The Labor enquirer., 1884-02-09
Words Of the Great Scientist
and Humanitarian,
Krapotkine.
Pure Science Will Yield Fruit
for the Future Gener-
atiOns.
The Day Not Far Off When This
VIII be Understood With
Socialism.

Translated from the French by [Missl LIE
Compte, "Proletalre," especially for the San
Francisco Truth; republished In The En-
aUIRER by special permission. III y
Finally, you, young artist, sculptor,
painter, poet, musician, have you not no
ticed that the sacred fire which inspired
some of your predecessors is lackingin you
and yours, that art is now commonplace
that .mediocrity reigns?
And could il be otherwise The joy
of having rebound the ancient world, of
being resteeped in the springs of Nature,
which made the masterpieces of the Rem
naissance does not exist for contempo-
rary art the revolutionary idea has left
it cold up to the present, and having no
idea, it believes it has found one in real
ism. So it exerts itself TO-DAY to photo
graph in colors the dewdrop on the leaf
of plant, to initiate the buttocks Of
cow, and to paint minutely in prose and
verse the sufocating nlire of sewer-the
boudoir of fast woman.
But if it is thus, what to do?" you
ask. If your sacred fire is but a "smok-
ing wick" then you will continue to do
as you have been doing, and your art
will very soon degenerate to the trade of
decorator to the shopkeepers' drawing
rooms, to that of the puryeyor of libretti,
to the bouffes. and of feuilletons to M.
de Girardin. The most of you are al
ready going headlong on this downward
road.
But if really your heart beats in uni
son with that of humanity, if, like true
poet, you have an ear for the heartbeat
of life, then in presence of this sea of
suffering, the waves of which are beat
Ing abbot you, in presence of these peo-
Pile, dying of hunger, of these heaps of
dead bodies in mines, and of the piles
of mutilated corpses lying at the feet of
barricades, Fof these conveys of exiles on
their way to be buried in the SHOWS of
Siberia and to die on fever flats of tropi
cal isles, in the presence of this Supreme
Struggle which is raging, of the agon-
lied cries of the vanquished, of the
orgies of the vanquishers, of heroism
against cowardice, of noblene IS against
baseness, you will not be able to remain
neuter you will come to range yourself
on the side Of the oppressed, for you
will know that the true, the su blime-in
short, Life itself-are on the side of
those who struggle for the Light, for
Humanity, for Justice,
You stop me at last. "The devil" you
say. "But if abstract science is luxury
and the practice of medicine a cheat !;
if the law is an injustice and technical
discovery an instrument of exploitation;
If the school, with its practical wisdom,
is sure to be vanquished, and art with
out the revolutionary idea cannot but
degenerate, what remains, then, for me
to do ?"
l will tell you. An immense work, a
work attractive in the highest degree, q
work in which your acts will be in COM
plete accord with your conscience, a
work to command the most noble and
vigorous natures.
What work?
I am going to tell you.
III.
The ANALYSIS we have made leads to
this That one will either compromise
awhile with his conscience and finish by
saying, Perish Humanity, provided l
can have all the pleasures and profits
that the people are stupid enough to let
me )" or, he will join the ranks of the
Socialists, to work with them for the
complete Transformation of society.
Notwithstanding the result of bour-
geoise education, opinion of interested
parties and the sophisms of society,
every intelligent being will be logically
brought to the conclusion if he but rea-
sons on what is going on about him.
Having made the decision of an hon
est mind, the question, "What to do?"
presents itself.
= The answer is easy
Only 60 out of the situation in which
you are placed, where it Is the custom to
speak of the people as brutes, come to-
wards this people, and the answer will
arise of. itself
You will see that everywhere, in
France as in Germany, in Italy as in the
United States, wherever there is privi-
legged class and an oppressed class, there
is gigantic work going on, the object of
which is to break forever the feudalism
of capital, and lay the foundation Of So
ciety on Justice and Equity. 1t is not
enough for the working people of to-day
to pour forth their sorrows and songs of
art-breaking melody. such as the serfs
of the eighteenth century sang, such as
the Russian peasant sings still they
work for their freedom and work with a
will and conscience. 49,.
Their thought is constantly exercised
to devine what must be done that life,
insteadrof being curse TO three -fourths
of the human race, may be pleasure
for all. They undertake the most ar