"The truth is, that a system of equal property requires no restrictions or superintendence whatever. There is no need of common labour, common meals or common magazines. These are feeble and mistaken instruments for restraining the conduct without making conquest of the judgement. if you cannot bring over the hearts of the community to your party, expect no success from brute regulations. if you can, regulation is unneccessary. Such a system was well enough adapted to the military constitution of Sparta; but it is wholly unworthy of men who are enlisted is no cause but that of reason and justice. Beware of reducing men to the state of machines. Govern them through no medium but that of inclination and conviction."

WILLIAM GODWIN

FOREWORD

THE NAME OF PETER KROPOTKIN EVOKES ONE OF THE GREATEST PERSONALITIES IN THE ANNALS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT, OF IDEAL HUMANITY, OF ANARCHISM.

The heart of this rebel was one of the noblest that ever beat in a human breast against human bondage. He was a truthful explorer in that science whose aim is to exalt labor and reduce misery - the science of efficient revolution. This was unequivocally proven in all his works. He challeneged all forms of authority which help spread the mist of ancient, traditional lies.

It was his life's dearest ideal to see the laboring masses liberated in the fullest sense of the word. Advocating the gospel of freedom, his ideas always concerned themselves with convincing facts. Everywhere is his work reinforced with concrete instances borrowed from nature and traced throughout the history of the sciences.

Among the many whose illumined minds have had the courage to denounce a world of wrongs perpetrated by exploiters, Kropotkin's mind shines brightest. he courageously held the torch aloft, letting its searching rays fall upon the reactionary, the shameful, the corrupt, and exposing their inherent putridity.