At the same time, as an institution, they will become temporarily all-powerful.

They will be like the guards of the palace in old Rome, and there will be palace revolutions whereby the labor castes will seize the reins of power.

And there will be counter-palace revolutions of the oligarchs, and sometimes the one, and sometimes the other, will be in power.

And through it all the inevitable caste-weakening will go on, so that in the end the common people will come into their own." This foreshadowing of a slow social evolution was made when Ernest was first depressed by the defection of the great unions.

I never agreed with him in it, and I disagree now, as I write these lines, more heartily than ever; for even now, though Ernest is gone, we are on the verge of the revolt that will sweep all oligarchies away.