The Chariot Race Photogravure. — From Painting by C. Ademoilo 3Uuotratrb JJtlirani Ebtttau WALK IN THE LIGHT THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS LETTERS THE KINGDOM OF GOD CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM By COUNT LEV N. TOLSTOY Translated from the Original Russian and edited by PROFESSOR LEO WIENER BOSTON COLONIAL PRESS COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, igo^ By Dana Estes & Company Entered at Stationer i* Hall Colonial Press : Electrotyped and Printed by C. H, Simonds & Co., Boston, Mass., U. S. A. oc/ ^^^^ '5^;^ CONTENTS Undertakings of Walk in the Light While Ye Have Light Introduction . Thoughts and Aphorisms I. Religion 11. God's W^ork . III. Form and I^xistence IV. The Offences of the Life V. Relation to Truth VI. Life and Metaphysics VII. Doubt ... VIII. Dissatisfaction . IX. Disagreements X. Proselytism . XT. Ownership XII. Family Relations XIII. Varia . Letters on the Famine Translator's Note . Tolstoy's Letter to His Wife Articles and Reports on the Famine The Terrible Question . On the Methods of Aiding the People Who Have Sitffered from the Failure of Crops Among the Suffering (Report up to April 12, 1892) PAGE 1 3 75 78 90 104 128 1.36 147 151 154 158 164 172 178 180 199 201 203 259 261 274 299 VI CONTENTS PAGE Account of the Money Contributed from April 12 TO July 27, 1892 309 Conclusion to Last Report on the Aid to THE Starving 318 Nicholas Stick 323 Why People Become Intoxicated .... 337 The First Step ........ 365 The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles . . . 411 Master and Workman ....... 421 Epilogue to " Drozhzhin's Life and Death" . . 489 Religion and Morality 515 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE The Chariot Race (p. 48) Frontispiece A Poor Farm .219 A Beggar 251 Russian Peasants at Mass 75 Malevannians - . . 395 Vol. 10. WALK IN THE LIGHT WHILE YE HAVE LIGHT Conversations between a Pagan and a Christian. Story from the Time of the Ancient Christians 1890 INTRODUCTION Guests were one day assembled in a wealthy house, and a serious conversation on life was started. They spoke of present and of absent people, and they could not find a single man who was satisfied with his life. Not only was there not one man who could boast of happi- ness, but there was not even one man who thought that he was hving as was becoming for a Christian. All con- fessed that they were living only a worldly life in cares for themselves and for their families, and that not one of them was thinking of his neighbour, and much less of God. Thus the guests spoke among themselves, and all agreed in accusing themselves of a godless, non-Chris- tian life. " Why, then, do we live thus ? " exclaimed a youth. " Why do we do what we do not approve of ? Have we not the power to change our life ? We know ourselves that what ruins us is our luxury, our effeminacy, our wealth, and, chiefly, our pride, our separation from our brothers. To be noble and rich, we have to deprive ourselves of everything which gives the joy of life to a man. We crowd into cities, make ourselves effeminate, ruin our health, and, in spite of all our amusements, die from ennui and from self-pity, because our life is not su(^h as it ought to be. Why should we live thus ? Why ruin our whole life, — all that good which is given us by God ? T do not want to live as heretofore ! 1 will abandon all the teaching which I have entered upon, for it will lead me to nothing but the same agonizing life of which we all 3 4 WALK liN" THE LIGHT now complain. I will renounce my property and will go to the country and live with the poor ; I will work with them, will learn to work with my hands ; if my education is of any use to the poor, I will communicate it to them, but not through institutions and books, but by living directly with them in a brotherly relation. Yes, I have made up my mind ! " he said, looking interrogatively at his father, who was also present. " Your desire is good," said the father, " but frivolous and thoughtless. Everything presents itself to you as easy, because you do not know life. There are things enough that seem good to us ! But the point is, that the execution of what is good is frequently difficult and com- plicated. It is hard to walk well on a beaten track, and harder still to lay out new paths. They are laid out only by men who have fully matured and who have com- pletely grasped everything which is accessible to men. The new paths of life seem easy to you, because you do not yet understand life. All this is thoughtlessness and pride of youth. We old men are needed for the very purpose that we may moderate your transports and guide you by means of our experience, while you young peo- ple should obey us, in order that you may be able to make use of our experience. Your active life is still ahead, — now you are growing and developing. Educate yourself, form yourself completely, stand on your feet, have your firm convictions, and then begin the new life, if you feel the strength for it. But now you should obey those who guide you for your good, and not open new paths of life." The youth grew silent, and the elder guests agreed to what the father had said. "You are right," a middle-aged married man turned to the father of the youth, " you are right, when you say that a youth, who has not any experience in life, may make mistakes in looking for new paths of life, and that WALK IN THE LIGHT 6 his decision cannot be firm ; but we have all agreed to this, that our life is contrary to our conscience and does not give us the good ; therefore we cannot help but rec- ognize that the desire to get out of it is just. A youth may take his reverie to be a deduction of reason, but I am not a young man, and I will tell you about myself that, as I listened to the conversation of this evening, the same thouglit came to me. The life which I lead, ob- viously for myself, cannot give me any peace of mind and the good ; tliis is also shown me by reason and by experience. So what am I waiting for? We struggle from morning until evening for our family, but in reality ic turns out that my family and I myself do not hve in godly fashion, but sink deeper and deeper in our sins. We do everything for our families, but our families are not better off, because what we do for them is not the good. And so I have frequently thought that it would be better if 1 changed my whole hfe and stopped caring for my wife and my children, and began to think of my soul. There is good reason in what Paul says, * He that is married careth how he may please his wife, and he that is unmarried careth for God.'" The married man had barely finished his words, when all the women present and his wife began to attack him. " You ought to have thought of it before," said one of the middle-aged women. « You have put on the collar and so pull ! It is easy enough for anybody to come and say that he wants to be saved, when il appears hard for him to keep up and support a family. This is a decep- tion and a rascality ! No, a man must be able to live in godly fashion with a family. Of course, it is so easy to be saved all by oneself. P)esides, if you do so, you act contrary to Christ's teaching. God has commanded us to love others, wliile the way you do, you wish for the sake of God to offend others. No one has a right to do violence to his family ! " 6 WALK IN THE LIGHT But the married man did not agree to this. He said : " I do not want to abandon my family. I only say that the family and the children should not be kept in worldly fashion, so that they get used to living for their lust, as we have just said, but that we should live in such a way that the children should from the earhest time be- come accustomed to privation, to labour, to aiding others, and chiefly to a brotherly life in respect to all men. But, to attain this, we must renounce aristocracy and wealth." " There is no need of curbing others, while you do not yourself live in godly fashion ! " his wife retorted to this, with irritation. " You yourself lived for your pleasure when you were young, so why do you want to torment your children and your family ? Let them grow up quietly, and then, let them do what they please, but do not force them ! " The married man kept silence, but an old man, who was present, took his part : " Let us admit," he said, " that a married man, who has accustomed his family to certain comforts, cannot sud- denly deprive them of them. It is true, if the education of the children has been begun, it is better to finish it than to break up everything, the more so, since the chil- dren will themselves choose the path which they will deem best. I admit that for a married man it is hard and even impossible without sinning to change his life. But we old men have been commanded to do so by God. I will tell you about myself : I am living now without any obhgations, — I must confess, I am living for my belly only, — I eat, drink, rest, — and I am ashamed and disgusted with myself. It is time for me to give up this life, to distribute my property, and at least before death to live as God has commanded a Christian to hve." But they did not agree with the old man either. Here was his niece and godchild, aU of whose children he had WALK IN THE LIGHT 7 christened and given presents to on holidays, and here was also his son. They all retorted to him. " No," said his son, " you have worked enough in your life, — it is time for you to take a rest, and not to torture yourself. You have Hved for sixty years with your habits, and you cannot stop them. You will only torture yourself in vain." " Yes, yes," confirmed his niece, " you will be in want, and you will be out of sorts, and you will grumble and sin more than ever. God is merciful and pardons all the sinners, and not only you, such a dear uncle." " And why should we ? " added another old man, who was of the same age as the uncle. " You and I have, perhaps, two days left to live. Why should we begin anew ? " " How wonderful ! " said one of the guests, who had been silent during the conversation, " how wonderful ! All say that it is good to live in godly fashion, and that we live badly, and that we torment ourselves in body and soul ; but the moment it comes to business, it turns out, that the children ought not to be broken in, but that they ought to be brought up, not in godly fashion, but as of old. The young people must not get out from under their parents' will, and they must not live in godly fashion, but as of old ; married men must not change the life of their wives and children, and must not live in godly fashion, but as of old ; and there is no reason why old men should begin anew, — they are not accustomed to it, and they have but two days to live, and all such things. It turns out that nobody can live well, but that we may only talk about it." WALK IN THE LIGHT WHILE YE HAVE LIGHT I. This happened in the reign of the Eoman Emperor Trajan, 100 Anno Domini. It was at a time when the disciples of Christ's disciples were still alive, and the Christians held firmly to the law of the teachers, as it says in the Acts. The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul : and none of them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own ; but they had all things common. And with great power the apostles gave witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and great grace was upon their faith. Neither was there any among them that lacked : for as many as were pos- sessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet, and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. (Acts, Chap. IV., 32-35.) In these first times there lived in the country of Cilicia, in the city of Tarsus, a rich merchant, a Syrian, a dealer in precious stones, Juvenalis by name. He came from simple and poor people, but through labour and skill in his business he gained wealth and the respect of his 10 WALK IN THE LIGHT fellow citizens. He had travelled much in foreign coun- tries and, though he was not learned, had come to know and understand many things, and the inhabitants of the city respected him for his intellect and justice. He pro- fessed the same Eoman, pagan faith which was professed by all the respected men of the Eoman empire ; that faith, the fulfilment of whose ceremonies they had begun strictly to demand from the time of Emperor Augustus and which the present Emperor Trajan himself strictly observed. The country of Cihcia is far from Rome, but it was governed by a Roman supreme officer, and what was done in Rome found its echo in Cilicia, and the governors imitated their emperors. Juvenalis remembered from his childhood the stories of what Nero had done in Rome, had later seen how the emperors had perished one after another, and, being a clever man, understood that there was nothing sacred in the Roman religion, but that it all was the work of human hands. The senselessness of all the life surround- ing him, especially of what was taking place in Rome, where he often went on business, had frequently dis- turbed him. He had doubts ; he could not grasp it all, and he referred it all to his lack of education. He was married, and he had had four children, but three of them had died in their youth, and there was only one son left, and his name was Julius. In this Julius Juvenalis centred all his love and all his cares. Juvenalis was particularly anxious to have his son educated in such a way that his son should not be tormented by those doubts concerning life, by which he himself had been troubled. When Julius passed his fifteenth year, his father gave him to be instructed by a philosopher who had settled in their city, and w^ho took youths to instruct them. The father gave him to the philosopher together with his comrade Pamphylius, the son of one of Juvenalis's deceased manumitted slaves. WALK IN THE LIGHT 11 The youths were of the same age, both handsome, and they were friends. Both youths studied dihgently, and both were of good morals. Julius excelled more in the study of the poets and of mathematics, while Pamphylius excelled in the study of philosophy. A year previous to the end of their instruction, Pamphylius came to school and informed his teacher that his mother, a widow, was going to the city of Daphne, and that he would have to stop studying. The teacher was sorry to lose a pupil who was doing him honour; and so was Juvenalis, but most of all Julius. To all admonitions to stay and continue his instruction, Pamphylius remained imperturbable and, thanking his friends for their love and their cares of him, he parted from them. Two years passed ; Julius finished his studies, and durinsj all that time he had not seen his friend. Once he met him in the street ; he invited him to his house and began to ask him how and where he was living. Pamphylius told him that he was hving with his mother in the same place. " We do not hve alone," he said, " but there are many friends with us, and we have everything in common with them." " How in common ? " asked Julius. " So that none of us considers anything his own." " Why do you do so ? " " We are Christians," said Pamphylius. " Is it possible ? " exclaimed Julius. " But I was told that the Christians killed children and ate them. Is it possible you take part in this ? " " Come and see," replied Pamphylius. " We do not do anything in particular ; we live simply, trying to do nothing bad." " But how can one live without considering anything one's own ? " 12 WALK IN THE LIGHT •' We manage to live. If we give our brothers our labour, they give us theirs." " Well, and if your brothers take your labour, and do not give it back, what then ? " " There are no such," said Pamphylius. " Such people like to live in luxury and will not come to us : our life is simple and not luxurious." " But are there not many lazy people who will be glad to be fed for nothing ? " " There are such, and we receive them cheerfully. Lately there came to us such a man, a fugitive slave ; at first, it is true, he was lazy and lived badly, but he soon changed his manner of life, and is now a good brother." '•' But suppose he had not mended his ways ? " " There are such, too. Elder Cyril has said that such we must treat like the dearest brothers, and love even better." " Is it possible to love good-for-nothing people ? " " One cannot help but love a man ! " " But how can you give to all everything which they ask for ? " inquired Julius. " If my father gave to all who ask him for somethiiig, he would soon be left without anything." " I do not know," replied Pamphylius, " but we have enough left for our needs ; and if it happens that we have nothing to eat or to cover ourselves with, we ask of others and they give to us. Yes, this happens rarely. It happened but once that I had to go to bed without a supper, and that, too, was so because I was very tired and did not wish to go to a brother to ask him for it." " I do not know how you do it," said Julius, " only, as my father has told me, if you do not guard what is yours, and if, besides, you give everything to those who ask it, you will yourself starve to death." " We do not starve. Come and see. We live, and not only do not suffer want, but have enough to spare" « How is this ? " WALK IN THE LIGHT 13 " It is like this : We all confess the same law, hut the force of execution varies in us : one has more, another less of it. One has already perfected himself in the good life, another is only beginning it. At the head of all of us stands Christ with his life, and we all try to emulate him, and in this alone do we see our good. Some, like Elder Cyril and his wife Pelagea, stand ahead of us ; others stand behind us ; others again are far behind, but all walk on the same path. The leaders are already near to Christ's law, — the renunciation of self, — and have lost tiieir souls, in order to find them. They need nothing ; they have no thought of themselves, and the last thing they have they, according to Christ's law, give to him who asks for it. There are others who are weaker, w^ho can- not give up everything ; they weaken and have still a thought of themselves ; they weaken without the custom- ary food and raiment, and do not give up everything. There are others, who are weaker still, — - those who have but lately entered upon the path ; they continue to live as of old, retain much for themselves, and give up only what is superfluous. And it is these hindmost people who come to the aid of those in front. We are, besides, all of us by relationship intermingled with the pagans. One has a father who is a pagan and holds property and gives it to his son. The son gives it to those who ask him for it, but the father gives him some again. Another has a pagan mother who pities her son and helps him. A third has pagan children, and their mother is a Christian, and the children solace their mother and give her things, asking her not to distribute them ; and she takes them out of love for them, and none the less gives them to others. A fourth has a pagan wife. A fiftli has a pagan husband. Thus are all intermingled, and the foremost would be glad to give their last, but are not able to do so. It is this which supports the weak in their faith, and from this a great superfluity is collected." 14 WALK IN THE LIGHT To this Julius said : "But if it is so, you evidently depart from Christ's teaching and only make believe. If you do not give up everything, there is no difference between you and us. As I take it, if one is a Christian, he ought to fulfil every- thing, — give up everything and become a beggar." « That is best of all," said Pamphylius, " Do so." " Yes, I will, when I see that you do so." " We do not wish to show anything, and I advise you not to come to us and not to abandon your life for the sake of appearances ; what we do, we do, not for appear- ances, but according to faith." " What is meant by according to faith ? " " By according to faith is meant that salvation from the evils of the world, from death, is only in a life accord- ing to Christ's teaching. It is aU the same to us what people will say of us. We do not do anything for the sake of people, but because in this alone do we see life and the good." " It is impossible not to live for oneself," said Julius. " The gods themselves have implanted this in us, that we love ourselves more than others and seek pleasures for ourselves. And you do the same. You say yourself that there are some among you who have a thought for them- selves. They will be preparing more and more pleasures for themselves and will more and more abandon your faith and will do precisely as we do." " No," replied Pamphyhus, " our people walk along another path and never weaken, but keep growing stronger, just as the fire will never go out so long as wood is put on it. In this does our faith consist." " I cannot make out in what this faith does consist." " Our faith consists in this, that we understand life as Christ has explained it to us." " How has he ? " " Christ told the following parable : Husbandmen were WALK IN THE LIGHT 16 living in another man's garden and had to pay tribute to their master. It is we, the people, who are living in the world and must pay tribute to God, — to do His will. But those men with their worldly faith thought that the garden was theirs, that they did not need to pay for it, and that all they had to do was to enjoy its fruits. The master sent a messenger to the husbandmen to receive the tribute, but they drove him away. The master sent his son for the tribute, and they killed him, thinking that after that no one would disturb them. This is the worldly faith by which all the men of the world live, when they do not recognize the fact that life is given for the purpose of serving God. But Christ has taught us that the worldly faith, that it is better for a man if he drives the master's messenger and the son out of the garden and does not pay tribute, is a false faith, because one result or the other cannot be avoided, either you pay tribute, or you are driven out of the garden. He has taught us that all the joys, those which we call joys, — eating, drinking, merriment, — can be no joys if life is placed in them ; that they are joys only when v/e seek something else, — the fulfilment of God's will ; that only then these joys follow the fulfilment as a true reward. To wish to take the joys without the labour of fulfilling God's will, to tear the joys away from labour, is the same as to tear the stalks of flowers and plant them without roots. We believe in this, and so cannot seek the deception instead of the truth. Our faith consists in this, that the good of life is not in joys, but in the fulfilment of God's will without any thought as to joys or any hope respecting them. And thus we live, and the longer we live, the more we see that the joys and the good, like a wheel following the shaft, come in the wake of the fulfilment of God's will. Our teacher has said, ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and 16 WALK IN THE LIGHT lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.' " Thus spoke Pamphylius. Julius listened and his heart was touched, but what Pamphylius had said was not clear to him ; it seemed to him that Pamphylius was deceiving him ; and he looked again into Pamphylius's good eyes, and it seemed to him that Pamphylius was deceiving himself. Pamphylius invited Julius to come to see him, to inspect their life, and, if he was pleased with it, to remain to live with them. Juhus promised he would come, but he did not go to see PaniphJ'lius ; he was carried away by his own manner of life, and forgot Pamphylius. IL Julius's father was rich, loved his only son, was proud of him, and spared no money on him. Julius's life passed like that of rich young men : in idleness, luxury, and the amusements of dissipation, which have always been the same, — wine, gaming, and fast women. But the enjoyments to which Julius abandoned him- self demanded more and more money, and Julius began to feel a lack of it. Once he asked his father for more than his father was in the habit of giving to him. The father gave it to him, but also reprimanded him. Feel- ing himself guilty and not wishing to confess his guilt, his son grew angry and insulted his father, as those always grow angry who know their guilt and do not wish to confess it. The money taken from his father was very soon spent, and, })esides, Julius happened at that time to get into a brawl with a companion of his and to kill a man. The chief of the city learned of this and wanted to take Julius under guard, but his father obtained his pardon. Just then Julius needed more money for his dissipations. He borrowed money from a friend, promis- ing to return it to him. Besides, his mistress demanded a present from him : she took a liking for a pearl neck- lace, and he knew tliat if he did not fulfil her prayer, she would abandon him and go to live with a rich man who had long been trying to get her away from Julius. Julius went to. his mother, and told her that he was in need of money, and that he would kill himself if he did not get as much as he needed. He did not blame himself, but his father, for the condi- 17 18 WALK IN THE LIGHT tion he was iu. He said : " My father accustomed me to a Ufe of luxury, and then began to begrudge me the money. If he had given me in the beginning without rebukes what he later gave me, I should have arranged my life and should have had no need ; but as he never gave me any sufficiency, I was compelled to turn to usurers, and they squeezed everything out of me ; and there was nothing left for me to live on, as is proper for a rich young man, and I am ashamed in the presence of my companions, while my father does not wish to under- stand anything. He has forgotten that he himself was once a young man. It is he who brought me to this state, and if he does not give me now what I am asking for, I shall kill myself." The mother, who spoiled her son, went to his father. The father sent for his son, and began to scold him and his mother. The son answered insultingly to his father. The father struck him. The son grasped his father's hands. The father called the slaves and commanded them to bind his son and lock him up. When Julius was left alone, he began to curse his father and his own life. His death or the death of his father presented itself to him as the only way out from the condition in which he was. Juhus's mother suffered more than he. She did not try to make out who was to blame for all this. She only was sorry for her beloved child. She went to her hus- band to implore his pardon. Her husband would not listen to her, rebuked her for having spoiled her son ; she rebuked him, and it all ended in the husband beating his wife. But the mother paid no attention to the blows, and went to her son to admonish him to beg his father's pardon and submit to him. For this she promised her son secretly that she would give him the money which he was in need of. Her son agreed, and then the mother WALK IN THE LIGHT 19 went to her husband and begged him to forgive his son. The father for a long time scolded his wife and his son, but finally decided that he would forgive his son, but only on condition that he would abandon his life of dis- sipation and would marry a rich merchant's daughter, whom his father wanted to get as a wife for his son. " He will get money from me and the wife's dowry," said the father, " and then let him begin a regular life. If he promises to do my will, I shall forgive him. But now I will not give him anything, and the first time he transgresses, I will turn him over to the chief." Julius agreed to everything, and was released. He promised to get married and to abandon his bad life, but he did not have the intention of doing so. His life at home became a hell for him : his father did not speak to him and quarrelled with his mother on account of him, and his mother cried. On the following day his mother called him to her apartments and secretly handed him a precious stone which she had carried off from her husband. " Go and sell it, not here, but in another city, and do what you have to do. I shall know how for a time to con- ceal tliis loss, and if it is discovered, I will put the blame on one of the slaves." The mother's words touched Julius's heart. He was terrified at what she had done and, without taking the precious stone, left the house. He did not know himself whither he was going, and for what purpose. He walked on and on, away from the city, feeling the necessity of being left alone and reflecting on what had happened to him and on what was awaiting him. As he kept marching on and on, he left the city behind and entered a holy grove of the Goddess Diana. Upon reaching a solitary spot, he began to think. The first thought that came to him was to ask the goddess's aid, but he no longer believed in his gods and so knew that 20 WALK IN THE LIGHT no aid was to be expected from them. And if not from them, from whom ? It seemed too strange to him to reflect on his own situation. In his soul there was chaos and darkness. But there was nothing to be done : it was necessary for him to turn to his conscience, and he began before it to consider his life and his acts ; and both seemed bad to him and, above all, foohsh. Why had he been tormenting himself so much ? Why had he been ruining his youthful years? There were few joys, and much sorrow and unhappiness ! But the main thing was, he felt himself alone. Before this he had had a loving mother, a father, and even friends, — now there was nothing. No one loved him ! He was a burden to all. He had managed to cross everybody's life : for his mother he was the cause of her discord with his father ; for his father he was a spendthrift of his money, which had been collected by the labour of a whole life ; for his friends he was a dangerous, disagreeable rival. For all of them it was desirable that he should die. Passing his life in review, he recalled Pamphylius, and his last meeting with him, and how Pamphylius had invited him to come to them, the Christians. And it passed through his head that he would not return home, but would go to the Christians and would remain with them. " But is my situation so desperate ? " he thought, and he again recalled everything which had happened to him, and again he was frightened at this, that, as he thought, no one loved him and he loved no one. His mother, father, friends did not love him, could not help but desire his death ; but did he himself love any one ? His friends ? He felt that he did not love any one. They were all his antagonists ; all were pitiless to him now that he was in misfortune. " My father ? " he asked himself, and he was seized by terror, when, at this question, he looked into his own WALK IN THE LIGHT 21 heart. He not only did not love him, but even hated him for the oppressions, for the insults. He hated him and, besides, he saw clearly that for his, Julius's happi- ness, he needed his father's death. " Yes," he said to himself, " if I knew that no one would ever see or find out, — what would I do, if I could with one stroke, at once, deprive him of life and free myself ? " And Julius answered himself: "Yes, I should kill him!" He gave this answer to himself, and he was frightened at himself. " My mother ? Yes, I pity her, but I do not love her ; it is all the same to me what will become of her, — all I need is her aid. Yes, I am a beast ! and a hunted-down, a baited beast, and I differ from a beast only in this, that I can, by my will, go away from the deceptive, evil life ; I can do what a beast cannot, — I can kill myself. I hate my father, I love no one — neither my mother, nor my friends — unless, perhaps, Pamphylius alone." And he again thought of him. He began to recall the last meeting, and their conversation, and Pamphylius's words as to what Christ said, according to their teaching : " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Is it true ? He began to think, to recall the meek, fearless, and joyful face of Pamphylius, and he wanted to believe what Pamphylius had said. " What am I indeed ? " he said to himself. " Who am I ? A man searching after the good. . I have searched after it in lustful desires and have not found it. And all those who live like me find it as little. All are evil and suffer. But there is a man who is always full of joy, because he is not searching after anything. He says that there are many such, and that all will be such, if they shall follow what their Teacher says. What if this is the 22 WALK IN THE LIGHT truth ? Truth or untruth, — I am drawn toward it, and I shaU go." Thus Julius said to himself, and he left the grove, having decided not to return home, and went toward the village in which the Christians lived. III. Julius walked cheerfully and joyously, and the farther he walked and the more vividly he presented to himself the hfe of the Christians, recalling everything which Pamphylius had said, the more happy he felt. The sun was dechning toward evening, and he wanted to rest, when he met a man on the road, who was resting and eating his supper. The man was of middle age, with a bright face. He was sitting, and eating olives and a flat cake. When he saw Juhus, he smiled, and said : " Good evening, young man ! The road is still far. Sit down and rest thyself." Julius thanked him, and sat down. " Whither dost thou go ? " asked the stranger. " To the Christians," said Julius, and, by degrees, he told the stranger his whole life and his determination. The stranger listened attentively, asked him about the details, and himself did not express his opinion ; but when Julius had ended, the stranger put the remaining food into his wallet, adjusted his clothes, and said : " Young man, do not carry out thy intention ! Thou art in error. I know life, but thou dost not know it. I know the Christians, but thou dost not know them. Listen : I will analyze all thy life and thy thoughts, and after thou hast heard them from me, thou wilt make that decision which will appear to thee most correct. Thou art young, rich, handsome, strong, and the passions are boiling in thee. Thou desirest to find a quiet harbour, where the passions shall not agitate thee and thou wilt not suffer from their consequences, and it seems to thee that thou wilt find 23 24 WALK IN THE LIGHT such a harbour among the Christians. There is no such place, dear youth, because what is troubling thee is not to be found in Cilicia, nor in Rome, but in thyself. In the quiet of the country solitude the same passions will torment thee, only a hundred times more powerfully. The deception of the Christians, or their error (I do not want to condemn them), consists in this, that they do not wish to recognize human nature. Only an old man, who has outlived all his passions, may be a complete executor of their teaching. But a man in possession of his strength, or a youth like thee, who has not experienced life and tried himself, cannot submit to their law, because this law has for its basis, not human nature, but the idle speculation of their founder, Christ. If thou shalt go to them, thou wilt suffer what thou sufferest now, only to a far greater extent. Now thy passions lead thee on false paths, but, having once made a mistake in the direction, thou art able to correct thvself ; now thou hast at least the satisfaction of liberated passion, that is, life. But among them, thou, violently repressing thy passions, wilt err just as much, even worse, and besides this suffering wilt have the unceasing suffering of man's unsatisfied needs. Let the water out over a dam, and it will water the earth and the meadows, and animals ; but hold it back, and it will tear up the earth and run out with dirt. The same is true of the passions. The teaching of the Christians, their teaching in regard to life, consists, besides the beliefs with which they console themselves, and of which I shall not speak, also in the following : they do not recognize violence, wars, courts, or property, or the sciences, arts, — all that which makes life easy and joyous. All this would be well, if all men were such as they describe their teacher to have been. But this is not the case, and this cannot be. Men are evil and are subject to their passions. This play of the passions and the conflicts which result from them hold men back in those con- walk: m the light 25 ditions of life in which they live. Barbarians (savages) know no repression, and one savage would, for the gratifi- cation of his desires, destroy the whole world, if all men should submit as easily as the Christians do. If the gods have implanted the sentiment of anger in men, they have done so because these sentiments are necessary for the hfe of men. The Christians teach that these sentiments are evil, and that without them men would be happy ; there would be no murders, capital punishments, wars. This is true, but it resembles the proposition that for their welfare they must not receive nourishment. Indeed, there would be no greed and hunger and all the calamities which result from them. But still this proposition would not change human nature. And if two or three dozens of men, beheving this and actually not taking any food, should starve to death, this would not change human nature. The same is true of the other passions, — indig- nation, anger, revenge, even love of women, of luxury, of splendour, and of grandeur, are characteristic of the gods also, and so are man's unchangeable properties. Destroy man's nutrition, and man will be destroyed ; similarly destroy man's characteristic passions, and humanity will be destroyed. The same is true of ownership, which the Christians are supposed to deny. Look about thee : every vineyard, every enclosure, every house, every she-ass, — all this has been produced by men only under the con- dition of ownership. Eeject the right of ownership, and not one vineyard will be dug up, not one animal will be raised and trained. The Christians assert that tliey have no property, but they enjoy its fruits. They say that they have everything in common, and that every- thing is brought togethei-. But what they bring together, they have received from people who own property. They only deceive men and, at best, deceive themselves. Thou sayest that they work themselves, in order to support themselves ; but what they get by work would not 26 WALK IN THE LIGHT support them, if they did not make use of what men who recognize ownership have produced. Even if they could support themselves, they only could sustain their lives, and there would be no place among them for the sciences, nor for the arts. They do not recognize the use of our sciences and arts. Nor can they act differently. All their teaching tends only to bring them back to the primitive state, to savagery, to the animal. They cannot serve humanity by means of the sciences and arts, and, since they do not know them, they deny them. They cannot serve by those means which form man's exclusive property and bring him near to the gods. They will have no temples, no statues, no theatres, no museums. They say that they do not need them. The easiest way not to be ashamed of their baseness is to despise altitude, and this they are doing. Their teacher is an ignoramus and cheat. And they emulate him. Besides, they are godless. They do not recognize the gods and their inter- vention in human affairs. For them exists only the father of their teacher, whom they also call their own father, and the teacher himself, who, according to their conception, has revealed all the mysteries of life to them. Their teaching is a miserable deception. Consider this : our teaching says that the world exists through the gods and that the gods protect men. But men, to live well, must worship the gods and themselves seek and think, — and so we are guided in our life, on the one hand, by the will of the gods, on the other, by the combined wisdom of all humanity. We live, think, and seek, and so move toward truth. But they have no gods, nor their will, nor human wisdom, but only one thing, the bhnd belief in their crucified teacher, and in everything which he has said to them. Weigh which guide is more reliable, the will of the gods and the combined, free activity of human wisdom, or the compulsory, blind belief in the words of one man." WALK IN THE LIGHT 27 Julius was struck by what the stranger had told him, especially by his last words. His iuteution of going among the Christians was not only shaken, but it now even seemed strange to him how, under the influence of his troubles, he could have decided upon such madness. But there was still the question open for him what he was to do now and how to get out of those difficult conditions in which he now was, and he told the stranger about his situation and asked his advice, " I wanted to speak of this very thing," continued the stranger. " What art thou to do ? Thy path, in so far as human wisdom is accessible to me, is clear to me. All thy troubles arise from the passions which are character- istic of man. Thou hast been carried away by passion, which took thee so far that thou didst suffer. Such are the usual lessons of life. These lessons must be used to advantage. Thou hast experienced much, and thou know- est where it is bitter and where sweet : thou canst no longer repeat those blunders. Take advantage of thy ex- perience. What grieves thee more than anything else is thy enmity toward thy father. This enmity is due to thy situation ; choose another, and it will be destroyed, or, at least, it will no longer manifest itself so painfully. All thy troubles are due to the irregularity of thy situation. Thou hast abandoned thyself to the amusements of youth ; this is natural and good. But it was good only so long as it corresponded to thy age. But the time passed and thou didst abandon thyself with the powers of a man to the wantonness of youth, and that was bad. Thou hast reached a time when thou oughtest to become a man, a citizen, and serve thy country, work in its behalf. Thy father proposes to thee tliat thou shouldst get married. His advice is wise. Thou hast outlived one period of life, youth, and hast entered upon another. All thy tribula- tions are symptoms of a transitional condition. Kecognize that the time of youth has passed and, boldly rejecting what 28 WALK m THE LIGHT j \ ( \ was proper for it, but not proper for a man, enter upon I the new path. Get married, give up the enjoyments of i youth, busy thyself with commerce, pubhc affairs, the j sciences, and the arts, and thou wilt not only make thy j peace with thy father and thy friends, but thou wilt also ' find peace and joy. The main thing that agitated thee is j the unnaturalness of thy situation. Thou hast become a i man, and thou shouldst enter into matrimony and be • a man. And so my chief counsel is : Do thy father's bid- i ding, get married. If thou art attracted to solitude, which j thou hadst intended to find among the Christians, if thou [ art inclined toward philosophy, and not toward the activ- ity of life, thou canst usefully abandon thyself to this activity only after thou hast learned life in its true sig- nificance. This thou wilt know only as an independent i citizen and head of a family. If after that thou shalt be ; attracted to solitude, abandon thyself to it, and then it i will be a true attraction, and not an outburst of dissatis- ■ faction, such as it is at present. Then go ! " i The last words more than any others convinced Julius. i He thanked the stranger and returned home. ! His mother received him with joy. His father, too, I when he learned of his readiness to submit to his will and to marry the maiden which had been proposed to him, i was reconciled with his son. i IV. Three months later they celebrated the wedding with beautiful Eulampia, and Julius, having changed his man- ner of life, began to manage a separate house with his wife, and himself attended to part of the business which his father had turned over to him. Once he went for his business house to a near-by town, and while he was sitting there in a merchant's shop, saw Pamphylius pass by with a maiden, who was a stranger to him. Both were walking with heavy burdens of grapes, which they were selliug. When Julius recognized his friend, he went up to him and asked him to step into the shop, in order to have a chat with him. When the maiden saw Pamphylius's desire to go with his friend and his mis- giving about leaving her alone, she hastened to say that she did not need him and would sit alone with the grapes, waiting for purchasers. Pamphylius thanked her and went with Julius into the shop. Julius asked permission of the merchant, his friend, to go into his living-room, and when he had received the permission, retired with Pam- phylius to the rooms in the back. The friends asked one another for the details of their lives. Pamphylius's life had not changed since they had met the last time : he continued to live in the Christian commune, was not married, and assured liis friend that his life was getting more and more joyous with every year, day, and hour. Julius told his friend what had happened with him, and how he had been on his way to the Christians, when his meeting with the stranger eluci- dated to him the errors of the Christians, and his own 29 30 WALK IN THE LIGHT duty to get married, and how he had followed the advice and had married. " Well, art thou happy now ? " Pamphylius asked. " Hast thou found in marriage what the stranger promised thee ? " " Happy ? " said Julius. " What do you mean by happy ? If we are to understand by it a full gratification of my desires, I am naturally unhappy. So far I have been carrying on my business with success, and people begin to respect me ; and in either of these things I find a certain satisfaction. Though I see many men who are richer and more honoured than I, I foresee the possibility of coming up to them and even surpassing them. This side of my life is full, but my wedded state, I will say outright, does not satisfy me. I will say more : I feel that this very matrimony, which ought to give me joy, has not given it to me, and that the joy, which I experi- enced at first, kept diminishing and finally was destroyed ; and in the place where there was joy there has grown up sorrow. My wife is beautiful, clever, learned, and good. At first I was entirely happy. But now, — you do not know this, because you have no wife, — there occur causes for discord, because she seeks my love, when I am indif- ferent to her, and vice versa. Besides, for love we need novelty. A less attractive woman than my wife attracts me more at first, but later becomes less attractive to me than my wife ; I have already experienced this. No, I have not found any satisfaction in my married state. Yes, my friend," concluded Julius, " the philosophers are right : life does not give what the soul wishes for. I have experienced this now in matrimony. But the fact that life does not give the good which the soul wishes for does not prove that your deception may give it," he added, smiling. " In what dost thou see our deception ? " asked Pam- phylius. WALK IN THE LIGHT 31 " Your deception consists in this, that you, to liberate a man from the calamities which are connected with the affairs of life, deny all affairs of life, — life itself. To free yourselves from disenchantments you deny the en- chantment, marriage itself." " We do not deny marriage," said Pamphylius. " If not marriage, you deny love." " On the contrary, we deny everything but love. It serves us as the first foundation of everything." " I do not understand thee," said Julius. " From what I have heard from others and from thee, and from the fact that thou art not yet married, though we are of the same age, I conclude that you do not have marriage. Your people continue in the married state, if they entered into it before, but they do not enter anew into wedlock. You do not trouble yourselves about the continuation of the human race. If you were alone, the human race would have long ago come to an end," said Julius, repeating what he had heard many times. " That is not true," said Pamphylius. " It is true that we do not make it our aim to continue the human race and do not trouble ourselves about it as much as I have many a time heard your sages trouble themselves. We assume that our Father has already taken care of this: our aim consists only in living according to His wiU. If in His will is the continuation of the human race, it will be continued ; if not, it will come to an end ; this is not our affair, not our care ; our care is to live according to His will. But His will is expressed both in our sermon and in our revelation, where it says that a man should unite with his wife, and there should not be two bodies, but one. Marriage is not only not prohibited among us, but is even encouraged by our old teachers. The difference between our marriage and yours consists in this, that our law has revealed to us that every lustful looking at a woman is a sin, and so we and our women, 32 WALK IN THE LIGHT instead of adorning ourselves and provoking lust, try to remove ourselves from it so far that the sentiment of love between us, as between brothers and sisters, should be stronger than the sensation of lust for one woman, which you call love." " But you can still not suppress the love of the beauti- ful," said Julius. " I am convinced, for example, that that beauty, the maiden with whom thou didst carry the grapes, in spite of her attire, which conceals her charms, evokes in thee the feeling of love for a woman." " I do not yet know," Pamphylius said, blushing. " I have not thought of her beauty. Thou art the first who has told me of it. She is for me only a sister. But I shall go on with what I wanted to tell thee about the difference between our marriage and yours. The difference origi- nates even from this, tliat with you lust, under tlie name of beauty and love and serving Goddess Venus, is sus- tained, provoked in m'en. But with us it is the very opposite : lust is not considered an evil (God has not created any evil), but a good, which becomes an evil when it is not in its place, — an ofi'ence, as we call it. And this is the reason why I am not yet married, though I may possibly be to-morrow." " But what will decide it ? " " God's will." " How dost thou recognize it ? " " If we never look for indications of it, we never find it ; but if we look for them constantly, they become clear, as clear as are for you your divinations from sacrifices and birds. And as you have your own sages, who according to their wisdom, and according to the entrails of sacrificial animals, and according to the flight of the birds expound to you the wdll of the gods, so we have sages who explain to us the will of the Father, according to Christ's revela- tion, according to the feeling of their hearts and the WALK IN THE LIGHT 33 thoughts of other men, and, chiefly, according to their love of them." " But all this is very indefinite," retorted Julius, " What, for example, will show thee when to marry, and whom ? When I was about to marry, I had the choice among three maidens : these three were chosen from