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Catalogue of Social Books and Pamphlets on Application.

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F.
EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION,
--
HESE two words, Evolution and Revolution, closely
resemble one another, and yet they are constantly
used in their social and political sense as though their mean-
ing were absolutely antagonistic. The word Evolution,
synonymous with gradual and continuous development in
morals and ideas, is brought forward in certain circles as
though it were the antithesis of that fearful word, Revolu-
tion, which implies changes more or less sudden in their
action, and entailing some sort of catastrophe. And yet is
it possible that a transformation can take place in ideas
without *bringing about some abrupt displacements in
the equilibrium of life? Must not revolution necessarily
follow evolution, as action follows the desire to act? They
are fundamentally one and the same thing, differing only
according to the time of their appearance. If, on the one
hand, we believe in the normal progress of ideas, and, on
the other, expect opposition, then, of necessity, we believe
in external shocks which change the form of society.
It is this which I am about to try to explain, not availing
myself of abstract terms, but appealing to the observation
and experience of every one, and employing only such
arguments as are in common use. No doubt I am one of
the persons known as “dreadful revolutionists;” for long
years I have belonged to the legally infamous society which
calls itself “The International Working Mens' Association,”
whose very name entails upon all who assume membership
the treatment of malefactors; finally, I am amongst those
who served that “execrable” Commune, “the detestation
of all respectable men.” But however ferocious I may be,
I shall know how to place myself outside, or rather above
my party,’ and to study the present evolution and approach-
ing revolution of the human race without passion or per-
sonal bias. As we are amongst those whom the world


4.
attacks, we have a right to demand to be amongst those
whom it hears.
To begin with, we must clearly establish the fact, that if
the word evolution is willingly accepted by the very persons
who look upon revolutionists with horror, it is because
they do not fully realise what the term implies, for they
would not have the thing at any price. They speak well
of progress in general, but they resent progress in any par-
ticular direction. They consider that existing society, bad
as it is, and as they themselves acknowledge it to be, is
worth preserving; it is enough for them that it realises their
own ideal of wealth, power, or comfort. As there are rich
and poor, rulers and subjects, masters and servants, Caesars
to command the combat, and gladiators to go forth and die,
prudent men have only to place themselves on the side of
the rich and powerful, and to pay court to Caesar. Our
beautiful society affords them bread, money, place, and
honour; what have they to complain of 2 They persuade
themselves without any difficulty that every one is as well
satisfied as they. In the eyes of a man who has just dined
all the world is well fed. Toying with his tooth-pick, he
contemplates placidly the miseries of the “vile multitude.”
of slaves. All is well; perdition to the starveling whose
moan disturbs his digestion If society has from his
cradle provided for the wants and whims of the egotist, he
can at all events hope to win a place there by intrigue and
flattery, by hard work, or the favour of destiny. What does
moral evolution matter to him? To evolve a fortune is his
one ambition
But if the word evolution serves but to conceal a lie in
the mouths of those who most willingly pronounce it, it is a
reality for revolutionists; it is they who are the true
evolutionists.
Escaping from all formulas, which *-a ºrm nave lost
their meaning, they seek for truth outside the teaching of
the schools; they criticise all that rulers call order, all that
teachers call morality; they grow, they develop, they live,
and seek to communicate their life. What they have learned
they proclaim; what they know they desire to practise.
The existing state of things seems to them iniquitous, and
they wish to modify it in accordance with a new ideal of
justice. It does not suffice them to have freed their own
ninds, they wish to emancipate those of others also, to

