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Microsoft®
2019
Office 365 ®
Edition
INTRODUCTORY
(ex •ploring)
1. Investigating in a systematic way: examining
2. Searching into or ranging over for the purpose of discovery
GLOSSARY 1074
INDEX 1085
viii Contents
CHAPTER TWO Document Presentation: Editing and Formatting 128
CASE STUDY PHILLIPS STUDIO L PHOTOGRAPHY 128 HANDS-ON EXERCISE 3 174
TEXT AND PARAGRAPH FORMATTING 130 CHAPTER OBJECTIVES REVIEW 180
Applying Font Attributes 130 KEY TERMS MATCHING 181
Formatting a Paragraph 134 MULTIPLE CHOICE 182
HANDS-ON EXERCISE 1 144 PRACTICE EXERCISES 183
DOCUMENT APPEARANCE 149 MID-LEVEL EXERCISES 188
Formatting a Document 149 RUNNING CASE 190
Applying Styles 152 DISASTER RECOVERY 191
CAPSTONE EXERCISE 192
HANDS-ON EXERCISE 2 158
OBJECTS 164
Inserting and Formatting Objects 164
Contents ix
Microsoft Office Excel 2019
CHAPTER ONE Introduction to Excel: Creating and Formatting
a Worksheet 310
CASE STUDY CELEBRITY MUSICIAN’S SOUVENIR SHOP 310 HANDS-ON EXERCISE 4 355
INTRODUCTION TO SPREADSHEETS 312 WORKSHEET MANAGEMENT, PAGE SETUP, AND PRINTING 359
Exploring the Excel Window 312 Managing Worksheets 359
Entering and Editing Cell Data 316 Selecting Page Setup Options 362
HANDS-ON EXERCISE 1 323 Previewing and Printing a Worksheet 367
MATHEMATICAL OPERATIONS AND FORMULAS 327 HANDS-ON EXERCISE 5 368
Creating Formulas 327 CHAPTER OBJECTIVES REVIEW 373
HANDS-ON EXERCISE 2 331 KEY TERMS MATCHING 375
WORKSHEET STRUCTURE AND CLIPBOARD TASKS 334 MULTIPLE CHOICE 376
Managing Columns and Rows 334 PRACTICE EXERCISES 377
Selecting, Moving, Copying, and Pasting Data 338 MID-LEVEL EXERCISES 381
RUNNING CASE 383
HANDS-ON EXERCISE 3 343
DISASTER RECOVERY 384
WORKSHEET FORMATTING 349 CAPSTONE EXERCISE 385
Applying Cell Styles, Cell Alignment, and Font Options 349
Applying Number Formats 353
x Contents
CHAPTER FOUR Datasets and Tables: Managing Large Volumes of Data 490
CASE STUDY REID FURNITURE STORE 490 HANDS-ON EXERCISE 3 521
LARGE DATASETS 492 TABLE AGGREGATION AND CONDITIONAL FORMATTING 528
Freezing Rows and Columns 493 Adding a Total Row to a Table 528
Printing Large Datasets 494 Applying Conditional Formatting 530
HANDS-ON EXERCISE 1 497 Creating a New Conditional Formatting Rule 534
EXCEL TABLES 502 HANDS-ON EXERCISE 4 537
Exploring the Benefits of Data Tables 502 CHAPTER OBJECTIVES REVIEW 542
Designing and Creating Tables 502 KEY TERMS MATCHING 543
Applying a Table Style 506 MULTIPLE CHOICE 544
HANDS-ON EXERCISE 2 508 PRACTICE EXERCISES 545
TABLE MANIPULATION 513 MID-LEVEL EXERCISES 548
Creating Structured References in Formulas 513 RUNNING CASE 549
Sorting Data 514 DISASTER RECOVERY 550
Filtering Data 516 CAPSTONE EXERCISE 551
Contents xi
CHAPTER THREE uery Calculations and Expressions: Performing
Q
Calculations and Summarizing Data Using Queries 684
CASE STUDY REAL ESTATE INVESTORS 684 AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS 708
CALCULATED FIELDS AND EXPRESSIONS 686 Adding Aggregate Functions to Datasheets 708
Creating a Query with a Calculated Field 686 Creating Queries with Aggregate Functions 709
Formatting Calculated Results 691 HANDS-ON EXERCISE 3 714
Recovering from Common Errors 692
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES REVIEW 718
Verifying Calculated Results 693
KEY TERMS MATCHING 719
HANDS-ON EXERCISE 1 694 MULTIPLE CHOICE 720
THE EXPRESSION BUILDER AND FUNCTIONS 699 PRACTICE EXERCISES 721
Creating Expressions Using the Expression Builder 699 MID-LEVEL EXERCISES 724
Using Built-In Functions 700 RUNNING CASE 726
HANDS-ON EXERCISE 2 704 DISASTER RECOVERY 727
CAPSTONE EXERCISE 728
CHAPTER FOUR asic Forms and Reports: Simplifying Data Entry and
B
Producing Information 730
CASE STUDY COFFEE SHOP STARTS NEW BUSINESS 730 HANDS-ON EXERCISE 2 765
CREATE BASIC FORMS TO SIMPLIFY DATA MANAGEMENT 732 CHAPTER OBJECTIVES REVIEW 770
Creating Forms Using Form Tools 732 KEY TERMS MATCHING 772
Modifying Forms 740 MULTIPLE CHOICE 773
Using the Form Layout Control 743 PRACTICE EXERCISES 774
Sorting Records in a Form 745 MID-LEVEL EXERCISES 778
HANDS-ON EXERCISE 1 746 RUNNING CASE 780
CREATE BASIC REPORTS TO PRESENT INFORMATION 753 DISASTER RECOVERY 780
Creating Reports Using Report Tools 754 CAPSTONE EXERCISE 781
Using Report Views 759
Modifying a Report 760
Sorting and Grouping Records in a Report 763
xii Contents
CHAPTER TWO ffective Presentation Development: Enhancing a
E
Presentation with Design and Multimedia 842
CASE STUDY THE SUMMERFIELD MUSIC SCHOOL 842 VIDEO AND AUDIO 886
SLIDE SHOW DESIGN 844 Adding Video and Using Video Tools 886
Examining Slide Show Design Principles 844 Adding Audio and Using Audio Tools 892
HANDS-ON EXERCISE 1 850 HANDS-ON EXERCISE 4 896
SHAPES 853 CHAPTER OBJECTIVES REVIEW 901
Creating Shapes 853 KEY TERMS MATCHING 902
Formatting Shapes 857 MULTIPLE CHOICE 903
HANDS-ON EXERCISE 2 865 PRACTICE EXERCISES 904
MID-LEVEL EXERCISES 908
ANIMATIONS AND TRANSITIONS 870
RUNNING CASE 910
Applying Animation to Slide Content 870
DISASTER RECOVERY 911
Controlling Animation and Interactivity 875
CAPSTONE EXERCISE 912
HANDS-ON EXERCISE 3 879
Contents xiii
Application Capstone Exercises
Word Application Capstone Exercise 1044
Excel Application Capstone Exercise 1047
Access Application Capstone Exercise 1050
PowerPoint Application Capstone Exercise 1053
INDEX 1085
xiv Contents
Acknowledgments
The Exploring team would like to acknowledge and thank all the reviewers who helped us throughout the years by providing us with their
invaluable comments, suggestions, and constructive criticism.
Acknowledgments xv
Elaine Crable James Brown Ken Busbee
Xavier University Central Washington University Houston Community College
Elizabeth Duett James Powers Kent Foster
Delgado Community College University of Southern Indiana Winthrop University
Erhan Uskup Jane Stam Kevin Anderson
Houston Community College–Northwest Onondaga Community College Solano Community College
Eric Martin Janet Bringhurst Kim Wright
University of Tennessee Utah State University The University of Alabama
Erika Nadas Janice Potochney Kirk Atkinson
Wilbur Wright College Gateway Community College Western Kentucky University
Evelyn Schenk Jean Luoma Kristen Hockman
Saginaw Valley State University Davenport University University of Missouri–Columbia
Floyd Winters Jean Welsh Kristi Smith
Manatee Community College Lansing Community College Allegany College of Maryland
Frank Lucente Jeanette Dix Laura Marcoulides
Westmoreland County Community College Ivy Tech Community College Fullerton College
G. Jan Wilms Jennifer Day Laura McManamon
Union University Sinclair Community College University of Dayton
Gail Cope Jill Canine Laurence Boxer
Sinclair Community College Ivy Tech Community College Niagara University
Gary DeLorenzo Jill Young Leanne Chun
California University of Pennsylvania Southeast Missouri State University Leeward Community College
Gary Garrison Jim Chaffee Lee McClain
Belmont University The University of Iowa Tippie College of Western Washington University
Business Lewis Cappelli
Gary McFall
Purdue University Joanne Lazirko Hudson Valley Community College
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Linda D. Collins
George Cassidy
Sussex County Community College Jodi Milliner Mesa Community College
Kansas State University Linda Johnsonius
Gerald Braun
Xavier University John Hollenbeck Murray State University
Blue Ridge Community College Linda Lau
Gerald Burgess
Western New Mexico University John Meir Longwood University
Midlands Technical College Linda Theus
Gladys Swindler
Fort Hays State University John Nelson Jackson State Community College
Texas Christian University Linda Williams
Gurinder Mehta
Sam Houston State University John Seydel Marion Technical College
Arkansas State University Lisa Miller
Hector Frausto
California State University Los Angeles Judith A. Scheeren University of Central Oklahoma
Westmoreland County Community College Lister Horn
Heith Hennel
Valencia Community College Judith Brown Pensacola Junior College
The University of Memphis Lixin Tao
Henry Rudzinski
Central Connecticut State University Juliana Cypert Pace University
Tarrant County College Loraine Miller
Irene Joos
La Roche College Kamaljeet Sanghera Cayuga Community College
George Mason University Lori Kielty
Iwona Rusin
Baker College; Davenport University Karen Priestly Central Florida Community College
Northern Virginia Community College Lorna Wells
J. Roberto Guzman
San Diego Mesa College Karen Ravan Salt Lake Community College
Spartanburg Community College Lorraine Sauchin
Jacqueline D. Lawson
Henry Ford Community College Karen Tracey Duquesne University
Central Connecticut State University Lucy Parakhovnik
Jakie Brown, Jr.
