In a word,
while there were many revolutions, there were no strikes.
The citizens were often rebels; but there were men who were not rebels,
because they were not citizens. The ancient world forced a number
of people to do the work of the world first, before it allowed
more privileged people to fight about the government of the world.
The truth is trite enough, of course; it is in the single word Slavery,
which is not the name of a crime like Simony, but rather of a scheme
like Socialism. Sometimes very like Socialism.
Only standing idly on one of those grassy mounds under one of
those broken arches, I suddenly saw the Labour problem of London,
as I could not see it in London. I do not mean that I saw which side
was right, or what solution was reliable, or any partisan points
or repartees, or any practical details about practical difficulties.
I mean that I saw what it was; the thing itself and the whole thing.
The Labour problem of to-day stood up quite simply, like a
peak at which a man looks back and sees single and solid,
though when he was walking over it it was a wilderness of rocks.
The Labour problem is the attempt to have the democracy of Paris
without the slavery of Rome.
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