An Appeal to the Young. 19 



that which was accomplished in every branch of 

 science during the eighteenth century ? Do you not 

 understand that history — which to-day is an old wife's 

 tale about great kings, great statesmen and great 

 parliaments — that history itself has to be written 

 from the point of view of the people, from the point 

 of view of work done by the masses in the long evo- 

 lution of mankind? That social economy — which to- 

 day is merely the sanctification of capitalist robbery 

 — has to be worked out afresh in its fundamental 

 principles as well as in its innumerable applications ? 

 That anthropology, sociology, ethics, must be com- 

 pletely recast, and that the very natural sciences 

 themselves, regarded from another point of view, 

 must undergo a profound modification, alike in re- 

 gard to the conception of natural phenomena and 

 with respect to the method of exposition ? 



Very well, then. Set to work ! Place your abili- 

 ties at the command of the good cause. Especially 

 help us with your clear logic to combat prejudice 

 and to lay by your synthesis the foundations of a 

 better organization ; yet more, teach us to apply in 

 our daily arguments the fearlessness of true scientific 

 investigation, and show us, as j-our predecessors did, 

 how men dare sacrifice even life itself for the triumph 

 of the truth. 



. You, doctors, who have learned socialism by a bitter 

 experience, never weary of telling us to-day, to- 

 morrow, in season and out of season, that humanity 

 itself hurries onward to decay if men remain in the 

 present conditions of existence and work; that all 

 your medicaments must be powerless against disease 

 while the majority of mankind vegetate in conditions 

 absolutely contrary to those which science tells us are 

 healthful; convince the people that it is the causes 

 of disease which must be uprooted, and show us all 

 what is necessary to remove them. 



Come with your scalpel and dissect for us with an 

 unerring hand this society of ours hastening to putre- 



