Page:Karl Marx The Man and His Work.pdf/20

18 through his theoretical and practical work; without him, we would still be stuck in the mire of confusion."

These words may seem pretentious and illogical, especially when uttered by a Historical Materialist, but when we consider the scientific reputation of their author, they command attention and respect. They seem more so pretentious, when we consider that the nineteenth century was particularly representative of great men. Was this not also the century that produced a Darwin, a man who achieved the same results in the field of biology that immortalized Marx's name in the annals of the social sciences? Just as Marx investigated and laid bare the great motive forces and the social laws which actuate and propel the development of society from a lower to a higher stage, so Darwin uncovered and pointed out the dynamic powers and laws of nature which compel life in its simplest form to develop endless-chain-like into more complicated organisms. However, when critically comparing Marx with Darwin, it seems to me that Engels' praise is just. In my humble opinion, Marx was the stronger and more diversified personality. In Darwin we celebrate the scholar, who searched and accumulated knowledge for the purpose of knowing and presenting his findings. His field was far away from the social conflict, and his findings, comparatively speaking, did not affect the social destiny and the class interests of certain social layers so vitally, as did the application of the evolutionary principle by Marx to History and Political Economy. In Marx we notice a blending of the earnest and searching scientist, who yearns for clearness and truth, with the man of action and deeds—the revolutionist. Darwin confined himself to, or at least was forced to confine himself to the establishment of the laws actuating life, i.e., to that what was and is in nature. After Marx had discovered the iron laws governing social development, after he had laid down these laws in the textbook of the proletariat, "Capital," he then did not rest satisfied with his achievements. Marx studied in order to place his findings into the service of social development: in order to actively