[56] In regard to this metaphysical use of the word science; there even exists in Italy a Rivista di polizia scientifica! And the metaphor may pass here also.
[57] Cours d'économie politique, Lausanne, 1896-7.
[58] Cf. also his criticism of Marx already referred to: p. xviii.
[59] Sauf l'Angleterre, où règne le libre échange principalement parcequ'il est favourable aux intérêts de certains entrepreneurs, le reste des pays civilisés verse de plus en plus dans le protectionnisme (§. 964.)
[60] See the Giornale degli economisti, excellent in all its critical sections; and especially Pareto's chronicles therein.
[61] It may be remarked that in the difficulty of distinguishing the purely scientific from the practical lies the chief cause of the dangers and poverty of the social and political sciences. And we may even smile at those scientists or their ingenious admirers, who claim to accomplish the salvation of the social and political sciences, by applying to them the methods, as they say, of the natural sciences. (An Italian astronomer, ingenuous as clever, has suggested the formation of sociological observatories which, in a few years would make sociology something like astronomy!) Alas! the matter is not so simple; all sociologists intend indeed to apply exact methods; but how can this application succeed when one advances per ignes or over ground which moves; d'una e d'altra parte sì come l'onda chefugge e s'appressa? (From both sides like the wave which ebbs and flows.)
[62] See the preface of the German translation of Misère de la philosophie, 2nd ed. Stuttgart, 1892, and now also in French in the reprint of the original text of the same work (Paris, Giard et Brière, 1896.)
[63] The word communism is also more appropriate, since there are so many socialisms (democratic state, catholic, etc.). On the relation between the materialistic theory of history and socialism, see Gentile, op. cit., passim.
[64] Pantagruel, III, 39-43.
[65] The absurdity of this interpretation will come out clearly if it is merely remembered that there are many cases in which the capitalist manufacturer pays for the labour of his workman, a price higher than what he then realises on the market; cases, it is true, where the capitalist is proceeding towards ruin and bankruptcy; but which he cannot, on this account, always avoid. 'Marx part des recherches faites par cette école Anglaise, dont il avait fait une étude approfondie; et il veut expliquer le profit sans admettre aucun brigandage.' (Sorel, art. cit., p. 227.)