N. K.

“ That precisely your " love of humanity " was the most cruel tormentor, the most inexorable executioner, the most bloodthirsty butcher of men, and the greatest of all criminals.
Do you not see in all this the wise rule of the masochistic principle ? That it was only persecution which diffused these ideas ? All the progress which man makes in civilization must be paid for by means of enormous sacrifice. The superhuman sorrows of millions of slaves created the civilization of antiquity the Phoenician, the Babylonian, the Persian, the Assyrian, the Greek, and the Roman ! ”

“ Somewhat more did I love and honour humanity on account of this misery ; but not to the extent of something beyond force, something " superhuman," which would have been necessary for my complete satisfaction. Perhaps in Baku I should have experienced this super- human feeling, had it not been that at the decisive moment my body gave way under the strain. Was that, perhaps, prearranged by Nature ? Has Nature imposed these limits upon an individual, in order to prevent him from raising himself above the human standard ? ”

“ A love of cruelty considered by itself, without a nobler motive, is inhuman, inharmonious to human nature, and man cannot escape his own nature. There must therefore be other motives at the basis of such actions, motives of a nature more humanly comprehensible.
But look at all those slaughterers ! Regard their physiognomy ! Not a trace of cruelty only suffering, unheard-of suffering, is re- flected on these faces ! . . . The fear of death and the pain of their victims prepares for themselves incredible torment ! ”

“ Is not the great developmental principle of Nature based upon this that the existence and progress of the species is dependent upon pressure exercised on it by its environment ? The more difficult the conditions of existence, the harder the pressure of the environment, the more suffering the species has to bear, the stronger must be the reaction against these, the more strongly will the powers and capacities of that species become active, and by this the species will be elevated to a higher level. ”

“ Bodily- sexual masochism, with all its artificial sensual charms, was a cup which I drained to the dregs ; but I was never able to explain to myself why humanity was satisfied with so crude a definition of the idea of " masochism." Sexual masochism is indeed one of the most obvious facts of life. But the same is true also of sexual love ; and yet we do not maintain that love is only sexual impulse. ”

“ At the foundation of the whole hermaphroditic state, there lay nothing else than the love of humanity. . . . An everyday humanity offers us no new sensations. . . . We are only able to love when it is out of the ordinary. . . . For this reason, we strive to see mankind in pain and poverty in order that we may love men more ardently ; to love them for that reason, because their misery provides for us intense pain. ”

“ Before every one whom they meet they will lower their eyes : " He knows that I have murdered people, amid the most cruel tortures, against whom there was no hatred in my heart murdered only for this reason : because I had within me the instinctive demand for spiritual torment ; because by the situation in which I suddenly found myself one pole of my hermaphrodite nature was suddenly discharged !"
" They are masochists, only they do not know it."
Self-contempt suddenly seized me amidst this satanic orgy of suffering on the part of such unconscious, instinctive masochists. ”

“ Amid the most horrible birth-pangs, amid the slave rebellions, peasant wars, and revolutions, in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, mankind was enabled to throw off the shell of the feudal system. Therewith capitalism was born. This newest form of civilization, once more, is based upon horrible plundering, oppres- sion, and misery of millions and millions of proletarians.
What a devastation of humanity results from the acquirements of civilization in respect of engineering and the practical arts ! . . . Every invention and discovery demands its victims ! ”

“ This martyrdom of the soul, which lovers prepare for themselves in the unceasing dread of losing one another, or of losing one another's love, is intimately connected with the very nature of love. Without anxiety of this kind, love would be unthinkable. He who loves must continually torment himself with this anxiety ; and the stronger the love, the greater is this torment. When the torment is increased by the other's participation in it, the mutual love is also increased thereby. ”

“ All my companions, boys and girls alike, endeavoured to play tricks on one another ; to tell tales of one another to their parents, tales true and false ; in every way to cause suffering, in order then, by redoubled love, to make all right again. On the other hand, I noticed that no child loved another unless it was tormented by that other. ”

“ Those who did not torment one another were mutually indifferent.
This mutual tormenting and being tormented must therefore, in the nature of things, produce a certain charm, gives rise to a pleasure. This pleasure consisted in increasing, mentally realizing, sympathizing with, the pain of another. This is not sadism generally speaking, sadism does not exist it is only refined masochism ; for we prepare pains in order to sympathize with them that is, in order that we may free ourselves. ”

“ IV. Our life together became continually more intolerable, and yet we could not bear to be away from one another a single hour. A terrible fate chained us together, and threw us into the maelstrom of this furious impulse, irresistible in its elemental force. To tear ourselves apart was rendered impossible by the fetters that chained us together. ”

“ If the fear of death was to seize the whole crowd of those who, in their cowardice at every strike, every demonstration, every fight at the barricades, had hidden behind the stove or crept under the bed ! ”

“ Therefore, by increase of pain, pleasure becomes of greater value, for the greater the contrast the more readily do we perceive it.
" Masochism is thus a natural law."
The more fully it is developed in any individual, the higher, the more superhuman is that person.
VI. Through the recognition of the masochistic natural law, I passed into a peculiar condition. Individual love and sorrow no longer made any particular impression on me. I began to observe masochism in the life and work of Nature, in the history of humanity, in social life, and in civilization. ”

“ Their aim was to safe- guard mankind from the robbery of its happiness by heresy !
The love of humanity begat our Neros, our Torquemadas, our Ivans the Terrible, and Schdanows !
Why did these men torture other men ? . . . In order themselves to realize in imagination the others' torments, to sympathize with them, to feel with them. In order in their own spirit to endure these martyrdoms ; that is to say, to torture themselves with the representa- tion of the pain of another. ... " Thus in its motives sadism is nothing else than masochism." ”

