Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/231

 GAMBETTA the bosom of the revolution, his benefactress; he gives loyally his taxes and his blood to a society for which he feels fear as much as respect. But there his role ends, and if you speak to him of principles, he knows nothing of them.

It is to the peasantry, then, that we must address ourselves. We must raise and instruct them. Epithets which partizans have bandied of "rurality" and "rural chamber" must not become the cause of injustice. It is to be wished that there were a "rural chamber" in the profound and true sense of the term; for it is not with hobble-de-hoys that a "rural chamber" can be made, but with enlightened and free peasants who are able to represent themselves. Instead of becoming a cause of raillery, this reproach of a "rural chamber" should be a tribute rendered to the progress of the civilization of the masses. This new social force should be utilized for the general welfare.

Unfortunately we have not yet reached that point. Progress will be denied us as long as the French democracy fail to demonstrate that if we would remake our country, if we would bring back her grandeur, her power, and her genius, it is of vital interest to her superior classes to elevate and emancipate this people of workers, who hold in reserve a force still virgin but able to develop inexhaustible treasures of activity and aptitude. We must learn and then teach the peasant what he owes to Society and what he has the right to ask of her.