those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage. This text was popularized as part of a longer piece commenting on the 2000 U.S. presidential election, which began circulating on the Internet during or shortly after the election's controversial conclusion. There is no reliable record of Alexander Tytler's having written any part of the text. In fact, it actually comprises two parts which did not begin to appear together until the 1970s. The first paragraph's earliest known appearance is in an op-ed piece by Elmer T. Peterson in the 9 December 1951 The Daily Oklahoman, which attributed it to Tytler: Two centuries ago, a somewhat obscure Scotsman named Tytler made this profound observation: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy". The list beginning "From bondage to spiritual faith" is commonly known as the "Tytler Cycle" or the "Fatal Sequence". Its first known appearance was in a 1943 speech by Henning W. Prentiss, Jr., president of the Armstrong Cork Company and former president of the National Association of Manufacturers, delivered at the February 1943 convocation of the General Alumni Society of the University of Pennsylvania. The speech was subsequently published under the titles "The Cult of Competency" and "Industrial Management in a Republic". Works (1771). Piscatory Eclogues, with other Poetical Miscellanies of Phinehas Fletcher. (1778). The Decisions of the Court of Sessions, from its First Institution to the Present Time, supplementary volume to Lord Kames's Dictionary of Decisions. (1782). Plan and Outline of a Course of Lectures on Universal History. (1784). Essay on the Life and Character of Petrarch, with Translation of Seven Sonnets. (1788). Life and Writings of Dr John Gregory. (1791). Essay on the Principles of Translation. (1792). The Robbers: A Tragedy, translation of Schiller's Die Räuber. (1798). A Critical Examination of Mr. Whitaker's Course of Hannibal over the Alps.