THALES TO LINNAEUS 21 



The position of the capitalist class of a 

 hundred years ago was very different from 

 that of today. Then it was the harbinger of 

 progress ; now it is the stronghold of reaction. 

 Its interests then were very different from its 

 interests now. Then it was called upon by 

 destiny to steer society into new waters ; now 

 destiny bids it, since its task is done, to step 

 aside that a new hand may grip the wheel. 

 Then it fought a social order which had had 

 its day, now it is in the midst of social forces 

 which it cannot administer. That was its 

 lusty youth ; this is its doddering old age. 



When the Bourgeoisie released science from 

 feudal chains, it let loose a force that carried it 

 to victory, but, at that moment, it planted the 

 germs of its own future destruction. Today it 

 reverses its attitude and would fain suppress 

 science or at least prevent its reaching the 

 proletarian brain. But alas, it is in the grip of 

 evolutionary processes of which it is merely 

 a part, and it is bound, more securely than 

 Prometheus to the rock, to a mode of pro- 

 duction which makes the education of the 

 proletariat a relentless necessity. The nation 

 which keeps its working class in semi-feudal 

 darkness is ground to pieces by the industrial 

 competition of its neighbors — it goes to the 

 wall in the struggle for existence. Thus, in 



