Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/91

 TEE BLACK DEATH 85

and immediate cause of revolt. New ideas of liberty, fraternity and equality, the germs of our latter-day socialism, filled the air; and those who began by rebelling against an excess of injustice, now looked for- ward to a veritable heaven upon earth. William Morris, in his "A Dream of John Ball^' (1890), has given us an idealized version of the rebellion, centering about the personality of that "rascal hedge-priesf John Ball, who seems to have chiefly represented the idealism and intel- lect of the movement. "Yea, forsooth,'^ Morris supposes Ball to say, " once again I saw as of old, the great treading down the little, and the strong beating down the weak, and cruel men fearing not, and kind men daring not, and wise men caring not; and the saints in heaven forbear- ing and yet bidding me not to forbear; forsooth, I knew once more that he who doeth well in fellowship, and because of fellowship, shall not fail though he seem to fail to-day, but in days hereafter shall he and his work yet be alive, and men be holpen by them to strive again and yet again; and yet indeed even that was little, since, forsooth, to strive was my pleasure and my life/'

The revolt was crushed, and had it not been, it could not have ac- complished its proper purpose. Time was needed for that, but the old condition of affairs never quite returned, and much of what we cherish most to-day had its remote beginnings in that apparently fruitless struggle. After the present war, in the readjustment which must neces- sarily take place there will be opportunity and necessity for reform Will it be possible to approach the problem with an eager desire to make the best of the situation, or will those in power stubbornly resist every fundamental change? In particular, can we throw off the burden of militarism by appealing to the intelligence and good-will of mankind ; or will the populace, finally goaded to desperation, be driven to revolu- tion ? As in the fourteenth century, we are borne on the crest of a wave which we can not stem ; up to a certain point, we are compelled by the course of events, — ^but it will make all the difference in the future whether we now approach our problems intelligently or with ignorance and prejudice. A great catastrophe, whether plague or war, breaks many links with the past, and gives the surviving generation new power and new opportunity. Thus, to an unusual extent the deeds of that genera- tion affect those to come, and heavy is the responsibility if a false start is made.

An apparently good authority (Hecker) estimated that in the four- teenth century the bubonic plague destroyed about twenty-five millions of persons, with the various results briefly indicated above. Yet his- torians have been so blinded by the political and military aspects of history that they have been unable to sense the significance of these tremendous events. As Oasquet remarks,

Jndged by the ordinary manuals, the middle of the fourteenth century ap-

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