PARTISAN REVIEW
woman doctor was neither right nor wrong in being what she was.
She was just lucky.
4
But luck runs out; once upon a time, but still in our time and
memory, it was also disclosed, by law of nature or divine decree, that
nature herself exalted the principle of inequality, that nature herself
chose as kings and rulers those who were fittest and strongest to survive
the age-old struggle for existence. Thus the stronger rose and cast off
the image of simple humanity and rejected the principle of inalienable
rights; for simple humanity was the weaker and its rights were a per–
version of nature's own mysterious laws according to which only the
stronger should decide what is right and wrong and the weaker should
serve and obey the stronger.
And it came to pass that this truth prevailed and that it was
inscribed upon new tablets of right and wrong. Sometimes the weaker
were the barbarians, sometimes the weaker were the infidels, sometimes
the black men, sometimes the yellow men, sometimes the women, some–
times the Jews, sometimes the Poles or gypsies-sometimes simple hu–
manity.
And the Roumanian woman doctor was wrong in being what she
was; for it happened, once upon a time, but still in our time and mem–
ory, that the stronger prevailed and saw fit to persecute and exterminate
the weaker of which she was one.
5
Thus it came to pass that the Roumanian woman doctor and her
husband and her son and her parents were driven forth from the land
they had lived in and from the home they had built and loved and sent
onto the road of exile, naked and poor, on foot and in cattle cars.
With the Roumanian woman doctor and her husband and her son and
her parents-there were driven forth from the land of Egypt, from the
plateau of Mexico, from the cities of Spain, from the steppes and
forests of Asia and America, from the foothills of Ararat, from the
waters of the Euphrates, Amazon, and Yangtze, from the jungles of
Africa, and from the ghetto of Warsaw-all those who, from time im–
memorial, have always been driven from the land and homes, because
they were weak, and the stronger prevailed according to the law of
nature or divine decree.
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