5
liberate society from all servitude. Logical in their evolu-
tion, they desire what their mind has conceived, and act
upon their desire.
Some years ago the official and courtly world of Europe
was much in the habit of repeating that Socialism had quite
died out. A man who was extremely capable in little
matters and incapable in great ones, an absurdly vain par-
venu, who hated the people because he had risen from
amongst them, officially boasted that he had given Socialism
its death-blow. He believed that he had exterminated it
in Paris, buried it in the graves of Père La Chaise. It is
in New Caledonia at the Antipodes, thought he, that the
miserable remnant of what was once the Socialist party is to
be found. All his worthy friends in Europe hastened to repeat
the words of Monsieur Thiers, and everywhere they were a
song of triumph. As for the German Socialists, have we
not the Master of Masters to keep an eye upon them, the
man at whose frown Europe trembles? And the Russian
Nihilists Who and what are those wretches? Strange
monsters, savages sprung from Huns and Bashkirs, about
whom the men of the civilised West have no need to con-
cern themselves!
Nevertheless the joy caused by the disappearance of
Socialism was of short duration. I do not know what un-
pleasant consciousness first revealed to the Conservatives
that some Socialists remained, and that they were not so
dead as the sinister old man had pretended. But now no
one can have any doubts as to their resurrection. Do not
French workmen at every meeting pronounce unanimously
in favour of that appropriation of the land and factories,
which is already regarded as the point of departure for the
the new economic era! Is not England ringing with the
cry, “Nationalisation of the Land,” and do not the great
landowners expect expropriation at the hands of the people?
Do not political parties seek to court Irish votes by pro-
mises of the confiscation of the soil, by pledging themselves
beforehand to an outrage upon the thrice sacred rights of
property? And in the United States have we not seen the
workers masters for a week of all the railways of Indiana,
and of part of those on the Atlantic sea-board? If they
had understood the situation, might not a great revolution
have been accomplished almost without a blow 2 And do
not men, who are acquainted with Russia, know that the

6
peasants, one and all, claim the soil, the whole of the soil,
and wish to expel their lords? Thus the evolution is taking
place. Socialism, or in other words, the army of individuals
who desire to change social conditions, has resumed its
march. The moving mass is pressing on, and now no
government dare ignore its serried ranks. On the contrary,
the powers that be exaggerate its numbers, and attempt to
contend with it by absurd legislation and irritating inter-
ference. Fear is an evil counsellor.
No doubt it may sometimes happen that all is perfectly
quiet. On the morrow of a massacre few men dare put
themselves in the way of the bullets. When a word, a
gesture are punished with imprisonment, the men who have
courage to expose themselves to the danger are few and far
between. Those are rare who quietly accept the part of
victim in a cause, the triumph of which is as yet distant and
even doubtful. Everyone is not so heroic as the Russian
Nihilists, who compose manifestos in the very lair of their
foes, and paste them on a wall between two sentries. One
should be very devoted oneself to find fault with those who
do not declare themselves Socialists, when their work, that
is to say the life of those dear to them, depends on the
avowal. But if all the oppressed have not the tempera-
ment of heroes, they feel their sufferings none the less, and
large numbers amongst them are taking their own interests
into serious consideration. In many a town where there is
not one organised Socialist group, all the workers without
exception are already more or less consciously Socialists;
instinctively they applaud a comrade who speaks to them
of a social state in which all the products of labour shall be
in the hands of the labourer. This instinct contains the
germ of the future Revolution; for from day to day
it becomes more precise, transformed into distincter
consciousness. What the worker vaguely felt yesterday, he
knows to-day, and each new experience teaches him to
know it better. And are not the peasants, who cannot raise
enough to keep body and soul together from their morsel
of ground, and the yet more numerous class who do not
possess a clod of their own, are not all these beginning to
comprehend that the soil ought to belong to the men who
cultivate it? They have always instinctively felt this, now
they know it, and are preparing to assert their claim in
plain language.

