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from functions which are essentially legal (the distribution of legal books, mutual aid, etc.) and the development of which will inevitably provide us with increasing material for agitation. Looked at from this point of view, we may say, and we should say, to the Zubatovs and the Ozerovs, "Do your best, gentlemen. To the extent that you are seeking to place a trap in the path of the workers (either by way of direct provocation or by the "honest" corruption of the workers with the aid of 'Struvism') (5) we shall take care to expose you. But to the extent that you are making a real step forward—in a rather timid and zig-zag fashion, it is true—we say, Please, go on!" A real step forward can only result in a real, if small, extension of the field of action of the workers. And every such extension must result to our advantage and help to hasten the advent of legal societies of the kind in which agent-provocateurs will not catch Socialists, but the Socialists will catch supporters. In a word, our task is to fight down the tares. It is not our business to grow wheat in window pots. By pulling up the tares we clear the soil for the wheat. And while the old gentlemen are tending their flowerpot cultures, we must prepare reapers, hot only to cut down the tares of today, but also to harvest the wheat of tomorrow.^[1]