THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 



rather by his positive power to assert his true 

 individuality, then it is not proper to punish 

 the crimes of the individual, but to destroy the 

 antisocial breeding grounds of crime and to 

 secure for every one the social room for his 

 essential life expressions. If man is formed by 

 external circumstances, then circumstances must 

 be modeled to suit man. If man is by nature 

 social, then he can develop his true nature only 

 in society, and the power of his nature must not 

 be judged by individuals, but by that of his so- 

 cieties. These and similar statements are found 

 almost literally in the works of even the oldest 

 French materialists. . . . Fourier takes his 

 departure immediately from the teachings of the 

 French materialists. The Babouvists were crude 

 and uncivilized materialists, but even the devel- 

 oped communism starts directly from French 

 materialism. The latter emigrated, in the form 

 given to it by Helvetius, to its mother country, 

 England. Bentham founded his system of well 

 understood interests on the ethics of Helvetius, 

 and Owen, starting from the system of Bentham, 

 founded English communism. Exiled to Eng- 

 land, the Frenchman Cabet was stimulated by 

 the communist ideas of his exile and on his re- 

 turn to France became the most popular, although 



