earth, naked man, naked as his mother bore him. No breeches
on him, no orders, no pockets, nothing. Imagine men without pockets.
Queer, isn't it? Yes indeed, brother, the ikon is only the beginning.

KONDRATY

Oh, they'll make new ones.

SAVVA

But they won't be the same as before. And they'll never forget this
much--that dynamite is mightier than their God, and that man is
mightier than dynamite. Look at them; see them yonder praying and
kneeling, not daring to raise their heads and look you straight in the
face, mean slaves that they are! Then comes a real man, and smash goes
the whole humbug. Done for!

KONDRATY

Really!

SAVVA

And when a dozen of their idols have gone the same way, the slaves
will begin to understand that the kingdom of their God is at an end,
and that the kingdom of man has come. Lots of them will drop from
sheer terror. Some will lose their wits, and others will throw
themselves into the fire. They'll say that Antichrist has come. Think
of it, Kondraty!

KONDRATY

And aren't you sorry for them?

SAVVA

Sorry for them? Why, they built a prison for me, and I am to be sorry
for them. They put me in a torture chamber, and I am to be sorry for
them. Bah!

KONDRATY

Who are you to be above pity?

SAVVA

I? I am a man who have been born. And having been born, I began to
look about. I saw churches and penitentiaries. I saw universities and
houses of prostitution. I saw factories and picture galleries. I saw
palaces and filthy dens. I calculated the number of prisons there are
to each gallery, and I resolved that the whole edifice must go, the
whole of it must be overturned, annihilated. And we are going to do
it. Our day of reckoning has come. It is time.

KONDRATY

Who are "we"?

SAVVA

I, you Kondraty, and others.

KONDRATY

The people are stupid. They won't understand.

SAVVA

When the conflagration rages all around them, they will understand.
Fire is a good teacher, old boy. Have you ever heard of Raphael?

KONDRATY

No, I haven't.

SAVVA

Well, when we are through with God, we'll go for fellows like him.
There are lots of them--Titian, Shakespeare, Byron. We'll make a nice
pile of the whole lot and pour oil over it. Then we'll burn their
cities.

KONDRATY

Now, now you are joking. How is that possible? How can you burn the
cities?

SAVVA

No, why should I be joking? All the cities. Look here, what are their
cities? Graves, stone graves. And if yo