Let your own happiness be your only law. But, in order to get this law recognized, and to bring about the proper relations which should exist between the majority and minority of mankind, you must destroy everything which exists in the shape of state or social organization. So educate yourselves and your children that, when the great moment for constituting the new world arrives, your eyes may not be blinded and deceived by the falsehoods of the tyrants of throne and altar.

Our first work must be destruction and annihilation of everything as it now exists. You must accustom yourselves to destroy everything, the good with the bad; for, if but an atom of this old world remains, the new will never be created.

According to the priests' fables, in days of old a deluge destroyed all mankind, but their God specially saved Noah in order that the seeds of tyranny and falsehood might be perpetuated in the new world. When you once begin your work of destruction, and when the floods of enslaved masses of the people rise and ingulf temples and palaces, then take heed that no ark be allowed to rescue any atom of this old world which we consecrate to destruction.

support and education. Then grant to all grownup people the same social standing and the same means of supplying their wants by their own labor, and you will see that the inequalities, which are now looked upon as being quite normal, will disappear, for they are merely the result of the difference made in the conditions of development. You can even improve nature by destroying the present social organization. For, when you have succeeded in making everything and everybody equal, when you have equalized all the conditions of development and labor, then many crimes, miseries, and evils, will disappear.

After proceeding to advocate the abolition of marriage, which he condemns as a mere political and religious institution, he concludes by saying:

It is impossible to destroy the superstition of religion by means of arguments or education. Religion is not only an aberration of the brain, but also a protest of human nature and human hearts against the misery and narrowness of the reality by which we are surrounded. As man finds nothing in this world but injustice, stupidity, and misery, he allows

Your beautiful civilization, ye gentlemen of the West, which you flout in the faces of us barbarians of the East, is based on the compulsory servitude of the immense majority of the human race, which is condemned to a slavish and almost bestial existence, in order that a very small minority may be able to live in luxury. This monstrous inequality in the conditions of life is due to your West-European system. It is incapable of improvement, for it is the necessary consequence of your civilization, which is grounded on the sharply defined separation existing between mental and manual labor. This degrading state of things can not last much longer, for the manual laborers are determined to look after their own

interests in future. They have decided that in future there shall be only one great class instead of two; that everybody shall have equal advantages for starting in life; that all shall enjoy the same privileges and support, the same means of education and bringing up; finally, that every one shall have the same advantages from his labor, not in consequence of any law, but by the mere nature of the work which will permit everybody to labor with his brain as well as with his hands.

I detest Communism; it is the denial of freedom, and I do not like to picture to myself any human being without freedom. I oppose it because it concentrates and absorbs all the forces of society, and because it places all property and capital in the hands of the commune or of the state. In demanding the abolition of commune and state, I also wish for the annulment of the law of inheritance, which is nothing but an institution brought into life by the state, and a consequence of its principles. Give all children, from their very birth, the same means of

When, however, the earth again receives her due, namely, happiness and fraternity, then religion will have lost its raison d'être. We need but a social revolution to bring about its disappearance.

And again:

Conscience is a mere matter of education. A Christian living in Europe, who has murdered anybody with cunning and premeditation, usually experiences a certain kind of remorse. But a Red Indian, who is every bit as much a man of flesh and blood, rejoices when he is able to surprise and slay a defenseless enemy. His conscience in no wise suffers from the act, for he has been taught from earliest youth that the more scalps he possesses, the better he will be received in the happy hunting-grounds of the great Manitou.

The speech of another Nihilist is as follows:

Nothing, in the present state of social organization, can be worth much, for the simple reason that our ancestors instituted it. If we are still obliged to confess ourselves ignorant of the exact medium between good and evil, how could our ancestors, less enlightened than we, know it? A German philosopher has said: "Every law is of use. It rules the conduct of individuals who feel for one another and appreciate their respective wants. Every religion, on the other hand, is useless; for, ruling, as it does, our relations with an incommensurable and indefinite Being, it can only be the result of a great terror, or else of a fantastic imagination." Now, we Nihilists say, no law, no religion-Nihil! The very men who instituted these laws ruling their fellow creatures have lived and died in complete ignorance of the value of their own acts, and without knowing

in the least how they had accomplished the mission traced for them by destiny at the moment of their birth. Even taking it for granted that our ancestors were competent to order the acts of their fellow creatures, does it necessarily follow that the require ments of their time are similar to those of to-day? Evidently not. Let us, then, cast off this garment of law, for it has not been made according to our measure, and it impedes our free movements. Hither with the axe, and let us demolish everything. Those who come after us will know how to rebuild an edifice quite as solid as that which we now feel trembling over our heads.