Stevenson University Kathleen Brenan California State University–Northridge
Ashland University
xvi Acknowledgments
Lynn Baldwin Nancy Grant Robyn Barrett
Madison College Community College of Allegheny St. Louis Community College–Meramec
County–South Campus Rocky Belcher
Lynn Keane
University of South Carolina Nanette Lareau Sinclair Community College
University of Arkansas Community Roger Pick
Lynn Mancini
College–Morrilton University of Missouri at Kansas City
Delaware Technical Community
College Nikia Robinson Ronnie Creel
Indian River State University Troy University
Lynne Seal
Amarillo College Pam Brune Rosalie Westerberg
Chattanooga State Community College Clover Park Technical College
Mackinzee Escamilla
South Plains College Pam Uhlenkamp Ruth Neal
Iowa Central Community College Navarro College
Marcia Welch
Highline Community College Patrick Smith Sandra Thomas
Marshall Community and Technical College Troy University
Margaret McManus
Northwest Florida State College Paul Addison Sheila Gionfriddo
Ivy Tech Community College Luzerne County Community College
Margaret Warrick
Allan Hancock College Paul Hamilton Sherrie Geitgey
New Mexico State University Northwest State Community College
Marilyn Hibbert
Salt Lake Community College Paula Ruby Sherry Lenhart
Arkansas State University Terra Community College
Mark Choman
Luzerne County Community College Peggy Burrus Shohreh Hashemi
Red Rocks Community College University of Houston–Downtown
Mary Beth Tarver
Northwestern State University Peter Ross Sophia Wilberscheid
SUNY Albany Indian River State College
Mary Duncan
University of Missouri–St. Louis Philip H. Nielson Sophie Lee
Salt Lake Community College California State University–Long Beach
Maryann Clark
University of New Hampshire Philip Valvalides Stacy Johnson
Guilford Technical Community College Iowa Central Community College
Melissa Nemeth
Indiana University–Purdue University Ralph Hooper Stephanie Kramer
Indianapolis University of Alabama Northwest State Community College
Melody Alexander Ranette Halverson Stephen Z. Jourdan
Ball State University Midwestern State University Auburn University at Montgomery
Michael Douglas Richard Blamer Steven Schwarz
University of Arkansas at Little Rock John Carroll University Raritan Valley Community College
Michael Dunklebarger Richard Cacace Sue A. McCrory
Alamance Community College Pensacola Junior College Missouri State University
Michael G. Skaff Richard Hewer Sumathy Chandrashekar
College of the Sequoias Ferris State University Salisbury University
Michele Budnovitch Richard Sellers Susan Fuschetto
Pennsylvania College of Technology Hill College Cerritos College
Mike Jochen Rob Murray Susan Medlin
East Stroudsburg University Ivy Tech Community College UNC Charlotte
Mike Michaelson Robert Banta Susan N. Dozier
Palomar College Macomb Community College Tidewater Community College
Mike Scroggins Robert Dus˘ek Suzan Spitzberg
Missouri State University Northern Virginia Community College Oakton Community College
Mimi Spain Robert G. Phipps, Jr. Suzanne M. Jeska
Southern Maine Community College West Virginia University County College of Morris
Muhammed Badamas Robert Sindt Sven Aelterman
Morgan State University Johnson County Community College Troy University
NaLisa Brown Robert Warren Sy Hirsch
University of the Ozarks Delgado Community College Sacred Heart University
Acknowledgments xvii
Sylvia Brown Tommy Lu Wes Anthony
Midland College Delaware Technical Community College Houston Community College
Tanya Patrick Troy S. Cash William Ayen
Clackamas Community College Northwest Arkansas Community College University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Terri Holly Vicki Robertson Wilma Andrews
Indian River State College Southwest Tennessee Community Virginia Commonwealth University
Terry Ray Rigsby Vickie Pickett Yvonne Galusha
Hill College Midland College University of Iowa
Thomas Rienzo Vivianne Moore
Western Michigan University Davenport University
Tina Johnson Weifeng Chen
Midwestern State University California University of Pennsylvania
xviii Acknowledgments
Preface
Preface xix
Autograded Integrated Grader Projects: Based on the discipline-specific integrated projects, cover-
ing Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access in various combinations.
Final Solution Image: Included with Grader student downloads, final output images allows students
to visualize what their solution should look like.
Series Hallmarks
The How/Why Approach helps students move beyond the point and click to a true understanding of
how to apply Microsoft Office skills.
• White Pages/Yellow Pages clearly distinguish the theory (white pages) from the skills covered in the
Hands-On Exercises (yellow pages) so students always know what they are supposed to be doing and why.
• Case Study presents a scenario for the chapter, creating a story that ties the Hands-On Exercises
together and gives context to the skills being introduced.
• Hands-On Exercise Videos are tied to each Hands-On Exercise and walk students through the
steps of the exercise while weaving in conceptual information related to the Case Study and the
objectives as a whole.
An Outcomes focus allows students and instructors to know the higher-level learning goals and how
those are achieved through discreet objectives and skills.
• Outcomes presented at the beginning of each chapter identify the learning goals for students and
instructors.
• Enhanced Objective Mapping enables students to follow a directed path through each chapter,
from the objectives list at the chapter opener through the exercises at the end of the chapter.
• Objectives List: This provides a simple list of key objectives covered in the chapter. This includes
page numbers so students can skip between objectives where they feel they need the most help.
• Step Icons: These icons appear in the white pages and reference the step numbers in the Hands-
On Exercises, providing a correlation between the two so students can easily find conceptual help
when they are working hands-on and need a refresher.
• Quick Concepts Check: A series of questions that appear briefly at the end of each white
page section. These questions cover the most essential concepts in the white pages required for
students to be successful in working the Hands-On Exercises. Page numbers are included for easy
reference to help students locate the answers.
• Chapter Objectives Review: Located near the end of the chapter and reviews all important
concepts covered in the chapter. Designed in an easy-to-read bulleted format.
• MOS Certification Guide for instructors and students to direct anyone interested in prepping for
the MOS exam to the specific locations to find all content required for the test.
End-of-Chapter Exercises offer instructors several options for assessment. Each chapter has
approximately 11–12 exercises ranging from multiple choice questions to open-ended projects.
• Multiple Choice, Key Terms Matching, Practice Exercises, Mid-Level Exercises, Running
Case, Disaster Recovery, and Capstone Exercises are at the end of all chapters.
• Enhanced Mid-Level Exercises include a Creative Case (for PowerPoint and Word), which
allows students some flexibility and creativity, not being bound by a definitive solution, and an
Analysis Case (for Excel and Access), which requires students to interpret the data they are
using to answer an analytic question.
• Application Capstone exercises are included in the book to allow instructors to test students on
the contents of a single application.
xx Preface
The Exploring Series and MyLab IT
The Exploring Series has been a market leader for more than 20 years, with a hallmark focus on both the
how and why behind what students do within the Microsoft Office software. In this edition, the pairing of
the text with MyLab IT Simulations, Graders, Objective Quizzes, and Resources as a fully complementary
program allows students and instructors to get the very most out of their use of the Exploring Series.
To maximize student results, we recommend pairing the text content with MyLab IT, which is the teach-
ing and learning platform that empowers you to reach every student. By combining trusted author
content with digital tools and a flexible platform, MyLab personalizes the learning experience and helps
your students learn and retain key course concepts while developing skills that future employers are
seeking in their candidates.
Preface xxi
Application: How do I get students to apply
what they’ve learned in a meaningful way?
The Exploring Series and MyLab IT offer instructors the ability to provide students with authentic forma-
tive and summative assessments. The realistic and hi-fidelity simulations help students feel like they
are working in the real Microsoft applications and allow them to explore, use 96% of Microsoft methods,
and do so without penalty. The Grader projects allow students to gain real-world context as they work
live in the application, applying both an understanding of how and why to perform certain skills to com-
plete a project. New Critical Thinking quizzes require students to demonstrate their understanding
of why, by answering questions that force them to analyze and interpret the project they worked on to
answer a series of objective questions. The new Running Case woven through all applications requires
students to apply their knowledge in a realistic way to a long-running, semester-long project focused
on the same company.
xxii Preface
Resources
Instructor Teaching Resources
Supplements Available
to Instructors at
www.pearsonhighered.com/
exploring Features of the Supplement
Instructor’s Manual Available for each chapter and includes:
• List of all Chapter Resources, File Names, and Where to Find
• Chapter Overview
• Class Run-Down
• Key Terms
• Discussion Questions
• Practice Projects & Applications
• Teaching Notes
• Additional Web Resources
• Projects and Exercises with File Names
• Solutions to Multiple Choice, Key Terms Matching, and Quick
Concepts Checks
Solutions Files, Annotated • Available for all exercises with definitive solutions
Solution Files, Scorecards • Annotated Solution Files in PDF feature callouts to enable
easy grading
• Scorecards to allow for easy scoring for hand-grading all
exercises with definitive solutions, and scoring by step adding
to 100 points.
