ile thus shaming
the working classes, he pleaded their cause as no other one has pleaded
it, and, after humiliating them, he held them spellbound, as he traced
the great role the working classes were destined to play in the
regeneration of all society.

The socialism of Lassalle had much in common with that of Louis Blanc,
and his theory of cooeperative enterprises subsidized by the State was
almost identical. Chiefly toward this end he sought to promote
working-class organization, although he also believed that the working
classes would eventually gain control of the entire State and, through
it, reorganize production. He agitated for universal suffrage and even
plotted with Bismarck to obtain it. He was confident that an industrial
revolution was inevitable. The change "will either come in complete
legality," he said, "and with all the blessings of peace--if people are
only wise enough to resolve that it shall be introduced in time and from
above--or it will one day break in amid all the convulsions of violence,
with wild, flowing hair, and iron sandals upon its feet. In one way or
the other it will come at all events, and when, shutting myself from the
noise of the day, I lose myself in history--then I hear its tread. But
do you not see, then, that, in spite of this difference in what we
believe, our endeavors go hand in hand? You do not believe in
revolution, and therefore you want to prevent it. Good, do that which is
your duty. But I do believe in revolution, and, because I believe in it,
I wish, not to precipitate it--for I have already told you that
according to my view of history the efforts of a tribune are in this
respect necessarily as impotent as the breath of my mouth would be to
unfetter the storm upon the sea--but in case it should come, and from
below, I will humanize it, civilize it beforehand." [16] Thus Lassalle
saw that "to wish to make a revolution is the foolishness of immature
men who have no knowledge of the laws of history."[17] Yet he stated
also that, if a revolution is imminent, it is equally childish for the
powerful to think they can stem it. "Revolution is an overturning, and a
revolution always takes place--whether it be with or without force is a
matter of no importance ... when an entirely new principle is introduced
in the place of the existing order. Reform, on the other hand, takes
place when the principle of the existing order is retained, but is
developed to more liberal or more c