4o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



nately, greatly superior to appearances. Though we may differ 

 a whole sky's breadth from each of the writers, we can but ac- 

 knowledge the ability displayed by both. Reclus writes in a 

 style so pure, so limpid, so exquisite, that we find ourselves read- 

 ing on and on for the mere pleasure of reading, almost without 

 pausing to analyze the meaning of what we read. Prince Kro- 

 potkine's way of writing, on the contrary, is bold, almost rough, 

 sharp, and incisive, extremely well calculated to impress his 

 meaning on the memory of his readers. Both works are the very 

 reverse of reassuring in their tendency. Reclus's fundamental 

 idea is that " evolution and revolution are by no means contra- 

 dictory terms ; in fact, that the first includes the second as a greater 

 includes the less." " Evolution," he says, " the symbol of gradual 

 and continued development in custom and ideas, is ever repre- 

 sented as if it were the contrary of that terrible thing revolu- 

 tion, which implies change of a more or less brusque description. 

 Men discuss the history of evolution, the history of the gradual 

 development of feeling and intelligence in the depths of cerebral 

 cells, with apparent and perhaps even sincere enthusiasm. But 

 woe if some one mention to them the abominable theme of revo- 

 lution, which issues out from the depths of thought into the 

 street, accompanied by the roar of crowds and the crash of arms ! 

 But evolution implies revolution, because those classes of society 

 which possess the advantages which revolution is calculated to 

 destroy oppose themselves to the peaceful march of evolution, 

 and thus are the cause of those same violent movements which 

 they deplore." In melodious tropes Reclus describes these phe- 

 nomena. Both evolution and revolution, he says, have two faces, 

 one benignant and one harmful. Religions, which from his point 

 of view are most undesirable plagues, invented to keep the human 

 mind in bondage, are but springs ever welling up afresh from 

 the relics of the past. Thus, Christianity uprose from the relics 

 of paganism. The American and French Revolutions were the 

 moments in history when at last the rights of man were pro- 

 claimed, but their utterance proved barren, for a new privileged 

 class established itself on the ruins of the old. " It may be said 

 that until now no revolution has been absolutely spontaneous, 

 and therefore none has been completely successful. All the great 

 movements that have occurred up to the present, without excep- 

 tion, have been more or less directed, and have in consequence 

 only been successful for the man or class directing ; hence each 

 has had its morrow of reaction. Now, however, the effects of 

 social science are recognized by all, and the study of social move- 

 ments must lead to the logical and instructive progress of the 

 human race." How a revolution undirected is to succeed does not 

 appear. " We can only arrive at social peace," says Reclus, " by 



