94

THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.

it  into  sensuality,  and  exciting,  among  those  deprived  of  it,
envy,  hatred,  and  the  spirit  of  revolt.
Herr  Meyer  here  joins  hands  with  Montesquieu,  who  recurs
again  and  again  to  the  idea  that  excessive  inequality  should  be
prevented  from  dividing  the  nations,  as  it  were,  into  two  hostile
peoples  ;  and  he  devotes  the  sixth  and  seventh  chapters  of  the
fifth  book  of  the  Esprit  des  Lois  to  the  elucidation  of  this
point.  “  It  is  not  enough,”  he  says,  “  in  a  good  democracy
that  the  portions  of  land  should  be  equal  ;  they  must  also  be
small,  as  among  the  Romans.”  One  might  add,  as  in  France
to-day.  A  rural  democracy,  if  only  it  were  an  enlightened  one,
would  give  to  Europe  a  solid  base  upon  which  to  found  free
institutions,  and  would  save  it  from  social  upheavals.  Montesquieu ­
  borrowed  his  maxims  from  antiquity,  for  Aristotle  continually ­
  recurs  to  it.  “  Inequality,”  he  says  {Pol.,  b.  v.  ch.  i.),
“  is  the  cause  of  all  revolutions,  for  no  compensation  can  make
up  for  inequality.”  “  Men,  equal  in  one  respect,  wished  to  be
equal  in  everything.  Equal  in  liberty,  they  demanded  absolute
equality.  Not  obtaining  it,  they  imagine  themselves  cheated
of  their  rights,  and  they  rise  in  rebellion.”  The  only  means  of
preventing  revolutions,  according  to  Aristotle,  is  to  maintain  a
certain  amount  of  equality.  “  Cause  even  the  poor  to  have  a
small  inheritance.”  That  is  precisely  what  was  done,  in  great
measure,  by  the  laws  of  the  French  Revolution.  “  A  State,”
once  more  says  the  Stagyrite,  “  according  to  the  wish  of  nature,
should  be  composed  of  elements  which  approach  as  near  as
possible  to  equality.”  He  then  shows  that  in  a  State  where
there  are  but  two  classes,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  conflicts  are
inevitable.  “The  conqueror,”  he  adds,  “looks  upon  the
government  as  the  price  of  victory,  and  uses  it  to  oppress  and
despoil  the  vanquished.”  Therefore,  when  Rudolf  Meyer  and
Rodbertus  demand  that  laws  should  favour  equality  and  maintain ­
  it,  they  only  reproduce  the  thesis  of  Montesquieu  and
Aristotle.  But  how  is  this  great  object  to  be  gained  without
sacrificing  all  liberty?  Here  lies  the  grand  problem.  For
want  of  solving  it,  the  ancient  democracies  perished  in  anarchy.
Rodbertus  admits  that  slavery  was  legitimate  in  ancient
times.  In  order  that  the  highest  culture  should  be  developed,