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SEEKING THE CAUSES 93
the other hand, no one understands the doctrines of
socialism so little as the anarchist. It is possible, therefore,
that the same conditions which drive the anarchist
to terrorist acts lead the socialist to altogether different
methods, but the reasonable and obvious conclusion
would be that teachings and doctrines determine the
methods that each employ.
The anarchist is, as Emma Goldman says, "high
strung." His ear is tuned to hear unintermittently the
agonized cry. To follow the imagery of Shelley, he
seems to be living in a "mind's hell," (4) wherein hate,
scorn, pity, remorse, and despair seem to be tearing out
the nerves by their bleeding roots. Bjornstjerne Bjornson,
Francois Coppee, Emile Zola, and many other great
writers have sought to depict the psychology of the anarchist,
but I think no one has approached the poet Shelley,
who had in himself the heart of the anarchist. He
was a son-in-law and a disciple of William Godwin, one
of the fathers of anarchism. "Prometheus Unbound,"
"The Revolt of Islam," and "The Mask of Anarchy,"
are expressions of the very soul of Godwin's philosophy.
Shelley was "cradled into poetry by wrong," as a multitude
of other unhappy men are cradled into terrorism by
wrong. He was "as a nerve o'er which do creep the else
unfelt oppressions of this earth," and he "could moan for
woes which others hear not." He, too, "could . . .
with the poor and trampled sit and weep." (5) There
is in nearly all anarchists this supersensitiveness, this
hyperesthesia that leads to ecstasy, to hysteria, and to
fanaticism. It is a neuropathy that has led certain scientists,
like Lombroso and Krafft-Ebbing, to suggest that
some anarchist crimes can only be looked upon as a
means to indirect suicide. are outbursts that lead
They
to a spectacular martyr-like ending to brains that "too