Rubrics For Mid-Level Exercises without a definitive solution. Available
in Microsoft Word format, enabling instructors to customize the
assignments for their classes
Test Bank Approximately 75–100 total questions per chapter, made up of
multiple-choice, true/false, and matching.
Questions include these annotations:
• Correct Answer
• Difficulty Level
• Learning Objective
Alternative versions of the Test Bank are available for the
following LMS: Blackboard CE/Vista, Blackboard, Desire2Learn,
Moodle, Sakai, and Canvas
Computerized TestGen TestGen allows instructors to:
• Customize, save, and generate classroom tests
• Edit, add, or delete questions from the Test Item Files
• Analyze test results
• Organize a database of tests and student results
PowerPoint Presentations PowerPoints for each chapter cover key topics, feature key
images from the text, and include detailed speaker notes in
addition to the slide content.
PowerPoints meet accessibility standards for students with
disabilities. Features include, but are not limited to:
• Keyboard and Screen Reader access
• Alternative text for images
• High color contrast between background and foreground
colors
Preface xxiii
Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
be sober and industrious laborers, but soldiers, weaned from their
former life of simplicity, grown dissolute, and vain of their uniforms.
Now the whole crowd has departed, driving down the street in
sleighs to the taverns and inns, and louder grows the chorus of
mingled sobs, songs, and drunken cries, the moaning and muttering
of the wives and mothers, the sounds of the accordion, the noise of
altercations.
All repair to the eating-houses and taverns, from the traffic of which
part of the revenue of the government is derived, and there they
give themselves up to drink, stupefying their senses so that they
care nothing for the injustice done to them.
Then they spend several weeks at home, drinking nearly all the
time.
When the day arrives, they are driven like cattle to the appointed
place, where they are drilled in military exercises by those who a few
years ago, like themselves, were deceived and brutalized. During the
instructions the means employed are lying, blows, and vodka. And
before the year is over the good, kindly, and intelligent fellows will
have become as brutal as their teachers.
"Suppose your father were arrested and attempted escape," I once
suggested to a young soldier, "what would you do?"
"It would be my duty to thrust my bayonet through his body," he
replied, in the peculiar, meaningless monotone of the soldier. "And if
he ran I should shoot," he added, taking pride apparently in thinking
what he should do if his father attempted to run.
When a good young fellow is reduced to a condition lower than that
of the brute, he is ready for those who wish to use him as an
instrument of violence. He is ready. The man is lost, and a new
instrument of violence has been created. And all this goes on
throughout Russia in the autumn of every year, in broad daylight, in
the heart of a great city, witnessed by all the inhabitants, and the
stratagem is so skilfully managed, that though men at the bottom of
their hearts realize its infamy, still they have not the power to throw
off the yoke.
After our eyes are once opened, and we view this frightful delusion
in its true light, it is astonishing that preachers of Christianity and
morality, teachers of youth, or even those kindly and sensible
parents who are to be found in every community, can advocate any
principles of morality whatever in the midst of a society where
torture and murder are openly recognized as constituting
indispensable conditions in human life,—openly acknowledged by all
churches and governments,—where certain men among us must be
always ready to murder their brethren, and where any of us may
have to do the same.
Not to speak of Christian doctrine, how are children, how are youths,
how are any to be taught morality, while the principle that murder is
required in order to maintain the general welfare is taught; when
men are made to believe that murder is lawful, that some men, and
any of us may be among them, must kill and torture their neighbors,
and commit every kind of crime at the command of those in
authority? If this principle is right, then there is not, nor can there
be, any doctrine of morality; might is right, and there is no other
law. This principle, which some seek to justify on the hypothesis of
the struggle for existence, in fact dominates society.
What kind of moral doctrine can that be which permits murder for
any object whatsoever? It is as impossible as a mathematical
problem which would affirm that 2 = 3. It may be admitted that 2 =
3 looks like mathematics, but it is not mathematics at all. Every code
of morals must be founded first of all upon the acknowledgment that
human life is to be held sacred.
The doctrine of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a life for
a life, has been revoked by Christianity because that doctrine was
but the justification of immorality, a semblance of justice, but
without meaning. Life is a substance which can neither be weighed,
measured, nor compared; hence the taking of one life for another
has no sense. Moreover, the aim of every social law is amelioration
of human life. How, then, can the destruction of certain lives
improve the condition of other lives? The destruction of life is not an
act that tends to improve it; it is suicide.
To destroy human life, and call it justice, may be likened to the act
of a man who, having lost one arm, cuts off the other, by way of
making matters even.
Not to speak of the deceit of presenting the most shocking crimes in
the light of a duty, of the shocking abuse of using Christ's name and
authority in order to confirm acts which he condemned, how can
men, looking at the matter from the standpoint merely of personal
safety, suffer the existence of the shocking, senseless, cruel, and
dangerous force which every organized government, supported by
the army, represents?
The most violent and rapacious band of robbers is less to be feared
than such an organization. Even the authority of the leader of a
band of robbers is more or less limited by the will of each individual
member of the band, who, retaining a certain degree of
independence, has the right to oppose acts with which he does not
agree. But the authority of men who form part of an organized
government, maintained by the army with its present system of
discipline, is unlimited. When their master, be he Boulanger,
Pugatchov, or Napoleon, issues his commands, there is no crime too
hideous for those who form part of the government and the army to
commit.
It must often occur to one who sees conscriptions, drills, and military
manœuvers taking place, who sees police going about with loaded
revolvers, sentinels armed with bayonets,—to one who hears from
morning till night, as I do (in the district of Hamovniky,[28] where I
live), the whirring balls and the concussion as they strike the target,
—to ask why these things are tolerated. And when one sees in the
same city, where every attempt at violence is at once suppressed,
where even the sale of powder or medicines is prohibited, where a
doctor is not allowed to practice without a diploma, thousands of
disciplined men, controlled by one individual, being trained for
murder, one cannot help asking how men who have any regard for
their own safety can calmly endure such a condition of affairs, and
allow it to continue? Leaving aside the question of the immorality
and pernicious influence of it, what could be more dangerous? What
are they thinking of,—I speak not now of Christians, Christian
pastors, philanthropists, or moralists, but simply those who value
their lives, their safety, their welfare? Granting that power is at
present in the hands of a moderate ruler, it may fall to-morrow into
those of a Biron, an Elizabeth, a Catharine, a Pugatchov, a Napoleon.
And even though the ruler be moderate to-day, he may become a
mere savage to-morrow; he may be succeeded by an insane or half-
insane heir, like the King of Bavaria or the Emperor Paul.
It is not only those who fill the highest offices, but all the lesser
authorities scattered over the land—the chiefs of police, the
commanders of companies, even the stanovoys[29]—may commit
shocking crimes before they can be dismissed; it is an everyday
occurrence.
Involuntarily one asks: How can men allow these things to go on?
How can they tolerate them with any regard to their own personal
safety?
It may be replied that some men do oppose it. (Those who are
deluded and live in subjection have nothing either to tolerate or
interdict.) Those who favor the continuance of the present system
are only those who derive some special advantage from it. They
favor it, and even with the disadvantages of having an insane or
tyrannical man at the head of the government and the army, the
position is less disadvantageous to them than if the present
organization were abolished.
Whether his position be held under a Boulanger, a Republic, a
Pugatchov, or a Catharine,—the judge, the police commissioner, the
governor, the officer, will remain in it. But if the system which
assures their positions were overthrown, they would lose them.
Therefore it is a matter of indifference to these men whether one
man or another be at the head of the organization of violence. What
they do fear is its abolition; so they support it.
One wonders why men of independent means, who are not obliged
to become soldiers, the so-called élite of society, enter military
service in Russia, in England, in Germany, in Austria, and even in
France, and desire the chance of killing? Why do parents, why do
moral men, send their children to military schools? Why do mothers
buy them such toys as helmets, swords, and muskets? (No child of a
peasant ever plays at being a soldier.) Why do kindly men and
women, who can have no manner of interest in war, go into
ecstasies over the exploits of a man like Skobelev? Why do men who
are under no obligation to do it, and who receive no pay for it, like
Marshals of Nobility in Russia, devote months to the service which
demands such unremitting labor, wearying to the minds as well as to
the body,—the enlistment of recruits? Why do all emperors and kings
wear a military dress, why do they have drills and parades and
military rewards? Why are monuments built to generals and
conquerors? Why do wealthy and independent men regard it as an
honor to occupy the position of lackeys to kings, to flatter them and
feign a belief in their special superiority? Why do men who have long
since ceased to believe in the medieval superstitions of the Church
still constantly and solemnly pretend to do so, and thus support a
sacrilegious and demoralizing institution? Why is the ignorance of
the people so zealously preserved, not only by the government, but
by men of the higher classes? Why do they so energetically
denounce every attempt to overthrow popular superstition and to
promote popular education? Why do historians, novelists, and poets,
who can derive no benefit in exchange for their flattery, paint in such
glowing colors the emperors, kings, and generals of bygone times?
Why do the so-called scientists devote their lives to formulate
theories that violence committed on the people by power is
legitimate violence—is right?
One often wonders why an artist or a woman of the world, neither
of whom, it would seem, ordinarily take much interest in sociological
or military questions—why should they condemn strikes among
workmen, or advocate war with such partizan zeal?
But one ceases to feel surprise when one realizes that the members
of the higher classes possess the keenest insight, an intuitive
perception, as it were, concerning those conditions which are
friendly and those which are hostile to the organization upon whose
existence their privileges depend.
It is true that the woman of society does not deliberately argue thus:
"Were there no capitalists, or armies to defend them, my husband
would have no money, and I should have neither salon nor
fashionable gowns;" nor does the artist tell himself, in so many
words, that if his pictures are to be sold there must be capitalists,
defended by armies, to buy them; yet instinct, here doing duty for
reason, is their surest guide. This instinct guides, with rare
exceptions, all men who support those political, religious, and
economic institutions which are advantageous to themselves.