In another speech it is asserted that the deeds of political assassins and incendiaries are not the offspring of any sentiment of personal hatred or vengeance. They know full well that one emperor killed will merely be succeeded by another, who in his turn will again nominate the chiefs of police, and of the Third Section. Such deeds are justified by the necessity of rooting out from men's minds the habitual respect for the powers that be. The more the attacks on the Czar and his officials increase, the more will the people get to understand the absurdity of the veneration with which they have been regarded for centuries.

When it becomes evident that a person can not be more severely punished for the assassination of his sovereign than for the murder of a mere comrade, then the people will comprehend that it is quite as just to kill a man guilty of the abuse of power as to execute a poor beggar who has been tempted by hunger to commit murder. Society of to-day, gangrened though it be, has, to a certain extent, understood this, for Damiens-executions are things of the past, and in all legislations regicide is now assimilated to mere homicide. And how many are the murders and incendiarisms nowadays which remain unpunished! Soon we shall see the authors of these so-called crimes enjoying the greatest consideration among us. The old world will have had its time. On its ruins the poor and oppressed will take each other by the hand, and the true disciples of Christ, that grand Nihilist, will smile when they remember the parable of the poor man in Abraham's bosom refusing a drop of water to the rich man in hell, and saying, "Thou hast had thy time, now it is mine!"

Then there will arise a new generation, generous-hearted and independent, and all mankind will be happy; until the time when, like the fabulous phoenix, the spirit of evil will arise again from the

ashes of the old world. The children of our children will be forced to begin our work anew; but the evils of the future will be of a less monstrous nature than those which we now deplore, just as these in their turn are less crying and odious than those to which our ancestors were subjected. And thus, from struggle to struggle, and after centuries of combat, mankind will finally attain perfection, and become what

is called God. To arms, then, brethren, and follow me to the conquest of the Godhead.

In March, 1876, several Nihilist proclamations, on their way to Russia, were seized by the Prussian authorities at Königsberg. Paragraph sixteen of one of the documents in question ran thus:

You should only allow yourselves to be influenced (in the selection of your victims) by the relative use which the revolution would derive from the death of any particular person. In the foremost rank of such cases stand those people who are most dangerous and injurious to our organization, and whose sudden and violent death would have the effect of terrifying the Government, and shaking its power by robbing it of energetic and intelligent servants.

SECTION 23. The only revolution which can remedy the ills of the people is that which will tear up every notion of government by its very roots, and which will upset all ranks of the Russian Empire with all their traditions.

SEC. 24. Having this object in view, the Revolutionary Committee does not propose to subject the people to any directing organization. The future order of things will doubtless originate with the people themselves; but we must leave that to future generations. Our mission is only one of universal, relentless, and terror-striking destruction.

SEC. 26. The object of our organization and of our conspiracy is to concentrate all the forces of this world into an invincible and all-destroying power.

Among the papers found on the Nihilist Lieutenant Dubrowin, who was hanged at St. Petersburg in May last for his association with the regicide Solowjew, were two letters of some importance. The first, addressed to Nihilist officers in the Russian army, contains the following passage: "Our battalions are numerically so weak, and our enemies, on the other hand, are so mighty, that we are morally justified in making use of all attainable methods of proceeding which may enable us to carry on successfully active hostilities wheresoever it may become expedient."

The second letter, dated December, 1878, is addressed to Russian revolutionists, and is as follows: "The object of our letter is to communicate to Russian revolutionists certain experiences which, according to our ideas, are necessary for the organization of armed resistance to the Bashi-Bazouks of the police, and which, moreover, are indispensable to all those measures which social revolutionists must adopt in order to realize the ideas of the revolution. Unfortunately, the Russian Nihilists have not the revolutionary experience which the Overthrow party of other more favored countries possess," etc.

