12 SUPER-ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



penury of poor old people exposed to the greatest 

 of all misfortunes, that of being unable to gain 

 their living. 



The war between Russia and Japan, in which 

 thousands of men were killed, made me sad at 

 heart, for penalties and sacrifices were imposed on 

 an infinity of families, and innocent beings were 

 orphaned, and all without anything definite coming 

 of it. 



Hunger and misery, more terrible than wars, 

 continue their devastating course. All these 

 pictures of life are not only painful but barbarous, 

 albeit they take place in countries which consider 

 themselves civilised. Hence my surprise at seeing 

 how the just aspirations of socialists and anarchists, 

 who wished their arguments to figure in an 

 assembly united under the auspices of science, 

 were received at the Congress of Freethought 

 at Rome. 



Why these protests ? I do not understand ; I 

 cannot conceive that among modern scientific men 

 there can be one capable of considering the great 

 social problem as foreign to Nature. Neither can 

 we believe that men convoked in the name of 

 positive science and who have studied the heavens 

 can refuse to recognise the legitimate right of 

 sociology to redeem man. 