among others, because they were beautiful and rich, and my father was satisfied if I married any one of them. Of these three I chose Eulampia, because she was to me more beautiful and attractive than the rest ; this is natu- ral. But what will guide thee in thy choice ? " " To answer thee," said Pamphylius, " I must tell thee first of all that, since by our teaching all men are equal before their Father, they are just as equal before us, ac- cording to their position and to their spiritual and bodily quahties ; and so our choice (if this word, which is incom- prehensible to us, be used) cannot be limited to anything. A Christian's wife or husband may be chosen among any men or women of the world." " This makes it even less possible to make up one's mind," said Juhus. " I will tell thee what our elder has said about the difference that exists between the marriage of a Christian and that of a pagan. A pagan, like thee, chooses a wife, who, in his opinion, will afford him, him personally, the greatest amount of enjoyment. But the eyes stray with this, and it is hard to decide, the more so since the enjoy- ment is ahead. But for a Christian there is no choice for himself, or rather, the choice for his personal enjoyment occupies a secondary, and not the first, place. For a Christian the question is, not to violate God's will by his 'marriage." " But where can there be a violation of God's will in the marriage ? " " I might have forgotten the Iliad, which we studied and read together, but thou, who art living among sages 34 WALK IN THE LIGHT and poets, canst not forget it. What is the whole Iliad ? It is a story of the violation of God's will in relation to marriage. And Meuelaus, and Paris, and Helen, and Achilles, and Agamemnon, and Chryseis, — all that is a description of all the strange calamities which arise for men and even now take place from this violation." " But wherein does the violation consist ? " " The violation consists in this, that a man loves in woman his enjoyment from being near her, and not the human being like himself, and so enters into matrimony for the sake of his enjoyment. Christian marriage is pos- sible only when a man has love for men and when the object of his carnal love is first of all an object of this brotherly love of man for man. Just as it is rational and safe to build a house only when there is a foundation, to paint a picture when everything on which it is to be painted is prepared, — so carnal love is legitimate only when it has respect and love of one man for another at its base. On this foundation alone can a rational Chris- tian family life be reared." "But I still fail to see why such a Christian marriage, as thou callest it," said Juhus, " excludes the love for a woman, which Paris experienced," " I do not say that the Christian marriage does not admit the exclusive love of woman ; on the contrary, only then is it rational and sacred ; but the exclusive love of woman can arise only when the formerly exist- ing love toward all men has not been violated. But the exclusive love for one woman, which the poets extol, rec- ognized as good in itself, without being based on the love of men, has no right to be called love. It is an animal lust and frequently passes over into hatred. The best examples of this, that the so-called love (eros), if it is not based on brotherly love for all men, becomes bestiahty, are the cases of violence committed against the very woman, whom he who violates her makes suffer and WALK IN THE LIGHT 35 whose ruin he causes. In violence there is evidently no love for a man, if he tortures him whom he loves. But with the non-Christiau marriage there is frequently con- cealed violence, when he who marries a maiden, who does not love him, or who loves another, makes her suffer and has no compassion on her, only that he may be able to satisfy his love." " Let us say that this is so," said Julius, " but if the maiden loves him, there is no injustice, and I do not see any difference between a Christian and a pagan marriage." " I do not know the details of thy marriage," answered Pamphylius, " but I know that every marriage, which has for its basis nothing but the personal good. Cannot help but be the cause of discord ; even as the simple taking of food, among animals and among men who differ httle from animals, cannot take place without quarrelling and fighting. Everybody wants a dainty morsel, but as there are not enough dainty morsels to go around, discord results from this. If there is no open discord, there is one which is concealed. The weak individual wants a dainty morsel, but he knows that the strong one will not give it to him, and, although he knows the impossibility of taking it away directly from the strong individual, he looks with concealed, envious malice upon the strong man and uses the first opportunity to take it away from him. The same is true of pagan marriage, only it is twice as bad, because the object of hatred is man, so that there arises discord between the married pair." "But how can this be effected, that the married pair should love no one but one another ? There will always be found a man or a maiden who loves some one else. And so, according to your opinion, marriage is impos- sible. And so I see that they say rightly of you that you do not marry at all. That is the reason why thou art not mairied and, probably, wilt not lie. It cannot be that a man should marry a woman without having first 36 WALK IN THE LIGHT roused the feeling of love for himself in another woman,; or that a girl should live to maturity without having roused a feeling in a man. How was Helen to have acted ? " " Elder Cyril says of this as follows : in the pagan world, men, without thinking of the love of their brothers, without cultivating tliis sentiment, think only of one thing, of the provocation of a love of passion for woman, and they cultivate this passion. And so in their world every Helen, or one like her, arouses love in many. Rivals fight with one another, try to surpass one another, like animals, in order to get possession of a female. And in a greater or lesser degree, their marriage is an act of vio- lence. In our community we not only do not think of the personal enjoyment of beauty, but we avoid all of- fences which lead to this, and which in the pagan world are made a merit and a subject of worship. We, on the contrary, think of those obligations of respect and love of our neighbour, which we have without distinction for all men, for the greatest beauty and for the greatest ugliness. We cultivate this feeling with all our strength, and so the feeling of love has for me the upper hand in us over the temptation of beauty and vanquishes it and destroys the discord, which results from the sexual relations. A Christian marries only when he knows that his union with the woman causes no one any harm." " But is this possible ? " retorted Julius. " Can we con- trol our infatuations ? " "We cannot, if we give them full sway, but we can prevent their awakening and getting up. Take as an example the relation of father and daughter, mother and son, brother and sister. The mother is for her son, the daughter for her father, the sister for her brother, no matter how beautiful they may be, not an object of per- sonal enjoyment, but of love, and no sensations are awak- ened. They would awaken, if the father should find out WALK IN THE LIGHT 37 that the one he considered to be his daughter is not his ^daughter, and the same in the relation of mother and son, brother and sister ; but even then this sensation would be very feeble and submissive, and it would be in man's power to control it. The feeling of lust would be weak, because at the base of it is tlie sentiment of love for mother, daughter, sister. Why dost thou not wish to admit that the same sentiment may be educated and con- firmed in man in relation to all women, just as in the case of the mothers, sisters, daughters, aud that on the basis of this sentiment there may grow up the sentiment of conjugal love ? The moment a brother has discovered that the one whom he regarded as his sister is not his sister, he allows in himself the feeling of love, as for a woman ; even so a Christian, feeling that his love is not offending any one, allows this sentiment to rise in his soul." " Well, and if two men fall in love with the same maiden ? " " Then one sacrifices his happiness for the happiness of another." " But if she loves one of them ? " " Then he whom she loves less sacrifices his sentiment, for her happiness." " Well, and if she loves both alike, and both sacrifice themselves, she does not marry at all ? " " No, then the elders will look into the matter, and counsel in such a way that there shall be the greatest good for all, with the greatest love." " But this is never done, and it is not done because it is contrary to human nature." " Contrary to human nature ? What human nature ? Man, besides being an animal, is also a man, and it is true that such a relation to woman is not in accord with man's animal nature, but it is with his rational nature. And when he uses his reason in order to serve his animal 38 WALK IN THE LIGHT nature, he does worse than an animal, — he rises to violence, to incest, — which no animal would do. But when he uses his rational nature for the restraint of the animal, when his animal nature serves his reason, he attains that good which satisfies him." V. "But tell me about thyself personally," said Julius. " I see thee with this beauty ; thou evidently livest near her and servest her ; dost thou really not wish to become her husband ? " " I have not thought of it," said Pamphylius. " She is the daughter of a Christian widow. I serve them just as others do. Thou didst ask me whether I love her so much as to wish to be united with her. This question is hard for me ; but I shall answer it frankly. This thought has come to me, but there is a youth who loves her, and so I do not yet dare to think of it. This youth is a Christian and loves us both, and I cannot commit an act which would grieve him. I live without thinking about it. I seek but for this, to fulfil the law of love of men, — this is all that is needed. I shall marry when I see that that is necessary." " But the acquisition of a good, industrious son-in-law cannot be a matter of indifference to her mother. She will wish for you, and not for others." " No, it makes no difference to her, because she knows that, besides me, all our people are ready to serve her, as they would any one else, and I shall serve her neither more nor less, no matter whether I shall be her son-in- law or not. If from this shall result my marriage with her daughter, I shall accept it with joy, as I shall accept her marriage to some one else." " That cannot be 1 " exclaimed Julius. " What is so terrible among you is, that you deceive yourselves. And thus you deceive others. That stranger told me correctly 39 40 WALK IN THE LIGHT about you. As I listen to thee, I involuntarily submit myself to the beauty of the life which thou describest to me ; but when I reflect, I see that all this is a deception, which leads to savagery, to coarseness which approaches that of animals." " In what dost thou see this savagery ? " " In this, that supporting yourselves by work, you have no leisure or chance to busy yourselves with the sciences or the arts. Here thou art in a ragged garment, with coarsened hands and feet ; thy companion, who might be a goddess of beauty, resembles a slave. You have neither any songs to Apollo, nor temples, nor poetry, nor games, — nothing which the gods have given for the adornment of human life. To work, to work like slaves or like oxen, only in order to feed coarsely, is this not a voluntary and godless renunciation of will and of human nature ? " " Again human nature ! " said Pamphylius. " But in what does this nature consist ? In torturing slaves by giving them work beyond their strength, in killing our brothers and making them slaves, in making of women a subject of amusement ? All this is needed for that beauty of life, which thou considerest proper to human nature. Does man's nature consist in this, or in living in love and concord with all men, feeling himself a member of one universal brotherhood ? Thou art very much mis- taken, if thou thinkest that we do not recognize the sciences and art. We value highly all the abilities with which human nature is endowed ; but we look upon all of "man's inherent abilities as upon means for the attainment of one and the same end, to which we devote all our life, namely, the fulfilment of God's will. In science and in art we do not see an amusement, of use only as a pleasure for idle people ; we demand from science and art the same that we demand from all human occupations, — that in them should be realized the same activity of love of God and our neighbour, by which all the acts of a WALK IN THE LIGHT 41 Christian are permeated. We recognize as true science only such knowledge as helps us to live better, and we respect art only when it purifies our designs, elevates our souls, strengthens our powers, which are necessary for a life of labour and of love. Such knowledge we, in proportion as we are able, do not fail to develop in our- selves and in our children, and to such art we gladly devote ourselves in our time of leisure. We read and study the writings bequeathed to us by the wisdom of men who have hved before us ; we siDg psalms, paint pictures, and our poems and pictures brace our spirit and console us in moments of grief. It is for this reason that we cannot approve of those applications which you make of the sciences and arts. Your learned men use their abihty of imagination to invent new means for causing evil to men ; they perfect the methods of war, that is, of murder ; they invent new methods for gain, that is, for getting rich at the expense of others. Your art serves you for the erection and adornment of temples in honour of the gods, in whom the most advanced among you have long ago ceased believing, but you encourage this faith in them in other people, assuming that with this deception you will best retain them in your power. You erect statues in honour of the most powerful and cruel of your tyrants, whom nobody respects, but all fear. In your theatres you give representations of criminal love. Your music serves for the enjoyment of your rich, who glut themselves with food and drink at their feasts. And your painting, which adorns houses of debauchery, is such that a man who is not intoxicated by animal passion cannot even look upon without blushing. No, not for this have those higher abihties, which distinguish him from the animal, been given to man. It is not right to make of them an en- joyment for our bodies. In devoting all our lives to the fulfilment of God's will, we so much the more employ our highest abilities in the same service." 42 WALK IN THE LIGHT " Yes," said Julius, " all that would be beautiful, if life under such conditions were possible ; but it is not possi- ble to live thus. You deceive yourselves. You do not recognize the defence we provide. But if the Koman legions did not exist, would it be possible to live calmly ? You make use of the defence, without acknowledging it. Even some of your people, so thou didst tell me thyself, have defended themselves. You do not recognize prop- erty, but you make use of it : our people have it, and give it to you. Thou wilt not thyself give thy grapes away, but sellest them and wilt buy them. All this is decep- tion ! If you did what you say, it would be all right ; but as it is, you deceive others and yourselves." Julius grew excited and said everything which he had on his mind. Pamphylius waited in silence. When Julius had ended, Pamphylius began to retort : " In vain dost thou think that, though we do not rec- ognize your defences, we make use of them. We do not need the Koman legions, because we do not ascribe any value to what demands a defence by means of violence. Our good consists in what does not demand any defence, and this no one can take from us. Though material things, which in your eyes represent property, pass through our hands, we do not regard them as our own, and give them to those who need them for their suste- nance. We sell the grapes to those who will buy them, not for the sake of personal gain, but with the one pur- pose of acquiring what the needy want. If any one should wish to take these grapes away from us, we should give them up without resistance. For the same reason we are not afraid of the incursion of savages. If they should begin to take from us the products of our labour, we should let them have them ; if they should demand that we should work for them, we should do so with pleasure, and they would not only have no cause, but would even find it unprofitable, to kill and torture us. WALK IN THE LIGHT 43 The savages would soon comprehend, and would love us, and we should have less to suffer from them than from those enlightened men of yours, who are about us now and who persecute us. It is said that only thanks to the right of ownership are all those products obtained, by which men subsist and live ; but, reflect thyself, by whom are all the necessary articles of life produced ? Thanks to whose labour do you accumulate that wealth, on which you pride yourselves ? Is it produced by those who, folding their hands, command their slaves and hire- lings, and are the only ones who enjoy the property ? or by those poor slaves who, for the sake of bread, fulfil the commands of their master and themselves enjoy no property, receiving as their share barely enough for their daily sustenance ? And why do you think that these men will stop working, when they shall have the possi- bility of doing rational labour, useful to themselves, for themselves and for those whom they love and pity ? Thy accusations against us consist in this, that we do not fully attain what we strive after, that we do not even recognize violence and ownership, and yet make use of them. If we are cheats, there is no sense in talking with us, and we deserve neither anger nor arraignment, but only contempt, and this we gladly accept, because one of our rules is the recognition of our insignificance. But if we sincerely strive after what we profess, then thy accusations about our deception would be unjust. If we strive as do my brothers and I, in order to fulfil the law of our teacher, after living without violence and the ownership which results from it, we strive after it, not for external purposes, wealth, power, honours, — we rec- ognize none of these things, — but for the sake of some- thing else. We seek the good just as you do ; the only difference is, that we see the good in something different. You believe that tbe good is in wealth and honours, but we believe differently. Our faith shows us that our good 44 WALK IN THE LIGHT is not in violence^ but in obedience ; not in wealth, but in giving everything up. And, like plants striving after the light, we cannot help but strive after that where our good is. We do not fulfil everything we wish for our good, that is true. But can this be otherwise ? Thou strivest after having the most beautiful wife, after having the largest possessions, — hast thou, or has any one else, ever reached it ? If a marksman does not strike the tar- get, does he stop aiming at it, because he has many times missed his aim ? The same is true of us. Our good, according to Christ's teaching, is in love. We seek our good, but each one of us attains it variously and far from completely." " Yes, but why do you not believe all human wisdom, and why have you turned away from it and believed only your crucified teacher ? Your slavery, your submission to him, it is this that repels me." " Again thou art mistaken, and he is mistaken who thinks that we, in professing our teaching, have our faith only l/ccause the man whom we believe has commanded us to have it. On the contrary, those who with their whole soul seek the knowledge of the truth, the com- munion with the Father, those who seek the good, invol- untarily come to the path on which Christ walked, and so involuntarily stand behind Him, see Him in front of them. All those who love God Mali meet on this path, and thou, too. He is the son of God and a mediator be- tween God and men, not because some one told us so and we believe in it blindly, but because all those who seek God find His son before them, and involuntarily, only through Him, understand, see, and know God." Julius made no reply, and for a long time sat in silence. " Art thou happy ? " he asked. " I wish for nothing better. But, more than this : I for the most part experience a feeling of perplexity, a con- WALK IN THE LIGHT 45 sciousness of some injustice, — because I am so very happy," said Pamphylius, smiling. " Yes," said Julius, " maybe I should be happier, if I had not met the stranger then, and had reached you." " If thou thinkest so, what keeps thee back ? " " And my wife ? " " Thou sayest that she is inclined toward Christianity, — so she will go with thee." " Yes, but the other life has been begun, — how is it to be broken up ? It has been begun, it has to be finished," said Julius, presenting to himself the dissatisfaction of his father, mother, friends, but mainly those efforts which have to be made in order to make this change. Just then the maiden, Pamphylius's companion, walked up to the door of the shop with a young man. Pamphy- lius went out to them, and the young man, in Julius's presence, tcld them that he had been sent by Cyril to buy hides. The grapes were all sold, and wheat was bought. Pamphylius proposed to the young man that he should go with Magdalen and take the wheat home, while he him- self would buy and bring the hides. " It will be better for thee," he said. " No, Magdalen had better go with thee," said the young man, and d 'parted. Julius took Pamphylius into the shop of a merchant he knew. Pamphylius tilled the wheat in bags and, having given Magdalen a small part, threw his heavy burden over his shoulder, bade Julius good-bye, and left the town with the maiden. At the turn of the street Pamphylius looked around and, smiling, shook his head to Julius and, smiling in the same way, and even more joyously, at Magdalen, he said something to her and they disappeared from view. " Yes, I should have done better, if I had reached them then," thought Julius. And in his imagination, alternat- ing, arose two pictures, that of powerful Pamphylius with 46 WALK IN THE LIGHT the tall, strong maiden, carrjdng baskets on their heads and their good, bright faces, and now his domestic hearth, which he had left in the morning and to which he would return, and the pampered, beautiful, but wearisome and unpleasant wife, in fine raiment and bracelets, lying on rugs and pillows. But Julius had not time to think : merchants, his com- panions, came up to him, and they began their habitual occupation, which ended with a dinner with drinking, and at night with women. VI. Ten years passed. Julius did not meet Pamphylius again, and the meetings with him slowly passed out of his mind, and the impressions of liim and of the Christian life wore off. Julius's life went its usual way. During this time his father died, and he had to take upon himself the whole business. The business was complicated : there were the usual purchasers ; there were sellers in Africa, clerks, debts to be collected and to be paid. Julius was involun- tarily drawn into his affairs, to which he devoted all his time. Besides, there appeared new cares. He was chosen to a public office, and this new occupation, wdiich tickled his vanity, was attractive to him. Besides commercial affairs, he attended to public matters, and, as he possessed a good mind and the gift of words, he began to push to the front, so that he was able to attain a high public position. In the course of these ten years a significant and disagreeable change had taken place in his domestic affairs. Three children were born to him, and this birth of the children separated him from his wife. In the first place, his wife lost the greater part of her beauty and freshness ; in the second, she busied herself less with her husband. All her tenderness and affection were concen- trated on her children. Though the children, according to the custom of the pagans, were turned over to wet- nurses and attendants, Julius frequently found them with their mother, or did not find her in her apartments, but in those of her children, and the children generally annoyed Julius, affording him more displeasure than joy. 47 48 WALK IN THE LIGHT Being busy with his mercantile and public affairs, Julius abandoned his former life of dissipation, but he still needed, as he assumed, an elegant rest after his labours, and this he did not find with his wife, the more so since during this time his wife cultivated more and more the acquaintance of her Christian slave, and more and more was carried away by the new teaching, and rejected in her life everything external, pagan, which had formed her charm for Julius. As he did not find in his wife what he wanted, he cultivated the acquaintance of a woman of easy behaviour and with her passed those hours of leisure which he had left from his occupations. If Julius had been asked whether he was happy or not, during these years of his life, he would have been unable to answer. He was so busy ! From one affair and pleasure he passed to another affair or pleasure, but not one of them was such that he was fully satisfied with it, or that he wished to continue it. Every affair was such that the quicker he could free himself from it, the better it was for him ; and not one pleasure was such that it was not poisoned by something, that the tedium of satiety was not mixed in with it. Thus Julius lived, when an event happened to him which almost changed the whole manner of his life. He took part in the races at the Olympian games, and, in bringing his chariot successfully to the goal, suddenly drove into another chariot, which he had overtaken. A wheel broke, and he fell down and broke two ribs and an arm. His injuries were severe, but not serious. Julius was carried home, and he had to lie in bed for three months. During these three months, amidst severe physical sufferings, his mind began to work, and he had leisure to think about his life, looking upon it as that of an outsider. And his life presented itself to him in a gloomy light, the WALK IN THE LIGHT 49 more so since at that time there happened three unpleasant events, which pained him sorely. The first was, that his slave, his father's trusted servant, having received some precious stones in Africa, had run away with them, thus causing a great loss and a disorganization in Julius's affairs. The second was, that Julius's concubine had left him and had chosen another protector. The third and the most disagreeable event for him was this, that during his illness took place the election to the governorship, a position which he had hoped to get, but to which his rival was chosen. All tliis, it seemed to Julius, had happened, because his chariot had gone one finger's breadth too much to the left. As he was lying all alone on his bed, he began involun- tarily to think of how his life depended on the most insignificant accidents, and these thoughts brought him to others, and to the recollection of his former misfortunes, — of his attempt to go to the Christians and of Pamphylius, whom he had not seen for ten years. These recollections were intensified by his conversations with his wife, who now stayed with him frequently during his illness and told him everything she knew about Christianity from her slave. This slave had at one time lived in the same comnninity with Pamphylius, whom she knew. Julius wished to see this slave, and when she came to his couch, he asked her in detail about everything and especially about Pamphylius. " Pamphylius," the slave told him, " was one of the best brothers, and was loved and respected by all." He was married to that same Magdalen, whom Julius had seen ten years before. They had already several children. " Yes, the man who does not believe that God has created men for their good," concluded the slave, " needs only go and look at their life." Julius dismissed the slave and, when left alone, buried himself in thought concerning everytliing which he had 60 WALK IN THE LIGHT heard. He felt ashamed, when he compared his life with that of Pamphylius, and he wanted not to think of it. To distract himself, he picked up a Greek manuscript, which his wife had laid down before him, and began to read. In the manuscript he read as follows : " There are two ways, — one is the way of life, and the other the way of death. The way of life consists in this : In the first place, thou shalt love God, who has created thee ; in the second place, thy neighbour as thyself ; and what thou dost not wish to have done to thee, do not to another. The teaching which is included in these words is as follows : Bless those who curse you ; pray for your enemies, and fast for your persecutors, for what reward is there, if ye love those who love you ? Do not the pagans do likewise ? Love those who hate you, and ye will have no enemies. Remove yourselves from carnal and from worldly lusts. If a man smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also, and thou shalt be perfect. If a man compel thee to walk a mile, walk with him two ; if a man take from thee what is thine, do not ask it back, for thou canst not ; if a man take thy upper garment, give him also thy shirt. To all who ask, give, and demand not back, for the Father wishes that all should receive of His gifts of grace. Blessed is he who gives according to the commandment ! " The second commandment of the teaching : Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not fornicate, nor steal, nor divine, nor poison, nor covet that which is thy neighbour's. Swear not, bear not false witness, speak not evil, remember not evil. Be not double in thought, nor double of tongue. Let not thy word be false, nor idle, but in conformity with the fact. Be not greedy, nor avaricious, nor hypocritical, nor evil-mannered, nor haughty. Have no evil intentions against thy neigh- bour. Have no hatred for any man, but arraign some, pray for others, and others again love more than thy soul. WALK IN THE LIGHT 51 " My child ! Avoid every evil and everything like it. Be not angry, for auger leads to murder ; nor jealous, nor quarrelsome, nor irritable, for from all this comes murder. " My child ! Be not lustful, for lust leads to fornica- tion ; he not foul of speech, for from this comes adultery, " My child ! Do not lie, for lying leads to stealing ; be not greedy, nor vain, for from all this comes stealing. " My child ! Be no murnmrer, for this leads to blas- phemy ; nor bold, nor evil-minded, for from all this comes blasphemy. But be meek, for the meek shall inherit the earth. Be long-suffering and merciful, and kindly, and humble, and good, and always tremble at the words which thou shalt hear. Exalt not thyself in spirit, and give no boldness to thy soul. Let not thy soul cleave to the proud, but converse with the righteous, and with the humble. Accept everything which may happen with thee as good, knowing that nothing can be without God. " My child ! Cause no divisions, and reconcile those who quarrel. Extend not thy hand to receive, and close it not at giving. Waver not in giving and, giving, murmur not, for thou shalt find out who is a good giver of rewards. Turn not away from the needy, but in everj^thing have communion with thy brother, and call nothing thine own property, for if ye are participants in the imperishable things, ye are so much the more in perishable things. From childhood teach thy children the fear of God. Command not thy slaves in anger, lest they cease to fear God, who is above both of you, for He comes not to call, judging by persons, but calls those whose spirit He has prepared. " And the way of death is as follows : first of all it is evil and cursed, — here are murder, adultery, lust, forni- cation, steahng, idolatry, sorcery, poisoning, rape, false witness, hypocrisy, double-mindedness, cunning, pride, malice, haughtiness, avarice, foul speech, envy, impudence, conceit, vanity ; here are the persecutors of the good, the 52 WALK IN THE LIGHT haters of truth, the lovers of lying, who acknowledge no retribution for righteousness, nor cleave to good, nor to righteous judgment, watchful, not of the good, but of evil, from whom are removed humbleness and patience ; here are also the lovers of vanity, the seekers of rewards, who have no compassion for their neighbours, who labour not for the oppressed, who know not their Creator ; mur- derers of children, miners of God's image, who turn away from the needy, oppressors of the oppressed, defenders of the rich, unlawful judges of the poor, sinners in all things ! Beware, children, of all such people." Long before Julius had read the manuscript to the end, there happened with him, what happens with people who read a book, that is, another person's thoughts, with the sincere desire for the truth ; he entered with his soul in communion with those who had inspired these thoughts. He read, guessing in advance what would be, and not only agreed with the thoughts of the book, but seemed himself to have expressed them. With him happened that common, most mysterious, most significant phenomenon in life, unnoticed by many, which consists in this, that the so-called live man becomes alive, when he enters into communion, unites into one, with the so-called dead, and lives one life with them. Julius's soul united with him who wrote and inspired these thoughts, and after this communion he examined himself, his hfe. And he himself and his whole life appeared to him as one terrifying mistake. He did not live, but with all his cares about his life and with the temptations only ruined in himself the possibility of the true hfe. " I do not want to ruin my life, — I want to live, to walk on the path of life," he said to himself. He recalled everything Pamphylius had told him in their former conversations, and all that now appeared to him so clear and so indubitable that he was surprised WALK IN THE LIGHT 53 how he could have believed the stranger at that time and been kept from fulfilling his intention, — of going to the Christians. He recalled also what the stranger had told him : " Go there, when thou hast experienced life." " Well, I have experienced life and have found nothing in it." He also recalled the words of Pamphylius, that, no matter when he would come to them, they would be glad to receive him. " Yes, I have erred and suffered enough ! " he said to himself. " I shall give up everything, and I shall go and live with them, as it says here." He told liis thought to liis wife, and she was delighted at his intention. His wife was ready for everything. The only question was how to carry it out. What was to be done with the children ? Were they to be taken along, or to be left with their grandmother ? How were they to be taken ? How could they, after the tenderness of their bringing up, be subjected to all the difhcullies of a stern life ? The slave proposed to go with them. But the mother was afraid for her children, and said that it would be better to leave them with their grandmother and go alone. And to this they agreed. Everything was decided upon, and only Julius's sick- ness retarded the execution of their plans. VII. In this mood Julius fell asleep. Next morning he was told that a skilful physician, who was passing through the city, wished to see him, promising to cure him soon. Julius gladly received the physician. The physician was no other than the same stranger whom Julius had met as he was on his way to the Christians. The physician examined his wounds, and prescribed to him potions of herbs to strengthen him. " Shall I be able to work with my hand ? " asked Julius. " Oh, yes ! Direct the chariot, write, yes." " But hard work, — digging ? " " I have not thought of it," said the physician, " because this will not be needed in thy position." " On the contrary, I shall need it very much," said Julius ; and he told the physician that since he had seen him he had followed his advice and had experienced life ; but hfe had not given him what it had promised, but, on the contrary, had disenchanted him, and that now he wished to carry out the intention of which he had spoken then. " Yes, they have evidently put their whole deception into practice, and have enchanted thee in such a way that in thy position, with those obligations which lie upon thee, especially in relation to the children, thou dost none the less not see their error." " Read this," was all Julius said, handing him the manuscript which be had read. The physician took the manuscript and looked at it. 54 WALK IN THE LIGHT 55 « I know this," he said, " I know this deception, and I marvel how such a learned man as thou art can fall into such a trap." " I do not understand thee. In what does the trap consist ? " " The whole question is in the life, and they, these sophists and rioters against men and gods, offer a happy way of life, in which all men shall be happy ; there will be no wars, no capital punishment, no poverty, no quar- rels, no malice. And they assert that such a condition of men will exist when all men shall fulfil Christ's com- mandments, — when they shall not quarrel, nor fornicate, nor swear, nor offer violence, nor wage war upon one another. But they deceive us in that they take the aim for the means. The aim is not to quarrel, not to swear, not to fornicate, and so forth, and this aim is attained only by means of the public life. But they say very nearly what a teacher of .shooting might say : ' Thou wilt hit the target, if thy arrow sliall fly in a straight line to the target.' But the problem is, how to do so that it may fly in a straight line. And this problem is attained in shooting by the stringing of the string, the flexibility of the bow, the straightness of the arrow. The same is true of the life of men. The best life of men, in which there is no need for quarrelhng, fornicating, killing, is attained by having a string, — the rulers, — the flexi- bility of the bow, — the strength of power, — and a straight arrow, — the justice of the law. But they, under the pretext of a better life, destroy everything which has improved life. They recognize neither government, nor power, nor laws." " But they assert that without rulers, power, or laws we can live better, if men shall fulfil Christ's law." " Yes ; but what guarantees that men will fulfil it ? Nothing. They .say, ' You have experienced life with power and laws, and life did not become perfect ; now 56 WALK IN THE LIGHT « experience the absence of power and of laws, and life will become perfect ; you have no right to deny this, because you have not experienced it.' But it is here that the sophistry of the godless people becomes obvious. Saying this, do they not say the same that a man would say to a farmer ? ' Thou so west in the ground and coverest the seed, and yet the crop is not such as thou desirest; I advise thee, sow in the sea, and it will be better ; and thou hast no right to deny my proposition, because thou hast not tried it.' " " Yes, that is true," said Julius, who was beginning to waver. " But this is not enough," continued the physician. "Let us assume what is insipid and impossible: let us assume that the foundations of the Christian teaching can be communicated to all men by the taking of certain drops, and that suddenly all men will fulfil Christ's teach- ing, loving God and their neighbours and fulfilling the commandments. Let us assume this, and yet the path of life according to their teacliing will not stand scrutinizing. There will be no Hfe, and life will come to an end. Their teacher was a young vagabond, and such will be his fol- lowers, and, according to our supposition, the whole world. Those who live now will continue hving, but their chil- dren will not, or only one in ten will remain living. According to their teaching, all children must be equal to every mother and to every father, both one's own children and those of strangers. How will these children be saved, when we see that the whole passion, the whole love, for these children, wliich is implanted in the mothers, will scarcely keep the children from destruction; what will happen when this passion passes into compassion, which is equal for all children? Who is to be taken, and what child is to be saved ? Who will sit up nights with a sick, ill-smelling child, if not its mother ? Nature has made a protection for the child in the love of its WALK IN THE LIGHT 57 mother ; they take it away and put nothing in its place. Who will teach the son ? Who will comprehend his soul, if it is not his father ? Who will ward off danger from him ? All this is done away with ! The whole life, that is, the continuation of the human race, is done away with." " This too is true," said Julius, carried away by the physician's eloquence. " Yes, my friend, leave thy raving and live rationally, especially now, when upon thee lie such great, important, and real obligations. It is a matter of honour that you carry them out. Thou hast lived up to the second period of thy doubts, but go on, and there will be no more doubts. Thy first and most indubitable duty is the edu- cation of thy children, whom thou hast neglected : thy duty toward them consists in making of them most worthy servants of thy country. The existing political structure has given thee everything thou hast, and thou shouldst serve it thyself and give it worthy servants in the persons of thy children. Thy second duty is to serve society. Thy failure lias grieved and disenchanted thee, — this is a temporary accident. Nothing is given without struggle, and the joy of the triumph is strong only when the victory has been ditiicult. Leave it to thy wife to amuse herself with the prattling of Christian writers ; but be thyself a man and educate thy children to be men. Be- gin thy life with the consciousness of duty, and all thy doubts will fall off by themselves. They have come to thee anyway from your morbid state. Fulfil thy duty in relation to thy country by serving it and by preparing thy children for this service. Put them on their feet, that they may be able to take thy place, and then peacefully abandon thyself to the life which attracts thee, but until then thou hast no right to it ; and if thou didst devote thyself to it, thou wouldst find notliiug but sutfering." VIII. Either the medicinal herbs or the counsels of the wise physician acted upon Julius, and he soon braced up, and his thoughts about the Christian life appeared to him wild ravings. The physician remained a few days, and then went away. Julius got up soon after, and, taking advantage of his counsels, began a new life. He engaged teachers for his children and himself watched their studies. He passed his own time in public affairs, and soon attained great importance in the city. Thus Julius lived a year, and during this time he did not even think of the Christians. But, at the expiration of a year, a court was held in his city to judge the Christians. A lieutenant had arrived in Cilicia from the Koman emperor for the purpose of crushing the Christian propa- ganda. Julius had heard of the measures taken against the Christians, and, assuming that this had no reference to the Christian community in which Pamphylius was living, did not give it any thought. But once, as he was walking over the forum to the place of his business, he was accosted by a middle-aged, poorly clad man, whom he did not recognize at lirst: this was Pamphylius. He walked up to Julius, leading a boy by his hand. " Good morning, friend," Pamphylius said to him. " I have a great request to make of thee, but I do not know whether thou wilt, during the present persecutions of the Christians, recognize me as thy friend, and whether thou 58 WALK IN THE LIGHT 59 art not afraid to lose thy place by keeping company with me." " I am not afraid of any one," replied Julius, " and in proof of it, I beg thee to go with me to my house. I shall even miss my business at the forum in order to speak with thee and be useful to thee. Come with me ! Whose child is this ? " " He is my son." " Eeally, I ought not to have asked thee. I recognize thy face in him, and I recognize these blue eyes, and I need not ask who thy wife is : it is that beauty whom I saw several years ago with thee." " Thou hast guessed it," replied Pamphylius. " Soon after thou sawest her with me, she became my wife." The friends entered Juhus's house. Juhus called out his wife and gave her the boy, and himself led Pam- phylius into his luxurious, secluded room. " Here thou may est say everything, — no one will hear us," said Juhus. " I am not afraid if I am heard," replied Pamphylius. " My request even does not consist in this, that the Christians who have been taken should not be judged and executed, but only that they should be permitted openly to confess their faith." And Pamphylius told him that the Christians who had been seized by the authorities had sent word about their condition to their community. Elder Cyril, knowing of Pamphylius's relations to Julius, had commissioned Pam- phylius to go and intercede for the Christians. The Christians were not asking to be pardoned : they regarded the witnessing to the truth of Christ's teaching as their calling. They could bear witness to this by a long life of eighty years, or prove it even by their martyrdom. Either was a matter of indifference to them, and carnal death, which was inevitable, was equally devoid of terror and full of joy for them, whether now or in fifty years ; but 60 WALK IN THE LIGHT they wished their life to be useful to men, and so sent Pamphylius to beg that the judgment and the execution should be pubhc." Julius was surprised at Pamphylius's request, but promised that he would do everything in his power. " I have promised thee ray aid," said Julius, " but I promise it to thee in consideration of my friendship for thee and that especial, good feeling of meekness which thou hast always evoked in me ; but I must confess that I consider your teaching senseless and harmful. I can judge of this, because I myself lately, in a moment of dis- enchantment and sickness, during my dejection of spirit, shared your views and came very near abandoning every- thing and joining you. I know whereon your error is based, because I have myself passed through it, — on the love of self, on the weakness of spirit, and on morbid feebleness ; it is a faith for women, and not for men." " But why ? " " Because, while you recognize that in human nature lies dissension and violence, which results from dissension, you do not wish to take part in them and to teach them to others, and, by not doing your share, you do not wish to make use of the structure of the world, which is based on violence. Is this just ? The world has always existed with rulers. These rulers have taken upon themselves the whole labour and the whole responsibihty, and have protected us against external and internal enemies. And in return for this, we, the subje(3ts, have submitted to these rulers, have bestowed honours upon them, or have aided them in their service. But you, instead of partici- pating with your labours in the affairs of state, and in the measure of your deserts rising higher and higher in the estimation of men, have, in your pride, at once recog- nized all men to be equal, in order that you may not consider any one higher than yourselves, but may consider yourselves equal to Csesar. You think so yourselves and WALK IN THE LIGHT 61 you teach others so. And for feeble-minded and lazy people this offence is great ! Instead of labouring, every slave will at once regard himself as equal to Csesar. But more than that : you deny the tribute, and slavery, and the courts, and executions, and war, — everything which holds men together. If men obeyed you, society would fall to pieces and we should return to the time of savagery. You preach in the state the destruction of the state. But your very existence is conditioned by the state. If that did not exist, neither would you. You would all be the slaves of the Scythians or of wild men, the first that should know of your existence. You are like an ulcer which destroys the body, but which can appear and feed only on the body. And the living body struggles with it and crushes it ! It is this that we are doing with you, and we cannot help but do so. And in spite of my promise to lielp thee in the fulfilment of your desire, I look upon your teaching as very harmful and base : base, because I con- sider it dishonest and unjust to gnaw the breast which feeds thee ! It is base to make use of the benefits of the structure of the state and, without taking part in this structure, by which the state is supported, to destroy it ! " " In thy words," said Pamphylius, " there would be much that is just, if we really lived as thou thiukest. But thou dost not know our life, and hast formed a wrong impression about it. Those means for subsistence, which we employ for ourselves, are obtainable without the aid of violence. It is hard for you, with your habits of luxury, to form an idea how little a man needs in order to exist without privations. A man is so constructed that in a healthy state he can with his hands earn much more than what he needs for his own subsistence. But by living together, we are able, with the work in common, witliout any effort to sustain our children, and our old men, and the sick, and the feeble. Tliou sayest of the rulers that they defend men against outer and inner 62 WALK m THE LIGHT enemies, — but we love our enemies, and so we have none. Thou affirmest that we, the Christians, provoke in the slave the desire to be a Csesar ; we, on the contrary, both in word and in deed preach one thing, — patient humility and labour, the lowest kind of labour, — the labour of the working man. We know nothing and understand nothing about affairs of state ; we know this much, and this we know indubitably, that our good is only there where the good of other men is, and we seek this good ; the good of all men is in union, but union is not obtained through violence, but through love. The violence of a robber against a passer-by is as provoking to us as the violence exerted by an army over captives, by judges over those who are to be punished, and we cannot consciously take part in either. We cannot without labour make use of violence. Violence is reflected in us, but our participation in violence does not consist in applying it, but in bearing it humbly, when exerted against us." " But tell me, Pamphylius, why are people hostile to you, and why do they persecute, drive, and kill you ? Why does your teaching of love lead to dissension ? " " The cause is not in us, but in you. We put above everything else the divine law, which governs our con- science and reason. We can comply only with those laws of state which are not contrary to the divine laws : ' To Csesar the things which