Volney’s Ruins was published in cheap pocketbook form and remained in the libraries of many artisans in the 19th century. Its fifteenth chapter, the vision of a “New Age”, was frequently circulated as a tract. In this the narrator sees a civilised nation determined to divide itself into two groups: those who “by useful labours contribute to the support and maintenance of society”, on the one hand, and their enemies, on the other.
