had gathered all its mighty black forces and seemed, at the beginning of
1906, to be stronger than at any time in fifty years. The souls of Russia's
noblest and best sons and daughters were steeped in bitter pessimism. And
yet there was reason for hope and rejoicing; out of the ruin and despair
two great and supremely vital facts stood in bold, challenging relief.

The first of these facts was the new aspect of Czarism, its changed status.
Absolutism as a legal institution was dead. Nothing that Nicholas II and
his advisers were able to do could undo the constitutional changes effected
when the imperial edict made it part of the fundamental law of the nation
that "no law can become binding without the consent of the Imperial Duma,"
and that the Duma, elected by the people, had the right to control the
actions of the officials of the government, even when such officials were
appointed by the Czar himself. Absolutism was illegal now. Attempts might
be made to reintroduce it, and, indeed, that was the real significance of
the policy pursued by the government, but Absolutism could no longer
possess the moral strength that inheres in the sanctity of law. In fighting
it the Russian people now had that strength upon their side.

The second vital and hopeful fact was likewise a moral force. Absolutism
with all its assumed divine prerogatives, in the person of the Czar, had
declared its firm will "to grant the people the unshakable foundations of
civic freedom on the basis of real personal inviolability, freedom of
conscience, of speech, of assemblage and of unions." This civic freedom
Absolutism had sanctioned. By that act it gave the prestige of legality to
such assemblages, discussions, and publications as had always hitherto been
forced to accept risks and disabilities inseparable from illegal conduct.
Civic freedom had long been outlawed, a thing associated with lawlessness
and crime, and so long as that condition remained many who believed in
civic freedom itself, who wanted a free press, freedom of public assemblage
and of conscience in matters pertaining to religion, were kept from
participation in the struggle. Respect for law, as law, is deeply rooted in
civilized mankind--a fact which, while it makes the task of the
revolutionist hard, and at times impedes progress, is, nevertheless, of
immense value to human society.

Civic freedom was not yet a fact. It seemed, as a reality, to be as far
away as ever. Meetings were