What was the old idea? The old idea was that no political power came
from, nor in any manner belonged to, the people. The old idea was that
the political power came from the clouds; that the political power came
in some miraculous way from heaven; that it came down to kings, and
queens, and robbers. That was the old idea. The nobles lived upon the
labor of the people; the people had no rights; the nobles stole what
they had and divided with the kings, and the kings pretended to divide
what they stole with God Almighty. The source, then, of political power
was from above. The people were responsible to the nobles, the nobles to
the king, and the people had no political rights whatever, no more than
the wild beasts of the forest. The kings were responsible to God, not to
the people. The kings were responsible to the clouds, not to the toiling
millions they robbed and plundered.