We have spoken of Bakunin as the founder

of this doctrine of universal chaos; we must not omit to speak also of M. Tschernyschewsky, who has done more than any one else to propagate it in Russia. Formerly editor of a monthly review called the "Sowremennik," which was suppressed in 1862 on account of its radicalism, he was sentenced in 1864 to sixteen years' penal servitude in Siberia for having propagated revolutionary doctrines. This he had chiefly effected by means of a novel which he had written, entitled "What is to be done?" and which, although strictly forbidden in Russia, has been printed both at Berlin and in Switzerland. This book has been described as being not only the encyclopædia, the dictionary of Nihilism, but also as a guide to the practical application of the new doctrine. In its characters Nihilist principles are personified, and examples given as to the means to be employed for their realization. We are shown the ideal of a future state of society, absolutely free from all law and control.

The aim of the author, as stated in the preface, is to increase the type of people which he describes, and it must be acknowledged that his teaching seems too well calculated to effect his object among those prepared to receive it. Twenty or even sixteen years ago Nihilism was comparatively rare in Russia, whereas to-day it has spread throughout the empire. Notwithstanding that the book is strictly forbidden in Russia, we are confidently assured that there is hardly a student of either sex at the universities and colleges who has not read, and almost learned by heart, this most baneful piece of literature.

The first Nihilist with whom we have to deal in the novel is a poor medical student of the name of Alexander who "finds it cheaper to get drunk than to eat or dress himself decently." In illustration of his faithfulness to Nihilistic principles we are favored with the particulars of an intrigue with a rich danseuse, which lasted a fortnight, at the end of which she becomes tired of him and turns him out of the house.

We next find him giving lessons to the son of a government clerk, who manages to combine the business of a pawnbroker with his official functions. Finding that the pawnbroker has a pretty daughter of rather an independent character, named Vera, he first of all converts her to Nihilism by means of conversations and books, and then persuades her to make a runaway match with him "in order to escape from the authority of her parents." The success of their plans of elopement was partly due to the friendly services of a Madame Julie Letellier, one of the most notorious lionnes of St. Petersburg, "whose language was such that it caused even the greatest polissons of the upper classes to blush." At a breakfast given by this lady to the newly married

couple, both the hostess and her two guests drink so much champagne that they all become quite tipsy. Julie, remembering that Vera was now a married woman, judged that it was no longer necessary to be guarded in her conversation, and ended by enthusiastically describing orgies in the most licentious of colors. "Suddenly Julie arose from the table and pinched Vera, who quickly rose in her turn and pursued her friend all through the rooms, jumping over chairs and tables." Having finally succeeded in catching Julie, a struggle ensues, which ends by the two women falling down together in a drunken sleep on the sofa, while Alexander also falls asleep in another corner of the room.

A month or two later Vera takes it into her head to earn her own living; accordingly she sets up a dressmaking business under the immediate patronage of Julie and her friends. Twenty young needlewomen belong to this establishment, which is conducted according to Nihilist notions. At the end of every month the net profits are equally divided among all the members, Vera merely taking her share with the rest. The young women all live in the same house and take their meals together; in this manner they are able to economize a great deal by buying all their provisions and necessaries at wholesale prices. They appear to have possessed everything in common and to have contented themselves with little, for M. Tschernyschewsky expressly informs us that the twenty young ladies only had five umbrellas among them. The financial success of the undertaking is so great that we actually find the girls at a loss how to invest their earnings profitably. Taking advantage, however, of Vera's experience in the matter, they use their money to set up a pawnbroker's business in connection with the dressmaking establishment. The author does not inform us whether the pawnbroking is also conducted according to Nihilistic principles.

About a year after their marriage a third Nihilist makes his appearance on the scene. He is a medical student named Kirsanoff. We are informed that he is exceedingly clever, that he had thoroughly mastered the French language by reading through eight times a French version of the New Testament, " a well-known book "; and finally that he had written a treatise on physiology which "even the great Claude Bernard of Paris had alluded to in terms of respect." In the same manner as Alexander is distinguished for perseverance, so is Kirsanoff remarkable for his kindness of heart, of which the following instance is given: Having fallen in love with a grisette, of notoriously drunken habits, he allowed her to come and live with him as soon as she had earned a sufficient sum of money by her vile trade

to pay for a proper outfit. However, drunkenness and debauchery bring on consumption, and she dies shortly after the marriage of Alexander and Vera.

