40 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
the day after the elections, he incited a gang of arditi to
throw a bomb at the procession celebrating the socialist
victory, wounding nine people. Mussolini was arrested
and it was proved that he was behind the outrage, but the
prosecution was not pressed and he suffered only a clay and
a night's imprisonment. At the same time he fell a prey
to a kind of 'ideological5 exasperation, meditating on his
personal isolation with a mixture of bitterness, despair,
and pride. He spoke his thoughts aloud, free as he was
from any immediate preoccupation, and once more at the
beginning of his journey on a new road that seemed both
difficult and long.
c Detesting as we do \ he wrote in his newspaper on
December 12, ' all forms of Christianity, that of Jesus as
well as that of Marx, we feel an intense sympathy with
the modern revival of the pagan worship of strength and
courage. Enough, red and black theologians of all
churches, enough of your false and cunning promise of a
paradise that will never come. Enough, you ridiculous
saviours of the human race,, which doesn't care a damn
for your infallible receipts for happiness ! Leave the
field clear for the sheer force of individualism, since the
individual is the only human reality.'
At the same time he sent his hearty greetings to the
anarchist Malatesta, who had returned secretly to Italy
towards the end of December. And on January i, igso,
he began the new year with a repetition of the same creed ;
£ Namgare necesse est, . . against others and against our-
selves. . . . We have destroyed every known creed, spat
upon every dogma, rejected every paradise, flouted every
charlatan—white, black or red—who deals in miraculous
drugs for restoring happiness to the human race. We
put no faith in any system, nostrum, saint or apostle ;
still less do we believe in happiness, salvation or the
promised land. . . . Let us get back to the individual.
We stand for everything that exalts and ennobles the
individual, gives him more comfort, more liberty and a
wider life. We fight against everything that restricts and