
 had been duly warned by Rousseau of what might 
 happen. He has been stripped of his own proper 
 forces and others have been given to him, which 
 are foreign to him. , He has been deprived of his 
 own opinions, and others have been imposed upon 
 him. His own liberty has been confiscated, and he 
 enjoys another liberty which may be called servi- 
 tude. But Rousseau says that all this is in the 
 fitness of things. 
 
 We will continue our analysis of this precious 
 system of suffrage. What becomes of this famous 
 'general will' to which Rousseau is prepared to 
 
262 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 sacrifice his liberty ? Simply this. Y is returned 
 by 5640 votes against X who polled 5632. Why 
 take Y rather than X ? 
 
 If it be a question of the triumph of any par- 
 ticular opinion, of a victory which entails the 
 overwhelming defeat of any idea by force of 
 numbers, we come to the ' Fee victis,' a relic of 
 barbarism : if it be a struggle between two men, it 
 is a kind of steeplechase. Popular suffrage was 
 not conceived to such an end, but rather for the 
 purpose, one would think, of giving expression to 
 the opinions, or for representing the interests, of the 
 entire mass of the people. Anyhow, 11,227 electors 
 took the trouble to vote, and Y was elected by 
 eight votes. This, in reality, is the relation of the 
 vote to the mass, for if it is true that 5640 voters 
 wished for Y, it is equally true that 5632 did not 
 want him, and there still remains an indeterminate 
 number of electors that evidently did not want 
 either the one or the other. 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 263 
 
 The whole cleverness of the Jacobin system lies 
 in the adoption of this law of the majority as a 
 principle, and of the exclusive and absolute sway 
 of the minority as a fact. For the Jacobins to 
 obtain and retain power, Public opinion must be 
 bamboozled through an utterly rotten system of 
 suffrage. People grow sick and tired of the im- 
 position. They decline to vote, but still believe in 
 the suffrage ; they are conscious of deception, but 
 cannot detect it. They know that they are entitled 
 to universal suffrage, but, dupes of an imposture, 
 they cannot see how they are tricked out of 
 it. 
 
 Elections conducted on these principles are not 
 calculated to secure representatives of a high class. 
 The member first fills his own pockets as rapidly as 
 may be, and then bestows appointments and 
 favours on his relatives and friends, all of which 
 he obtains by the sale of his vote to Government, 
 that liberal distributor of concessions, patronage 
 
264 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 and privileges. The budget swells daily, and that 
 vaunted supervision of Parliament over the ad- 
 ministration of the Public funds is, and will con- 
 tinue to be, the most colossal farce of modern 
 times. Thirty years ago, Proudhon observed that 
 the Government granted concessions of mines, 
 canals and railways, with decorations, absolutely as 
 before 1789 the Court had distributed prebends, 
 benefices, lieutenancies and titles. Were we not 
 right in saying that Jacobinism was but monarchy ? 
 Look again on that marvellous instrument of 
 corruption, that budget of 130,000,000 which 
 maintains 900,000 functionaries and an adminis- 
 trative machinery ever at the disposal of the 
 candidates of the Government. Can we be sur- 
 prised that the elections should always be favour- 
 able to the party in power, until the day of a 
 catastrophe arrives ? The reason is before us ; for 
 were the system an honest one, the constant and 
 otherwise unreasonable opposition of public opinion 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 265 
 
 to the government formed out of the assembly (the 
 offspring of universal suffrage) would be an inex- 
 plicable enigma. 
 
 Why should revolutions recur in France every 
 twenty years ? Because this universal suffrage, 
 the production of Rousseau as is everything else 
 connected with the present mode of Government, 
 is a mere conflict of rival interests of which Power 
 is the stake. The member, the representative of 
 particular interests, essentially selfish and there- 
 fore inconsistent, is pre-occupied with his own 
 concerns and ignores those of the general Public. 
 . This is the result of the Parliamentary system as 
 it works under the aegis of universal suffrage. 
 The inventor of the system was so keenly alive to 
 its defects that he admitted that ' Nothing can be 
 more dangerous than the influence of private in- 
 terests in public matters, and the abuse of them by 
 the Government is a lesser evil than the corruption 
 of the Legislator, which is the inevitable result of 
 
266 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the bias of self interest.'* Nothing can be more 
 true ; and we verify this fact with each new 
 Chamber and realise the remark of Chateaubriand, 
 that, 'Other men are not concealed behind the 
 actual men we see. We are not looking on any 
 exceptional cases but on the general condition of 
 manners, ideas and passions, on the deep-seated 
 and widely disseminated malady which now saps 
 the existence of society.' It is useless to try to 
 change the men without altering the system, for 
 Rousseau himself appends this corollary. 'The 
 less the peculiar views of individuals are in accord 
 with the will of the public, or, in other words, the 
 less manners comply with the law, the more must 
 the force of repression increase in severity.' The 
 Parisians know too well what force of repression 
 means, and have too often seen in the last hundred 
 years the streets of the capital run with blood. 
 We must on the contrary take under our protec- 
 
 * 'De la Democratic,' p. 284. 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 267 
 
 tion these peculiar views of individuals and leave 
 Rousseau to continue to beg the question ; inas- 
 much as the law does not make the manners, but 
 the manners make the law. Manners are the re- 
 sultants of the race and soil and exert an influence 
 immeasurably superior to any laws that can be 
 framed by man. 
 
 Surprise may be expressed at the length of our 
 remarks upon this chef d'ceuvre of falsity and 
 deception. But it is from a study of past errors 
 and present defects that we hope to secure im- 
 provement in the future and even attain it in the 
 present. If we reflect that universal suffrage, i.e., 
 the predominance of popular opinion in politics, is 
 the most important and most dangerous conquest 
 of the French Revolution ; if we consider on the 
 one hand the democratic impulse which this Re- 
 volution has imparted to France and the rest of 
 Europe, and how great, on the other hand, was the 
 influence of the ' Social Contract ' upon the men of 
 
268 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 that day and on the Jacobins who directed the 
 levelling 'policy of authority; if we consider all 
 these points we are driven to the conclusion that 
 an analysis of this work was of real importance, 
 and that it was advisable to expose its vicious 
 nature and the deplorable results which have 
 attended its publication. 
 