But is it possible that men who belong to the higher classes defend
this organization only because it is for their own advantage? They
surely cannot fail to see that as an organization it is irrational,
incompatible with the present consciousness of men, with public
opinion, and that it is fraught with danger. Good, intelligent, honest
men who belong to the ruling class cannot but suffer from such
contradictions, nor can they close their eyes to the dangers that
menace them.
And is it possible that the millions of men of the lower classes can go
on calmly committing deeds which are so manifestly criminal, such
as are the murders and tortures which they commit, simply from
fear of punishment? Surely these things could not exist were not the
falsehood and brutality of their actions hidden from all classes of
men by the system of the political organization.
When such deeds are committed, there are so many instigators,
participants, and abettors that no single individual feels himself
morally responsible.
Assassins compel all the witnesses of an assassination to strike the
body of the victim, with the intention of dividing the responsibility
among the greatest number possible. And whenever those crimes by
the aid of which the state system is maintained are to be committed,
this same thing is observed. The rulers of State always endeavor to
involve the greatest possible number of citizens in the participation
of the crimes which it is to their interest to have committed.
In these latter days this is made especially evident by the drawing of
citizens on the jury in courts of law, by drafting them into the army
as soldiers, and into the communal or legislative administration as
electors or elected.
As in a wicker basket all the ends are so carefully interwoven that
they cannot be seen, so is it with the responsibility for crime.
Individual responsibilities are so manipulated that no man perceives
precisely what he is incurring.
In olden times tyrants were responsible for the crimes which were
committed, but in the present age the most frightful crimes are
perpetrated, such as would hardly have been possible in the time of
Nero, and still no one is held responsible.
Some demand the crime, some propose it, some determine it, some
confirm it, some order it, some execute it.
Women and old men are hung, are flogged to death—even quite
innocent people, as was recently the case with us in Russia, in the
affair of the factory at Uzova; or, as is done all over in Europe and
America, in the struggle with anarchists and other revolutionists,
hundreds, thousands of men are shot, are killed; or, as happens in
time of war, millions of men are massacred; or, as is happening
always, the souls of men are destroyed by solitary confinement, by
the debauchery of barrack life—and no one is responsible.
On the lower scale of the social ladder are posted soldiers armed
with muskets, pistols, swords; they go about doing violence and
killing, and through their doing so force other men to become
soldiers like themselves, and yet they never dream that the
responsibility rests on their shoulders; they shift it on to their
superiors, who give the orders.
The czars, the presidents, the ministers of State, the general
assemblies, order tortures, murders, conscriptions, and as they
enjoy the absolute assurance that they rule by the grace of God or
by the will of the society they govern, and that that society demands
from them what they order, they cannot regard themselves as
responsible.
Between these two classes we find a number of intermediaries, who
take charge of the executions, tortures, conscriptions, and they, too,
wash their hands of all responsibility, alleging on the one hand the
orders of their superiors, and on the other that it is for such as
themselves, who stand lower on the social ladder, to do these things.
The power that demands and the power that fulfils commands, the
two extremes of governmental organization, unite like the two ends
of a chain, each depending on and supporting the other, and all the
intervening links.
Were it not for the conviction that there are men who assume the
whole responsibility of such deeds, no soldier would lift his hand to
torture or murder his fellow-man. Were it not for the conviction that
the nation demands it, no king, emperor, president, or assembly
would venture to issue commands for murder and torture. Were it
not that he believes that there are men above him who assume the
responsibility of his actions, and others below him whose welfare
requires this treatment, no man of the intermediate class would ever
perform the functions committed to him.
The organization of the State is such that on whatever position of
the social ladder a man may stand, his irresponsibility remains intact.
The higher he stands, the more liable he is to feel the pressure
brought to bear on him from below, urging him to issue commands,
and the less likely he will be to be influenced by orders from above,
and vice versa.
But it is not enough that all men bound by the organization of the
State transfer their responsibility from one to the other,—the
peasant, for instance, who becomes a soldier to the merchant who
has become an officer; the officer to the noble who occupies the
position of governor; the governor to the minister of State; the
minister to the sovereign; and the sovereign who in his turn shifts
the responsibility upon all,—officials, nobles, merchants, peasants.
Not only do men in this way merely free themselves from all sense
of responsibility for their actions, but because, as they adapt
themselves to fulfil the requirements of political organizations, they
so constantly, persistently, and strenuously assure themselves and
others that all men are not equal that they begin to believe it
sincerely themselves. Thus we are assured that some men are
superior and must be especially honored and obeyed; while, on the
other hand, we are assured in every way that others are inferior, and
therefore bound to obey without murmur the commands of their
superiors.
It is to this inequality,—the exaltation of some upon the abasement
of others,—that we may chiefly attribute the incapacity which men
display for discerning the folly of the existing system, with the
cruelty and deceptions committed by some, and suffered by others.
There are certain men who have been made to believe that they are
possessed of a peculiar importance and greatness, who have
become so intoxicated by their imaginary superiority that they cease
to realize their responsibility for the actions they commit; others
who, on the contrary, have been told that they are insignificant
beings, and that it is their duty to submit to those above them, and,
as the natural result of this continual state of degradation, fall into a
strange condition of stupefied servility, and in this state they, too,
lose all sense of responsibility for their actions. And as to the
intermediate class, subservient to those above them, and yet to a
certain extent regarding themselves as superiors, they are apt to be
both servile and arrogant, and they also lose the sense of
responsibility.
One needs but to glance at any official of high rank in the act of
reviewing the troops. Accompanied by his staff, mounted on a
magnificently caparisoned charger, equipped in a brilliant uniform,
displaying all his decorations, he rides in front of the ranks, while the
band plays martial music and the soldiers present arms, standing, as
they do, as though verily petrified with servility,—one has but to see
this to understand how in such moments, under such conditions,
both generals and soldiers might commit deeds which they never
would have dreamed of committing.
But the intoxication to which men succumb under conditions like
parades, pageants, religious ceremonies, and coronations, though
acute, is not enduring, while there is another which is chronic,
shared by all who have any authority whatsoever, from the Czar to
the policemen on the street, shared, too, by the masses who submit
to authority in a state of stupefied servility, and who by way of
justifying their submission, after the usual manner of slaves, ascribe
the greatest importance and dignity to those whom they obey.
It is this delusion in regard to human inequality and the consequent
intoxication of power and stupefaction of servility, which makes it
possible for those who are associated in a state organization to
commit crimes and suffer no remorse.
Under the influence of this intoxication,—there is an intoxication of
servility as well as of power,—men seem to others, no less than to
themselves, not the ordinary human beings which they really are,
but specially privileged beings,—nobles, merchants, governors,
judges, officers, kings, statesmen, soldiers, having no longer
ordinary human duties, but only the duties of the class to which they
belong.
Thus the landed proprietor who prosecuted the peasants on account
of the forest did so because he did not regard himself as an ordinary
man, with the same rights as the peasants, his neighbors, but as a
great landowner and a member of the nobility, and, as such, exalted
by the intoxication of authority, felt himself insulted by the
opposition of the peasants. And regardless of the consequences, he
sends in his petition to be reinstated in his pretended rights. The
judges who rendered an unfair decision in his favor, did so because
they fancied themselves different from ordinary men, who are
guided only by truth; under the spell of the intoxication of authority,
they believed themselves the guardians of a justice which cannot
err; and at the same time, under the influence of servility, they
considered themselves obliged to apply certain texts set forth in a
certain book and called the laws; and all the other persons who took
part in this affair, from the representatives of higher authority down
to the last soldier ready to fire upon his brother,—they all accepted
themselves in their conventionally accredited characters. Not one
asked himself if he should take part in an act which his conscience
reprobated, but each accepted himself as one who had simply to
fulfil a certain function; let it be the Czar, anointed of God, an
exceptional being called to look after the welfare of a hundred
million men; let it be the noble; the priest, the recipient of grace
through ordination; the soldier, bound by oath to fulfil commands
without hesitation,—it is the same with all.
All their activity, past, present, and future, is stimulated by a like
intoxicating influence. If they had not the firm conviction that the
title of king, statesman, governor, judge, landowner, marshal of
nobility, officer, or soldier is of serious import and necessity, not one
of them could contemplate without horror and disgust his own share
in the deeds done in these latter days.
Arbitrary distinctions, established hundreds of years ago, recognized
for hundreds of years, described by special names and distinguished
by special dress, sanctioned by all kinds of solemnities calculated to
influence men through their emotions, have been so thoroughly
impressed upon the human imagination that men have forgotten the
common, everyday aspects of life; they look upon themselves and
others from a point of view dependent upon outward conditions, and
regard their own acts and those of their neighbors accordingly.
Here, for instance, we see a man of advanced years, a man perfectly
in possession of his senses, who, because he has been decorated
with some bauble, and is attired in a ridiculous habit, or because he
is the holder of certain keys, or has received a bit of blue ribbon
fitter for the wear of a coquettish child, when he is called general,
chamberlain, chevalier of the order of St. Andrew, or some such
absurdity, becomes at once proud, arrogant, happy; if, on the
contrary, he fails to get the gewgaw or the nickname he expected,
he becomes unhappy and ill, really to the point of sickness.
Or let us take a still more remarkable case. A man, morally sane,
young, free, and absolutely safe from want, has no sooner received
the name of district-attorney, of Zemsky Nachalnik, than he pounces
upon some luckless widow, takes her from her small children, and
throws her into jail, all because the poor woman has been secretly
selling wine, and thus depriving the treasury of 25 roubles' revenue.
