expectation of a Napoleonic glory, and they leave the superstition of great men to the middle classes.
It is well that it is so, because the proletariat will be able to develop itself much more surely if it organises itself in obscurity; Socialist politicians shun occupations which do not provide celebrity (and which are consequently not profitable); they are, then, not at all disposed to trouble themselves with the work of the syndicates, the object of which is to remain proletarian; they make a show on the Parliamentary stage, but that, as a rule, does not amount to much. The men who do participate in the real working-class movement are an example of what have always been looked upon as the greatest virtues; they cannot, in fact, acquire any of those things which the middle classes regard as especially desirable. If, then, as Renan asserts,[1] history rewards the resigned abnegation of men who strive uncomplainingly, and who accomplish, without profit, a great historical work, we have a new reason for believing in the advent of Socialism, since it represents the highest moral ideal ever conceived by man. This time it is not a new religion which is shaping itself underground, without the help of the middle-class thinkers, it is the birth of a virtue, a virtue which the middle-class Intellectuals are incapable of understanding, a virtue which has the power to save civilisation, as Renan hoped it would be saved—but by the total elimination of the class to which Renan belonged.
Let us now consider closely the reasons which made Renan dread a decadence of the middle-class;[2] he was
- ↑ Renan, op. cit. vol. iv. p. 267.
- ↑ Renan pointed out one symptom of decadence, on which he did not insist enough and which does not seem to have particularly impressed his readers; he was irritated by the restlessness, the claims to originality, and the naive rivalry of the young metaphysicians: "But, my dear fellows, it is useless to give oneself so much headache, merely to change from one error to another" (Feuilles détachées, p. 10). A restlessness of this kind (which puts on nowadays a sociological, socialist, or humanitarian air) is a sure sign of anæmia.