 Everyone must feel that an improvement in the 
 more equitable working of this universal suffrage 
 must be effected. This said suffrage, more or less 
 universal, has imposed itself upon nearly every 
 state on the civilised globe. Nowhere, it is true, 
 has it been productive of as much mischief as in 
 France, but this may be attributable to the earliest 
 experiments having been made in that country. 
 On these grounds France may pretend to the best 
 right to expose the defects, and to introduce reforms 
 that may prove of advantage to other nations. 
 It is worthy of remark that in France, as else- 
 where, popular suffrage has always been adopted 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 269 
 
 before the principles of its exercise have been 
 defined, and to this capital mistake we probably 
 owe the blunders in our reckoning. The methods 
 of its exercise, the different modes of ballotting, in 
 existence or to be adopted, should clearly be 
 deduced from a knowledge of these principles, and 
 it is these principles which we will try to ascertain. 
 What is a principle in politics if it be not the 
 symbol of certain moral phenomena? Dispersed 
 over spaces of different extent and divided by 
 particular interests, men soon learned that the 
 discovery of some common sentiments, some moral 
 bonds, that should unite them would be of general 
 advantage. They conceived the notion of a political 
 tie. Of this need to hold communion of ideas, 
 suffrage, that is to say, the idea that their opinions 
 should be expressed by votes, was the outcome. 
 And so suffrage became the basis of every political 
 system, for, where one hundred men are assembled 
 together, there is a political question. It is dis- 
 
270 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 played in the diversity of opinions that are them- 
 selves related to moral phenomena, of which prin- 
 ciples are but the abstract expression. In sound 
 politics the knowledge of those principles is of 
 primary importance. As these descriptions of 
 phenomena depend both on conditions of life and 
 the environments which vary considerably, it 
 results that, if the representation of principles is 
 the object of the suffrage, the expression of their 
 diversities must be the consequence. The methods 
 which permit of their expression must then spring 
 from these two considerations, and as these prin- 
 ciples borrow from their collective sources the 
 requisite moral character, it is of consequence that 
 they should be formed not only in complete freedom, 
 but with perfect honesty of purpose. 
 
 The representation of principles is then estab- 
 lished as the object of the suffrage, and the expres- 
 sion of their diversity must be the consequence. 
 Do the means by which the votes are collected, i.e., 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 271 
 
 the modes of ballotting hitherto in vogue, respond 
 to these conditions ? We have but to see them in 
 operation to know at once that such is not the case. 
 Two modes of ballotting have been successively 
 in use according to the good pleasure of the 
 different parliaments, which have always assumed 
 the right to change them at their convenience, i.e., 
 according to the political interests of the majority 
 for the time being. They are the scrutin d'arron- 
 dissement, ballotting by electoral districts, and 
 scrutin de liste, or ballotting by entire Depart- 
 ments (counties). The Arrondissement or electoral 
 district, is an administrative division of the De- 
 partment. These latter, eighty-three in number, 
 are divided into 600 arrondissements. As the 
 Parliament is composed of 600 members, the 
 electors can either name a deputy for each arron- 
 dissement, or so many together for each Depart- 
 ment (county). It is this union of the names of 
 several candidates on one and the same list which 
 
272 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 forms what is called the scr-utin de liste, or ballot- 
 ting by Departments : and it is that list of can- 
 didates, which has proved most acceptable to the 
 electors and has so received the greatest number 
 of votes, which sends to Parliament its nominees as 
 Members for the entire Department. From this 
 simple statement of the two systems, patented by 
 all the governments which have ruled the country, 
 it is clear that, with the one as with the other, any 
 representation of the minorities becomes an im- 
 possibility : and the charges which we have already 
 brought against the ballotting by electoral districts 
 are equally applicable to the system of ballotting 
 by Departments. 
 
 Whether it be X who is named in any electoral 
 district against W, Y, Z : or whether it be list A 
 which is carried in any department against lists JB, 
 C, D., it is perfectly evident that the electors who 
 have voted on the one hand for W, Y, and Z, or for 
 lists B, C, and D on the other, will not be repre- 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 273 
 
 sented. The number of these non-represented 
 electors is generally largely in excess of that of the 
 electors who are nominally represented. At all 
 events they are at their pains for the trouble which 
 they have taken: and had they any opinion to ex- 
 press upon the direction of public affairs or upon 
 the constitutional machinery, they are politically in 
 the same position as if they had not. And so it 
 happens that in many electoral districts the number 
 of electors who abstain from voting is larger than 
 that of the electors who do vote. One cannot be 
 astonished at this fact any more than one can bo 
 astonished, now that we know how the system is 
 worked, at the disastrous results which the abuse 
 of universal suffrage can inflict upon a nation. 
 Much more may be said on this subject about the 
 knavery of governments than can be said of the 
 blunders and imbecility of the governed. 
 
 We have shown the flaw which is common to 
 
 both modes of ballotting, the political exclusion of 
 
 s 
 
274 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 minorities : but other defects are to be found in 
 each of them. In the ballotting by electoral dis- 
 tricts private influence and petty local passions 
 predominate. The Parliaments elected upon this 
 system are merely exaggerated vestries. The 
 elector knows his delegate and knows for whom he 
 is voting, but he does not know the why. With 
 the ballot by departments, based upon a larger geo- 
 graphical area, the elector does not know his man- 
 datory, and being at a loss to make a selection from 
 so many programmes and so many lists of persons 
 who are all prepared to effect his happiness at all 
 cost, he yields blindly to party spirit and selects 
 those whom he has either always followed, or those 
 whose opinions come the nearest to his own. He 
 knows why he votes, but he does not know for 
 whom. Parliaments elected on this system usually 
 degenerate into vast bear-gardens, and are unable 
 to furnish any majority because, in the hope of 
 catching the largest possible number of votes, lists 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 275 
 
 have been formed in a spirit of compromise between 
 conflicting opinions, a compromise which lasts until 
 the election is over but comes to an end when the 
 doors of the Chamber have once been opened. 
 
 In any case the elector, whose choice is limited 
 to one candidate or to a long list of candidates, is 
 reduced to the condition of a voting machine. He 
 finds himself in a sort of electoral corner and both 
 the direction and principles of government are 
 completely beyond his ken. As the principles of 
 government cannot even be called in question, 
 universal suffrage becomes a mere portion of its 
 machinery; but it is machinery without variability 
 and without elastic properties. The country so 
 finds itself condemned to endure interminably the 
 same system, the Parliamentary regime for in- 
 stance, which it loathes and abhors. Thus, as 
 political evolution does not occur spontaneously it 
 is effected through revolution, and here is the 
 simple explanation of two phenomena which are 
 
276 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 apparently contradictory, the existence of universal 
 suffrage 'and the co-existence of revolution in the 
 same country ; the possibility that it might be 
 obviated and the necessity that it should occur. 
 This condition is entirely due to the fact that the 
 principles upon which popular suffrage should be 
 based have never yet been recognised. If the 
 feelings which stir the masses cannot find free 
 play, if the moral phenomena, to which we have 
 alluded, and of which the so-called principles in 
 politics are but the expression cannot be converted 
 into a material shape, then popular suffrage is 
 devoid of practical utility and is destitute of all 
 signification. 
 
 The fundamental principles of popular suffrage 
 have been laid down ; the defects of either system 
 of ballot now in use have been pointed out ; and, if 
 we would discover the true system which would 
 comply with these principles, we must first deter- 
 mine the true properties and give the definition of 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 277 
 
 universal suffrage. It is simply a statement of 
 opinion and, as such, ought to be accepted as an 
 instrument for the exchange of public opinion on 
 political matters, as money serves for the exchange 
 of commodities of value. It should be, in fact, the 
 legal measure of opinion and to become this a 
 unity of measure must be established, i.e., a 
 common electoral measure. Money, the instru- 
 ment of exchange, has its unity or value, 'the 
 franc.'* The superfices is measured by the unity of 
 the ' square metre ; ' while volume has the ' cubic 
 metre,' and weight, the ' gramme/ But electoral 
 suffrage has none as yet, and as its unity, the unity 
 of representation, must be found we will now 
 attempt to discover it. 
 
