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126 ESSAYS AND LEITERS
price paid in human lives for our comfort and our luxury.
For us the sun lias risen, and we cannot hide what is obvious. We can no longer hide behind Government, behind the necessity of ruling the i)eople, behind science, or art — said to be nece>sary for the people — or behind the sacred rights of property, or the necessity of upholding the traditions ot our forefathers, etc. The sun has risen, and these transparent veils no longer hide anything from anyone. Everyone sees and knows that tiiose who serve the Government do it, not for the welfare of the people (who never asked them to serve), but simply because they want their salaries ; and that people engaged on science and art are so engaged, not to enlighten the people, but for pay and pensions : and that tliose who withhold land from tlie people, and raise its price, do this not to maintain any sacred rights, but to increase the incomes they require to satisfy their own caprices. To hide this and to lie is no longer possible.
Only two patlis are open to the governing classes — the rich and tlie non-workers : one way is to repudiate not only Christianity in its true meaning, but humani- tarianism, justice, and everything like them, and to say : * 1 hold these privileges and advantages, and, come what may, I mean to keep them. VVhoever wishes to take tliem from me will have me to reckon with. The power is in my hands : the soldiers, the gallows, the prisons, the scourge, and the courts.'
The other way is to confess our fault, to cease to lie, to repent, and to go to the assistance of the people, not with words only, nor — as has been done during these last two years — with pence that have first been wrung from the people at the cost of pain and suffering, but by breaking down the artificial barrier existing between us and the working people, and not in words but in deeds acknowledging them to be our brothers : altering our way of life, renouncing the advantages and privileges we possess, and, having renounced them, standing on an equal footing with the people, and
