nventionalism of the indissoluble tie and the disguised and
legalised prostitution (the fruits of economic causes) which pollute it
among us to-day.

How can any one hold that the constitution of property is bound to
remain eternally just as it is, immutable, in the midst of the
tremendous stream of changing social institutions and moral codes, all
passing through evolutions and continuous and profound transformations?
Property alone is subject to no changes and will remain petrified in its
present form, _i. e._, a monopoly by a few of the land and the means of
production![48]

This is the absurd contention of economic and juridical orthodoxy. To
the irresistible proofs and demonstrations of the evolutionist theory,
they make only this one concession: the subordinate rules may vary, the
_abuses_ may be diminished. The principle itself is unassailable and a
few individuals may seize upon and appropriate the land and the means of
production necessary to the life of the whole social organism which thus
remains completely and eternally under the more or less direct
domination of those who have control over the physical foundation of
life.[49]

Nothing more than a perfectly clear statement of the two fundamental
theses--the thesis of classical law and economics, and the economic and
juridical thesis of socialism--is necessary to determine, without
further discussion, this first point of the controversy. At all events,
the theory of evolution is in perfect, unquestionable harmony with the
inductions of socialism and, or the contrary, it flatly contradicts the
hypothesis of the absoluteness and immutability of the "natural" laws of
economies, etc.

FOOTNOTES:

[44] U. RABBENO, _Le leggi economiche e il socialismo_, in _Rivista di
filos. scientif._, 1884, vol. III., fasc. 5.

[45] This is the thesis of COLAJANNI, in _Il socialismo_, Catane, 1884,
P. 277. He errs when he thinks that I combatted this position in my book
_Socialismo e criminalita_.

[46] MORSELLI, _Antropologia generale--Lezioni sull' uomo secondo la
teoria dell' evoluzione_, Turin, 1890-94, gives an excellent _resume_ of
these general indications of modern scientific thought in their
application to all branches of knowledge from geology to anthropology.

[47] BONARDI, _Evoluzionismo e socialismo_, Florence, 1894.

[48] ARCANGELI, _Le evoluzioni della proprieta_, in _Critica sociale_,
July 1, 1894.

[49] This is exactly analogous to the conflict betwe