 As the ballot by electoral districts and that by 
 departmental lists are equally defective in some 
 respects, and equally to be recommended for other 
 advantages, we would suggest that the defects of 
 
 * In England, it is the pound ; in Russia, the rouble. 
 
278 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the one should be corrected by the advantages of 
 the other. As the ballot by departments offers 
 less inducement to corruption on account of the 
 larger extent of the electoral area, and as it is for 
 this reason less subject to local influence and paltry 
 passions, it should be accepted in preference as the 
 electoral platform. 
 
 As to the number of representatives it is right 
 that it should be proportioned to the density of 
 the population. All person who fulfil the legal 
 conditions as to age and residence should be offici- 
 ally inscribed on the electoral rolls through the 
 agency of the mayors, upon the same principle as 
 that on which the civil registers are kept for the 
 collection of taxes and the military lists for the 
 purposes of the conscription. No inscription of 
 this character should be optional, and if the act of 
 voting is, and must continue to be, optional under 
 the impossibility of any compulsion, there is no 
 reason why the electoral registration should not be 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 279 
 
 obligatory, because it is impossible to appreciate 
 the state of public opinion unless the exact number 
 of those who may abstain from voting be accu- 
 rately known. Abstention is in itself the expression 
 of an opinion and should be taken into serious 
 account. Such persons as may in this fashion 
 record a negative opinion might be represented by 
 a negative quantity, by an empty seat in Parlia- 
 ment. By subtracting from the number of regis- 
 tered electors the number of electors who may 
 have voted, the remainder would give the data by 
 which one or more seats in the House could be 
 suppressed, in proportion to the figures of the 
 result. We will suppose that the number of 
 inhabitants throughout the country entitled to 
 one representative has been fixed, and if we divide 
 the number of electors inscribed in any one depart- 
 ment into as many equal fractions as there are 
 deputies allotted to that department, we shall 
 arrive at fifths, eighteenths, and twenty-fifths of 
 
 UHI7BESITT 
 
28o SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 representation, according as the Department may 
 be entitled to five, eighteen, or twenty-five de- 
 puties. If the abstentions from voting in one of 
 these latter departments should attain a figure 
 which represents two of these twenty-fifths, this 
 department should not, until some redistribution of 
 seats was established, ever have from that moment 
 more than twenty-three deputies. 
 
 This system by which abstentions from voting 
 are represented is equally applicable to the repre- 
 sentation of party. That party shall have eighteen 
 deputies if they have obtained eighteen twenty- 
 fifths, and the other will have but four if they can 
 but get four of these twenty-fifths. The ballot 
 may frequently result in a number of unequal 
 fractions of these unities, either because they do 
 not attain the figure fixed for ' representative unity? 
 or because they may constitute the surplus of some 
 lists, i.e., the number of votes that remains over and 
 above the amount of unities required for the elec- 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 281 
 
 tion of such candidates as they may have carried. 
 By the adoption in these cases of the law of 
 majorities, the only one which can decide the 
 question, and by the adoption of representative 
 unity as the common measure we shall experience 
 no difficulty in the solution of such a ballot by the 
 means which we propose. 
 
 Representative unity, as we understand it, is the 
 relative proportion which insures respect to the 
 right of minorities by allotting to each list a share 
 in the representation proportionate to the number 
 of votes which it may obtain on the ballot. When- 
 ever the ballot may not supply an explicit answer 
 it is representative unity that must solve the 
 doubt. 
 
 We should thus proceed. We shall classify these 
 unequal fractions (whether they originate in in- 
 complete unities or by the surplus of unities 
 deducted from the more successful lists) in the 
 decreasing order of their numerical importance, 
 
 I 
 
282 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 but without including the number of abstentions. 
 A committee, formed out of the members of the 
 committees of each list, or in any other manner 
 that would present the requisite guarantees, would 
 report the election of those qualified, until they 
 arrived at the number of members that still re- 
 mained to be elected. 
 
 We will now give an example of the machinery 
 of this system. We will suppose that the law has 
 fixed one representative for every 100,000 in- 
 habitants. We will take a department which has 
 1,200,000 inhabitants, and is consequently entitled 
 to twelve representatives. Suppose that the 
 number of registered electors amounts to 360,000. 
 Representative unity will be then SAQ^Q. and any 
 candidate that can obtain 30,000 votes will be duly 
 elected. If out of these 360,000 electors but 329,000 
 should vote, and 31,000 abstain, (a figure larger 
 than one representative unity), the number of de- 
 puties, 12, would be reduced to 11. As soon as the 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 
 
 283 
 
 abstainers from voting attain the number of 30,000 
 and so become a representative unity, their views 
 deserve to be represented, and this object will be 
 attained by the sacrifice of one seat in Parliament. 
 Were they 60,000 two seats would go, but no one 
 has any real interest in not voting, for each elector 
 wishes to see his views represented and each vote 
 has its utility. 
 
 The votes of these 329,000 electors have been 
 distributed as under : 
 
 Ked Party, List A 
 
 175,000 votes 
 
 White Party 
 
 B 
 
 78,000 
 
 
 Blue Party 
 
 C . 
 
 36,000 
 
 
 Violet Party 
 
 D . 
 
 24,000 
 
 
 Black Party 
 
 E . 
 
 14,000 
 
 
 Green Party 
 
 F . 
 
 2,000 
 
 
 329,000 
 
 The result of this Ballot will be that 
 
 List A will have 5 deputies with 25,000 votes to spare 
 B 2 18,000 
 
 C 1 6,000 
 
 The five first names on List A, the two first 
 names on List B, and the first name on List C 
 
284 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 will be those of the members declared to be 
 elected. 
 
 Three deputies remain still to be elected, one 
 seat being lost to the department owing to the 
 31,000 abstentions. 
 
 They will belong in numerically decreasing 
 order to 
 
 List A which has a surplus of 25,000 votes 
 List D which has a sum of 24,000 
 List B which has a surplus of 18,000 
 
 The sixth name on List A, the first name on 
 List D, and the third name on List B will now 
 be added to the other eight as the successful 
 candidates for election. Any vacancies that might 
 occur among the members for this department 
 should not be filled up by new elections before 
 the dissolution of that Parliament, but such vacant 
 seats should be filled by the election of the 
 candidates of the list next highest in numerical 
 order, and it may even happen that List F with 
 its 2000 votes might have to send a member to 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 285 
 
 Parliament. Under this system the feeblest party, 
 they who have not been able to attain the figure 
 of one representative unity, have a chance of being 
 represented, while the majorities can profit by 
 the whole of their numerical strength. A single 
 candidate can make a list all to himself and be 
 elected, if he can secure sufficient votes. In the 
 same way, all the candidates can group themselves 
 according to their opinion without fear of any 
 compromise, and the elector can rank himself 
 under any banner which he may select. In this 
 combination of the two kinds of ballot we compose 
 a system which shall unite the advantages and 
 minimise the defects of both. We apply to the 
 working of the ballot by departmental list the 
 principle of the ballot by electoral district, and 
 we remove the latter from its geographical sphere, 
 in which it is too confined, to a moral sphere in 
 which it can develop itself and extend the prin- 
 ciples which it is its mission to express. In this 
 
286 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 way principles rise superior to local influences, and 
 we attain both the object of the suffrage and the 
 result of the ballot by List ; not that we have lost 
 sight of those influences, since all principles can be 
 partly the results of the ideas, characters and 
 aspirations of different countries, but it is by the 
 ballot by districts, which we oppose, that the con- 
 sequences of interested motives are most palpably 
 exhibited. 
 
