| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: vigorously acclaimed, but also in the autocratic fashion in which
the workers' trades unions are conducted.
This profound distinction between the democracy of the lettered
classes and popular democracy is far more obvious to the workers
than to the intellectuals. In their mentalities there is nothing
in common; the two classes do not speak the same language. The
syndicalists emphatically assert to-day that no alliance could
possibly exist between them and the politicians of the
bourgeoisie. This assertion is strictly true.
It was always so, and this, no doubt, is why popular
democracy, from Plato's to our own times, has never been defended
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: society, and the loyalty of the English working classes. And
meanwhile--ere that movement shall have spread throughout the length
and breadth of the land, and have been applied, as it surely will be
some day, not only to distribution, not only to manufacture, but to
agriculture likewise--till then, the best judges of the working
men's worth must be their employers; and especially the employers of
the northern manufacturing population. What their judgment is, is
sufficiently notorious. Those who depend most on the working men,
who have the best opportunities of knowing them, trust them most
thoroughly. As long as great manufacturers stand forward as the
political sponsors of their own workmen, it behoves those who cannot
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: the men who were there as witnesses trembled; never, perhaps, had they
known so awful a silence. The notaries looked at each other, as if in
consultation, and finally rose and walked to the window.
"Did you ever meet people born into the world like that?" asked Roguin
of his brother notary.
"You can't get anything out of him," replied the younger man. "In your
place, I should simply read the summons. That old fellow isn't a
comfortable person; he is furious, and you'll gain nothing whatever by
arguing with him."
Monsieur Roguin then read a stamped paper, containing the "respectful
summons," prepared for the occasion; after which he proceeded to ask
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