In an article appearing in _Hermes_, a magazine published in
Bilbao, Salaverría assumes that I have been cured of my anarchism, and
that I persist in a negative and anarchistic attitude in order to retain
my literary clientele; which is not the fact. In the first place, I can
scarcely be said to have a clientele; in the second place, a small
following of conservatives is much more lucrative than a large one of
anarchists. It is true that I am withdrawing myself from the festivals
of Pan and the cult of Dionysus, but I am not substituting for them,
either outwardly or inwardly, the worship of Yahveh or of Moloch. I have
no liking for Semitic traditions--none and none whatever! I am not able,
like Salaverría, to admire the rich simply because they are rich, nor
people in high stations because they happen to occupy them.
Salaverría assumes that I have a secret admiration for grand society,
generals, magistrates, wealthy gentlemen from America, and Argentines
who shout out: "How perfectly splendid!" I have the same affection for
these things that I have for the cows which clutter up the road in front
of my house. I would not be Fouquier-Tinville to the former nor butcher
to the latter; but my affection then has reached its limit. Even when I
find something worthy of admiration, my inclination is toward the small.
I prefer the Boboli Gardens to those of Versailles, and Venetian or
Florentine history to that of India.
Great states, great captains, great kings, great gods, leave me cold.
They are all for peoples who dwell on vast plains which are crossed by
mighty rivers, for the Egyptians, for the Chinese, for the Hindus, for
the Germans, for the French.
We Europeans who are of the region of the Pyrenees and the Alps, love
small states, small rivers, and small gods, whom we may address
familiarly.
Salaverría is also mistaken when he says that I am afraid of change. I
am not afraid. My nature is to change. I am predisposed to develop, to
move from here to there, to reverse my literary and political views if
my feelings or my ideas alter. I avoid no reading except that which is
dull; I shall never retreat from any performance except a vapid one, nor
am I a partisan either of austerity or of consistency. Moreover, I am
not a little dissatisfied with myself, and I would give a great deal to
have the pleasure of turning completely about, if only to prove to
myself that I am capable of a shift of attitude which is sincere.
NEW PATHS
Some months since three friends met together in an old-fashioned
bookshop on the venerable Calle del Olivo--a writer, a printer, and
myself.
"Fifteen years ago all three of us were anarchists," remarked the
printer.
"What are we today?" I inquired.
"We are conservatives," replied the man who wrote. "What are you?"
"I believe that I have the same ideas I had then."
"You have not developed if that is so," retorted the writer with a show
of scorn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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