Chapter 6 - Page 2

is, how is anybody to know that you're an illustration of culture.
You can't go about like a sandwich man with a label on your back to
tell all the fine notions you have in your head; and you may be sure
no person will consider your mere appearance preferable to his own.
You want an executive power; that's what you want. Suppose you
walked along the street and saw a man beating a woman, and setting a
bad example to the roughs. Well, you would be bound to set a good
example to them; and, if you're men, you'd like to save the woman;
but you couldn't do it by merely living; for that would be setting
the bad example of passing on and leaving the poor creature to be
beaten. What is it that you need to know then, in order to act up to
your fine ideas? Why, you want to know how to hit him, when to hit
him, and where to hit him; and then you want the nerve to go in and
do it. That's executive power; and that's what's wanted worse than
sitting down and thinking how good you are, which is what this
gentleman's teaching comes to after all. Don't you see? You want
executive power to set an example. If you leave all that to the
roughs, it's their example that will spread, and not yours. And look
at the politics of it. We've heard a good deal about the French
to-night. Well, they've got executive power. They know how to make a
barricade, and how to fight behind it when they've made it. What's
the result? Why, the French, if they only knew what they wanted,
could have it to-morrow for the asking--more's the pity that they
don't know. In this country we can do nothing; and if the lords and
the landlords, or any other collection of nobs, were to drive us
into the sea, what could we do but go? There's a gentleman laughing
at me for saying that; but I ask him what would he do if the police
or the soldiers came this evening and told him to turn out of his
comfortable house into the Thames? Tell 'em he wouldn't vote for
their employers at the next election, perhaps? Or, if that didn't
stop them, tell 'em that he'd ask his friends to do the same? That's
a pretty executive power! No, gentlemen. Don't let yourself be
deceived by people that have staked their money against you. The
first thing to learn is how to fight. There's no use in buying books
and pictures unless you know how to keep them and your own head as
well. If that gentleman that laughed know how to fight, and his
neighbors all knew how to fight too, he wouldn't need to fear
police, nor soldiers, nor Russians, nor Prussians, nor any of the
millions of men that may be let loose on him any day of the week,
safe though he thinks himself. But, says you, let's have a division
of labor. Let's not fight for ourselves, but pay other men to fight
for us. That shows