59 



But all individuals must live in society, 

 because a second fundamental need of life is 

 imposed on them, that of the reproduction of 

 beings similar to themselves for the preserva- 

 tion of the species. It is this life of relation 

 and of reproduction (sexual and social) which 

 gives birth to the moral or social sense, and 

 which allows the individual not only to be, 

 but to co-exist with his fellows. 



We can say that these two fundamental 

 instincts of life bread and love accomplish 

 a function of social equilibrium in the life of 

 animals, and notably of men. 



It is love which causes, for the greatest 

 number of men, the principal physiological 

 and psychical expenditure of forces accumu- 

 lated in a more or less large amount by the 

 daily food which the daily toil has not 

 absorbed or which parasitic laziness has left 

 intact. 



Much more is love the only pleasure which 

 has really universal and levelling character. 

 The people have called it " the Paradise of the 

 poor " and religions have always invited them 

 to enjoy it without limits crescite et multipli- 

 camini (be fruitful and multiply) because the 

 erotic exhaustion which results from it, 

 especially among males, diminishes or makes 

 them forget the tortures of hunger and servile 

 toil, and enervates in a lasting manner the 

 energy of the individual ; and in this way it 

 fulfils a useful function for the dominant class. 



But with this effect of the sexual instinct 

 another is inclissolubly linked the increase of 



