NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE 



ception became the basis for Ricardo's law of 

 value, which, in the hands of Marx, was trans- 

 formed into the revolutionary analysis of capital- 

 ist production, out of which the modern socialist 

 movement developed its life. 



Generally speaking, there was as yet no clear 

 perception of the evolutionary nature of social 

 and natural processes, neither in the writings of 

 the sociologists, nor in those of the scientists and 

 philosophers. While Buffon showed at least a 

 faint trace of continuous development in his 

 work, Linnaeus regarded his system of plants 

 and animals avowedly as a mere diagrammatic 

 classification, without the least suggestion of any 

 natural connection between the various classes of 

 animals and plants. And even when he elab- 

 orated the first outlines for a natural system of 

 classification, he still had the idea of fixed and 

 created species in mind. 



But already the fiery glow of the bourgeois 

 revolution in the American colonies was redden- 

 ing the western horizon, and its sparks were soon 

 to ignite the dry feudal structures in France. 

 The Declaration of Independence asserted that 

 " all men were born equal," but the writers of 

 this document and their class forgot to apply this 

 " truth " to the slaves, indentured servants, debt- 



