irst appeared in French, 1880. "Aux Jeunes Gens". Le Rvolt, June 25; July 10; August 7, 21.

An Appeal to the Young

by Peter Kropotkin
"Peter Kropotkin...was recognized by friend and foe as one of the greatest minds...of the nineteenth century...The lucidity and brilliance of his mind combined with his warm-heartedness into the harmonious whole of a fascinating and gracious personality. " -Emma Goldman E!"#T$ %ddressed to young men and women preparing to enter the professions& %n %ppeal to the 'oung was first published in ())* in Kropotkin+s paper& #a e,olte& and was soon thereafter issued as a pamphlet. %n %merican edition was brought out by -harles .. Kerr in ()//& in the wake of the great %narchist+s first 0.1. speaking tour2 his 3emoirs of a e,olutionist was also published 4by .oughton-3ifflin5 that year. % new edition in Kerr+s "Pocket #ibrary of 1ocialism" appeared in (/*(2 6ust after Kropotkin+s second 0.1. tour. 47n -hicago& he had been introduced to a large audience by -larence 8arrow& a close associate of the Kerr -ompany.5 'et another Kerr edition in the (/(*s went through many printings& and was still on the Kerr list well into the (/9*s. #ong una,ailable in any 0.1. edition& it is reprinted here in the standard English translation by pioneer :ritish socialist ..3. .yndman& whose lush !ictorian prose ably captures the elo;uence& fer,or and charm of this celebrated re,olutionary classic. e,olutionary -lassics -harles .. Kerr Publishing -ompany Established ())<

7t is to the young that 7 wish to address myself today. #et the old - 7 mean of course the old in heart and mind - lay the pamphlet down therefore without tiring their eyes in reading what will tell them nothing.
7 assume that you are about eighteen or twenty years of age2 that you ha,e finished your apprenticeship or your studies2 that you are 6ust entering oil life. 7 take it for granted that you ha,e a mind free from the superstition which your teachers ha,e sought to force upon you2 that you don+t fear the de,il& and that you do not go to hear parsons and ministers rant. 3ore& that you are not one of the fops& sad products of a society in decay& who display their well-cut trousers and their monkey faces in the park& and who e,en at their early age ha,e only an insatiable longing for pleasure at any price...7 assume on the contrary that you ha,e a warm heart& and for this reason 7 talk to you. % first ;uestion& 7 know& occurs to you - you ha,e often asked yourself= ">hat am 7 going to be?" 7n fact when a man is young he understands that after ha,ing studied a trade or a science for se,eral years - at the cost of society& mark - he has not done this in order that he should make use of his ac;uirements

as instruments of plunder for his own gain& and he must be depra,ed indeed and utterly cankered by ,ice who has not dreamed that one day he would apply his intelligence& his abilities& his knowledge to help on the enfranchisement of those who today gro,el in misery and in ignorance. 'ou are one of those who has had such a ,ision& are you not? !ery well& let us see what you must do to make your dream a reality. 7 do not know in what rank you were born. Perhaps& fa,ored by fortune& you ha,e turned your attention to the study of science2 you are to be a doctor& a barrister& a man of letters& or a scientific man2 a wide field opens up before you2 you enter upon life with e@tensi,e knowledge& with a trained intelligence. "r& on the other hand& you are perhaps only an honest artisan whose knowledge of science is limited by the little that you ha,e learnt at school2 but you ha,e had the ad,antage of learning at first hand what a life of e@hausting toil is the lot of the worker of our time. 7 stop at the first supposition& to return afterward to the second2 7 assume then that you ha,e recei,ed a scientific education. #et us suppose you intend to be - a doctor. Tomorrow a man in corduroys will come to fetch you to see a sick woman. .e will lead you into one of those alleys where the opposite neighbors can almost shake hands o,er the heads of the passersby2 you ascend into a foul atmosphere by the flickering light of a little illtrimmed lamp2 you climb two& three& four& fi,e flights of filthy stairs& and in a dark& cold room you find the sick woman& lying on a pallet co,ered with dirty rags. Pale& li,id children& shi,ering under their scanty garments& gaze at you with their big eyes wide open. The husband has worked all this life twel,e or thirteen hours a day at& no matter what2 now he has been out of work for three months. To be out of employ is not rare in his trade2 it happens e,ery year& periodically. :ut& formerly& when he was out of work his wife went out a charwoman - perhaps to wash your shirts - at the rate of fifteen pence a day2 now she has been bedridden for two months& and misery glares upon the family in all its s;ualid hideousness. >hat will you prescribe for the sick woman& doctor - you who ha,e seen at a glance that the cause of her illness is general anemia& want of good food& lack of fresh air? 1ay& a good beefsteak e,ery day? a little e@ercise in the country? a dry and well-,entilated bedroom? >hat irony$ 7f she could ha,e afforded it this would ha,e been done long since without waiting for your ad,ice. 7f you ha,e a good heart& a frank address& an honest face& the family will tell you many things. They will tell you that the woman on the other side of the partition& who coughs a cough which tears your heart& is a poor ironer2 that a flight of stairs lower down all the children ha,e the fe,er2 that the washerwoman who occupies the ground floor will not li,e to see the spring2 and that in the house ne@t door things are still worse. >hat will you say to all these sick people? ecommend them generous diet& change of air& less e@hausting toil...'ou only wish you could but you daren+t and you go out heartbroken& with a curse upon your lips. The ne@t day& as you still brood o,er the fate of the dwellers in this dog-hutch& your partner tells you that yesterday a footman came to fetch him& this time in a carriage. 7t was for the owner of a fine house& for a lady worn out with sleepless nights& who de,otes all her life to dressing& ,isits& balls& and s;uabbles with a stupid husband. 'our friend has prescribed for her a less preposterous habit of life& a less heating diet& walks in the fresh air& an e,en temperament& and& in order to make up in some measure for the want of useful work& a little gymnastic e@ercise in her bedroom. The one is dying because she has ne,er had enough food nor enough rest in her whole life2 the other pines because she has ne,er known what work is since she was born. 7f you are one of those miserable natures who adapt themsel,es to anything& who at the sight of the most re,olting spectacles console themsel,es with a gentle sigh and a glass of sherry& then you wilt

