CHAPTER X. 



THE LAW OF APPARENT RETROGRESSION AND 

 COLLECTIVE PROPERTY. 



Let us admit, say our opponents, that in 

 demanding a social transformation socialism 

 is in apparent accord with the theory of 

 evolution, yet it does not follow that its 

 positive conclusions notably the substitution 

 of social property for individual property 

 are justified by this same theory. Much more, 

 they add, we maintain that these conclusions 

 are in absolute opposition to this very theory 

 and that they are consequently, at least, 

 Utopian and absurd. 



Socialism and evolutionism would first be 

 in opposition in that the return to collective 

 property of the land would at the same time 

 be a return to the primitive, savage stage of 

 humanity, and socialism would indeed be a 

 change, but a change the wrong way, that is 

 to say against the current of social evolution 

 which has brought us from the primitive 

 collective ownership of the land to the present 

 individual ownership, which is a characteristic 

 of an advanced civilisation. Socialism would 

 then be a return to barbarism. 



This objection contains a portion of truth 

 which cannot be denied : it justly notes that 

 collective property would be a return, 

 apparently, to the primitive social organisa- 

 tion. But the conclusion which is drawn is 

 absolutely false and unscientific because it 

 takes no account of a law very generally 

 neglected, but which is neither less true nor 

 less certain than social evolution. 



