thermore, it does not in any way interfere with the evolutionary principle, to which Struve does, in our opinion, great injustice by reducing it in reality to mere slowness, for such violent leaps as the bursting of shells do not by any means interfere with the continuity of the process, as Struve seems to think. On the contrary these violent leaps are part of the evolutionary process and constitute its culminating point, as well as the starting point for a renewal of this process, in all higher forms of life. The natural sequence of events being such, a theory of cognition must be able to explain it to our comprehension, and to say that some theory which styles itself a theory of cognition cannot do that is simply another way of saying that it is not a theory of cognition.
Another "philosophical" objection which Struve advances is supposed to be based on the Materialistic Conception of History, which he feels himself called upon to protect against Marx. According to the Materialistic Conception of History, says Struve, it is impossible that the legal forms which make up the social system should become so entirely incompatible or antagonistic to the forms of production as to cause a breaking up of the whole system. For, that theory, properly understood, requires that the legal forms should continually adjust themselves to the material conditions, as they change, and it would be an infringement on the power of the economic forces to suppose that they should not change the legal forms as they go along. We shall not enter here into a long discussion to prove that Struve has not "properly understood" the Materialistic Conception of History. We will simply say that if Struve has understood it properly then the Materialistic Conception of History is sadly in the wrong. For the fact, of which there is abundant historical proof, is, that legal forms become quite antagonistic and absolutely incompatible with economic conditions and that very serious and violent disturbances result therefrom. No amount of reverence for the "economic factor" can blind us to the
