Some day—and I greatly fear that day is not very far distant—some professional anarchist (for there are professional anarchists as well as professional thieves) will consider the time ripe for rebellion, and, raising the fraudulent cry of “Labor against Capital!” instead of his legitimate cry of “Rapine! Murder! Booty!” will lead this army of degenerates, composed of anarchists, nihilists, sexual perverts, and congenital criminals, against society. And who will bear the brunt of this savage irruption? The ultra-rich? By no means! The great “middle class”—the true conservators of society and civilization—will fight this battle. It will be a fight between civilization and degeneration, and civilization will carry the day. There would have been no French revolution had the middle class been as wise then as it is to-day. It was taken by surprise at that savage, bloody time, but as soon as it recovered, how quickly it brought order out of chaos!
Education is the bulwark of civilization, and the great middle class, freed of dogmatism, bigotry, and superstition, is welcoming education with outstretched hands. It is gaining recruits, and is strengthening its defenses, so that when the time comes its enemies may find it fully prepared.
From the signs of the times and the evidence before me, I have no hesitation in declaring that I believe that the beginning of the end is at hand! This social cataclysm may not occur for many years, yet the agencies through which it will finally be evolved are even now at work, and are bringing the culmination of their labors ever nearer and nearer as time passes!
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Arnobius: Adversus Gentes.
Balboa: History of Peru.
Bancroft: Native Races of the Pacific States of North America.
Bates: The Naturalist on the River Amazon.