beneath the sun, tortured by flies, you gather abundant crops. You
sleep in a hole. Others eat the corn you made grow, and sleep on
precious stuffs. You, you are forever drawing water from the Nile;
betwixt you and the ox they harness to another machine, there is no
difference, and yet you are a man. You, you are one of those who drag
great stones, to build the monuments of pride. You are a digger in the
tombs, you live a month or more without sight of day. To glorify the
death of others, you give your life. You are a trainer of lions for war;
your father was eaten--they would have wept had the lion died--How can
it be that you accept all this, when you see beside you happiness
without work, and abundance without effort? I will tell you. 'Tis
because, in the name of the god Ammon-Ra, they have said to you: "Have
patience, this injustice will last but a life-time." Fools! nothing but
that! All the time you are on earth, suffer, produce for others. Content
ye with hunger, you who produce food. Content ye with worse usage than
the swine, you who have guard of them. Content ye to sleep in the open,
you who build palaces and temples. Content ye with all miseries, you
carvers of gold, and setters of precious stones. Look without envy,
without anger, on the welfare of those who do nothing, all this will
last only the whole of your lives! After, in another world, you shall
have the fulness of all the crops, and the joy of all the pleasures.
Well, they lied to you: there is no island of souls, there are no happy
fields, there is no life of atonement after this. [_Loud murmurs_] They
have set up these gods for your servile adoration; they have counselled
you: "Bow down, these gods will avenge you." They have said: "Prostrate
yourselves, these gods are just." They have said: "Throw yourselves to
earth, these gods are good." They have declared them all powerful; shut
them in sanctuaries of awful gloom, whence you are shown them once a
year, to keep alive your terror of the Gods; and last, they have made
you believe no man may touch these images and live. I tell you they
lied--I will show you they lied to you. Behold the most mighty
Ammon--the father of the gods--I spit my hate at him! Thou art but an
idol; I curse thee for evil men have done in thy name! I curse thee in
the name of all the enslaved, in the name of all those they have cheated
with hopes of an avenging life; in the name of all who for thousands of
years have groaned an