nevitable alternations of
victories and defeats, built up our fathers in their love of _la
patrie_ and their hatred of the foreigner.

Since then, as the result of industrial progress, there have arisen in
one country and another, rivalries which are every day growing more
bitter. The present methods of production by multiplying antagonism
among nations, have given rise to imperialism, to colonial expansion
and to armed peace.

But how many contrary forces are at work in this formidable creation
of a new order of things! In all countries the great development of
trade and manufactures has given birth to a new class. This class,
possessing nothing, having no hope of ever possessing anything,
enjoying none of the good things of life, not even the light of day,
does not share the fear which haunted the peasant and burgher of the
Revolution, of being despoiled by an enemy coming from abroad; the
members of this new class, having no wealth to defend, regard foreign
nations with neither terror nor hatred. At the same time over all the
markets of the world there have arisen financial powers, which,
although they often affect respect for old traditions, are by their
very functions essentially destructive of the national and patriotic
spirit. The universal capitalist system has created in France, as
everywhere else, the internationalism of the workers and the
cosmopolitanism of the financiers.

To-day, just as two thousand years ago, in order to discern the
future, we must regard not the enterprises of the great but the
confused movements of the working classes. The nations will not
indefinitely endure this armed peace which weighs so heavily upon
them. Every day we behold the organising of an universal community of
workers.

I believe in the future union of nations, and I long for it with that
ardent charity for the human race, which, formed in the Latin
conscience in the days of Epictetus and Seneca, and through so many
centuries extinguished by European barbarism, has been revived in the
noblest breasts of modern times. And in vain will it be argued against
me that these are the mere dream-illusions of desire: it is desire
that creates life and the future is careful to realise the dreams of
philosophers. Nevertheless, that we to-day are assured of a peace that
nothing will disturb, none but a madman would maintain. On the
contrary, the terrible industrial and commercial rivalries growing up
around us indicate future con