gradually become used to these contrasts& and the nature of the beast fa,oring your endea,ors& your sole idea will be to lift yourself into the ranks of the pleasure-seekers& so that you may ne,er again find yourself among the wretched. :ut if you are a 3an& if e,ery sentiment is translated in your case into an action of the will2 if& in you& the beast has not crushed the intelligent being& then you will return home one day saying to yourself& "Ao& it is un6ust2 this must not go on any longer. 7t is not enough to cure diseases2 we must pre,ent them. % little good li,ing and intellectual de,elopment would score off our lists half the patients and half the diseases. Throw physic to the dogs$ %ir& good diet& less crushing toil that is how we must begin. >ithout this& the whole profession of a doctor is nothing but trickery and humbug." That ,ery day you will understand 1ocialism. 'ou will wish to know it thoroughly& and if altruism is not a word de,oid of significance for you& if you apply to the study of the social ;uestion the rigid induction of the natural philosopher& you will end by finding yourself in our ranks& and you will work as we work& to bring about the 1ocial e,olution. :ut perhaps you will say& "3ere practical business may go to the de,il$ 7 will de,ote myself to pure science= 7 will be an astronomer& a physiologist& a chemist. 1uch work as that always bears fruit& if only for future generations." #et us first try to understand what you seek in de,oting yourself to science. 7s it only the pleasure doubtless immense - which we deri,e from the study of nature and the e@ercise of our intellectual faculties? 7n that case 7 ask you in what respect does the philosopher& who pursues science in order that he may pass life pleasantly to himself& differ from that drunkard there& who only seeks the immediate gratification that gin affords him? The philosopher has& past all ;uestion& chosen his en6oyment more wisely& since it affords him a pleasure far deeper and more lasting than that of the toper. :ut that is all$ :oth one and the other ha,e the same selfish end in ,iew& personal gratification. :ut no& you ha,e no wish to lead this selfish life. :y working at science you mean to work for humanity& and that is the idea which will guide you in your in,estigations. % charming illusion$ >hich of us has not hugged it for a moment when gi,ing himself up for the first time to science? :ut then& if you are really thinking about humanity& if you look to the good of mankind in your studies& a formidable ;uestion arises before you2 for& howe,er little you may ha,e of the critical spirit& you must at once note that in our society of today science is only an appendage to lu@ury& which ser,es to render life pleasanter for the few& but remains absolutely inaccessible to the bulk of mankind. 3ore than a century has passed since science laid down sound propositions as to the origins of the uni,erse& but how many ha,e mastered them or possess the really scientific spirit of criticism? % few thousands at the outside& who are lost in the midst of hundreds of millions still steeped in pre6udices and superstitions worthy of sa,ages& who are conse;uently e,er ready to ser,e as puppets for religious impostors. "r& to go a step further& let us glance at what science has done to establish rational foundations for physical and moral health. 1cience tells us how we ought to li,e in order to preser,e the health of our own bodies& how to maintain in good conditions of e@istence the crowded masses of our population. :ut does not all the ,ast amount of work done in these two directions remain a dead letter in our books? >e know it does. %nd why? :ecause science today e@ists only for a handful of pri,ileged persons& because social ine;uality which di,ides society into two classes - the wage-sla,es and the grabbers of capital-renders all its teachings as to the conditions of a rational e@istence only the bitterest irony to nine-tenths of mankind. 7 could gi,e plenty more e@amples& but 7 stop short= only go outside Baust+s closet& whose windows&