7
This is the state of things; what will be the issue? Will
not the evolution which is taking place in the minds of the
workers, i.e. of the great masses, necessarily bring about a
revolution; unless, indeed, the defenders of privilege yield
with a good grace to the pressure from below? But history
teaches us that they will do nothing of the sort. At first
sight it would appear so natural that a good understanding
should be established amongst men without a struggle.
There is room for us all on the broad bosom of the earth:
it is rich enough to enable us all to live in comfort. It can
yield sufficient harvests to provide all with food; it pro-
duces enough fibrous plants to supply all with clothing; it
contains enough stone and clay for all to have houses.
There is a place for each of the brethren at the banquet of
life. Such is the simple economic fact.
What does it matter? say some. The rich will squander
at their pleasure as much of this wealth as suits them; the
middle-men, speculators and brokers of every description
will manipulate the rest; the armies will destroy a great
deal, and the mass of the people will have the scraps that
remain. “The poor we shall have always with us,” say the
contented, quoting a remark which, according to them, fell
from the lips of a God. We do not care whether their God
wished some to be miserable or not. We will re-create the
world on a different pattern “No, there shall be no more
poor As all men need to be housed and clothed and
warmed and fed, let all have what is necessary, and none
be cold or hungry!" The terrible Socialists have no need
of a God to inspire these words; they are human, that is
enough.
Thus two opposing societies exist amongst men. They
are intermingled, variously allied here and there by the
people who do not know their own minds, and advance
only to retreat; but viewed from above, and taking no
account of uncertain and indifferent individuals who are
swayed hither and thither by fate like waves of the sea, it
is certain that the actual world is divided into two camps,
those who desire to maintain poverty, i.e. hunger for others,
and those who demand comforts for all. The forces in
these two camps seem at first sight very unequal. The
supporters of existing society have boundless estates, in-
comes counted by hundreds of thousands, all the powers of
the State, with its armies of officials, soldiers, policemen,

8
magistrates, and a whole arsenal of laws and ordinances.
And what can the Socialists, the artificers of the new society,
oppose to all this organised force P Does it seem that they
can do nothing? Withoutmoney or troops they would indeed
succumb, if they did not represent the evolution of ideas
and of morality. They are nothing, but they have the pro-
gress of human thought on their side. They are borne
along on the stream of the times.
The external form of society must alter in correspondence
with the impelling force within ; there is no better estab-
lished historical fact. The sap makes the tree and gives it
leaves and flowers; the blood makes the man; the ideas
make the society. And yet there is not a conservative who
does not lament that ideas and morality, and all that goes
to make up the deeper life of man, have been modified
since “the good old times.” Is it not a necessary result of
the inner working of men's minds that social forms must
change and a proportionate revolution take place?
Let each ascertain from his own recollections the changes
in the methods of thought and action which have happened
since the middle of this century. Let us take, for example,
the one capital fact of the diminution of observance and
respect. * Go amongst great personages: what have they to
complain of . That they are treated like other men. They
no longer take precedence; people neglect to salute them;
less distinguished persons permit themselves to possess
handsomer furniture or finer horses; the wives of less wealthy
men go more sumptuously attired. And what is the complaint
of the ordinary man or woman of the middle-class? There
are no more servants to be had, the spirit of obedience is
lost. Now the maid pretends to understand cooking better
than her mistress; she does not piously remain in one
situation, only too grateful for the hospitality accorded her;
she changes her place in consequence of the smallest dis-
agreeable observation, or to gain two shillings more wages.
There are even countries where she asks her mistress for a
character in exchange for her own.
It is true, respect is departing; not the just respect
which attaches to an upright and devoted man, but that
despicable and shameful respect which follows wealth and
office; that slavish respect which gathers a crowd of loafers
when a king passes, and makes the lackeys and horses of a
º, eat man objects of admiration. And not only is respect

