Page:George Pitt-Rivers - The World Significance of the Russian Revolution (1920).pdf/5

Rh The Sun has a habit of rising there, his rays, thousands of years ago, used to select for a first visit the deserts and mountains of Palestine, where lonely Prophets caught this radiance and whence eager apostles brought it to pagan and less "enlightened" countries. It was by them that the light was carried to Europe, where, it is true, it was received at first somewhat unwillingly and distrustfully. After a couple of centuries this resistance was overcome, and moreover, what yonder was called the Reign of God and the Millennium of Brotherhood, became with us in Europe the "Reign of Liberty," the "Reign of Reason," the "Reign of Equality," and finally the "Reign of the Proletariat." We all remember from History these passionate followers of St. Peter and St. Paul—though more of the latter than the former—who, in Apostolic succession saw the coming "Dawn," and peace the Holy Faith. There is a direct line from Savonarola to Luther, and from Luther to Robespierre, and from Robespierre to Lenin Lenin, the Lenin of to-day, may have been partially converted by that experience of men and affairs which has converted many an enthusiast and, alas! has frequently made a cynic or a rogue of him: one certain thing that may be gathered from his writings is this, that he was before the Revolution a dreamer and a visionary, and one quite worthy of his spiritual ancestors, of whom I have only named some, while omitting many other important names. It is quite certain that he started his revolutionary career as a true and convinced Apostle of "Light and Faith," which he preached as the orthodox disciple of his spiritual father, who inspired the "Newest" testament "Das Capital!" In M. Landau Aldanov's book, Lénine, there is to be found an account of a young student who visited the Smolny Institute in order to witness the first public appearance of Lenin after the Bolshevist coup d'état. Neither Trotsky nor the others made much impression upon the young man, but Lenin