A LETfER TO RUSSIAN LIBERALS 207
tions and addresses, or who says and writes what he thinks and feels ? By prosecuting such a man the Government secures for him general sympathy, making him a martyr, and it undermines the foundations on which it is itself built, for, in so acting, instead of protecting human rights it itself infringes them.
And it is only necessary for all those good, enlight- ened, and honest people whose strength is now wasted in Revolutionary, Socialistic, or Liberal activity (harm- ful to themselves and to their cause) to begin to act thus, and a nucleus of honest, enlightened, and moral people would form around them, united in the same thoughts and the same feelings. And to this nucleus the ever-wavering crowd of average people would at once gravitate, and public opinion — the only power which subdues Governments — would become evident, demanding freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, justice and humanity. And as soon as public opinion was formulated, not only would it be impossible to suppress the Literature Committee, but all those in- human organizations — the ' State of Siege,' the Secret Police, the Censor, Schliisselburg,"^ the Holy Synod, and the rest — against which the Revolutionists and tlie Liberals are now struggling, would disappear of themselves.
So that two methods of opposing the Government have been tried, both unsuccessfully, and it now remains to try a third and last method, one not yet tried, but one which, 1 think, cannot but be successful. Briefly, it is this : That all enlightened and honest people should try to be as good as they can ; and not even good in all respects but only in one, namely, in observing one of the most elementary virtues — to be honest and not to lie, but so to act and speak that your motives should be intelligible to an affectionate seven- year-old boy ; to act so that your boy should not say : ' But why, papa, did you say so-and-so, and now you do and say something quite different ?' This method
- The most terrible of the places of imprisonment in
Petersburg.
