under a total eclipse of confusion and disillusionment, due mostly to the manifestation of a perverted "ism", which has darkened almost the entire horizon of the universe and which seeks to destroy ruthlessly all democratic principles based on truth & justice. This too, we hope, shall pass into oblivion.

*

By bringing to light again this important document we thought it might fill a gap long missed by students interested in libertarian subjects! and I am certain that a scholar like Dr. Paul Eltzbacher, who wrote his interesting work: "Anarchism" would have made good use of any of Josiah Warren's material, but unfortunately none was available in Europe or elsewhere, with the exception of U.S., where little, if any, can still be traced at some historical shrine. Apropos of this neglect by our librarians everywhere, I should like to quote a few lines from the Introduction to his great work on 'Anarchism': "At present there is the greatest lack of clear ideas about Anarchism and, that not only among the masses, but among scholars and statesmen..." and a little further in the same Introduction he says: "Anarchistic writings are very scantily represented in our public libraries. They are in part so rare that it is extremely difficult for an individual to acquire even the most prominent of them."

This was written about half a century ago; it is still considered by ardent followers of this philosophy as the most authentic and reliable study on this subject. There is an American edition of this work, published by Benjamin R. Tucker (1908), but it is long out of print.

As to Josiah Warren's own publications I like to quote here from another great scholar and bibliophile, Dr. Max Nettlau. The following is extracted from an unpublisheed letter addressed by him to Ewing C. Baskette, dated May 26, 1936, in which he mentions one of Warren's early publications: "The Peaceful Revolutionist' (1833):

"I should like to know who has ever seen it? If there is a copy anywhere it should be most-

[vii]