MARXISM AND DARWINISM. 27 



V. DARWINISM VERSUS SOCIALISM. >, 



Darwinism has been of inestimable service to the 

 bourgeoisie in its struggle against the old powers. It 

 was therefore only natural that bourgeoisdom should 

 apply it against its later enemy, the proletarians; not 

 because the proletarians were antagonistically dis- 

 posed to Darwinism, but just the reverse. As soon as 

 Darwinism made its appearance, the proletarian van- 

 guard, the Socialists, hailed the Darwinian theory, be- 

 cause in Darwinism they saw a corroboration and com- 

 pletion of their own theory; not as some superficial 

 opponents believe, that they wanted to base Socialism 

 upon Darwinism but in the sense that the Darwinian 

 discovery, — that even in the apparently stagnant or- 

 ganic world there is a continuous development — is a 

 glorious corroboration and completion of the Marxian 

 theory of social development. 



Yet it was natural for the bourgeoisie to make use 

 of Darwinism against the proletarians. The bour- 

 geoisie had to contend with two armies, and the reac- 

 tionary classes know this full well. , When the bour- 

 geoisie attacks their authority, they point at the prole- 

 tarians and caution the bourgeoisie to beware lest all 

 authority crumble. In doing this, the reactionists 

 mean to frighten the bourgeoisie so that they may 

 desist from any revolutionary activity. Of course, the 

 bourgeois representatives answer that there is nothing 

 to fear; that their science but refutes the groundless 

 authority of the nobility and supports them in their 

 struggle against enemies of order. 



At a congress of naturalists, the reactionary politi- 

 cian and scientist Virchow assailed the Darwinian 

 theory on the ground that it supported Socialism. "Be 



