Anthem [another edition] | Page 6

And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do
or think alone. We have broken the laws. The laws say that men may not write unless the
Council of Vocations bid them so. May we be forgiven!
But this is not the only sin upon us. We have committed a greater crime, and for this
crime there is no name. What punishment awaits us if it be discovered we know not, for
no such crime has come in the memory of men and there are no laws to provide for it.
It is dark here. The flame of the candle stands still in the air. Nothing moves in this tunnel
save our [-hand-] {+hands+} on the paper. We are alone here under the earth. It is a
fearful word, alone. The laws say that none among men may be alone, ever and at any
time, for this is the great transgression and the root of all evil. But we have broken many
laws. And now there is nothing here save our one body, and it is strange to see only two
legs stretched on the ground, and on the wall before us the shadow of our one head.
The walls are cracked and water runs upon them in thin threads without sound, black and
glistening as blood. We stole the candle from the larder of the Home of the Street
Sweepers. We shall be sentenced to ten years in the Palace of Corrective Detention if it
be discovered. But this matters not. It matters only that the light is precious and we
should not waste it to write when we need it for that work which is our crime. Nothing
matters save the work, our secret, our evil, our precious work. Still, we must also write,
for--may the [-council-] {+Council+} have mercy upon us!--we wish to speak for once to
no ears but our own.
Our name is Equality 7-2521, as it is written on the iron bracelet which all men wear on
[-the-] {+their+} left wrists with their names upon it. We are twenty-one years old. We
are six feet tall, and this is a burden, for there are not many men who are six feet tall.
Ever have the Teachers and the Leaders pointed to us and frowned and said: "There is
evil in your bones, Equality 7-2521, for your body has grown beyond the bodies of your
brothers." But we cannot change our bones nor our body.
We were born with a curse. It has always driven us to thoughts which are forbidden. It
has always given us wishes which men may not wish. We know that we are evil, but
there is no will in us and no power to resist it. This is our wonder and our secret fear, that
we know and do not resist.
We strive to be like all our brother men, for all men must be alike. Over the portals of the
Palace of the World Council, there are words cut in the marble, which we {+are required
to+} repeat to ourselves whenever we are [-tempted:
"WE ARE ONE IN ALL AND ALL IN ONE. THERE ARE NO MEN BUT ONLY THE
GREAT WE, ONE, INDIVISIBLE AND FOREVER."-] {+tempted:--"We are one in all
and all in one.
There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever."--+}
We repeat this to ourselves, but it helps us not.
These words were cut long ago. There is green mould in the grooves of the letters and
yellow streaks [-on-] {+in+} the marble, which come from more years than men could
count. And these words are the truth, for they are written on the Palace of the World

Council, and the World Council is the body of all truth. Thus has it been ever since the
Great Rebirth, and farther back than that no memory can reach.
But we must never speak of the times before the Great Rebirth, else we are sentenced to
three years in the Palace of Corrective Detention. It is only the Old Ones who whisper
about it in the evenings, in the Home of the Useless. They whisper many strange things,
of the towers which rose to the sky, in those Unmentionable Times, and of the wagons
which moved without horses, and of the lights which burned without flame. But those
times were evil. And those times passed away, when men saw the Great Truth which is
this: that all men are one and that there is no will save the will of all men together.
All men are good and wise. It is only we, Equality 7-2521, we alone who were born with
a curse. For we are not like our brothers. And as we look back upon our life, we see