DESIDERATA 93

neither knows nor understands the meaning of religion
to say he has not got any; it is quite another to say
that no one else shall have it, and in my view nothing
could be more inept or ineffectual than to try to expel
this root instinct from the human spirit by the use of
force.

It will be seen from what I have written that I did
discuss this matter with Russian Communists, and I am
bound to say that I never felt that there was anything
like that heart in their answers that I was sure to find
when we were discussing the positive side of their
programme, or their truly extraordinary work of con-
struction. I felt as if they were becoming more and
more practical, more and more realist, and that this
and other purely theoretical articles of their programme
were of themselves falling into the background, and I
sometimes got from them even a half admission of
this view.

AH these three great questions—of the peasantry, of
learning, and of religion—can be summed up in one, that
of liberty, the respect for human personality. Certainly
it is not by sheer invective that we should help any one
with whom we sympathize in Russia ; for the idea that
we can ourselves dictate the form of government there
is at most nothing more than a legend. Never can I
recommend any abstention from criticism, which would
simply mean that we should cease to count in these
matters. If I had gone to Moscow, not as an English-
man with responsibilities on this side but as an advocate
of Communism, I might perhaps have ignored all that
I did not wish to see and taken my place obediently as
one of the Yes-men of Stalin. I can remember plenty