92 COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART n 



trialism. He does not discuss this, but takes the assump- 

 tion for granted, with an a priori vehemence that we 

 should find it hard to match, outside the ranks 

 of scientific empiricists. Of course he has informed 

 himself, as few men have done, of the vast prevalence of 

 militarism during former ages. Where society has been 

 highly centralised or organised, it has been in the past, 

 one might almost say, uniformly, a society of a military 

 type. And a very little study of sociology will make it 

 plain that, if a society is drilled and regimented and 

 over-governed, it will lend itself much more readily 

 to manipulation for military ends than a freer or more 

 individualist society would do. Still, all this hardly 

 constitutes a proof. It may be unfair to style it a 

 prejudice : let us call it a presumption, and a grave 

 presumption ; but is it a proof ? The Hindu who 

 mocked at the very idea of ice had a wide experience 

 of the fluidity of water ; and it is perfectly true 

 that H 2 tends strongly to the liquid state, being a 

 liquid " at ordinary temperatures and pressures " ; yet 

 solid water is a fact of some importance to Arctic and 

 Atlantic voyagers, whom it brings into danger ; not to 

 mention British outdoor labourers whom the frost robs 

 of work, or plumbers to whom it is better than a mine 

 of gold. Ice then is a fact, though to some it may be 

 a novel fact. And socialism might be a practicable 

 policy even though it be a new development of strict 

 social organisation. It is not disproved by calling it 

 bad names. Neither socialism itself, nor the modern 

 political changes stigmatised by their opponents as 

 socialistic, are in the least degree animated by any 

 conscious breath of the military spirit. They do not 

 mean to serve it ; and, whether they turn out good 

 or evil, we cannot be sure that they will turn out to 



