From the Other Shore

XVII

soil enriched by two civilizations; the path traversed by their ancestors over the course of two and a half millennia was not in vain, and much of humanity has developed independently of external structure and official order.

In the worst times of European history, we encounter a certain respect for the individual, a certain recognition of independence, and certain rights granted to talent and genius. Despite all the vileness of the German governments of that time, Spinoza was not sent into exile, and Lessing was not flogged or pressed into military service. In this respect—not only for material power but for moral power as well, in this involuntary recognition of the individual—lies one of the great human principles of European life.

In Europe, one who lives abroad has never been considered a criminal, nor has one who moves to America been considered a traitor.

We have nothing of the sort. With us, the individual has always been suppressed, absorbed, and has never even striven to stand forth. Free speech has always been considered insolence among us, and originality has been seen as sedition; the human being disappeared into the state and dissolved into the commune. The revolution of Peter I replaced the archaic, landlord-style administration of Rus' with a European clerical order; everything that could be copied from Swedish