376 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



day longer in order that future generations may obtain sixpence 

 a day extra in wages ; or that the races eliminated in the past 

 had no interest in allowing themselves to be suppressed at the 

 will of an absolute monarch, as in France in the days of 

 Louis XIV. Why did not the working classes, the oppressed 

 classes, which constituted the overwhelming majority of the 

 nation under Louis XIV., obey the promptings of their own 

 interest and overthrow the regime which oppressed them ? 



In the first place, we may reply, because these classes, although 

 in the majority, had not yet attained to the consciousness of their 

 own power of expansion. But, secondly, suppose they had reached 

 that degree of consciousness ; if they had recognised the an- 

 tagonism between their conditions of life and the regime under 

 which they were living, what would have happened ? Precisely 

 what did happen at the Revolution. The ancien regime was 

 overthrown, and a new regime was established, the conditions of 

 which were essentially identical with those of the old regime, 

 the bourgeoisie being merely substituted for the monarchy. 

 And such has been the result of every revolution. Each class 

 in our Western civilisation attains its zenith ; the maxims of 

 this class are erected into universal maxims, possessing universal 

 validity ; but the expansive power of another class develops in 

 its turn, and overcomes that of the once dominant class. The con- 

 ditions remain the same — expansion, conflict, and insatiability. 



For, let it be remarked, once a point is attained, in social as 

 in individual evolution, that point is soon passed ; and the very 

 attainment of it gives rise to fresh desires and fresh ambitions ; 

 so that, as social evolution proceeds, its intensity increases by 

 reason of this non-fulfilment of desires. Were the labouring 

 classes of to-day to overthrow the economic system, thereby 

 re-establishing, according to the idea of the Socialist economists, 

 the very basis of society, this revolution would still leave human 

 nature unaffected. Under the Socialist system expansion 

 would be still the first necessity of the social organism ; and, if 



