IX GOVERNMENT 303 



Socialism which proposes to use the power of the 

 State in order, as the phrase goes, to " organise " 

 society, or some part of it. / That is to say, this 

 " regimental " Socialism proposes to interfere with 

 the freedom of the individual to whatever extent 

 the sovereign may dictate, for the purpose of 

 more or less completely neutralising the effects of 

 the innate inequalities of men. ) It is militarism 

 in a new shape, requiring the implicit obedience 

 of the individual to a governmental commander- 

 in-chief, whose business is to wage war against 

 natural inequality, and to set artificial equality in 

 its place. 



I propose now to give an outline of the progress, 

 first of Regimentation and then of Individualism 

 since the seventeenth century. 



In France Regimentation was strongly advo- 

 cated by Morelly and by Mably before Rousseau's 

 essay on the Social Contract made its appearance ; 

 and, to my mind, except in point of literary 

 form, the works of the former two writers are 

 much better worth reading. But, while the 

 immense popularity of Rousseau made him the 

 apparent leader of the movement in favour of 

 social regimentation, the comparative vagueness 

 of his demands for equality commended him to 

 practical politicians. His works became the 

 gospel of the political one might almost say the 

 religious sect of which Robespierre and St. Just 



