490 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



of a lowering in the standard of intellectual culture.^ And this 

 very phenomenon of the division of labour constitutes an un- 

 answerable objection to the Communist theory of the State. 

 But the division of labour, we say, requires sacrifice, for the Uves 

 which must, according to its principles, be spent unremunera- 

 tively are sacrificed for the higher interests of society ; they are 

 condemned by the natuje of things to be spent in hrmidrum toil 

 and obscurity ; and it is not for such as these that the inunortaUty 

 of historical fame is reserved. We speak of the " higher 

 interests " of society, and of the " nature of things." But for 

 those who are required thus to sacrifice themselves — of what 

 interest are these " higher interests " to them ? And may they 

 not reply that such may be the " nature of things " under 

 existing social conditions, but that they will reverse these existing 

 conditions, and create conditions in which this sacrifice of their 

 own personal interests is not required ? Of course we may 

 reply that such a society would be an impossibility ; that, even 

 were the Communist State to be formed, it must speedily dis- 

 appear ; we can demonstrate scientifically that the division of 

 labour goes hand-in-hand with increasing complexity, and that 

 once an organism, be it animal or social, has attained a certain 

 degree of evolution, it cannot subsist without such a division. 

 And, further, we may point out that the division of labour in 

 the social organism requires the sacrifice of numerous parts in 

 the interest of the whole ; and as sacrifice necessarily entails 

 suffering, the division of labour in the social organism requires 

 suffering. All this we may point out, but we forget that what a 

 scientist can understand, the labouring man can sometimes not 

 understand. Any appeal to social sohdarity would meet with 



1 We say nothing as to the degradation of the level of inteUeotual culture 

 which must result from the suppression of the liberty of opinion. Who- 

 ever knows what Socialism means in Prance and in Germany to-day knows 

 that the tyranny of the Communist State would exceed the tyranny of a 

 Nero or a Caesar Borgia, while lacking the artistic proclivities of the former 

 and the genius of the latter. 



