uccessors; thus from the past carefully observed one can
easily deduce the future." This is so true that one asks oneself at the
first blush why a man who had so clear a conception of the connection
between the various phases of historical evolution, should be classed
among the Utopians. And yet, look more closely at the historical ideas
of Saint Simon, and you will find that we are not wrong in calling him a
Utopian. The future is deducible from the past, the historical evolution
of humanity is a process governed by law. But what is the impetus, the
motive power that sets in motion the human species, that makes it pass
from one phase of its evolution to another? Of what does this impetus
consist? Where are we to seek it? It is here that Saint Simon comes back
to the point of view of all the Utopians, to the point of view of human
nature. Thus, according to him, the essential fundamental cause of the
French Revolution was a change in the temporal and spiritual forces,
and, in order to direct it wisely and conclude it rightly, it "was
necessary to put into direct political activity the forces which had
become preponderant." In other words, the manufacturers and the
_savants_ ought to have been called upon to formulate a political system
corresponding to the new social conditions. This was not done, and the
Revolution which had began so well was almost immediately directed into
a false path. The lawyers and metaphysicians became the masters of the
situation. How to explain this historical fact? "It is in the nature of
man," replies Saint Simon, "to be unable to pass without some
intermediate phase from any one doctrine to another. This law applies
most stringently to the various political systems, through which the
natural advance of civilisation compels the human species to pass. Thus
the same necessity which in industry has created the element of a new
temporal power, destined to replace military power, and which in the
positive sciences, has created the element of a new spiritual power,
called upon to take the place of theological power, must have developed
and set in activity (before the change in the conditions of society had
begun to be very perceptible) a temporal or spiritual power of an
intermediary, bastard, and transitory nature, whose only mission was to
bring about the transition from one social system to another."

So we see that the "historical series" of Saint Simon really explained
nothing at all; they the