 The theory of representative unity coincides with 
 the principles already laid down as the foundation 
 of any equitable system of universal suffrage. We 
 should add that no candidate should be allowed to 
 inscribe his name upon more than one list, for he 
 must not presume to personify discordant principles. 
 No opinion has been expressed as to the part which 
 popular suffrage should take in the constitution 
 of government, and our remarks have been confined 
 to the direction which it should suggest. This part 
 must necessarily be very variable: it must depend 
 
POPULAR SUFFRAGE 287 
 
 upon the relative education of the masses, and upon 
 the degree of civilisation which the nation has 
 attained. Direct government by the democracy is 
 possible only in a people still in its infancy or in 
 one of considerable refinement. Whatever may be 
 the character that popular suffrage shall confer 
 upon any form of government, the necessity that 
 an aristocracy should exert its directing influence 
 will not be the less imperative, were it only to be 
 exercised for the correction of the errors that 
 popular suffrage must from time to time commit. 
 Moreover, foresight as well as the sentiment of 
 duty is the privilege of aristocracies : hence, for 
 nations the necessity of their existence. In fine, 
 democracy is quantity, aristocracy is quality ; happy 
 the people who can unite these two conditions ! 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 IT may be urged that a work, confined at the outset 
 to a study of scientific and moral questions, should 
 not terminate in what might be deemed to be a 
 mere political digression : but, as it has been our 
 intention to close these chapters with some reflec- 
 tions that should embrace preceding considerations 
 and at the same time develop their full bearing 
 from the moral point of view, we do not admit that 
 any practical remarks of a political nature can be 
 irrelevant to the subject which we have proposed 
 to treat ; because politics, although they have not 
 yet attained to the dignity of a science, have, in 
 common with all the sciences, their peculiar aim and 
 
CONCLUSION- 289 
 
 their peculiar morality. If progress in this world 
 is promoted by the discoveries of Science or by the 
 theories of Philosophy, neither the one nor the 
 other can be of any practical benefit to mankind 
 until they are adapted to industry or translated 
 into laws. Laws are no longer the expression of 
 Royal pleasure or of the caprice of the privileged 
 legislator; they are the production of the chosen 
 representatives of the nation. The election of such 
 representatives, upon whom the welfare and pro- 
 sperity of each nation depend, cannot be deemed a 
 matter of small importance. A nation might in- 
 deed at times suffer less under the rigid rule of a 
 well-intentioned autocrat than from the greed of 
 certain chiefs of Parties. 
 
 It is in consequence of the general acceptance of 
 the principle of political centralisation that the 
 interests involved therein have become too vast for 
 it to be any longer advisable that they should be 
 
 committed unreservedly to the repeated hazards of 
 
 T 
 
2 9 o SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the ballot-box. France supplies sufficient examples 
 of the dangers that must attend popular suffrage if 
 it be entrusted to inexperienced hands, and of the 
 frequent failures of those who would avail them- 
 selves of this force. Conceded prematurely to the 
 unenlightened masses, this privilege has been the 
 direct cause of the misfortunes which have befallen 
 France during the last forty years. The masses 
 must everywhere be unenlightened, and it is on 
 this account that they require every possible pro- 
 tection against fallacious theories and self-seeking 
 politicians. They must receive instruction, and 
 their judgment must find a safeguard in the adop- 
 tion of the most honest form of popular election. 
 The people as a whole are disposed to act rightly ; 
 they are actuated by the sentiment of justice and 
 their judgment is generally sound. Every effort 
 that may tend to the enlightenment of popular 
 suffrage and that shall ground it upon the moral 
 code must be a work of general utility. We may 
 
CONCLUSION 291 
 
 then realise the idea of scientific politics or, in 
 other words, of Social Science, and with this object 
 has the question been treated. To the statesman 
 and the legislator the realisation of this conception 
 must be left. 
 
 In any circumstances pure politics form but a 
 part of the question that we have raised. Above 
 them stands morality, as manners stand above the 
 laws. Equally as political forms must adapt them- 
 selves to the periodically changing forms of an 
 economic or social nature, so does morality also 
 change and experience its peculiar evolution. No 
 one will pretend to deny the existence of an im- 
 mutable morality, the same for every age and for 
 every people, a morality with which no civilised 
 society could dispense, from which no religion could 
 presume to differ ; yet morality must vary in course 
 of time. We do not mean that it shall vary as one 
 people may vary from another, still less that the 
 number of persons who may conform to its code 
 
292 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 shall increase or diminish in time and space mere 
 truisms but that the Social Ideal does change 
 periodically, that it changes its ground and that, in 
 short, it attains a higher level. Although Antiquity 
 can boast of men who had attained a purity of 
 moral conceptions, whose maxims we ourselves 
 record as the expressions of that eternal morality 
 of which we spoke, the social ideal of ancient 
 society differed widely from that which we now 
 entertain, and our ideal itself seems destined to 
 disappear gradually beneath our mental horizon. 
 
 The ancients encouraged slavery which we have 
 renounced. The Feudal society did undoubtedly 
 substitute serfdom in its place, but serfdom implied 
 progress in the sense that the man was no longer 
 bound to the person of his master but to the land ; 
 and to this extent he had acquired a certain 
 amount of liberty. Slavery itself may be said to 
 have implied progress, inasmuch as it replaced 
 cannibalism ; the discovery had been made that 
 
CONCLUSION 293 
 
 it was more profitable to employ the man and to 
 eat animals instead of human flesh. Slavery has 
 been abolished, but the proletariat on all sides 
 demands its eventual emancipation. 
 
 Religion, of which morality is the soul and 
 essence, has followed the same steps in the course 
 of her refinement. Man had worshipped suc- 
 cessively the stars, animals, water, fire and other 
 objects, which he rejected for the adoration of gods 
 and goddesses. At this day we have but one God, 
 and still of His existence a large section of the 
 community appears to entertain a doubt. 
 