darkened by dust& scarce let the light of hea,en glimmer on its shel,es full of books2 look round& and at each step you will find fresh proof in support of this ,iew. 7t is now no longer a ;uestion of accumulating scientific truths and disco,eries. >e need abo,e e,erything to spread the truths already mastered by science& to make them part of our daily life& to render them common property. >e ha,e to order things so that all& so that the mass of mankind& may be capable of understanding and applying them2 we ha,e to make science no longer a lu@ury but the foundation of e,ery man+s life. This is what 6ustice demands. 7 go further= 7 say that the interests of science itself lie in the same direction. 1cience only makes real progress when a new truth finds a soil already prepared to recei,e it. The theory of the mechanical origin of heat& though enunciated in the last century in the same terms that .irn and -lausius formulate it today& remained for eighty years buried in the academical records until such time as knowledge of physics had spread widely enough to create a public capable of accepting it. Three generations had to go by before the ideas of Erasmus 8arwin on the ,ariations of species could be fa,orably recei,ed from his grandson and admitted by academical philosophers& and not without pressure from public opinion e,en then. The philosopher& like the poet or artist& is always the product of the society in which he mo,es and teaches. :ut& if you are imbued with these ideas& you will understand that it is abo,e all important to bring about a radical change in this state of affairs which today condemns the philosopher to be crammed with scientific truths& and almost the whole of the rest of human beings to remain what they were fi,e& ten centuries ago - that is to say& in the state of sla,es and machines& incapable of mastering established truths. %nd the day when you are imbued with wide& deep& humane& and profoundly scientific truth& that day you will lose your taste for pure science. 'ou will set to work to find out the means to effect this transformation& and if you bring to your in,estigations the impartiality which has guided you in your scientific researches you will of necessity adopt the cause of 1ocialism2 you .make an end of sophisms and you will come amongst us. >eary of working to procure pleasures for this small group& which already has a large share of them& you will place your information and de,otion at the ser,ice of the oppressed. %nd be sure that& the feeling of duty accomplished and of a real accord established between your sentiments and your actions& you will then find powers in yourself of whose e@istence you ne,er e,en dreamed. >hen& too& one day - it is not far distant in any case& sa,ing the presence of our professors when one day& 7 say& the change for which you are working shall ha,e been brought about& then& deri,ing new forces from collecti,e scientific work& and from the powerful help of armies of laborers who will come to place their energies at its ser,ice& science will take a new bound forward& in comparison with which the slow progress of today will appear the simple e@ercises of tyros. Then you will en6oy science2 that pleasure will be a pleasure for all. 7f you ha,e finished reading law and are about to be called to the bar& perhaps you& too& ha,e some illusions as to your future acti,ity - 7 assume that you are one of the nobler spirits& that you know what altruism means. Perhaps you think& "To de,ote my life to an unceasing and ,igorous struggle against all in6ustice$ To apply my whole faculties to bringing about the triumph of law& the public e@pression of supreme 6ustice - can any career be nobler?" 'ou begin the real work of life confident in yourself and in the profession you ha,e chosen. !ery well= let us turn to any page of the #aw eports and see what actual life will tell you. .ere we ha,e a rich landowner2 he demands the e,iction of a cotter tenant who has not paid his rent. Brom a legal point of ,iew the case is beyond dispute2 since the poor farmer can+t pay& out he must go. :ut if we look into the facts we shall learn something like this= The landlord has s;uandered his rents

persistently in rollicking pleasure2 the tenant has worked hard all day and e,ery day. The landlord has done nothing to impro,e his estate. Ae,ertheless its ,alue has trebled in fifty years owing to rise in price of land due to the construction of a railway& to the making of new highroads& to the draining of a marsh& to the enclosure and culti,ation of wastelands. :ut the tenant& who has contributed largely towards this increase& has ruined himself2 he fell into the hands of usurers& and& head o,er ears in debts& he can no longer pay the landlord. The law& always on the side of property& is ;uite clear= the landlord is in the right. :ut you& whose feeling of 6ustice has not yet been stifled by legal fictions& what will you do? >ill you contend that the farmer ought to be turned out upon the high road? - for that is what the law ordains - or will you urge that the landlord should pay back to the farmer the whole of the increase of ,alue in his property which is due to the farmer+s labor? - that is what e;uity decrees. >hich side will you take? Bor the law and against 6ustice& or for 6ustice and against the law? "r when workmen ha,e gone out on strike against a master without notice& which side will you take then? The side of the law& that is to say& the part of the master who& taking ad,antage of a period of crisis& has made outrageous profits? or against the law& but on the side of the workers who recei,ed during the whole time only Cs. % day as wages& and saw their wi,es and children fade away before their eyes? >ill you stand up for that piece of chicanery which consists in affirming "freedom of contract"? "r will you uphold e;uity& according to which a contract entered into between a man who has dined well and the man who sells his labor for bare subsistence& between the strong and the weak& is not a contract at all? Take another case. .ere in #ondon a man was loitering near a butcher+s shop. .e stole a beefsteak and ran off with it. %rrested and ;uestioned& it turns out that he is an artisan out of work& and that he and his family ha,e had nothing to eat for four days. The butcher is asked to let the man off& but he is all for the triumph of 6ustice$ .e prosecutes& and the man is sentenced to si@ months+ imprisonment. :lind Themis so wills it$ 8oes not your conscience re,olt against the law and against society when you hear similar 6udgments pronounced e,ery day? "r again& will you call for the enforcement of the law against this man who& badly brought up and illused from his childhood& has arri,ed at man+s estate without ha,ing heard one sympathetic word& and completes his career by murdering his neighbor in order to rob him of a shilling? >ill you demand his e@ecution& or - worse still - that he should be imprisoned for twenty years& when you know ,ery well that he is rather a madman than a criminal& and in any case& that his crime is the fault of our entire society? >ill you claim that these wea,ers should be thrown into prison who in a moment of desperation ha,e set fire to a mill2 that this man who shot at a crowned murderer should be imprisoned for life2 that these insurgents should be shot down who plant the flag of the future on the barricades? Ao& a thousand times no$ 7f you reason instead of repeating what is taught you2 if you analyze the law and strip off those cloudy fictions with which it has been draped in order to conceal its real origin& which is the right of the stronger& and its substance& which has e,er been the consecration of all the tyrannies handed down to mankind through its long and bloody history2 when you ha,e comprehended this& your contempt for the law will be profound indeed. 'ou will understand that to remain the ser,ant of the written law is to place yourself e,ery day in opposition to the law of conscience& and to make a bargain on the wrong side2 and& since this struggle cannot go on fore,er& you will either silence your conscience and become a scoundrel& or you will break with tradition& and you will work with us for the utter destruction of all this in6ustice& economic& social and political. :ut then you will be a 1ocialist& you will be a e,olutionist. %nd you& young engineer& you who dream of impro,ing the lot of the workers by the application of

