elves, and he
declared: "We are the natural enemies of these revolutionists ... who
... dream already of the creation of new revolutionary States."[17] It
was admitted that the Brothers could not of themselves create the
revolution. All that a secret and well-organized society can do is "to
organize, not the army of the revolution--the army must always be the
people--but a sort of revolutionary staff composed of individuals who
are devoted, energetic, intelligent, and especially sincere friends of
the people, not ambitious nor self-conceited--capable of serving as
intermediaries between the revolutionary idea and the popular instincts.
The number of these individuals does not have to be immense. For the
international organization of all Europe, one hundred revolutionists,
strongly and seriously bound together, are sufficient. Two or three
hundred revolutionists will be sufficient for the organization of the
largest country."[18]

The idea of a secret organization of revolutionary leaders proved to be
wholly repugnant to many of even the most devoted friends of Bakounin,
and by 1868 the organization is supposed to have been dissolved,
because, it was said, secrets had leaked out and the whole affair had
been subjected to much ridicule.[19] The idea of the third order,
however, that of the International Alliance, was not abandoned, and it
appears that Bakounin and a number of the faithful Brothers felt hopeful
in 1867 of capturing a great "bourgeois" congress, called the "League of
Peace and of Liberty," that had met that year in Geneva. Bakounin,
Elisee Reclus, Aristide Rey, Victor Jaclard, and several others in the
conspiracy undertook to persuade the league to pass some revolutionary
resolutions. Bakounin was already a member of the central committee of
the league, and, in preparation for the battle, he wrote the manuscript
afterward published under the title, "_Federalisme, Socialisme, et
Antitheologisme_." But the congress of 1868 dashed their hopes to the
ground, and the revolutionists separated from the league and founded the
same day, September 25th, a new association, called _L'Alliance
Internationale de la Democratie Socialiste_. The program now adopted by
the Alliance, although written by Bakounin, expressed quite different
views from those of the International Brothers. But it, too, began its
revolutionary creed by declaring itself atheist. Its chief and most
important work was "to abolish religion and to subs