are Cesar's and to God the things which are God's.' And it is for this that men persecute us. We are not able to stop this hostility against us, because we cannot forget the truth, which we have come to com- prehend ; we cannot begin to live contrary to our con- science and to our reason. Of this hostility which our faith provokes in others against us, our teacher has said : ' Think not that 1 am come to send peace on earth ; I came not to send peace, but a sword ! ' Christ has ex- perienced this hostility Himself, and he has warned us, His disciples, more than once of it: 'The world hateth WALK IN" THE LIGHT 63 me,' He said, ' because the works thereof are evil. If ye were of the world, the world would love you ; but be- cause ye are not of the world, but I have freed you from the world, therefore the world hateth you. The time Cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.' But, like Christ, we are not afraid of those who kill the body, and so they can do nothing more with us. ' And this is their condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.' There is no reason for losing courage on account of this, because the truth prevails. The sheep hear the shepherd's voice and follow him, because they know his voice. And Christ's flock does not perish, but grows, drawing new sheep toward itself from all the countries of the earth, for, ' The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth.' " " Yes," Julius interrupted him, " but are there many among you who are sincere ? You are frequently accused of pretending that you are martyrs, and that you are glad to perish for the truth, but the truth is not on your side. You are proud madmen, who destroy all the foundations of social hfe ! " Pamphylius made no reply, and looked sadly at Julius. IX. While Julius was saying this, Pamphylius's little son came ruuning into the room and pressed close to his father's side. In spite of all the affection of Julius's wife, he ran away from her and came to his father's side. Pamphylius drew a sigh, patted his son, and rose up, but Julius held him back, asking him to stay for dinner and talk with him longer. " I am surprised," said Julius, " at your having married and had children. I cannot understand in what way you Christians can, in the absence of property, educate your children. How can your mothers live calmly, knowing that your children are not provided for ? " " Why are our children provided for less than yours ? " "Because you have no slaves and no property. My wife is very much inclined toward Christianity, and at one time she even v/anted to abandon this hfe, — this was six years ago. I wanted to go with her : but first of all she was frightened by that uncertainty, that want, which presented itself for her children, and I could not help but agree with her. That was during my sickness. At that time all my life was loathsome to me and I wanted to give everything up. But my wife's fears and, on the other hand, the elucidations by my physician, who cured me, persuaded me that the Christian life, as you lead it, is possible and good for those who have no fami- lies, but that there is no place in it for married people, for mothers with children, and that with life as you understand it, life, that is, the human race, must come to 64 WALK IN THE LIGHT 65 an end. And this is quite true. Therefore thy appear- ance with thy child is particularly surprising to me." " Not only one child ; at home are left a suckling babe and a three-year-old girl." " Explain to me how this is done. I do not under- stand it. Five years ago I was ready to give every- thing up and to join you ; but I had children, and 1 understood that, no matter how well it would be for me, I had no right to sacrifice my children, and so I remained living as before, in order to bring them up under the con- ditions in which I myself grew up and lived." " It is strange," said PamphyUus, " how differently we judge ! We say, If grown persons hve in a worldly fashion, this may be forgiven, Ijecause they a^-e already spoiled, but for children, — that would be terrible ! To live with them in the world and to offend them ! ' Woe unto the world because of offences ! for it must needs be that offences come ; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh ' ' Thus says our teacher, and I do not say this for a retort, but because it is really so. The chief need of living in such a way as we all live results for us from this, that among us there are children, those beings of whom it is said, ' Unless ye be as children, ye shall not enter the kiuodom of God.' " " But how can a Christian family be without any defi- nite means ? " "According to our faith, there is but one means, the work of love for men, while yours is violence. It may be destroyed, as wealth is destroyed, and then only work and the love of men is left, "\^'e consider that what is the foundation of everything, that we must hold on to, and that we ought to increase. And when this exists, the family lives and even prospers. Yes," continued Pamphylius, " if I liad any doubts as to the veracity of Christ's teaching and wavered in its execution, these doubts and waverings of mine would have ended at once, 66 WALK IN THE LIGHT if I thought of the lot of the children who are brought up by the pagans under conditions in which thou hast grown up and briugest up thy children. No matter how we may arrange life with palaces, slaves, and the imported produc- tions of foreign countries, the life of the majority of men remains what it ought to be. The only provision for life will always be the love of men and labour; We want to free ourselves and our children from these condi- tions, and not by means of violence, but with love, do we make men serve us, and, strange to say, the more we think we secure ourselves in this manner, the more we deprive ourselves of the true, natural, and safe provision, of love. The greater the power of the ruler, the less love there is for him. The same is true of the other provision, of labour. The more a man frees himself from labour and becomes accustomed to luxury, the less able he be- comes to labour, the more he is deprived of the true and eternal provision. And these conditions, under which men place their children, they call provisions ! Take thy son and mine, and send them both to find the way, to give an order, to do what is necessary, and thou wilt see which of the two will do better ; and try to have the two educated by others : whom will they take more readily ? No, do not say those terrible words, that the Christian life is possible only for the childless. On the contrary, it may be said : it is pardonable only for the childless to live a pagan life. But woe unto him that shall offend one of these little ones ! " Julius was silent. " Yes," he said, " maybe thou art right, but the educa- tion of the children has been begun, and the best teachers teach them. Let them learn everything we know, — no harm can come from it. There is still time for me and for them. They can come to you, when they shall have strength and shall find it necessary. But I can do so later after I have put my children on their feet and am left free." WALK IN TUE LIGHT 67 " Know the truth, and ye shall be free," said Pamphy- liiis. " Christ gives full liberty at once ; the worldly teaching will never give it." And Pamphylius went away with his son. The execution was public : Julius saw there Pamphy- lius, as he, with other Christians, was taking away the bodies of the martyrs. He saw him ; but, fearing the higher authorities, he did not go up to him and did not call him up. Another twenty years passed. Julius's wife had died. His life proceeded in the cares of a public activity, in the search after power, which now was given him, and now escaped from him. His fortune was great and kept in- creasing. His sons were grown up : his second son more espe- cially began to lead life on a broad scale. He made holes in the bottom of the bucket in which the fortune accumulated and, in proportion as the fortune grew, the leaks also were increased. Here began Julius's struggle with his sons, precisely such as had been his with his father : there were malice, hatred, jealousy. At that time a new chief deprived Julius of favour. Julius was abandoned by his former flatterers, and exile awaited him. He went to Eome, to make explanations ; he was not admitted, and was ordered to return home. Upon returniug he found bis son with dissipated youths. The rumour had spread in Cilicia that Julius had died, and the son was celebrating the death of his father. Julius was beside himself, and struck his son so hard that he fell down as one dead. Then Julius went to his wife's apartments. There he found the Gospel, in which he read : " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart ; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." " Yes," thought Julius, " He has been calling me for a 68 WALK IN THE LIGHT 69 Ions time. I did not believe Him and was insubmissive and evil, and my yoke was heavy and my burden evil." Julius sat for a long time with the open Gospel on his knees, reflecting on his whole past life, and recalliug everything which Pamphylius had told him at different times. Then Julius arose and went to his son, whom, to his surprise, he found on his legs, and he was inex- pressibly happy, because he had not injured him by his blow. Without saying a word to his son, Julius went out into the street and walked in the direction of the Chris- tian community. He walked the whole day and in the evening stopped for the night at the house of a peasant. In the room which he entered lay a man. At the noise of steps the man arose. It was the physician. " No, now thou shalt no longer dissuade me," exclaimed Julius. " I am now going there for the third time, and I know that only there shall I hnd rest." " Wliere ? " asked the physician. " With the Christians." " Yes, maybe tliou wilt find rest, but thou hast not ful- filled thy duty. There is no manhness in thee: thy mis- fortunes van(juish thee. Not thus do real philosophers act. Misfortune is only a fire in which the gold is tested. Tliou hast passed through the crucible. Now thou art wanting, and now tliou fleest ! It is now that thou oughtest to test men and thyself. Thou hast acquired true wisdom, and this thou oughtest to use for the good of thy country. What would happen to the citizens, if those who have come to know men, their passions and conditions of life, instead of sharing their knowledge, their experience, in behalf of society, should bury it in their search after peace ? Thy wisdom of life has been acquired in society, and thou oughtest to give it to the same society." 70 WALK IN THE LIGHT " But I have no wisdom ! I am all in error ! Though my errors are old, they have not on that account been changed to wisdom, just as water, no matter how old and foul it may be, will not be changed to wine." Thus spoke Julius, and, seizing his cloak, he hurriedly left the house and without rest continued his journey. At the end of the next day he arrived at the community of the Christians. He was welcomed by them, though they did not know that he was a friend of Pamphylius, who was beloved and respected by all. At the table Pamphyhus saw his friend, and he ran up to him with joy and embraced him, " Here I have come," said Julius. " Tell me what to do, and I shall obey thee." " Have no thought of it," said Pamphylius. " Come with me." And Pamphylius took Julius to the house where the newcomers stopped, and, pointing a bed out to him, he said: " Thou wilt see thyself wherewith thou canst serve people, when thou hast had a chance to see our life ; but, that thou mayest know how to dispose of thy leisure, I shall appoint thee some work for to-morrow. They are now gathering the grapes in our vineyards : go and help them. Thou wilt thyself find out where thy place is." On the next morning Julius went into the vineyard. The first was a young vineyard, which was laden with clusters of grapes. Young people were gathering them. All the places were occupied, and Julius could not find any place there for himself, though he walked up and down the vineyard for a long time. He w^ent farther, where there was an older vineyard, and where there was less of the fruit ; but even here Juhus found nothing to do : all worked in pairs, and there was no place for him. He went farther still, and entered an overgrown vineyard. WALK IN THE LIGHT 71 It was all empty. The vines were blasted and crooked, and, as Julius thought, barren. " So this is my life," he said to himself. " If I had come the first time, it would have been as the fruit of the first vineyard. If I had come when I started for the second time, it would have been like the fruit of the second vineyard ; but here is my life now : it is like these useless, overgrown vines, which are good for fuel only." And Julius was frightened at what he had done ; he was frightened at the punishment which awaited him for having wasted his life to no purpose. And Julius was grieved, and he said aloud : " I am not good for anything and cannot do anything now." And he did not rise from the spot, and wept because he had lost what could no longer be returned. And suddenly he heard an old man's voice, which called him : " Labour, my brother ! " Julius looked back, and he saw an old man, bent with years, white as snow, who with difficulty moved his feet. He was standing at a \dne and collecting the sweet clusters which were left here and there. Julius walked over to him. " Labour, dear brother ! Labour is joyful ! " And he showed him how to look for the clusters which were left here and there. Julius went to look for them and he brought some and deposited them in the old man's basket. And the old man said to him in reply : " See whether these clusters are worse than those col- lected in the other vineyards! 'Walk in the light, while ye have light,' our master has said. ' It is the will of Him that sent me that every man who seeth the son and beheveth on Him should have everlasting life, and I will bring him to hfe at the last day. For God sent not His son into the world to condemn the world : but that the 72 WALK I?T THE LIGHT world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned : but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.' Grieve not, my son ! We are all sons of God and His servants ! We are all His army ! Dost thou think he has no other servants but thee ? And what if thou hadst, in thy full strength, devoted thyself to His service, — shouldst thou have done everything He wants, everything that ought to be done to men in order to establish His kingdom ? Thou sayest that thou shouldst have done twice, ten times, a hundred times as much. But if you did a million times as much as all other men, what would this be in God's work ? Nothing. There is no limit and no end to God's work, as there is not to God. Come to Him, and be not a labourer, but a son, and thou shalt become a participator of infinite God and His work. There is no great and no small with God, but there is what is straight and what is crooked. Enter the straight path of life and thou shalt be with God, and thy work will be neither small nor great, but the work of God. Eemember that in heaven there is more joy on account of one sinner than of a hundred righteous. The worldly affairs, all that which thou hast missed, have only shown thee thy sin, — and thou hast repented. And since thou hast repented, thou hast found the straight path ; walk on it with God, and think not of the past, of what is greater and what lesser. For God all the living are equal ! There is one God and one life ! " And Julius calmed down, and began to live and to WALK IN THE LIGHT 73 work for his brothers according to his strength and the best he knew how. And thus he lived in joy for another twenty years, and did not see how he died a carnal death. Ydsnaya Polydna, October, 1890. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS Collected from L. N. Tolstoy's Private Corre- spondence, by D. R. Kudryavtsev 1886- 1893 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS^ Collected from L. N. Tolstoy's Private Corre- spondence, by D. R. Kudryavtsev LETTER FROM L. N. TOLSTOY TO D. R. KUDRYAVTSEV Dear Brother : — I received your book and read it partly with pleasure, recalling those trains of thought aud those sentiments which I experienced, when I expressed the thoughts which are contained in it, and partly with annoyance and sorrow, because I have expressed so ob- scurely what I wanted to express. I have for a long time been struggling with vanity and egoism, and have conquered these to such an extent that I no longer experience a disagreeable sensation at tlie thought that I shall be condenmed for my too bold, thoughtless, and frequently insufficiently grounded ex- pression of my thoughts, the more so, since I agree with you that here and there something from what you have collected may be of use to men. I should never have thought of publishing this book, but, once it is out, I have nothing against it, and only thank you for the sympathy which you express. Affectionately, L. Tolst6y. 1 From tbis collectiou extracts previously given are omitted, — Translator's Note. 77 L EELIGION The whole misunderstanding is based on this, that, speaking of religion, the positivists understand by it something quite different from what I do and what Con- fucius, Lao-tse, Buddha, Christ, have said about it. According to the opinion of the positivists, it is neces- sary to invent, or at least to think out, a religion, and it is necessary to think out such a religion as wiU have a good effect upon men and will agree with science, and will combine and embrace everything and, warming up people and encouraging them to do good, will not impair their lives. But I understand (I flatter myself with the hope that I am not alone in this) religion quite differently. Eeligion is the consciousness of those truths which are universally accessible to all men, in all their situations, at all times, and are as indubitable as that two times two are four. The business of religion is to find and express these truths, and when this truth is expressed, it will inevitably change the life of men ; and so what the positivists call a scheme is not at all an arbitrary assertion by anybody, but an expression of those laws which are always un- changeable and are felt by all men. The business of religion is like geometry. The relation of the sides to the hypotenuse has always 78 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 79 existed, and men always knew that there was some kind of a relation between them ; but Pythagoras pointed it out and proved it, and this relation became the possession of all men. But to say that the scheme of morahty is not good, because it excludes other schemes, is the same as saying that the theorem of the relation of the sides to the hypotenuse is not good, because it impairs the other false conceptions. It is not right to reject Christ's scheme (as they say), or the truth (as I say), on the ground that it does not fit in with the invented religion of humanity and excludes the other schemes (as they express it), or the lie (as I call it) ; it can be rejected only by proving that it is not the truth. Eeligion is not composed of a conglomerate of words which may act well upon people ; religion is composed of simple, apparent, clear, indubitable moral truths, which are separated from the chaos of false and deceptive judg- ments ; and such are the truths of Christ. If I found such truths in Katkdv, I should involun- tarily accept them at once. On this lack of comprehension of what I, and all other religious men, consider religion to be, and on the desire to put in place of it a definite form of a propaganda, is all mis- understanding based. What for us forms the whole meaning of life, our faith, is known by many ; but, unfortunately, very few know that this is not merely the chief, but even the only thing, and that it is not right to speak of it with adornments and elegance. It is not right to speak of it ; it has to be wept over with tears, and when these sincere tears are wanting, it is not right to speak of it on purpose, — it is not right to desecrate it with a frivolous touch. 80 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS In Kingsley there is a beautiful philosophical explana- tion of the Son, — the idea of a man, righteous for himself, for God. In order to be such a righteous man, it is necessary to be insulted, tortured, hanged, hated by all, and yet righteous. 4 (From the Vedas) Be they horses, cows, elephants, — everything which lives, walks, swims, and flies ; everything which even does not move, like the trees and the grass, — all that is the eyes of Eeason. Everything is formed by Eeason. The universe is the eyes of Reason, and Eeason is its foundation. Eeason is the one existence. Man, by surrendering himself to Eeason and its serv- ice, leaves this world of phenomena and enters into a blissful and free world and becomes immortal. Confucius does not mention Mang-Ti, the personal God, but always speaks only of heaven. Here is his relation to the spiritual world. He is asked, " How are we to serve the deceased spirits ? " He said : " Since you do not know how to serve the living, how shall you serve the dead ?" They asked him about death. " Since you do not know life, why do you ask about death ? " He was asked whether the dead knew of our serving them. He said : " If I answered that they do know, I am afraid that you would ruin your lives serving them. If I told you that they do not know, I am afraid you would entirely forget about them. You have no cause to know THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 81 what the dead know. There is no need of it. You will know everything in its proper time." There were many thieves then. They asked him how to be freed from them. " If you yourselves were not greedy, you would pay them money, and they would stop stealing." They asked him whether it is right to kill the bad for the benefit of the good. " Why kill ? Let your wishes be good. The highest is just like the wind, and the lowest like the grass. The wind blows, and the grass bends. The whole question is what and whom to consider the highest. " To consider the highest is to raise, to respect the good. " To consider the lowest is to drop, to despise the evil without any compromise." The uncertainty as to what awaits us ahead, beyond the limit of our spiritual vision, this uncertainty, this mystery, is the only possibility of our life, because it secures the forward movement. We walk, as it were, through an underground passage and see ahead of us the illuminated point of the exit ; but that we may reach this exit, ahead of us, in front of us must be an emptiness. The eternal life is eternal for the very reason that it deploys before us infinitely. If it were completely unfolded before us, and we could comprehend it here, in our temporal, carnal existence, it would not be the eternal life, as there would be nothing left beyond it. People generally think little about the meaning of the memory in connection with the life of the spirit, and yet it hns a great, and even a mysterious meaning. 82 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS During his carnal life, a man only occasionally reaches that elevation of comprehension which alone gives the meaning and true joy of his life. This condition is not uninterruptedly maintained in our soul. It bursts forth from time to time and illu- mines our path, as though by disconnected flashes of another, higher life. Why is this so ? Why do we not always maintain ourselves on that height of spiritual illumination to which we have risen ? This is due to the defect of memory. Something distracts our attention and we forget. When we again rise to that lieight, we recall the former occasions when we were in the same condition, and then all the former illuminations of our spirit blend for us into the one, true life outside time and space. Then the of- fences of the carnal life again distract our attention, and we again disappear from the sphere of the true hfe and forget it. In respect to the true life we fall into a state of thoughtlessness, from which we again awaken, when with the new elevation of the spirit memory returns to us. Now, with our carnal existence, this phenomenon pre- sents itself to us in the form of memory ; but when we leave the limits of the carnal life, that which is in the memory will be life itself. 8 Repentance is connected with spiritual growth, just as the breaking of the shell is connected with the hatching of the birdling. The breaking of the egg or the seed is necessary for the germ to begin to grow and be subjected to the action of air and light. The breaking of the egg is, at the same time, a consequence of the growth of the germ. The same is true of repentance. If there is no repentance, there is no forward move- ment. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 83 If there is no advancing movement, there is no repent- ance. We all forget that Christ's teaching is not a teaching like that of Moses, of Mohammed, and like all other human teachings, that is, a doctrine of rules to be exe- cuted. Christ's teaching is a gospel, that is, a teaching of the good. He who is thirsty, let him go and drink. And so, according to this teaching it is impossible to prescribe to any one, to rebuke any one for anything, to condemn any one. " Go and drink, if thou art thirsty," that is, take the good which is revealed to us by the spirit of truth. Can one be ordered to drink ? Can one be ordered to be blessed ? Even so a man cannot be rebuked for not drinking, or for not being blessed, nor can he be condenmed. The one thing that Christians can do, and always have done, is to feel themselves blessed and to wish to communicate the key of blessedness to other people. 10 Above all else, I do not understand what is meant by the words, " living Christ." We call Clirist a man who lived and died eighteen hundred years ago, but in respect to whom there formed itself the tradition, as it has been formed in respect to many other men, that he arose from the dead. But we know that people cannot rise from the dead, or fly to heaven, as people tell of Christ. What, then, is meant by tlie words, " living Christ ? " If they designate this, that his teaching is alive, the expression is awkward and unwonted (we do not say, 84 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS " the living Socrates, the belief in the living Socrates " ), and it is one of those expressions which ought to be avoided, because with the existing superstition about Christ's resurrection this expression may be taken in the sense of confirming the miracle of the resurrection. But if by the words, " living Christ," we are to under- stand that he invisibly, like those spirits imagined by the spiritualists, is present in our lives, we must define how this Christ's spirit is to be understood, whether as one of many such spirits, or, as the church theology understands Christ, as God, — as the second person. In the first case, this will be an arbitrary and useless conception ; in the second, this will inevitably lead us, if not to all, at least to the chief propositions of the church theology. The words, " living Christ," demand an explanation and evoke questions, to which it is necessary to answer : Who is he, God or not God ? If he is God, in what relation does he stand to God the Creator ? When was he created ? Why was he made incarnate ? The answers to these questions will inevitably bring us to, " born, uncreated before all time, through whom all has been," to the fall of the angel, to the fall of Adam, or to the invention of one's own theology. And I think that you will agree with me that none of these is desirable. And why should it be so ? Why must I imagine that a dead man is ahve, or assert that a man is God, when I know that this is not only an untruth, but also a useless and senseless assertion of what is impossible, because he who is ahve cannot be dead, and a man cannot be God. Will it be easier for me to attain the good life, if I introduce into my world-conception such an insipidity ? THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 85 I think the very opposite is true. You will ask me, " How then are we to understand Christ ? Are we to understand him just like any other simple man ? " " By all means," will I reply, " like any other simple man." This is indispensable, in the first place, because it is the truth ; in the second place, because without the admixture of miracles and the assertion of the resurrec- tion the teaching is in itself so true, so simple, so attract- ive, so universal, that there is no man, no matter of what nationality he may be, who has any ground for not accept- ing it. But with the assertion of the resurrection of the Master, I, without any necessity, add to a great teaching a trite, contemptible invention, which can only repel the majority of men from it. In the third place, it is indis- pensable for this reason also, that Christ's teachiug is important and necessary as the teachiug of a man who is precisely like us ; it is important to us all, because he, being precisely a man like us, has shown us how each of us may live well. Is it possible that if the Master has shown me by exam- ple and by instruction how I must live and then has left me, it will be more useful for me to imagine that the teacher is invisibly present in my life and aiding me, than for me to try according to my strength to live as he has shown me how ? In the fourth place, it is also indispensable for me to imagine Christ as a simple man, because the conception of him as a God veils, minimizes, and frequently com- pletely obliterates the relation of man to the one God the Father, whereas in this does the whole essence of Christ's teaching consist. Thus, for the sake of what is superfluous to Christ, his exaltation to the dignity of God, I emascu- late his teaching and distort it, that is, deprive myself of the very thing in the name of which I extol him so much. 86 THOUGHTS AND APHOKISMS Is it possible that the terrible experience of those churches that recognized Christ as God and, in conse- quence of it, arrived at a complete negation of the essence of his teaching, is not a sufficient lesson for us, to keep us from blundering on the same path ? The main thing is, it is an untruth, and all know this. Christ is for me, yes, pardon it, and for you, too, and for all men, not what we have imagined him to be, but what he is in reality, a great teacher of life, who lived eighteen hundred years ago, who died on the cross the same real death as all people die, and who left us a teach- ing which gives a meaning and the good to our life. Let us feed on this teaching, let us try deeper and deeper to penetrate its meaning ; let us make farther deductions and applications from it. No matter what we may say, the word " Christ " remains for us what it is, — a word serving to designate a man to whom a certain teaching is ascribed, and noth- ing else. Every ascription of another meaning to the word " Christ " only destroys the seriousness and the sin- cerity of the relation to Christ's teaching and even impairs its meaning. The meaning of the teaching in its simplest expression is for me as follows : my life, which above all else I con- ceive as my own, given to me for my enjoyment, does not belong to me, but to Him who has given me the life and who has sent me into this world for the fulfilment of His will. My life belongs to the Father, as Christ calls Him who gives the life to us and to the whole world. And so the meaning of my life does not lie in my per- sonal good, but in the fulfilment of the will of Him who sent me, His will consisting in increasing love in myself and in other men. In this does my life and my good and the life and the good of all men consist. THOUGHTS AND APHOKISMS 87 My life is not mine, but His ; from Him has it come, and to Him does it go. In this does the meaning of the teaching consist. I know who I am, what I have to do, and what will become of me. What more do I need ? I will rely on the Father, I will try to do what is imposed upon me. In this do my life and my good consist. Such, in its simplest expression, is the meaning of Christ's teaching, as I understand it. Why, then, should I drag the living Christ, who has risen from the dead, into this teaching ? Of what use is he to me ? You say, — and many say this, — that it is impossible to rely on one's own efforts, that it is impossible to rely on oneself. Pardon me, but this is only words, which have no meaning whatsoever for me, nor for you, either. That a man must not rely upon himself may be said by a mate- rialist, who imagines man as a concatenation of mechani- cal forces, which are subject to laws that govern matter ; but for you and me, as for any religious man, there is a living force, a divine spark, which is implanted in the body and lives in it. God has sent this particle of Him- self into my body, hoping that it would do His work. How, then, can I help relying upon Him ? God relies upon me, so how can I help relying upon Him ? Man's life is his activity, — a man may save or ruin his soul. Christ's whole teaching is nothing but a teaching as to what a man must do ; he must not mutter, " Lord, Lord ! " but do his commandments, be perfect as the Father is perfect, be merciful, be meek, be self-sacrificing. Who will do all this, if man himself will not ? But to do this, a man must hope to be able to do it. If by the words, " not to rely upon oneself," is meant that a man should not be sure that he will do everything 88 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS he wishes to do, that he will attain the perfection toward which he is striving ; that he should not pride himself on what he has done, but should be like a labourer who has come from the field ; if by this we are to understand that everything good which there is in man is only that which is divine, then, in that sense, one should not rely upon oneself. And of what use can such a strange theory be, which impresses people with the idea that they should not rely upon what actually exists and of the existence of which they may constantly convince themselves through experi- ence : they must not rely on having efforts of their own which help a man to move forward, but must rely on what is not and never was, and of the existence of which no one can be convinced, — on the fantastic help of a fantastic being. Pardon me, if I, speaking thus, offend you ; but I do not wish in such an important matter to keep from saying the whole truth, as I see it. I write to you with love, but do not wish to conceal what I am thinking. I am standing with one foot in the grave, and I have no reason to feign. I feel also like answering the question which naturally arises : " If it is an untruth, whence comes this concep- tion of the resurrection of Christ, of his aid to men, of the resurrection of men, and so forth ? " I think that this is due to the fact that the essence of Christianity consists in the establishment by each separate man of his relation to the infinite, to the begin- ning of everything, to the beginning of my own life also, to God, to the Father. Having come to understand life as Christ has taught us to understand it, man, as it were, extends a thread upwards from himself to God, binds himself with Him and, sundering all the collateral threads that united him with men (even as Christ commands), holds only by the divine thread and is guided by it through life. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 89 And so I think that what happens is that some people, having established their relation to God, having united with Him by the thread, at the same time are dissatis- fied with what God asks of them, and, having by reflection formed a conception of what the true Christian life ought to be, do not place themselves in the position in which the thread which unites them with God has put them, but in that which they imagine true Christians must take up in the presence of other men. Such people, who have generally, sundered their former side threads, which unite them with men, to maintain them- selves in this situation, which does not result from the immediate relation to God, but which they have imagined to themselves, get into new relations with men, take up new collateral threads, which maintain them in their chosen position. And so it happens that the divine thread weakens more and more, and it appears to men that to continue the life which they have begun on this height, which frequently does not correspond to the inner necessity on which they have grounded their life, the only immediate relation to God is no longer necessary, but that they need, on the one hand, the conception of " faith " as something super- natural, special, which would maintain them in the position chosen by them ; but as it is impossible for one man to believe in what does not exist tliey, on the other hand, need an external union of men, who should try to believe ahke in what is not, and should support one another on the chosen path, encouraging one another by condemning people for transgressions against given rules and by approving others for executing them. Thus do I explain the simultaneous tendency of many people toward mystical conceptions and toward external union. September, 1892. IL god's work What do I do when I want to change a bristle into a cobbler's thread ? How do I treat these articles ? With the greatest attention, care, tenderness, almost love. What does the watchmaker do as he puts together a watch, if he is a master and indeed knows how to make a watch ? All his fingers are busy : some of them hold a wheel ; others place an axle in position, and others again move up a peg. All this he does softly, tenderly. He knows that if he rudely sticks one thing into another, and even if he presses a little too hard on one part, forgetting another part, the whole will go to pieces, and that he had better not attend to this matter, if he cannot devote all his forces to it. I say all this for this purpose : At first people live not knowing why ; they live only for their enjoyment, which takes the place of their ques- tion, " What for ? " but later there comes a time for every rational being, w^hen it asks " What for ? " and receives that answer which Christ gave and which we all know, " To do God's work." Is it possible God's work is less important, or less com- plicated, than bristles or a watch ? 90 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 91 Is it possible God's work may be done at haphazard, and all come out right ? In a watch one cannot press too hard upon a part needed ; but the defenders of the worldly life say, " What is the use of being finical: if a thing does not fit in, bang it with the hammer, and it will go in." It does not mat- ter to them that the rest will all be flattened. They do not see this. It is impossible to work over a watch without giving it full attention and, so to speak, love for all its parts. Is it possible that one may do God's work in such a way ? It is all very well for a man to do God's work at hap- hazard (that is, not to live in love with his brothers), if he does not believe fully that his work is God's work. But when he comes to believe that the meaning of his life consists in nothing but cooperating for the union of men he cannot help but abandon himself to Him whose work he is doing; he can no longer without attention, care, or love treat all men with whom he comes in contact, be- cause all men are wlieels, pegs, and cogs of God's work. The difference between such a man and a watchmaker is only this, that the watchmaker knows what will result from all the parts ; but a man, in doing God's work, does not know, does not see the external side of the work. A man is rather an apprentice, wlio hands, cleans, oils, and partly unites the component parts of the watch, which is unknown to him in form, but known in its essence (the good). I want to say that a man who believes that his life is the fulfilment of God's work ought to labour until he gets seriousness, attention, care in his relations with men, — such caution as will make squeaking, force, breakage impossible, and all will always be soft and loving, not for his own pleasure, but because this is the only condi- tion under which God's work is possible. When this condition is wanting, one or the other is 92 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS necessary, — to attain this condition, or to throw up God's work and stop deceiving oneself and others. As the watchmaker stops his work the moment there is some grating or squeaking, so also must a behever stop as soon as there is an inimical relation to a man, and he must know that, no matter how little important this man may seem to him, there is nothing more important for him than his relation to this man, so long as there is a squeaking between them. And this is so, because a man is an indispensable wheel in God's work, and so long as he does not enter amicably where he ought to enter the whole work comes to a stop. The relations among men make it obligatory upon them to find in each of them and in themselves " the son of man," to unite with him, — to evoke in themselves and in him a desire to approach him, that is, love. I shall be told, " this is hard to find." All you have to do is to act like the watchmaker: tenderly, carefully, not for yourself, but for the work, and it will come to you naturally. A disunion takes place for no other reason than that I want by force to drive an axle into the wrong wheel. If it does not fit one way or another, mend yourself : there is a place for it, — it is necessary and will do the work somewhere. As you attain your aim and get the better of the work in making boots or watches, not by a tension of strength, but by care, by tenderness of treatment, so it is also with the treatment of men. And not only is it so, but as many times more so, as a man is more complex and more delicate than a watch. It is not possible to work one's feelers out sufficiently well to treat people with them. And the longer and so the thinner these feelers are, the more powerfully do they move people. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 93 I wish that a man who is near to me should not lead an idle and luxurious life. I can, with my rudeness, take away from him the pos- sibility of luxury and compel him to work. If I do so, I shall not advance God's work one hair's breadth, — I shall not move the man's soul. If I extend my feelers more finely and farther out, I shall prove logically and incontestably to him that he is a dissipated and despised man. And with this I shall not advance God's work, but shall only live with him in communion, seeking out and strengthening everything which unites us, and keeping away from everything which is foreign to me. And if I myself do God's work and live by it, I shall more certainly than death draw this man to God and cause him to do God's work. We have become so accustomed in the worldly life to attain our aims by means of the stick of power, of author- ity, or even by means of the stick of logical thought, that we want to do the same in God's work. But one stick jumps upon another. But God's work is done with very delicate feelers, for which there are no obstacles. Went to see a sick beggar. Terrible poverty. It is remarkable how we have worked out in ourselves methods of cruelty. What I ouglit really to have done would have been to have remained there and not have gone away, until he was made equal with me. The highest happiness is to give oneself to others. And this is confirmed in work — enduringly and in the act — with concentration. 94 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS Yes, this is so, but for this the work must be iu corre- spondence with the need ; but if the need is higher than the work, this need will be exaggerated, as indeed it is. Consequently everything is again in the work. Our main misfortune is in our needing more than we work, and so we become entangled in life. To work more than we need cannot be harmful, — it is the highest law. As the fire destroys the candle, so the good destroys the personal life. As the wax melts before the face of fire, so the con- sciousness of the personal life is destroyed by participa- tion in the good. You do good only when you renounce yourself. The scarecrow of death stands only before those who do not know the good. Death destroys the body, as the scaffolding is destroyed after the building is up and finished. And he whose building is up rejoices at the destruction of the scaffold- ing and of the body. Life is for God the erection of His building, — the joy of salvation. For God there takes place the work of the illumination of the world through man's intellect. For man there is the joy of life which ascends higher and higher. The' world lives. In the world there is life. Life is a mystery for all men. Some call it God, others say, " Force." All the same, — it is a mystery. Life is diffused through everything. Everything lives THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 95 together, and everytldng lives apart : man lives, a worm lives. This separate Hfe science calls an organism. This stupid word is obscure. What they call an organism is the force of life, indi- vidualized in time and space, which irrationally puts forth the demand of the common life for its individuality. This individualization of life bears a contradiction in itself. It excludes everything else. Everything else excludes it. By its tendencies toward life it destroys itself. Every step, every act of life is a dying. This contradiction would be insoluble, if there were no intellect in the world. But the intellect is in man. It is this which destroys the contradiction. One man would eat up another, if he had no intellect, which shows him that for his good it is better to be in love with this man and together with him to kill animals for food. The same intellect shows him that it is better for him not to kill animals, but to be in a state of love with them and to live on their products. The same intel- lect will further point in this direction and will destroy the contradiction of the egoism. Out of the enormous world of beings that devour one another, man alone is endowed with reason (love also), which is to destroy all this contradiction of egoism. One would think this is so little for so great a matter. It is the same as though one should say, " How small one spark is, to burn up a whole forest." If the fire spark is a burning material, it is sufficient, no matter how small it may be. All that is needed is the burning material : it need only exist, and must not be destroyed. So also the world of the contradictory egoism of the beings, to keep them from destroying another, is endowed with one of the egoistical tendencies, — flowering, fructi- 96 THOUGHTS AND APnORISMS fication, and iu man — the lust of the sexual act. And the world lives, presenting an imperishable material of the activity of reason — love, for the activity which destroys the egoism of the beings. The world can wait : the material is not destroyed, — it will always exist, — and there is a spark of lire. God, or Nature, gives what is indispensable, but only what is indispensable for his aims. Nature, or God, always acts alike. He, or it, never does what is finished, but gives the possibility of completing, — not a tree, but a seed. For God, for Nature, there is no time. When there is a possibility for something, there is what ought to be. The same is true with the realization of the destruction of the contradiction of the egoism of the beings by means of the activity of reason. There is the possibility, and so there is the realization, there is this, as the prophet says, that the lion will lie with the lamb. We may further say that not one animal will crush an insect or a plant. For a man who has not come to recognize his rational nature there is a full satisfaction in the life of the egoisti- cal contradiction. He then does not see it. He follows the lower law of God, or of Nature ; but the moment he has come to recognize his rational nature, the contradic- tion of his inner life poisons him. He cannot live by it, and he surrenders himself to another law of reason, — to love ; now the aim of love is the destruction of the contradiction. Having abandoned himself to this new law, he receives his full satisfaction.. For the rational being there is no other activity, no other life, but the one which has the destruction of the contradiction for its ain). This activity will bring him out of his personality and will cause hira to renounce him- self ; it will take him into the common life, into the ser- vice of that God, or of that Nature, for which there is no time. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 97 Man's problem in this life is to renounce everything which is in itself contradictory, that is, personal, egoisti- cal, in order to be able to serve reason, to destroy the iuner contradiction of life, in which alone he finds satis- faction, security, fearlessness, and peace before death. If he does not fulfil this problem, he remains in the inner contradiction of the personal life and destroys himself, just as any contradiction destroys itself. We talk of the future life, of immortality. What is immortal is only what is not I. EeasoE. Love. God. Nature. June, 1886. It is necessary that we should have strength to do God's work. It is necessary that there should be a tree with flowers and seeds for the attainment of those infinite purposes which it attains, — shade, and food for insects, and food for plants, and the continuation of its species. Well, does God do all these things with His own force ? Should Nature break up into an infinite quantity of forces for the attainment of all its ends ? No. In the tree is implanted, or in the tree there is a force of life, and it is this which creates everything ; creat- ing itself, it attains all its ends. A separate, personal force of life is given it for the attainment of all its ends. Only (how can I express this more clearly ?) the decep- tion of its personal life incites the tree to serve the world. Intending to live for itself, the tree works, grows, fructi- fies, serves the world, and (so it appears to us) does not know it. The same is true of all lives, — animals, men. I do not know how it is with the others, but I, a man, and some other people who live with me and have lived before me, recognize this deception. 