science to industry - what a sad disappointment& what terrible disillusions await you$ 'ou de,ote the useful energy of your mind to working out the scheme of a railway which& running along the brink of precipices and burrowing into the ,ery heart of mountains of granite& will bind together two countries which nature has separated. :ut once at work& you see whole regiments of workers decimated by pri,ations and sickness in this dark tunnel - you see others of them returning home carrying with them& maybe& a few pence& and the undoubted seeds of consumption2 you see human corpses - the results of a gro,eling greed - as landmarks along each yard of your road2 and& when the railroad is finished& you see& lastly& that it becomes the highway for the artillery of an in,ading army... 'ou ha,e gi,en up the prime of your youth to perfect an in,ention which will facilitate production and& after many e@periments& many sleepless nights& you are at length master of this ,aluable disco,ery. 'ou make use of it and the result surpasses your e@pectations. Ten& twenty thousand "hands" are thrown out upon the streets$ Those who remain& most of them children& will be reduced to mere machines$ Three& four& ten masters will make their fortunes and will drink deep on the strength of it...7s this your dream? Binally& you study recent industrial ad,ances& and you see that the seamstress has gained nothing& absolutely nothing& by the in,ention of the sewing machine2 that the laborer in 1t. Gothard tunnel dies of ankylosis& not - withstanding diamond drills2 that the mason and the day-laborer are out of work& 6ust as before& at the foot of the Giffard lifts. 7f you discuss social problems with the same independence of spirit which has guided you in your mechanical in,estigations& you necessarily come to the conclusion that under the domination of pri,ate property and wage-sla,ery& e,ery new in,ention only makes his sla,ery hea,ier& his labor more degrading& the periods of slack work more fre;uent& the crisis sharper& and that the man who already has e,ery concei,able pleasure for himself is the only one who profits by it. >hat will you do when you ha,e once come to this conclusion? Either you will begin by silencing your conscience by sophisms2 then one fine day you will bid farewell to the honest dreams of your youth and you will try to obtain& for yourself& what commands pleasure and en6oyment - you will then go o,er to the camp of the e@ploiters. "f& if you ha,e a tender heart& you will say to yourself= "Ao& this is not the time for in,entions. #et us work first to transform the domain of production. >hen pri,ate property is put to an end& then each new ad,ance in industry will be made for the benefit of all mankind2 and this mass of workers& mere machines as they are today& will then become thinking beings who apply to industry their intelligence& strengthened by study and skilled in manual labor& and thus mechanical progress will take a bound forward which will carry out in fifty years what nowadays we cannot e,en dream of." %nd what shall t say to the schoolmaster - not to the man who looks upon his profession as a wearisome business& but to him who& when surrounded by a 6oyous band of young pickles& feels e@hilarated by their cheery looks and in the midst of their happy laughter - to him who tries to plant in their little heads those ideas of humanity which he cherished himself when he was young? "ften 7 see that you are sad& and 7 know what it is that makes you knit your brows. This ,ery day& your fa,orite pupil who is not ,ery well up in #atin& it is true& but who has nonetheless an e@cellent heart& recited the story of >illiam Tell with so much ,igor$ .is eyes sparkled2 he seemed to wish to stab all tyrants there and then2 he ga,e with such fire the passionate lines of 1chiller= :efore the sla,e when he breaks his chain& :efore the free man tremble not. :ut when he returned home& his mother& his father& his uncle sharply rebuked him for want of respect to the minister or the rural policeman2 they held forth to him by the hour on "prudence& respect of authority& submission to his betters&" till he put 1chiller aside in order to read "1elf-.elp."

%nd then& only yesterday& you were told that your best pupils ha,e all turned out badly. "ne does nothing but dream of becoming an officer2 another in league with his master robs the workers of their slender wages2 and you& who brood o,er the sad contrast between your ideal& and life as it is. 'ou still brood o,er it$ Then 7 foresee that in two years& at the outside& after ha,ing suffered disappointment after disappointment& you will lay your fa,orite authors on the shelf& and you will end by saying that Tell was no doubt a ,ery honest fellow& but after all a trifle cracked2 that poetry is a firstrate thing for the fireside& especially whan a man has been teaching the rule-of-three all day long& but still poets are always in the clouds and their ,iews ha,e nothing to do with the life of today& nor with the ne@t ,isit of the 7nspector of 1chools... "r& on the other hand& the dreams of your youth will become the firm con,ictions of your mature age. 'ou will wish to ha,e wide& human education for all& in school and out of school2 and seeing that this is impossible in e@isting conditions& you will attack the ,ery foundations of bourgeois society. Then& discharged as you will be by the Education 8epartment& you will lea,e your school and come among us and be of us2 you will tell men of riper years but of smaller attainments than yourself how enticing knowledge is& what mankind ought to be - nay& what we could be. 'ou will come and work with 1ocialists for the complete transformation of the e@isting system& will stri,e side by side with us to attain true e;uality& real fraternity& ne,er-ending liberty for the world. #astly& you& young artist& sculptor& painter& poet& musician& do you not obser,e that the sacred fire which inspired your predecessors is wanting in the men of today? that art is commonplace and mediocrity reigns supreme? -ould it be otherwise? The delight of ha,ing redisco,ered the ancient world& of ha,ing bathed afresh in the springs of nature which created the masterpieces of the enaissance no longer e@ists for the art of our time2 the re,olutionary ideal has left it cold until now& and& failing an ideal& our art fancies that it has found one in realism when it painfully photographs in colors the dewdrop on the leaf of a plant& imitates the muscles in the leg of a cow& or describes minutely in prose and ,erse the suffocating filth of a sewer& the boudoir of a whore of high degree. ":ut& if this is so& what is to be done?" you say. 7f& 7 reply& the sacred fire that you say you possess is nothing better than a smoldering wick& then you will go on doing as you ha,e done& and your art will speedily degenerate into the trade of decorator of tradesmen+s shops& of a pur,eyor of librettos to thirdrate operettas& and tales for -hristmas %nnuals - most of you are already running down that grade with a head of steam on... :ut& if your heart really beats in unison with that of humanity& if like a true poet you ha,e an ear for #ife& then gazing out upon this sea of sorrow whose tide sweeps up around you& face to face with these people dying of hunger& in the presence of these corpses piled up in the mines& and these mutilated bodies lying in heaps on the barricades& looking on these long lines of e@iles who are going to bury themsel,es in the snows of 1iberia and in the marshes of tropical islands2 in full ,iew of this desperate battle which is being fought& amid the cries of pain from the con;uered and the orgies of the ,ictors& of heroism in conflict with cowardice& of noble determination face to face with contemptible cunning you cannot remain neutral2 you will come and take the side of the oppressed because you know that the beautiful& the sublime& the spirit of life itself are on the side of those who fight for light& for humanity& for 6ustice$ 'ou stop me at last$ ">hat the de,il$" you say. ":ut if abstract science is a lu@ury and practice of medicine mere chicane2 if law spells in6ustice& and mechanical in,ention is but the means of robbery2 if the school& at ,ariance with the wisdom of the Dpractical man&+ is sure to be o,ercome2 and art without the re,olutionary idea

