They had the votes and the power to do so if they pleased, and their leaders meant they should.

Some of these desponding observers went so far as to predict an impending social cataclysm.

Humanity, they argued, having climbed to the top round of the ladder of civilization, was about to take a header into chaos, after which it would doubtless pick itself up, turn round, and begin to climb again.

Repeated experiences of this sort in historic and prehistoric times possibly accounted for the puzzling bumps on the human cranium.

Human history, like all great movements, was cyclical, and returned to the point of beginning.