ell?"

"H'm. If the Babylon out there really does fall, and great will be the
fall thereof (about which I quite agree with you, yet I think it will
last my time), there's nothing to fall here in Russia, comparatively
speaking. There won't be stones to fall, everything will crumble into
dirt. Holy Russia has less power of resistance than anything in the
world. The Russian peasantry is still held together somehow by the
Russian God; but according to the latest accounts the Russian God is not
to be relied upon, and scarcely survived the emancipation; it certainly
gave Him a severe shock. And now, what with railways, what with you...
I've no faith in the Russian God."

"And how about the European one?"

"I don't believe in any. I've been slandered to the youth of Russia.
I've always sympathised with every movement among them. I was shown the
manifestoes here. Every one looks at them with perplexity because they
are frightened at the way things are put in them, but every one is
convinced of their power even if they don't admit it to themselves.
Everybody has been rolling downhill, and every one has known for ages
that they have nothing to clutch at. I am persuaded of the success of
this mysterious propaganda, if only because Russia is now pre-eminently
the place in all the world where anything you like may happen without
any opposition. I understand only too well why wealthy Russians all
flock abroad, and more and more so every year. It's simply instinct. If
the ship is sinking, the rats are the first to leave it. Holy Russia is
a country of wood, of poverty... and of danger, the country of ambitious
beggars in its upper classes, while the immense majority live in poky
little huts. She will be glad of any way of escape; you have only to
present it to her. It's only the government that still means to
resist, but it brandishes its cudgel in the dark and hits its own men.
Everything here is doomed and awaiting the end. Russia as she is has no
future. I have become a German and I am proud of it."

"But you began about the manifestoes. Tell me everything; how do you
look at them?"

"Every one is afraid of them, so they must be influential. They openly
unmask what is false and prove that there is nothing to lay hold of
among us, and nothing to lean upon. They speak aloud while all is
silent. What is most effective about them (in spite of their style) is
the incredible boldness with which they look the truth straight in the
f