98 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS Man seems to be endowed with the ability which re- veals the deception to him. It is as though God, or Nature, made him a participant in the secret and per- mitted him to take a glance into the mechanism of the work. Man has taken a glance into it, — how can he help it ? How is he to make peace with his situation ? His whole life and his striving toward life is a decep- tion. With all his strivings he is nothing but an instru- ment for the attainment of ends that are foreign to him. A commander sends an army of soldiers where they will certainly be killed, but he does not tell them so. If they knew for sure, they would not go. The commander says that there is a risk, but that a great reward, a great joy awaits them. They believe him, and they go. But in the life of men the situation is much worse. It says clearly to all of them (thinking men) that they will inevi- tably die in great suffering, and that they are only instru- ments for ends that are foreign to them, and they are unable to believe in all the rewards, which have been promised them only by feeble-minded men, on account of the hopelessness of their condition. Is the condition of men really so terrible ? It is, for the very reason that they are given an intel- lect which points out the destination of their personal life in the world ; it is terrible for the very reason that they are admitted to the mysteries of God, or of Nature. Reason lifts for us a part of the curtain. We have seen and we see that we do not live for ourselves. That reason which is admitted to the mysteries of God, or of Nature, which is inseparably connected with that personal life that lives only by that personal life and does not understand a life which is not for itself, is terrified at this life as at something foreign to it. My reason, which is admitted to God's mysteries, is I. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 99 And I am my personal life. And both these egos are united into one. I know that I am living for myself, and I want to eat. Eeasou says, and it cannot help saying, because it sees this in everything living : " I do not live for myself." The personal life says : " But I want to live for myself." Keason does not contradict the personal life, but answers to its demand for a personal happiness : " Every- thing lives and seeks the personal good not for itself." But reason cannot help but see that tlie personal life of a tree, of an animal, and so my own life, wants to eat, and will be only tools, means for the attainment of the greatest ends with the least effort (as Nature always does), means for the common hfe, the one reason strives after. "When the connection between this life and the other is established, everything becomes easy and joyous. 8 At a certain stage of the spiritual development man must refrain from intensifying in himself the feeling of personal compassion for another being. This feeling is in itself of an animal nature, and in a sensitive man it always manifests itself in sufficient strength without arti- ficial incitement. What one ought to encourage in oneself is spiritual compassion. The soul of a beloved man must always be dearer to me than the body. I must remember that it is better that a beloved man should now, in my presence, die for having declined to kill even a mad dog, than that he should die after many years from eating too much, and should outlive me. 100 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 9 There is no force in books. The chief force is in the Christian life according to the teaching of truth. GlorificatioDS, interpretations, prayers, mysteries, dis- cussions, definitions, divine services, — there has been enough of all that and at all times and in all forms, and people's teeth are set on edge by it. Now another prob- lem begs for recognition in the Christian v7orld, — the problem of the realization in life of the Christian world- conception ; questions of ownership, of war, of punish- ment, of power, of prostitution are now the questious of the day. For the last twenty years it has been noticed how humanity, burying itself in these questions, has been endeavouring to answer them. This solution, it seems to me, now begins to be given. Men, as it were, are beginning to make attempts at applying to life what they confess. It is these separate phenomena which interest me, and to them I intended to devote what very small particle of life seems to be left to me. 10 I am not afraid of a candle that is not burning, but of one that is, and not because its fire is not the real one, but because it is the property of fire to flame up and go out. 11 Eemember how often Christ has said, " The Father has sent me. I am sent. I do the will of Him who has sent me. These words have always been obscure to me. God could not have sent God, and I did not understand any other meaning, or understood it obscurely. Only now has the simple, clear, and joyous meaning of THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 101 these words been revealed to me. I arrived at the com- prehension of them through doubt and suffering. With- out this teaching there is no solution to those doubts which torment every disciple of Christ. Their meaning is this, that Christ has taught all men the life which he considered the true one for himself. But he considers his life an embassy, a fulfilment of the will of Him who sent him. But the will of Him who sent is the rational (good) life of the whole world. Consequently, it is the business of life to carry the truth into the world. Life has, according to Christ's teaching, been given to man with his reason for no other purpose than that he should carry this reason into the world, and so man's whole life is nothing but this rational activity turned upon other beings in general, and not merely upon men. Thus Christ understood his life, and thus he taught us to understand ours. Each of us is a power which is conscious of itself, — a flying stone which knows whither it flies and why, and is glad because it flies and knows that it is nothing, — a stone, — and that all its meaning is in this flight, this force which has thrown him, — that his whole life is this force. Indeed, outside this view, that is, that every man is a messenger of tlie Father, called into life only for the pur- pose of doing His will, — outside this view life has not only no meaning, but is also detestable and terrible. And, on the CQjntrary, it is enough to become well familiarized and one with this view of life, and life not only acquires a meaning, but also becomes joyous and significant. Only with this view are all doubts, struggles, and terrors destroyed. If I am God's messenger, my chief business does not only consist in fulfilling the Ave commandments, — they are only conditions under which I must fulfil the ambas- 102 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS sadorship, — but in living in such a way as to carry into the world with all means given me that truth which I know, that truth which is entrusted to me. It may happen that I shall myself often be bad, that I shall be false to my mission ; all this cannot for a moment destroy the meaning of my life : " To shine with that light which is in me, so long as I am able, so long as there is light in me." Only with this teaching are destroyed the idle regrets as to there not being or having been what I wished, and the idle desire for something definite in the future ; there is destroyed the terror of death, and the whole of life is transferred into the one present. Death is destroyed by this, that, if ray hfe has blended with the activity of introducing reason and the good into the world, the time will come when the physical annihilation of my person- ality will cooperate with what has become my life, — the introduction of the good and of reason into the world. The conviction of the ambassadorship has the following practical effect upon me (I speak for myself and, I know, for others also) : Outside the physical necessities, in which I try to con- fine myself to the least, as soon as I am drawn to some activity, — speaking, writing, working, — I ask myself (I do not even ask, I feel it) whether with this work I serve Him who sent me. I joyously surrender myself to the work and forget all doubts and — fly, like a stone, and am glad that I am flviu" But if the work is not for Him who has sent me, it does not even attract me, I simply feel ennui, and I only try to get rid of it, I try to observe all the rules given for messengers. But this does not even happen. It seems to me that a man can live in such a way as to sleep, or in such a way as with liis whole soul, with delight, to serve Him who has sent liim. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 103 12 Christ has conquered the world and has saved it, because he has suffered with love and joy, that is, has conquered suffering and has taught us to do the same. I know this, luit am still unable to learn it, although I see for sure that 1 am moving in this direction. May God help all men to do the common work, the work of love, by word, deed, abstinence, effort : here, not to speak a bad word, not to do what would be worse ; there, to overcome timidity and false shame, and to do what is necessary, what is good, — what is loving. All tiny, imperceptible acts and words, — but from these mustard-seeds grows the tree of love which with its branches shades the whole world. This work may God aid us to do with our friends, with our enemies, with strangers, in moments when our mood is the highest, and in moments when it is the lowest. And it will be well for us, and it will be well for everybody. III. FORM AND EXISTENCE Men cannot live without establishing for themselves a form of life to conform with the degree of their morahty, but every form of life, from that of an English lord to that of an agricultural peasant, is in itself not only car- rion, but a hindrance to the true hfe. From this it does not follow that it is necessary to live without any definite form, without a plan of life (a man cannot do this), but that we must not only refrain from esteeming the plan, but must also fear it like the fire. The true life is only in the relations between men. In the worldly life everything is in the form, and the relations among men are completely sacrificed to form. But even in the most moral life this temptation always accompanies man. I want to finish the exposition of this thought, and a recruit comes to bid me good-bye. To finish is the form, the plan ; and the recruit is the man and my relations to him, — it is true life. This will not interfere with my ending my writing, if I am alive, and so forth. I shall look at my life: how many various forms of life I have established for myself ! What is left of them ? Nothing. 104 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 105 And what is left of the past life, — of my relations to men ? For the forty years of my worldly life I established hardly any relations to men, because I lived for the sake of form. And during the short years when I lived without form, how many dear relations, with which it is a joy to live and to die ! November, 1886. How joyous and how contrary to all human works is this, that on the divine path there is no weariness, nor cooUng off, nor, much more, any return. I see this in the case of all those few men whom I know and who have entered upon this path. It is frequently hard and agonizing, in a worldly sense, and the farther on the harder and the more agonizing. There is no hope of a realization of anything in this world, in our lifetime ; and never, not only any question as to whether my path will betray me, but even any doubt, no waveiing, no regrets. This is that one, true, narrow path. No matter where and how comfortably and how agree- ably I may walk, there can always be a doubt whether I am on the path. There is none on the one, true path. On all other paths there are diversity and disputes ; but on this one there is complete unity, not only with those who think and speak alike, but also with all those who under- stand it, each in his own way. The Pashkovians, Orthodox, Catholics, condemn me ; they, the Christians, frequently, contrary to Christ's teach- ing, cause me ])aiM, but 1 not only do not condemn them (I am not speaking for argument's sake, but sincerely, for I cannot feel otherwise), but even hail them on the ti-ue path, every time when they stand upon it, rejoice at their 106 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS successes and am unable to express my feelings for them, so much do I love them. Lately I read a newspaper, LArinee du Salut. The form of expression is strange and incomprehen- sible to me, but their activity, which leads to abstinence, to love, to paying attention to Christ's teaching, incites love for them and joy in me. Lately, as I read the articles in the Salvation Army, I explained to myself their activity and spiritual condition, and my relation to them. They take people who have departed from Christ back to him. It is nice of them to do so, and nothing more can be expected of them. He who has come to the spring of living water and who has thirst will himself lind what to do with the water and how to drink it. Their mistake consists in this, that they insist upon the form, upon the necessity of drinking the water in this way, and not in that, and in such and such a situation. And this mistake harms them the more since they have never thought of the methods of drinking the water, and take the long-worn tradition, which has proved inconvenient in practice. My relation to them is awfully strange. By searchings, sufferings, and, of course, above all -else, by God's mercy, I was led to the spring. I had been dying and I began to live, and I live by this water alone; suddenly men come to this spring. I hail them with enthusiasm and love, and instead, not of love, but of simple absence of malice, which I had hoped to find, I find condemnation and rejection, and the injunction that, before drinking, I must pass through the psychological processes, which are not proper for me, Itut through which they have passed, — renounce the consciousness of life and of hap- piness, which the living water gives me, and recognize the fact that I am doing it only out of fear of the pastors who have called me to the drinking. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 107 I do not say that they, or any one else, ought to travel on the same path with me. The point is not how I arrived, but what I arrived at. If we have come to Christ and want to live by him alone, we will not quarrel. 3 The question of prayer and of aid according to prayer. This question has of late interested me. I now feel every day the necessity of praying, of asking God's aid. This necessity is natural (at least to those of us who have been accustomed to it from childhood), and I think it is natural to all men. To feel one's weakness and to seek outside aid, that is, not merely through a struggle with evil, but to try to find methods by which it would be possible to vanquish evil, this is called praying. To pray does not mean to employ methods which deliver one from evil, Ijut among the methods which de- liver there is also the action which is called prayer. The peculiarity of prayer, as compared with all other methods, consists in this, that it is agreeable to God. If this is true, then, in the first place, the question arises why prayer, tlrat is, an action whicli is pleasing to God and saves me from evil, must be expressed in words only, or in obeisances, which do not last long, as is gen- erally assumed. Why can prayer not be expressed by continuous motions of the body, say of the feet only, — the wandering of the pilgrim is a prayer of the feet, — and if I go and work a whole day or a whole week for a poor widow, will this be prayer ? I think it will. In the second place, prayer is a request for the realiza- tion of some external or internal desire. For example, I ask that my children may not die, or that I may be freed 108 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS from vice, my weakness. Why shall I turn to the incom- prehensible and great God with such prayers which can be fulfilled by His manifestations upon earth, — by men, who are united in the fulfilment of His will (the church in the true meaning of this w^ord) ? Everything for which I have prayed may be fulfilled by men and by me. I feel like praying, and I pray with words. But is it not better for me to widen the concept of prayer ? Is it not better for me to try to find the causes of this vice and to find that divine activity, not of an hour, but of days and months, which may be that saving activity that counteracts my vice ? And I found it for fnyself. I am sensuous, and I lead an idle, voluptuous life, and I pray. Would it not be better for me to change my godless life, to work for others, to satisfy my body less, — to get married, if I am not ? It will turn out that my whole life is a prayer, and this prayer will certainly be fulfilled. But more than this : the very necessity of prayer — of a supplication of direct aid from a living being — is satisfied in the simplest, non-supernatural manner. I am weak and bad, and I know what I suffer from. I reveal my weakness to another and ask Him to help me, and He, at times by His mere presence, serves as an impediment to the development of this vice. I do so. Prayer directed to God, I shall be told, can that be bad? Of course not. I not only do not regard it as bad, but myself from old habit pray, though I do not consider this important. What is important is what God wants from you and what God has given you tools for. And so if I had the means for saving myself by means of certain acts, or by means of other men, and I did none of these things, and only prayed to God, I should feel that I did wrong. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 109 One more thing about prayer, and the main thing. Kemember what Jesus said to the Samaritan, " Men must worship God in spirit and in truth." The true translation for " in truth " is " by deeds." This is one of those texts which, as Arnold says, ought to stand in the first place. I stood in the forest. I began to tell my fortune as I tore off the petals of a flower : " Immense, great, medium, half-and-half, small, very small, insignificant." Twice it turned out, " Very small." I have outlived this habit of telling fortunes, but this " very small" interested me. This is certainly the best I can wish. The greatest is always very small. For God every act is very small. And it is the right act. One only needs to do good around oneself, — to give joy to men around oneself, — without any aim, — and this is a great aim. I have thought on the gradualness of the demands of Nature, — of food and labour, of the collecting of the seed and its return, and, as it seems to me, of the collecting of knowledge and its transmission. But love does not enter into this series, because love is life itself, which is attained through the natural gratifica- tion of these demands. I read Medor's work on civilization. He divides it beautifully into four parts: (1) the material, (2) the physical, (3) the mental, and (4) the moral. 110 THOUGHTS AND APHOKISMS But civilization is the substitution of mental factors for physical ones, and of moral factors for mental ones. This is confused, but it is the truth. Civilization is a word, and it is quite unnecessary to define it. The truth is, that the greatest good of men is invariably attained by the application to hfe of those factors by which the good is acquired in the best manner possible. As it is stupid to lift up with the hand what may be raised with a lever, so it is stupid to maintain one's rela- tions and defend one's independence by means of war, when this very end is attained by means of a moral hfe. We reproach God, we feel sorrow, because we meet obstacles in the realization of Christ's teaching. Well, how would it be if all of us were without domestic disagreements ? "We should come together and live happily and joyously." Well, and others ? " Others would not even know." We want to collect the fire in one small heap, so that it may burn more easily. But God has scattered the fire in the wood. They are busy, but we are worrying, because they are not burning. 8 None of us is called to destroy all the sufferings of men, but only to serve men. People always ask, ''■ What is evil for ? " What is evil ? What we call evil is a challenge addressed to us, a demand made upon our active love. The man who will reply to these demands of the activity of love will see THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 111 precisely as much evil as he needs in order to provoke liis activity. Thus I think and feel now, but only lately I saw very much evil, and I was vexed and in despair, and so I prescribe the recipe which has helped me. The moment you see an evil, even the smallest, try to mend it, to diminish it, and you will never see much evil at once and will not arrive at despair, and the hands will not drop, and you will do much good. January, 1887. 9 The chief error of men is this, that it seems to each in particular that the guide of his life is a striving after enjoyment and an aversion to suffering. And a man, all alone, without any guidance, surely renders himself to this guide : he seeks enjoyment and avoids suffering, and in this does he place the aim and meaning of life. But a man can never live in enjoyment, and cannot avoid suffering. Consequently the purpose of life does not lie in this. If it did he in this, — what insipidity ! The purpose is enjoyments, and they do not exist and cannot exist. And if they did exist, the end of life is death, which is always conjugate with suffering. If sailors decided that their aim is to avoid the rise of the waves, whither would they sail ? The end of life is outside enjoyments. It is attained by passing through them. This transition from enjoyments to sufferings is the respiration of life, inspiration and expiration, the taking of food and the giving it back. To set as one's aim the enjoyments and to avoid suffer- ing means to lose the path which cuts through them. August, 1887. 112 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 10 Where, then, and of what character, is the law under which we hve ? Do not say that it is the law of this, that your body should fare well, — eat, drink, cohabit, watch its own children. This is not a law, but the demands of the flesh, the very demands for which a law is needed. Cattle have no law — they have all the same lusts. They all want the same. To avoid this, that men, wishing to eat the same, to sleep with the same woman, should kill one another off, and so should none of them have enough, to eat and sleep they must divide up, must establish a law. And to divide up, lust must be limited. So the law is born among men as to how to limit lust. As many lusts as there are, so many laws are there. For a law is nothing but a vanquishing, a subjugation of lust for the sake of another man. And there are many such laws in the heart of every man. Cattle have no law, and have no need of it. Well or ill, man cannot live without law : the law is written within him, and there has never been a man with- out law. When there was but the one Adam (it makes no differ- ence whether he existed or not), and there was but one man on earth, he could have hved without any law. He alone had lusts, and they did not interfere with any one, but as soon as there were two or three men, the lusts came into conflict : " I want to eat this apple ! " " And so do I ! " One man killed another with a stone ; a third man ap- pears, and he will not let the matter rest. His soul will tell him whether the man who killed the brother did well or ill. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 113 Having found the law in your heart, do not say that there is no law. The law is written in your heart. If you hved but one day with men and performed deeds, and looked at their deeds, you would find the law. And even now there is not a human deed on which you have not a judgment in your soul according to your law, and there is not any deed of yours for which you do not know a law. If you say, " There is no law," you merely say that there are now so many laws, and that they are so sense- less that it is impossible to make them out. And there are laws, and many of them at that, one of which com- mands what the other forbids. There are, besides, statutes which do not vanquish the lusts, but determine how the lusts are to be gratified, and these statutes are also called laws, so that men live in this world of laws and statutes at haphazard, without following any law, mixing up the statutes with the laws and living exclusively according to the commands of the lusts. Whether you live according to the law or according to the lusts, do not forget that there is a law ; and not one law, but an infinitude of laws, and we follow thousands of them, and without them a man has never lived and could never live. But there have come to be so many laws, and we have become so entangled in them, that we can live according to the lust, selecting such laws as are convenient to us, and substituting other laws for such as are not conveniei\t for us. Laws cannot help but exist. Let two men live together two days, and they will have laws, and millions of millions have lived five thousand years together, and should they have found no laws ? All this is foolish, and there is no sense in talking about it. I now hve in my house, the children study and play, my wife works, 1 write. All this is done only because 114 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS there are laws, which are recognized by all men. No stranger comes to live in my house, because it is mine, and according to the tenth commandment no one should wish for what belongs to another. The children study what I command them to study, — according to the fourth commandment. My wife is free from temptations, according to the seventh. I work as much as I can, according to the fourth. I have quoted the commaudments of Moses from old habit, but I could mention thousands of laws of the civil and of the common law which half confirm the same. But, if I want, I can at once find even such laws and customs as abrogate these. I will say, " Why have you a house ? Christ, who showed us an example of life, did not have a place to lean his head against. Why have you a house, when there are poor people without a home ? Why have you a house, since it says that you should have no care ? " I will say, " Why care for the children ? Not one hair will fall from their heads without the will of the heavenly Father. What sense is there in teaching them, since those who are poor in spirit are blessed ? " I will simply say, " Why teach them pagan wisdom, since you are a Christian ? " I will say, " Why teach for ambition's sake, if it is better to work the earth ? Why have you a wife, when it is better not to get married ? Why have you a wife, when it says, ' He that shall not forsake his wife is not worthy of me ' ? " " Why do you work, why write ? This is contrary to humility, and contrary to refraining from worldly cares." Thus, if I left my house, wife, children, work, I should also be doing according to the di\dne law and should be finding for my confirmation and justification civil and common laws. It is possible to leave wife and children, THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 115 and to go to a monastery. It is possible to leave wife and children, to get a divorce, to marry another, and to commit debauchery, — and for everything to find a confir- mation in divine and civil laws, — thus, do whatever you please, — and for everything a law will be found. It is in this condition that we are, and that is not good. Not that there is no law, but that there are now too many of them, and that men have become too painfully clever. 11 Man is flesh, has life and reason, and develops. It is all very well to say that a rope develops, a germ develops in the egg, but it is unscrupulous to apply this v/ord to a man. If you are a man, you live. And so do not go on talking of development, but simply look at yourself and say what you are doing, having life and reason. If you do so, you will answer that you are looking for rational clioice among all the demands of your flesh. In this alone does all our life consist. 12 (From Lao-Tse) Wlien a man is born, he is frail and weak ; when he is strong and powerful, he dies. When a tree is born, it is frail and tender ; when it is dry and brittle, it dies. Strength and power are the accompaniments of death. Frailty and weakness are the accompaniments of life, because what is strong does not conquer. 116 THOUGHTS AND APHOEISMS When a tree has become strong, it is cut down. What is strong and great, is insignificant. What is frail and weak, is great. 13 A Jewish emigrant came. He wants to find what there is in common between Jews and Eussians, which would unite them. This has long ago been found. At times I feel sorry because the wood does not burn. As though, if it burned in my presence, at once, this would not serve as a clear proof, a clear sign, of this, that it is not the wood that is burning, but the kindling ; but the wood has not yet caught fire. 14 Where people are angry, there it is not good. A child recognizes this instinctively and goes away from such a place. A child does not become angry itself, does not become vexed at the manifestation of anger in others, and its joys and occupations in life are not im- paired by it. 15 I have read Confucius and have made notes. The Chinese religio-rational explanation of power and the teaching about it has been a revelation to me. Things that were obscure are getting clearer and clearer to me. True power cannot be based on violence, nor on tradi- tion. It can be based only on the unity of the recognition of this height by all men. Power will be no violence only when it is recognized as morally and rationally the highest. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 117 Power, as violence, arises when we recognize as highest what is not the highest according to the demands of our heart and reason. The moment a man (be he a father or a king, or be it a legislative assembly) submits to what he does not fully respect, there appears violence. When what I consider the highest has become not the highest, and I condemn it, I generally have recourse to two methods : (1) T myself stand higher than what was the highest, — I subject it to myself (the quarrels of sons and fathers, revolutions). (2) In spite of the fact that the highest has ceased to be the highest, I purposely continue to consider it the highest (Confucianism, Slavophilism). Both means are terrible, and the most terrible of the two is the latter, because it leads up to the first. There is one way out : I do not consider this or that high, and so must not act in such a way. I consider this or that the highest, and so I must act in such a way. 16 A man who does something bad is not evil, but fre- quently is even good : kings, soldiers. But a man who does something bad and knows that it is bad, a doubting man, — he is bad indeed. These are the only bad ones in the world. 17 The ministration to others begins with the ministration to oneself. If we are to believe that man's aim and duty consists in serving his neighbour, we must also arrive at this, how 118 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS we should serve our neighbour, — we must work out the rules how we are to serve in our position. For us in our position to serve, we must first of all stop demanding other people's service. It seems strange, but the first thing we have to do, before anything else, is to serve ourselves, that is, to make our own fires, fetch our own water, cook our own dinners, and wash our own dishes and dirty linen — In this way shall we begin the ministration to others. 18 All acts performed by a man may be divided into three categories. One series of these consists of those which we perform without asking ourselves about them whether they are good or bad ; we do them without noticing them. Other acts are such as we, speaking with St. Paul, con- sider bad, but none the less perform ; acts which we wish to perform, but do not always perform, or do not wish to perform, and yet perform them. A third class of acts consists of such as we wish to per- form and always perform, or do not wish to perform and never perform. The acts of the first series are those which have not yet fallen under the judgment of our conscience, but of which, in measure as our life advances, a greater and ever greater number fall under our judgment and pass over to the second series. The acts of the third series are such as have passed the judgment of our conscience and, dividing up into good and bad, into desirable and undesirable, have become the possession of our moral natures, — they are our interest of life, our only wealth, which is acquired by life. It it this, that before this I could fight, get drunk, fornicate. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 119 and so forth, and uovv uot merely do not wish, but am unable to do so. Thus the first series is the material for life's working over. The third ."-eries is what has already been prepared by life, what is lying in the storeroom. The second series is what is now on the work-table, what is being worked at. And how remarkably happy and joyous is the condition of men ! Whether men want it or uot, this third series is being worked out in life : a man grows manly, and he grows wiser in intellect and experience ; he gi"Ows older, the passions weaken, and the work of life is done. But if the whole meaning, the whole aim of life is put into this work, we get constant joy, constant success. Now, it is always possible to understand this and to recognize what acts belong to this or to that series, and to strain every attention toward the second series. 19 It is accepted to regard vexation at injustice, anger provoked by evil, as not only a noble and praiseworthy, but even a useful and necessary feeling, as a stimulus for a struggle with evil. But this is a great mistake. Anger is not at all necessary. Any one may practically convince himself of this from the fact that anger immediately disappears the moment a man undertakes to mend the results of the evil. When a man is a witness to some injustice or cruelty, for example to a fight, in which the weak are worsted by the strong, he in his soul experiences anger against the offend- ers. He need but undertake to mend the consequences of the evil, he need but busy himself with the aim of diminishing the sufferings of the victims of the fight, he need but begin to tend to the wounds of the maimed, — and immediately the feeling of anger is allayed and 120 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS gives way to a feeling of inner satisfaction and joy, which always accompany every ministration to a neighbour. Thus it is always. An angry incitement against evil is a sign that a man does not yet counteract evil with deeds, does not yet mend the results of the evil, though it may easily happen with this that he is struggling against evil in the most energetic manner possible. 20 In consequence of the comprehension of the spirit of Christianity, men are generally divided into Christians and non- Christians. The grossest division consists in regarding only him who has been baptized as a Christian. Another division, though less gross, consists in this, that he who on the basis of Christ's teaching lives a pure, domestic life, who is no murderer, etc., is called a Chris- tian, in contradistinction to him who lives differently. Both these divisions are equally incorrect. In Christianity there is no liue which separates a Christian from a non-Christian. There is light, the ideal, Christ, and there is darkness, the animal. There is a motion in the name of Christ, toward Christ, along a path indicated by his teaching. And we are all somewhere, walking on this path. 21 We frequently deceive ourselves, thinking, when we meet revolutionists, that we are standing near each other, in the same row. " There is no country ! " " There is no country." " There is no ownership ! " " There is no ownership." THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 121 " There is no unequality ! " " There is no unequality," and many more things. It seems to be one and the same thing. But there is a great difference, and there are even no people farther removed from us than they are. For a Christian there is no country, — for them country has to be destroyed. For a Christian there is no property, — and they want to annihilate property. For a Christian all are equal, — and they want to abolish inequality. This is like the two ends of a snapped ring. The two ends are side by side, — they are not farther removed than all the other parts of the ring. It is necessary to walk all around the ring, in order to connect what is on the ends. 22 I fully agree with your opinion that many people have needed solitude and fasting, in order to strengthen and try themselves ; but I think (no doubt you, too, think so) that this cannot be a rule : some need sohtude and fasting before any other trials, others do not need them. With an equally sincere striving after the good and after truth, the paths over which people travel toward them may be quite different. It seems to me that one of the chief causes of the disagreement of people is this, that each, walking on his own, familiar path toward truth, and seeing anotlier man walking by another path toward the same goal (and there are as many paths as there are radii), is inclined to insist that the true path is only the one he is travelling upon. In general the article on the fasters was interesting to me, because of late I have had occasion to read and think much about gluttony, and I think that one of the chief 122 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS sins, the most common one and almost the radical one, on which grows up a mass of others, is gluttony and belly-madness, — the desire to eat and drink for a long time and as agreeably as possible. In the article on fasts there is much which is super- stitious and exaggerated, and a superfluous motive of fasting, which consists in the castigation of the body, but the hope through fasting to strengthen one's spiritual power seems untrue to me. But what is important is that a man now generally eats several times more than is necessary for the best manifestation of his forces (by forces I understand the most profitable relation, as far as the human activity is concerned, of his spiritual and his physical forces), and that therefore fasting, the con- scious destruction of gluttony, is useful for all men, — that is, the accustoming oneself to the least amount of food, with which the most advantageous correlation is attained. Now the most advantageous correlation is attained, I think, with the consumption of a much smaller amount of food than is in general considered necessary. You say that it was most easy for you to vanquish the lust of feeding, but with me it was the very opposite. And I think that the lust of feeding is closely connected with the sexual lust and serves as its foundation. You will perhaps say, " What shall be regarded as the most advantageous relation between the spiritual and the physical forces ? This concept is a relative one." I will not undertake to settle now definitely what this relation should be, but I know it for myself, and I think that everybody knows it. I know in myself the condi- tion which most nearly approaches the one I should like to be in : a great clearness of thought, an ability to transfer myself into the condition of another man, — to understand it, — and physical lightness, a mobility an absence of the consciousness of my body. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 123 Now a certain amount of food removes me from this state, or brings me near to it. When I fast too much, my stomach is felt by me, — there are no clear ideas, no sympathy, though there is mobility. When I eat too much, everything is lost, — clearness of ideas, sympathy, and even mobility. And so I will always find that amount which is necessary, and it will always be less than the food usually taken by the majority of people. If it shall seem to you that I am uselessly talking of such subjects, I must beg your pardon : I consider this subject, from its practical applications to life, unquestion- ably most important. I more or less understand your world conception ; I say more or less, because it is impossible completely to ex- press one's view of Hfe. We understand each other's world conception, not because we express it in a common connection, but more in consequence of various incidental expressions of a concordant sympathy in respect to all kinds of questions. 23 I have several times before expressed the idea that union between men can be found only in the union with truth, with God ; but the attempts at seeking a union with men, with certain, chosen men, shows either that men are unable, or unwilling, or too tired to seek a union with God, or do not believe in this, that the union with God will give them a union with men ; or it weakens the striving after a union with God, and so is undesirable. Besides, how can I know with whom I am to be in a very close union ? By what signs shall I find out that I am to be in a union with John, and not with Peter, or with the monk Anthony, or with the Governor of Chernigov, or with the Krapivensk horse-thief ? The very project of an external union such as you pro- 124 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS pose is in reality a project of disunion : we must recognize that in the distance between Kharkov and Tiila there are but two or three men who can understand us, and this Ls a sin, and an untruth, and it is unnecessary. What unites us, and can unite us more, is a greater approximation to the perfection of the Father, which we are told to seek, and I am convinced that jou, like me, and like all people, have experienced those transitions of moods of love, to which we all are near, and the union has taken place easily and joyfully from without. But the external union such as you propose will, in all prob- ability, only disunite those who in this manner will attempt to unite. A union can exist only if we throw off everything which disunites, which can give a cause for teni[)tation, as when, defending a fortress, the suburbs are burned, and if we leave only that wddch is eternal, com- mon to all, and first of all necessary for us, and what this is, we all know. And the more sinceiely we shall live for the fulfilment of this, the more eternally shall we be in union, not only with a certain dozen of men, but with all the men of the world. If we do not support one another, either materially, or spiritually ; if we err ; if we go aw^ay from one another and, above all, if we have no common aim, we cannot mend this by an artificial joining and by words said to one another. Union is possible only in truth, and in order to attain ti'uth we must do one thing, — seek it with a constant, unceasing effort, " Knock, and it shall be opened unto you," and another thing: be meek, reject pride, self-love, your own opinion, and, above all else, reject all kinds of considerations, such as, for example, " If I believe thus, I shall be with the government, or with the people, or with the holy fathers, or with the church ; if I believe thus, I can be justified before people and myself," or, that it is a pleasure to' believe thus. All THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 125 this has to be rejected, and you have to be prepared in advance for this, that the recognition of the truth will be disadvantageous to you, will humble you. Assembling will uot help in the recognition of the truth ; the only salvation is in an approach to it, and in this alone is the means for union. But an artificial union can only weaken the striving after truth. Then again, who is to assemble for the seeking of the union, and who is to be aided materially and spiritually ? Where is that stamp by which we recognize our people ? Is it not a sin to segregate ourselves and others from the rest, and is not this union with dozens a disunion from thousands and millions ? And then again, the union which you seek, the union with God, is accomplished at a depth which frequently is not reached by our vision. I am convinced that if one should ask an old man on his death-bed, for example, me, with whom I have been in a true, a most real union, I shall hardly name those whom 1 should name now. The union with the dead is frequently greater than with the Hving. Let us do what leads to union, let us approach God, but let us not think of union. It will be in proportion with our perfection, our love. You say, " It is easier in company." What is easier ? To plough, mow, drive piles, yes, is easier, but God can be approached only singly. Only through God, as through the heart, is there a communication between all the parts of the body ; but the direct communication, which does not pass through God, is only seeming. You have no doubt experienced this, and I, too, have experienced this. What may seem strange is this, that with people with whom there exists a real communion through God, we have no reason for speaking, and do not feel like it ; but 126 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS we feel like speaking and pointing out and making things clear to those with whom we have not as yet any divine communion ; with these we try to establish a communion despite the heart, but this cannot be done and is an idle occupation. You say that it is better together, but it seems to me that this cannot be said, cannot be determined ; we must do what God commands : if He brings us together, well and good ; if He scatters us in every direction, again well and good. But as to what you say about " the farther steps," I now do not see these farther steps in a renuncia- tion of self (this is in your case and in that of many men already done in consciousness), but in doing precisely the opposite of what you wish to do, not in segregating your- selves, but in welding together ; do the opposite, find the greatest means for communing with the whole great world of all men ; find a communion in which, without making any compromises, you may commune, love, and be loved. 24 Principles, meaning by this word what ought to guide our whole hfe, are not to blame for anything, and without principles it is bad to live. The trouble is this, that frequently that is made a prin- ciple which cannot be a principle, as, for example, the principle of a thorough steaming in a bath-house, and so forth. Not even the product of bread labour, as Bondarev says, can be a principle. We have one common, fundamental principle, — love, not only in word and tongue, but in fact and truth, that is, with a loss, a sacrifice of one's hfe for the sake of God and one's neighbour. From this common rule result the particular principles of meekness, humihty, non-resistance to evil, as the con- secj^uence of which there will be agricultural, industrial, THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 127 and even factory work for which there is the least number of competitors and the reward is smallest. From all the circles where competition is great, a man who keeps Christ's teaching in fact, and not in words, will be pushed out, and he will involuntarily find himself among the labourers. Thus the labour condition of a Christian is the result of the application of a principle, — and not a principle. If people shall take for their basal principle to be labouring men, and shall not fulfil what leads to it, this will obviously lead to confusion. I am fully agreed with you that to live by principles alone is pernicious, but I do not agree with you that it is possible to live without them, that is, without a mental activity which determines life. It is just as pernicious to live in faith alone, as to live by one set of principles. One is so much connected with the other, that they are both parts of one whole, — of the moral forward movement. To say that it is useless or pernicious to make a defini- tion of life and to try to make reality conform with it, is the same as saying that it is useless and pernicious to put one foot forward without transferring to it all the weight of the body. Just as it is impossible to walk without putting a foot forward, and is impossible to walk by jumping on one foot, so it is impossible to move in hfe, without mentally defining the path, — without establish- ing principles and conforming life with them. Both, that is, the principle determined in advance and the inevitable consequence, — faith, — are indispensable for motion. It is even difficult to separate one from the other, to say where one begins and the other ends, just as in walking it is difficult to say on what foot I am resting at a given second, and which foot is moving me. August, 1892. IV. THE OFFENCES OF THE UNDERTAKINGS OF LIFE You have just had time to think, " I have conquered ! " and are triumphant, when you are ready to fall into the ditch. The most persistent offence, from w^hich you will never rid yourself and which it is impossible to evade, but which one must know how to direct, is the offence of undertaking life in the future external forms. Without doing so, it seems, we cannot live. I begin to write a letter and I assume that I shall end it and shall say this or that. I build a house, etc. It is impossible to get along without doing so ! But how shall we do it ? In such a way that we shall never lose sight of the fact that human relations are more precious than the under- taking which we have entered upon. The writing of a letter or a book, the ploughing of the field, the building of a house, all these are only forms of life ; but life itself consists in the complex play of men's relations in these forms. There may be an error in forms, but life, which may proceed in the most faulty forms, can always be holy, full, and fruitful. November, 1886. 128 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 129 There is one teacher, Christ, and he teaches one thing, the fultilmeut of the Father's will, not for the pleasure of men, but in order that we may be with Him, consequently may be happy and free. The chief obstacle in this is in the malice and praise or the condemnation of men. This obstacle, if you are the least bit careless, takes the place of the seeking of the true good in the fulfilment of God's will. To tempt God means, not to follow His law. His command. But God's laws and commands are written on paper and are expressed in words. As regards these commands, doubt is possil)le, and great caution must be observed toward them. Other commands are written in our hearts. And we must not believe all these at once. Our hearts may be corrupt and may give their own commands out for God's. But there are other commands, which are written both in books and in our hearts, and in all our beings, as, for example, food and food-producing labour, love of parents and children, and marital life productive of these conditions. A man may do anything (he may even shoot himself), but he never can with impunity depart from the law, that is, there can be no doubt but that with this departure he will make himself worse and will not attain what he wanted. Two things became clear to me yesterday, — one — of no importance, the other — of importance. 