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THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. 
The principles which used to insure the obedience of the masses 
lose their sway. Everything is examined, and scepticism pre 
vails, This unfettered examination ends in the denial of all 
supernatural sanctions, of the personality of the Deity, and of 
the immortality of the soul (to mention only these points), and 
leads to the affirmation of materialism. Then, personal interest 
becomes a stronger force, with an ever-increasing number of 
individuals than ideas of order and of devotion to principle, 
and a situation is brought about thus defined by Colins : “ An 
epoch of social ignorance, in which immorality increases in 
proportion to the growth of intelligence.” 
As pauperism simultaneously increases in the same propor 
tions, it follows that the bourgeois form of society cannot last. 
In one way or another it soon falls to pieces, and the supre 
macy of divine right is restored, until a new revolution ushers 
in once more the triumph of the bourgeoisie. Society cannot 
escape from this vicious circle in which it has revolved from the 
first, until, as the result of the invention and development of 
the press, and of the absolute impossibility of restricting the 
examination of old beliefs consequent thereon, all reversion to 
the theocratic form of government has become radically im 
possible. When that time comes, humanity must either perish 
in anarchy, or organize itself conformably to scientific reason. 
It is then that humanity will enter on the last period of its 
historical development, the period of “ knowledge,” which will 
endure as long as the human race can exist on the globe. 
According to Colins, then, a theocratic régime is order founded 
on despotism, a democratic régime is liberty engendering 
anarchy, while the rational or “ logocratic ” régime would 
secure, at the same time, both liberty and order. 
Hereafter, according to the Belgian Socialist, society will be 
definitively organized as follows :—All men being by right 
equal, they ought all to be placed in the same position with 
regard to labour. Man is free, and his labour should be free 
also. To effect this, matter should be subordinated to intelli 
gence, labour should own both land and capital, and then wages 
would be at a maximum. All men are brothers, for they have 
a common origin ; hence, if any are unable to provide for them-