in the "industrial
army," as in the military force, the individual is only a number, a
unit; the sense of freedom has almost disappeared from our age.
Freedom in its signification as to culture and civilisation is now
completely misunderstood and underrated, and even considered an idle
dream. But the gloomiest feature of Socialism is a renaissance of the
_religiose_ spirit and all the disadvantages it entails. The
_religiose_ attitude, as I have shown elsewhere,[3] is connected with
an inclination for tutelage, and places the individual in quite a
secondary position. In an age when the weak are only too surely
convinced of the impossibility of maintaining themselves in the midst
of the social whirlwind, when everyone seeks to join some community or
society, it is easy to make religious proselytes. People mostly
console a nation that has a low position in the economic scale with
religion, as we console the sick. To those who suffer so bitterly from
the inequality of power and wealth in our social system, there is
shown a prospect of a future eternal recompense; and those who are
continually seeking the support of some power higher than themselves
are referred to the Highest Power of all. That always convinces them.
The Socialist and the religious view of the world are one and the
same; the former is the religion of the absolute, infallible,
all-mighty, and ever-present State. The reawakening of the religious
spirit simultaneously with the growth of Socialist parties is no mere
chance. Socialism has slipped on the cowl and cassock with the
greatest ease, and we have every reason to believe that this sad
companionship is by no means ended; the regard for personal freedom
will decrease more and more; the tendency towards authority and
religion will increase; the comprehension of purely mental effort will
continue to disappear in proportion as society endeavours to transform
itself into an industrial barrack. Whether the end of it all will be
the Social Democratic popular State, or the Socialist Absolute
Monarchy, matters but little. In any case, before things reach this
point, a counteracting tendency will make itself felt from the needs
of the people, which will endeavour to force evolution back into the
opposite path. The old implacable struggle between the Gironde and the
Mountain will again be renewed; and the impulse in this contest of the
future will come from Anarchism, which is already preparing and
sharpening the