constable's staves in the hands of their elders, the end of the
world is no nearer than it was before. If human nature, which
is the highest organization of life reached on this planet,
is really degenerating, then human society will decay; and no
panic-begotten penal measures can possibly save it: we must,
like Prometheus, set to work to make new men instead of vainly
torturing old ones. On the other hand, if the energy of life is
still carrying human nature to higher and higher levels, then the
more young people shock their elders and deride and discard their
pet institutions the better for the hopes of the world, since the
apparent growth of anarchy is only the measure of the rate of
improvement. History, as far as we are capable of history (which
is not saying much as yet), shows that all changes from crudity
of social organization to complexity, and from mechanical
agencies in government to living ones, seem anarchic at first
sight. No doubt it is natural to a snail to think that any
evolution which threatens to do away with shells will result in
general death from exposure. Nevertheless, the most elaborately
housed beings today are born not only without houses on their
backs but without even fur or feathers to clothe them.

ANARCHISM NO PANACEA

One word of warning to those who may find themselves attracted
by Siegfried's Anarchism, or, if they prefer a term with more
respectable associations, his neo-Protestantism. Anarchism, as a
panacea, is just as hopeless as any other panacea, and will still
be so even if we breed a race of perfectly benevolent men. It is
true that in the sphere of thought, Anarchism is an inevitable
condition of progressive evolution. A nation without