2 SUPER-ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



part of this organism ; therefore, if man is an excep- 

 tion, it is because he has infringed natural laws. 



As the error of this course is evident and 

 notorious, it is important to ascertain how the 

 fundamental principles of Nature are infringed. 



Full of this idea, I set to work to find the key of 

 the problem, and my imagination soon got on the 

 track. " The inheritance of humanity," I said to 

 myself one day, ' ' is Nature, natural forces. Capital 

 or money is but a limited resource, and it does not 

 confer joy on man as a whole." But this statement 

 did not satisfy me without a justification. It was 

 necessary to justify and prove it, and so I went on 

 seeking. My profession as a doctor brought me to 

 the consideration of the relation existing between 

 an organ and its function. 



I read what Spencer says on this subject. How- 

 ever, it did not satisfy me ; on the contrary, it gave 

 me another idea. 



x/ Intelligence is a function of Nature, and the brain 

 its intermediary organ. It was then that I under- 

 stood that the socialism of the world and its 

 instruments of industry could have a legitimate 

 basis ; and what appeared a more or less platonic 

 aspiration could be explained in a positive form, 

 and the inheritance of man could be increased by 

 humanity through the socialism of Nature. My 

 conviction was fortified more and more by seeing 



