The same thing must happen with all those who from inertia hold offices which have long ago become useless, when the first man who is not interested (as the proverb has it, “One hand washes the other”), in concealing the uselessness of these institutions, will point out their uselessness and will naively call out, “But, good people, they have long ago ceased to be good for anything.”
The condition of Christian humanity, with its fortresses, guns, dynamite, cannon, torpedoes, prisons, gallows, churches, factories, customhouses, palaces, is indeed terrible; but neither fortresses, nor cannon, nor guns shoot themselves at anyone, prisons do not themselves lock anyone up, the gallows does not hang anyone, the churches do not of themselves deceive anyone, the customhouses hold no one back, palaces and factories do not erect and maintain themselves, but everything is done by men. But when men understand that this ought not to be done, there will be none of these things.
Men are already beginning to understand this. If not all men understand it as yet, the leaders among men do, those after whom follow all other men. And