Something is taking place incomprehensible and impossible in its cruelty, falsehood, and stupidity. The Russian Tsar, the same man who all the nations in the cause of peace, publicly announces that, notwithstanding all his efforts to maintain the peace so dear to his heart (efforts which express themselves in the seizing of other peoples' lands and in the strengthening of armies for the defence of these stolen lands), he, owing to the attack of the Japanese, commands that the same shall be done to the Japanese as they had commenced doing to the Russians—i.e. that they should be ; and in announcing this call to murder he mentions God, asking the Divine on the most dreadful crime in the world. The Japanese Emperor has proclaimed the same thing in relation to the Russians.  
Men of science and of law (Messieurs Muravieff and Martens) try to prove that in the recent call of all nations to universal peace and the present to war, because of the of other peoples' lands, there is no contradiction. Diplomatists, in their refined French language, publish and send out circulars in which they circumstantially and prove (though they know no one believes them) that, after all its efforts to establish peaceful relations (in reality, after all its efforts to deceive other countries), the Russian Government has been compelled to have recourse to the only means for a rational solution of the question—i.e. to the murder of men. The same thing is written by Japanese diplomatists. Scientists, 5historians, and philosophers, on their side, comparing the present with the past, deduce from these comparisons profound conclusions, and argue interminably about the laws of the movement of nations, about the relation between the yellow and white races, or about and Christianity, and on the basis of these and arguments the of those belonging to the yellow race by ; while in the same way the Japanese scientists and philosophers justify the slaughter of those of the white race. Journalists, without their joy, try to outdo each other, and, not hesitating at any falsehood, however and , prove in all possible ways that the Russians only are right and strong and good in every respect, and that all the Japanese are wrong and weak and bad in every respect, and that all those are also bad who are inimical or may become inimical toward the Russians—the English, the Americans; and the same is proved likewise by the Japanese and their supporters in relation to the Russians.
 
Not to mention the military, who in the way of their profession prepare for murder, crowds of so-called enlightened people, such as professors, social reformers, students, nobles, merchants, without being forced thereto by anything or anybody, express the most bitter and contemptuous feelings toward the Japanese, the English, or the Americans, toward whom but yesterday they were either well-disposed or indifferent; while, without the least compulsion, they express the most , servile feelings toward the Tsar (to whom, to say the least, they were completely indifferent), assuring 6him of their love and readiness to sacrifice their lives in his interests.
 
This unfortunate, young man, recognized as the leader of one hundred and thirty millions of people, continually deceived and compelled to contradict himself, confidently thanks and blesses the troops whom he calls his own for murder in defence of lands which with yet less right he also calls his own. All present to each other ikons in which not only no one amongst the educated believes, but which unlearned peasants are beginning to abandon; all bow down to the ground before these ikons, kiss them, and pronounce and deceitful speeches in which no one really believes.
 
Wealthy people contribute portions of their acquired riches for this cause of murder or the organization of help in connection with the work of murder; while the poor, from whom the Government collects two milliards, deem it necessary to do likewise, giving their also. The Government and encourages crowds of idlers, who walk about the streets with the Tsar's portrait, singing, shouting ! and who, under of , are in all kinds of excess. All over Russia, from the Palace to the remotest village, the of churches, calling themselves Christians, appeal to that God who has love to one's enemies—to the God of Love Himself—to help the work of the devil to further the slaughter of men.
 
Stupefied by prayers, sermons, , by processions, pictures, and newspapers, the cannon's flesh, hundreds of thousands of men, uniformly dressed, carrying deadly weapons, leaving their parents, wives, 7children, with hearts of agony, but with artificial , go where they, risking their own lives, will commit the most dreadful act of men whom they do not know and who have done them no harm. And they are followed by doctors and nurses, who somehow imagine that at home they cannot serve simple, peaceful, suffering people, but can only serve those who are engaged in each other. Those who remain at home are gladdened by news of the murder of men, and when they learn that many Japanese have been killed they thank some one whom they call God.
 
All this is not only regarded as the of elevated feeling, but those who refrain from such , if they endeavor to men, are deemed and betrayers, and are in danger of being abused and beaten by a brutalized crowd which, in defence of its and cruelty, can possess no other weapon than force.