The Red Room - August Strindberg (best summer reads TXT) 📗

of the people always clashes. Isn’t there a very simple and easy remedy?

“ ‘When, at a riper age, I again read through my schoolbooks, I was astonished to find that we human beings are so little removed from the beasts in the fields. I reread Luther’s Catechism in those days; I made a few annotations, and drafted a plan for a new Catechism. (Not to be sent in to the Commissioners; what I am going to say now is all that I have written.)

“ ‘The first Commandment destroys the doctrine of one God, for it assumes other gods, an assumption granted by Christianity.

“ ‘Note. Monotheism which is so highly extolled has had an adverse influence on humanity; it has robbed it of the love and respect for the One and True God, by leaving Evil unexplained.

“ ‘The second and third Commandments are blasphemous; the author puts petty and stupid commands in the mouth of the Lord; commands which are an insult to His omniscience; if the author were living in our days, a charge of blasphemy would be brought against him.

“ ‘The fifth Commandment should read as follows: “Your inbred feeling of respect for your parents shall not induce you to admire their faults; you shall not honour them beyond their deserts; under no circumstances do you owe your parents any gratitude; they have not done you a service by bringing you into this world; selfishness and the civil code of laws compel them to clothe and feed you. The parents who expect gratitude from their children (there are some who even demand it) are like usurers; they are willing to risk the capital as long as the interest is being paid.”

“ ‘Note 1. The reason why parents (more especially fathers) hate their children so much more frequently than they love them arises from the fact that the presence of children has an adverse influence on the financial position of the parents. There are parents who treat their children as if they were shares in a joint stock company, from which they expect constant dividends.

“ ‘Note 2. This Commandment has resulted in the most terrible of all forms of government, in the tyranny of the family, from which no revolution can deliver us. There is more need for the foundation of societies for the protection of children than for societies for the protection of animals.

“ ‘To be continued.

“ ‘Sweden is a colony which has passed her prime, the period when she was a great power, and like Greece, Italy, and Spain, she is now sinking into eternal sleep.

“ ‘The terrible reaction which set in after 1865, the year of the death of all hope, has had a demoralising effect on the new generation. History has not witnessed for a long time a greater indifference to the general welfare, a greater selfishness, a greater irreligiousness.

“ ‘In the world outside the nations are bellowing with fury against oppression; but in Sweden all we do is to celebrate jubilees.

“ ‘Pietism is the sole sign of spiritual life of the sleeping nation; it is the discontent which has thrown itself into the arms of resignation to avoid despair and impotent fury.

“ ‘Pietists and pessimists start from the same principle, the misery of the world, and have the same aim: to die to the world and live to God.

“ ‘The greatest sin man can commit is to be a Conservative from selfish motives. It is an attempt against the plan of the world for the sake of a few shillings; the Conservative tries to stem evolution; he plants his back against the rolling earth and says: “Stand still!” There is but one excuse: stupidity. Poor circumstances are no excuse, merely an explanation.

“ ‘I wonder whether Norway is not going to prove a new patch on an old garment, as far as we are concerned?’ ”

“Well, what do you think of it?” asked Borg laying down the papers and drinking a small brandy.

“Not bad,” said Sellén, “it might have been expressed more wittily.”

“What do you think, Falk?”

“The usual cry⁠—nothing more. Shall we go now?”

Borg looked at him, wondering whether he was speaking ironically, but he saw no danger-signal in Falk’s face.

“And so Olle has gone to happier hunting-grounds,” said Sellén. “He’s well off, need no longer trouble about his dinner. I wonder what the headwaiter at the Brass-Button will say to it? Olle owed him a little money.”

“What heartlessness! What brutality! Shame on you!” burst out Falk, throwing a few coins on the table, and putting on his overcoat.

“Are you sentimental?” scoffed Sellén.

“Yes, I am! Good night.”

And he had gone.

XXIX Revue

Licentiate Borg at Stockholm to the Landscape Painter Sellén at Paris

Dear Sellén⁠—You have waited a whole year for a letter from me; now I have news to tell you. If I were acting on my principles, I should begin with myself; but as I had better conform to the rules of politeness laid down by civilized society⁠—seeing that I am about to go out into the world to earn my own living⁠—I will begin with you.

I heartily congratulate you on the success of your recently exhibited picture. Isaac took the notice to the Grey Bonnet, and it was printed without the knowledge of the editor, who was furious when he read it; he had firmly made up his mind that you should be a failure. But now that your genius has been acknowledged abroad, you are famous at home too, and I need no longer be ashamed of you.

In order to forget nothing, and to be as brief as possible⁠—for I am lazy as well as tired after a day’s work at the hospital⁠—I will write my letter in the shape of a report and the style of the Grey Bonnet; this will have the additional advantage that you can more easily skip those parts which do not interest you.

The political situation is becoming more and more interesting; all parties have corrupted one another by presents and counter-presents, and now all of them are grey. This reaction will