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such a deed of sorcery and witchcraft when men, declaring that
there is no crime and no sin but only hunger, will erect the terrible
Tower of Babel. But after a thousand years of suffering, of the con–
fusion of free thought and of science ending in "cannibalism," the
people will seek out the priestly elite hidden in their catacombs:
'They will find us and cry to us, 'Feed us, for those who have
promised the fire from heaven haven't given it!' And then we shall
finish building their tower.... And we alone shall feed them in Thy
name, declaring falsely that it is in Thy name. . . . And we shall sit
upon the beast and raise the cup, and on
it
will be written, 'Mystery.' "
The Inquisitor sneers at the nihilists and socialists even while
appropriating what he conceives to be their principal idea: material–
ism and technics, the miracle of turning stones into bread. In other
words, ecclesiastical totalitarianism comes to terms with the socialist
cause by absorbing it. Only then begins the reign of the universal
state-"an harmonious antheap"-assuring peace for all. Its principle
of organization is power. Jesus repudiated power, but not the theo–
crats of Rome, who have taken up the sword of Caesar, proclaiming
themselves the lords of the earth. "We shall triumph and we shall
be Caesars," the Inquisitor cries, "and then we shall plan the uni–
versal happiness of mankind." All will be happy except the members
of the ruling caste, since
it
is they alone who are not absolved from
the knowledge of good and evil. They keep that knowledge strictly
to themselves, just as they keep the secret of their atheism. The mil–
lions whom they rule submit meekly to their commands and die peace–
fully believing in the rewards of heaven and eternity, as they have
been told to believe, though of course beyond the grave nothing
whatever awaits them.
The only answer the Inquisitor receives from his prisoner is a
kiss on his withered lips. The old man shudders and, opening the
door of the cell, exclaims: "Go, and come no more . . . come not at
all, never, never!"
II
The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor did not of a sudden
spring full-grown from Dostoevsky's imagination. For its sources, and
that peculiar combination in it of elements seldom found in close
as-
