9 , 



elements and thus returns to its primitive 

 point of departure.! 



This return to the primitive form is not, 

 however, a repetition pure and simple. So we 

 call it the law of apparent retrogression and 

 that takes away all value from the objection 

 of the "return to primitive barbarism." It is 

 not a repetition pure and simple, but the end 

 of a cycle, of a great rhythm, as M. Asturaro 

 recently said, which cannot but preserve the 

 effects and conquests of the long prior 

 evolution in what they possess of vitality and 

 fruitfulness, and the final outcome is far 

 superior, in its objective reality and its effect 

 on the human mind, to the primitive embryo 

 which it resembles. 



The course of social evolution is not repre- 

 sented by a closed circle, which, like the 

 serpent of the ancient symbol, cuts off all hope 

 of a better future ; but according to the image 

 of Goethe, it is represented by a spiral which 

 seems to come back on itself but which 

 always advances and rises. 



circumstances, of memories associated with his land, for 

 example, values it at a sentimental price, would he not be 

 forced to give it up without being able to exact payment 

 of this sentimental price? It will be the same with the 

 collective dispossession which, moreover, is facilitated by 

 the progressive concentration of land in the hands of a 

 few large landowners. It will suffice to secure to these 

 landowners during their days a comfortable and tranquil 

 life in order that the indemnity should answer to all the 

 exigencies of the most rigorous equity. 



t Loria, The Economic Basis of Society. 



This law of apparent retrogression is sufficient to 

 answer the greater number of the rather too superficial 

 criticisms which M. Guyot makes on socialism in The 

 Tyranny of Socialism, London, 1894. 



