•
30
PARTISAN REVIEW
his cell-the charges his comrades had made against him, were, in
the sense that only politics allows, strictly true. History is everything,
and there are no causes. In the judgment of history, he did not exist.
He had devoted his life to the movement, striving to contribute
his
will to the general effort, in the hope that out of the common will
might emerge a force which could act as a cause:. But he had been
only an agent, a means, and never a cause, and through his agency
had passed events that he had never intended and in which he could
never recognize himself. As an individual he did not, therefore, exist.
And thus it was true to say that while he had never conspired and
never betrayed, never done anything for which he need feel shame
or regret-it was true to say that he was the cause of the defeat of
the movement. Insofar as any man could be a cause, he was also
the cause of this.
And yet he knew that there were many throughout the country
who still revered his name, who thought him a martyr and
a
hero
and prayed for him and suffered with him. For them he still existed
as a man, and they would not let history dissolve him.
If
Satya strove
to think well of himself, if he reviewed his past only to make sure
there was nothing he need regret, it was not vanity. Or,
if
it was
vanity, it was also the only means of struggling against history and
rejecting its conclusions. Narcissus leaned to the river to admire his
image, and falling in, drowned. Satya also leaned to admire, but,
were he to drown, he would survive.
But what had become of them- those who wished him well, and
who, undoubtedly, were in the majority? Satya knew that whatever he
should have to endure in prison, he would suffer most from isola–
tion....
Weeks ran by. The prison routine was as he had always known
it, and there was no evidence of experimentation. He was in solitary
confinement, and solitary confinement was the same as it had always
been. With, however, the following exceptions: his cell was not part of
a block, but stood alone, a small stone hut isolated from all others.
It
was surrounded by a twenty foot wall built at a distance of five feet
from the hut. He was let out once a day and allowed to walk in the
passage between his cell and the prison wall. For all he knew, he was
the only prisoner. He could not look over the wall; nor did he hear
sounds of life. When he ac;ked for books they were given to him-one
was long in coming and when it arrived, he found a note pinned to the
cover, apologizing for the delay and explaining that it had been
necessary to send to the library at Allaban, no other copy being avail-