This man feels no remorse. Another still more surprising case is that
of a man, ordinarily kind and good, who, because he wears a
uniform or carries a medal, and is told that he is a keeper [garde-
champêtre] or custom-house officer, considers himself justified in
shooting men down, and no one ever dreams of blaming him for it,
nor does he think himself in the wrong; but if he failed to fire upon
his fellow-men he would then indeed be culpable. I say nothing of
judges and jurymen, who condemn men to death, nor of troops,
who slaughter thousands without a vestige of remorse, because they
are told that they are not in the position of ordinary men, but are
jurymen, judges, generals, soldiers.
This abnormal and surprising state of affairs is formulated in words
like these: "As a man, I sympathize with him, but as a keeper, a
judge, a general, a czar, or a soldier, I must torture or murder him."
So it is in this present case; men are on the way to slaughter and
torment their famine-stricken brethren, admitting all the while that in
this dispute between the peasants and the landowner the former are
in the right (all the superior officials told me so). They know that the
peasants are miserable, poor, and hungry, and that the landowner is
wealthy and one who inspires no sympathy, and yet these men are
going to kill the peasants in order that this landowner may gain 3000
roubles; and all because they regard themselves at the moment not
as men, but one as a governor, another as a general of gendarmerie,
another as an officer, or as soldiers, as the case may be, and bound
not by the eternal laws of the human conscience, but by the
accidental, transitory demands of their positions.
However strange it may appear, the only explanation of this
surprising phenomenon is that men are like those under hypnotic
influence, who, as suggested by the hypnotizers, imagine
themselves in certain conditions. Thus, for instance, when it is
suggested to a hypnotized patient that he is lame, he proceeds to
limp; that he is blind, he ceases to see; that he is an animal, and he
begins to bite. And this is the state of all those who put their social
and political duties before, and to the detriment of, their duties as
human beings.
The essential characteristic of this condition is, that men, influenced
by the thought that has been suggested to them, are unable to
weigh their own actions, and simply obey the suggestion that has
been communicated to them.
The difference between men artificially hypnotized and those under
the influence of governmental suggestion consists in this,—that to
the former their imagined environment is suggested suddenly by one
person, and the suggestion operates only for a short time; whereas
to the latter, their imagined position has been the result of gradual
suggestion, going on, not for years, but for generations, and
proceeds not from a single individual, but from their entire
circumstances.
"But," it will be objected, "always, in all societies, the majority of
men, all the children, all the women, absorbed in the duties and
cares of motherhood, all the great mass of workers, who are
completely absorbed by their labor, all those of weak mind, all the
enfeebled, the many who have come under the subjection of
nicotine, alcohol, opium, or what not,—all these are not in a position
to think for themselves, and consequently they submit to those who
stand on a higher intellectual level, or they simply act according to
domestic or social tradition, or in accordance with public opinion,—
and in their acting thus there is nothing abnormal or contradictory."
Indeed, there is nothing unnatural in it, and the readiness with
which those who reason but little submit to the guidance of men
who stand on a higher plane of consciousness is a universal
phenomenon, and one without which social life could not be. The
minority submit to principles which they have considered for
themselves, and in consequence of the accordance of these
principles with their reason; the rest of men, the majority, submit to
the same principles, not because of personal apprehension of their
validity, but because public opinion demands it.
Such submission to public opinion of men who can think but little for
themselves has nothing abnormal about it so long as public opinion
maintains its unity.
But there is a period when the higher forms of truth, having been
revealed to the few, are in process of transmission to the many; and
when the public opinion which was based on a lower plane of
consciousness has already begun to waver, to give place to the new,
ready to be established. And now men begin to view their own and
other men's actions in the light of their new consciousness, while,
influenced by inertia and tradition, they still continue to apply
principles which were the outcome of the once highest
consciousness, but which are now distinctly opposed to it. Hence it is
that men find themselves in an abnormal position, and that, while
realizing the necessity of conforming to this new public opinion, they
lack courage to abandon conformity to the old one. This is the
attitude which men, not only the men on the train, but the greater
part of mankind, occupy toward Christian truths.
The attitude of those who belong to the upper classes, and who
have all the advantages of high position, is the same as that of the
lower classes who obey implicitly every command that is given to
them.
Men of the ruling classes, who have no reasonable explanation of
their privileges, and who in order to retain them are forced to
repress all their nobler and more humane tendencies, try to
persuade themselves of the necessity of their superior position;
while the lower classes, stultified and oppressed by labor, are kept
by the higher classes in a state of constant subjection.
This is the only possible explanation of the amazing phenomena
which I witnessed on the train on the 9th of September, when men,
naturally kindly and inoffensive, were to be seen going with an easy
conscience to commit the most cruel, contemptible and idiotic of
crimes.
It cannot be said that they are devoid of the conscience which
should forbid them to do these things, as was the case with the men
who, centuries ago, tortured their fellow-men, scourged them to
death, and burned them at the stake;—nay, it does exist in them,
but it is kept dormant; auto-suggestion, as the psychologist calls it,
keeps it thus among the upper classes, while the soldiers, the
executioners, are under the hypnotic influence of the classes above
them.
Conscience may slumber for a time, but it is not dead, and in spite
of suggestion and auto-suggestion, it still whispers; yet a little while
and it will awaken.
One might compare these men to a person under the influence of
hypnotism, to whom it has been suggested that he shall commit
some act contrary to his conception of right and wrong, as, for
example, to murder his mother or his child. He feels himself so far
coerced by the suggestion given him that he cannot refrain; and yet
as the appointed time and place draw near, he seems to hear the
stifled voice of conscience reviving, and he begins to draw back, he
tries to awaken himself. And no one can tell whether or not hypnotic
suggestion will conquer in the end; all depends on the relative
strength of conflicting influences.
So it was with the soldiers on that train, so it is with all men of our
period who take part in state violence and profit by it.
There was a time when, having gone forth to do violence and
murder, to terrify by an example, men did not return until they had
performed their mission, and then they suffered no doubt or
remorse; but having done their fellow-men to death, they placidly
returned to the bosom of their families, caressed their children, and
with jest and laughter gave themselves up to all the pure joys of the
hearth.
The men who were then benefited by violence, landed proprietors
and men of wealth, believed their own interests to have a direct
connection with these cruelties. It is different now, when men know,
or at least suspect, the real reason why they do these things. They
may close their eyes and try to silence their consciences, but neither
those who commit such outrages, nor those who order them, can
longer fail to discern the significance of their acts. It may be that
they do not fully appreciate it until they are on the point of
committing the deed, or in some cases not until after the deed has
been done. Those soldiers, for instance, who administered the
tortures during the riot at the Yuzovo factory, at Nijni-Novgorod,
Saratov, and Orel, did not fully apprehend the significance of what
they were doing until it was all over; and now, both they who gave
the orders, and they who executed them, suffer agonies of shame in
the condemnation of public opinion and of their own conscience. I
have talked with some of the soldiers about it; they either tried to
change the subject or spoke of it with horror and repugnance.
There are instances of men coming to their senses, however, just as
they are on the point of committing deeds of the kind. I know of a
sergeant who during the riots was beaten by two peasants; he
reported the fact to the commander of his company, but on the
following day, when he saw the tortures inflicted upon other
peasants, he persuaded his superior officer to destroy his report and
to allow the peasants who had beaten him to depart unpunished. I
know of a case where the soldiers appointed to shoot a prisoner
refused to obey; and of other occasions where the superior officers
have refused to direct tortures and executions.
The men who were in the train on the 9th of September started with
the intention of torturing and murdering their fellow-men, but
whether they would carry out their intention one could not know.
However each one's share in the responsibility of this affair might be
concealed from him, however strong the hypnotic suggestion among
those taking part in it that they did so, not as men, but as
functionaries, and so could violate all human obligations,—in spite of
this,—the nearer they approached their destination, the more they
must have hesitated about it.
It is impossible that the Governor should not pause at the moment
of giving the decisive order to begin to murder and torture. He
knows that the conduct of the Governor at Orel has excited the
indignation of the honorable men, and he himself, influenced by
public opinion, has repeatedly expressed his own disapproval of the
affair; he knows that the lawyer who ought to have accompanied
him distinctly refused to do so, denouncing the whole affair as
shameful; he knows that changes are likely to take place in the
government at any moment, the result of which would be that those
who were in favor yesterday may be in disgrace to-morrow; that if
the Russian press remains silent, the foreign press may give an
account of this business that might cover him with opprobrium.
Already he feels the influence of the new public opinion which is to
supersede and destroy the old one. Moreover, he has no assurance
that his subordinates may not at the last moment refuse to obey
him. He hesitates; it is impossible to divine what he will do.
The functionaries and officers who accompany him feel more or less
as he does. They all know at the bottom of their hearts that they are
engaged in a shameful business, that their share in it stains and
degrades them in the eyes of those persons whose opinion they
value. They know that a man who participates in deeds like these
feels shame in the presence of the woman he loves. And like the
Governor, they, too, feel doubtful whether the soldiers will obey
them at the last moment. What a contrast to the self-assurance of
their bearing on the platform of the station! Not only do they suffer,
but they actually hesitate, and it is partly to hide their inward
agitation that they assume an air of bravado. And this agitation
increases as they draw nearer to their destination.
And, indeed, the entire body of soldiers, although they give no
outward sign, and seem utterly submissive, are really in the same
state of mind.
They are no longer like the soldiers of former days, who gave up the
natural life of labor, and surrendered themselves to debauchery,
rapine, and murder, as the Roman legions did, or the veterans of the
Thirty Years' War, or even those soldiers of more modern times,
whose term of service lasted twenty-five years. Now they are for the
most part men newly taken from their families, with all the
memories of the wholesome, rational life from which they have been
torn still fresh in their minds.
