and the poor, seeing his humility, will understand
and give way before him, will respond joyfully and kindly to his honourable
shame. Believe me that it will end in that; things are moving to that.
Equality is to be found only in the spiritual dignity of man, and that
will only be understood among us. If we were brothers, there would be
fraternity; but before that they will never agree about the division of
wealth. We preserve the image of Christ, and it will shine forth like a
precious diamond to the whole world. So be it, so be it!"--DOSTOIEFFSKY,
_The Brothers Karamazov._

"The French are a decent civilised lot of people; but I wish we were not
allies of Russia." This, or something very like it, is the spoken or
unspoken thought of a very large number of persons, especially among the
working-classes in England at the present time. English suspicion of Russia
is no new thing, though there is no doubt that the suppression of the
revolution during the years 1906-1909 made it more general than ever
before. It was responsible, for example, for the Crimean War, and the
"crafty Russian" has become a catch-word almost as widely accepted in
England as the phrase "perfidious Albion" is upon the Continent. I have
seen Russia at her worst: I saw the revolution stamped out cruelly and
relentlessly; I have lived three years in Finland, and know the weariness
of spirit and aching bitterness of heart that comes to a fine and cultured
race in its perpetual struggle for liberty against an alien Government to
whom the word liberty means nothing but rebellion. And yet I am firmly
persuaded of the innate soundness of the Russian people, and of the
tremendous future which lies before it in the history of the world. I
believe too that the English are suspicious of Russia, not because Russia
is crafty or evil or barbaric, but because English people find it very
difficult to understand a race which is so extraordinarily different from
themselves. We fear the unknown; we suspect what is unlike ourselves; yet
we shall do well, in the present crisis, whether we are thinking of our
enemy Germany or our ally Russia, to remember the axiom laid down by Edmund
Burke, the greatest of English political thinkers: "It is impossible to
bring an indictment against a whole nation."

In any case, for good or ill, Russia is our ally, and if Germany is beaten,
Russia seems likely to play as great a part in the settlement as she did in
1815. It therefore beh