208 



MY LIFE 



[Chap 



years as the greatest of geographers, thinking it must have 

 been his father or elder brother ; and I was surprised when, 

 on asking him, he said that it was himself. However, we did 

 not talk of geography during the afternoon we spent together, 

 but of Anarchism, of which he was one of the most con- 

 vinced advocates, and I was very anxious to ascertain his 

 exact views, which I found were really not very different from 

 my own. We agreed that almost all social evils — all poverty, 

 misery, and crime — were the creation of governments and of 

 bad social systems ; and that under a law of absolute justice, 

 involving equality of opportunity and the best training for 

 all, each local community would organize itself for mutual 

 aid, and no great central governments would be needed, except 

 as they grew up from the voluntary association of their parts 

 for general and national purposes. 



On asking him if he thought force was needed to bring 

 about such a great reform, and if he approved of the killing 

 by bombs or otherwise of bad rulers, he replied, very quietly, 

 that in extreme cases, like that of Russia, he thought there 

 was no other way to force upon the rulers' notice the deter 

 mination of the people to be free from their tyrants ; but 

 under representative governments it was not needed, and 

 was not justifiable. Few would think to look at this frail 

 man that he was not only in the very first rank among the 

 students and writers of the nineteenth century, but that he 

 had fought for his country against the foreign invader, as 

 well as against the despotism of enthroned officialdom which 

 succeeded it. 



He has now passed away (1905), having completed one of 

 the greatest (if not the very greatest) literary works of the 

 past century. But he will also be remembered as a true and 

 noble lover of humanity — a firm believer in the goodness, the 

 dignity, and the perfectibility of man. 



During the first half of my residence at Parkstone (1889- 

 96), I did not write any new books, having, as I thought, said 

 all that I had to say on the great subjects that chiefly 

 interested me ; but I contributed a number of articles to 



