it as a challenge to themselves to slander in return, supposing that the natural order of things would thereby be restored. Yet there has not been the least trace of any alteration or improvement. But if you have understood the indictment, if it has succeeded in making you indignant, then by your acts give the lie to those who think and speak thus of you; show before the eyes of all the world that you are different, and then those men in the eyes of all the world will be convicted of untruth. Perchance it was precisely with the intention of being refuted by you in this way, and because they despaired of any other means of rousing you, that they spoke of you as harshly as they did. If that was the case, how much better disposed towards you they were than those who flatter you, in order that you may be kept in sloth and quietude and all-unheeding thoughtlessness!
However weak and powerless you may be, never before has clear and calm reflection been made so easy for you as at the present time. The thing that really plunged us into confusion as to our position, that caused our thoughtlessness, our blind acquiescence in all that happened, was our sweet self-satisfaction; we were satisfied with ourselves and our way of life. Things had gone on all right hitherto and continued to go on just the same. If anyone challenged us to reflection, we triumphantly pointed out to him, in place of any other refutation, our existence and continuance, which came about without any reflection on our part. But things went on all right solely because we had not been put to the test. Since then we have gone through it. Since that time the deceptions, the illusions, the false consolation, by which we all led each other mutually astray, have surely collapsed. The inborn prejudices which, without proceeding from any one place, spread themselves like a natural fog over everyone, and