9
departing, but those who lay most claim to the considera
tion of the rest, are the first to compromise their super
human character. In former days Asiatic sovereigns under-
stood the art of causing themselves to be adored. Their
palaces were seen from afar; their statues were erected
everywhere; their edicts were read; but they never showed
themselves. The most familiar never addressed them but
upon their knees; from time to time a half-lifted veil parted
to disclose them as if by a lightning flash, and then as
suddenly enfolded them once more, leaving consternation
in the hearts of all beholders. In those days respect was
profound enough to result in stupifaction: a dumb mes-
senger brought a silken cord to the condemned, and that
sufficed, even a gesture would have been superfluous. And
now we see sovereigns taking boxes by telegraph at the
theatre to witness the performance of Orphée aux Enfers or
The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, that is to say, taking part
in the derision of all which used to be held most worthy of
respect—divinity and royalty Which is the true regicide,
the man who kills a sovereign, doing him the honour to
take him as the representative of a whole society, or the
monarch, who mocks at himself by laughing at the Grand
Duchess or General Boum ? He teaches us at least that
political power is a worm-eaten institution. It has retained
its form, but the universal respect which gave it worth has
disappeared. It is nothing but an external scaffolding, the
edifice itself has ceased to exist.
Does not the spread of an education, which gives the
same conception of things to all, contribute to our progress
towards equality? If instruction were only to be obtained
at school, governments might still hope to hold the minds
of men enslaved; but it is outside the school that most
knowledge is gained. It is picked up in the street, in the
workshop, before the booths of a fair, at the theatre, in
railway carriages, on steam boats, by gazing at new land-
scapes, by visiting foreign towns. Almost every one travels
now, either as a luxury or a necessity. Not a meeting but
people who have seen Russia, Australia, or America may be
found in it, and if travellers who have changed continents
are so frequently met with, there is, one may say, no one
who has not moved about sufficiently to have observed the
contrast between town and country, mountain and plain,
earth and sea. The rich travel more than the poor, it is

IO
true; but they generally travel aimlessly; when they change
countries they do not change surroundings, they are always
in a sense at home; the luxuries and enjoyments of hotel
life do not permit them to appreciate the essential differ-
ences between country and country, people and people.
The poor man, who comes into collision with the difficulties
of life without guide or cicerone, is best qualified to observe
and remember. And does not the great school of the
outer world exhibit the prodigies of human industry equally
to rich and poor,to those who have called these marvels into
existence and those who profit by them? The poverty-
stricken outcast can see railways, telegraphs, hydraulic rams,
perforators, self-lighting matches, as well as the man of
power, and he is no less impressed by them. Privilege has
disappeared in the enjoyment of some of these grand con-
quests of science. When he is conducting his locomotive
through space, doubling or slacking speed at his pleasure,
does the engine-driver believe himself the inferior of the
sovereign shut up behind him in a gilded railway-carriage,
and trembling with the knowledge that his life depends on
a jet of steam, the shifting of a lever, or a bomb of
dynamite
The sight of nature and the works of man, and practical
liſe, these form the college in which the true education of
contemporary society is obtained. Schools, properly so
called, are relatively much less important; yet they, too,
have undergone their evolution in the direction of equality.
There was a time, and that not very far distant, when the
whole of education consisted in mere formulas, mystic
phrases, and texts from sacred books. Go into the Mussel-
man school opened beside the mosque. There you will
see children spending whole hours in spelling or recit-
ing verses from the Koran. Go into a school kept by
Christian priests, Protestant or Catholic, and you will
hear silly hymns and absurd recitations. But even
in these schools the pressure from below has caused
this dull routine to be varied with a new sort of in-
struction; instead of nothing but formulas the teachers now
explain facts, point out analogies and trace the action of
laws. -Whatever the commentaries with which the instruc-
tor accompanies his lessons, the figures remain none the
less incorruptible. Which education will prevail? That
according to which two and two make four, and nothing is