can only degenerate& what remains for me to do?" >ell& 7 will tell you. % ,ast and most enthralling task2 a work in which your actions will be in complete harmony with your conscience& an undertaking capable of rousing the noblest and most ,igorous natures. >hat work? - 7 will now tell you. 7t rests with you either to palter continually with your conscience& and in the end to say& one fine day= "Perish humanity& pro,ided 7 can ha,e plenty of pleasures and en6oy them to the full& so long as the people are foolish enough to let me." "r& once more the ine,itable alternati,e& to take part with the 1ocialists and work with them for the complete transformation of society. 1uch is the irrefragable conse;uence of the analysis we ha,e gone through. That is the logical conclusion which e,ery intelligent man must perforce arri,e at& pro,ided that he reasons honestly about what passes around him& and discards the sophisms which his bourgeois education and the interested ,iews of those about him whisper in his ear. This conclusion once arri,ed at& the ;uestion ">hat is to be done?" is naturally put. The answer is easy. #ea,e this en,ironment in which you are placed and where it is the fashion to say that the people are nothing but a lot of brutes2 come among these people - and the answer will come of itself. 'ou will see that e,erywhere& in England as well as in Brance& in Germany as well as in 7taly& in ussia as welt as in the 0nited 1tates& e,erywhere where there is a pri,ileged and an oppressed class& there is a tremendous work going on in the midst of the working class& whose ob6ect is to break down fore,er the sla,ery enforced by the capitalist feudality and to lay the foundation of a society established on the basis of 6ustice and e;uality. 7t is no longer enough for the man of the people today to pour forth his complaints in one of those songs whose melody breaks your heart& such as were sung by the serfs of the ele,enth century& and are still sung by the 1la, peasant2 he labors with his fellow toilers for the enfranchisement& with the knowledge of what he is doing& and against e,ery obstacle put in his way. .is thoughts are constantly e@ercised in considering what should be done in order that life& instead of being a curse for three-fourths of mankind& may be a real en6oyment for all. .e takes up the hardest problems of sociology and tries to sol,e them by his good sense& his spirit of obser,ation& his hard e@perience. 7n order to come to an understanding with others as miserable as himself& he seeks to form groups& to organize. .e forms societies& maintained with difficulty by small contributions2 he tries to make terms with his fellows beyond the frontier2 and he prepares the days when wars between peoples shall be impossible& far better than the frothy philanthropists who now potter with the fad of uni,ersal peace. 7n order to know what his brothers are doing& to ha,e a closer connection with them& to elaborate his ideas and pass them around& he maintains - but at the price of what pri,ations& what ceaseless efforts$ - his working press. %t length& when the hour has come& he rises& reddening the pa,ements and the barricades with his blood& he bounds forward to con;uer those liberties which the rich and powerful will afterward know how to corrupt and to turn against him again. >hat an unending series of efforts$ >hat an incessant struggle$ >hat toil perpetually begun afresh2 sometimes to fill up the gaps occasioned by desertion - the results of weariness& corruption& prosecutions2 sometimes to rally the broken forces decimated by the fusillades and cold-blooded butchery$ %t another time to recommence the studies sternly broken off by wholesale slaughter. The newspapers are set on foot by men who ha,e been obliged to force from society scraps of knowledge by depri,ing themsel,es of sleep and food2 the agitation is kept up by halfpence deducted from the amount needed to get the barest necessaries of life2 and all this under the constant dread of