These young men, peasants for the most part, know what they are
going to do; they know that the land-owners generally ill-treat the
peasants, and that this probably is a case in point. Furthermore, the
majority of them can read, and the books they read are not always
in favor of the service; some even demonstrate its immorality. They
find comrades who are independent thinkers, volunteers and young
officers, and the seed of doubt respecting the merit and rectitude of
such deeds as they are about to commit has already been sown in
their minds. True, they have all been subjected to that ingenious
discipline, the work of centuries, which tends to kill the spirit of
independence in every man, and are so accustomed to automatic
obedience that at the words of command, "Fire along the line!...
Fire!" and so forth, their muskets are raised mechanically, and they
perform the customary movements. But now, "Fire!" means
something more than firing at a target; it means the murder of their
abused, downtrodden fathers and brothers, who are grouped yonder
in the street with their wives and children, gesticulating and crying
out one does not know what.
There they are: here a man with thin beard, clad in a patched
kaftan, with bast shoes on his feet, just like the father left behind in
the province of Kazan or Ryazan; there another, with gray beard and
bowed shoulders, leaning on a stout staff, just like the grandfather;
and here a youth, with big boots and red shirt, just like himself a
year ago,—the soldier who is about to shoot him. And there is a
woman, with her bast shoes and petticoat, like the mother he left
behind him.
And he must fire upon them!
And God alone knows what each soldier will do at the supreme
moment. The slightest suggestion that they ought not to do it, that
they must not do it,—a single word or hint,—would be enough to
make them pause.
Every one of these men at the moment of action will be like one
hypnotized, to whom it has been suggested to chop a log, who, as
he approaches the object which is told to him is a log, sees as he
raises the ax that it is not a log at all, but his own brother who lies
sleeping there. He may accomplish the act which has been
suggested to him, or he may awake at the moment of committing it.
It is the same with these men. If they do not awaken, then will a
deed be done as shocking as that committed in Orel, and the reign
of official hypnotism will thereby gain new power. If they awaken,
then not only will the deed remain undone, but many of those who
hear of their refusal to do it will free themselves from the suggestion
under whose influence they have hitherto acted, or at least will think
of the possibility of doing so.
If only a few of these men come to their senses, and refuse to do
the deed, and fearlessly express their opinion of the wickedness of
such deeds, even such a few men might enable the rest to throw off
the suggestion under the influence of which they act, and such evil
deeds would not be done.
And another thing: if but a few of those persons who are simply
spectators of the affair would, from their knowledge of other affairs
of the same kind, boldly express their opinion to those engaged in it,
and point out to them their folly, cruelty, and criminality, even this
would not be without a salutary influence.
This is precisely what happened in the case of Tula. Partly because
certain persons expressed reluctance to take a part in the affair;
because a lady passenger and others showed their indignation at a
railway station; because one of the colonels whose regiment was
summoned to reduce the peasants to obedience declared that
soldiers are not executioners,—because of these and other
apparently trifling influences the affair took on a different aspect,
and the troops, on arriving, did not commit outrages, but contented
themselves with cutting down the trees and sending them to the
landowner.
Had it not been that certain of these men conceived a distinct idea
that they were doing wrong, and had not the idea got abroad, the
occurrences at Orel would have been repeated. Had the feeling been
stronger, perhaps the Governor and his troops would not have gone
so far as even to fell the trees and deliver them to the landowner.
Had it been more powerful still, perhaps the Governor would not
have dared even to set out for Tula; its influence might even have
gone so far as to prevent the Minister from framing, and the
Emperor from confirming, such decrees.
All depends, as we come therefore to see, upon the degree of
consciousness that men possess of Christian truth.
Hence, let all men to-day who wish to promote the welfare of
mankind direct their efforts toward the development of this
consciousness of Christian truth.
But, strange to say, those men who nowadays talk most of the
amelioration of human life, and who are the acknowledged leaders
of public opinion, declare this to be precisely the wrong thing to do,
and that there are more effectual expedients for improving human
existence. They insist that any improvement in the conditions of
human life must be accomplished, not through individual moral
effort, nor through the propagation of truth, but through progressive
modifications in the general material conditions of life. Therefore,
they say, individual effort should be devoted to the gradual reform of
the everyday conditions of life; and seeing that any individual
profession of the truth which may happen to be incompatible with
the existing order is harmful, because it provokes, on the part of the
government, an opposition which prevents the individual from
continuing efforts which may be of utility to society.
According to this theory, all changes in the life of mankind proceed
from the same causes that control the lives of the brute creation.
And all the religious teachers, like Moses and the Prophets,
Confucius, Lao Tze, Buddha, and Christ, preached their doctrines,
and their followers adopted them, not because they divined and
loved the truth, but because the political, social, and, above all, the
economical conditions of the nations in whose midst these doctrines
found expression were favorable to their exposition and
development.
Therefore the principal activity of a man who wishes to serve the
world and to improve the condition of his kind should be directed,
according to this theory, not to teaching and profession of the truth,
but to the improvement of the outward, political, social, and, above
all, economic conditions of life. The change in these conditions may
be accomplished by serving the government and introducing liberal
and progressive principles, by contributing to the development of
commerce, by propagating socialistic principles, but, above all, by
promoting the diffusion of science.
According to this doctrine, it is a matter of no consequence whether
one profess the revealed truth or not; there is no obligation to live in
accordance with its precepts, or to refrain from actions opposed to
them,—as, for instance, to serve the government, though one
considers its power detrimental; to profit by the organization of
capital, though one disapproves of it; to subscribe to certain forms
of religion, though one considers them superstitions. Practise in the
courts of law, though one believes them to be corrupt; or enter the
army, or take the oath of allegiance, or indeed lie, or do anything
that is convenient. These things are trivial; for it is a matter of vital
importance, instead of challenging the prevailing customs of the day,
to conform to them, though they be contrary to one's convictions,
satisfied meanwhile to try and liberalize the existing institutions, by
encouraging commerce, propagating socialistic doctrines, and
generally promoting soi-disant science and civilization. According to
this convenient theory, it is possible for a man to remain a
landowner, a merchant, a manufacturer, a judge, a functionary paid
by the government, a soldier, an officer, and at the same time to be
humanitarian, socialist, and revolutionary.
Hypocrisy, formerly growing only out of such religious doctrines as
that of original sin, redemption, the Church, has in these latter days,
by means of the new theory, gained for itself a scientific basis, and
those whose intellectual habit of mind renders the hypocrisy of the
Church unendurable, are yet deceived by this new hypocrisy with the
cachet of science. If in old times a man who professed the doctrines
taught by the Church could with a clear conscience take part in any
political crime, and benefit by so doing, provided he complied with
the external forms of his faith, men of the present day, who deny
Christianity, and view the conduct of life from a secular and scientific
standpoint, are every whit as sure of their own innocence, even of
their lofty morality, when they participate in and benefit by the evil-
doings of government.
It is not alone in Russia, but in France, England, Germany, and
America as well, that we find the wealthy landed proprietor, who, in
return for having allowed the men who live on his estate and who
supply him with the products of the soil, extorts from these men,
who are often poverty-stricken, all that he possibly can. Whenever
these oppressed laborers make an attempt to gain something for
themselves from the lands which the rich man calls his own, without
first asking his consent, troops are called out, who torture and put to
death those who have been bold enough to take such liberties.
By methods like this are claims to the ownership of land made good.
One would hardly imagine that a man who lived in such a wicked
and selfish manner could call himself a Christian, or even liberal. One
would think that if a man cared to seem Christian or liberal, he
would at least cease to plunder and to torment his fellow-men with
the aid of the government, in order to vindicate his claims to the
ownership of land. And such would be the case were it not for the
metaphysical hypocrisy which teaches that from a religious
standpoint it is immaterial whether one owns land or not, and that,
from the scientific point of view, for a single individual to give up his
land would be a useless sacrifice, without any effect on the well-
being of mankind, the amelioration of which can only be brought
about by a progressive modification of outward conditions.
Meanwhile, your modern landowner will, without the least hesitation
or doubt, organize an agricultural exhibition, or a temperance
society, or, through his wife and daughters, distribute warm
underclothing and soup to three old women; and he will hold forth
before the domestic circle, or in society, or as a member of
committees, or in the public press, upon the gospel of love for
mankind in general and the agricultural class in particular, that class
which he never ceases to torment and oppress. And those who
occupy a similar position will believe in him and sing his praises, and
take counsel together upon the best methods of improving the
condition of those very laboring classes they spend their lives in
exploiting; and for this purpose they suggest every possible
expedient, save that which would effect it,—namely, to desist from
robbing the poor of the land necessary for their subsistence.
(A striking example of this hypocrisy was presented by the Russian
landowners during the struggle with the famine of last year,[30] a
famine of which they were themselves the cause, and by which they
profited, not only by selling bread at the highest price, but even by
disposing of the dried potato-plants for five roubles a dessiatin, to be
used as fuel by the freezing peasants.)
The business of the merchant, again (as is the case with business of
any kind), is based upon a series of frauds; he takes advantage of
the necessities of men by buying his merchandise below, and selling
it above, its value. One would think that a man, the mainspring of
whose activity is what he himself in his own language calls
shrewdness, ought to feel ashamed of this, and never dream of
calling himself Christian or liberal while he continues a merchant.
But, according to the new metaphysic of hypocrisy, he may pass for
a virtuous man and still pursue his evil career; the religious man has
but to believe, the liberal man but to coöperate, in the reform of
external conditions to promote the general progress of commerce;
the rest does not signify. So this merchant (who, besides, often sells
bad commodities, adulterates, and uses false weights and measures,
or deals exclusively in commodities that imperil human life, such as
alcohol or opium) frankly considers himself, and is considered by
others,—always provided he only does not cheat his colleagues in
business and knavery, his fellow-tradesmen,—a model of
conscientiousness and honesty. And if he spend one per cent of his
stolen money on some public institution, hospital, museum, or
school, men call him the benefactor of the people on whose
exploitation all his welfare depends; and if he gives but the least
part of this money to the Church or to the poor, then is he deemed
an exemplary Christian indeed.
