The Fourth Dream of Rodion Raskolnikov

He dreamt
that that the whole world was condemned to a terrible new
strange plaque that had come to Europe from  the depth
of Asia. All were to be destroyed except a very few
chosen. Some new sorts of microbes were attacking the
bodies of men, but these microbes were endowed with
intelligence and will. Men attacked by them became at
once mad and furious. But never had men considered
themselves so intellectual and so completely in possession
of the truth as these sufferers, never had they considered
their decisions, their scientific conclusions, their moral
convictions so infallible. Whole villages, whole towns and
peoples went mad from the infection. All were excited
and did not understand one another. Each thought that he
alone had the truth and was wretched looking at the
others, beat himself on the breast, wept, and wrung his
hands. They did not know how to judge and could not
agree what to consider evil and what good; they did not
know whom to blame, whom to justify. Men killed each
other in a sort of senseless spite. They gathered together in
armies against one another, but even on the march the
armies would begin attacking each other, the ranks would
be broken and the soldiers would fall on each other,
stabbing and cutting, biting and devouring each other.
The alarm bell was ringing all day long in the towns; men
rushed together, but why they were summoned and who
was summoning them no one knew. The most ordinary
trades were abandoned, because everyone proposed his
own ideas, his own improvements, and they could not
agree. The land too was abandoned. Men met in groups,
agreed on something, swore to keep together, but at once
began on something quite different from what they had
proposed. They accused one another, fought and killed
each other. There were conflagrations and famine. All
men and all things were involved in destruction. The
plague spread and moved further and further. Only a few
men could be saved in the whole world. They were a pure
chosen people, destined to found a new race and a new
life, to renew and purify the earth, but no one had seen
these men, no one had heard their words and their voices.

--Fyodor Dostoevsky
Crime and Punishment
Translated by Constance Garnett