Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/482

Rh of the bandit Muha, and has in the end to admit that between himself and Muha there is no essential difference. "The next thing after God is money," is held valid also by provocative agents, of whom two types are described by Ropšin. Dr. Berg, the leader, sells himself to the police because he has a taste for luxury. The young Nietzschean, on the other hand, seeks "protection," ostensibly in order to serve the party, a similar attempt having previously been made by the Narodnaja Volja; moreover there is at work in his mind a complex of "emotions" and stimuli. Of course the rascal, although he continually has Nietzsche upon his tongue, and is always quoting Zarathustra, is likewise in pursuit of money as the source of agreeable "emotions." The sailor who has recently joined the party, a man who has survived the disgrace of Tsushima, brother of the leader Andrei who is eventually executed, learns the spy's secret, and insists that he shall either kill the superintendent of police or be killed himself.

The details are powerful. The naval officer joins the party to continue the fight for Russia and honour; he is no philosopher, or analyst, and his simple formula is that of Stepniak, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Alexander has no decisions to make, for he lacks experience, and has not the whole revolutionary movement under his eyes. The youngest brother (Three Brothers is the sub-title of the book) with boyish enthusiasm, hastens from school to the barricade, and is shot on the way thither. But Andrei is familiar, not only with Nietzsche, but with the whole literature of the revolution, and aims at having a philosophy of revolution.

Ropšin shows us how the revolutionists do their deeds hesitatingly and in defiance of inward resistance. He shows us once more how suicide is esteemed the last resort. All these things we have learned from The Pale Horse. But The Tale of What was Not is a work of wider scope.

HE publication of Ropšin's second novel and the simultaneous appearance of the second edition of The Pale Horse put an end to the irresolution of the critics, whether of his own party or of the opposing camps. So unexpected, so incredible, seemed such a philosophy of revolution as the work of a social revolutionary, that people had been slow to