"What a mess," [Rubashov] said, "what a mess we have made of our golden age." Ivanov smiled. "Maybe," he said happily. "Look at the Gracchi and Saint Just and the Commune of Paris. Up to now, all revolutions have been made by moralizing dilettantes. They were always in good faith and perished because of their dilettantism. We for the first time are consequent. . . ." "Yes," said Rubashov. ". . . So consequent that, to settle a difference of opinion, we know only one argument: death . . . .