 The improvement in the condition of the woman 
 has been commensurate with the progress that we 
 relate. From the brutal unions of savage tribes 
 man has advanced to polygamy and thence to 
 monogamous habits. From the status of a beast 
 of burthen or of lust, woman has been raised to 
 the dignity of the wife and mother; but it was by 
 the acceptance in the Christian church of maiden- 
 
294 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 hood as the religious symbol of purity that woman 
 was effectually raised from the inferior position 
 assigned to her by Antiquity. Women became in 
 consequence the most ardent propagandists and 
 the most zealous sectaries of the new Faith. 
 Unfortunately at the present day the ranks of 
 the fallen and degraded class are recruited in such 
 startling numbers from the female population that 
 they would almost imply a partial reversion to the 
 bestial conditions of primitive ages under the 
 development of machinery and the concentration 
 of capital; so true is it that individuals are con- 
 trolled by their environment. The same laws of 
 evolution must then govern both Society and 
 Nature and prove conclusively that societies are 
 but natural organisms. 
 
 Little by little the work of Christianity decays 
 and, at the expiration of nineteen hundred years, is 
 in no better plight than was Paganism in its final 
 throes. At that period, if we are to believe con- 
 
CONCLUSION 295 
 
 temporaneous evidence, two augurs could not 
 meet without a smile. At the present day the 
 clergy of every persuasion exert to little purpose 
 their efforts to stay the dissolution of the Faith. 
 The reasons are not far to seek. The Christian 
 religion is most admirable in itself, but its truths 
 are too noble, too perfect for human nature. We 
 have seen that under the influence of similar, or 
 even analogous, conditions antecedent states of 
 society will reappear: and this is what we now 
 witness. 'Love one another,' said Christ. Was 
 it to be expected that humanity could forget in 
 one day for centuries do but represent such a 
 fraction of time the countless ages of ferocity, 
 cannibalism, reprisals and hatreds that it had en- 
 dured ? To expect that it could forget so much 
 and comply with this injunction that we should 
 love one another was to expect the realisation of 
 a fair dream, and was but a dream. The result 
 has not proved encouraging ; but at this day when 
 
296 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the intensity of the struggle for existence has 
 developed to the highest point the spirit of in- 
 dividualism, and has blended egotism with natural 
 animosity, it is useless to indulge in such ardent 
 hopes. Those who retain those hopes should reflect 
 upon the formula of Christianity, Faith, Hope and 
 Charity, which has for centuries supplied the 
 moral basis of all modern societies. Faith ! Apart 
 from the select few who have faith in Science, in 
 what, and in whom can the masses believe and have 
 faith ? Hope ! Can it be entertained when even the 
 privileged classes are disturbed by doubts or mis- 
 givings and weariness of existence,* and when the 
 masses continue to despair of being able to procure 
 by their labour the necessaries of life ? Charity ! 
 Does she not confess her inability to relieve the 
 misfortunes that machinery and the accumulation 
 of capital have effected ? In every country and 
 in every Church voices are raised to denounce the 
 
 * The ' tcedium vitae ' of the Romans. 
 
CONCLUSION 297 
 
 evils that threaten society and imperil its existence. 
 Noble-minded and scientific men devote themselves 
 to the relief of distress, or to the cure of diseases 
 that fester in the atmosphere of our large towns. 
 At present, the efforts of humanity are but directed 
 to the alleviation of its own misfortunes ; yet the 
 task is of a negative character. He who does not 
 advance must recede, and he who does not create 
 does but live upon his own substance and must 
 dwindle away. It is not so much the evils them- 
 selves as the causes of such evils that must be 
 extinguished. Social conditions must be modified, 
 a new guiding principle be discovered, and human 
 efforts be directed towards other purposes. 
 Humanity should, in a word, be drawn towards 
 higher moral aims. 
 
 We may see at a glance how one portion of 
 society is devoted to the accumulation of wealth or 
 to the gratification of the senses, while another 
 portion, represented by the multitude, is crushed 
 
298 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 by toil and can with difficulty procure by their 
 labour the necessaries of existence. On material, 
 no less than on moral, grounds is such a state of 
 things to be condemned. Man is no longer a 
 denizen of the woods, he lives as a member of 
 Society; and it is in this sense that the term 
 'Socialism' must be used, the word that excites 
 such general alarm and upon whose exact signifi- 
 cation every one seems to disagree. If certain 
 duties towards the society in which he lives be 
 imposed upon every man, other duties towards 
 him must incontestably be incumbent upon that 
 same society, for it exists only by the labour and 
 the exertions of the individual. 
 
 In his reflections upon the question propounded 
 by Kant, Darwin, whose inquisitive mind was ever 
 disquieted by moral doubts, gave expression in his 
 ' Descent of Man '* to his uncertainty as to the source 
 of duty. The notion that we may entertain of duty 
 * Vid. oh. iv. p. i. 
 
CONCLUSION 299 
 
 as incumbent upon a man is but the expression in 
 a moral sense of that necessity which exists in 
 nature ; and it is the conviction that, in the position 
 in which he is placed, he must satisfy his wants so 
 that his existence be secured and his species be 
 preserved. It follows that labour has become the 
 duty of every individual and the law of society.* 
 The animal is subject to this same law, a physical 
 as well as natural law ; but it obeys unconsciously 
 and with greater facility than does man, as it has 
 fewer wants to satisfy. The animal does not 
 require clothing, is free from rent or taxes, and can 
 change its abode in search of food with greater ease 
 and without expense. It is this series of obligations 
 incumbent upon the individual who lives as a 
 member of society that has established the prin- 
 ciple of social duties, and given rise to the long- 
 standing social question. This question must change 
 as societies do, but to a greater or less extent it 
 
 * Vide Appendix. Note H. 
 
3 oo SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 must ever exist; and it is this extent that is of 
 such supreme importance, for societies may learn 
 to their cost the dangerous consequences of any 
 neglect to adopt precautionary measures that may 
 solve the difficulty or temper its effects. 
 
 In short, the insane pursuit of wealth and the 
 aggravated misery of the lower orders, the one 
 being but the complement of the other, must dis- 
 appear from our midst, or society must collapse 
 under the shock of some violent crisis. Wealth 
 ought not to be viewed as the aim of life, but as 
 the means towards a higher purpose. 
 
 The aim of every individual, and it is the sole 
 aim that is admissible on moral grounds, should be 
 the physical and intellectual improvement of his 
 species; for wealth cannot be of any moral service 
 but when it is employed to this end. The mechan- 
 ical process of civilisation illustrates this truth. 
 When the wants of the individual have been satis- 
 fied or, in other words, when his labour has been 
 
CONCLUSION 301 
 
 completed, rest is indispensable to the recuperation 
 of his strength. The surplus of his activity over 
 and above the satisfaction of his necessities will be 
 represented by the amusements and recreations 
 that may render such rest more attractive to him ; 
 and, finally, when such amusements and recreations 
 shall have lost their fascination and satiety shall 
 have supervened, a man will become sensible of the 
 want of some social ideal that may be realised and 
 of some moral purpose that may be pursued. It is 
 such a purpose that is the true salt of civilisation 
 and distinguishes the man from the animal : 
 without it he would gradually, although uncon- 
 sciously, subside to the level of the brute creation. 
 We have shown by examples derived from history 
 that, if this aim or purpose be ever the same, it is 
 not always conceived in the same sense either in 
 time or space. The social ideal must necessarily 
 change, and the succession of such variations con- 
 stitutes the progress that civilisation may effect. 
 
