Publisher's Synopsis
Book Excerpt: row of cafes, until I saw again a distant column crowned with a dancing figure;the freedom that danced over the fall of the Bastille.Here at least, I thought, is an origin and a standard, such as I missed in the mere muddle of industrial opportunism.The modern industrial world is not in the least democratic; but it issupposed to be democratic, or supposed to be trying to be democratic.The ninth century, the time of the Norse invasions, was not saintlyin the sense of being filled with saints; it was filled with piratesand petty tyrants, and the first feudal anarchy. But sanctitywas the only ideal those barbarians had, when they had any at all.And democracy is the only ideal the industrial millions have, when they have any at all. Sanctity was the light of the Dark Ages, or if you will the dream of the Dark Ages. And democracy is the dreamof the dark age of industrialism; if it be very much of a dream.It is this which prophets promise to achieve, and politicians pretendto achieve, and poets someRead
