which never probably reached the class for whom it was intended at all.  He now writes to the papers, which are read by millions.  He thus, to begin with, creates a certain amount of public opinion; he then forms a society composed of those who think like himself; then, for his companions, he spreads his doctrines in all directions.  That is our modern method; not to stand up alone like a prophet, and to preach and cry aloud while the world, unheeding, passes by, but to march in the ranks with brother soldiers, exhorting and calling on our comrades to take up the word, and pass it on—­and when the soldiers in the ranks are firm and fixed to carry that cause.

We are now witnessing one of the most remarkable, one of the most suggestive, signs of the time—­a time which is, I verily believe, teeming with social mange—­a time, as I have said above, of the most stupendous importance in the history of mankind.  We read constantly, in the paper and everywhere, fears, prophecies, bogies of approaching revolution.  Approaching!  Fears of approaching revolution!  Why, we are in the midst of this revolution, we are actually in the midst of the most wonderful social revolution!  People don’t perceive it, simply because the revolutionaries are not chopping off heads, as they did in France.  But it has begun, all the same, and it is going on around us silently, swiftly, irresistibly.  We are actually in the midst of revolution.  Everywhere the old order of things is slipping away; everywhere things new and unexpected are asserting themselves.  Let me only point out a few things.  We have become within the last twenty years a nation of readers—­we all read; most of us, it is true, read only newspapers.  But what newspapers?  Why, exactly the same papers as are read by the people of the highest position in the land.  Perhaps you have not thought of the significance, the extreme significance, of this fact.  Certainly those who continually talk of the ignorance of the people have never thought of it!  What does it mean?  Why, that every reasoning man in the country, whatever his social position, reads the same news, the same debates, the same arguments as the statesman, the scholar, the philosopher, the preacher, or the man of science.  He bases his opinions on the same reasoning and on the same information as the Leader of the House of Commons, as my Lord Chancellor, as my Lord Archbishop himself.  Formerly the working man read nothing, and he knew nothing, and he had no power.  He has now, not only his vote, but he has as much personal influence among his own friends as depends upon his knowledge and his force of character, and he can acquire as much political knowledge as any noble lord not actually in official circles, if he only chooses to reach out his hand and take what is offered him!  Is not that a revolution which has so much raised the working man?  Again, he was, formerly, the absolute slave of his employer; he was obliged to take with a semblance of gratitude