408 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and appreciation a state of social existence resembling that of the 

 bees and the ants, though how this is to be reached through the 

 entire and unchecked development of every human creature, no 

 matter what his propensities or passions may happen to be, he 

 does not explain. We will not be governed, he cries ; but should 

 this not also mean we have no wish to govern ? Like Elise'e 

 Reclus, he aspires toward the so-called perfect state of society 

 the state of things, as painted by them, which the unillumined 

 intellect can but look upon as most outrageously and abominably 

 dull, not to say tyrannical. Where in their human anthill or hive 

 would be the place for such distinguished and brilliant intelli- 

 gence as their own ? Not even by the help of Richter's delicious 

 skit, The Social Democratic Future, can one realize what a society 

 founded upon absolute equality would become. Equality, says 

 Prince Kropotkine, is equity ; but he forgets that his models, the 

 bees, destroy one class of their number, and that the ants are as 

 warlike as the Zulus. In the model society of Reclus and Kro- 

 potkine the person who has the largest number of moral habits is 

 the superior, if one may use such a word when the fact is no 

 longer supposed to exist. They hold that the immensely large 

 proportion of humanity, if left uncontrolled, would act in a man- 

 ner useful to their fellow- creatures. It is only the fatal effects 

 of war and religion which have warped them from this tendency. 

 This wonderful faith in the ultimate goodness of humanity is 

 exceedingly touching. Both Reclus and Kropotkine would be 

 willing to risk trying the experiment of removing all restraint 

 from the actions of mankind, and it is this perverted, childlike 

 faith that makes such good men dangerous to society as at pres- 

 ent constituted. Leave men entirely free, they say ; fear not their 

 passions. In a society entirely free they offer no danger ; yet in 

 the same breath they say : " Defend your own liberty, do not let 

 yourselves be enslaved. Oppose your social passion to the anti- 

 social passion of your antagonist. The great causes of depriva- 

 tion capitalism, religion, law, government must cease to exist. 

 The source of morality is the conviction of one's own strength. 

 Life can only exist on condition of spreading and growing. Be 

 strong ; overflow with passionate and intellectual energy, and you 

 will shed over others your intellect, your love, your power of ac- 

 tion. Behold to what all moral teaching is reduced when freed 

 from the hypocrisies of Oriental asceticism ! " " Fallen cherub to 

 be weak is miserable/' says Milton's Satan. " Every one," says 

 Kropotkine, " has his ideal, and to act in disaccord with this ideal 

 is to be wretched. Make the good of humanity your ideal, and 

 morality follows as a matter of course." Such are the ideals of 

 these studious dreamers a dreamer's ideals, and realizable only 

 in a dream. 



