the hope to attain such conditions of life, then civilization forbids
mankind to be happy; and if that be the case, then let us stifle all
aspirations towards progress--nay, all feelings of mutual good-will
and affection between men--and snatch each one of us what we can from
the heap of wealth that fools create for rogues to grow fat on; or
better still, let us as speedily as possible find some means of dying
like men, since we are forbidden to live like men.

Rather, however, take courage, and believe that we of this age, in
spite of all its torment and disorder, have been born to a wonderful
heritage fashioned of the work of those that have gone before us; and
that the day of the organization of man is dawning. It is not we who
can build up the new social order; the past ages have done the most
of that work for us; but we can clear our eyes to the signs of the
times, and we shall then see that the attainment of a good condition
of life is being made possible for us, and that it is now our
business to stretch out our hands to take it.

And how? Chiefly, I think, by educating people to a sense of their
real capacities as men, so that they may be able to use to their own
good the political power which is rapidly being thrust upon them; to
get them to see that the old system of organizing labour FOR
INDIVIDUAL PROFIT is becoming unmanageable, and that the whole people
have now got to choose between the confusion resulting from the break
up of that system and the determination to take in hand the labour
now organized for profit, and use its organization for the livelihood
of the community: to get people to see that individual profit-makers
are not a necessity for labour but an obstruction to it, and that not
only or chiefly because they are the perpetual pensioners of labour,
as they are, but rather because of the waste which their existence as