Take again the factory-owner, whose entire income is derived from
reducing the pay of his workmen to its lowest terms, and whose
whole business is carried on by forced and unnatural labor,
endangering the health of generations of men. One would suppose
that if this man professed Christian or liberal principles he would
cease to sacrifice human lives to his interests. But, according to the
existing theory, he encourages industry, and it would be a positive
injury to society if he were to abandon his operations, even
supposing he were willing to do so. And, too, this man, the cruel
slave-driver of thousands of human beings, having built for those
injured in his service minute houses, with gardens six feet in extent,
or established a fund, or a home for the aged, or a hospital, is
perfectly satisfied that he has more than atoned for the moral and
physical jeopardy into which he has plunged so many lives; and he
continues to live calmly, proud of his work.
We find that the functionary, civil, military, or ecclesiastical, who
performs his duties to gratify his selfishness or ambition, or, as is
more usually the case, for the sake of the stipend, collected in the
shape of taxes from an exhausted and crippled people,—if, by a rare
exception, he does not directly steal from the public treasury,—
considers himself, and is considered by his equals, a most useful and
virtuous member of society.
There are judges and other legal functionaries who know that their
decisions have condemned hundreds and thousands of unfortunate
men to be torn from their families and thrown into prison. There
these hapless beings are locked up in solitary confinement, or sent
to the galleys, where they go desperate and put an end to
themselves by starving themselves to death, by swallowing glass, or
by some such means. And who knows what the mothers, wives, and
children of these men suffer by the separation and imprisonment,
and the disgrace of it,—who have vainly begged for pardon for their
sons, husbands, brothers, or that their lot may be a little alleviated.
But the judge or other legal functionary is so primed with the current
hypocrisy that he himself, his colleagues, his wife, and his friends are
all quite sure, despite what he does, that he is a good and sensible
man. According to the current philosophy of hypocrisy, such a man
performs a duty of great importance to the public. And this man,
who has injured hundreds or thousands of human beings, who owe
it to him that they have lost their belief in goodness and their faith in
God, goes to church with a benevolent smile, listens to the Bible,
makes liberal speeches, caresses his children, bestows moral lessons
upon them, for their edification, and grows sentimental over
imaginary suffering.
Not only these men, their wives and children, but the entire
community around them, all the teachers, actors, cooks, jockeys,
live by preying upon the life-blood of the working-people, which in
one way or another they absorb like leeches. Every one of their days
of pleasure costs thousands of days in the lives of the workers. They
see the suffering and privation of these workmen, of their wives and
children, of their aged and feeble. They know what punishments are
visited upon those who attempt to resist the organized system of
pillage, but so far from abandoning or concealing their luxurious
habits, they flaunt them in the faces of those whom they oppress
and by whom they are hated. All the while they assure themselves
and others that they have the welfare of the working-man greatly at
heart. On Sundays, clad in rich garments, they drive in their
carriages to churches where the mockery of Christianity is preached,
and listen there to the words of men who have learned their
falsehoods by heart. Some of these men wear stoles, some wear
white cravats; they all preach the doctrine of love for one's neighbor,
a doctrine belied by their daily lives. And they have all grown so
accustomed to playing this part that they really believe themselves
to be what they pretend.
This universal hypocrisy, which has become to every class of society
at the present day like the air it breathes, is so familiar that men are
no longer exasperated by it. It is very fitting that hypocrisy should
signify acting or playing of a part. It has become so much a matter
of course that it no longer excites surprise when the representatives
of Christ pronounce a blessing over murderers as they stand in rank
holding their guns in the position which signifies, in military
parlance, "for prayers," or when the priests and pastors of various
Christian sects accompany the executioner to the scaffold, and, by
lending the sanction of their presence to murder, make men believe
it compatible with Christianity. (One minister was present when
experiments in "electrocution" took place in the United States.) At
the International Prison Exposition recently held in St. Petersburg,
where instruments of torture, such as chains, and models of prison-
cells for solitary confinement,—means of torture worse than the
knout or the rod,—were on exhibition, sympathetic ladies and
gentlemen went to see them, and seemed greatly entertained.
No one marvels to find liberal science insisting upon the equality,
fraternity, and liberty of men on the one hand, while on the other it
is striving to prove the necessity of armies, executions, custom-
houses, of censorship of the press, of legalized prostitution, of the
expulsion of foreign labor, of the prohibition of emigration, and of
the necessity and justice of colonization established by the pillage
and extermination of whole races of so-called savages, etc.
They talk of what will happen when all men shall profess what they
call Christianity (by which they mean the different conflicting
creeds); when every one will be fed and clothed; when men will
communicate with one another all over the world by telegraph and
telephones, and will travel in balloons; when all working-men will
accept the doctrine of socialism; when the trade unions will embrace
many millions of men and possess millions of money; when all men
will be educated, will read the papers, and be familiar with all the
sciences.
But what good will this do if after all these improvements men are
still false to the truth?
The miseries of men are caused by disunion, and disunion arises
from the fact that men follow not truth, but falsehood, of which
there is no end. Truth is the only bond by which men may be united;
and the more sincerely men strive after the truth the nearer they
approach to true unity.
But how are men to be united in the truth, or even approach it, if
they not only fail to proclaim the truth which they possess, but
actually think it useless to do so, and pretend to believe in
something which they know to be a lie? In reality no improvement in
the condition of mankind is possible while men continue to hide the
truth from themselves, nor until they acknowledge that their unity,
and consequently their welfare, can be promoted only by the spirit
of truth; until they admit that to profess, and to act in obedience to
the truth as it has been revealed to them, is more important than all
things else.
Let all the material progress ever dreamt of by religious and
scientific men be made; let all men accept Christianity, and let all the
improvements suggested by the Bellamys and Richets, with every
possible addition and correction, be carried out; and yet if the
hypocrisy of to-day still flourishes, if men do not make known the
truth that is within them, but go on pretending to believe what they
know to be untrue, showing respect where they no longer feel it,
their condition will never improve; on the contrary, it will become
worse. The more men are raised above want, the more telegraphs,
telephones, books, newspapers, and reviews they possess, the more
numerous will be the channels for the diffusion of falsehood and
hypocrisy, and the more at variance and miserable will men become,
—and it is even so at the present time.
Let all those material changes take place, and still the position of
humanity will in no way be improved by them; but let every man, so
far as he is able, begin at once and live up to his highest ideal of the
truth or, at the least, cease to defend a lie, then indeed should we
see even in this year of 1893 such an advance in the establishment
of the truth upon earth, and in the deliverance of mankind, as could
hardly be hoped for in a hundred years.
It was not without reason that the only harsh and denunciatory
words that Christ uttered were addressed to hypocrites. It is neither
theft, nor robbery, nor murder, nor fornication, nor fraud, but
falsehood, that particular hypocritical falsehood, which destroys in
men's conscience the distinction between good and evil, which
corrupts them and takes from them the possibility of avoiding evil
and of seeking good, which deprives them of that which constitutes
the essence of a true human life,—it is this which bars the way to all
improvement. Those men who do evil, knowing not the truth, inspire
in the beholder compassion for their victims and repugnance for
themselves, but they only injure the few whom they molest.
Whereas those men who, knowing the good, yet pursue the evil,
wearing all the while the mantle of hypocrisy, commit a wrong, not
only against themselves and their victims, but also against
thousands of other men who are deceived by the falsehood under
which they conceal the wrong.
Thieves, robbers, murderers, rogues, who commit acts which they
themselves, as well as other men, know to be evil, serve as a
warning to show men what is evil, and make them hate it. Those,
however, who steal, rob, torture, and murder, justifying themselves
by pretended religious, scientific, or other motives, like the
landowners, merchants, factory-owners, and government servants of
the present time, by provoking imitation, injure not only their
victims, but thousands and millions of men who are corrupted by
their influence, and who become so blinded that they cannot
distinguish the difference between good and evil.
One fortune acquired by trading in the necessaries of life or in
articles that tend to demoralize men, or by speculations in the stock
exchange, or by the acquisition of cheap lands which subsequently
rise in value by reason of the increasing needs of the people, or by
the establishment of factories that endanger human health and
human lives, or by rendering civil or military service to the State, or
by any occupation that tends to the demoralization of mankind,—a
fortune acquired in any of these ways, not only permitted, but
approved by the leaders of society, when, furthermore, it is
supported by a show of charity, surely demoralizes men more than
millions of thefts, frauds, or robberies,—sins committed against the
laws of the land and subject to judicial prosecution.
A single enforcement of capital punishment, ordained by men of
education and wealth, sanctioned by the approval of the Christian
clergy, and declared to be an act of justice essential to the welfare of
the State, tends far more to degrade and brutalize mankind than
hundreds and thousands of murders committed in passion by the
ignorant. A more demoralizing scene than the execution suggested
by Jukovsky, calculated as it is to excite a feeling of religious
exaltation, it would be difficult to conceive.[31]
A war, even of the shortest duration,—with all its customary
consequences, the destruction of harvests, the thefts, the unchecked
debauchery and murders, with the usual explanations of its necessity
and justice, with the accompanying glorification and praise bestowed
upon military exploits, upon patriotism, devotion to the flag, with the
assumption of tenderness and care for the wounded,—will do more
in one year to demoralize men than thousands of robberies, arsons,
and murders committed in the course of centuries by individual men
carried away by passion.
