ill arise," writes the _Russ_,--and so forth.

So murder and every kind of crime go on with greater fury. People
enthusiastically admire the martial spirit of the volunteers who, having
come unexpectedly upon fifty of their fellow-men, slay all of them, or
take possession of a village and slaughter all its population, or hang or
shoot those accused of being spies--_i.e._ of doing the very same thing
which is regarded as indispensable and is constantly done on our side.
News about these crimes is reported in pompous telegrams to their chief
director, the Tsar, who, in return, sends to his virtuous troops his
blessing on the continuation of such deeds.

Is it not evident that, if there be a salvation from this position, it is
only one: that one which Jesus teaches?--"Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness (that which is within you), and all the
rest--_i.e._ all that practical welfare toward which man is
striving--will of itself be realized."

Such is the law of life: practical welfare is attained not when man
strives toward this practical welfare--such striving, on the contrary,
for the most part removes man from the attainment of what he seeks; but
only when man, without thinking of the attainment of practical welfare,
strives toward the most perfect fulfilment of that which before God,
before the Source and Law of his life, he regards as right. Then only,
incidentally, is practical welfare also attained.

So that the true salvation of men is only one thing: the fulfilment of
the will of God by each individual man within himself--_i.e._ in that
portion of the universe which alone is subject to his power. In this is
the chief, the only, destiny and duty of every individual man, and at the
same time this is the only means by which every individual man can
influence others; and, therefore, to this, and to this only, should all
the efforts of every man be directed.

May 2, 1904.

XII

I had only just despatched the last of the preceding pages of this paper
when the dreadful news came of a new iniquity committed in regard to the
Russian people by those light-minded men who, crazed with power, have
appropriated the right of managing them. Again coarse and servile slaves
of slaves, dressed up in various dazzling attires--varieties of Generals
wishing to distinguish themselves, or to earn the right to add one more
little star, fingle fangle, or scrap of ribbon to t