3°2

ESSAYS IN PERSUASION

PART

theless, in a changed form and a new setting,contribute something to the true religion of thefuture, if there be any true religion. Leninism is absolutely , defiantly non-supernatural , and itsemotional and ethical essence centres about the in-dividual's and the community's attitude towards theLove of Money.

I do not mean that Russian Communismalters, or even seeks to alter, human nature,that it makes Jews less avaricious or Russians less extravagant than they were before. I donot merely mean that it sets up a new ideal. Imean that it tries to construct a frameworkof society in which pecuniary motives as in-fluencing action shall have a changed relativeimportance, in which social approbations shallbe differently distributed, and where behaviour,which previously was normal and respectable,ceases to be either the one or the other.

In England to-day a talented and virtuousyouth, about to enter the world, will balancethe advantages of entering the Civil Serviceand of seeking a fortune in business; and publicopinion will esteem him not less if he prefersthe second. Money-making, as such, on aslarge a scale as possible, is not less respectablesocially, perhaps more so, than a life devotedto the service of the State or of Religion, Educa-tion, Learning, or Art. But in the Russia ofthe future it is intended that the career ofmoney-making, as such, will simply not occurto a respectable young man as a possible open-ing, any more than the career of a gentleman