at foolishness was first agitated by a handful of pious lunatics
in the long ago. And I know that even to-day, after ages of transmitted
prejudice and silly teaching, only one person in twenty puts any real
heart into the harrying of a witch. And yet apparently everybody hates
witches and wants them killed. Some day a handful will rise up on the
other side and make the most noise--perhaps even a single daring man
with a big voice and a determined front will do it--and in a week all
the sheep will wheel and follow him, and witch-hunting will come to a
sudden end.

"Monarchies, aristocracies, and religions are all based upon that large
defect in your race--the individual's distrust of his neighbor, and his
desire, for safety's or comfort's sake, to stand well in his neighbor's
eye. These institutions will always remain, and always flourish, and
always oppress you, affront you, and degrade you, because you will
always be and remain slaves of minorities. There was never a country
where the majority of the people were in their secret hearts loyal to
any of these institutions."

I did not like to hear our race called sheep, and said I did not think
they were.

"Still, it is true, lamb," said Satan. "Look at you in war--what mutton
you are, and how ridiculous!"

"In war? How?"

"There has never been a just one, never an honorable one--on the part
of the instigator of the war. I can see a million years ahead, and this
rule will never change in so many as half a dozen instances. The
loud little handful--as usual--will shout for the war. The pulpit
will--warily and cautiously--object--at first; the great, big, dull bulk
of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there
should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, "It is unjust
and dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it." Then the handful
will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and
reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a
hearing and be applauded; but it will not last long; those others will
outshout them, and presently the anti-war audiences will thin out
and lose popularity. Before long you will see this curious thing: the
speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes
of furious men who in their secret hearts are still at one with those
stoned speakers--as earlier--but do not dare to say so. And now the
whole nation--pulpit and all--will take up the war-cry,