reedom. It is necessary,--for it is just and
useful--to give the Jew equal rights with the Russians; it is
imperative that we should do so not only out of respect to the people
which has rendered and is constantly rendering yeoman service to
humanity and our own nation, but also out of self-respect.

We must make haste with this plain, human reform, for the animosity
against Jews is on the increase in our country, and if we do not make
an attempt to arrest the growth of this blind hatred, it will prove
pernicious to our cultural development. We must bear in mind that the
Russian people have hitherto seen very little good, and therefore,
believe all the evil things that man-haters whisper in their ears. The
Russian peasant does not manifest any organic hatred for the Jew,--on
the contrary, he shows an exceptional attraction for Israel's
religious thought, fascinating for its democratic spirit. As far as I
can remember, the religious sects of "judaizers" exist only in Russia
and Hungary. In late years, the sects of "Sabbathists" and "The New
Israel" have been developing rather rapidly in our country. In spite
of this, when the Russian peasant hears of persecutions of Jews, he
says with the indifference of an Oriental:

"No one sues or beats an innocent man."

Who ought to know better than the Russian peasant that in "Holy
Russia" the innocent are too often tried and beaten? But his
conception of right and wrong has been confused from time immemorial,
the sense of injustice is undeveloped in his dark mind, dimmed by
centuries of Tartardom, boyardom, and the horrors of serfdom.

The village has a dislike for restless people, even when that
restlessness is expressed in an aspiration for a better life. We
Russians are intensely Oriental by nature, we love quiet and
immobility, and a rebel, even if he be a Job, delights us in but an
abstract way. Lost in the depth of a winter six months long, and wrapt
in misty dreams, we love beautiful fairy-tales, but the desire for a
beautiful life is undeveloped in us. And when on the plane of our lazy
thought something new and disquieting makes its appearance,--instead
of accepting and sympathetically scanning it, we hasten to drive it
into a dark corner of our mind and bury it there, lest it disturb us
in our customary vegetative existence, amidst impotent hopes and grey
dreams.

In addition to the people, there is also the "populace," something
standing outside of social classes a