130 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS The first is of no importance. I was afraid to say and think that all men — ninety- nine hundredths of them — are insane. There is not only no reason for being afraid, but we cannot help but say and think so, if people act madly. If people lead a senseless city life, senselessly educate their children, abandon themselves to senseless luxury and idleness, they will certainly also talk senselessly. The second is of importance. If indeed I see (partially) by God's will, the senseless, sick world cannot approve of me for it. If the world did approve of me, I should be ceasing to live according to God's will, but should be living according to the world's will. I should be ceasing to see and seek God's will. Such was Thy will. The struggle with evil by means of violence is the same as an attempt to stop a cloud, in order that there may be no rain. The main Christian teaching, the teaching of the truth, has in its application passed through all the stages of consciousness, of verbal expression, and of the excitation of the religious sentiment ; all this has been done and worked over, and there is nothing new to be said or done here. But the consciousness of truth only begins to demand a true vital application, and here the teaching, or the dis- ciples of this teaching, like a mettled horse with a wagou near a hill, perform all kinds of tricks : they toss to the right and to the left, start back, rear on their hind legs ; but there is one thing they will not do, and that is, — they do not wish to put their necks into the collar and pull up-hill. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 131 There is but one thing which they do not do, the one nec- essary thing, — they du not wish to fulfil the teaching, in spite of the tension of the work. And so it is impossible to make sufficient efforts and sacrifices, in order from Chris- tian conversations and sentiments to pass to acts, from balking at the foot of the hill to walking in even step up-hill. To pass from talking to acting, we may sacrifice any- thing but what we are pulling by, the traces, that is, the good-will to men, the love union with men. 8 The other day a young lady called on me, and she asked me how she might live well. So I said to her, " Live as you deem good. For, if I tell you, you will hve according to my conscience, and this is inconvenient. Every person must live by his own conscience, and not higher than his conscience, but a little lower. The best is to Hve in such a way as to fall a little below the conscience, so that one may be able to catch up with the conscience, when it gets too far ahead. This is best, for then a man is always dissatisfied with himself, does not always fully answer the demands of his conscience, repents, goes ahead, ' lives.' " It is bad to live too far below one's conscience, — it is hard to catch up with it, for what may happen to a man is what happened to Peter before the threefold crow- ing of the cock. " Worst of all is renunciation, when a man has caught up with his conscience and stops, for rest is death." It is impossible from Spencer to deduce Christianity, that is, truth. 132 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS Truth is from God, through Christ, and there is no other path for it. If we were to deduce anything from Spencer, we should get what we did get : there will be found the alphabet of Christianity, and not of Christianity alone, but the alphabet of all religions, — the love of God and of our neighbour, which was given long ago, and has always been known to all men. And it seems to us that we know everything ; and we even feel angry because Christ knew more and demanded of us more ; and we reject, or try to reject, what he said and gave us. And even if we do not reject, we weaken in our hope of discovering laws, — better laws, — because they will satisfy our evil propensities. 10 So long as the inertia of lying and of the consciousness of truth act at an angle which is less than two right angles, life proceeds along the resultant. But when the two forces will take up positions opposite one another, along the same line, life will stop, either of its own will, or by the will of another. 11 I think that the cause of the burden and the struggle is mainly due to this, that we have not freed ourselves from care for reputation among men, for the opinion of men about us. Try to solve your doubts about how to act, independ- ently of people's opinion, by imagining that no one will ever find out how you acted ; or that, having acted in one way or another, you will at once die ; or, what is easier than anything else, by putting yourseK purposely before THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 133 meu in the meanest, lowest light, — so that, no matter how you may act, you could not fall any lower : " I am a liar, and a pig, and a boaster ; I say one thing and do another ; I am cruel and a cheat." Do this, if you have the strength, in reality ; and if you have not the strength, at least in imagination. Nothing so confuses us in our determinations and so weakens us in our acts, and provokes such a painful con- sciousness of struggle as the mixing up of two motives, — of an activity for God and an activity for people's opinion. You do not know where one thing begins and the other ends. You do not know what really to beheve in, whether you believe indeed, or only want people to think that you believe. At times it happens that you think that you believe in what you really do not believe in ; and at times, again, you think that you do not believe in w^hat you really believe. And so my one advice is : try with all your force to remove the care as to people's opinion, in order that you may find out what you believe in. The best and most convenient means for this is self- humiliation. And then you can live in conformity with what you beheve. 12 Your question as to how and when it is best to use one's forces would be a very difficult one, if it were nec- essary to give one faultless solution for it ; but there can be as many solutions as there are propositions, and all can be, and certainly will be, faulty, Hke everything which meu do. Yes, tear one fetter and tighten another, and so on until the grave, and die doing this. And I will tell you what I think in full : such is life, beautiful life, whicli is given to us alone. 134 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS Even so have lived all the best men, and thus lived Christ, and thus he ordered us to live. Life is beautiful in that, in the first place, when you tear one fetter, which binds you most and is most strong, you tighten another, which is less binding and strong, and so march ahead toward liberation, — and in this there is Joy- But not in this alone is the whole matter, and it is not good and not right to look back at this. The main thing is, that, at the same time with the tearing of the fetters and the slow retardation of motion, you feel that by this very thing, with the aid of your own mind, you are doing another work, the work of establishing the kingdom of God upon earth. And I wish for nothing better, and do not wish to think of anything better, than such a life. Now I shall answer your other questions. If I were in your place, I should go to M , not that I should arrange anything there, but I should work with him ; perhaps something would come of it : another may come, — and then again, maybe nothing would come of it, but that does not interest me. I speak this from a per- sonal feeling. This would be the most agreeable thing for me. But how is it for you ? In my opinion we must, of two good, or at least not bad, things, always do the one which is the most agree- able, because we shall do this better, and, besides, a greater pleasure is partly a symptom of a predetermination by God. The other question is as to what I should desire for my sake that you should do. I should desire for my sake that you should go to the Caucasus to help the Milkers. In my opinion, you are able to help and strengthen them, and enlighten them, — and this is what I want. Biit because I want this, it has no weight whatsoever. The third answer is, that we must undertake as little THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 135 as possible, but should comply with those demands which are made right here, at the present time. The fourth and, in my opinion, the most correct answer, though it may seem general and indefinite, is, that we must serve God, not on this or that mount, but in the spirit and in truth. According to the meaning of this answer, the whole significance is in the internal activity, with which every external selection becomes indifferent, and a man inclines toward this, a second, or a tenth act, that is, toward such as he has not even foreseen, or chosen, but does it imper- ceptibly, naturally. February, 1893. V. RELATION TO TKUTH Christ's teaching does not prescribe any acts, — it shows the truth. But the question as to how to act in a given case is by every man decided in his soul, according to the lucidity and strength of his consciousness of truth. It is deter- mined not that I want to act according to Christ's teach- ing, or not, but that I cannot act otherwise. If only those whose idle life is supported by other people's life of labour understood that their only justifica- tion may be found in their being able to use their leisure for bethinking themselves, — for the work of reason ! But they carefully fill their leisure with vanity, so that they have even less time left for thinking than the labourer who is overcome by his work. " To do the will of Him that sent me is my meat." What a deep and what a simple meaning ! A man may be calm and always satisfied, only when the aim of his life is uot something external, but the ful- filment of the will of Him who sent him. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 137 And again, this clear expression, " This is my meat." The majority of men do for themselves only what is necessary for the body, — they make their food, and they forget everything which is for other men. It is of this whole sphere of activity, which men do not do for themselves, but for the opinion of men, that C!hrist says that we should work in it, doing the will of Him who sent us, — not for men's sake. And of this activity he says that it is for him like food, just as indispensable and just as independent of human opinion. To do the will of Him who sent us, like eating and drinking, is not for men, but for our satisfaction. It is this that is needed, and this is possible, and this is the only path of life, which always and everywhere gives the good. I have just read mediaeval and modern history in a brief text-book. Is there in the world more terrible reading ? Is there a book which could be more harmful for young people's reading ? And yet it is this that is being taught. I read it through, and for a long time could not get out of my feeling of dejection : murders, tortures, deceptions, plunderings, fornication, — and nothing more. They say that it is necessary for a man to know whence he came. But has every one of us come from there ? That from which I and every one of us with our world- conception liave come does not exist in this history, and there is no reason for teach hig me this. Just as I bear all the physical features of my ancestors, so do I bear in myself all the labour of thought, the whole real history, — of all my ancestors. 1 and every one of us have always known this. It is 138 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS all implanted in us through the telegraph, newspapers, conversations, sight of cities and villages. To bring this knowledge to consciousness ? Yes ? But for this we need the history of thought, which is entirely independent of that history. That history is only a gross reflection of the real history. The reformation is a rude, incidental reflection of the labour of thought striving after the liberation of man from darkness. Luther, with all the wars and sights of St. Bartholomew, has no place by the side of Erasmus, Rous- seau, and others. We must as frequently as possible remind ourselves that our real life is not that external, material life, which takes place here upon earth, in our sight, but the inner life of our spirit, for which the visible life is only a scaffolding necessary for the rearing of the building of our spiritual growth. This scafiblding has in itself but a temporary purpose, after the fulfilment of which it is not good for anything and even becomes an obstacle. Seeing before himself the immense, towering, and firmly clasped timbers, while the building barely rises above the foundation, a man is inclined to make the mistake of ascribing a greater significance to the scaffolding than to the building which is going up and for the sake of which this temporary scaffolding has been put up. We must remind ourselves and one another that the only meaning and significance of the scaffolding is the possibility of rearing the building itself. The material form in which the awakening of our consciousness of the true life finds us in this world rep- THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 139 resents, as it were, the border which limits the free devel- opment of our spirit. Matter is tlie limit of the spirit ; but the true life is the destruction of this limit. In this comprehension is contained the essence of the comprehension of truth itself, that essence which gives to man the consciousness of the eternal life. Materialists take the limit for the true life. Every one of us, having come to know the truth, finds himself in a certain position, bound by worldly ties, or even by the nooses of dead joys, of former connections with men. And a man who has come to know the truth first of all imagines that the chief thing which he ought to do consists in getting at once, at all cost, out of those conditions in which he found himself, and in putting him- self under such conditions as to make it clear to people that he is living according to Christ's law ; and then only must he live in these conditions, showing people an ex- ample of a true Christian life. But this is not so. The demand of reason does not consist in finding him- self in this or that state, but in living without violating the love of God and of one's neighbours. A Christian will always strive after a life that is free from sin, will always choose such a life, if, to attain it, lie shall not be asked to do things which impair this love. But the trouV)le is, that a man is never so little connected with his own past sins and those of others that he is able, without violating the love of God and of his neighbours, at once to enter into such an external state. Every Christian, amidst worldly people, finds liimself in such conditions that, in order to approach the desired state, he must first loosen the fetters of his former sins. 140 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS those fetters by which he is tied to people ; and so the first and chief problem consists in opening these fetters. in accordance with the love of God and of one's neigh- bours, and not to tighten them, and so cause pain to him with whom one is bound up. A Christian's work is not in some certain state, but in the fulfilment of God's will. But fulfilling God's will consists in answering all the demands of hfe in the way in which this is demanded by the love of God and of men ; and so it is impossible to determine the nearness or remoteness of oneself and of others from Christ's ideal, by judging from the state a man is in, or from those acts which he is committing. A Christian's turning away from the worldly life will always be one and the same ; it cannot change, and so the acts of a Christian will always incline toward getting away from evil vanity, from luxury, from the cruelty of a worldly life, and in coming to the lowest state, which is most despised in a worldly sense. But the state in which a Christian will find himself will depend on the conditions in which he was overtaken by the recognition of the truth and on the degree of his sensitiveness to the sufferings of others. His acts may take him to the gallows, to the prison, to a night-lodging house, — but they may take liim also into a palace and to a ball. What is important is not the state a man is in, but the acts which have brought him to this state ; and God alone can be the judge of these acts. You will say, " Therefore a man, in professing the Christian teaching, may, under the pretext of not wishing to offend his near friends, continue to live a sinful life, justifying himself by his professed love of God and of his neighbours." " Yes, he may." He may as much as a man, who has prepared for him- THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 141 self a sinless state (or such as seems to him to be such), the state of the agriculturist, may live in it, only in order to boast of this state before other men. In either case the judgment is impossible. In either case the peril is the same. In the tirst the peril consists in this, that, continuing to live, for the .sake of the love of men, in the worldly conditions of life, a man is tempted by these worldly con- ditions of life and uses them, not because he cannot help using them, but because of his weakness, — I have fre- quently experienced this myself. For the second the peril is this, that, having at once placed himself under those conditions of life which are considered righteous, a man lives in these conditions, without trying to walk on toward the perfection of love, and priding himself on his state, hates and despises all those who are not in the same state with him, — I have experienced this, too, only not so often. The path is narrow in both cases, and only he who walks on it and God know whether he is on that path. It is impossible for one to judge of another, both on account of the difference of their positions, and still more on account of the difference in the degree of the spiritual sensitiveness. One man, by forsaking his wife, or mother, or father, by offending and angering them, almost commits no bad act by it, because he does not feel the pain he is causing ; another, who has done the same act, has committed a mean act, because he fully appreciates the pain which he is causing. We can judge of the wealth, the beauty, the strength of men, but of the degree of their morality we are, not exactly prohibited, but unable to judge. And this is a great good. If we were able to judge, we could not love certain people, and since we cannot judge, we have no obstacle against loving all. 142 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS All we know is what is said in the sixth chapter of Matthew : " The condition in which people praise a man is not more advantageous for him than that in which they curse him." In the first case under our observation the desire for human praise may be mixed in with the work of God ; in the second, if anything is done for God, it is done only for Him. A man is walking off the road ; he walks across fields and is suffering, and finally finds the road ; he walks on it himself, and shows it also to other men. Is it possible that the men who have been put on the road, upon notic- ing that the man who indicated the road to them is again walking across fields, are able to imagine that the man who has shown them the road has had some misgivings as to preferring the road to trackless fields ? Is it possible they themselves can have any misgivings as to this, that it is better to walk along the road, when they see that he who has led them out on the road is not walking on it? Is it possible that those who have been brought out on the road will not go ? And what of it, if he who brought them out is still walking across the fields ? There must be some invisible cause for it, — a ravine or a brook. 8 Last night the plashing of the water in the basin awoke me. I called my wife, thinking that she was washing herself. She was asleep : it was a mouse that had fallen into the basin and was struggling to get out. We have had conflicts before on account of mice, and these conflicts have caused me to reflect. It would happen that a mouse would get into a mouse-trap, which some- body else had set. THOUOnTS AND APHORISMS 143 ■ I take it, to carry it out, and to let the mouse out in the yard. My wife says, " You had better not touch it : I will take it out myself and will have it killed." I leave it to her, knowing that the mouse will be kiUed. But to-day, as I was lying and wanting to go to sleep, I heard this tiny creature struggle as it was drowning, and I understood that it was not right, and that I had done wrong, when 1 had permitted the mice to be killed, when I had had the chance to save them. I saw that I did not do it in order not to violate love, but in order to avoid a small unpleasantness. This is bad in our situation : we permit not mice, but men to perish, doing other people a pleasure, only to avoid a small unpleasantness. It is this that we should remember and not forget for a minute. The rule, " Always tell the truth," cannot be put on a par with the other commandments of Christ. This rule, as a rule, stands very much lower and, as a rule, cannot even be expressed. But as an absolute condition of serving God it is no longer a rule, but tlie very essence of the teaching, and stands even higher than the five commandments. " I am the life, the way; and the truth." And so a Christian cannot depart from the truth. The truth is the conditio sine qua nan of his life. And so, when we speak of truthfulness, as of a practical rule, there results a misunderstanding from it. It is the same as though we should say, " You must always breathe." The moment this is said, instead of the confirmation that you cannot live without breathing, there 144 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS may at once arise the questions, "but how when I am choking or when I am listening intently, — must I breathe then, or not ? " Truth, truthfulness, is the teaching itself, and so, he who lives by the teaching will strive toward the truth and will be afraid of every departure from it. But this rule cannot compel him to be truthful. 10 Diseases and sins, — these are the same as motion and heat : one passes into the other. Diseases are for the most part consequences of sin, and to free ourselves from them, we must free ourselves from sin, — error. Living in error, we must know that we live in disease, which, if it has not yet appeared, will inevi- tably make its appearance. What is also important is this, that every man, in sub- jecting himself to diseases, bears the responsibility for the errors of others, — for his ancestors and his contempora- ries ; and that everybody who hves in error introduces disease and suffering among others, — his contemporaries and his descendants. But every one who lives without disease is under obligation for it to others, and every one, in freeing himself from error, cures not himself alone (one cannot cure oneself alone) but also his descendants and contemporaries. 11 I wish to say something about the meaning of science, which destroys superstition, false concepts, — namely, about the meaning of this activity of science. Science destroys false concepts, — that is true, but it is not possible on its path to get along vtdthout false con- cepts, without superstition. There will be no vault of heaven, there will be no devil, there will be no personal THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 145 God ; but, instead, there will be the imponderable, but elastic ether ; there will be the forces of spiritism aud many things more. A man who recognizes the heavens to be a firm vault, who recognizes the devil and the miracles of the saints, aud a man who recognizes the atoms and spiritism, in no way differ in their receptiveness, in their adaptability for the recognition of truth and for a moral activity. They differ, so to speak, according to their mental age. One is a grown man ; the other is a child or youth. But as a youth may be beautiful, so also may a man ; and it is as incorrect to assert that young people are better than the old as to assert that science (a greater degree of knowledge) makes men better, as also that it contributes to their deterioration. Science (a greater degree of knowl- edge) is inevitable, like age. It cannot be defended, nor attacked. No matter what you may do, it will come, like age. There exists in man the ability of an inner effort toward the good, toward truth, which the believer calls grace. There exists the possibility of this effort, and this effort may be directed towanl goodness and truth, but it cannot be directed toward science. The scientific acquisitions take place, like everything else, including the striving after truth and goodness, ac(3()rding to the laws of necessity. Aud the great mis- take of the direction of this small circle of men, called the intellectuals, is this, that, busying themselves with science, they imagine that they are doing exactly what is demanded of a man who is able at will to make efforts for the attainment of goodness and truth. The occupations with the sciences are special occupa- tions, which lill a man's leisure and which serve for the advantage of other men, — just such occupations as the making of tarts, or of lamps, or of anything you please. But our unfortunate youth ascribes to these occupations 146 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS the meaning of a moral activity. This is where the trouble is. The occupations themselves do not lighten the moral activity one hair's breadth. Amidst peasants who are sectarians there are many sensitive moral personalities, and their ignorance of science does not hurt them. And there are among the masses many personalities who are not sensitive, who are coarse, — and they will not go be- yond Iberian relics, and so forth. The same is true of the intellectual classes : some are not kept by the highest knowledge from seeing wherein Hes man's true activity, while others (no matter how you may expand for them the sphere of knowledge) will stick fast in atoms and forces, as in the Iberian image and in the relics, and they think that in them is everything, and that there is nothing else to do but to know how to place a taper before the Virgin of the Iberian chapel and how to study matter. But if the question is put like this, " Need men know what they know now ? " the answer will be, " Of course, they need to know it, just as one has to be grown and cannot remain a child." But it is impossible to preach science, which is precisely what is attempted among us, just as it is impossible to preach that a man should have a beard growing before the time for it has come. VI. LIFE AND METAPHYSICS In proportion as we begin to understand the vital, that is the true, teaching of Christ, the metaphysical questions recede farther and farther from us, and when the vital significance becomes absolutely clear, the possibility of any interest in them is completely removed, and so also the possibility of any disagreement in metaphysical questions. There are so many direct, imperative, ever-present, and vastly important affairs for a disciple of Christ, that he has no time to busy himself with metaphysics. As a good workman certainly does not know all the details of his master's life, while the lazy workman dilly- dallies in the kitchen and finds out all about it, — how many children the master has, and what he eats, and how he dresses, — and in the end none the less gets all mixed up and finds out nothing of importance, but only misses his work, — even such is the difference between meta- physicians and Christ's true disciples. What is important is to recognize God as a master and to know what He demands of me, but what He Himself is and how He lives, I shall never find out, because I am not a match for Him. I am a labourer, and He is the master, 147 148 THOUGHTS AND APHOEISMS Who will deny that it is God who is doing everything good in me ? But the question whether He is external is dangerous. I cannot say anything about it. He is everything ; I am not everything, hence He is in me. But I know Him only because there is in me something divine. But this is a dangerous and, I am afraid, blasphemous metaphysics. 3 Lately a thought which braces me up has become clear to me. The moral law, Christ's law, his five commandments, — this is the eternal law which will not pass, because it will be fulfilled. It is as indispensable, inevitable a law as the law of gravity, the laws of chemical combinations, and other physical laws. It must be assumed that those physical laws have wavered just as much, have not been common to all the phenomena, have been worked out ; but all these laws have not changed so long as everything has not changed, and finally they became a necessity. The same is true of the moral law : it is worked out by us. We toss hither and thither, and after billions of false paths find the one true path, and this path is established. And so we know through reason that this must be so, and we feel this with our whole being. The time will come that this will be so, and this will be just as firm as all the other laws of Nature. Then there will be worked out new laws. I am very much pleased with this thought, — it gives me great force and firmness. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 149 There is one means for doing something, and that is, to prepare the tools of work, to introduce order into it: feed the horse, harness it nicely, don't jerk it, but drive smoothly, and then it will take you a long distance. The same is true of one's work : (1) To feed, that is, to feed on faith, — religion, the thought of the common life and personal death. (2) To find an apphcation for one's activity. (3) Not to be restive, not to be in haste, and not to stop. This much in regard to the question of activity. And not to do a thing there is one means, — elsewhere to let out the water which tears down the dam. In life this water is strong desire, — and then work at the agreeable, incessant work. If an ear skips the machine, it is an ear. When it gets into the machine, it is a grain, then flour, then bread, then blood, then nerves, then thought, and as soon as it is thought, it is all, that is, no longer an ear, but that from which is rye, and bread, and the swine, and the tree, and everything, that is, God. It gets into the brain, and from there it may find its way into God, into the source of everything. In man, in his life, in the brain, in reason, is the source of everytliing. Not the source, but the part which unites, which blends with the beginning of all. Every vital phenomenon, every impression, which a man receives may pass through man as through a con- ductor, and may reach liis pith and there unite with its beginning. Man's problem and fortune is to form of himself an 150 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS endless, free, primary centre, and not a secondary, organic enslaved conductor. This is not clear for other-s, but it is for me. It is possible correctly to solve an equation with one unknown, only when by x we actually mean one abso- lutely unknown quantity, which is to be determined in the solution of the equation. If a man, in solving this equation, should arbitrarily determine the quantity of the real number, he naturally would not be able after that freely and correctly to solve the equation, but would bend all his operations on the figures and all his considerations to one end, — to prove that X precisely equals the quantity which he has deter- mined in advance. The same is true with the questions of life. It is pos- sible correctly to solve every vital question that arises, only in case a man really is conscientious in recognizing this question as open to him, and is sincerely prepared to receive any solution to which he may he brought by the free, unbiassed indications of his conscience and reason. And yet, as frequently in such cases, a man, sometimes even without noticing it himself, has in advance deter- mined in what sense the question has to be solved, and then only picks out in himself such motives and consider- ations as would exactly bring him to the predetermined solution of the question. Such solutions of the equations with predetermined ic's are met with at every step. VIL DOUBT How can one ask, " Can I ? Can I serve men ? Can I live ? " This is the one thing which each of us can do. If love and the desire to serve men moves man, he can do everything, — he can give his life for others, — that is, he can reach the limits of infinite ministration. But the question as to whether I can give this or that signifies only, " In so far as I err, doing this or that." Now the error is due to this, that in place of the legit- imate mover of life there has come to stand some kind of an abomination ; that here and there the lie has roiled my love. Who can, outside of myself, find out how much dirt, lie, and real force there is in my moving force ? I alone know this of myself, and everybody knows this only of himself. If there is any doubt, there is dirt. And if there is dirt, it has to be thrown out. And to the extent to which the dirt has been thrown out, every one of us is powerful to do everything in the service of men. June, 1887. "We all know what we need, and we know where to look for explanations, if there is something we do not know. 151 152 THOUGHTS AND APHOPJSMS In your questions the answers are included. " You will learn from me, because I am meek and humble, everything is good and easy for me." We believe that for an humble and meek man every- thing is easy and good. We believe it, but we begin to live, and we feel that our yoke is not good or our burden light. What does this mean ? One or the other: either it is not true that for the humble and meek man everything is good and everything light, or else we are not sufficiently meek and humble. Not that we do not wish to be such, but because behind us hangs the ballast of past years and the habit of error. It is this that I answer in reply to the question : " Should we suffer and keep quiet, or suffer and seek a remedy ? " Suffer, if you have not learned to rejoice, and learn to rejoice. This, in my opinion, answers all three questions. November, 1887. There cannot help but be an agreement with truth and its recognition, — it is in all men, even in those who call it names and go counter to it. That we have all been and shall be in agreement, there is, thank God, no longer a moment of doubt, — what gives pleasure is when men stop struggling in vain against truth, and find happiness in it. 4 There are moments when a man stops believing in the life of the spirit. This is not unbelief, but periods of belief in the life of the flesh. Suddenly a man begins to fear death. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 153 This always happens when he is distracted by some- thing, and he again begins to believe in this, that the carnal hfe is the Hfe, just as in the theatre one can forget oneself and come to believe that what one sees on the stage is taking place in reality, and become frightened at what one sees on the stage. The same happens in Hfe. Only after a man has come to understand that his hfe is not on the stage, but in the pit, that is, not in the personality, but outside it, it sometimes happens that, from old habit, he again falls into the temptation of the illusion, and he feels ill at ease. But these minutes of the illusion cannot, however, convince me that what is taking place in front of me (with my carnal hfe) is taking place in reality. During such periods of dejection of spirit one must treat oneself as a sick man, — one must not stir. The seed recognizes its integument as its real ego, and is worried and weeps, because it will perish. But it grew out of a seed, fell out of an ear, and again, perishing and throwing up its integument, produces an ear, which is full of seeds. " The seed shall not come to life unless it perish." VIII. DISSATISFACTION Dissatisfaction is a sign of people who are walking on the road and not standing still, as we should Hke to. A joyous sensation ! | September, 1886. I A bad ploughman (who is unreliable for the kingdom of God) is he who looks back, and, we may add, he who looks forward, and not at his furrow. To think what I could do, if it were so and so, and I were there or there, or how much I have done, weakens me for life as much as to think in advance of what I can do, and of how important will be what I shall do. It is necessary to throw out of our heads the comparison of our present life with any preceding, or with the subse- quent hfe, for the simple reason that there is no subsequent and no preceding life, but only a concept of it ; there is only the present life, and it alone is important and sacred. To ask for a higher essence with fancies, and to subject this essence to fancies is a great mistake (sin). Octoler, 1886. Dissatisfaction with oneself, the consciousness of the incompatibility of life with the demands of the heart, I 154 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 155 know in my own case, and I ask you for this one thing, do not speak of it, do not think of it, do not mention it even to yourself. It is the same as though a pilgrim who is going to Jerusalem should be constantly thinking of how much he has marched already, and of how much walking there is ahead of him. These thoughts can only weaken his energy. We must think of the nearest stop, if we must think of the future at all. Of course, this has reference only to those who go the right way. Even if it should happen that one of them should lose his way and find himself again in the old place, from which he had started, this ought by no means to dis- courage him. He will know the road better, and wiU still continue to walk. The Chinese wisdom says, " Renovate thyself every day from the beginning, and again from the beginning." I like this very much, and I try to do so, and for me it is sufficient to know that, by looking back, I see that I am advancing, and not retreating. This knowledge is sufficient for me, to make me live cheerfully, with the assurance that I am on the right road. How much do I walk in a day ? This is another ques- tion. I try to walk as much as possible, but it frequently happens that I walk less and lose time, rest, — 1 rest often, — and stand, when I might walk. Don't feel bad about the letliargy, — it has to be, like sleep. There must be, it seems to me, dissatisfaction with oneself, and not with others, and I frequently console myself with the thought that I am not yet entirely lost, because I am constantly dissatisfied with myself. But I know what I am dissatisfied with, — with my definite abomiuations, in the liberation from which nobodv can 156 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS help me, and the work over which forms my whole life. But I do not worry about the circle in which I live, about the external conditions of my life, because I know through experience that this or that circle, these or those condi- tions of life result from my greater or lesser nearness to Christ and truth. I live as I live, not because the enlightenment found me in grievous, oppressive conditions (as I used to think), but because I am bad. In proportion as I am and shall be better, the circle and the external conditions will be better. If I were a saint, the circle and the external conditions would be ideal, I should be living as I present to myself tlie lives of Christ's disciples, that is, as a mendi- cant, a vagrant, a servant of all men, and I do not de- spair even now, because this is none the less in my power. It is just as impossible to stand better, nearer to the truth in consequence of external conditions, as it is to sit astride a stick, take hold of it with both hands, and raise oneself. The external conditions of life, the forms of life, union, all these are consequences of the internal perfection, approach to Christ. Seek the kingdom of God, wliich is within you, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Most stupid dejection ! I feel bad because the seeds sown, not mine, but God's, are hidden in the ground and grow up in it, and do not come to the surface, as I, in my stupidity, wish that it should be, so that I may see that the seeds are intact. 5 It seems to me that a man must make it his first rule to be happy and satisfied ; he must be ashamed, as of a THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 157 bad act, of his dissatisfaction, and should know that if anything is not going right with a person, he has no time to talk about it, but must at once mend what presses or is not going right. How are that form and those conditions to be found which are best ? If all the greatest sages of the world were called together, they, too, would be unable to find those forms even for one best known man. There is one thing which I have noticed, namely this, that the longer a man lives, the more he comphes with the demands made on him, the less he is interested in the arrangement of life, and the more disgusting is the ar- rangement itself. 6 All people are assailed by bad minutes, which for the most part have a physical cause. Above all, it is necessary to avoid for the condition of general sadness and irritation substituting causes for this sadness and this irritation. " I feel sad, I am irritated " " Why ? At what ? " When a man has reached the point when he sincerely answers himself, " At nothing, for no reason, I simply feel sad and irritated," the sadness and irritation will pass at once. August, 1886. IX. DISAGREEMENTS Do you know how picture-blocks are put together ? One will make out the picture from one pair of blocks, another from another pair. Let him just put up the first pair, and he will put together the rest. I know from experience and am able now to distinguish people who put the blocks together at haphazard from those who have sensibly put together two, and so will certainly find out the picture, — they will find it out, if not to-day, certainly to-morrow, and it will be all the time the same one and eternal picture. And so I, reading your disagreements with me, am not G\^en agitated, for I know in advance that we have one, inevitable, and eternal picture. And so I agree with you in everything, not because I purposely want to agree, but because our disagreement is only due to this, that you bring together the blocks from one side, and I from another. But the blocks are the same. But with those who have not yet begun to bring the blocks together and who assure us that they see this or that, I disagree in advance. And I feel pained in the company of those who say in advance that notliing will come of it, or can come of it ; I feel like being angry with them, and I restrain myself. 153 ll ll THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 159 The disagreement of people is exceedingly painful, es- pecially so because a man thinks of himself that he has not his own opinion, but only holds to the truth ; and sud- denly it turns out that the truth is not only not under- stood, but that it even offends people, and drives them away from him. There is something wrong here, 1 am to blame for something, I have in some way offended truth. This is terrible, and it torments me. If there is a disagreement in words, we must, not add words, but avoid them, that is, avoid that from which the disagreement originates, and help one another as best we can. We are all not only not pure Christians, but full of sin, and so we frequently do and say what we ought not. But at the same time we all wish, and cannot help wish- ing, and speak, and do what is necessary, because in this alone does our life consist. If we fail, it is from weakness and former errors, and so we have nothing to prove to one another, but must only help one another. This I ask of others, and this I wish others. May, 1888. He fmd they think that it is very wdse to say, " I do not know this, this cannot be proved, I do not want this." It is assumed that to say this is a sign of intellect and culture, whereas it is a sign of ignorance. I do not know any planets, nor axes, around which the 160 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS earth turns, nor any incomprehensible ecliptics ; I do not want to take all this on trust, — I see the sun is moving, and the stars are somehow moving. Indeed, it is very hard to prove the turning of the earth, and the path of the celestial luminaries, and the equinox, and many things in this sphere still remain obscure and, above all, incomprehensible. The advantage is this, that everything has here been reduced to unity. The same is true in the moral and spiritual sphere. The question, " What to do ? " has to be reduced to unity. What shall we know ? What hope for ? All humanity struggles to reduce these questions to unity. And suddenly it appears to people that there is some merit in disuniting what has already been reduced to unity, and they pride themselves on this their activity. They have carefully been taught ceremonies and relig- ion, though it was known in advance that this will not lead to anything and would not stand the proof of their mental maturity. They have been taught a mass of sciences, which are in no way connected, and they all remain without unity, with disunited sciences, and they think that this is an acquisition. Some are affected only by complete sincerity, and sin- cerity is attained only when a man lays open his soul and is guided in his display hy his own motives only. Jesus said at the end of his sermon (Matt. vii. 24-27) : " Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 161 built his house upon a rock : and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it fell not : for it was founded upon a rock. " And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a fooHsh man, which built his house upon the sand : and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it fell : and great was the fall of it." What were the words which he said, that if a man shall hear and do according to his words, he will thus build a house on the rock ; and a man who hears and does not do so, will build a house on the sand, and the house will perish ? What are the words, of which he said, as he began to say them (Matt. v. 19), " Whosoever shall break one of these least comuiaudments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven : but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." What are these words, and what are these command- ments ? Everything a man needs to know and everything he needs to do is said in these words. And we, the Chris- tians, say that we believe in him who has said these words, and that we believe in his words. But why do we not hear his words and do according to his words ? In these words it says, " Every man who is angry with another man is guilty, and if he calls another man names, he is still more guilty." Thus it says in Jesus' sermon, but let us look around at Christian people, and on all sides, in the city, in the country, we shall see tliat people do not stop being angry with one another ; on all sides do we hear scolding and cursing. Not only strangers, but even relatives, scold 162 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS and curse one another. Brother quarrels with brother, father with son, husband with wife. They scold and curse one another and invent the most stinging epithets, and boast of their scolding, as though they did not understand, or could not do, what Jesus said. It is impossible not to understand him. It says simply and clearly, " Do not call each other names." And there is no cunning and no difficulty in what Jesus said. If there were anything cunning, well, we might find some excuse ; but what can there be easier than not to call names ? We certainly do not call the authorities any names. Not a single peasant ever scolds the rural judge to his face. Why does he scold his brother, son, wife ? Because he does not dare to scold the rural judge, — he is afraid of him. How does he dare to scold his wife, son, brother ? God has forbidden this. Consequently he is less afraid of God than of the rural judge, or he does not believe in God. It is said that a man cannot bring a gift before God if he is at war with his brother. It says that, before going into the temple, he must make his peace with his brother. So it says, and all the churches are full of people, all pray to God, and is there among them one among a thou- sand who does not have at least ten, hundreds of brothers, with whom he has not made his peace ? They quarrel, hate one another, and make no peace, as though they did not understand what is said. But it is impossible not to understand, — it says so plainly and so simply, " First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." And about the same thing it says even more clearly, in the same sermon, " But if ye forgive not men their THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 163 trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your tres- passes " (Matt. vi. 15). It is impossible not to understand this. If we do not forgive our brother his trespasses, if we are not recon- ciled with him, God will not receive any prayer. And what Jesus commands is not difficult. It is not difficult for us to go to church, to dress our- selves up, place tapers, stand through divine service ; it is not difficult every day to tear oneself away from work and kneel. Why, then, is it difficult, before doing so, to go to a brother and ask his forgiveness, and make peace with him ? Evidently we do not wish to do what God commands us to do. X. PKOSELYTISM The conversation of others is effective and complete only when it is the consequence (almost unconsciously) of one's own confirmation and, therefore, improvement. I frequently reproach myself (in bad moments) for not having insisted on my opinion, but I have never been able to insist, not only in fact, but even in words. The moment I saw that my acts or words caused suf- fering, I stopped, or, if I did not stop, I regretted them. I could not do otherwise, because my aim, as professed by me, is the good of others. If evil results, I am naturally to blame, and evidently I am doing something wrong. More than that : I have convinced myself that the words, " No one comes to me except he whom the Father draws," are the most exact definition of reality. How this regeneration, this resurrection to the true life, is accomplished is a mystery, which is taking place under our eyes, and it is impossible to comprehend its process. It is God's mystery, — His relation with every man. It is not right — it is a sin — to mix up in this affair. No one is ever able to attract, to convert, another, and the desire to attract, to convert, another man, namely, a certain man or men, is the cause of terrible evils. 