Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIII. A Ruined Family
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love for mankind and an earnest, desire for its improved
welfare, but as soon as the charm was broken by their removal
to another sphere, they lost their ardour and pursued their
own career, straining after their personal interests in
carelessness of the sufferings of others.
This group used to meet at leisure hours for the reading and
discussion of such works as would throw light on the problems
that perplexed them, above all, the social questions that forced
themselves upon their attention; for example, the “Political
Economy of John Stuart Mill.” They also had a paper for
private circulation, in which they expressed their own ideas
upon the burning topics of the day.
All this, of course, was done in secret, without the
knowledge of the school and other authorities, who might report
them to the police. For the Government of the Tsar does not
love brilliant geniuses. Instead of using them for the good
of the nation, for conquering the obstacles that Nature puts
in the way of human welfare, that when overcome they may
confer a richer blessing on mankind, the Great Autocrat and
his satellites pounce upon them in their early years, and
condemn them to prison and to exile. Many die a premature
death, others lose their reason in the terrible torture of prison
life; those that endure to the end come out of their fiery
trial as strong eagles whose eyes have been dimmed and their
pinions singed, so that for them soaring flight has become
for ever impossible. In this way Russia is deprived of her
greatest wealth, the talent and genius of the flower of her
youth. Happily, fresh young lives take up the tasks from which
their predecessors have been violently removed, and with
indomitable energy and courage push on their work for freedom of
life and thought, until death or Siberia cuts them off. The
cause for which they perish is undying, and in time it will
overthrow all obstacles; tyranny and official despotism shall
give way to liberty and brotherhood, both here and in the other
countries of the world.
In these studies Alexander and his companions passed three
years of their school life, but they were not left in peace. The
authorities had learned by experience that the fermentation of
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