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¡.