164 THOUGHTS AND APHOKISMS 165 It is the sacred business of our life to shine with the light which is in us, before people, before all people. This is very difficult at first, but later gives greater power and rest. Not my will shall be done, but His ! I feel like serving these men, and He wants His own, and I cannot interfere with His arrangement. It is my business to seek His will and to fulfil it. But His will is the love of all, of all those who are nearest to me, submission to Him, and humility before oneself. I am very glad that in the last three years every vestige of proselytisni, which had been very strong, has vanished. I am so strongly convinced that tliat which for me is a truth, is a truth for all men, that the question as to when and as to what people will arrive at does not inter- est me. Yesterday I ground some coffee, and now and then I watched to see when a particular bean which I had observed would come between the cogs. Apparently this is an idle and even a dangerous occu- pation, because, wliile busying myself with the coffee- bean, I stopped grinding and moved the bean nearer to the mouth. All will be ground up, if we continue to grind, and we cannot help grinding, because not we, but God carries on this grinding process through us and through the whole spiritual world. We must do what we can under existing conditions, — but we must tliink and express our thoughts independ- ently of existing conditions. 166 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS This frequently cou fuses me for my own sake and for the sake of others. How if we do not give the reins to our thought and expression, in view of existing conditions ? This is, indeed, the most sinful suicide ! We must do things independently of existing condi- tions. There are many such very important thoughts of yours, and for this reason we eighteen hundred years after Christ live in such darkness that these existing condi- tions are taken by men for something which might arrest thought. What I have sowed will come up, though not in my time. We must sow, forgetting about the conditions. We must do the internal and the external work : com- municate our thoughts and express them. The consciousness of the illegality of war and violence, and their incompatibility with Christianity, has so ma- tured everywhere that a coarse advocacy of barbarism is needed, in order to support this deception. I want and I think, I want and I believe, and I will work. Not I shall see it, but others, — but I will do my work. An excellent thought that the moral law is similar to the philosophical thought, — only it is un Werden. It is more than im Werden, — it is cosnized. Soon it will be wroug to put in prisons, men will not wage war, glut themselves, take away from the hungry, even as now it is not permitted to devour men or trade in them. What happiness to be a worker in the clearly defined divine work ! THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 167 If you love God's good, love it, that is, live by it, you also see happiness and life in it. But you also see that the body hampers the true good, not your good, but it keeps you from seeing the good and its fruits. Let us look at the fruits of the good, — and we shall stop doing the good. More than that : by looking, you spoil the good, you glory, you lose courage. Only then will what you do be a true good, when you shall not exist, to spoil it. Prepare more : sow, knowing that not you, the man, will reap. One sows, another reaps. You, the man, are the sower, — you will not reap. If you shall not only reap, but also weed, — you will ruin the wheat. Sow and sow ! And if you sow what is God's, there can be no doubt, — it will grow up. What before appeared cruel, namely, that I am not allowed to see the fruits, — it is now clear to me, — is not only not cruel, but good and scnsille. How could I distinguish the true good, God's good, from what is not true, if I, the carnal man, could make use of its fruits ? N')W it is clear: what you do, without seeing any re- ward, what you do lovingly, is certainly God's work. Sow and sow, and God will make it grow and will reap what is His, not what you, the man, sow, but what within you sows. I am sad, because my work is not growing as I wish. This is the same as being sad because what has been sowed does not come up at once, because the kernel can- not be seen. 168 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS It is true, there is no watering. If there were watering, there would be works that are firm and clear, in the name of the teaching. They are not so, because God does not wish. 8 In the teaching of the twelve apostles it says, " Arraign some, pray for others, and others again love better than thyself." In this I see something like a guidance. At least it so happens with me : at first I arraign, that is, express my views, and so become angry ; then, in order not to continue the anger, I stop arraigning, I merely ex- press uiy views directly, wishing (praying) that they may understand ; but those who understand I sincerely love, without any effort, more than my own soul. Here, it seems to me, is the second, the most important, 5 the most difficult stage, which occurs more frequently than any other. As soon as the disagreement, the mental distortion, is cleared away, in consequence of which it seems that reason is not obligatory for your interlocutor, — what is to be done ? In my opinion, we must pray, wish with all our soul, but not speak, not use that means which has already proved inefficient. We must with all our hearts wish these people good. What does this mean ? It means, to love them, love them in deed. September, 1887. We can and should know the truth and on its basis measure all human affairs., if, as always happens, the sub- THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 169 ject of the writing has reference to human affairs. In the direct commuuiou with men, in judging small, private acts which always are the result of more complex conditions of life, wliich are connected with the private life, it is an en- tirely different matter. I am something different in those moments, the best moments of my life, when I, alone with God, strive with all the power of my soul to understand Him, when I have rejected in so far as I was able everything personal and live by my divine part alone. I, when I write, and when I am in communion with men, submit to their effect upon me, when in me arise all the mean qualities of my XJersonality, when I have no time to give an account to myself of who I am and of why I speak or do what I speak or do. These are two beings which do not at all resemble each other as to their worth, — one stands on the highest rung of the ladder of the perfection which is accessible to me, tlie other — on the lowest. I am not the least sorry because people are angry at me and scold me, for expressing the truth ; but in my personal intercourse I feel that in the majority of cases I am myself bad, myself a contemptible vessel, which soils its contents. When we write, we try to conceal ourselves, not because such a method is accepted, but because we know that what is sacred and true is not we, as a personality, but what this personality comprehends. When we are read (if we are able to conceal ourselves), it is not we, but the truth, that is loved or hated, and it is not our fault. But in our intercourse the personality of the interlocutor at once makes its appearance, and, no matter how careful we may be, he infects you ; your personality comes to the surface and loses the possibility of correct judgment, cor- rect valuation, and what generally happens is this, that I, 170 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS loving, want to transmit to another what I theoretically and practically know as the truth, which gives the good ; the truth, which is so indubitable that sages and children even cannot help but agree in it, — and suddenly it turns out that my interlocutor is angry, has not only failed to understand me, but during the conversation with me has, in my very sight, thought out a still more msipid sophism (which conceals the good from us) than the one he had before, and goes away from me with this new in- sipidity, and with anger, directed not only against me, but also against the direction in which I wished to lead. How can one remain indifferent to such a strange phenomenon ? In the Gospel it says, " Cast not a pearl — " But this is cruel, and how understand, and how dare determine, who are the swine ? September, 1887. 10 When you see that a man whom you love is sinning, you cannot help but wish that he should repent ; but I must remember with this, that under the best circum- stances, that iSj with the most unconditional sincerity, he can repent only within the limits of his conscience, and not within the limits of mine. The demands of my conscience from me may be much higher than the demands of his conscience from him, and it would be quite senseless on my part mentally to foist on him the demands of my conscience. Besides, in these cases it must not be forgotten that, no matter how guilty a man may be, no quarrels with him, nor arraignments, nor admonitions are in themselves able to make him repent, because a man can only repent him- self, while another cannot repent him. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 171 11 Formerly I was agitated by quasi-retorts, but now they do not agitate me, nor even interest me in the least. Let them prove, either on the basis of Christ's teaching, or on the basis of reason, that we must kill, sit in judg- ment, and punish, that we must beheve in the church, and so forth. How can I dispute with them ? Do you know those mathematical quibbles, by means of which it is proved that a part is greater than the whole, or that two is equal to three ? If I am busy, I cannot in the least be interested in the solution of such a quibble ; but I can have no doubt as to a part being less than the whole, or two being equal to two. Even so it is now. I see that I have disputed, proved, unravelled sophisms, only because I myself was confused and did not see what is obvious. Now the solution of quibbles does not interest me. Besides, I see the uselessness of this occupation, since there can be an endless number of such quibbles. One has no time to attend to them. XL OWNERSHIP Ownership is a fiction, — an imaginary something, which exists only for those who believe in Mammon, and so serve him. The believer in Christ's teaching is freed from owner- ship, not by some act, not by the transfer of his property at once or by degrees into other people's hands (in not recognizing the significance of ownership for himself, he cannot recognize it in the case of others), but internally, through the recognition that it does not exist, and cannot exist, but mainly, that it is not indispensable for him or for others. How will a true Christian act ? He will live, comply- ing in godly fashion with the demands of life, which will present themselves to him, being, naturally, guided by his ties with the past, but in no case will he build his activ- ity on the relations of ownership. Pupils want to continue studying in an industrial school, or a peasant, who has had his hut burned down, begs for money for another hut. A Christian has nothing, and can have nothing, but they ask of him, because he is a proprietor. What is to be done ? He must fulfil what they ask of him, if this is not contrary to Christ's commandments. 172 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 173 If he is considered to be a proprietor and they ask him for something, he fulfils the prayer. Thus I think, and thus I decide in my own case, but I do not at all insist that this is a solution for all men. Of course, it is better to give than to receive and hoard (although even here it is hardly better, if vanity is added), but in general there can be nothing good in the giving of money. It is something like the game of Old Maids. I am still unable to explain to myself what it is. Ownership, as it now is, is an evil. Ownership in itself, as a joy at what I did and how and wherewith I did it, is a good. And it became clear to me. There was no spoon, but there was a billet of wood, I reasoned it out, took the trouble, and cut out a spoon. What doubt is there that it is mine, like the nest of this bird, — its nest, which it uses when and how it pleases ? But ownership which is protected by violence (by a policeman with a revolver) is an evil. Make a spoon and eat with it, and that, too, so long as another person does not need it, — that is clear. The question is diliicult, because I have made a crutch for my lame fellow, and the drunkard takes it to break the door with it. The drunkard has to be asked to give up the crutch, and it is unquestionable that, the more men there are, who will ask, the more certainly will the crutch remain with him who needs it. We can count as little on any kind of work, which may support us in a certain manner, as on the right of 174 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS the ownership of land or of capital, and even less, because he who counts on the right of ownership counts directly on violence and does not neglect it, while he who counts on constant work seems to deny violence. But we are all so spoiled and weak that for every one of us there is a minimum of comfort's of life, below which we cannot descend without suffering, and by which our abihty to be useful is impaired, and yet it is impossible to make work secure. Here enters the tragical element. If I have not one hundred thousand in the bank, I shall not be angry, but if I have no work which pro- vides me with the minimum, I shall consider all guilty. A Christian cannot get away from living for Christ's sake. There is but one legitimate life, — to receive alms, for Christ's sake, from him who gives, whoever it may be, and to give his labour to anybody, without casting his accounts, but only feehng his guilt, constantly wishing to give more than he takes, assuming life to consist in this, — this is the only legitimate form of life. A^pril, 1888. Ownership with the right to defend it and with the duty of the government to secure and recognize it, is not only not a Christian, but an anti-Christian, invention. For a Christian one thing is important, — not to hve in such a way as to be served, but to serve others. This rule, if it be recognized in its simplest sense, must be referred to the simplest and clearest and most obvious things and must be understood in this sense, that not others are to serve me at the table, but I am to serve others ; the horse is not to be harnessed for me, but I am to harness it for others ; clothes and boots are not to be made for me, nor soup, coffee to be prepared for me, wood THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 175 chopped, stoves heated for me, but I am to do all this for others. From the fact that a man cannot do everything him- self and that there is a division of labour, it does not follow at all that I must do nothing, except mental labour, which is expressed in my physical idleness and the work with tongue and pen alone. Such a division of labour, in which some people have to do work above their strength, all without exception, old men and childreu, stupid and talented people, while also without exception, every one of them, stupid and clever people, must busy themselves with playing the piano, or dehveriug lectures, or reading books, or sermons, — such a division of labour cannot be and has never been ; it is slavery, the oppression of one class of people by another, that is, a most anti-Christian business. And so the most spiritual-mental work for a Christian consists in not cooperating in this ; in depriving himself of the possibility of exploiting the work of others, and in consciously placing himself in the position of those who serve others. At one time I wrote about Peter the First, and I had a good explanation of Peter's character and all his rascali- ties in his having constantly been very busy, — he built boats, and turned wood, and travelled, wrote decrees, and so forth. Idleness is the mother of all vices, — this is a truism, but that a feverish, hurried activity is a constant concom- itant of dissatisfaction with oneself and, above all, with all people, — this all people do not know. Every man can sin, and everybody is sinful, but the trouble is, wiien a man judges, he is pulling the wool over his own eyes. 176 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS " If the light which is iu you be darkness, what is the darkness ? " " Ye cannot serve God and mammon." The question as to the relations to men has long ago been decided, not only in the abstract, but also in the practical sense. " Woe unto the rich. A rich man cannot pass into tlie kingdom of God. Give to him who asks. Sell your possessions and distribute them," and so forth. A Christian cannot distribute any property, and so he must have no surplus, and there is no question as to how to divide the surplus. If there is a surplus, I must, before being able to judge of the deserts of him with whom I am to divide, judge myself, and judge myself severely, for having a surplus, and recognize that I am sinful and guilty. There can be no question for a Christian as to how he shall do good with his surplus, but there is only the question as to how to free himself from that sin which has evoked in him the desire to collect and preserve this surplus. Act upon people v/ith all the powers given you by God, and of these powers the chief is not property, but that degree of renunciation of the personal life which you have attained. If you simply threw away your property, without giving anything to any one (of course, without tempting people, in order to get rid of it on purpose), and showed that you are not only just as joyous, quiet, good, and happy, without the property, as with it, but even more so, you would affect people much more powerfully, and would be doing them more good, than if you enticed them by the division of your surplus. I do not say that we must not act upon others, help THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 177 them ; on the contrary, I consider life to be in this. But aid must be given with pure means, and not with impure means, with property. But to be able to help, the main thing is, while we are ourselves not pure, — to purify ourselves. XTL FAMILY KELATIONS There is in all of us a strange feature in our relations between parents and children, and vice versa. There is great love and there is not sufficient attention to their lives. There is far from being the same serious comprehension of the life of a father, a daughter, that there is of that of a complete stranger, and I struggle for my own sake with this error, which I meet everywhere. It is remarkable how exacting the men who them- selves are opposed to Christ's teaching are to those who wish to live in conformity with this teaching. It is enough only once in the presence of these people to express the idea that, strictly speaking, it would be necessary to act so and so in Christian fashion, for them later to be sure always to demand from the followers of the Christian teaching precisely such a behaviour, and no other. Without themselves sharing the Christian con- ception, they, none the less, make on a Christian the highest demands to which his consciousness is able to rise. In general, imperfect and feeble men demand of others the manifestation of perfection, especially from those who 178 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 179 are nearest to them, as though instinctively making de- mands on the convexity of others, which precisely corre- spond to their own concavities. For a man who wishes to follow Christ's teaching, the constant intercourse with such spiritually feeble men is very useful, as a constant verification and reminder. The demands which are made on him cover the whole surface of his life as though with a layer of sulphuric acid, which, penetrating into all the minutest indentations and chinks, burns out of them the last remainders of foreign substances. One cannot imagine any better conditions for purifying oneself from one's blemishes. It is evident that the university courses and the ruling science are a holiness for the believers. Put your hand on science, and there will rise sentiments which resemble those that would be evoked in an Orthodox at the profa- nation of images. One is permitted to put his hands on ladies with locks and on all other kinds of ladies, but the class of young ladies who study is sacred. In offending this science, which is sacred to them, absolutely everything is forgotten. XIII. VAKIA The answer to this assertion is so simple ; " For the common good, courts, etc., are needed." " Very well." I am not called to establish this common welfare ; even though I may think of the common welfare, I caunot think of it differently than Christ has taught me to think of it, that is, as of a condition of the kingdom of God. Since I am not called to establish this welfare, my only duty in this respect will be to live in such a way as not to impair the common welfare ; but I cannot live thus otherwise than by never and in no form doing any harm to others. But to condemn a man to prison is an evil for that man and for his relatives. This is so clear and so simple to me, that I marvel how people can find an answer to it. If we all, agreeing in the fundamental, the rational things, should also agree in the details, some one of us would have no reason for living, — he would have to die : we should be repeating each other and could not work out anything real for ourselves and for others. Such an agreement would be a lie, as would be tlie 180 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 181 agreement of all men as to what a horse represents to him who looks at it in front or behind : one would say that it has a long tail between its legs, while another would say that it has a short tail between its eyes. If we know what a horse is, we shall not deny that we see the same horse, that we see its various sides. This is like the assertion that a melon which is cut lengthwise or across is not the same melon. If a whole is composed of all its parts, a full melon, no matter how it may be cut, is one and the same melon. All that is necessary is for it to be full and one whole. The same thing may be cut from different sides, with- out impairing its entirety, — and if this is possible, it is only a cause for joy. There are related minds of one type of character. And, no matter how a man may begin to cut (think), no matter from what side he may begin, he will find predecessors, who have done the same and who make his work easier. October, 1887. Before me is a sensible being, loving by nature, which can be happy only in the consciousness of this its loving, rational nature. I see that this being is unhappy, and I want to help it. A liorse lias become entangled in the reins, — I want to disentangle it, but the horse will not let me. Shall I pull at the reins, and get it worse entangled? It is evident that I shall not do so. A man does not let me, — he thinks that I want to do worse. Shall I continue what he does not want, not because he does not want the good for himself, but because he does not beheve that I want his good ? It is just as witli the horse, when I pat it. Reason is expressed in love. And so, where reason is 182 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS dimmed, it cannot be reestablished through itself, but only through its consequence, love. It is impossible to verify reason by reason, but it is possible to do so by love, its consequence. With dimmed mind a man does not believe in mind ; as he has not the true mind, he does not know which is the true one, and which not. But even without knowing any proofs of reason, if a man sees that its consequence is love, he recognizes that what has produced this love is rational, and then only will his contorted reason be mended, and coincide with the true reason. Every child and every naive man considers that man wise who loves him, and those causes rational by which he is loved. Only by the love of a rational man for him does another recognize the rational foundations of the love. If I had such a love for those people to whom I com- municate my rational foundations of life, a love like the one which a mother has for her child, no one would doubt the veracity of these foundations. A rational consciousness of the truths which are re- vealed to us in our soul and, besides, by Christ, is a great, a very great good ; but we are inclined to ascribe to this consciousness too great a significance. We rejoice too much at it, and we stop, as though we have reached everything we need. It is indeed an enormous step, in comparison with that darkness in which we have Hved ; but still this is only a step, and even a tiny step, after which must follow the procession on that vast path which is opened up to us in the application of this consciousness to life and love. It does not at once take the place of our cruel, bestial, bihous life, with its habits and passions, by which we have been living, but is poured into our soul by drops. That love, which by its essence demands an endless growth of trans- port, fills our soul but slowly. THOUGHTS AND APHOEISMS 183 My work over this is only beginning. In this sense I rebuke myself for not being able to convince or vanquish people by means of that invincible love which is given us. You walk about alone and think and, as it were, feel in yourself the conception of this force. It seems that I shall meet a man and shall at once drench and cover him with this invincible force which is being conceived in me ; but I come to the affair, I meet the man, and instead of the indestructible sword, which I thought I was holding in my hand, it turns out to be a frail, brittle sprout, which I break at the first encounter, and throw away, and tread underfoot. And again I grow and wait. September, 1887. You say : " Defend the truth against men who attack it." But if it is the truth, what can the attacks of the lie do to it ? The fact that it is being attacked is the best proof that it is the truth. And if you are persecuted, rejoice and be merry, — prophets of the lie thus have always per- secuted, and always will persecute, the prophets of the truth. There is a period (a degree of faith, of course), during which the persecutions make many men doubt the truth ; then there comes such a certitude that there is manifested indifference to the persecution, and then the persecutions give pleasure, showing obviously the weakness of the lie, which is recognized by the lie itself. " Jesus, son of David," shout the representatives of the lie, although he does not touch them, " go away from us, — why hast Thou come to torment us ? " And having shouted thus, they run away, not as fast as we should like them to, — but still they run away. 184 THOUGHTS AND APHOEISMS I have read M^dov's work on China. He is entirely devoted to the Chinese civilization, like every sensible, sincere man who knows Chinese life. In nothing is the significance of ridicule seen better than in the case of China. When a man is unable to understand a thing, he ridicules it. China, a country of 360 millions of inhabitants, the richest, 'most ancient, happy, peaceful nation, lives by certain principles. We have ridiculed these principles, and it seems to us that we have settled China. Generally something mystical is seen in our view of life and death. But there is nothing of the kind. I like my garden, I like to read a book, I like to pet my children. Dying, I am deprived of all this, and so I do not want to die, and I am afraid of death. It may happen that my whole life is composed of such temporal, worldly desires and their gratification. If so, I cannot help but fear that my desires will come to an end. But if these desires and their gratification have been changed in me, giving way to other desires, — to fulfil God's will, to surrender myself to Him in the form in which I am now and in all the possible forms in which I may be, then, the more my desires have changed, the less death is, not only terrible to me, but the less even does it exist for me. But if my desires will be completely changed, there is nothing but life, and there is no death. To exchange the worldly, the temporal, for the eternal, this is the path of life, and we must walk on it. Each of us knows how this is in his soul. May, 1886. THOUGHTS AND APHOKISMS 185 A writer, an artist, needs, besides his external talent, two other things, — the tirst, to know positively what ought to be ; the second, so to beHeve in what ought to be as to be able to represent what ought to be as though it were, as though I lived amidst it. With the incomplete (unprepared) artists there is one of the things, but not the other. One has the ability to see what ought to be, as though it were, but he does not know what ought to be. With another it is the other way. The majority of uu talented productions belong to the second kind ; the majority of so-called artistic productions belongs to the first kind. People feel that they must not write what is, and that this will not be art, but they do not know what ought to be, and they begin to write what was (historic art), or, in- stead of writing what ought to be, they write what pleases them or their circle. March, 1887. 8 Life must be guided by three commanders (it submits to them involuntarily), but for the personal question there arises the question : To what demands and to what extent must a man, for his good, surrender himself when all de- mands are made at the same time ? He wants to eat, and so to go after the potatoes, to invent the best constructed tool for digging them out and to make the calculations and the drawing for it, and to go and wipe off the wet and freezing child and so take him into the house. The whole of life consists of such trilemmas. What is one to be guided by in them ? 186 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS God's will is manifested in three ways : to whicli of these manifestations is he to submit more especially ? It is not possible to determine this gradually, — it has to be decided at once. The chief mover (the only one in my opinion) is the service of men. This service may be accomplished in two ways : through mental and through material work. But the determination which at a given moment is preferable, more lawful, is again decided only by the high- est mover, which is not love alone, but love and compre- hension, that is, comprehension which has risen to love, or love which is enhghtened by the comprehension. Octoher, 1887. I have convinced myself that a man cannot be benef- icent if he does not lead an absolutely good life, and much less if he leads a bad life. By making use of the conditions of a bad life, for the purpose of taming this bad life, you make excursions into the sphere of benefi- cence. I have convinced myself that beneficence can satisfy itself and others only when it shall be an inevitable consequence of a good life, and that the«demands of this good life are very far from those conditions in which I live. I have convinced myself that the possibility of benefi- cence to people is the crown and precious reward of a good life, and that, in order to attain this aim, there is a long ladder, on the first rung of which I have not yet thought of stepping. A man can do good to people only if others, and he himself, do not know that the good is being done, so that the right hand may not know what the left is doing, — as it says in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, that THOUGHTS AND APHOEISMS 187 the alms may leave thy hands, without thy knowing to whom thou art giving. You can do good only when your whole life is a service of the good. Beneficeuce cannot be an aim, — it is inevitably the consequence and fruit of a good life. What fruit can there be ou a dry tree, which has no live roots, nor live bark, nor branches, nor buds, nor leaves, nor flowers ? We can stick on fruits, as apples and oranges are at- tached to the Christmas tree by means of ribbons, but the Christmas tree will not come to life through it, and will not bring forth oranges and apples. Before thinking of the fruit, the tree has to be rooted, grafted, and grown large. But to root, graft, and grow the tree of the good, we have to think of many things and labour over many things, before we can rejoice at the fruits of the good, which we shall give to others. It is possible to distribute strange fruits, hung up on a dry tree, but there is in that nothing which resembles the good. 10 A marvellous night. It was so clear to me that our life is the fulfilment of a duty imposed upon us. And everything is done so that the fulfilment may be joyous. Everything is bathed in joy. Sufferings, losses, death, — all this is good. Sufferings produce happiness and joy, as labour pro- duces rest, pain — the consciousness of health, the death of near friends — the consciousness of duty, because this is the one consolation. One's own death is a calming. But the reverse cannot be said. Rest does not produce fatigue, health — pain, the consciousness of duty — death. 188 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS Everything is joy, so long as there is the consciousness of duty. Man's life is to us a familiar wave, which is all clothed in splendour and joy. 11 It is frequently said (I used to say so) that the censor- ship, violence in general, attains the opposite results. This is frequently said as a paradox ; but this is the real truth, the obvious truth, just as indubitable as this, that by closing the shutter in the stove you help the com- bustion of the fuel. If the censorship grieved us, this would prove that we are just as near-sighted as they. They work for the same God, only we can believe that we are willing workers, while they are unwilling ones. I remember, the other day I tried to count up those who shared our view, and I counted them all on my fingers ; now I see that we must not count by men, but by different phenomena. Now there, now here, amidst the darkness, sparks burn up. I see them, and I rejoice at them. 12 It seems to me that the terror of death is physical, a physical ailment, like the toothache, rheumatism, and that we must act toward this condition precisely as toward physical suffering, without ascribing to it a hair's worth more significance. Well, you have a toothache or a stomach-ache, or you are assailed by sadness and your heart is pained. Let it pain me, what is that to me ? Either it will pain me and pass, or I shall indeed die from this pain. In either case there is nothing bad about it. THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 189 It seems to me that it is possible not to be afraid of one's pain ; when one knows it from experience, this means, to take away from it what is tormenting. This is physical pain, and to vanquish it, to make it in- offensive, we must agree with it, and not think, as we do, of a struggle with it. Else we prepare ourselves for the struggle, and in our imagination we exaggerate, are intimi- dated by it. Of course, the chief means of security is the habit of thought, the conception of the carnal death. If we represent death to ourselves and evoke in our soul what destroys its terror (there is only the terror, and not death itself), what you evoke is more than suffi- cient to destroy all the carnal terrors of madness and of solitary confinement. Twenty-five years of madness or of solitary confinement, in any case, only seem a prolongation of agony ; but in reality there is no prolongation, because before the true life which is given us, an hour and a thousand years are one and the same. 13 If we remember and believe " Thy will be done," everything is easy, everything is good ; but if we do not remember, do not believe, everything is difficult, every- thing is bad. When I was a child, we had a simpleton, Grishka, for a gardener. In my childhood we used to go in the dark to hear him pray in the greenhouse. After the prayers and the verse about the righteous on the right hand, he began to converse with God : " Thou art my master, my feeder, my doctor, my apoth- ecary " (if he had been a woman, he would have said, " my midwife "). And no matter what doctors, apothecaries, and mid- wives there may be. He, His law, none the less remains 190 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS the chief thing above us, and He will do as He pleases. From this it does not follow that we must not make use of what has been done by man for the alleviation of his material hfe. We must make use of everything, but within the limits of reason, that is, of what is clear, indubitable. It is unquestionably necessary, when waiting for one's wife to give birth to a child, to call in a man who is expert in childbirth ; also, to make use of everything for the alleviation of the incipient sufferings ; but in advance to invent means for the alleviation of sufferings which have not yet come, is doubtful, the more so since the means is not in common use. I am absolutely against chloroform and laughing-gas. God gives the childbirth, God will also give the strength, but to add strength — There is a view about medicine, which is also ascribed to me, that medicine is e^dl and that we must free our- selves from it and in no case make use of it. This view is incorrect. Tliere is another view, which is, that a man does and suffers, not because this is proper for him, but only because the doctor did not come in time, or was mistaken in the diagnosis, or did not find the proper medicine, or because medicine has not yet invented the right thing, though it will do so in a trice. This view is unfortunately very common : it is preached by the doctors. It is at the same time the most inju- rious. From the first mistake the body suffers at times, but from the second the spirit suffers always. My relation to medicine will always be like tliis : I will not seek in advance any help against menacing death and sufferings, because, if I shall do so, all my life will pass in it, and yet my aim will not be attained ; but THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 191 I will make use of those means for protecting myself against death and suffering which are applied by men who are specially occupied with this matter, and who involuntarily make their way into my life, but only in the limits of what is confirmed to me by the obviousness of its action, by experience, by its diffusion, and by its accessibihty, that is, by those means the use of which does not impair my moral necessities. Here there constantly arise dilemmas, and their solu- tions are in the heart of each man. I am convincing myself more and more that the less a man divines, and the more he surrenders himself to cir- cumstances and provocations, the more happy he is, and the more fruitful is his activity. 14 How often a man will make a clever statement, and this clever saying will make him ridiculous ! He wanted to get married, but this witticism resulted in his being rejected. A jester in the church cried, " Fire !" and the result of this jest was seven dead persons. Is the jester to blame ? He wanted only to jest. If a man, loading a gun, accidentally kills another, he will feel sorry and he will after that load his gun more carefully ; but he will have no feelings of regret, no con- sciousness that he has acted wrongly. If a jester, without considering the consequences, calls out " Fire ! " in a Catholic church, and the frightened sup- plicants crush several people to death, the jester will feel more sorry still, and he will never jest so again, but he will have no repentance, no consciousness of a bad act. But if a man, hating or despising another, makes fun of him, puts him in a ridiculous situation, pulls a chair away from under him, and the other, in falling, hurts his head, 192 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS grows sick, and dies, there will, in addition to pain and compassion, appear also repentance, not because the man was killed, but because the motive of the act was con- tempt, hatred, mahce toward a man. " By thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned. For every idle word that people shall say, they will be made to answer." What a profound truth this is ! At first it seems that this is far removed from practical life,' something unnecessary, but it is something very near, very necessary for writers, publicists, and all of us, who are constantly committing similar sins. 15 You ask me about the Buddhistic conception of Karma. This is what I thought lately. In a dream we live almost as in waking. Pascal, I think, says that if we saw ourselves in a dream always in one position, and in waking in several, we should consider the dream to be reality, and reality a dream. This is not quite corrsct. Eeality differs from a dream in that it is, above all else, more real, more true, so that I should say : if we did not know life to be more real than a dream, we should consider dreaming to be all life, and should never doubt but that it was real Hfe. Now, our whole life, from birth to death, with its dreams, is it not in its turn a dream which we take to be reality, — real life, — and in the reahty of which we do not doubt, only because we do not know a more real life ? I do not so much think, as I am convinced, that this is so. As dreams in this life are a condition during which we live by the impressions, feelings, thoughts of the preceding THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 193 life and gather strength for the subsequent life, even so our whole present life is a condition during which we live by the karma of the preceding more real life, during which we gather strength, work out the karma for the subsequent, more real life, from which we have emerged. As we have thousands of dreams in this life, so this our life is one of thousands of svich lives, into which we enter from this more real, actual, true life, from which we emerge, entering into this life, and to which we return, when we die. Our life is one of the dreams of that more real life, and so forth, ad infinitum, up to the one, last, real life, — the hfe of God. The birth and appearance of the conceptions about the world is a falling asleep ; and the sweetest dream, death, is an awakening. Early death, — a man has been awakened, he has not had his full sleep. Late death, — he has had his full sleep and was sleep- ing feebly, when he was awakened. Suicide, — this is a nightmare, which is destroyed by recalling that you are asleep, and you make an effort, and you wake up. A man who lives by this life alone, who does not antic- ipate any other, — this is a heavy sleep. The heaviest sleep, without dreams, is a semi-animal condition. To feel in sleep what is going on around yon, to sleep lightly, to be ready at any moment to awaken, — this is to recognize, though dimly, that other life, from which you have come and to which you return. In sleep a man is always an egoist and hves alone, without the participation of others, without any connection with others. In that life which we call real there is more connection 194 THOUGHTS AND APHOPJSMS with others, there is something resembhng the love of our neighbours. But in the one from which we have emerged and whither we go, this connection is closer still : love is no longer anything wished for, but real. In that other life, for which even this is a preparation, the connection and the love is even closer and greater. And in this dream we feel all that may be and will be there. The foundation of everything is already in us and penetrates all dreams. I beheve in it, see it indubitably, know it, and, dying, shall be glad that I am awakening to that more real world of love. Decemher, 1891. 16 I have transferred myself in thought to your situation and have suffered with you for that guard, who loads his gun against people, and is ready to kill and at the same time understands Christ's teaching. I feel this with particular vividness, because I have for two years without interruption tried to grasp this mystery and to comprehend its phenomena, and I have lived in them. The other day, as I was on my way to Byegich^vka, I fell in with a special train of soldiers with rods and full cartridges, who were travelling to pacify those starving people with whom we had lived the year before. They were all like your guard, with this difference only, that they understand what they are doing : this can be seen by their fugitive eyes and because they themselves acknowledge that it is a shame. The kingdom of God is near, — at the door. I cannot help but think so, and I shall live and die with this consciousness ; the main thing is, that the time II THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 195 that I have left to live I want to live in such a way as to cooperate with this realization. It is very likely that I am not doing what I ought to for this purpose, — maybe I am in error; but I know that only in a hfe which realizes the kingdom of God, in the search of the kingdom of God and of truth, does for me the whole meaning of life consist. I know that it is the same with you, and when I see, as now, that you, seeking the realization of the kingdom of God and of His truth, do not enter into struggle (there is no struggle for one who walks on the Christian path, — everything steps aside before him), but subject yourself to the whole force of temptation, I am agitated for you, I love you with a special, ecstatic love. The temptations are from two sides : to weaken, to renounce (I am not afraid of this in your case), and to become proud of your strength. I know that you know this temptation better than I and look out for it, but I say what I think and what I feel for you. The strength with which we conquer and will conquer is not ours, but the Father's, and the more we remove ourselves, the more real is this strength. January, 1891. 17 All the time I was reading his letter I kept saying, "Amen." What surprises me is how a man, who so profoundly and so soberly understands Christ's teaching, as he does, can expect anything from violence and its servants. This is a terrible deception ! Something like the deception of money. It seems that the Tsar and money can do everything. If a man, wlio has no clear conception as to what the good is, were told that neither the Tsar nor money can do any good, he would think it strange. 196 THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS " What ? A man had no bread and he bought it for money and stilled his hunger. Or, — people were sitting in prison, and the Tsar commanded that they be let out, — is this not good ? " It is not, because, if there were no money, nor every- thing which is connected with it, a man could not help but have bread ; and if there were no Tsar, nor that which is connected with him, nobody would be sitting in a prison. How wonderful ! If I had still any doubt as to it be- ing possible by means of money to do good, I should have been fully convinced now, when I am buying corn for money and feeding several thousand people with it, that it is impossible with money to do anything but evil. You will say, " Why, then, do you continue doing it ? " Because I cannot tear myself away, and because I do not experience anything but the most oppressive sensa- tion, and so I think that I am not doing it for the grati- ■fication of my personality. The burden is not in the labour, — the labour, on the contrary, is joyous and attractive, — nor in the occupation, for which I have no heart, but in the constant internal consciousness of shame before myself. Please do not seek in these words of mine for any gen- eral meaning, — I write simply au courant de la plume, to a spiritually congenial man, who, I know, will under- stand me from hints, who will understand what I feel. It makes me feel bad, or rather, awkward, when fre- quently men well disposed to me take me seriously, seek- ing and demanding a complete correspondence between my words and my acts. " But how is it that you say one thing, and do another ? " I am no saint, and I have never given myself out for a saint ; I am a man who am carried away and sometimes, or, more correctly, always, say, not fully what I think and THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS 197 feel, not because I do not want to say it, but because I cannot, frequently exaggerate, and simply err. This is so as regards words. As regards acts it is even worse. I am an absolutely weak man, with vicious habits, who wishes to serve the God of truth, but who keeps constantly getting off the road. The moment I am looked upon as a man who cannot err, every mistake of mine appears either a lie or a bit of hypocrisy. But if I am understood to be a weak man, the disa- greement between my words and my acts will be a sign of weakness, and not of lying and hypocrisy. And then I shall appear as what I really am : bad, but sincerely, with my whole soul, always, and even now, wishing to be absolutely good, that is, a good servant of God. February, 1892. LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 1892 TRANSLATOR'S NOTE The " Letters on the Famine " appeared in Eussia in the years 1891 and 1892, and later, in 1895, in Switzer- land ; in the latter edition many passages omitted or cor- rupted by the censor are given in full, but evidently other variants are due to a revision, no doubt by Tolstoy him- self. The letters are here translated from the Swiss edi- tion ; but all noteworthy divergent readings in the Eussian edition which are not obviously due to the censor are given, when short, in brackets in the text, otherwise at the foot of the page, and are in either case followed by the letter E. The Swiss edition is preceded by the following intro- tion : " ' The Letters on the Famine ' were written by Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy in Byegich^vka, during the very heat of his activity in arranging free eating-houses for the starving. " At first, this article in a brief extract, thanks to the conditions of the censorship, appeared in the Weekly Books ; then it appeared in an Enghsh translation, and only later, in a translation from the English, in the columns of the Moscow Gazette. " The question as to how this exploit of the Moscow Gazette happened remains unexplained, but the conse- queuce of the appearance of the article ' On the Famine ' was this, that the administration of the city of Moscow was for some reason very much provoked by it, and began to threaten to expel Lev Nikolaevich's family from Russia. 