302 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 It is then clear that this aim or purpose cannot 
 consist either definitely or temporarily in the 
 constant pursuit of wealth. Money alone will not 
 confer happiness : it cannot give us health, beauty 
 nor intelligence, although all three represent 
 qualities or advantages profitable to mankind and 
 to the improvement of our species : but neither, on 
 the other hand, does it impede our possession of 
 them. If it be folly to preach the inutility of, and 
 a contempt for, riches, it is an equal fallacy to 
 insist upon their accumulation to a point that may 
 exceed our ability to employ them ; because if, in 
 an ill-regulated society, the power to accumulate 
 wealth remains unlimited, limits are imposed upon 
 the wants and pleasures of the individual. When 
 these limits have been reached the acquisition of 
 additional wealth becomes useless to some, pre- 
 judicial to others and dangerous to the State. 
 
 It is for these reasons that wealth cannot be 
 considered as our aim or purpose, but only as a 
 
CONCLUSION 303 
 
 means. It can undoubtedly procure our welfare or 
 an improvement in the conditions of life : but it 
 cannot improve life itself, in the sense of our 
 species. 
 
 If this be established as the aim or purpose of 
 man, we have next to ascertain from what point of 
 view he may best attain his object. As civilisation 
 has sprung from our necessities, and as it advances 
 in agreement with fresh wants that have originated 
 in those that preceded them, the Social Ideal must 
 vary as do societies and must advance with pro- 
 gressive civilisation. As we recognise a morality 
 eternal and unchangeable, as we admit that there 
 is an aim or purpose that cannot alter, so we must 
 acknowledge the existence of an Ideal eternal in 
 its essence, but variable only in its manifestations, 
 as the History, Art and Science of the past can 
 demonstrate. This eternal Ideal is the trinity of 
 the True, the Beautiful and the Good : it is the 
 unity of the three rays that have from all time 
 
304 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 illumined the soul of man above the darkness of 
 the brute creation. 
 
 If then civilisation has originated in our wants 
 and advances by their means, the path of Progress 
 is illuminated, as we have already said, by the 
 discoveries of Science and the ethics of philo- 
 sophers. Whenever a capital idea, such as that of 
 Selection, is expounded by Science, it should be 
 applied to Morality and to Art : for the True, the 
 Beautiful and the Good are but three faces of the 
 unity that is styled Perfection. 
 
 If then self-improvement is to be accepted as the 
 persistent aim of the individual, it must be exer- 
 cised in the endeavour to combine in humanity, 
 conformably with the preceding Ideal, the largest 
 possible share of those three virtues or qualities, as 
 we may choose to term them, which constitute that 
 Ideal. As this Ideal must vary with every epoch 
 and every society, and as the conception of what 
 is true, beautiful and good, may be differently 
 
CONCLUSION 305 
 
 interpreted, there is but little prospect of the speedy 
 accomplishment of human evolution. This diver- 
 sity in the point of view from which this subject, 
 in common with many others, is to be approached 
 must depend upon the dissimilarity that necessarily 
 distinguishes the peculiar faculties of every people. 
 If the brain be one, the faculties that compose the 
 mind are diverse ; and if every species does partici- 
 pate in their possession it does so to a different 
 extent, and separate faculties will predominate to 
 a different extent in the respective minds of indi- 
 viduals. As these faculties have been developed 
 by civilisation, and as civilisation itself has been 
 achieved by their agencjv it is these same faculties 
 that must be improved and developed if we would 
 raise to a still higher point the intellectual power 
 of mankind. We have shown that the human soul 
 has been cultivated and developed by the inheri- 
 tance of qualities precede"ntly acquired through 
 
 the crossing of different races, and it is by such 
 
 u 
 
306 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 judicious crossings that we shall finally attain a 
 more perfect form of development. 
 
 The mental faculties have long since been accu- 
 rately determined and defined ; the question to be 
 decided is as to their diversity in different races. 
 With this object an analysis of the intellectual 
 characteristics of the three races or nations, ' the 
 three political species,' that have played the most 
 important part in the development of our civilisa- 
 tion has been given, and we have established by 
 examples the existence of this diversity. We there- 
 fore conclude that by certain crossings of races in 
 space the synthesis of these faculties, that nature 
 and history have diversified in time, may be re- 
 established in conformity with the demonstrations 
 furnished or to be furnished by analysis. 
 
 The mind must incontestably originate in matter, 
 but no dissection of this matter will ever betray 
 the existence of the mind. We can no more 
 analyse with the scalpel human intelligence than 
 
CONCLUSION 307 
 
 we can discover its secrets by the inspection of a 
 single brain. It is by the analysis of the brains of 
 differentiations, by the study of these ' intellectual 
 species/ represented by the works of their great 
 men of thought, invention or discovery, that success 
 may be attained ; because in such works the charac- 
 teristics of their special genesis, and of the func- 
 tions that they have discharged in the progress of 
 civilisation may be more surely traced. The 
 selection of this novel point of view may claim the 
 credit of originality. 
 
 It is but a waste of time to discuss the superi- 
 ority of Darwin over Lamarck, or vice versa, but 
 it is of paramount importance that the actual 
 difference between their respective theories and 
 treatment of the subject should be explained, 
 because in this difference exists the distinction 
 between Philosophy and Social Science. Both 
 explorers laboured in the same field, although in 
 divergent directions and with, as it were, different 
 
308 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 instruments. These instruments, apart from the 
 individual capacities of their employers, were but 
 the special genius of their respective races. 
 Lamarck enlisted in his cause the aid of reasoning 
 rather than that of positive facts, the theory of 
 Darwin is based upon the facts accumulated by 
 observation ; and we have already shown- reasoning 
 and observation to be precisely those intellectual 
 qualities that specially distinguish the two nations 
 to which these two evolutionists respectively 
 belonged. It is not possible to assert that reason- 
 ing is superior to observation, nor that observa- 
 tion is preferable to reasoning, for the one cannot 
 dispense with the other, and the human brain is . 
 not divided into compartments but is merely 
 differentiated by intellectual gradations. The 
 mind of every intelligent man is, indeed, in every 
 case endowed with the same faculties, but thought 
 may assume different modes with different nations, 
 as imagination may predominate with one, reason- 
 
CONCLUSION 309 
 
 ing with another, or observation with a third. 
 The more or less successful issue of this different 
 intellectual activity must depend upon the mental 
 power of those who use either the one or the other 
 mode ; but it is obvious that the man who can 
 employ the two with equal facility must be in- 
 tellectually superior to him who can employ but 
 one, and it is such superiority that we should seek 
 to acquire. Man cannot reasonably decline to do 
 for himself what he has already done for the animal. 
 