Before proceeding any further the author takes great pains to assure us that Vera, Alexander, and Kirsanoff are persons of the most irreproachable and elevated character, and that their hearts only beat with generous impulses. To illustrate this he goes on to cause Kirsanoff to fall in love with Vera, who, "having now developed into a full-grown woman," returns Kirsanoff's affection, and has no hesitation in telling her husband all about it. The latter is not in the least offended by the news. Far from it! No, after devoting half an hour to considering the matter, he goes to see his friend Kirsanoff, informs him of what Vera had told him, and ends by inviting him to come and live with them, so as to make matters quite nice and comfortable. We are not to feel surprised at this proposal, for Alexander is one of those people who consider that "a man of intellect should not allow himself to be subject to jealousy. It is a false, unnatural, and altogether abominable sentiment, a mere phenomenon of the present order of things, according to which I ought to allow nobody to wear my linen or to smoke my pipe. It is the unfortunate result of a person's considering his helpmate in the light of private ownership." And again, à propos of the same subject, "can contraband be considered as a good thing? Isn't it much better to do things openly and aboveboard? In trying to hide matters we are forced to make use of falsehoods and all kinds of deceptions, and then, and then only, we become bad."

However, Kirsanoff declines Alexander's invitation on the ground that, although a ménage à trois would be quite in accordance with Nihilist notions, yet that people in general were still too old-fashioned and conservative in their prejudices to approve of such a proceeding. Vera also declines the proposed arrangement. But we must not do her the injustice of attributing her refusal to any false feelings of womanly shame. She distinctly states that "if a husband continues to live with his wife, there can be no cause for scandal, no matter what her relations with any other man may be." She merely refuses because, being under obligations to Alexander for having rendered her independent of the authority of her parents, his continued presence would become irksome to her. Accordingly, Alexander disappears, and is reported to have committed suicide by drowning. On the following day, however, Vera and Kirsanoff receive a letter from him, informing them that under cover of this report he had secretly embarked for the United States. Kirsanoff, having obtained the

necessary papers certifying his friend's death, marries Vera a fortnight later. They live happily, and carry on a most friendly correspondence with Alexander.

Some time after her second marriage, Vera discards dressmaking, and begins to study medicine under the auspices of Kirsanoff, who has now become a professor of it. We are told that she showed a special predilection for the study of anatomy, and the author warmly recommends this kind of occupation to his lady readers.

Two years later Alexander returns from the United States and settles down at St. Petersburg under the assumed name of Charles Belmont. He is now a naturalized American subject, and the agent of a great New York tallow company. Making the acquaintance of a friend of Vera's, named Katia, he converts her to Nihilism, and confides to her his true history, which, however, in no wise shocks her, for she readily consents to become his wife. A few days before their marriage they go together to see Kirsanoff and Vera, and the meeting is described as being of a most affectionate nature. Soon afterward the soi-disant Charles Belmont takes his wife to live in the same house with the Kirsanoffs, with whom they continue on terms of the warmest friendship. According to the author, they now become the center of a choice and intellectual circle of friends. The entertainments which take place at their house are minutely described.

Having frequently commended the elevated characters of Vera, Alexander, and Kirsanoff, M. Tschernyschewsky toward the end of his book becomes afraid that we should despair of ever attaining a similar degree of excellence. Accordingly, he assures us that his three friends are the most ordinary Nihilists in the world, and that with very little trouble we may become like them. In order to prove the truth of his assertion, he is good enough to introduce us, before leaving him, to a most superior kind of Nihilist, the quintessence of the new doctrine personified, whose name is Rakhmetoff.