seeing his family reduced to the most fearful misery& as soon as the master learns that "his workman& his sla,e& is tainted with 1ocialism." This is what you will see if you go among the people. %nd in this endless struggle how often has not the toiler ,ainly asked& as he stumbled under the weight of his burden= ">.E E& T.EA& % E T.E1E '"0AG PE"P#E >." .%!E :EEA T%0G.T %T "0 EEPEA1E? T.E1E '"0T.1 >."3 >E BE8 %A8 -#"T.E8 >.7#E T.E' 1T087E8? >.E E % E T."1E B" >."3& "0 :%-K1 :EAT 8"0:#E :EAE%T. "0 :0 8EA1 %A8 "0 :E##7E1 E3PT'& >E .%!E :07#T T.E1E ."01E1& T.E1E -"##EGE1& T.E1E #E-T0 E- ""31& T.E1E 301E031? >.E E % E T.E 3EA B" >."1E :EAEB7T >E& >7T. "0 P%#E& >" A B%-E1& .%!E P 7ATE8 T.E1E B7AE :""K1& 3"1T "B >.7-. >E -%AA"T E!EA E%8? >.E E % E T.E'& T.E1E P "BE11" 1 >." -#%73 T" P"11E11 T.E 1-7EA-E "B 3%AK7A8& %A8 B" >."3 .03%A7T' 7T1E#B 71 A"T >" T. % % E -%TE P7##% ? >.E E % E T.E 3EA >." % E E!E 1PE%K7AG 7A P %71E "B #7:E T'& %A8 AE!E T.7AK T" -.%3P7"A "0 B EE8"3& T %3P#E8 %1 7T 71 E%-. 8%' :EAE%T. T.E7 BEET? >.E E % E T.E'& T.E1E > 7TE 1 %A8 P"ET1& T.E1E P%7ATE 1 %A8 1-0#PT" 1? >.E E& 7A % >" 8& 71 T.E >."#E G%AG "B .'P"- 7TE1 >." 1PE%K "B T.E PE"P#E >7T. TE% 1 7A T.E7 E'E1& :0T >." AE!E & :' %A' -.%A-E& B7A8 T.E31E#!E1 %3"AG 01& .E#P7AG 01 7A "0 #%:" 7"01 >" K?" >here are they& indeed? >hy& some are taking their ease with the most cowardly indifference2 others& the ma6ority& despise the "dirty mob&" are ready to pounce upon them if they dare touch one of their pri,ileges. Aow and then& it is true& a young man comes among us who dreams of drums and barricades and seeks sensational scenes& but he deserts the cause of the people as soon as he percei,es that the road to the barricade is long& that the work is hea,y& and that the crowns of laurel to be won in the campaign are intermingled with thorns. Generally these are ambitious schemers& out of work& who& ha,ing failed in their first efforts& try in this way to ca6ole people out of their ,otes& but who a little later will be the first to denounce them when the people wish to apply the principles which they themsel,es ha,e professed2 perhaps will e,en be ready to turn artillery and Gatlings upon them if they dare to mo,e before they& the heads of the mo,ement& gi,e the signal. %dd mean insult& haughty contempt& cowardly calumny from the great ma6ority& and you know what the people may e@pect nowadays from most of the youth of the upper and middle classes in the way of help towards the social e,olution. :ut then& you ask& ">hat shall we do?" >hen there is e,erything to be done$ >hen a whole army of young people would find plenty to employ the entire ,igor of their youthful energy& the full force of their intelligence and their talent to help the people in the ,ast enterprise they ha,e untertaken$ >hat shall we do? #isten. 'ou lo,ers of pure science& if you are imbued with the principles of 1ocialism& if you ha,e understood the real meaning of the re,olution which is e,en now knocking at the door& don+t you see that all science has to be recast in order to place it in harmony with the new principles2 that it is your business to accomplish in this field a re,olution far greater than that which was accomplished in e,ery branch of science during the eighteenth century? 8on+t you understand that history - which today is an old wi,es+ tale about great kings& great statesmen and great parliaments - that history itself has to be written from

