"That could hardly be maintained," replied I.
"How, then, could they control the more intelligent majority?" inquired Utis.
"It was the old story of union against disunion," said I. "The vicious classes, or, rather, the more intelligent, who acted as leaders, and whom the rest followed like sheep, knew what they wanted, and took the shortest way to obtain it. The intelligent majority, as you call it, did not, for the most part, know exactly what they wanted, or, when they did know, differed greatly as to the best way of obtaining it. In other words, they belonged to different political parties. Now, a party means organization; and every organization tends to become a mere machine in the hands of those who, for good or evil, have managed to get their hands on the controlling lever. The control of both political machines being, at that time, in the hands of men equally intent on selfish ends, the well-meaning citizen saw himself reduced to impotence between two gangs of corrupt schemers, who adroitly played into each other's hands.
"Besides these two sets of self-seekers, who were, perhaps, rather contemptuously indifferent to, than actively hostile to, morality, there existed a class, small, indeed, in numbers, but powerful for mischief from their loud shrieking and confident self-assertion. This was the new sect of the Phrasolators. Though loud in derision of all they termed superstition, i.e., any thing they did not choose to believe, they were themselves the abject slaves of a strange delusion. Having made to themselves a fine-sounding phrase, the more of a platitude the better, they would straightway fall down and worship it, and invite the work to do likewise.
