ines, rather, to regard them as aberrations, for man
was originally a pacific and social animal. His anatomical structure
proves it. Man is one of the most defenceless of animals, having neither
claws, nor horns, nor hoofs, nor carapace. His ape-like ancestors had no
other resource but to seek safety among the branches. When man came down
to the ground and took to walking, his hand was freed for other uses.
This five-fingered hand, which in most animals has become a weapon
(clawed or hoofed), has in the apes alone remained a prehensile organ.
Essentially pacific, ill-constructed for striking or tearing, its
natural function was to seize and to take.[50] "The hand ... was
superfluous as an aid to locomotion on the ground, and thus became free
and able to lay hold of something besides trees. Consequently it grasped
tools, thus becoming the means and the symbol of man's future
greatness." But the hand would not have sufficed for man's defence. Had
he been a solitary animal, he would have been destroyed by foes stronger
and better equipped than himself. His strength lay in his being
gregarious. The social state existed for mankind long before family life
began. Men did not voluntarily unite to form a community (the family
first, for instance, then the tribe, then a class, then a commune,
etc.); it was the existence of the primitive community which rendered
possible the advance from the prehuman to the human stage.[51] By
nature, as Aristotle said, man is a sociable animal. The drawing
together of men is older and more primitive than war.

Look, again, at the lower animals. War is rare between members of the
same species. The animals that wage war (stags, ants, bees, and certain
birds), have always reached a stage of development in which proprietary
rights exist, it may be over booty or it may be over a female. Ownership
and war go hand in hand. War is merely one of the innumerable
consequences of ownership at a certain stage of evolution. Whatever the
declared aim of war, its real purpose always is to despoil man of his
labour or of the fruit of his labour. Unless a war be utterly futile,
its necessary result will be the enslavement of a part of humanity.
Shamefacedly we may change the name, but let us avoid being duped by the
new name! A war indemnity is nothing else than part of the labour of the
vanquished enemy. Modern war hypocritically pretends to protect private
property; but in its effect on the conquered nation as a