to
extend my previous studies of Anarchism (which had not extended much
beyond the earliest theorists), and to develop my lecture into a book.
This book I now present to my readers.

The accomplishment of my resolve has been far from easy. What little
literature exists upon the subject of Anarchism is almost exclusively
hostile to it, which is a great drawback for one who is seeking not
the objects of a partisan, but simply and solely the truth. One had
constantly to gaze, so to speak, through a forest of prejudices and
errors in order to discover the truth like a little spot of blue sky
above. In this respect I found it mattered little whether I applied to
the press, or to the so-called scientific Socialists, or to fluent
pamphleteers.

"In vielen Worten wenig Klarheit,
Ein Fuenkchen Witz und keine Wahrheit."[1]

[1] Many words, but little light; a spark of wit, but no
truth.

Laveleye, for instance, does not even know of Proudhon; for him
Bakunin is the only representative of Anarchism and the most
characteristic; Socialism, Nihilism, and Anarchism mingle together in
wild confusion in the mind of this social historian. Garin, who wrote
a big book, entitled _The Anarchists_, is not acquainted with a single
Anarchist author, except some youthful writings of Proudhon's and a
few agitationist placards and manifestoes of the modern period. The
result of this ignorance is that he identifies Anarchism completely
with Collectivism, and carries his ridiculous ignorance so far as to
connect the former Austrian minister Schaeffle, who was then the chief
adviser of Count Hohenwart, in some way or other with the Anarchists.
Professor Enrico Ferri, again, exposes his complete ignorance of the
question at issue sufficiently by branding Herbert Spencer as an
Anarchist. In fact, the only work that can be called scientifically
useful is the short article on "Anarchism" in the _Cyclopaedia of
Political Science_, from the pen of Professor George Adler. All
pamphlets, articles, and essays which have since appeared on the same
subject are, conveniently but uncritically, founded upon this short
but excellent essay of Adler's. Since the extraordinary danger of
Anarchist doctrines is firmly fixed as a dogma in the minds of the
vast majority of mankind, it is apparently quite unnecessary to obtain
any information about its real character in order to pronounce a
decided, and often a decisive, judgment upon it. And so almost al