Page:The Anarchists - A Picture of Civilization at the Close of the Nineteenth Century.djvu/13

 exhaustively; for the most part I could not offer more than the conclusions of chains of reasoning, often very long. The complete incompatibility of the Anarchistic and the Communistic Weltanschauung, the uselessness and harmfulness of a resort to violent tactics, as well as the impossibility of any “solution of the social question” whatsoever by the State, at least I hope to have demonstrated.

The nineteenth century has given birth to the idea of Anarchy. In its fourth decade the boundary line between the old world of slavery and the new world of liberty was drawn. For it was in this decade that P. J. Proudhon began the titanic labor of his life with “Qu’est-ce que la propriété?” (1840), and that Max Stirner wrote his immortal work: “Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum” (1845).

It was possible for this idea to be buried under the dust of a temporary relapse of civilization. But it is imperishable.

It is even now again awake.

For more than seven years my friend Benj. R. Tucker of Boston has been battling for Anarchy in the new world with the invincible weapon of his “Liberty.” Oft in the lonely hours of my struggles have I fixed my gaze upon the brilliant light that thence is beginning to illumine the night.

When three years ago I gave the poems of my