as "The League of Peace," "The League for Combating Juvenile
Criminality," "The Society of the Friends of Man," and others. Besides,
at the request of the editor of one of the most widely read newspapers,
I am to begin next month a series of public lectures, for which purpose
I am going on a tour together with my kind impresario.

I have already prepared my material for the first three lectures and, in
the hope that my reader may be interested, I shall give the synopsis of
these lectures.

FIRST LECTURE

Chaos or order? The eternal struggle between chaos and order. The
eternal revolt and the defeat of chaos, the rebel. The triumph of law
and order.

SECOND LECTURE

What is the soul of man? The eternal conflict in the soul of man between
chaos, whence it came, and harmony, whither it strives irresistibly.
Falsehood, as the offspring of chaos, and Truth, as the child of
harmony. The triumph of truth and the downfall of falsehood.

THIRD LECTURE

THE EXPLANATION OF THE SACRED FORMULA OF THE IRON GRATE

As my indulgent reader will see, justice is after all not an empty
sound, and I am getting a great reward for my sufferings. But not daring
to reproach fate which was so merciful to me, I nevertheless do not feel
that sense of contentment which, it would seem, I ought to feel. True,
at first I was positively happy, but soon my habit for strictly
logical reasoning, the clearness and honesty of my views, gained by
contemplating the world through a mathematically correct grate, have led
me to a series of disillusions.

I am afraid to say it now with full certainty, but it seems to me that
all their life of this so-called freedom is a continuous self-deception
and falsehood. The life of each of these people, whom I have seen during
these days, is moving in a strictly defined circle, which is just as
solid as the corridors of our prison, just as closed as the dial of the
watches which they, in the innocence of their mind, lift every minute to
their eyes, not understanding the fatal meaning of the eternally moving
hand, which is eternally returning to its place, and each of them feels
this, even as the circus horse probably feels it, but in a state of
strange blindness each one assures us that he is perfectly free
and moving forward. Like the stupid bird which is beating itself to
exhaustion against the transparent glass obstacle, without understanding
what it is that obstructs its way, these people are helplessly b