The existence of one household, one not even extravagant beyond
the ordinary limits, esteeming itself virtuous and innocent, which yet
consumes the production of enough to support thousands of the
men who live near in poverty and distress, has a more degrading
influence on mankind than innumerable orgies of gross shopkeepers,
officers, or workmen who are addicted to drink and debauchery, and
who smash mirrors and crockery by way of amusement.
One solemn procession, one religious service, or one sermon from
the pulpit, embodying a falsehood which the preacher himself does
not believe, does infinitely more harm than thousands of frauds,
adulterations of food, etc.
Men talk of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees; but the hypocrisy of our
contemporaries far surpasses the comparatively harmless
sanctimoniousness of the Pharisees. They at least had an outward
religious law, whose fulfilment may perhaps have prevented them
from discerning their duty toward their neighbors; indeed, those
duties had not then been distinctly defined. To-day there is no such
law. (I do not consider such gross and stupid men as even now
believe that sacraments or absolution of the Pope can free them
from sins.) On the contrary, the law of the gospel, which in one form
or another we all profess, makes our duties perfectly plain. Indeed,
those precepts which were but vaguely indicated by certain of the
prophets have since been so clearly formulated, have grown to be
such truisms, that the very school-boys and hack writers repeat
them. Therefore men of our times cannot feign ignorance concerning
them.
Those men who enjoy the advantages of the existing system, and
who are always protesting love for their neighbor, without suspicion
that their own lives are an injury to their neighbors, are like the
robber who, caught with an uplifted knife, his victim crying
desperately for help, protests that he did not know that he was
doing anything unpleasant to the man whom he was in the act of
robbing and about to murder. Since the denial of this robber and
murderer would be of no avail, his act being patent to all observers,
it would seem equally futile for our fellow-citizens, who live by the
sufferings of the oppressed, to assure themselves and others that
they desire the welfare of those whom they never cease to rob, and
that they had not realized the nature of the methods by which their
prosperity had been attained.
We can no longer persuade ourselves that we do not know of the
one hundred thousand men in Russia alone who have been shut up
in galleys or in prisons for the purpose of securing to us our property
and our peace; and that we do not know of the existence of those
courts of law at which we preside, to which we bring our
accusations, which sentence those men, who have attacked our
property or our lives, to the galleys, to imprisonment, or to exile,
where human beings, no worse than they who have pronounced
judgment upon them, become degraded and lost; nor that we do
not know that everything that we possess has been won and is
preserved at the expense of murder and violence. We cannot shut
our eyes and pretend that we do not see the policeman, who, armed
with a revolver, paces before our window, protecting us while we are
eating our excellent dinner, or when we are at the theater seeing a
new play; nor do not know of the existence of the soldiers who will
appear armed with guns and cartridges whenever our property is
menaced. We know perfectly well that if we finish our dinner, see the
new play to its end, enjoy a merry-making at Christmas, take a walk,
go to a ball, a race, or a hunt, we owe it to the policeman's revolver
or the ball in the soldier's musket, which will pierce the hungry belly
of the disinherited man who, with watering mouth, peeps round the
corner at our pleasures, and who might interrupt them if the
policeman or the soldiers in the barracks were not ready to appear
at our first call. Hence, as the man who is caught in the act of
robbery in broad daylight cannot deny that he threatened his victim
with a knife for the purpose of stealing his purse, it might be
supposed that we could no longer represent to ourselves and to
others that the soldiers and policemen whom we see around us are
here, not for the purpose of protecting us, but to repulse foreign
enemies, to assure public order, to adorn by their presence public
rejoicings and ceremonies. We cannot pretend we do not know that
men are not fond of starving to death. We know that they do not
like to die of hunger, being deprived of the right to earn their living
from the soil upon which they live, that they are not anxious to work
ten to fourteen hours a day underground, standing in water, or in
over-heated rooms, twelve or fourteen hours a day, or at night,
manufacturing articles which contribute to our pleasures. It would
seem impossible to deny what is so evident, and yet it is what we do
deny.
It cannot be denied that there are people of the wealthy class, and I
am glad to say that I meet them more and more frequently,
particularly in the younger generation and among women, who, on
being reminded by what means and at what a price their pleasures
are obtained, instantly admit the truth of it, and with bowed heads
exclaim: "Ah, do not tell us of it! If it is as you say, one cannot live!"
If, however, there are some who are willing to admit their sin,
though they know not how to escape from it, still, the majority of
men nowadays have become so confirmed in hypocrisy that they
boldly deny facts that are patent to every one who has eyes.
"It is all nonsense," they say. "No one forces the people to work for
the landowners or in the factories. It is a matter of mutual
accommodation. Large properties and capital are indispensable,
because they enable men to organize companies and provide work
for the laboring classes, and the work in mills and factories is by no
means so dreadful as you represent it. When real abuses are found
to exist, the government and society in general take measures to
abolish them and to render the labor of the working-men easier and
more agreeable. The working-classes are used to physical labor, and
are not as yet capable of doing anything else. The poverty of the
people is caused neither by the landowners nor by the tyranny of the
capitalists; it springs from other causes,—from ignorance, disorder,
and intemperance. We, the governing classes, who counteract this
state of poverty by wise administration; and we, the capitalists, who
counteract it by the multiplication of useful inventions; and we, the
liberals, who contribute our share by instituting trade unions and by
diffusing education,—these are the methods by which we promote
the welfare of the people, without making any radical change in our
position. We do not wish all to be poor like the poor; we wish all to
be rich like the rich.
"As to torturing and killing men for the purpose of making them
work for the rich, that is all sophistry; the troops are sent out to
quell disturbances when men, not appreciating their advantages,
rebel and disturb the peace essential for the general welfare. It is
equally necessary to restrain malefactors, for whom prisons, gallows,
and the like are established. We are anxious enough to abolish them
as far as possible ourselves, and are working for that purpose."
Hypocrisy, which nowadays is supported by two methods, the quasi-
religious and the quasi-scientific, has attained such proportions, that
if we did not live in its atmosphere continually, it would be
impossible to believe that humanity could sink to such depths of self-
deception. Men have reached so surprising a state, their hearts have
become so hardened, that they look and do not see; listen, and do
not hear or understand.
For a long time they have been living a life that is contrary to their
conscience. Were it not for the aid of hypocrisy they would be
unable so to live, for such a life, so opposed to conscience, can only
continue because it is veiled by hypocrisy.
And the greater the difference between the practice and the
conscience of men, the more elastic becomes hypocrisy. Yet even
hypocrisy has its limits, and I believe that we have reached them.
Every man of the present day, with the Christian consciousness that
has involuntarily become his, may be likened to a sleeper who
dreams that he is doing what even in his dream he knows he ought
not to do. In the depths of his dream-consciousness he realizes his
conduct, and yet seems unable to change his course, and to cease
doing that which he is aware he should not do.
Then, in the progress of his dream, his state of mind becoming less
and less endurable, he begins to doubt the reality of what has
seemed so real, and makes a conscious effort to break the spell that
holds him.
The average man of our Christian world is in exactly the same strait.
He feels that everything going on around him is absurd, senseless,
and impossible; that the situation is becoming more and more
painful, that it has indeed reached the crisis.
It is impossible that we of the present age, endowed with the
Christian conscience that has become a part of our very flesh and
blood as it were, who live with a full consciousness of the dignity of
man and the equality of all men, who feel our need for peaceable
relations with each other and for the unity of all nations, should go
on living in such a way. It is impossible that all our pleasures, all our
satisfactions, should be purchased by the sufferings and the lives of
our brethren; impossible that we should be ready at a moment's
notice to rush upon each other like wild beasts, one nation against
another, and relentlessly destroy the lives and labor of men, only
because one foolish diplomatist or ruler says or writes something
foolish to another.
It is impossible; and yet all men of our time see that this is what
does happen every day, and all wait for the catastrophe, while the
situation grows more and more strained and painful.
And as a man in his sleep doubts the reality of his dream and longs
to awaken and return to real life, so the average man of our day
cannot, in the bottom of his heart, believe the terrible situation in
which he finds himself, and which is growing worse and worse, to be
the reality. He longs to attain to a higher reality, the consciousness
of which is already within him.
And like this sleeper, who has but to make the conscious effort to
ask himself whether it be a dream, in order to transform its seeming
hopelessness into a joyous awakening, our average man has but to
make a conscious effort and ask himself, "Is not all this an illusion?"
in order to feel himself forthwith like the awakened sleeper,
transported from an hypocritical and horrible dream-world into a
living, peaceful, and joyous real one.
And for this he has no need of any heroic achievement; he has only
to make the effort prompted by his moral consciousness.
But is man able to make this effort?
According to the existing theory, one indispensable from the point of
view of hypocrisy, man is not free and may not change his life.
"A man cannot change his life, because he is not a free agent. He is
not a free agent, because his acts are the result of preceding
causes. And whatever he may do, certain it is that preceding causes
always determine that a man must act in one way rather than in
another; therefore a man is not free to change his life,"—thus argue
the defenders of the metaphysic of hypocrisy. And they would be
perfectly right if man were an unconscious and stationary being,
incapable of apprehending the truth, and unable to advance to a
higher state by means of it. But man is a conscious being, able to
grow more and more in the knowledge of truth. Therefore if he be
not free in his acts, the causes of these acts, which consist in the
recognition simply of such and such truth, are yet within his mastery.
So that if a man is not free to do certain acts, he is yet free to work
toward the suppression of the moral causes which prevent their
performance. He may be likened to the engineer of a locomotive,
who, though not at liberty to change the past or present motion of
his engine, is yet free to determine its future progress.
No matter what an intelligent man may do, he adopts a certain
course of action only because he acknowledges to himself that at
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