THE ATTITUDE OF PHILOSOPHY 



were due to a primitive contract, from which the 

 contracting parties might at any time withdraw. 

 It is also worth noting that, under the practical 

 application of Rousseau's doctrines by his ap- 

 parently well-meaning but narrow-minded and 

 fanatical disciple, Robespierre, the rejection of 

 Christianity was followed by an act of adoration 

 toward a courtesan which would have been more 

 in keeping with early polytheistic ages, and the 

 overthrow of feudal tyranny was followed by a 

 mode of settling poHtical questions such as is 

 normally practised only among societies of prim- 

 itive type. It is significant also, to the evo- 

 lutionist, that this partial dissolution of social 

 relations should have been followed by that dis- 

 graceful epoch in which principles of interna- 

 tional equity worthy only of Attila or Genghis 

 Khan were embodied in the barbarous ethical 

 code of the First Empire. 



A still more complete illustration of the ten- 

 dency of pure iconoclasm toward social dissolu- 

 tion is to be found in certain radical theories 

 concerning labour, property, and marriage, which 

 have been current during the present century 

 among people untrained in science and unfamil- 

 iar with the lessons of history, and which played 

 their part in shaping the policy of the Parisian 

 Commune of 187 1. For the purposes of our 

 inquiry it is not necessary for me to offer a ma- 

 tured judgment concerning this unfortunate his- 



33S 



