20 An Appeal to the Young. 



faction. Tell us what a rational existence should 

 and might be. Insist, as true surgeons, that a gan- 

 grenous limb must be amputated when it will poison 

 the whole body. 



You, who have worked at the application of science 

 to industry, come and tell us frankly what has been 

 the outcome of your discoveries. Convince those 

 who dare not march boldly toward the future what 

 new inventions the knowledge we have already ac- 

 quired carries in its womb, what industry could do 

 under better conditions, what man might easily pro- 

 duce if he produced always with a view to enhance 

 his own production. 



You poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, if you 

 understand your true mission and the very interests 

 of art itself, come with us. Place your pen, your 

 pencil, your chisel, your ideas, at the service of the 

 revolution. Figure forth to us, in your eloquent 

 style, or your impressive pictures, the heroic struggles 

 of the people against their oppressors ; fire the hearts 

 of our youth with that glorious revolutionary en- 

 thusiasm which inflamed the souls of our ancestors ; 

 tell women what a noble career is that of a husband 

 who devotes his life to the great cause of social 

 emancipation ! Show the people how hideous is 

 their actual life, and place your hand on the causes 

 of its ugliness ; tell us what a rational life would be 

 if it did not encounter at every step the follies and 

 the ignominies of our present social order. 



Lastly, all of you who possess knowledge, talent, 

 capacity, industry, if you have a spark of sympathy 

 in your nature, come, you and your companions, come 

 and place your services at the disposal of those who 

 most need them. And remember, if you do come, 

 that you come not as masters, but as comrades in 

 the struggle ; that you come not to govern but to 

 gain strength for yourselves in a new life which 

 sweeps upward to the conquest of the future; that 

 you come less to teach than to grasp the aspirations 



