XXXVl 
INTRODUCTION. 
to obey.” * In the Middle Ages, the teachings of Christianity 
being still misunderstood, the feudal lord saw in the serf a 
beast of burden divinely predestined to work for him. Now 
that the principle of the equality of all men according to nature 
and right has penetrated men’s hearts and minds, we must shut 
ourselves up in inhuman egoism or profound ignorance, if we 
would remain unmoved by the claims of the labouring classes. 
The great difference between the actual position of affairs 
and anything history shows us, lies in the fact that the diffusion 
of Socialism is enormously favoured by the press and by schools. 
Education offered to all, even forced upon them, schools every 
where open, and cheap books, pamphlets, and newspapers 
spread throughout the country ideas of radical reform. In the 
Middle Ages the revolts of the peasants against oppression 
were merely local and passing events ; and the same may be 
said of those of the sixteenth century. Once they were 
crushed, these aspirations towards equality disappeared as 
thohgh drowned in blood. To-day, however, this is no longer 
the case. The energetic repression of the Revolution of June, 
1848, and of the Commune of 1871, served only to spread far 
and wide the principles sought to be extinguished, and to 
make them sink deeper into the hearts of the working classes. 
Socialists of all countries celebrate the i8th of March, the 
anniversary of the proclamation of the Commune. If Socialism 
is to be exterminated, it must be attacked in its origin and 
in its methods of diffusion. It will be necessary to proscribe 
Christianity, burn the Bible, teach with the ancient philosophers 
that natural inequality justifies slavery; above all, no more 
primary education and no newspapers. If the existing in 
equality of conditions is permanent and necessary, then to 
spread the Gospel, to open a school, to establish a printing 
press, and to extend the suffrage, are in so many ways to attack 
the social order. 
The rivalry, the wars, and the enormous armies of our 
continental states hasten the progress of that very Socialism 
which they were specially intended to combat ; and this they 
do in two ways. In the first place, they maintain and increase 
* Polit. \. 3.