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INTRODUCTION.

established  among  men  ;  but  social  transformations  are  not  to
be  accomplished  by  violence.  Attempts  at  assassination  and
insurrections  can  have  but  one  result  :  that  of  provoking  a
desperate  repression,  and  restoring  despotism.  What  an
amount  of  harm  have  the  German  regicides,  Hcedel  and
Nobiling,  not  done  to  the  cause  of  which  they  professed  themselves ­
  the  champions  !  If  Socialists  would  set  forth  their  ideas
persistently  but  moderately,  using  those  powerful  arguments
which  economic  science  has  placed  in  their  hands,  as  was  done
by  J.  S.  Mill,  and  the  former  Austrian  minister,  Albert
Schæffle,  the  governing  classes  would  listen  to  them,  for  they
cannot  divest  themselves  of  the  sentiments  of  even-handed
justice  planted  in  their  hearts  by  the  Gospel.  The  Irish  Land
Laws  wrested  by  Mr.  Gladstone  even  from  the  House  of  Lords,
show  what  decisive  victories  Socialism  may  obtain  by  peaceable
means.  It  is  probable  that  it  may  be  gradually  introduced
into  our  laws  by  the  increasing  influence  of  what  we  call  State
Socialism.  Its  weakness  results  from  the  fact  that,  being  chiefly
confined  to  the  labouring  classes,  it  seldom  finds  exponents
among  enlightened  men  such  as  Lassalle  and  Marx  undoubtedly
were.  If,  as  formerly  in  Israel,  there  should  arise  prophets
burning  with  a  righteous  thirst  for  justice,  Christian  Socialism,
taking  possession  of  men’s  minds,  may  bring  about  profound
changes  in  the  economic  world.  But  the  enduring  triumph  of
a  violent  Socialist  revolution  is  impossible.  Nevertheless,  as
Nihilism,  like  burning  lava,  seethes  throughout  the  underground
strata  of  society,  and  there  keeps  up  a  sort  of  diabolic  destroying ­
  rage,  it  is  possible  that  in  some  crisis,  when  authority  is
powerless  and  repressive  force  paralyzed,  the  predictions  of
the  poet  Hegesippe  Moreau  and  M.  Maxime  du  Camp  may
be  realized,  and  we  may  see  our  capitals  ravaged  by  dynamite
and  petroleum  in  a  more  ruthless  and  a  more  systematic  manner
than  even  that  which  Paris  experienced  at  the  hands  of  the
Commune.