CHAPTER XI. 



SOCIAL EVOLUTION AND INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. 



The conclusion of the preceding chapter 

 will be of use to us in examining the second 

 contradiction which it is held exists between 

 socialism and the theory of evolution. It is 

 affirmed and repeated in every way that 

 socialism forms a tyranny of a new kind 

 which will destroy all the benefits of the liberty 

 so painfully won in our century at the price 

 of so many sacrifices and so many martyrs. 



I have already shown in speaking of 

 anthropological inequalities that socialism 

 will on the contrary secure to all individuals 

 the conditions of human existence, and the 

 possibility of developing their own personality 

 more freely and more completely. 



It will suffice for me here to recall another 

 law which the scientific theory of evolution 

 has established, to prove (because I cannot in 

 this monograph enter into the details) that it 

 is wrong to suppose that the advent of social- 

 ism will result in the suppression of the living 

 and fructifying part of personal and political 

 liberty. 



It is a law of natural evolution remarkably 

 illustrated by M. Ardigo,* that no subsequent 

 phase of natural and social evolution destroys 

 the vital and fructifying manifestations of 

 preceding phases, but on the contrary, that 

 it continues their existence in so far as they 

 are vital and eliminate only the pathological 

 manifestations. 



* Ardig6, La formazione naturale, vol. H. of his opere 

 filosofiche, Padua, 1887. 