“ To free man- kind from suffering would mean to rob mankind of civilization."
Can we represent to ourselves a life of complete satisfaction ?
No ! Without suffering, the needs would be wanting which alone provide the stimulus to progress ! . . . Without suffering, we should also be without enjoyment. For everything reaches our consciousness only by means of its opposite.
' To free us from torment means to rob us of pleasure. . . . But then we should no longer have any interest in life !"
" Civilization is a union, a hermaphrodite structure, of pleasure and pain that is, masochism ! ”

“ Here I saw once more, in their proper environment, the 50,000 of whom Blanqui speaks. A wave of the hand would have sufficed although 99 per cent, of them unquestionably felt no hostility towards the Jews to produce in all of them the most infernal anti-Semitic excesses. If the police would allow it, as they allow the pogrom, another wave of the hand would direct the mob with no less ease to make an attack on another human variety for example, on the capitalists. ”

“ An immeasurable love for humanity took possession of me now that I had at length attained the point of view which so perfectly harmonized with my individuality. ... I myself became equivalent to humanity ”

“ That pleasure, without its opposite, pain, would not be perceptible, would be unthinkable, would be inconceivable just as cold could not be apparent to our consciousness without heat, or light without darkness. Thus pleasure, in the absence of pain, would not be perceived as pleasure. ”

“ Who does not think of all the tragedies of unhappy love, with its murders and suicides, all its physical and spiritual martyrdom, which every day brings to us ?
Who does not think of the tragedy of sexual love which is offered to us in the hospitals ? all the hundreds of thousands who have to pay for the licentiousness which results from sexual lust all the tabetics, syphilitics, general paralytics, etc. ”

“ The love of humanity built the Bastille, the Tower of London, the Spielberg, BlackwelTs Island, and the Schliisselburg, built the torture- chambers of the Inquisition, constructed the medieval penal system, and those of Montjuich, Alcalla del Valle, Borissoglebsk, and many others. ”

“ These were the facts which first made me feel instinctively how, like every fundamental thing everything which is of a primeval character : primeval force, primeval matter, primeval impulse, etc. all represent the union of two extremes ; the primeval impulse " love " can also be the coalescence of two opposites. These two opposites in this case are pleasure and pain ; as in the case of electricity we have the union of the two opposites, positive and negative electricity ; in the case of magnetism, we have the union of positive and negative magnetism ”

“ On account of the most trifling matters we became furious with rage, mutually making one another more wretched and more bitter. Ten, twenty times a day, we stood facing one another, leaning forwards, shaking with wrath, our mouths gaping with anger, our eyes sparkling, our fingers widely separated, like tigers ready to spring ”

“ Only from a purely human impulse from " love " do we do to the nearest to us what you call " crimes," in order that he may share that unnamable happiness which we ourselves feel. Thus the in- fluences which move us are purely ethical. ”

“ Thus suffering is the driving force of Nature. Nature is therefore masochistic !"
Within the species itself the same law holds. Within the " human " species have not those varieties developed to the highest which have had to overcome the hardest environment ? Those who by nature have been troubled with the greatest difficulties in providing for their food-supply ? Those who have suffered most ? ”

“ Paris at any moment contains 50,000 men who are ready at a wave of the hand to shed blood for any cause." It is indifferent to them, he might have added, if it is for the cause of freedom or for the cause of reaction. ”

“ In the same way that part of humanity which follows this device will perish from the philistine disease named " moderation " !
Let mankind get into its Turkish bath and then get under the cold douche ! Thus it will be steeled, rejuvenated, and invigorated ! Thus it will be freed from superfluous matters !
" Let things be made continually worse and harder for mankind, then the reaction will step in and drive them forward !"
According to this device I acted henceforward. To increase pain, in order that pleasure might become greater ! ”

“ The Tartars are going to burn the town to ashes, and to murder all the Armenians. Some of them have had their feet and hands cut off ; their noses have been slit, their eyes cut out ; boiling oil has been poured into their ears. . . . The people are all running away, or barricading themselves in their houses ! ”

“ Indian civilization is the product of the most horrible suppression and plunder of the lower castes by the higher. The soil of the Southern States of America was cultivated through being manured with the sweat, blood, and bones of negro slaves. ”

“ How can you use for yourself the measuring rule of ordinary men, even if they are the leaders of men ? You are the conscious masochist ! Your ideals must be suited to this fact ! Is it anything so much out of the common to have an illegitimate child ? ”

“ XII. Everywhere now the revolution was in flood. We developed a feverish activity in all our centres. ... At first we had no very great influence, but our emissaries were actively at work everywhere, in order to convert our movement from a political one to a social one, or at least to an economic one.
For this purpose we had provided a secret printing-press in Warsaw, where we prepared the necessary leaflets. They were written by a student, who was a genius in this speciality. No one understood as well as he how to appeal to the instincts of the crowd. ”

“ Be embraced, millions ! Receive the kiss of the whole world !" . . . Yes, these are the true civilized nations ! . . . To what progress must these horrible sufferings give rise ? What a future for mankind ! What joys to come !
XI.
Meanwliile the whole of my property had been used up in the revolutionary movement. The little money that was still available, that we were still able to scrape together here and there, was neces- sarily used for party purposes. I therefore suffered the most horrible poverty now in Warsaw, now in Lodz, Bialystok, Kiew, or Odessa. ”