201 202 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE " Under the influence of these threats, Countesses Sdfya Andr^evna and Tatyana Lvovna begged their husband and father to give the administration the statement de- manded of him, and upon this occasion Lev Nikolaevich wrote his wife the letter which is given below." TOLSTOY'S LETTER TO HIS WIFE I SEE from your tone that I am guilty of something and that I have to justify myself before somebody. This tone must not be permitted. I have for twelve years been writing what I think and what can please neither the government nor the ruling classes, and I have not been vn-iting this accidentally, but consciously, and I not only do not intend to justify my- self in this, but even hope that those who want me to justify myself will themselves try, if not to justify them- selves, at least to clear themselves of what not I, but their whole life accuses them of. In this particular case this is what is taking place : the government establishes an insipid, illegal censorship, which keeps people's thoughts from appearing in their real light, and so the involuntary result of it is that they appear abroad in a distorted form. The government becomes agitated and, instead of hon- estly and openly investigating the matter, hides itself behind the censorship, at the same time pretends to be insulted, and takes the Hbcrty of accusing others, and not itself. Now what I have written in the article about the famine is a part of w^hat I have been writing and saying in every manner possible for the last twelve years, and what I will say to my very death, and what everybody who is enlightened and honest in the whole world has been saying with me, what the heart of every uncorrupted 203 204 LETTEKS ON THE FAMINE man says, and what that Christianity says which those profess who are horrified. It is possible to keep quiet. Or, if not to keep quiet, it is possible to accuse, not the Moscow Gazette, which is not in the least interesting, and not men, but those conditions of life, with which everything is possible, which is pos- sible with us. Observe also that my writings, in which my views are expressed, exist in thousands of copies in all kinds of languages, and suddenly, as the result of some mysterious letters which have appeared in an English newspaper, all have suddenly come to understand what kind of a bird I am ! This is simply ridiculous ! Only those ignorant people, of whom the most igno- rant are those who constitute the court, can fail to know what I have been writing and thinking ; only they can think that such views as mine can change in one day and become revolutionary. All this is ridiculous, and it is degrading and offensive for me to discuss matters with such people. I am afraid I shall be accused of pride, but that is unjust. It is not my pride, but those foundations by which I live that cannot bend to the demands of non- Christian men. I do not defend myself and do not feel insulted for my own sake, but for those foundations by which I live. I write the statement and sign it, because, as Grote justly writes, the truth must always be established, if that is necessary. But those who tear portraits have had no business to possess them. Lev Tolstoy. LETTERS ON THE FAMINE FoK the last two months there has not been a book, a periodical, a number of a newspaper, in which there were not any articles about the famine, describing the condi- tion of the starving, who are making appeals for public or governmental assistance and who rebuke the government and society for their indifference, slowness, and apathy. To judge from what is known through the newspapers and what I know directly about the activity of the admin- istration and of the County Council of the Government of Tula, these reproaches are unjust. There is not only no slowness, no apathy, but it can rather be said that the activity of the administration, of the County Council, and of society has been carried to such a high degree of ten- sion that it can only weaken, and not grow stronger. Everywhere a boiling, energetic activity is going on. In the highest administrative spheres there have been going on uninterrupted labours which have for their end the prevention of the expected calamity. Sums are assigned and given out for the distribution of assistance, for public works, and arrangements are made for the distribution of fuel. In the affected Governments supply conmiittees and especial Government and county assemblies meet, means are devised for the collection of provisions, infor- mation is collected about the condition of the peasants, — 205 206 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE through the County Council chiefs for the administra- tion, through the members of the County Council for the County Council itself, — and means for affording assistance are discussed and devised. Rye has been dis- tributed for seed and measures have been taken for saving seed-oats for the spring and, above all else, for supplying them during the winter. Besides, in the whole of Russia contributions are taken up in society circles, in connection with the churches, a certain percentage is deducted from official salaries, contributions are being collected by newspapers and periodicals, and private indi- viduals and institutions contribute also. In all of Russia have been opened divisions of the Red Cross, and the Governments which are not affected have been set aside, one or several to every Government af- fected, to collect within their boundaries contributions for the affected Governments. If the results so far attained by this activity are less than what could have been expected, the cause does not lie in the insufficiency of the activity, but in that relation to the masses under which this activity takes place, and with which, I think, it is very difficult in the present calamity to assist the masses. I will tell later what I mean by the relation to the masses. Up to the present, two things might have been done : seed might have been distributed for sowiug, and wood for fuel might have been cut in the Crown forests. These two things have not in our locality been done very successfully. In our Government the peasants have everywhere sowed almost entirely their own seeds. What has been distributed has been either little or too late, while in some, indeed in many localities, seeds were needlessly distributed to people who had no use for them, so that in many counties the distributed seeds were sold and the proceeds spent in drink. LETTEES Ol!i THE FAMINE 207 Another thing which ought to have been attended to this autumn is the preparation of fuel. From the first of September, it was decreed that wood shoukl be distributed from the Crown forests to those peasants who had suffered from the failure of crops. About September 20th, they made out the lists of townships belonging to certain forest districts, and the announcement was sent out by- townships that it was permitted to collect fuel without any pay. The townships which were listed with certain forest districts are from forty to fifty versts distant from them, so that the hauling of brushwood in the fall, while there is yet green fodder to be had, presents no difficulties. And yet I know for certain tliat on October 14th, that is, for the period of almost a month, tliere had not been a single peasant in our suburban forest district, and similarly no wood had been distributed in the Krapivensk forest district. If we take into consideration that only in the fall, so long as green fodder may be had, it is possible for a peasant to travel a distance away for wood, and that it is only in the fall that the brushwood, which is not yet covered with snow, may be collected, and that now almost any day we may have a fall of snow, — it may be boldly said that this, the second thing, has been done unsuccess- fully. Thus had the matters of seed and fuel been attended to, but both these matters form but one-tenth of that busi- ness of provisioning which is before us ; so that, judg- ing from the imperfect manner in which that which has been done has been carried out, it is hard to expect that the enormous matter before us will be done better. All we know from the newspapers, and all that is directly known to me about the outlook in the carrying out of this matter, does not promise anything better. As the administration, so the County Councils, so far know in relation to this matter of the provisioning of the masses absolutely nothing as to how they are going to do it. This 208 LETTERS 01^ THE FAMINE indefiniteness is complicated, chiefly, by the discord which everywhere exists between the two main organs, the ad- ministration and the County Council. Strange to say, the question as to whether there is a calamity which calls for activity, that is, as to whether there is a famine or not, and if there is, in what dimen- sions, is one which has not yet been decided between the administration and the County Councils. Everywhere the County Councils demand large sums, while the ad- ministration considers them exaggerated and superfluous, and cuts them down or completely disallows them. The administration complains that the County Councils are carried away by the general mood and, without entering into the merits of the case, without establishing the mo- tives, write lackadaisical literary descriptions of the popular want and demand large sums, which the government can- not grant, and which, if granted, would produce more evil than good. " It is necessary for the masses to know their need and themselves to curtail their expenses," say the representa- tives of the administration, " for now everything demanded by the County Councils, and everything said in the assem- blies, is transmitted to the masses in a distorted form, and the peasants expect a kind of assistance which they cannot receive. This leads to the people's not going to the work offered them, and to their drinking more than ever." " What kind of a famine is this," say the representa- tives of the administration, " when the people refuse to work, when the revenue from the sale of intoxicants for the autumn months of the present year is greater than in the past year, and when the fairs where peasant wares are sold are better than they have been for years ? If we were to pay attention to the demands of the County Coun- cils, we should have the same results from the distribution of supplies as from the distribution of seeds in certain counties, where those who did not need them received LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 209 them, and thus drunkenness was encouraged." This the representatives of the administration say, and they — collect the taxes. Thus the administration looks upon this matter, and quite justly so, if we consider the matter from a common point of view. But not less just is the view of the County Councils, when in reply to these arguments they give a description of the peasant property according to townships, from which it becomes clear that the harvest of this year is one-fourth or one-fifth of the average, and that the majority of the population have no means of support. To cut out, prepare, and put on a patch, it is necessary to know the size of the hole. It is as to the dimension of this hole that it seems impossible to come to an agreement. Some say that the hole is not large and that the patch may only enlarge it; others say that there is not enough material for a patch. Who is right ? To what extent are both right ? As an answer to these questions may serve the descrip- tion of what I saw and heard in the four counties of the Government of Tiila, which have suffered from the failure pf crops, and which I visited. n. The first county which I visited was Krapivensk County, which has suffered in its black soil district. The first impression, which in an alhrmative way an- swered the question as to whether the masses are this year labouring under especially hard conditions : the bread which is used by nearly everybody is made with orache, — - one-third, and in some cases one-half orache, — is black [of inky blackness — B.], heavy, and bitter ; this bread is eaten by everybody, by children, by pregnant women, by nursing women, and by sick people. Another unquestionable proof of the peculiar state of affairs in the present year is the absence of fuel. Then, — it was still in September, — everybody complained of this want. I was told that the willow-trees in the threshing-floor yards were being cut down, and I saw that it was so ; I was told that all the blocks, everything of wood, has been cut and chopped up. Many persons purchase wood in a proprietor's forest which is being cleared up, and in a grove in the neighbourhood, which is being taken off. They travel for their wood seven and even ten versts. The price for aspen wood, all cut, is ninety kopeks per shkalik, that is, per one-sixteenth of a cubic sazhen. A shkalik will last a week on a farm, so that about twenty-five roubles will be needed, if all the fuel is to be bought. The calamity is indubitable : the bread is unwholesome, mixed with orache, and there is no firewood. But you look at the people, at their appearance, — their faces are healthy, cheerful, satisfied. All are at work, 210 I" ■i' LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 211 nobody stays at home. One is threshing, another is hauling. The proprietors complain that the peasants do not want to work. When I was there, tliey were digging potatoes and threshing. On a church holiday they drank more than usual, and even on work-days I came across drunken persons. Besides, the orache bread itself, upon closer examination as to why and how it is used, receives a different meaning. On the farm where I was first shown the orache bread, a threshing-machine with four horses was threshing in one of the side-yards, and there were sixty cocks- of oats, giving nine measures each ; that is, at present prices, there was there three hundred roubles' worth of oats. It is true, there was but little rye left, not more than nine ch^tverts, but, besides the rye, there were there something hke forty chetverts of potatoes, and there was some buck- wheat, and yet the whole family, consisting of twelve souls, ate orache bread. Thus it turned out that the bread with the orache was in this case not a sign of pov- erty, but the method of a saving peasant, to have them eat as little bread as possible, just as for the same purpose a saving peasant will never allow, even in prosperous years, warm or even soft bread to be eaten, but instead gives his people stale bread. " Flour is dear, and it is hard to provide for all these urchins. People eat bread with orache, — and we are no gentlemen either." The calamity as regards the tire-wood, too, does not appear so terrible, when the details of the situation are known. They have to buy wood for twenty-five roubles. " Where shall we get it this year ? " another peasant said to me, complaining of the hopeless condition of the present year. And yet this peasant has two sons who are hired out, one at forty, the other at fifty roubles, and he has this year married one of them, although he has enough women in his house. Besides, the lack of fuel is redeemed by the 212 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE fact that in the present year, the straw, though less than usual, is rich, with a good ear, forming excellent fodder. The reason they do not burn §traw for fuel is not merely because there is little of it, but because in the present year it partly takes the place of meal food for the cattle.^ Besides, the potatoes have grown here excellently. Thus, where on a farm with ten mouths there are twenty-five ch^tverts, figuring at a measure a day, the potatoes will last two hundred days, the whole winter. The main thing is the oats, which bring a high price. But not all have oats and potatoes. When I took the list of the whole village, it turned out that out of fifty-seven farms, twenty-nine were such as had no rye left, or only a few puds of it, from five to eight, and little oats, so that with the exchange of two ch^tverts for a chetvert of rye, they will not have enough food to last them until New Year. This is the state of twenty-nine farms ; fifteen farms are in a very bad shape : these lack the chief support of the present year, — the oats, — since these farms were badly off two years ago, and last year did not sow any oats at all. Some of them are begging even now. All of them are without help, and some of them have a bad reputa- tion ; some are drunkards, others do not like to work, while others again are restless people ; there are also among them thieves, who have been in jail. These farms are not suffering from the failure of this year's crops, but from the peculiar domestic conditions and the character of the farmers. Such is one of the villages of Krapivensk County, and such approximately is the condition of the others. The percentage of the well-to-do, the average, the poor, is nearly the same : fifty per cent., more or less, of average ^ This is so where there is at least some straw ; but in many coun- ties there is no straw. The state of the majority of farms under superiicial observation presents itself like this : the failure of the rye is equalized by the good crop of oats, which bring a high price, and by the good crop of potatoes. — E. LETTEKS ON THE FAMINE 213 farmers, that is, such as will this year use up all their supplies by December; twenty per cent, [of well-to-do and thirty per cent. — B.] of very poor, who have nothing to eat now, or will have nothing in a month from now. The condition of the peasants of Bogordditsk County is worse. The crops, especially of rye, have been worse here. Here the percentage of the well-to-do, that is, of those who can get along with their own corn, is the same ; but the percentage of the poor is greater still. Out of sixty farms there are seventeen average ones, and thirty-two absolutely poor, just as poor as the fifteen of the first vil- lage of Krapivensk County, And just as in Krapivensk County, the wretched state of these poor farms was not conditioned by the famine of this year alone, but by a whole series of long active external and internal condi- tions : the same helplessness, large families, drunkenness, weakness of character. Here, in Bogordditsk County, the question of fuel is still harder to solve, as there are fewer forests. But the general impression is again the same as in Krapivensk County. So far there is nothing peculiar to indicate a famine: the people are cheerful, ready to work, happy, healthy. The township scribe complained that the drunkenness during Assumption Day (a church holiday) was worse than ever. The farther we proceed into Bogordditsk County and the nearer to Efrdmov County, the worse does the condi- tion get. On the threshing-floor there is less and less corn and straw, and there are more and more poor homes. On the border of Efremov and Bogordditsk Counties the state is particularly bad, especially because, with the same unfavourable conditions as in Krapivensk and Bogordditsk Counties, and with a still greater scarcity of forests, the potatoes have been a failure. On the best fields hardly anything but enough for seed was harvested. The bread is almost everywhere made with orache. The orache is here 214 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE green and not at all mature. The white centre gener- ally found in it is lacking entirely, and so it is not edible. One has to know how to eat the orache bread. If a man eats it on an empty stomach, he has to vomit, and people go mad from kvas which is made of flour mixed with orache. Here the poorest farms which have gone doven in former years are now eating up their very last. But these are not yet the worst villages. There are Worse ones in Efremov [and Epiphany — E.] County. Here is an extract from my note-book about a village in Efremov County. Out of seventy farms there are ten which still can " breathe." Of the others, the people of every second farm have just gone with their horses to beg alms. Those who are left eat bread with bran, which is sold to them from the storehouse of the County Council at sixty kopeks per pud. I went into one of the houses to see the bread with the bran. The peasant had received three measures for seed, when he had already done his sowing ; he mixed the three measures with three measures of bran, ground this together, and got some good bread, — but it is the last. The woman told me that her girl had filled herself with orache bread, which purged her above and below, and she gave up baking with orache. The corner of the room is full of dry horse-dung, and the women collect the dung and chips. ^ The dirt of the house, the tattered condition of the clothes, in this village, is very great, but evidently this is a usual thing, because the same dirt and raggedness is to be found in the well-to-do houses. In the same village there is a settlement of landless soldier children. [There are ten such houses. — R.] The condi- tion of the inhabitants of this settlement is especially pitiable. There are among them some with small families iThe women collect the dung in the pastures, and small twigs of a finger's length and thickness in the woods. — R. I LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 215 aud some who are artisans, and they manage to get along somehow ; but the condition of the majority is very bad. They are all mendicants. At the extreme house of this settlement, where we stopped, a tattered, lean woman came out to us, and she begau to tell us her condition. She has five children. [The eldest is a daughter, ten years of age. — B.] Two are sick, evidently with the influenza. One, a three-year-old child, is sick with the fever, and he was carried outside and is lying on the ground, in the pasture, about eight steps from the hut, and is covered with what there is left of a peasant coat. It will be cold and wet for him, when his fever has passed, but still this is better than for him to be in the room four arshins square, with its dirt and dust and the four remaining children. This woman's husband has gone away to earn money and has not been heard of. She lives on what she can collect by begging, but the near-by people do not give much. She has to walk a long distance off, from twenty to thirty versts, but it is bad there, too, and she has to neglect her children. And so she does. She collects a lot of gifts and leaves these at home ; when the alms give out, she starts out again. She was at home just then, — she had just come back the day before [and she had crusts left to last her until the next day — ii.]. She is not alone in this condition, but there are some eight such houses.^ They were in the same state the year before and two years before, and in such a state they are not alone, but there are millions of people all around us who are in tlie same state. In the same state are always all the families of feeble, drinking men, all the families 1 She was in the same state last year also, and two years ago ; she was even worse off three years ago, because two years ago she was burned out, and her eldest daughter was smaller, so that she had nobody to leave her children with. The only difference was, that people gave more alms, and the bread they gave was without orache. — B. 216 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE of those who sit in prisons, frequently the families of soldiers. Such a state is, however, more easily borne in good years. Even in years when there are good crops, the women, though threatened with being beaten or being sent to jail, have been stealthily going to the woods, to steal fuel, in order to warm their freezing children, and have collected from poor people pieces of bread with which to feed their neglected children, who are dying with- out food. This has always been ! We live amidst all this ! In the present year this state is not worse, because there can be nothing worse than that a mother's children should die without help, only this year there is more of this evil. o a. III. There are many such villages in Bogordditsk and in Efr^mov Counties. But there are some that are even worse. And such are the villages of Epiphany and Dankov Counties. Here is one of them : for about six versts between two villages there is no settlement, no village. All there is there is proprietor's out-farms, lying off the main road. There is nothing but fields and fields, rich, black-earth fields, which are deeply ploughed up and beautifully seeded with rye. The potatoes have all been dug up: they are beiug dug up and ploughed over a second time. Here and there they are ploughing for summer crops. Fine-looking herds, belonging to the landed proprietors, are walking in the stubble. The winter crops are beauti- ful ; the roads are properly ditched and bordered with cropped willows ; in the ravines a forest has been started. Here and there are the fenced-in and well-guarded groves of the proprietors. On the out-farms along the road there is an abundance of straw, and the potatoes are being put away in cellars and basements. Everything is fin- ished and well done ; in everything is seen the labour of thousands of men, who with harrows, ploughs, scythes, and rakes have walked through all the furrows of these immeasurable, rich fields. I arrive at the place of abode of these people. Be- tween steep banks there is a large river, and on both sides of it there are settlements, — on this side, in Epiphany County, there are fewer of them ; on the other, in Dan- 217 218 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE kov County, there are more. On the other side there is a church with a tower and a cross sparkling in the sun ; along the bank beyond the river small pleasant houses stretch out beautifully in the distance. I walk up to the edge of the village on this side. The first hut is not a hut, but four gray stone walls, daubed with clay and roofed with boards on which there is a mass of potato-tops. There is no yard. This is the dwelling of the first family. Here, too, in front of this structure, there stands a cart, without wheels ; and not back of the yard, where the threshing-floor generally is, but in front of the hut, there is a cleared place where oats have just been threshed and winnowed. A lank peasant in bast shoes with his shovel and his hands throws the cleanly winnowed oats from the heap into a woven basket ; a barefoot woman of about fifty years of age, in a dirty black shirt, which is torn at one side, carries these basketfuls and fills with them the cart without wheels, and keeps counting, A ragged, dishevelled girl of about seven years of age clings to the woman, in- terfering with her work. The peasant is the woman's friend, and he has come to help her winnow and put away the oats. The woman is a widow ; her husband has been dead nearly two years, and her son is a soldier and attend- ing the autumn exercises ; her daughter-in-law is in the house with two small babies [one, a suckling babe, is in her arms ; the other, of about two years of age, is crawl- ing over the threshold and yelling, — he is dissatisfied with something — B.]. The only good crop this year has been the oats, which will all go into the cart, — there are in all perhaps four chet verts. From the sowing there is left a bag with orache (carefully put away in the loft), weighing about three puds. No millet, or buckwheat, or lentils, or pota- toes were sown or planted. Bread is baked with orache, and it is so bad that it is impossible to eat it, and this LETTERS OX THE FAMINE 219 very day the woman went to a village eight versts off to beg alms. There is a holiday in the village, and she col- lected about five pounds of " cake " without orache, which she showed me. [In a basket she has about four pounds of crust and of pieces of bread as big as the palm of the hand. — B.] This is all the property she has, and all the visible means of support. Another hut is like hers, only it is better thatched, and there is a small yard. The rye crop was the same. The same kind of a bag with orache is standing in the vestibule,, representing the granary with its supplies. They have not sown any oats on this farm, as they had not seeds in the spring ; but they have three ch^tverts of potatoes and two measures of millet. As much rye as was left from the distribution for seeds, the woman baked into loaves, mixing in half orache, and they are now eat- ing the last of them. All there is left is one and a half round loaves. The potatoes w^ill last another month, and they say they do not know what will happen after that. The woman has four children and a husband. The hus- band is not at home, — he is building a stone hut with clay mortar for a neighbour two farms away. A third farm is just like this one, and its condition is the same. While I was in this hut and was talking with the hostess, a woman came in, and she began to tell her neighbour that her husband had been beaten, that she did not expect him to live, and that he had received the holy sacrament. Evidently the neighbour knew all about it, and all this was told for my benefit. I offered to go and look at the sick man, in order to help him, if possible. The woman went away and soon came back to take me to her house. The sick man was lying in an adjoining hut. This hut was large [built of logs — B.], with a [stone — B.] straw loft and yard, but the poverty was the same. The proprietor [evidently — E.] had taken a fancy to building after a fire ; everything which was there he 220 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE had himself built ; then he had grown feeble and become poor. In this hut two families, v/ho have no farms of their own, are rooming. The head of one of these famihes is the beaten peasant. On the hanging beds, between the oven and the wall, lay the sick man, covered with mat bags ; he was groaning pitifully. He was a stocky, healthy peasant of some forty years of age, with a bloodshot face and athletic muscles on his bared arm. I began to ask him questions, and he told me that two days before they had had a meeting, and that he and a friend of his had taken tickets (passports) to go down-country, and that upon that occasion he had told a peasant that it was not right for him to call names. In reply to this, the peasant knocked him off his feet and began to walk all over him, that is, beat him badly on his head and chest. It turned out that when they took their passports, they set up an eighth measure, and the elder, who had wasted fifty roubles of the communal money, being present, set up half a bucket, for having been allowed to defer his payments for three terms, — and the peasants got drunk. I felt the sick man over and examined him. He was absolutely well, and he perspired dreadfully under the mat bags. There were no marks whatever, and appar- ently he was lying, and had received the holy communion only to provoke the authorities, among which he counted me, to inflict punishment on him with whom he had fought. When I told him that it was not right to go to court and that I thought that he was not dangerously knocked up and could get up, he remained dissatisfied, and the women who carefully followed my movements, and with whom the hut was filled, began impatiently to say that if it was so, " they " would kill them all. The poverty of all three families who live here is the same. None of them has any rye. One had something like two puds of wheat, another had enough potatoes for two weeks or for a month. All had still some bread LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 221 baked with orache from the rye given them for seed, but it will not last them long. Such is the whole village of thirty farms, with the exception of two families which are well-to-do. There is no need of counting them all over, — it will all be the same. This village half burned down last year, and they did not build it up again. Those first farms, the one where the woman was threshing oats, and the eight adjoining farms in a row, were settled there in order to comply with the rules for insurance. The majority of them are so poor that they even now are rooming with others. Even those who were not burned out are just as poor, though in general those who suffered from the fire are somewhat worse off. The condition of the village is such that twelve out of thirty farms have no horses. The people are nearly all of them at home : some are calking their huts ; others are transposing things, and others again are sitting and doing nothing. Everything is threshed, the potatoes are dug. The village is in a wretched condition, but this failure of crops presents itself as a small calamity in comparison with that chronic general calamity to which these men are apparently subject. What has brought them to this state is fires, quarrels, drunkenness. Besides the general causes of calamities, nearly everv family has its own private, internal cause, which is much more important than the exceptional cause of this year's failure of crops. The previous elder has this trouble, that he has, under fear of court proceedings, to pay fifty roubles in three instalments, and he is selling all his oats to meet this debt. The present elder, a good joiner, is in trouble, because they have appointed him elder and so have deprived him of the possibility of hiring out. He receives a salary of fifteen roubles, and he says that he could 222 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE easily earn sixty roubles and so would have had no thought of the failure of crops. The trouble with a third peasant is this, that he has for a long time been in debt, and now has to pay, and so is compelled to sell three walls of a wooden hut, keeping the fourth for fuel. He has no building to live in and so is pointing up with clay a tiny stone cell, in which to hve with his wife and children. The trouble with a fourth man is this, that he quarrelled with his mother, who was living with him, and she separated from him and broke up her hut and went to hve with another son of hers, taking her portion with her, and so he has nothing to hve on and no place to stay in. The trouble with a fifth man is this, that he took some oats to town, where he went on a spree and spent every thmg he got for his oats. Before leaving the village, I stopped near a peasant who had just brought potato-tops from the field and was putting them down along the wall of the hut. " Where do these come from ? " " We buy them from the proprietor." " What ? What do you pay for them ? " " A desyatina to be attended to in the summer." That is, for the right to collect the potato-tops from a desyatina of potatoes, which have been dug up, a peasant promises to plough up, sow in, mow down, bind, and carry away corn from a desyatina, which, according to the usual cheap prices for such detailed work, is worth at least eight roubles, while according to the established price in that locality the potato-tops are worth from four to five roubles. The peasant was talkative ; I stopped near his cart, and soon about six peasants gathered around us, and we started a conversation. Some women stood at a distance and listened. Children, munching inky black, pasty bread with orache, whirled about us, watching me and listening to the conversation. 1 repeated several inquiiies, wishing LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 223 to verify the elder's statements. Everything proved to be true. The number of peasants without horses proved even larger than the elder had said. They told of their whole poverty, not so much with dissatisfaction, as with a constant irony indefinitely directed upon somebody and something. " Why are you in such bad shape, and why are you poorer than anybody else ? " I asked. Several voices began to answer, — so definite was the answer. " What are we to do ? Last summer half the village was licked clean as by a cow's tongue, — it burned down. And then the failure of the crops. It was bad enough last year, but this year it is a clear failure. What use would there be even in a good crop, when there is no land ? What land ? Just good enough for kvas ! " " Well, and how about earnings ? " I asked. " What earnings ? Where are they ? He " (the pro- prietor) " has roped us in for eleven versts around. It is all his land ; go where you please, — there is but one price to the land. We have to pay five roubles for tops, and they will not last for a month." " Well, how are you going to live ? " " The best way we can. We shall sell what we have, and then as God will aid us. There is nothing more to sell. Maybe we shall sell the horse-chips, — I have a whole corner of them. When you make a fire with them, it just chokes you. Pshaw ! They have been writing us up, they have written us up ten times," said the elder, " but nothing has so far come of it. Evidently the writers are no good. Come, let grandfather " (he meant me) " write us up. He will do it in a mighty way. See what a pen he has," and so forth. The peasants laugh ; evidently they know something, but are not going to tell. What is this, anyway ? Do they not understand their situation, or do they so much 224 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE expect outside help that they do not wish to make any efforts ? I may be mistaken, but it looks like it. Just then I recalled two old peasants of Efr^mov County, who in a slightly intoxicated condition were returning from the township office, whither they had gone to find out when their sons would be demanded for the autumn practice, and who, in reply to my question how their crops had been and how they lived, answered me, although they were from the very worst locality, that, thanks to God and to the Tsar, their father, they had received seed-corn, and now would receive for their provisions thirty pounds to each person until Lent, and after Lent would get as much as a pud and a half each. That the people of this Efr^mov village will not be able to live through the winter without starving, or at least dying from diseases, due to the famine and to bad food, if they do not do something, is as certain as that a beehive without honey, being left in the open, will die out toward spring. So here is the question : will they do something ? So far it looks as if they would not. Only one of them has sold everything and is going to Moscow. The others seem to be waiting for something. • [The others do not seem to understand their situation. Do they really not understand their condition, or are they waiting to be helped from without, or are they like chil- dren who have fallen through an ice-hole or have lost their way, and who in the first moment do not understand their condition and laugh at its unfamiliarity ? Maybe both. But what is certain is, that these men are in such a state that they will hardly make efforts to help them- selves. — i?.] IV. Well, is there a famine, or not ? And if there is [to what extent ? — R], to what extent are they to receive assistance ? All the columns in which the property of the peasants is described do not answer, and cannot answer, these questions. This the peasants themselves, it is true, do not know. Much depends on the mood in which they will be. The administration and the County Council present to themselves the problem of feeding the starving people just like a similar problem of feeding a given quantity of cattle. For so many steers so many puds of hay, straw, mash are wanted for two hundred days of winter. This quantity of food once being provided, the steers are put in the stalls, and we may be sure that they will winter well. With men the calculation is quite different. In the first place, for a steer or any other animal the maximum and minimum of the indispensable food are not very far from one another. When the cattle have eaten up a cer- tain quantity of food, they stop eating and have no need of anything else, and if they do not get the necessary quantity, they soon grow siclc and die. But for a man the distance between the minimum and the maximum of what he needs, not only in the form of food, but also of other necessities, is enormous, — it may even be said, infinite : a man may live on shewbreads, as do the fasters, or on a handful of rice, as do the Chinese and the Hindoos ; or he may not eat for forty days, as Doctor Tanner did, and yet remain well, or he may swallow a 225 226 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE quantity of food and drink, which is enormous as far as cost and nutrition is concerned, and besides the food needs also many other things, which may grow to infinity and again contract to the lowest limit. In the second ]jlace, a steer cannot provide food for himself, while a man does, and the man whom we under- take to feed is the chief provider of food, the very man who feeds us and who under the most onerous conditions provides what we undertake to feed him on. To feed a peasant is the same as it would be if, in the spring of the year, when the grass has sprouted, we should keep the cattle in the stalls, and ourselves pick the grass for them, that is, deprive them of that enormous power of collection which is in them, and thus ruin them. Something similar would happen with a peasant, if we fed him in the same manner, and he believed it. The peasant budget does not balance properly, — there is a deficit, — he has nothing to live on, — we must feed him. Yes, cast the accounts of any average peasant, not in a famine year, when everywhere about us there is only enough corn to last until New Year, and you will see that, according to the crop reports, he has nothing to live on in an average year, and that the deficit is such that he must get rid of his cattle and himself must eat but once a day. Such is the budget of an average peasant, — to say nothing of the poor peasant, — and yet he has not only not got rid of his cattle, Ijut has also married off his son and his daughter, has celebrated a holiday, and has spent about five roubles on tobacco. Who has not seen the fires which make a clean sweep of everything? One would think that the sufferers from the fire would have to perish. Behold, one has been helped by a relative, an uncle ; another has received assistance ; a third has hired out to work; a fourth has gone out to beg alms; they LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 227 strain all their energies, and behold, in two years they have come back to their old state. And the settlers, who go away with their families, who for years support themselves by work, until they settle in some one spot ? For some time I busied myself with the question of the past settlement of the Government of Samara, and the fact which I and all natives of Samara can testify to is this, that the majority of the settlers, who travelled by certain routes with the aid of the government, perished and fell into poverty, and the majority of fugitives, who met with obstacles only on the part of the government, arrived safely in the new settlements and grew rich. And the landless peasants, manor labourers [and sol- diers' children — B.] ? They have all supported themselves even in years when corn was more expensive than at present. People say that there is no work. But there are also other people, who keep saying all the time that they offer work, and that there are no labourers. And the people who say so are just as right, or just as wrong, as those who say that there is no work. I know positively that lauded proprietors offer work and cannot find any labourers ; that for the work which is laid out by the forestry department there have so far appeared no labourers, as is also true in case of other work, as the newspapers have written about it. For a poor worker there is never any work, for a good worker there is always work. For a tattered man, who has spent his clothes in drink and who walks from farm to farm and from fair to fair there may be such a tiling as no work ; but for a good labourer who is known and who is looking for other work while still at work, there is always some work. It is true, in the present year there is less work than usual, and so a larger number of poor labourers will be left without work ; still, a man's having or not having 228 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE work does not depend on external causes alone, but on the energy of the labourer, on whether he is looking fit for work [whether he values his work — B.] and whether he is working well. I . do not say all this in order to prove that poor labourers and their families should not be aided, but only in order to show how impossible it is to figure out the budget of a peasant farm, the income of which may be stretched to from three to thirty and more roubles per month, according to the energy of the industry and the execution of the work, while the expenses may be nar- rowed down to two pounds of bread with bran to each man, or may expand to drunkenness, which may in one year ruin the wealthiest farm. The disagreement as to whether there is any famine, or not, and to what extent it exists, is due to this. To this is also due the difficulty of giving assistance.^ To determine the degree of the need, so as to guide all the County Councils in the distribution of assistance, there have been made detailed farm lists according to counties as to the number of mouths, labourers, allot- ments, the quantity of all kinds of corn planted, and the harvest, the number of cattle, the average crop, and many more things. The lists have been made with an extraor- dinary display of columns and of details. But he who knows the every-day life of the peasants knows that these lists say very little. To imagine that a peasant farm spends only as much as it eats up, and earns only what the peasant gets from his allotment, is a great mistake. In the majority of cases what he gets from the allotment forms but a minor part of wliat he spends. The chief wealth of the peasant 1 Instead of this paragraph the Russian edition reads : "The dis- agreement as to whether there is any famine, or not, and to what ex- tent, is due to this, that the property budget is taken as a fovindation for determining the peasant's condition, whereas the chief articles of his budget ai'e not determined by his property, but by his labour," LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 229 consists in what he and his home-folk earn, whether he earns it on his rented land, or working for the landed proprietor, or living with strangers, or in some industry. The peasant and his home-folk are always all at work. The condition of physical idleness, so common to us, is a calamity for the peasants. If a peasant has not enough work for all the members of his family [when he himself and his home-folk eat without working — H.], he considers that a calamity is imminent [something like the escape of liquor from a leaky barrel — B.], and he generally uses every efibrt to look for work [in order to prevent this calamity — H.]. In the peasant family all its members work and earn money from childhood to old age. A twelve-year-old boy already herds cattle, or works with the horses ; a little girl spins [or knits stockings or mit- tens — B.], and from the spinning there is linen left which can be sold and gives an income. The peasant is out earning either far away, or at home, or as a day-labourer, or he contracts for labour at the proprietor's, or himself rents some land. The old man weaves bast shoes : all these furnish a regular income. But there are also exclu- sive earnings : a boy leads about a blind man ; a girl is nursing in the family of a well-to-do peasant ; a boy is an apprentice ; the peasant is making bricks or baskets ; the woman is a midwife or a medicine woman ; a blind brother begs alms ; another, who can read, reads the psalter for the dead ; the old man crushes tobacco ; a widow secretly traffics in liquor. Besides, one has a son who is a coachman, a conductor (a rural officer) ; another has a daughter who is a chambermaid or a nurse ; an- other has an uncle who is a monk, a clerk, — and all these relatives aid and support the farm. Out of such items, which are not entered in the columns, is the income of a peasant family formed, and the items of expenditures are even more varied and by no means limited to the food: [Crown, and — /i.] County 230 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE Council taxes, the furnishing of recruits, tools, blacksmith work, ploughshares, links, wheels, axes, forks, harness, wheelwright's work, buildings, the oven, garments, foot- gear for oneself and for the children, holidays, preparation for communion for oneself and family, a wedding, a chris- tening, curing, presents for children, tobacco, pots, dishes, salt, tar, kerosene, pilgrimages, — and every man has, be- sides, his own pecuharities of character, his own foibles, virtues, vices [which all cost money — B.