the heart of the anarchist. He was a son-in-law and a
disciple of William Godwin, one of the fathers of anarchism. "Prometheus
Unbound," "The Revolt of Islam," and "The Mask of Anarchy," are
expressions of the very soul of Godwin's philosophy. Shelley was
"cradled into poetry by wrong," as a multitude of other unhappy men are
cradled into terrorism by wrong. He was "as a nerve o'er which do creep
the else unfelt oppressions of this earth," and he "could moan for woes
which others hear not." He, too, "could ... with the poor and trampled
sit and weep."[5] There is in nearly all anarchists this
supersensitiveness, this hyperaesthesia that leads to ecstasy, to
hysteria, and to fanaticism. It is a neuropathy that has led certain
scientists, like Lombroso and Krafft-Ebbing, to suggest that some
anarchist crimes can only be looked upon as a means to indirect suicide.
They are outbursts that lead to a spectacular martyr-like ending to
brains that "too much thought expands," to hearts overladen, and to
nerves all unstrung. Life is a burden to them, though they lack the
courage to commit suicide directly. Such is the view of these students
of criminal pathology, and they cite a long list of political criminals
who can only be explained as those who have sought indirectly
self-destruction. It is a type of insanity that leads to acts which seem
sublime to others in a state of like torture both of mind and of nerves.

This explains no doubt the acts of some terrorists, and at the same time
it condemns the present attitude of society toward the terrorist. Think
of hanging the tormented soul who could say as he was taken to the
gallows: "I went away from my native place because I was frequently
moved to tears at seeing little girls of eight or ten years obliged to
work fifteen hours a day for the paltry pay of twenty centimes. Young
women of eighteen or twenty also work fifteen hours daily for a mockery
of remuneration....

"I have observed that there are a great many people who are hungry, and
many children who suffer, while bread and clothes abound in the towns. I
saw many and large shops full of clothing and woolen stuffs, and I also
saw warehouses full of wheat and Indian corn, suitable for those who are
in want."[6] When such a tortured spirit is driven to homicide, how is
it possible for society to demand and take that life? Shall we admit
that there is a duel between society and these souls deranged by the
wrongs of society?