 By the encouragement of racing we have suc- 
 ceeded in securing a special swiftness in a class of 
 horses carefully selected for this purpose, and have 
 so obtained in the ordinary horse a rate of speed 
 superior to that known in former days. The ques- 
 tion becomes more complicated when we deal with 
 man : but the principle of selection remains the 
 same, whether it be treated on physical or moral 
 grounds and from whatever point it may be viewed. 
 
 Humanity will not lose by the substitution of a 
 
310 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 race under the principle of selection for the modern 
 chase after the golden calf. To what useful pur- 
 pose can riches be accumulated to a point that 
 shall exceed the satisfaction of our wants and 
 recreations, or that may be bequeathed to a rickety 
 or imbecile descendant who will either squander or 
 be incompetent to enjoy them ? Would it not be 
 preferable that they should inherit diminished 
 wealth with greater personal qualities ? Humanity, 
 we admit, has advanced progressively in self- 
 improvement, but the end is not yet by any means 
 attained. By the incorporation in a certain num- 
 ber of individuals of a larger proportion of those 
 qualities of truth, goodness and beauty we might 
 create a species superior to that which represents 
 humanity at this day, and so obtain the aristocracy 
 by selection, that will replace advantageously the 
 aristocracies of the past. This higher species will 
 be the product of Selection, the supreme aim of 
 humanity and the last term in the Evolution of Man. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 NOTE A 
 
 PIERRE ANTOINE DE MONET, CHEVALIER DE LAMARCK, 
 born in 1744, entered the French army at the age of 
 seventeen. His natural ability led to his rapid pro- 
 motion and but for an unfortunate accident it is but 
 probable that he would have attained considerable dis- 
 tinction as a soldier. Compelled to quit the service, he 
 devoted himself to the study of medicine for the means 
 of livelihood, and his taste for botany and natural 
 history soon led to his appointment to a subordinate 
 post in the National Museum, wherein he was to find 
 the road that was to lead to a world-wide celebrity. 
 His suggestion of the theory of Evolution, so opposed to 
 every scientific and religious tenet of his day, entailed 
 upon him innumerable difficulties and annoyances ; but, 
 confident of the truth that must eventually prevail, he 
 refused to yield to the opposition which he did not live 
 to see refuted. 
 
 Of his fourteen works, ' The Philosophical Zoology,' 
 (1809), has attained the highest celebrity. 'Species,' he 
 wrote, * are but relative, and are so but temporarily,' 
 
3 i2 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 and in these words he gave to the world the rudimentary 
 expression of the theory of Evolution. 
 
 With perfect loyalty Darwin has paid to this till-then 
 neglected pioneer of Science the most glorious homage, 
 a homage as indicative of the genius of Lamarck as of 
 the noble character of him by whom it was rendered. 
 
 Lamarck expired on the 18th December 1829. 
 Afflicted with blindness in his later years, he employed 
 his daughter as amanuensis. Pinched by poverty, he 
 was compelled to sell his herbarium, which was con- 
 signed to Berlin. With praiseworthy consideration of 
 the national feeling it has been lately ceded by purchase 
 to the Museum of France. 
 
 It is sad to reflect that the State should have done so 
 little for such a man ; for the nation might justly have 
 gloried in the fame of such scientific genius and such 
 exalted thought. But Glory has been described as the 
 daughter of Necessity, and if Genius be what it has 
 been styled by Buffon, a patient endurance, Lamarck 
 may in all truth be cited as the incarnation of these 
 two aphorisms. 
 
 NOTE B 
 
 IT may be said that the definitions of species are as 
 numerous as are the naturalists. The doctrine of 
 ' transformism,' which has come to assert the variability 
 of the species, has completely upset our previous view 
 of species, as being based upon the principle of fixity. 
 It is evident that, if species vary, the characters which 
 determine species must also vary : and, as definition 
 rests upon well-determined characteristics, the natur- 
 alists were at a loss to find a satisfactory one, as may 
 be seen by the multiplicity of their definitions. All, 
 however, are based upon the idea of resemblance, both 
 in time and space. We now give some of them. 
 
APPENDIX 313 
 
 'Species is the sum of individuals, born of common 
 parents, and of those resembling them as much as the 
 individuals resemble each other.' Cuvier. 
 
 'Species is a group of individuals similar to each 
 other, and contrasting in a certain measure with other 
 groups, while it preserves, in a series of generations, the 
 physiognomy and organisation common to all the indi- 
 viduals.' Naudin. 
 
 'Nature has not in reality formed classes, orders, 
 families, genera, nor fixed species, but only individuals, 
 who succeed each other and resemble those who have 
 produced them.' Lamarck. 
 
 'Species is the sum of individuals, more or less similar 
 to each other, who may be considered as the descendants 
 of one original couple, by a natural and uninterrupted 
 succession of families.' de Quatrefages. 
 
 'A species is a collection of all the individuals which 
 resemble each other more than they resemble anything 
 else, which can by mutual fecundation produce fertile 
 individuals, and which reproduce themselves by gener- 
 ation in such a manner that we may, from analogy, 
 suppose them all to have sprung from one single indi- 
 vidual.' de Candolle. 
 
 'A species, in the usual acceptation of the term, is an 
 animal which, in a state of nature, is distinguished by 
 certain peculiarities of form, size, colour or other cir- 
 cumstances from another animal. It propagates after 
 its kind individuals perfectly resembling the parent. 
 Its peculiarities therefore are permanent.' Swainson. 
 
 'Looking upon species, not as a distinct entity due to 
 special creation, but as an assemblage of individuals 
 which have become somewhat modified in structure, 
 form and constitution, so as to adapt them to slightly 
 different conditions of life : which can be differentiated 
 from other allied assemblages: which reproduce their 
 like and which usually breed together.' Wallace. 
 
3H SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 We have also a definition of variety, and of race. 
 ' Variety is an individual or a collection of individuals, 
 belonging to the same sexual generation, which is dis- 
 tinguished from the other representatives of the same 
 species by one, or more, exceptional characteristics. 
 While the race is the sum of similar individuals belong- 
 ing to the same species who have received and transmit, 
 by means of sexual generation, the characteristics which 
 were originally variable. Thus species is the point of 
 departure: in the midst of the individuals, of which 
 species is composed, variety appears. And when the 
 characteristics of this variety become hereditary, a race 
 comes into existence. de Quatrefages. 
 
 The above opinions may be condensed into the asser- 
 tion that races and varieties are simply the stages, the 
 temporary variations, in the transformation of species. 
 
 NOTE C 
 
 PETER JURIEU, a Protestant divine and theologian, was 
 born in the neighbourhood of Orleans in 1637, and dis- 
 tinguished himself by his attacks on the government of 
 Louis XI Y. His two most important works are 1. 
 ' The policy of the French clergy towards the destruction 
 of the Protestant religion,' (Amsterdam 1681). 2. 
 ' The sighs of enslaved France panting for its liberty,' 
 (Amsterdam 1689-90.) This last work; was condemned 
 and destroyed by order of the King and but few copies 
 have been preserved. Two in perfect condition are to 
 be found in the British Museum. The idea of a contract, 
 which was expressed later by Rousseau in a highly dis- 
 torted form, is clearly propounded in this book, and 
 Monarchy is therein defined as a definite contract 
 between the Sovereign and his people, and not as the 
 exercise of absolute authority upon the part of Royalty. 
 
