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and churchmen often did likewise. In his Introduction to Social Science Spencer brought to light the
contradiction between the “religion of hate” and the “religion of love” which have coexisted in all
Christian countries since the beginning of Christianity. When social logic is itself so complex and
spreads its time fighting itself with different inventions, the fray of inventors is naturally full of the
most surprising ups and downs.
As an example of the highest degree of both capricious and logical deduction, one can cite the
series of female fashions, generally considered the realm of pure fantasy. How are the new styles
invented that are made fashionable each year by an elite and are subsequently propagated from Paris
to the large cities, then to the small towns and rural areas, to all strata of society from the richest to
the poorest, according to the general law of examples? Mr. du Maroussem will tell us how. 5 This
author denies that the sketches in magazines constitute “scenes of inspiration” for a style (or rather a
new variation of a style already popular). Because, pursuing this goal, we must satisfy the
“apparently contradictory double requirement of the elegant woman: to be dressed like no one else
and yet like everyone else.” This is not really a contradiction but only a difficulty which consists in
“discovering an original idea within the general tone of the style already prevailing.” Given this goal,
it is clear that the problem could have several solutions, which must be formulated or deduced and
from which a choice must be made. First, the important dressmakers, tailors, and designers call in the
artists. “Designers from the professional classes submit their delicate watercolors: they have taken
from their frames doges’ wives of the fifteenth century, legionnaires’ wives of the sixteenth century,
marquises and eccentrics *3 of the eighteenth century, in order to give an expert lesson in flirting to
these women’s great-granddaughters. Then the workshop heads had to create the technical work.” In
other words inventions do not come from the tailors and dressmakers who profit from them but from
the artists who combined styles of the past with those currently accepted. “Moreover, the creations
multiply by imitating neighboring creations. Plagiarism between rival studios is a common custom.”
There is competition among projected models as they fight for the heart of the woman of fashion. This
public competition takes place at certain gatherings, such as an important marriage or the Grand-Prix
at Longchamps. The jury, a tribunal of the most frivolous of people, decides what it likes, and its
decision is docilely accepted by the entire world.
The important role of chance in inventions has been misunderstood so often—it being incorrectly
assumed that chance negates the logic of inventions 6 —that it is important to stress the point here.
Chance in invention is demonstrated first of all by the lack of similar industries among the Oceanic
islanders, that is, among savages having the fewest reciprocal relations and living mostly on
indigenous inventions—whence the sometimes extraordinary gaps in their inventions. The Tahitians
visited by Wallis in 1767 had certain industries and simple arts like sculpture and music; they knew
how to make fire 7 and had recipes that the English captain deemed exquisite. But they did not know
what pottery was and only had plates of bark and cups made from coconuts. Further, these people
who made fire so well had no idea of hot water and were stupefied at the sight of a pot full of boiling
water. They had only shells for knives, not even flints.
No matter how ingenious, any tribe left alone in isolation discovers very little (and that by chance)
and does not develop very far the apparently logical consequences of its good ideas. What is
discovered by one people is seldom what has been found by another on a neighboring island. 8 If,
instead of being agglomerated in several large continents, the land which emerged from the sea had
broken up into a myriad of small islands, separated by dangerous seas, it is highly probable that (1)
civilization would not have developed anywhere in such a worldwide Micronesia, and (2) these