98 EVOLUTION. SOCIAL AND ORGANIC 



The raising of this question brings to light 

 another striking instance of the influence of 

 class interests on scientific thought. It is a 

 matter of common observation that any class, 

 struggling for what it conceives to be its own 

 emancipation, looks to the past for justifica- 

 tion and precedent. In the English speaking 

 world there is a widely prevailing opinion that 

 the Magna Charta, extorted from King John 

 at Runnymede, is the foundation of modern 

 liberty. 



The French bourgeoisie, struggling to over- 

 throw the feudal monarchy, sought its justi- 

 fication in that "state of nature" which a de- 

 spotic monarchy was said to contravene. 

 Thus writers like Rousseau idealized nature, 

 representing it as comparatively perfect, and 

 declared that a restoration of "natural rights" 

 was essential to liberty. But when this same 

 bourgeoisie had won its victory and enthroned 

 itself, and instead of increasing the liberty, 

 had in many respects, deepened the degrada- 

 tion of the mass of the French people, its 

 ideas about the "state of nature" underwent a 

 radical change. And this happened not only 

 in France but wherever the bourgeoisie tri- 

 umphed. 



Now the "state of nature" was one of con- 

 stant carnage; nature was "red in tooth and 



