differing from those of Bakunin concerning the state, law, and ideology in general—for it must be remembered that to Marx the state and state policy were likewise "ideology." State, law, church, etc., were not primary elements in social life, were not motive forces; and therefore political revolution was not decisive in its effects. Above all, in the Marxist view, the continual fomenting of revolution, Blanquism and Bakuninism, is inefficacious; decisive issues result from the orderly ripening of great historical epochs and from the definitive overthrow of the entire social edifice. It is true that Marx looked to the near future for the fulfilment of this expectation, and was therefore willing to lend a hand to the ever-recurring revolts, all the more since he did not profess to know what were the unmistakable indications of the coming of the decisive moment. Scientific history cannot pretend to offer apocalyptic signs of the time, and the prediction of the definitive cataclysm has not been fulfilled.
The force of Blanquism has moreover been weakened by the acceptance of Darwinism and the evolutionary idea. If social evolution proceed according to natural law, if it be the outcome of the class struggle, waged unceasingly as part of the natural order of things, then acute revolution is no more than a special case of chronic revolution, and our estimate of acute revolution must be revised. We conceive revolution as an evolutionary manifestation.
From Hegel, and yet more from Comte, Bakunin adopted the idea of an orderly development in great epochs. Bakunin, too, became a Darwinist; and yet he remained faithful to Blanquism.
Bakunin always recognised Marx's superior strength in philosophical and scientific matters. He translated the Communist Manifesto for Herzen's "Kolokol," and began a translation of the first volume of Capital. Bakunin accepted historical materialism and the theory of the class struggle, often expounding these doctrines and recommending them, after his own fashion. Even during the contest with Marx, Bakunin unhesitatingly admitted his opponent's merits as theorist and organiser.
At an early date Marx was distinguished from Bakunin and also from Herzen by his contemptuous neglect of the church and its political significance. In this respect Bakunin remained a Feuerbachian, or, better expressed, continued to
