THE PRINCIPLES OF NIHILISM.
THE principles of the philosophy of negation, in other words, the principles of Nihilism, may be gathered from the following extracts from an elaborate speech delivered to the Congress of the International at Berne, in 1868, by Michael Bakunin, a scion of a noble and wealthy Russian family, and who was one of the most prominent of Nihilist philosophers:— “ This gospel admits of no half-measures and hesitations. The old world must be destroyed and replaced by a new one. The lie must be stamped out and give way to truth. It is our mission to destroy the lie, and to effect this we must begin at the very commencement. Now the beginning of all those lies which have ground down this poor world in slavery, is God. Tear out of your hearts the belief in the existence of God, for as long as an atom of that silly superstition remains in your minds you will never know what freedom is. When you have got rid of the belief in this priest-begotten God, and when, moreover, you are convinced that your existence, and that of the surrounding world, is due to the conglomeration of atoms, in accordance with the laws of gravity and attraction, then, and then only, you will have accomplished the first step toward liberty, and you will experience less difficulty in ridding your minds of that second lie which tyranny has invented. The first lie is God, the second lie is right. Might invented the fiction of right in order to insure and strengthen her reign. Might, my friends, forms the sole groundwork of society. Might makes and unmakes laws, and that might should be in the hands of the majority. Once penetrated with a clear conviction of your own might, you will be able to destroy this mere notion of right. And when you have freed your minds from the fear of a God and from that childish respect for the fiction of right, then all the remaining chains which bind you, and which are called science, civilization, property, marriage, morality and justice, will snap asunder like threads. Let your own happiness be your only law. But in order to get this law recognized, and to bring about the proper relations which should exist between the majority and minority of mankind, you must destroy everything which exists in the shape of State or social organizations. Our first work must be destruction and annihilation of everything as it now exists. You must accustom yourselves to destroy everything—the good with the bad. For if an atom of this old world remains the new will never be created. Take heed that no ark be allowed to rescue any atom of this old world, which we consecrate to destruction.” The above, clipped from a recent New York paper, needs no comment to show the blasphemous character of the Nihilists’ work. Michael Bakunin, exiled from Russia, and unsuccessful in Germany and Switzerland, died in 1878. His teachings, however, became the Nihilist gospel of faith, were incorporated into their catechism of revolution, and it was the practice of them that led to the assassination of the Emperor.