"The anarchists are ... a small but determined band. ... Although their programme may be found almost word for word in Proudhon, they profess to follow more closely Bakounine, the Russian nihilist, who separated himself from Marx and the Internationals, and formed secret societies in Spain, Switzerland, France, and elsewhere, and thus propagated nihilistic views; for anarchy and nihilism are pretty much one and the same thing when nihilism is understood in the older, stricter sense, which does not include, as it does in a larger and more modern sense, those who are simply political and constitutional reformers. Like prince Krapotkine, Bakounine came of an old and prominent Russian family; like him, he revolted against the cruelties and injustices he saw about him; like him, he despaired of peaceful reform, and concluded that no great improvement could be expected until all our present political, economic, and social institutions were so thoroughly demolished that of the old structure not one stone should be left on another. Out of the ruins a regenerated world might arise. We must be purged as by fire. Like all anarchists and true nihilists, he was a thorough pessimist, as far as our present manner of life was concerned. Reaction against conservatism carried him very far. He wished to abolish private property, state, and inheritance. Equality is to be carried so far that all must wear the same kind of clothing, no difference being made even for sex. Religion is an aberration of the brain, and should be abolished. Fire, dynamite, and assassination are approved of by at least a large number of the party. They are brave men, and fight for their faith with the devotion of martyrs. Imprisonment and death are counted but as rewards. ... Forty-seven anarchists signed a declaration of principles, which was read by one of their number at their trial at Lyons. ... 'We wish liberty [they declared] and we believe its existence incompatible with the existence of any power whatsoever, whatever its origin and form--whether it be selected or imposed, monarchical or republican--whether inspired by divine right or by popular right, by anointment or universal suffrage. ... The best governments are the worst. The substitution, in a word, in human relations, of free contract perpetually revisable and dissoluble, is our ideal.'" _H. T. Ely, French and German Socialism in Modern Times, chapter 8._