amount of charity. Throughout the great cities of Europe--in London as
much as anywhere--hundreds of thousands are saying, "We want no alms. We
intend to reconstitute society, even at the expense of blood, so that no
man, woman, or child, shall need the rich man's alms. We do not choose,
for it is not just, that he should take credit to himself for giving us a
shilling when he owes us a pound, ten, a hundred pounds--owes us, in
fact, all by which he and his class are richer than us and our class.
And we will make him pay his debt."

I do not say that such words are wise. I believe them to be foolish--
suicidal. I believe that it is those who patiently wait on the Lord, and
not the discontented who fret themselves till they do evil, who will
inherit the land, and be refreshed in peace. I believe that all those
who take the sword will perish by the sword; that those who appeal to
brute force will always find it--just because it is brute force--always
strongest on the side of the rich, who can hire it for evil, as for good.

I only say, that so hundreds of thousands think; so they speak, and will
speak more and more loudly, as long as the present tone of society
endures,--good-natured and well meaning, but luxurious, covetous,
ignoble, frivolous, ignorant; believing--all classes alike, not only that
money makes the man, but worse far--that money makes the woman also; and
all the while half-ashamed of itself, half-distrustful of itself, and
trying to buy off man by alms, and God by superstition.

So long as the great mass of the poor of any city know nothing of the
great mass of the rich of that city, save as folk who roll past them in
their carriages, seemingly easy while they are struggling, seemingly
happy while they are wretched, so long will the rich of that city be
supposed, however falsely, to be what the French workmen used to call