XXXIV
INTRODUCTION.
its ruins may arise a new world.” Thus would be propagated
the Nihilists’ creed. If those who foment violent revolutions
try to extirpate every religious sentiment, it is because they know
that the best way of arousing a people is to take from them the
hope of finding in another world the justice denied to them on
earth.
It is not that the workers are worse off than formerly. But,
on the one hand, as capital constantly accumulates under the
form of stocks, bonds, or interest, paid by municipality or state,
the number of idle people rapidly increases, while, on the other
hand, it is precisely as men leave the extremest misery behind
them that they become most clamorous. As De Tocqueville
so admirably expresses it, nations revolt, not when they are most
oppressed, but, on the contrary, when the yoke which weighed
them down begins to grow lighter. In speaking of the end of
the eighteenth century, he says, “According as prosperity
began to dawn in France, men’s minds appeared to become
more unquiet and disturbed ; public discontent was sharpened *
hatred of all ancient institutions went on increasing, until the
nation was visibly on the verge of a revolution. One might
almost say that the French found their condition all the more
intolerable according as it became better. Such an opinion
might cause astonishment were it not that history is filled with
similar spectacles.” * Is not this an accurate picture of what is
going on under our own eyes ?
It was at one time imagined that the means of combating
Socialism would be found in the teachings of Political Economy ;
but, on the contrary, it is precisely this science which has
furnished the Socialists of to-day with their most redoubtable
weapons. Instead of rejecting the conclusions of Economists
as was done by their predecessors, they accept them without
reserve and make use of them to demonstrate that present
social conditions are at variance with the principles of justice
and right. Economists have proved that all value and all
property are derived from labour ; it clearly follows, say the
Socialists, that wealth should belong to those who by their
labour created it, and that the entire value, that is to say the
* L'Ancien Régime, ch. xv¡.