the point of ,iew of the people& from the point of ,iew of work done by the masses in the long e,olution of mankind? That social economy - which today is merely the sanctification of capitalist robbery - has to be worked out afresh in its fundamental principles as well as in its innumerable applications? That anthropology& sociology& ethics& must be completely recast& and that the ,ery natural sciences themsel,es& regarded from another point of ,iew& must undergo a profound modification& alike in regard to the conception of natural phenomena and with respect to the method of e@position. !ery well& then& set to work$ Place your abilities at the command of the good cause. Especially help us with your clear logic to combat pre6udice and to lay& by your synthesis& the foundations of a better organization2 yet more& teach us to apply in our daily arguments the fearlessness of true scientific in,estigation and show us& as your predecessors did& how men dare sacrifice e,en life itself for the triumph of the truth. 'ou& doctors& who ha,e learnt 1ocialism by a bitter e@perience& ne,er weary of telling us today& tomorrow& onward to decay if men remain in the present conditions of e@istence and work2 that all your medicaments must be powerless against disease while the ma6ority of mankind ,egetate in conditions absolutely contrary to those which science tells us are healthful2 con,ince the people that it is the causes of disease which must be uprooted& and show us all what is necessary to remo,e them. -ome with your scalpel and dissect for us& with an unerring hand& this society of ours& hastening to putrefaction. Tell us what a rational e@istence should and might be. 7nsist& as true surgeons& that a gangrenous limb must be amputated when it may poison the whole body. 'ou& who ha,e worked at the application of science to industry& come and tell us frankly what has been the outcome of your disco,eries. -on,ince those who dare not march boldly toward the future what new in,entions the knowledge we ha,e ac;uired carried in its womb& what industry could do under better conditions& what man might easily produce if he produced always with a ,iew to enhance his own productions. 'ou poets& painters& sculptors& musicians& if you understand your true mission and the ,ery interests of art itself& come with us. Place your pen& your pencil& your chisel& your ideas at the ser,ice of the re,olution. Bigure forth to us& in your elo;uent style& or your impressi,e pictures& the heroic struggles of the people against their oppressors2 fire the hearts of our youth with that re,olutionary enthusiasm which inflamed the souls of our ancestors2 tell women what a noble career is that of a husband who de,otes his life to the great cause of social emancipation$ 1how the people how hideous is their actual life& and place your hand on the causes of its ugliness2 tell us what a rational life would be if it did not encounter at e,ery step the follies and the ignominies of our present social order. #astly& all of you who possess knowledge& talent& capacity& industry& if you ha,e a spark of sympathy in your nature& come& you and your companions& come and and place your ser,ices at the disposal of those who most need them. %nd remember& if you do come& that you come not as masters& but as comrades in the struggle2 that you come not to go,ern but to gain strength for yoursel,es in a new life which sweeps upward to the con;uest of the future2 that you come less to teach than to grasp the aspirations of the many2 to di,ine them& to gi,e them shape& and then to work& without rest and without haste& with all the fire of youth and all the 6udgment of age& to realize them in actual life. Then and then only will you lead a complete& a noble& a rational e@istence. Then you will see that your e,ery effort on this path bears with it fruit in abundance& and this sublime harmony once established between your actions and the dictates of your conscience will gi,e you powers you ne,er dreamt lay dormant in yoursel,es. The ne,er-ceasing struggle for truth& 6ustice and e;uality among the people& whose gratitude you will earn - what nobler career can the youth of all nations desire than this? 7t has taken me long to show you& of the well-to-do classes& that in ,iew of the dilemma which life

presents to you& you will be forced& if courageous and sincere& to come and work side by side with the 1ocialists& and champion in their ranks the cause of the social re,olution. %nd yet how simple this truth is after all$ :ut when one is speaking to those who ha,e suffered from the effects of bourgeois surroundings& how many sophisms must be combated& how many pre6udices o,ercome& how many interested ob6ections put aside$ 7t is easy to be brief today in addressing you& the youth of the people. The ,ery pressure of e,ents impels you to become 1ocialists& howe,er little you may ha,e the courage to reason and to act. To rise from the ranks of the working people& and not to de,ote oneself to bringing about the triumph of 1ocialism& is to misconcei,e the real interests at stake& to gi,e up the cause and the true historic mission. 8o you remember the time& when still a mere lad& you went down one winter+s day to play in your dark court? The cold nipped your shoulders through your thin clothes& and the mud worked into your wornout shoes. E,en then when you saw chubby children richly clad pass in the distance& looking at you with an air of contempt& you knew right well that these imps& dressed up to the nines& were not the e;uals of yourself and your comrades& either in intelligence& common sense& or energy. :ut& later& when you were forced to shut yourself up in a filthy factory from fi,e or si@ o+clock in the morning& to remain twel,e hours on end close to a whirling machine& and& a machine yourself& were forced to follow& day after day& for whole years in succession& its mo,ement with relentless throbbing - during all this time they& the others& were going ;uietly to be taught at fine schools& at academies& at the uni,ersities. %nd now these same children& less intelligent& but better taught than you& ha,e become your masters& are en6oying all the pleasures of life and all the ad,antages of ci,ilization. %nd you? >hat sort of lot awaits you? 'ou return to little& dark& damp lodgings where fi,e or si@ human beings pig together within a few s;uare feet2 where your mother& sick of life& aged by care rather than years& offers you dry bread and potatoes as your only food& washed down by blackish fluid called& in irony& tea2 and to distract your thoughts& you ha,e e,er the same ne,er-ending ;uestion& ".ow shall 7 be able to pay the baker tomorrow& and the landlord the day after?" >hat$ 3ust you drag on the same weary e@istence as your father and mother for thirty and forty years? 3ust you toil your life long to procure for others all the pleasures of well-being& of knowledge& of art& and keep for yourself only the eternal an@iety as to whether you can get a bit of bread? >ill you wear yourself out with toil and ha,e in return only trouble& if not misery& when hard times - the fearful hard times - come upon you? 7s this what you long for in life? Perhaps you will gi,e up. 1eeing no way out of your condition whate,er& maybe you say to yourself& ">hole generations ha,e undergone the same lot& and 7& who can alter nothing in the matter& 7 must submit also. #et us work on& then& and endea,or to li,e as well as we can$" !ery well. 7n that case life itself will take pains to enlighten you. "ne day a crisis comes& one of those crises which are no longer mere passing phenomena& as they were a while ago& but a crisis which destroys a whole industry& which plunges thousands of workers into misery& which crushes whole families. 'ou struggle like the rest against the calamity. :ut you will soon see how your wife& your child your friend& little by little succumb to pri,ations and fade away under your ,ery eyes. Bor sheer want of food for lack of care and of medical assistance& they end their days on the pauper+s stretcher& while the life of the rich sweeps past in 6oyous crowds through the streets of the great city gleaming in the sunlight - utterly careless and indifferent to the dying cries of those who perish. Then you will understand how utterly re,olting this society is2 you will reflect upon the causes of this

