PETER KRAPOTKIN, scientist and nihilist, was born at Moscow, Russia, in 1842. His family belongs to the oldest and highest nobility of Russia, and he himself was bred at the imperial court, and, after completing his studies at the university, was appointed Chamberlain to the Czarina. His standing in science was attested by his appointment as Secretary of the Russian Geographical Society, but when he adopted the “individualistic” views taught by Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Concord School of Philosophy in America, the Russian government arrested him. After three years’ imprisonment, he escaped in 1876 to France, where he was again imprisoned. Since his release by the French authorities, he has lived chiefly in England, supporting himself by writing on scientific, literary, and political topics for the reviews and newspapers. His views of “individual sovereignty” do not seem to be as extreme as those held at one time by Emerson and William Lloyd Garrison. He leans rather to the idea that if all central power of taxation and coercion were abolished, production could be carried on most effectively under municipal organization. Among extremists in political theorizing, he may be considered representing the extreme of opposition to the theories of Karl Marx.