An Appeal to the Young. y 



But, if you are imbued with these ideas, you will 

 understand that it is above all important to bring 

 about a radical chanofe in this state of affairs which 

 to-day condemns the philosopher to be crammed with 

 scientific truths, and almost the whole of the rest of 

 human beings to remain what they were five or ten 

 centuries ago ; that is to say, in the state of slaves 

 and machines, incapable of mastering established 

 truths. And the day when you are imbued with 

 wide, deep, humane, and profoundly scientific truth, 

 that day you will lose your taste for science only. 

 You will set to work to find out the means to effect 

 this transformation, and if you bring to your investi- 

 gations the impartiality which has guided you in 

 5'-our scientific researches you will of necessity adopt 

 the cause of socialism ; you will make an end of soph- 

 isms and you will come among us. Weary of working 

 to procure pleasures for this small group, which 

 already has a large share of them, you will place 

 your information and devotion at the service of the 

 oppressed. 



And be sure that, the feeling of duty accomplished 

 and of a real accord established between your senti- 

 ments and your actions, you will then find powers in 

 yourself of whose existence you never even dreamed. 

 When, too, one day — it is not so far distant in any 

 case, saving the presence of our professors — when, 

 one day, I say, the change for which you are working 

 shall have been brought about, then, deriving new 

 forces from collective scientific work, and from the 

 powerful help of armies of laborers who will come to 

 place their energies at its service, science will take a 

 new bound forward, in comparison with which the 

 slow progress of to-day will appear the simple exer- 

 cises of tyros. 



Then you will enjoy science; that pleasure will be 

 a pleasure for all. 



If you have finished reading law and are about to 

 be called to the bar, perhaps you, too, have some illu- 