crisis and your e@amination will go to the ,ery depths of this abomination which puts millions of human beings at the mercy of the brutal greed of a handful of useless triflers2 then you will understand that 1ocialists are right when they say that our present society can be& that it must be reorganized from top to bottom. To pass from general crises to your particular case. "ne day when your master tires by a new reduction of wages to s;ueeze out of you a few more pence in order to increase his fortune still further& you will protest2 but he will haughtily answer& "Go and eat grass& if you will not work at the price 7 offer." Then you will understand that your master not only tries to shear you like a sheep& but that looks upon you as an inferior kind of animal altogether2 that& not content with holding you in his relentless grip by means of the wage-system& he is further an@ious to make you a sla,e in e,ery respect. Then you will either bow down before him& you will gi,e up the feeling of human dignity& and you will end by suffering e,ery possible humiliation2 or the blood will rush to your head& you shudder at the hideous slope on which you are slipping down& you will retort& and& turned out workless on the street& you will understand how right 1ocialists are when they say& " e,olt$ ise against this economical sla,ery$" Then you will come and take your place in the ranks of the 1ocialists and you will work with them for the complete destruction of all sla,ery - economic& social and political. 1ome day& again& you will learn the story of that charming young girl whose brisk gait& frank manners& and cheerful con,ersation you so lo,ingly admired. %fter ha,ing struggled for years and years against misery& she left her nati,e ,illage for the metropolis. There she knew right well that the struggle for e@istence must be hard& but she hoped at least to be able to gain her li,ing honestly. >ell& now you know what has been her fate. -ourted by the son of some capitalist& she allowed herself to be enticed by his fine words& she ga,e herself up to him with all the passion of youth& only to see herself abandoned with a baby in her arms. E,er courageous& she ne,er ceased to struggle on2 but she broke down in this une;ual strife against cold and hunger& and she ended her days in one of the hospitals& no one knows which... >hat will you do? "nce more there are two courses open to you. Either you will push aside the whole unpleasant reminiscence with some stupid phrase. "1he wasn+t the first and won+t be the last&" you will say. Perhaps& some e,ening& you will be heard in a public room& in company with other beasts like yourself& outraging the young girl+s memory by some dirty stories2 or& on the other hand& your remembrances of the past will touch your heart2 you will try to meet the seducer to denounce him to his face2 you will reflect upon the causes of these e,ents which recur e,ery day& and you will comprehend that they will ne,er cease so long as society is di,ided into two camps2 on one side the wretched and on the other the lazy - the 6ugglers with fine phrases and bestial lusts. 'ou will understand that it is high time to bridge o,er this gulf of separation& and you will rush to place& yourself among the 1ocialists. %nd you& woman of the people& has this left you cold and unmo,ed? >hile caressing the pretty head of that child who nestles close to you& do you ne,er think about the lot that awaits him& if the present social conditions are not changed? 8o you ne,er reflect on the future awaiting your young sister& and all your own children? 8o you wish that your sons& they too& should ,egetate as your father ,egetated& with no other care than how to get his daily bread& with no other pleasure than that of the gin-palace? 8o you want your husband& your lads& to be e,er at the mercy of the first comer who has inherited from his father a capital to e@ploit them with? %re you an@ious that they should remain sla,es for master& food for powder& mere dung wherewith to manure the pasture lands of the rich e@proprietor? Aay& ne,er2 a thousand times no$ t know right well that your blood has boiled when you ha,e heard that your husbands& after they entered on a strike& full of fire and determination& ha,e ended by accepting& cap in hand& the conditions dictated by the bloated bourgeois in a tone of haughty contempt$ 7 know that you ha,e admired those 1panish women who in a popular rising presented their breasts to the bayonets of the soldiery& in the front ranks of the insurrectionists. 7 am certain that you mention with

re,erence the name of the woman who lodged a bullet in the chest of that ruffianly official who dared to outrage a 1ocialist prisoner in his cell. %nd 7 am confident that your heart beats faster when you read how the women of the people in Paris gathered under a rain of shells to encourage "their men" to heroic action. E,ery one of you& then& honest young folks& men and women& peasants& laborers& artisans and soldiers& you will understand what are your rights and you will come along with us2 you will come in order to work with your brethren in the preparation of that e,olution which& sweeping away e,ery ,estige of sla,ery& tearing the fetters asunder& breaking with the old worn-out traditions& and opening to all mankind a new and wider scope of 6oyous e@istence& shall at length establish true #iberty& real E;uality& ungrudging Braternity throughout human society= work with all& work for all - the full en6oyment of the fruits of their labor& the complete de,elopment of all their faculties2 a rational& human and happy life$ 8on+t let anyone tell us that we - but a small band - are too weak to attain unto the magnificent end at which we aim. -ount and see how many of us there are who suffer this in6ustice. >e peasants who work for others and who mumble the straw while our masters eat the wheat& we by oursel,es are millions of men. >e workers who wea,e silks and ,el,ets in order that we may be clothed in rags& we& too& are a great multitude2 and when the clang of the factories permits us a moment+s repose& we o,erflow the streets and s;uares like the sea in a spring tide. >e soldiers who are dri,en along to the word of command& or by blows& we who recei,e the bullets for which our officers get crosses and pensions& we& too& poor fools who ha,e hitherto known no better than to shoot our brothers& why& we ha,e only to make a right-about-face towards these plumed and decorated personages who are so good as to command us& to see a ghastly pallor o,erspread their faces. %y& all of us together& we who suffer and are insulted daily& we are a multitude whom no man can number& we are the ocean that can embrace and swallow up all else. >hen we ha,e but the will to do it& that ,ery moment will Fustice be done= that ,ery instant the tyrants of the Earth shall bite the dust.