"Which capitalism has always made possible. Curb it, yes; but abolish

it, as you have done in unhappy Russia! Why do you starve there?

Poor fool, because you have assassinated those forces which created

food--that is to say, put it where you could get it. Three quarters of

Russia are against you. You read nothing in that? The efficient and the

inefficient, they shall lie down together as the lion and the ass,

to paraphrase. They shall become equal because you say so. What is,

fundamentally, this Bolshevism? The revolt of the inefficient. The

mantle of horror that was Germany's you have torn from her shoulders and

thrown upon yours. Fools!"

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The anarch's huge fists became knotted; wrinkles corrugated his

forehead; but he did not stir. Gregor wanted to die.

Gregor pointed with trembling hand toward the brown litter on the table.

"To destroy. You shattered a soul there. You tore mine apart when

you did it. For what? To better humanity? No; to rend something, to

obliterate something that was beautiful. Demolition. Go on. You will

tear and rend until exhaustion comes, then some citizen king, some

headstrong Napoleon, will step in. The French Revolution taught you

nothing. You play 'The Marseillaise' in the Neva Prospekt and miss the

significance of that song. Liberty? You choose license. Equality? You

deny it in your acts. Fraternity? You slaughter your brothers."

"Be silent!" roared Karlov, wavering.

But Gregor continued with a new-found hope. He saw that his jeers

were wearing down the other's control. Perhaps the weak side was the

political. Karlov was a fanatic. There might yet be death in those

straining fingers.

"To seize by confiscation, without justice, indiscriminately all that

the group efficient laboriously constructed. I enter your house, kill

your family and steal your silver. Are your acts fundamentally different

from mine? Remember, I am speaking from the point of view as three

quarters of Russia see it, and all the other civilized nations. There

may be something magnificent in that soviet constitution of yours; but

you have deluged it in blood and folly. Ostensibly you are dividing up

the great estates, but actually you are parcelling them out and charging

rent. You will not own anything. The state shall own all the property.

What will be the patriotism of the man who has nothing? Why defend

something that is only his government's, not his own? You are legalizing

women as cows. The sense of motherhood will vanish when a woman may not

select her mate. What is the greatest thing in the world? The human need

of possession. To own something, however little. The spur of creative

genius. Human beings will never be equal except in lawful privileges.

The skillful will outpace the unskillful; the thrifty will take from

the improvident; genius will overtop mediocrity. And you will change all

this with a scrape of your bloody pen!"




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