A REPLY TO HAECKEL HO 



impossibility, that this chimerical equality is 

 in absolute contradiction with the necessary 

 and, in fact, universal inequality of individu- 

 als. 



"Socialism demands for all citizens equal 

 rights, equal duties, equal possessions and 

 equal enjoyments ; the theory of descent estab- 

 lishes, on the contrary, that the realization of 

 these) hopes is purely and simply impossible ; 

 that in human societies, as in animal socie- 

 ties, neither the rights, nor the duties, nor the 

 possessions, nor the enjoyments of all the 

 members of a society are or ever can be equal. 



'The great law of variation teaches — both 

 in the general theory of evolution and in the 

 smaller field of biology where it becomes the 

 theory of descent — that the variety of phe- 

 nomena flows from an original unity, the div- 

 ersity of functions from a primitive identity, 

 and the complexity of organization from a 

 primordial simplicity. The conditions of ex- 

 istence for all individuals are, from their very 

 birth, unequal. There must also be taken into 

 consideration the inherited qualities and the 

 innate tendencies, which also vary more or 

 less widely. In view of all this, how can the 

 work and the reward be equal for all? 



"The more highly the social life is devel- 

 oped, the more important becomes the great 



