Poland of To-Day and Yesterday: A Review of Its History, Past and Present, and of the Causes Which Resulted in Its Partition, Together With a Survey ... Economic Conditions To-Day (Classic Reprint)

The doctrine of individualism has many adherents to-day, and its numbers seem to be on the increase. These devotees believe, or claim to believe, that the absolute freedom of action of the individual is of more importance than the welfare of organized society. To this school of sentimentalists the author would recommend a study of Poland and the causes that led to her downfall. Individualism had been developed in Poland to the highest degree among those representing the privileged classes. Although the nobles did not number one-twentieth of the total population, they assumed to themselves all the prerogatives of government and ignored the claims of the great majority. All of the Poles were brave and lovers of liberty, but the nobles would brook no interference with their freedom of action as individuals. The rule of the majority was abrogated in all their legislative bodies. A single protesting negative could stop all governmental machinery. Many of the powerful nobles were unwilling to bow to the will of a majority running into the thousands such yielding was considered base and ignoble.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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