PSYCHIC ADAPTATION 117 



society from the chaos in which it lives, and leading 

 it to the desired land of promise. 



It is plain that, by following the dictates of 

 Nature, the threatening and difficult conflict that 

 is presented to us would end peaceably so soon as 

 men were convinced that they are disputing for 

 possession of a remedy that is no cure; that the 

 other road is easy, expeditious, and more suited to, 

 and worthier of, mankind ; that in pursuing this 

 road all the artificialities that now compose the life 

 of the State will, by degrees, be submerged, with- 

 out noise, without shock, and amidst the most 

 profound indifference. Man will separate, calm 

 and content, from the present state of things, on 

 abandoning a social condition absurd and miser- 

 able. I am all the more certain that the solution 

 of the conflict will be peaceful, in that I affirm that 

 some of those who to-day are owners of vast wealth 

 will help so far as in them lies, when convinced 

 that there can be another social organisation better 

 than the present : philanthropists have always been 

 a power in a world. Men have been divided into 

 classes, not because some are good and others bad, 

 but because present organisation inevitably leads to 

 that position, and produces all the lamentable 

 injustices for which it is alone responsible. The 

 antagonism of class is not essential to man, though 

 it is essential to his archaic civilisation. 