- 1
created out of nothing; or the old education according to
which everything comes from nothing, and three persons
make only one?
The elementary school, it is true, is not all: it is not
enough to catch a glimpse of science, one should be
able to apply it in every direction. Therefore Socialistic
evolution renders it necessary that school should be a per-
manent institution for all men. After receiving “general
enlightenment” in a primary school, each ought to be able
to develop to the full such intellectual capacity as he may
possess, in a life which he has freely chosen. Meanwhile
let not the worker despair. Every great conquest of science
ends by becoming public property. Professional scientists
are obliged to go through long ages of research and hypo-
thesis, they are obliged to struggle in the midst of error and
falsehood; but when the truth is gained at length, often in
spite of them, thanks to some despised revolutionists, it
shines forth clear and simple in all its brilliance. All
understand it without an effort: it seems as if it had always
been known. Formerly learned men fancied that the sky
was a round dome, a metal roof-or better still—a series of
vaults, three, seven, nine, even thirteen, each with its pro-
cession of stars, its distinct laws, its special regime and its
troops of angels and archangels to guard it ! But since
these tiers of heavens, piled one upon the other, mentioned
in the Bible and Talmud, have been demolished, there
is not a child who does not know that round the earth is
infinite and unconfined space. He hardly can be said to
learn this. It is a truth which henceforward forms a part
of the universal inheritance.
It is the same with all great acquisitions, especially in
morals and political economy. There was a time when the
great majority of men were born and lived as slaves, and
had no other ideal than a change of servitude. It never
entered their heads that “one man is as good as another.”
Now they have learnt it, and understand that the virtual
equality bestowed by evolution must be changed into real
equality, thanks to a revolution. Instructed by life, the
workers, comprehend certain economic laws much better
than even professional economists. Is there a single work-
man who remains indifferent to the question of progressive
or proportional taxation, and who does not know that all
taxes fall on the poorest in the long run? Is there a single

I 2
workman who does not know the terrible fatality of thº
“iron law,” which condemns him to receive nothing but a
miserable pittance, just the wages that will prevent his
dying of hunger during his work? Bitter experience has
caused him to know quite enough of this inevitable law of
political economy.
Thus, whatever be the source of information, all profit by
it, and the worker not less than the rest. Whether a discovery
is made by a bourgeois, a noble, or a plebeian, whether the
learned man is Bernard Palissy, Lord Bacon, or Baron
Humboldt, the whole world will turn his researches to
account. Certainly the privileged classes would have liked
to retain the benefits of science for themselves, and leave
ignorance to the people, but henceforth their selfish desire
cannot be fulfilled. They find themselves in the case of
the magician in “The Thousand and One Nights,” who
unsealed a vase in which a genius had been shut up asleep
for ten thousand years. They would like to drive him back
into his retreat, to fasten wim down under a triple seal, but
they have lost the words of the charm, and the genius is
free for ever.
This freedom of the human will is now asserting itself in
every direction; it is preparing no small and partial revo-
lutions, but one universal Revolution. It is throughout
society as a whole, and every branch of its activity, that
changes are making ready. Conservatives are not in the
least mistaken when they speak in general terms of Revo-
lutionists as enemies of religion, the family and property.
Yes; Socialists do reject the authority of dogma and the
intervention of the supernatural in nature, and, in this sense,
however earnest their striving for the realisation of their
ideal, they are the enemies of religion. Yes; they do desire
the suppression of the marriage market; they desire that
unions should be free, depending only on mutual affection
and respect for self and for the dignity of others, and, in
this sense, however loving and devoted to those whose lives
are associated with theirs, they are certainly the enemies of
the legal family. Yes; they do desire to put an end to the
monopoly of land and capital, and to restore them to all,
and, in this sense, however glad they may be to secure to
every one the enjoyment of the fruits of the earth, they are
the enemies of property.
Thus the current of evolution, the incoming tide, is bear-