APPENDIX 315 
 
 ' It is true,' he says, 'that there are certain rights which 
 can never be effaced, and among those are the rights of 
 the people.' Strong words for the days in which he 
 wrote, but in them lies the basis of constitutional govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Two extracts from this second work deserve to be 
 recorded. ' The crusading mania, which led so many of 
 our great lords into Asia, furnished a grand opportunity 
 to the Kings of France for getting hold of the domains of 
 their vassals, and they did not miss this chance of profit- 
 ing by the error of the absentees.' (p. 148). 
 
 * When Henry III had been assassinated, through the 
 agency of the League, Henry IV was threatened with 
 the desertion of his most faithful followers on account 
 of his adherence to the Protestant religion. This fact 
 is proved by his address to the principal officers of his 
 army on 8th August 1589, when he informed them that 
 "he had been warned that the Catholic nobility had 
 caused it to be bruited that their services would be with- 
 drawn, unless he accepted the Roman Catholic faith, 
 and that their immediate retirement from his army was 
 in contemplation." ' (Ib. p. 179). 
 
 ' The term " noble " was employed in contrast to that 
 of " the people," who were occupied in trade. Nobility 
 was not originally hereditary, but when the kings con- 
 ferred this latter privilege upon the members of that 
 order, they were expressly precluded from all participa- 
 tion in trade or the exercise of mechanical professions, 
 as such were deemed derogatory to the condition of a 
 noble.' (Ib.) 
 
 The Church lent its support to the Gallo-Roman 
 element, but, if her authority was invariably enlisted 
 in this cause, she did not fail to recognise the intestine 
 discord which was attributable to this duality of interest. 
 Even in her own organisation this conflict of Gallic and 
 Roman interests was perceptible, and hence arose that 
 
316 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 serious struggle between the Galilean and the Ultra- 
 montane Churches, represented by the bitter opposition 
 of the Jansenists to the pretensions of the Jesuits. The 
 victory finally rested with the latter at the close of the 
 reign of Louis XIV. 
 
 Tho so-called liberties of the Gallican Church were 
 comprised in the following tenets : 
 
 1. That the Pope did not possess the power to 
 
 excommunicate the Kings of France. 
 
 2. That the Kingdom of France could not be 
 
 placed unter interdict. 
 
 3. That it could not be disposed of, as a gift, by 
 
 the Pope 
 
 4. That the Pope had no jurisdiction over the 
 
 Royal temporalities. 
 
 5. That the Pope should not be considered as 
 
 Infallible, and 
 
 6. That the authority of the Councils is superior to 
 
 that of the Pope. 
 
 The Papacy and the Gallican Church, were in con- 
 sequence involved in interminable quarrels, which the 
 intolerance of the disputants rendered irreconcilable. 
 
 NOTE D 
 
 ROGER BACON, better known as Friar Bacon, was born 
 about the year 1214, and lived to the age of eighty. 
 His principal works, the Opus Majus, O. Minus, O. 
 Tertium, and the Compendium Philosophise, betray such 
 originality of thought as to excite a suspicion that his 
 more illustrious successor, Francis Bacon, stands indebted 
 to the monk for much that has been accepted as the 
 special production of his own brain, so striking is the 
 
APPENDIX 317 
 
 similarity of expression, and so remarkable the identity 
 of thought. In the 0. Tertiurn this passage may be 
 found, ' I call experimental science that which neglects 
 arguments, for the strongest arguments prove nothing 
 so long as the conclusions are not verified by experience.' 
 Mr W. L. Courtney has well remarked that the value 
 of method, and of a method which was formed after a 
 mathematical model, is as patent to Roger Bacon as it 
 was long afterwards to Descartes. A perusal of the 
 Compendium Philosophise will confirm this opinion. 
 Roger Bacon has expressed in indignant language his 
 impatience of the thraldom imposed upon all thinkers 
 by the general subserviency to the dicta of Aristotle, 
 and to dicta that were expounded in defective and 
 corrupt translations. * Learned he is, but he does not 
 know everything. He did what was possible for his 
 times, but he has not reached the limits of wisdom.' 
 
 NOTE E 
 
 THE chroniclers of the Twelfth Century depicted the 
 entire French nation as the descendants of the Franks, 
 who in their turn were represented as the descendants 
 of the followers of .ZEneas. The monks and scribes of 
 that day were tenacious on this point of unity of descent 
 in their advocacy of an equality of origin. In the 
 Sixteenth Century this opinion provoked dissent, but 
 it was not until 1711 that Freret, at a public meeting 
 of the Academie des Belles Lettres, demonstrated the 
 fallacy, and proved the Franks who conquered Gaul in 
 the Fifth Century to be the representatives of a league 
 that had been formed some two hundred years previously 
 by several tribes in Lower Germany, whose ancestors 
 had already been confederated against Caesar under the 
 name of Sicambrians. Freret's discourse introduced 
 
3 i8 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
 
 him to the Bastille, where he wisely determined to 
 eschew historical questions, which would be interpreted 
 as dangerous to the principles of Government. 
 
 NOTE F 
 
 WHILE the father of Henry IV of France exchanged 
 the Protestant religion for the Catholic faith, Henry's 
 mother was converted from Catholicism to the Pro- 
 testant belief. The religious opinions of their son must 
 necessarily have been influenced by this parental vacil- 
 lation. Madame de Maintenon, again, was the daughter 
 of a Catholic mother and of a father, who had in the 
 course of his life changed his religion twice, if not three 
 times. See d'Aubigne's Memoirs. 
 
 NOTE G 
 
 WE may hereby account for certain enmities observed 
 to exist in families, such as the hatreds of brothers and 
 sisters, which would otherwise be inexplicable. The 
 family is but an aggregate consequent on the union of 
 two individuals, and the children of such a union may 
 respectively partake of the characters of two distinct 
 races, inimical to each other, and whose enmity is 
 revived by a phenomenon of reversion in the eventual 
 progeny. Nothing is lost, and neither in nature nor in 
 history does any fact fail, sooner or later, to produce its 
 effect. The family is relatively but of recent date, and 
 is continually and rapidly transformed. The race has, 
 on the contrary, existed for centuries, and its influence 
 must consequently be of far longer duration. Time in 
 the one case involves time in the other. 
 
APPENDIX 319 
 
 NOTE H 
 
 THE harsh God of Hebrew theology imposed upon man 
 labour as a punishment for transgression. Unto Adam 
 God said, after the fall, ' In the sweat of thy face shalt 
 thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.' The 
 ancients, on their part, held labour to be a degradation, 
 a mode of suffering. It was the lot of the slave, and 
 * travail,' in its French or English signification, is 
 derived from the Latin ' tribulatio,' and conveys the 
 meaning that the Romans imputed to the word. 
 
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