wanted to bring the old man back to the
definite history, and take him out of the musing mood so natural to an old man.
    He answered: »Well, they did not lack organisers; for the very conflict
itself, in days when, as I told you, men of any strength of mind cast away all
consideration for the ordinary business of life, developed the necessary talent
amongst them. Indeed, from all I have read and heard, I much doubt whether,
without this seemingly dreadful civil war, the due talent for administration
would have been developed amongst the working men. Anyhow, it was there, and
they soon got leaders far more than equal to the best men amongst the
reactionaries. For the rest, they had no difficulty about the material of their
army; for that revolutionary instinct so acted on the ordinary soldier in the
ranks that the greater part, certainly the best part, of the soldiers joined the
side of the people. But the main element of their success was this, that
wherever the working people were not coerced, they worked, not for the
reactionists, but for the rebels. The reactionists could get no work done for
them outside the districts where they were all-powerful: and even in those
districts they were harassed by continual risings; and in all cases and
everywhere got nothing done without obstruction and black looks and sulkiness;
so that not only were their armies quite worn out with the difficulties which
they had to meet, but the non-combatants who were on their side were so worried
and beset with hatred and a thousand little troubles and annoyances that life
became almost unendurable to them on those terms. Not a few of them actually
died of the worry; many committed suicide. Of course, a vast number of them
joined actively in the cause of reaction, and found some solace to their misery
in the eagerness of conflict. Lastly, many thousands gave way and submitted to
the rebels; and as the numbers of these latter increased, it at last became
clear to all men that the cause which was once hopeless, was now triumphant, and
that the hopeless cause was that of slavery and privilege.«
 

                                 Chapter XVIII

                                        

                         The Beginning of the New Life

»Well,« said I, »so you got clear out of all your trouble. Were people satisfied
with the new order of things when it came?«
    »People?« he said. »Well, surely all must have been glad of peace when it
came; especially when they found, as they must have found, that after all, they
- even the once rich