Rakhmetoff, we are told, belongs to an old boyard family and is very wealthy. At the age of sixteen he is obliged to leave home because he has fallen in love with a woman to whom his father was attached, so he comes to St. Petersburg to study at the university. He soon makes the acquaintance of some students, who provide him with Nihilist literature. Thanks partly to the books and chiefly to his friendship and intimate communion with M. Tschernyschewsky himself, Rakhmetoff rapidly attains a degree of Nihilistic excellence which it is useless for us to strive to equal. He now reads but very few books, and only deigns to associate with men who are known to exercise influence on their

fellow creatures. After the perusal of three or four pages of Macaulay's works he throws them down in disgust, calling them a mere bundle of old rags. Nor are Stuart Mill, Adam Smith, and other writers on political economy better treated by this extraordinary youth. We are somewhat relieved, however, to learn that Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" finds favor in his sight.

At the age of eighteen he deems that it is "necessary" that he should cultivate his physical strength, for what reason we are not informed. Accordingly, he declines all food excepting raw beefsteaks and apples, "though he eats oranges when at St. Petersburg because the lower classes of that city also eat them."

Leaving the university before he had completed his studies, he travels through the country as a common laborer, working at the anvil, at road-making, wood-cutting, and all other work calculated to develop the muscles; his favorite occupation being to tow barges up the river. His strength soon becomes so great that he is able to stop a runaway horse and carriage by merely seizing hold of the axletree of the latter. His amusements are of an eccentric nature. One morning he is found lying on a bed composed of inch-long nails pointed upward, and covered with blood. In reply to inquiries, he only vouchsafes to state that it is necessary that he should know whether he could support pain. A little later he leaves Russia, telling his friends that he had done all he can to propagate the new doctrines there, and that now it is necessary that he should make himself acquainted with the various customs and social organizations of other countries. After this we hear no more of him.

M. Tschernyschewsky concludes by regret ting that there are but very few people as highminded as Rakhmetoff, and says that he has known but eight persons who could be compared to him, and that two of these were women.

II.

To Western Europeans it is almost utterly incomprehensible how thousands of human beings can entertain such notions as have now been quoted, and, above all, how they can have been adopted to such an extent as to form a menace to the Government.

In order to understand, in any measure, their ready acceptance in Russia, we must take the character of the people into consideration.

Their most prominent features are superficiality and sensuality. The Russian is the obedient servant of his senses, and is entirely governed by the impressions which his eyes and ears convey to him. He does everything on the impulse of the moment: he laughs with the merry, weeps with the sad, becomes as kindly and gen

erous to misfortune and misery when they are brought before his eyes as he is cold and indifferent to them at a distance. He is honest with the honest, but readily falls into the ways of thieves when he finds himself in their company. Credulous and full of phantasies, which rapidly flame up and are just as quickly extinguished, all the qualities necessary for steadfastness of purpose are entirely wanting in him. The abstract principles of right and wrong but feebly influence his actions. On the other hand, he is all the more ready to pursue the shadows of principles, and to cling to any theories which the wind of the day may have blown across his path. The more glittering, the more plausible, the more unsubstantial they are, the more likely are they to carry him away. Without philosophical profundity, he nevertheless possesses considerable ingenuity; hence he is too ready to be seduced by specious arguments, and to accept the logical conclusions of premises which he has never duly examined.

The

Another fact must also be remarked. The Russians have no political history. Until quite recently they were subject to an autocracy which repressed any expression whatever of opinion concerning the Government. All power was concentrated in the hands of the Czar, and administered by an immense bureaucracy. public discussion of political and administrative questions was forbidden or jealously restricted. Political education under such a condition of things was impossible. Political character is the outcome of political strife in the forum and in the press. It is the political life of a nation which alone can furnish the individual with political character; and there is no such life in Russia. Until the present generation there was no regular organization of classes in Russia; everybody was equally subject to the will and pleasure of the Czar.

Having, therefore, no political experience, the Russian people were ill prepared for the reforms which ushered in the comparatively liberal era of the present Emperor's reign. In quick succession serfdom was abolished, trial by jury and the English system of judicial proceedings introduced, provincial, district, and municipal assemblies instituted, and liberty of the press granted in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

In addition to all these things the construction of an immense network of railways opened up communication with foreign countries, and admitted the influx of the political ideas of Western Europe. The abolition of serfdom introduced the principles of liberty and legal equality; the new provincial, district, and municipal assemblies introduced those of self-government; while the liberty of the press carried with it the