g the day on which Savva Tropinin
came to the earth!

LIPA

But what do you want? What do you want?

SAVVA

What do I want? To free the earth, to free mankind, to sweep the
whole two-legged, chattering tribe out of existence. Man--the man of
to-day--is wise. He has come to his senses. He is ripe for liberty.
But the past eats away his soul like a canker. It imprisons him within
the iron circle of things already accomplished, within the iron circle
of facts. I want to demolish the facts--that's what I want to
do: demolish all facts! To sweep away all the accumulated
rubbish--literature, art, God. They have perverted mankind. They have
immortalized stupidity. I want to do away with everything behind man,
so that there is nothing to see when he looks back. I want to take him
by the scruff of his neck and turn his face toward the future.

LIPA

Look here, Savva. You are not immortal, and the two-legged animal has
arms also.

SAVVA

Do you think I don't know that every one of these stupid asses would
be glad to kill me? But it won't happen, it won't happen. The time has
come for my arrival, and I have arrived. Prepare yourselves. The time
has come. You little insignificant thing there--you thought that by
stealing one little possibility away from me you could rob me of all?
Oh no--I am as rich as ever.

LIPA

I am your sister, but oh! how glad I am that you are not immortal.

SAVVA

I see that you are a thoroughgoing anarchist. They too think that all
is done if one man is killed. But if they kill me, hang me, break me
on the wheel, there will come another purer than I. Where there's an
itch, there is always somebody to scratch it! Yes, sister! If not I,
then someone else, and _(clenching his fist)_ it will fare ill with
your world.

LIPA

You are a terrible man. I thought you would be crushed by your
failure, but you are like Satan. The fall has only made you blacker.

SAVVA

Yes, Lipa, only a sparrow can fly straight up from the ground. A
large bird must descend to adjust and spread its wings for its upward
flight.

LIPA

Aren't you sorry for the children? Think of the number of children
that will have to perish.

SAVVA

What children? Oh yes, Misha. _(Tenderly)_ Misha is a fine boy,
that's true. When he grows up, he will show you no mercy. Yes, the
children--You are beginning to be afraid of them, and you have good
reason for it. Never mind. It's true that I love children. _(With
pride)_ A