13
ing us onward towards a future radically different from
existing conditions, and it is vain to attempt to oppose
obstacles to destiny. Religion, by far the most solid of all
dikes, has lost its strength: cracking on every side, it leaks
and totters, and cannot fail to be sooner or later overthrown.
It is certain that contemporary evolution is taking place
wholly outside Christianity. There was a time when the
word Christian, like Catholic, had a universal signification,
and was actually applied to a world of brethren, sharing, to
a certain extent, the same customs, the same ideas, and a
civilisation of the same nature. But are not the preten-
sions of Christianity to be considered in our day as synony-
mous with civilisation, absolutely unjustifiable 2 And when
it is said of England or Russia that their armies are about to
carry Christianity and civilisation into distant regions, is not
the irony of the expression obvious to every one? The gar-
ment of Christianity does not cover all the peoples who by
right of culture and industry form a part of contemporary
civilisation. The Parsees of Bombay, the Brahmins of
Benares eagerly welcome our science, but they are coldly
polite to the Christian Missionaries. The Japanese,
though so prompt in imitating us, take care not to accept
our religion. As for the Chinese, they are much too cun-
ning and wary to allow themselves to be converted. “We
have no need of your priests,” says an English poem
written by a Chinese, “We have no need of your priests.
We have too many ourselves, both long-haired and shaven.
What we need is your arms and your science, to fight you.
and expel you from our land, as the wind drives forth the
withered leaves!”
Thus Christianity does not nominally cover half the
civilised world, and even where it is supposed to be para-
mount, it must be sought out; it is much more a
form than a reality, and amongst those who are apparently
the most zealous, it is nothing but an ignoble hypocrisy.
Putting aside all whose Christianity consists merely in
the sprinkling of baptism orinscription on the parish register,
how many individuals are there whose daily life corresponds.
with the dogmas they profess, and whose ideas are always,
as they should be, those of another world? Christians ren-
dered honourable by their perfect sincerity may be sought
without marked success even in “Protestant Rome,” a city,
nevertheless, of mighty traditions. At Geneva as at Oxford,
as at all religious centres, and everywhere else, the principal

14
preoccupations are non-ecclesiastical; they lean towards
politics, or, more often still, towards business. The prin-
cipal representatives of so-called Christian society are Jews,
“the epoch's kings.” And amongst those who devote their
lives to higher pursuits—science, art, poetry—how many,
unless forced to do so, occupy themselves with theology?
Enter the University of Geneva. At all the courses of
lectures—medicine, natural history, mathematics, even
jurisprudence—you will find voluntary listeners; at every
one except at those upon theology. The Christian re-
ligion is like a snow-wreath melting in the sun: traces are
visible here and there, but beneath the streaks of dirty white
the earth shows, already clear of rime.
The religion which is thus becoming detached, like a
garment, from European civilisation, was extremely con-
venient for the explanation of misery, injustice, and social
inequality. It had one solution for everything—miracles.
A Supreme will had pre-ordained all things. Injustice was
an apparent evil, but it was preparing good things to come.
“God giveth sustenance to the youngbirds. He prepareth
eternal blessedness for the afflicted. Their misery below is
but the harbinger of felicity on high 1” These things were
ceaselessly repeated to the oppressed as long as they be-
lieved them ; but now such arguments have lost all
credence, and are no longer met with, except in the petty
literature of religious tracts.
What is to be done to replace the departing religion ?
As the worker believes no longer in miracles, can he per-
haps be induced to believe in lies? And so learned econo-
mists, academicians, merchants, and financiers have con-
trived to introduce into science the bold proposition that
property and prosperity are always the reward of labour !
It would be scarcely decent to discuss such an assettion.
When they pretend that labour is the origin of fortune,
economists know perfectly well that they are not speaking
the truth. They know as well as the Socialists that wealth
is not the product of personal labour, but of the labour of
others: they are not ignorant that the runs of luck on the
Exchange and the speculations which create great fortunes
have no more connection with labour than the exploits of
brigands in the forests; they dare not pretend that the in-
dividual who has five thousand pounds a day, just what is
required to support one hundred thousand persons like
himself, is distinguished from other men by an intelligence

