1 6 Alt Appeal to the Young. 



forth his complaints in one of those songs whose 

 melody breaks your heart, such as were sung by the 

 serfs of the eleventh century, and are still sung by 

 the Slav peasant ; he labors with his fellow-toilers 

 for his enfranchisement, with the knowledge of what 

 he is doing and against every obstacle put in his wa}-. 



His thoughts are constantly exercised in consider- 

 ing what should be done in order that life, instead 

 of being a curse for three-fourths of mankind, may 

 be a real enjoyment for all. He takes up the hard- 

 est problems of sociology and tries to solve them by 

 his good sense, his spirit of observation, his hard 

 experience. In order to come to an understanding 

 with others as miserable as himself, he seeks to form 

 groups, to organize. He forms societies, maintained 

 with difficulty by small contributions; he tries to 

 make terms with his fellows beyond the frontier; 

 and he prepares the days when wars between peo- 

 ples shall be impossible far better than the frothy 

 philanthropists who now potter with the fad of uni- 

 versal peace. In order to know what his brothers 

 are doing, to have a closer connection with them, to 

 elaborate his ideas and pass them round, he main- 

 tains — but at the price of what privations, what 

 ceaseless efforts ! — his working press. . . . 



What an unending series of efforts! What an 

 incessant struggle ! What toil perpetually begun 

 afresh; sometimes to fill up the gaps occasioned by 

 desertion — the result of weariness, corruption, pros- 

 ecutions ; sometimes to rally the broken forces deci- 

 mated by fusilades and cold-blooded butchery! at 

 another time to recommence the studies sternly 

 broken off by wholesale slaughter. 



The newspapers are set on foot by men who have 

 been obliged to force from society scraps of knowl- 

 edge by depriving themselves of sleep and food ; the 

 agitation is kept up by halfpence deducted from the 

 amount needed to get the barest necessaries of life ; 



