able to try. I would have had to be eternally ashamed of myself if I had not accepted the call that was made upon me, and if I had not attempted to avert the catastrophe which I had clearly anticipated. Hungary, which contained only a weak social democratic element, and which was really thoroughly royalistic, and Austria, which worshipped the dynasty and was terrified by any violent action, could have resisted a revolution more successfully than any other country in the world. But under the weight of the old and new mistakes which had been committed on all sides, it was the passing whim of the mob that became master of the situation and buried alike the glorious Hungarian kingdom that had existed for 900 years and the proud creation of the Habsburgs.
The French revolution was brought about because the social element which should actually have taken the lead, because it commanded superior brains and the preponderance of property, wanted to obtain the upper hand legally as well as morally. The middle classes, which had been repressed, wanted to place themselves in the position of the nobility, and they wanted to realize those principles which were in direct opposition to the lawful circumstances, and which had been applied in England and America for a long time, and which were demanded by the whole of the French intelligentsia. The destructive aims of the revolution had therefore to be followed by a constructive era. The powerful tyranny of French society and of the French State was shaken, but only to fall from its summit upon its broad foundations.
