akness is
largely due to the inertia of the will, to the dread of independent
judgment, to moral cowardice. The boldest, directly they have shaken off
their chains, are only too ready to assume fresh bonds. Hardly have they
been freed from one social superstition, than we see them deliberately
harnessed to the chariot of a new superstition. It is so much easier to
allow oneself to be guided than it is to think for oneself. This
abdication is the kernel of the mischief. It is the duty of each one of
us to refrain from leaving to others, to the best of men, to the most
trustworthy, to the most dearly loved, the decision of what it is or is
not good for us to do. We ourselves must seek the solution, seek it all
through life if needs must, seek it with untiring patience. A half truth
which we have won for ourselves is worth more than a whole truth learned
from others, learned by rote as a parrot learns. A truth which we
accept with closed eyes, submissively, deferentially, servilely--such a
truth is nothing but a lie.

Stand erect! Open your eyes and look about you! Be not afraid! The
modicum of truth which you can secure by your own efforts is your safest
light. Your essential need is not the acquisition of vast knowledge. The
essential is that the knowledge you gain, be it little or be it much,
shall be your own, nourished with your own blood, outcome of your own
untrammelled effort. Freedom of the spirit is the supreme treasure.

Throughout the ages, free men have been few in number. With the
continued spread of herd mentality the number seems not unlikely to grow
smaller yet. No matter! For the sake of these very multitudes who
surrender to the slothful intoxication of collective passion, we must
cherish the flame of liberty. Let us seek truth everywhere; let us cull
it wherever we can find its blossom or its seed. Having found the seed
let us scatter it to the winds of heaven. Whencever it may come,
whithersoever it may blow, it will be able to germinate. There is no
lack, in this wide universe, of souls that will form the good ground.
But these souls must be free. We must learn not to be enslaved even by
those whom we admire. The best homage we can pay to men like Tolstoy is
to be free, as Tolstoy was free.

"Les Tablettes," Geneva, May 1, 1917.

IX

TO MAXIM GORKI

At Geneva, in January, 1917, A. V. Lunacharski delivered a lecture
on the life and works of Maxim Gorki. The following tribute to