15
one hundred thousand times above the average. It woul
be scandalous to discuss this sham origin of social in-
equality. It would be to be a dupe, almost an accomplice,
to waste time over such hypocritical reasoning.
But arguments of another kind are brought forward, which
have at least the merit of not being based upon a lie. The
right of the strongest is now evoked against social claims.
Darwin's theory, which has lately made its appearance in
the scientific world, is believed to tell against us. And it
is, in fact, the right of the strongest which triumphs when
fortune is monopolised. He who is materially the fittest,
the most wily, the most favoured by birth, education, and
friends; he who is best armed, and confronted by the feeblest
foe, has the greatest chance of success; he is able better
than the rest to erect a citadel, from the summit of which
he may look down on his unfortunate brethren. Thus is
determined the rude struggle of conflicting egoisms. For-
merly this blood-and-fire theory was not openly avowed; it
would have appeared too violent, and honied words were
preferable. * But the discoveries of science relative to the
struggle between species for existence and the survival
of the fittest, have permitted the advocates of force
to withdraw from their mode of expression all that seemed
too insolent. “See, they say, “it is an inevitable law . Thus
decrees the fate of mankind 1" -
We ought to congratulate ourselves that the question is
thus simplified, for it is so much the nearer to its solution.
Force reigns, say the advocates of social inequality | Yes,
it is force which reigns ! proclaims modern industry louder
and louder in its brutal perſection. But may not the speech
of economists and traders be taken up by revolutionists?
The law of the strongest will not always and necessarily
operate for the benefit of commerce. “Might surpasses
right,” said Bismarck, quoting fºom many others; but it is
possible to make ready for the day when might will be at
the service of right. If it is true that ideas of solidarity
are spreading; if it is true that the conquests of science
end by penetrating the lowest strata; if it is true that truth
is becoming common property; if evolution towards justice
is taking place, will not the workers, who have at once the
right and the might, make use of both to bring about a
revolution for the benefit of all? What can isolated indi-
viduals, however strong in money, intelligence and cunning,
do against associated masses?

16
In no modern revolution have the privileged classes been
known to fight their own battles. They always depend on
armies of the poor, whom they have taught what is called
loyalty to the flag, and trained to what is called “the main-
tenance of order.” Five millions of men, without counting
the superior and inferior police, are employed in Europe
in this work. But these armies may become disorganised,
they may call to mind the nearness of their own past and
future relations with the mass of the people, and the hand
which guides them may grow unsteady. Being in great
part drawn from the proletariat, they may become to bour-
geois society what the barbarians in the pay of the Empire
became to that of Rome—an element of dissolution. His-
tory abounds in examples of the frenzy which seizes upon
those in power. When the miserable and disinherited of
the earth shall unite in their own interest, trade with trade,
nation with nation, race with race; when they shall fully
awake to their sufferings and their purpose, doubt not that
an occasion will assuredly present itself for the employment
of their might in the service of right; and powerful as may
be the Master of those days, he will be weak before the
starving masses leagued against him. To the great evolu-
tion now taking place will succeed the long expected, the
great revolution.
It will be salvation, and there is none other. For if
capital retains force on its side, we shall all be the slaves
of its machinery, mere bands connecting iron cogs with
steel and iron shafts. If new spoils, managed by partners
only responsible to their cash books, are ceaselessly added to
the savings already amassed in bankers' coffers, then it will
be vain to cry for pity, no one will hear your complaints.
The tiger may renounce his victim, but bankers' books pro-
nounce judgments without appeal. From the terrible
mechanism whose merciless work is recorded in the figures
on its silent pages, men and nations come forth groundt.
powder. If capital carries the day, it will be time to weep for
our golden age; in that hour we may look behind us and
see like a dying light, love and joy and hope—all the earth
has held of sweet and good. Humanity will have ceased
to live.
As for us, whom men call “the modern barbarians,” our
desire is justice for all. Villains that we are, we claim for
all that shall be born, bread, liberty, and progress.