I am not bound to keep my temper with an imposture so outrageous, so abjectly sycophantic, as the pretence that the existing inequalities of income correspond to and are produced by moral and physical inferiorities and superiorities--that Barnato was five million times as great and good a man as William Blake, and committed suicide because he lost two-fifths of his superiority; that the life of Lord Anglesey has been on a far higher plane than that of John Ruskin; that Mademoiselle Liane de Pougy has been raised by her successful sugar speculation to moral heights never attained by Florence Nightingale; and that an arrangement to establish economic equality between them by duly adjusted pensions would be impossible. I say that no sane person can be expected to treat such impudent follies with patience, much less with respect. The Two Songs BY WILLIAM BLAKE (See page 98) I heard an Angel singing When the day was springing: "Mercy, pity, and peace, Are the world's release." So he sang all day Over the new-mown hay, Till the sun went down, And haycocks looked brown I heard a Devil curse Over the heath and the furze: "Mercy could be no more If there were nobody poor, And pity no more could be If all were happy as ye: And mutual fear brings peace. Misery's increase Are mercy, pity, peace." At his curse the sun went down, And the heavens gave a frown. BY JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE (English historian, 1818-1894) The endurance of the inequalities of life by the poor is the marvel of human society. Savva BY LEONID ANDREYEV (In this strange drama, which might be called a symbolic tragi-comedy, the Russian writer has set forth the plight of the educated people of his country, confronted by the abject superstition of the peasantry. Savva, a fanatical revolutionist, endeavors to wipe out this superstition by blowing up a monastery full of drunken monks. But the plot is revealed to the monks, who carry out the ikon, or sacred image, before the explosion, and afterwards carry it back into the ruins. The peasants, arriving on the scene and finding the ikon uninjured, hail a supreme miracle; the whole country is swept by a wave of religious frenzy, in the course of which Savva is trampled to death by a mob. In the following scene Savva argues with his sister, a religious believer. The tramp of pilgrims is heard outside) SAVVA (_smiling_):--The tramp of death! LIPA:--Remember that each one of these would consider himself happy in killing you, in crushing you like a reptile. Each one of these is your death. Why, they beat a simple thief to death, a horse thief. What would they not do to you? You who wanted to steal their God! SAVVA:--Quite true. That's property too.