Anthem | Page 4

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 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."
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 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 that it has ever been thus and that it
has brought us step by step to our last, supreme transgression, our
crime of crimes hidden here under the ground.
We remember the Home of the Infants where we lived till we were five
years old, together with all the children of the City who had been born
in the same year. The sleeping halls there were white and clean and
bare of all things save one hundred beds. We were just like all our
brothers then, save for the one transgression: we fought with our
brothers. There are few offenses blacker than to fight with our brothers,
at any age and for any cause whatsoever. The Council of the Home told
us so, and of all the children of that year, we were locked in the cellar
most often.
When we were five years old, we were sent to the Home of the
Students, where there are ten wards, for our ten years of learning. Men
must learn till they reach their fifteenth year. Then they go to work. In
the Home of the Students we arose when the big bell rang in the tower
and we went to our beds when it rang again. Before we removed our
garments, we stood in the great sleeping hall, and we raised our right
arms, and we said all together with the three Teachers at the head:
"We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we
allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are
the State. Amen."
Then we slept. The sleeping halls were white and clean and bare of all
things save one hundred beds.
We, Equality 7-2521, were not happy in those years in the Home of the
Students. It was not that the learning was too hard for us. It was that the
learning was too easy. This is a great sin, to be born with a head which
is too quick. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is
evil to be superior to them. The Teachers told us so, and they frowned
when they looked upon us.
So we fought against this curse. We tried to forget our lessons, but we
always remembered. We tried not to understand what the Teachers
taught, but we always understood it before the Teachers had spoken.
We looked upon Union 5-3992, who were a pale boy with only half a
brain, and we tried to say and do as they did,