ged her down by her hair, while a ruffian snatched the
child from her breast and, holding it by its feet, dashed its skull
against the wall before her eyes--as you might slash a wet cloth against
a pillar to dry it--I shall never forget that handsome young mother and
her child; they come before me in my dreams at night even now.

"All these things I saw; and I shuddered to behold God's creatures,
beings endowed with reason, persecuting their fellows, plunging them
into misery, tearing them limb from limb--and why? Merciful Saviour,
why? For sheer hatred--as sure as man is the standard for all
things--merely carried away by a hideous impulse to spite their neighbor
for not thinking as they do--nay, simply for not being themselves--to
hurt him, insult him, work him woe. And these fanatics, these armies
who raised the standard of ruthlessness, of extermination, of
bloodthirstiness, were Christians, were baptized in the name of Him who
bids us forgive our enemies, who enlarged the borders of love from the
home and the city and the state to include all mankind; who raised the
adulteress from the dust, who took children into his arms, and would
have more joy over a sinner who repents than over ninety and nine just
persons!--Blood, blood, was what they craved; and did not the doctrine
of Him whose followers they boastfully called themselves grow out of the
blood of Him who shed it for all men alike,--just as that lotos flower
grows out of the clear water in the marble tank? And it was the highest
guardians and keepers of this teaching of mercy, who goaded on the
fury of the mob: Patriarchs, bishops, priests and deacons--instead of
pointing to the picture of the Shepherd who tenderly carries the lost
sheep and brings it home to the fold.

"My own times seemed to me the worst that had ever been; aye, and--as
surely as man is the standard of all things--so they are! for love is
turned to hatred, mercy to implacable hardheartedness. The thrones not
only of the temporal but of the spiritual rulers, are dripping with
the blood of their fellow-men. Emperors and bishops set the example;
subjects and churchmen follow it. The great, the leading men of the
struggle are copied by the small, by the peaceful candidates for
spiritual benefices. All that I saw as a man, in the open streets, I had
already seen as a boy both in the low and high schools. Every doctrine
has its adherents; the man who casts in his lot with Cneius is hated by
Caiu