he ordinary public schools of any
town in England or Switzerland! The young men of the nation were feeble,
unenthusiastic, selfish and--pious--in contrast with fathers, who had
adored the generous ideals of liberty and democracy and had stood for
action, revolt! The son was an old man at majority, his breast laden
with medals, with no other intellectual stimulus than the debates of his
religious fraternity, trusting his future and his thinking to the Jesuit
introduced into the family by the mother, while the father smiled
bitterly, realizing that he was a back-number, belonging to a different
world, to a dying generation--though to a generation which had
galvanized the nation for a moment with the spirit of revolutionary
protest!

Here was the Church collecting pay for its services from the faithful,
and then over again from the State! Here was the Ministry of the
Interior appealing for a reduction in taxes--a program of strict
economy--while new bishoprics were being created and ecclesiastical
appropriations swelled for the benefit of the upper clergy; and with no
advantage at all, meanwhile, to the proletariat of the soutane, to the
poor curates who, to make a bare living, had to practice the most
impious worldliness and unscrupulously exploit the house of God! And
while this was going on public works could wait, towns could go without
roads, Districts without railroads, though the wildest savages of Asia
and Africa had both! Fields could continue to perish of drought while
nearby rivers continued to pour their unutilized waters into the sea!

A thrill of conviction rippled through the Chamber. The silence was
absolute. Everybody was holding his breath so as not to lose a syllable
from that faint voice, which sounded like a cry from a distant tomb. It
was as though Truth in person were passing through those murky
precincts; and when the orator ended with an invocation to the future,
in which social absurdities and injustice should no longer exist, the
silence became deeper still, as if a glacial blast of death were blowing
upon those brains that had thought themselves deliberating in the best
of all possible worlds.

It was now time for the reply. Rafael arose, pale, pulling at his cuffs,
waiting a few minutes for the excitement in the Chamber to subside. The
audience had relaxed and was whispering and stirring about, after the
sustained attention compelled by the concise style and the barely
audible voice of the o