^ . On the poorest farm, consisting of five or six persons, from fifty to seventy roubles will thus be spent and earned [in a year — E.] ; on a well-to-do farm, from seventy to three hundred ; on an average farm from one hundred to 120 roubles. Any farmer may with little effort make it 160 instead of one hundred roubles, and with a weaken- ing of his energy, fifty instead of one hundred ; with care and order, he may change the one hundred expenses to sixty, and with carelessness and weakness make it two hundred roubles expenses instead of one hundred. How, then, can the peasant's budget under these condi- tions be figured out, and how can the question be solved as to whether he is in any need and to what extent, and if he is, how can it be determined who is to be assisted, and to what extent ? In the County Councils there have been established curators, persons whose business it is to attend to the distribution of assistance according to townships. In one of the County Councils they have even established coun- cils under the curator's supervision, consisting of priests, elders, church elders, and two specially appointed persons, who are to decide how miich is to be given to every man. But even these councils, no matter how much they re- semble ministries, will in no way help the business of the distribution, because according to the lists and according to what is now known of the peasant families, it is abso- lutely impossible to determine what will become of them, LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 231 In order correctly to determine the degree of a peasant's wants, we do not need lists, but must call in a prophet, who will foretell what peasant and his family will be alive and well, who will live in peace with his family and will work and find work. There are no such prophets, and it is impossible to find it out. It is impos- sible to find out the needy, and so it is not only difficult, but directly impossible to distribute the free assistance. People who have little thought of the relations of the rich to the poor generally assume that all that is neces- sary is for the rich to give to the poor, or that they should be compelled to give part of their wealth, and all would be well. But this is a great mistake. The whole thing is in the distribution. If there is a poor man, it is always because the distribution effected by the laws in regard to the acquisition of property, the labour, and the relation of the classes is irregular ; and so, to correct this irregular distributiou, another has to be established. But to take from the rich and give to the poor does not mean to make a new distribution, but only to introduce a great confusion into the old distribution. How nice and how simple it would be to solve the questions of luxury and of poverty by this simple means, which is, to take from the rich and give to the poor ! This would be so nice and so simple ! I myself at one time thought that this was so. But, not unhappily, but happily, it is not so. One would think that it is but a small inconvenience, and yet it is impossible to get around it, it is impossible to make a new division. Try to distribute money to the city poor, — indeed it has been tried, and what is the result ? About seven years ago, six thousand roubles were in Moscow, by the will of a deceased merchant, distributed to the poor, who received two roubles each. There came together such a crowd that two were crushed to death, 232 LETTEES ON THE FAMINE and most of the money fell into the bauds of healthy, tough people, while the feeble did not get anything. With a free distribution, the worst passions are roused and flame up ; a crowd of greedy people comes to the front, and those who are most agile, strong, and unscrupu- lous get possession of the article which is being distributed. People generally think that so long as there is something to distribute, it will be an easy matter to make the proper distribution. It is true, it is generally assumed that there will be misuses and deceptions, but that all that is neces- sary is to be careful, to take the trouble to investigate, and then it will be possible to segregate the needy and to give only to those who are truly in need. But this is an error ! It is impossible to do so. It is impossible to give free assistance to the needy, because there are no external signs by which the needy person may be told, while the very distribution calls to life such a greed, such jealousy, such deception, that even those signs that may have existed are destroyed. The administration and the County Councils make endeavours to find out those who are truly in need ; but all peasants, even such as are in no need at all, upon learning that something will be distributed free, try to simulate, or even actually to become needy, in order to obtain assistance without labour. But not in this alone is there an inconvenience in the distribution of free or loan aids (this makes no difference, because the peasants consider the loans to be the same as gratis, for they know that they will never be able to return them) ; the inconvenience is also in this, that the hope of receiving these free gifts weakens the self-reliance of the masses. [All know that it is good and praiseworthy to acquire through labour, and bad and disgraceful to acquire without labour. Suddenly there appears a new method of acquiring without labour, which has in itself nothing prejudicial. Ifc LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 233 is evideut what confusion is produced in their concepts by the appearance of this new method of acquisition. — B.] But how shall we wait when everybody is starving ? In a village where there is no corn until November, and where, either from laziness or from error, — whatever the cause may be, — the peasants say that there is no work, and do not work, within a week there will unquestionably be a real famine for the women, the old, the very young, and even, no doubt, for the lazy and the self-deceived who are still alive. And, then, how is it to be given ? To whom ? If it is to be given to those only who are in need, how are the truly needy to be distinguished from those who are not really in need ? P^veu if it be possible to distinguish those who are really in need, this will take in, for the most part, all careless farmers, drunkards, and loafers ; why is a premium to be put on laziness and drunkenness ? If all are to receive equal shares, as the peasants every- where demand, spying with reason that if they are to be liable for all members, they ought at least to receive equal shares, so that they may have something to be responsible for ; if all are to receive equal shares, all will have too little : for the well-to-do it will be an unnecessary addition, and for the poor an insufficient addition to save them from ruin. But if all are to receive so much that, by receiving equal shares, the poor may get enough to provide them- selves with, there would be needed such large sums [nearly a billion — 72.] that it would be impossible to find them. But the chief thing is, that the more aid is offered, the mure is the energy of the people weakened, and the more the energy of the people is weakened, the more their needs are increased. And yet it is impossible not to offer any aid ! In this cercle vicieux toss about the gentlemen of the 234 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE government and of the County Councils. It is this that leads to all that disorderly mass of measures which are taken against the famine of which we do not know whether it exists or not, — a disorderly mass, because we have un- dertaken a business which we cannot carry out. The business which we have undertaken consists for us in nothing more or less than an attempt to feed the masses, — for us, gentlemen, to feed the masses, that is, we have taken it upon ourselves to feed the feeders, — those who have been feeding us. We have become so confused and steeped in lie, that we have entirely forgotten who we are. We, the gentlemen, want to feed the masses. V. What a wonderful thing ! A suckling babe wants to feed his nurse ; the parasite takes it upon himself to feed the plant on which it feeds ; we, the higher classes, who all of us live by them, who cannot take a step without them, we shall feed them. It is well that they believe us ! If they, God forfend, should beheve that somebody is going to feed them, and should stop feeding themselves and us, they would perish, and we v^dth them. Children were given a horse, a real, live horse, and they drove out with it and had their fun. They drove and drove, down-hill and up-hill. The good horse was cov- ered with sweat and out of breath, but it continued to pull them and to obey them ; and the children shouted and boasted to one another as to who could lead and drive and make the horse gallop best. And it seemed to them — it always does — that, when the horse was gal- loping, they were galloping themselves, and they boasted of their race. The children had their fun for a long time, without thinking of the horse, and forgetful of the fact that it lived, worked hard, and suffered, and if they noticed that it stopped, they smacked their whip in a more lively fashion and urged on the horse, and shouted. But there is an end to everything, and there came also an end to the strength of the good horse, and, in spite of the whip, it began to stop. It was only tlien that the children remembered that the horse was a live animal, and that horses are fed and given drink ; but the children 235 236 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE did not want to stop, and they began to devise how they could feed the horse while it was running. One of them fetched a handful of hay from under the seat and, jump- ing down from the carriage, ran alongside the horse and offered it the hay. But it was not easy to feed the horse while it was running, and so he jumped hack into the carriage and the children began to devise another means. They obtained a long stick and tied the hay to the end of it, and began to offer it to the horse on the run, while they were themselves seated on the coachman's box. Be- sides, two of the children, observing that the horse was tottering, began to support it ; they held its back with their hands, to keep it from falhng to the right or to the left. The children devised many things, except what ought to have come first into their headS; — which was, that they should get down from the horse and stop driv- ing it, and, if they really had compassion on it, unhitch it and give it its freedom. Is it not precisely as the children did with the horse which was pulling them, that the people of the rich classes have been doing with the labouring people, when they grow weak and may refuse to pull ? They devise everything possible, except the one thing which begs for recognition, — to get off the horse which they pity, stop travelling with it and driving it. The masses are starving, and we, the higher classes, are very much worried by this and want to help them. And for this purpose we have meetings, choose com- mittees, collect money, and send it to the masses, but do not for a minute stop driving them. And what is it that makes them poor and starving ? Is it really so hard to understand this ? Is it really necessary to calumniate them, as some un- scrupulously do, saying that the masses are poor because they are lazy and drunkards ? or to deceive ourselves, as others do, saymg that the masses are poor because they LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 237 have not yet had time to adopt our culture, and that we shall begin with to-morrow, without concealing anything, to transmit to them all our wisdom, and then they will stop being poor ; and so we have no cause for being ashamed because we are living on their backs, — we are doing it all for their good. Is it indeed necessary to search for this midi a quatorze heures, when it is so clear and so simple, especially for the masses themselves, on whose backs we are sitting and whom we are driving ? Children may imagine that it is not the horse that is pulling them, but that they are themselves moving on by means of the waving of the whip, but we, the grown persons, if we are not insane, ought to understand, it seems, whence the famine of the masses comes. The masses are hungry because we are too well fed. How can the masses help being hungry, since under the conditions under which they are living, that is, with those taxes, with that want of land, with that abandon- nient and savagery in which they are kept, they are com- pelled to produce ail that terrible laboui', the results of which are swallowed up by the capitals, the cities, and the country centres of the rich ? All these palaces, theatres, museums, all those para- phernalia, all that wealth, — all tliis is worked out by the very starving people, who do all these things wliich are unnecessary to them only because they make a living by it, that is, always with tliis enforced labour save them- selves from a famine death, which is always hanging over them. Such has always been their condition. The present year has merely shown, in consequence of the famine, that the string is too tightly drawn. The masses are always kept by us half-starved. This is our means for compelling them to work for us. But this present year their starving condition has 238 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE proved too great. Nothing new or unexpected has hap- pened, and it seems to us that it is possible to know why the masses are hungry. The society endeavours to aid the masses in the calam- ity are similar to the endeavours at establishing the Ked Cross in war-time. The energy of some in war is directed toward committing murder, and this activity is considered normal, and to counteract it they establish another activ- ity, — that of curing these people who are being killed. All this is very nice, so long as the activity of the war and also the activity of the exhaustion of the masses, of their oppression, are considered to be normal ; but as soon as we begin to assert that we are sorry for the people who are killed in a war and for starving people, would it not be simpler not to kill the people and not to establish means for curing them ? Would it not be simpler to stop doing all that which ruins the well-being of the masses, than, continuing to ruin them, to make it appear that we are worried about their well-being ? This lie is always startling, but at the present time it is detestable. We assure ourselves and others that we are very much worried by the famine, that we are disturbed by the con- dition of the Russian people, that we are prepared for any sacrifices, and yet by our hves we show that all this is nothing but words and that we are lying, because this lie has become a conventional lie, common to all men. And nobody shows up another for fear of being shown up him- self. If we collate everything which has been written in the newspapers about the present condition of the Russian people, we shall approximately get this : forty millions of Russians are starving, and there is hardly any possibility of helping them. If we assume that all the corn which there is will be given to the starving, which it is impossi- ble to assume, — there will still be lacking one-fourth of LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 239 what is necessary for the feeding of all the starving. There is httle chance that we shall he able to buy and bring from abroad the corn needed, so that it sliould reach us at an accessible price, and so one-fourtli of forty mil- lions are in danger of death from starvation. Death from starvation, according to the information of the newspapers and according to rumours, has already begun. Cases have happened where mothers have brought their children to the township offices and have cast them away there, saying that they had nothing to feed them on. They tell of a mother who killed herself with her children ; they tell of another who hanged herself, so as not to see her dying children. They give the description of three children who died from starvation. In many places people are falling sick and swelhug from hunger, and now, during the warm autumn weather, the famine typhus is becoming epidemic. What will happen in winter, when it will be cold in those places where they generally use straw for fuel, and where there is none this present year and wood cannot be procured any nearer than one hundred or one hundred and fifty versts ? We all read about this, or if we do not read we inevi- tably hear of it, out of decency shrug our shoulders, sigh, make small money contributions, and say, " Yes, it is ter- rible ! " and we continue our habitual lives. Even though there are men and establishments which contribute money, and though there are others who serve in the administration and in the County Councils, who are busy providing for the needy, buying up corn, selling it at a low price, making lists of the farms, etc., yet, in spite of the money contributions which a few make, and in spite of the cares talcen by the officials in respect to the furnisliing of the supplies, our society, that is, all men, both those who contribute and those who do not, those who serve and those who do not, remain, in spite of the mutual accusations of indifference, absolutely calm and 240 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE indifferent to what is supposedly a terrible calamity, which is now taking place and is imminent, and which no one denies. I say that society remains entirely indifferent to the imminent calamity, not because it so seems to me and because I want to say so, but because there is a well- known and unquestionable sign of real sympathy, which now is lacking in the whole of Eussian society. We only know that a man is not indifferent and truly sympathizes with what has taken place or is about to take place, only when this news changes his life ; when he stops doing that which he has been doing, eating as he ate, sleeping as he slept, living as he lived. Much more does this sign of indifference or of sympathy show in reference to an event which has not yet taken place, but is only menacing. When a man at dinner receives news that a man is drowning in the river near his house, and he, continuing to eat, gives his commands about furnishing a rope which is necessary in order to save the drowning person, it makes no difference what h-e may say about his sympathy for the drowning person, we shall not believe him, and we shall know that he is indifferent to the event which is taking place. Such an indifference now exists in our society in respect to the calamity which the newspapers describe and predict. People go on dining, and show their sympathy by not being sorry for the time which they have lost in giving orders about the rope, nor even for the rope itself. The life of the men of our society continues in its usual current : there are the same con- certs and theatres, — if there are no balls, this is due only to the example of the emperor, — the same dinners, cos- tumes, races, horses, carriages, hunts, expositions, flowers, novels, and so forth. Life has not changed in the least and has not been adapted to the existing calamity, but, on the contrary, the famine has been adapted to the LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 241 comrtioii cutrent of life, the famine fait les frais de la conversation in drawing-rooms, fills the columns of news- papers and forms an interesting subject of correspondences, serves as an excuse for the arrangement of bazaars, the- atres, concerts, volumes of collections. Life has not only not changed, in order to serve the famine, but the famine has become an indispensable part of life ; the famine has come to occupy the place of a modern, fashionable subject of interest, a place which has always to be filled. Nor can it be different ; the famine does not touch us, but, as we imagine, men who are entire strangers to us, who are united with us only by the abstract conception that they and we are Russians. Voltaire says that if it were possible by touching a but- ton in Paris to kill a mandarin in China, few Parisians would deprive themselves of this pleasure. Why not tell tlie truth ? If it were possible by press- ing a button in Moscow or St. Petersburg to kill a peasant in Mamadyshi or Tsarevokokshaysk, so that no one could find it out, I do not think there would be found many men who would keep from pressing the button, if this could afford them the least pleasure. Between a man of our wealthy circle, — a gentleman with a starched shirt, an official, a landed proprietor, a business man, an officer, a scholar, an artist, — and a peas- ant, if we were to tell the truth, there is as little connection as between a Parisian and a mandarin. It is impossible to conceal what we all know ! We do not say all this, but it is simply because with us there has established itself among the cultured people a custom of professing love for the peasant, the lesser brother, for the sake of propriety ; but we all know that between us, gentlemen, and the peasants there is an abyss. There are masters and slaves. The first are respected, the second are despised, and between the two there is no connection. They are two entirely different categories of 242 LETTEKS ON THE FAMINE men, two different castes. Gentlemen never marry peas- ant women and never give their daughters in marriage to peasants and labourers ; gentlemen never treat peasants as their acquaintances, do not eat with them, and do not even sit with them ; gentlemen say " thou " to labourers, and labourers say " you " to gentlemen. Gentlemen are ad- mitted to clean places and are let in to the front in churches ; the others are not let in and " get it in the neck ; " the latter are whipped, and the first are not. They are two different castes. Though the transition from the lower to the higher is possible, yet, so long as the transition has not taken place, there exists a most distinct division, and between a gentle- man and a peasant there is as little connection as between a Parisian and a Chinaman ; so that to allow a peasant to die is the same as allowing the hen to die that lays the golden eggs. And I do not say this because I have just taken it into my head to say a lot of unpleasant things to the rich Eus- sians among whom I belong, but because it is so. As a proof and confirmation of this serves the whole Russian life, everything which incessantly is taking place in the whole of Russia. All wealthy Russians incessantly press the button, not even for the pleasure of an interesting experiment, but for the most insignificant of purposes. To say nothing of the generations of factory hands, who perish from their sense- less, painful, corrupting work in the factories for the grati- fication of the rich, all the agricultural population, or an immense proportion of it, having no land from which to make a living, is compelled to undergo a terrible strain of work, w^hich destroys their physical and their spiritual forces, only that the gentlemen may be able to increase their luxury. The whole population is made drunk and is exploited by the commercialists for this purpose. The population degenerates, the children die before their time. LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 243 only that the wealthy gentlemen and merchants may be able to live their distinct lordly lives, with their palaces, dinners, concerts, horses, carriages, lectures, and so forth. Do not, now, the people, as they say, die like flies from hunger, the proprietors, the merchants, and, in general, the wealthy, sit with supplies of corn, waiting for still higher rises in the prices ? Do the officials stop receiving their salaries, which are collected from the starving ? Do not all the intelligent classes continue to live in the cities for their own superior purposes, if we are to take their word for it, — devouring there, in the cities, those means for the support of life which are taken there for them, and the lack of which causes the masses to die ? All the instincts of every one of the gentlemen, the learned, the official, the artistic, the domestic, are such as have nothing in common with the life of the people. The masses do not understand the gentlemen, and the gentle- men, though imagining that they understand the masses, do not understand them, because their interests are not only not identical with those of the gentlemen, but are always diametrically opposed to them. We need the masses only as a tool, and the gentlemen make use of this tool, not from hard-heartedness, but be- cause their life is so circumstanced that they cannot help making use of it, and their advantages (no matter how much one may say the opposite to "console oneself) are always diametrically opposed to the advantages of the masses. " The more salary and pension I am given," says the official, " that is, the more is taken from the masses, the better it is for me." "The higher the price is at which corn and all the necessary articles will be sold to the masses and the harder it will be for them, the better it will be for me," say the merchant and the landowner. " The cheaper the labour will be, that is, the poorer the 244 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE masses will be, the better it is for us," say all the people of the wealthy classes. Where can there be any sympathy among us for the masses ? Between us and the masses there is no other connection than an inimical one, that of the master and the slave. The better it is for me, the worse it is for him. The better it is for him, the worse it is for me. And under these conditions we have suddenly begun to assure our- selves and others that we are very anxious to bring them out from that condition of poverty, in which we ourselves have placed them, and which is necessary for us. It is this conventional lie, which by all men is taken for the truth, that forms the cause of the strange confusion of ideas in the people of our circle who discuss the present wretched condition of the masses. VI. If a man of society really wants to serve the masses, the first thing he has to do is clearly to understand his relation to them. So long as nothing is undertaken, the lie, remaining a lie, is not particularly harmful ; but when, as at present, men want to serve the masses, the first and chief thing which is necessary is to reject the lie, clearly to understand our relation to them. Having come to understand our relation to the masses, which consists in this, that we live by them, that their poverty is due to our wealth, and their famine to our satiety ; if we sin- cerely want to serve the masses, w^e shall first of all stop doing what causes their ruin. If we truly pity the horse which we are driving, we vshall first of all get down and walk. First of all, let us try to rendre gorge, to return to the masses what we have all the time been taking from them ; let us stop taking from them what we have Ijeen taking, and then let us change our lives, let us demolish the caste line, which separates us from the masses, and let us go to them, not only as to equals, but as to our better brothers, toward whom we have for a long time been guilty, — let us go to them with repentance, meekness, and love. " I do not know whether the masses, the whole people, will find enough food or not," will say every man who takes this point of view, " and I cannot know : to-morrow there may be a pest or an invasion, from which the masses will die without a famine, or to-morrow there will be discovered a new nutritive substance which will feed all, 246 246 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE or, what is simplest of all, I shall die to-morrow, and so shall not learn anything about whether the masses will find enough food or not. But the main thing is, that nobody is appointing me to the business of feeding forty millions of people, who are living within certain bounda- ries, and I can obviously not attain the external end of feeding certain people and freeing them from misfortune, — I can do but one thing, and that is, use my strength in the best manner possible for the purpose of contributing to the welfare of my brothers, considering all without exception my brothers. And, wonderful to say, a man need but turn away from the problem of solving the external questions and set before himself the one true internal question, which is proper for a man, " How can I in this year of hard trials pass my life in the best manner possible ? " in order that these questions may receive an answer. The common governmental activity, which does not change its relation to the masses, sets before itself an enormous aim, which it does not attain. The personal activity sets before itself an internal aim, and it attains even the one which it has not set before itself. The common governmental activity busies itself with the external aim of feeding and maintaining the welfare of ferty millions of people, and, as we have seen, it meets on its path insurmountable obstacles. (1) There is absolutely no possibility of determining the degree of the imminent want among the population, which maintains itself and is capable in this maintenance of manifesting the greatest energy or the most absolute apathy. (2) If we admit that this determination is possible in accordance with the information collected by the govern- ment's agents, the amount of the sums demanded is so great that there is no probability that it will be obtained. .1 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 247 (3) If we admit that these means will be found, the free distribution of the same to the population will weaken the energy and self-reliance of the masses, which form the chief means for supporting them. Even if we admit that the distribution will take place in such a way that it will not weaken the self-reliance of the masses, there is no possibility of correctly distributing the aid, and those who are not in want will get the por- tions of those who are, and the needy will after all, in many cases, remain without aid and will perish. The personal activity, which sets before itself the inter- nal aim, will remove all these obstacles. For this activity there is no question as to the number of those who are in need. For this activity there have always been and always are those who need, and the question consists only in this, how much of my strength I can give to the needy. It is this activity, which in the present famine year, in one locality (I have seen this more than once), makes a peasant woman, the hostess, at the words, " For Christ's sake," which she hears at the window, shrink and frown, and yet take down from the shelf the last newly started loaf, and cut off a tiny piece, of the size of half a palm, and, makiug the sign of the cross, hand it to the beggar. And it removes all the obstacles which have impeded the governmental activity with its external aim. For tliis activity there does not exist the first obstacle, — the determination of the degree of the want of those who are in need : " They beg Christ for the sake of IM^vra's orphans." She knows that they cannot get it anywhere, and she gives them the alms. There also does not exist the second obstacle, — the enormous number of the needy : the hostess who gives the alms does not need to figure out how manv millions of starving there are in Russia, or what the price of corn is in America, at wliat price it will reach our ports and our elevator, and how much it will be possible to take 248 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE under warrant. For her there exists but one question : How to insert the knife into the loaf, whether so as to cut off a thick slice or not. But whether the slice which she gives is thick or thiu, she knows indubitably that, if everybody will break off from his own, there will be enough for everybody, no matter how many there may be. Still less does the third obstacle exist for the peasant woman. She is not afraid that the offer of this tiny slice will weaken the energy of Mavra's children, that it will encourage them in idleness and beggary, because she knows that these children utiderstand how dear the slice which she is cutting off is to her. Nor does the fourth obstacle exist. The peasant woman need have no care whether there is any truth as to the need of those who are now standing at the window, and whether there are not other needy persons who ought to get that slice. She is sorry for Mavra's orphans, and she gives them the alms, knowing that if all will do likewise, nobody will starve, not only the present year in Eussia, but everywhere, at all times. It is this activity, which has only the internal aim, that has saved, and that will now save, men. It is this activity that ought to be practised by those who wish during this present, hard time to serve others. [This activity saves people, because it is that smallest of all the grains, which grows into a very large tree. What one man, two, ten men can do, living in the village among the starving and aiding them, is so insignificant ; but here is what I saw during one of my journeys. Lads were walking from Moscow, where they had been work- ing. One of them had grown sick and had fallen behind his companions. He sat and lay for some five hours on the edge of the road, and dozens of peasants passed by him. A peasant was driving home to dinner with pota- toes, and he talked to the lad and, upon finding out that A beggar. LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 249 he was sick, took pity on him and carried him with him to the village. " Who is this ? Whom did Akim bring along ? " Akim told them that the lad was sick, that he was thin because he had not eaten for two days, — that he ought to be pitied. And one woman brought him some potatoes, another — a cake, a third — some milk. " Oh, dear man, he is so starved ! How can one help pity- ing him ? One's own child ! " And the same lad, past whom, in spite of his miserable appearance, dozens of men had "passed without giving him any thought, became an object of pity and dear to all, because one had taken pity on him. The activity of love is important for the very reason that it is infectious. The external activity, which is expressed in a free distribution, accord- ing to regulations and hsts, provokes the very worst of sentiments, greed, envy, hypocrisy, condemnation ; the personal activity, on the contrary, evokes the best senti- ment, love, and the desire of sacrifice. " I have worked and laboured, and I get nothing, while a lazybones and drunkard is rewarded. Who told him to spend every- thing in drink ? A thief suffers justly," say the well- to-do and the average peasants, who receive no assistance. With not less malice the poor peasant says of the rich peasant, who demands an ec^ual share, '' It is through them that we are poor. They suck us dry, and tliey want to get our share, too ; they are sleek enough as it is," and so forth. Such sentiments are evoked by the distri- bution of the free aid. But, on the contrary, let a man see another divide his last possessions, to labour in behalf of the poor, and he feels like doing the same. In this does the force of the activity of love consist. Its force consists in this, that it is infectious, and so long as it is infectious, there is no limit to its diffusion. As one candle lights another, and thousands are lighted from one, so one heart Hghts up another, and thousands are lighted from it. Millions of roubles will do less than 250 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE even a small diminution of greed and the increase of love in the mass of men. Let but love increase, — and the miracle will take place which was performed during the distribution of the five loaves. All will have enough to eat, and there will be left some. — B.] This activity demands first of all the cessation of the caste relation to the masses, which is contrary to love, and the cessation of their exploitation, and demands a direct relation with them, a change, a simplification of life, — it demands a life with them, with those masses whom we wish to serve. This activity presents itself to me like this : a man of the wealthy classes, who in the present calamitous year wants to do his share in the common calamity, first of all arrives in one of the localities which have sufi'ered, and begins to live there, spending in Mamadyshi, Lukyanov, Efremov Counties, in a famine village, those usual tens of thousands or hundreds of roubles, which he. is in the habit of spending annually, and devoting his leisure, which in the city he used for amusements, to such an activity in favour of the starving people as will be accord- ing to his strength. The mere fact that he will live there and spend what he usually spends will bring material assistance to the masses ; and the fact that he will live amidst the masses, not even with any sense of self-sacrifice, but only without any selfish motives, will be of material aid to him and to the masses. It is evident that a man who has come to a famine locality for the purpose of being useful to the masses, will not hmit himself to living for his pleasure alone amidst this starving population. I imagine such a person, man or woman, or a family with average means, let us say with one thousand roubles per year, as having settled in the famine district. This person, or family, rents, or receives a dwelling from the proprietor, who is a friend, or chooses, or hires a LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 251 good hut : h3 has it papered, fixes the floors, provides him- self with wood and supplies, buys himself a horse and fodder, and gets settled. All this means bread for the masses ; but the relations of this family to the masses cannot be limited to this. Beggars with wallets will come to the kitchen. Alms must be given. The cook complains that too much bread is given out. It becomes necessary to refuse chunks, or to bake more loaves. More loaves are baked, and more people begin to come. From a family which is out of bread and has nothing to eat they have come to ask for some, and it becomes necessary to send some there. It turns out that the cook cannot manage it all, and that the oven is too small. It becomes necessary to hire a hut for the loaves, and to get another woman to do the baking. This costs money. There is no money. The person that has settled here has friends, or acquaintances, who know that he or she has gone to hve in a famine district. He or she receives from them money which is to be used in assisting people. In the hired hut bread is distributed, but there come for it people who are not in absolute want of it, and they take the bread and sell it, — there begins a deception. To prevent the temptation of using the distributed bread for personal advantage, such people as come are given something to eat, instead of receiving bread. They prepare soup, beets, oat or starch broth, lentils, peas, — an eating-house is established. [It seems to me that the eating-houses, places where those who come are fed, are naturally the form of assist- ance which will arise from the relations of the rich to the starving, and will be of the greatest use. This form more than any other calls forth the direct aid of him who brings assistance, more than anything else brings him in contact with the masses, less than any other is subject to misuse, and makes it possible with the least means to feed the greatest number of men. 252 LETTERS OK THE FAMINE In Dankov and Epiphany Counties such eating-houses were opened in September. The people have named them " orphan homes," and, it seems, the name itself prevents any misuse of these establishments. An able-bodied peasant, who has the least chance of providing himself with food, will not himself go to these eatiug-houses to eat the orphans' food, for, so far as I have observed, he considers this a disgrace. Here is a letter which I have received from my friend, a member of the County Council, and a constant resident in the country, in relation to the activity of these orphan homes : " Six orphan homes have been opened not more than ten days, and there already are two hundred people who are receiving food in them. The superintendent of the eating-houses is compelled, with the advice of the village elder, to admit eaters only after examination, — the number of the needy is so great. It turns out that the peasants do not feed by families, but that those who are in want themselves offer their candidates, who are nearly all of them old women and children. Thus, for example, the father of six children, in the village of Pashkovo, asked me to admit two of them, and then, two days later, brought a third child. The elder said, ' It gives one a special pleasure to see how the younger children have taken to the beet stew.' The same elder told me that sometimes the mothers themselves bring the children. ' They are lying, when they say that it is to give them courage, for they will look about and eat themselves.' As you hear these words of the elder, you understand that it is not a lie, and that it is not possible to invent such words. Has the famine really not yet begun ? We, of course, know that the wolf is at the door ; but the trouble is that the wolf breaks into so many families simultaneously that I am afraid we shall not have supplies enough. A calcula- tion has shown that we use for each mouth one pound of bread and one pound of potatoes each day, and in addition LETTERS ON THE FAMINE 253 to this we need fuel and a number of trifles, onions, salt, beets, and so forth. We are most troubled l)y the fuel ; it is the most expensive of all the materials. The peasants have arranged to haul by rotation, and tbus bring in the supplies. The organization demands a good administrator, aud the finding of the supplies is a troublesome matter ; but the orphan homes themselves need no supervision in the disbursement of the supplies : the hostess herself has been so much accustomed all her life to look after small matters, and the guests themselves watch the business of their eatiug-house so much, that the least neglect would immediately become known and then would be removed of its own accord. I have had two new cellars dug, and three hundred chetverts of potatoes have already been put into them, but this is too little, as the need grows from day to day. It seems that the aid has struck the nail on the head. A man has been placed in charge of six eating- houses, but it is time to widen the circle of the activity of the eatiug-houses, and the time has not yet passed. " I feel how joyous the work will be in the eating- houses ; one does feel pleasure when watering plants in a drought : what joy, then, must it be every day to feed the starving little children ! " I think that this form is convenient and possible, but I repeat that this form does not exclude other forms. The persons who live in the villages will have occasion to aid with money, and with grain, and with flour, and with bread, and with a horse, and simply with food. All that is necessary is that there should be men. But these men exist, they surely do. I have visited four coun- ties, and in each there are already men who are ready for this activity, and who in some counties have already begun it. — H.] However sure I am in advance, having learned this from bitter experience, that my idea will be misinter- preted, that people will purposely make it appear that 254 LETTERS ON THE FAMINE they do not understand it, and will take one part and will say that in it lies the whole idea, I will none the less express my idea in full, without curtailing it, and without giving it in a softened form, so as to become unrecognizable, but in its full significance, and with the greatest clearness of expression that I am able to give to it. My idea is this, that what saves men from calamities of every kind, among them famine, is nothing but love. But • love is never limited to words, — it is always expressed in acts. Now the acts of love in relation to the starving consist in giving one's own piece of bread to the hungry, as this was said, not even by Christ, but by his predecessor John, that is, it consists in sacrifice. And so I think that the greater the sacrifice, the more love will there be, and the more fruitful will the acts be, — the more will people profit by it. And so I think that the best and most fruitful thing that can be done by those wdio understand the necessity of changing their lives now, in order to assist the needy, consists in settling now, in the present year, immediately, amidst the starving, living with them, eating with them, sleeping with them, dividing with them. Although I am used to the misinterpretation of my ideas, it none the less pains me to think that this idea, too, will be misinterpreted, and that it will be deprived of the value which it might have, and so I beg leave to say just now how I understand what I have spoken of above. I know in advance that people will say, " Tolstoy asserts that every person who wants to assist the starving ought to go at once and settle in a cold hut, live with lice, eat bread with orache, and die in two months or two weeks, and that everybody who does not do so offers no assistance." I do not say so. I say that to do so, to live and die with those who will ut if you are to go, you had better go and put on some warmer togs," said Vasili Andreich, smiling again and blinking at 430 MASTER AND WORKMAN Nikita's short fur coat, wliich was torn under the arms and in the back, tattered at the lower edge, soiled, and out of shape, and had been used for every imaginable purpose, " Come, dear man, hold the horse ! " Nikita shouted into the yard, to the cook's husband. " I will myself, I will myseh ! " squeaked the boy, taking his stiffened red little hands out of his pocket and seizing the cold leather reins. " Only, don't clean up your togs too much ! Be lively ! " cried Vasili Andr^ich, displaying his teeth at Nikita. " In one breath, father, Vasili Andr^ich," said Nikita, and, swiftly mincing with his in-toeing, old, felt-patched felt boots, he ran into the yard and into the workmen's hut. " Here, Arinushka ! Hand me the cloak down from the oven, — I am going with the master ! " said Nikita, as he ran into the hut and took a belt down from a peg. The woman, who had had a nap after dinner and now was getting a samovar ready for her husband, met Nikita cheerfully, and, infected by his haste, began to move as rapidly as he, and fetched down from the oven, where it was getting dry, a miserable, threadbare cloth caftan, and began hurriedly to shake it out and open it up. " You will have a fine time with your master," Nikita said to the cook. Out of good-natured politeness, Nikita always said something to a person, when he was left alone with one. Girding himself with the narrow, worn-out belt, he drew in his belly, which was drawn in as it was, and laced himself as tightly as he could over his short fur coat. " That's it," he said to himself after that, no longer addressing the cook, but his belt, and sticking the ends through the belt, " now you won't jump out," and, raising and lowering his shoulders, so as to have his arms free, he put on the cloak, again arched his back, so as to have MASTER AND WORKMAN 431 his arms unhampered, adjusted the cloak under the pit of his arms, and fetched his mittens down from a shelf. " Now it is all right." " Nikita, you had better change your boots," said the cook, " for those you have on are no good." Nikita stopped, as though to recall something. " Yes, I ought to. Well, these will do, — it is not far ! " And he ran out into the yard, " Won't you be cold, Nikita ? " asked the mistress, as he came up to the sleigh. " Not at all cold, — I shall be warm," replied Nikita, beating up the straw in front of the sleigh, so as to cover his feet with it, and sticking the whip, which was useless for the good horse, into the straw. Vasili Andr^ich was already seated in the sleigh, occupying almost the whole lient back of it with the two fur coats which he wore, and, taking the reins, immediately let the horse go. Nikita on the run jumped in on the left side and stuck out one leg. II. The good stallion moved the sleigh with a slight squeak of the runners, and at a brisk pace started down the well-travelled, frozen village street. " Where are you hanging on ? Let me have the whip, Nikita ! " exclaimed Vasili Andr^ich, evidently enjoying the sight of his heir, who was hanging on behind, stand- ing on the runners. " I will show you ! Eun to mamma, you son of a gun." The boy jumped down Yellow-muzzle increased his pace and, correcting himself, passed over to a trot. Kresty, in which Vasili Andr^ich's house stood, con- sisted of six houses. As soon as they rode out beyond the last hut, the blacksmith's shop, they noticed that the wind was much stronger than they had expected. They could hardly see the road now. The track from the runners was immediately drifted over, and the road could be told only because it was higher than any other place. The snow whirled over the whole field, and one could not see the line where earth and heaven meet. Telyatino for- est, which was always visible, only now and then appeared black through the snow dust. The wind blew from the left, stubbornly turning the mane on Yellow-muzzle's sloping fat neck in one direction, and carrying his bushy tail, which was tied in a simple knot, to one side. Niklta's long collar, as he was sitting on the side of the wind, pressed close to his face and nose. "He does not run as he can, — there is too much snow," said Vasili Andr^ich, priding himself on his good 432 MASTER AND WORKMAN 433 horse. " I once drove him to Pashutino, where he took me in half an hour." " What ? " asked Nikita, who had not heard well be- hind his collar. " To Pashutino, I say ; he took me there in half an hour," shouted Vasili Andr^ich. " No use talking, a good horse ! " said Nikita. They were silent awhile. But Vasih Andrc^ich felt like talking. " Well, what do you suppose ? Did I tell your wife not to give the cooper anything to drink ? " Vasili An- dr^ich began in the same loud voice ; he was so convinced that it must be flattering to Nikita to talk with such an important and clever man as he was, and so satisfied with his jest, that it did not even occur to him that this conversation might be disagreeable for Nikita. Nikita again did not catch the sound of his master's words, as it was carried away by the wind. Vasili Andr^ich repeated his jest about the cooper in his loud, distinct voice. " God be with him, Vasili Andreich. I do not meddle with these matters. All I care for is that she should not treat the lad badly, and as for the rest, God be with her." " That is so," said Vasili Andreich. " Well, are you going to buy a horse toward spring ? " he began a new subject of conversation. " There is no way out," replied Nikita, opening the collar of the caftan and bending over in the direction of his master. This time the conversation interested Nikita, and he wanted to hear it all. " The lad has grown up, — he has to plough himself ; they have been hiring all the time," he said. "Well, take the one with the lean crupper, — I will not ask much," continued Vasili Andrt^ich, feeling him- 434 MASTER AND WORKMAN self in good spirits and so attacking his favourite occu- pation, which absorbed all his mental powers, — horse trading. " If you will let me have some fifteen roubles, I will buy one in the horse market," said Nikita, who knew that a fair price for the horse with the lean crupper, which Vasili Audr^ich was trying to sell him, was about seven roubles, and that Vasili Andr^ich, in giving him this horse, would figure it at twenty-five, and then he would not see any money from him for half a year. " It's a good horse. I mean it for your good, as though for myself. I don't care, let me have a loss : I am not like others. Honestly," he shouted in that voice with which he pulled the wool over the eyes of the buyers and the sellers, " it's a fine horse." " That's so," said Nikita, with a sigh, and having con- vinced himself that there was nothing else to listen to, took his hand away from the collar, which immediately covered his ear and face. For about half an hour they travelled in silence. The wind blew through Nikita's side and arm, where the fur was torn. He crouched and breathed into the collar, which cov- ered his mouth, but he still felt cold. " Well, what do you think ? Shall we go by Kara- myshevo, or straight ahead ? " asked Vasili Andr^ich. By the way of Ivaramyshevo the road was more cheer- ful, with good signals on both sides, but it was farther. Straight ahead it was nearer, but the road was little travelled and there were no signals, or there were poor ones and they were covered with snow. Nikita stopped to think a little. " By the way of Karamyshevo it is farther, but the road is better," he said. " But if we go straight, we have just to cross a Httle ravine, — we cannot lose the way, — and then through MASTER AND WORKMAN 435 the woods, — it is nice," said Vasili Andr^ich, who wanted to travel straight ahead. " As you please," said Nikita, again dropping his collar. Vasili Andr^ich did so and, after travelling about half a verst, turned to the left, near a tall oak branch with here and there a dry leaf, which dangled in the wind. After the turn the wind blew almost straight into their faces, and a light snow began to fall from above. Vasili Andr^ich drove ; he filled his cheeks and breathed down- ward, into his moustache. Nikita was dozing off. Thus they travelled in silence for about ten minutes. Suddenly Vasili Andreich said something. " What ? " asked Nikita, opening his eyes. Vasili Andreich made no reply, but bent forward and backward, looking in front of the horse. The horse's hair between his legs and on his neck was curled from the sweat ; he was walking. " What is it, I say ? " repeated Nikita. "What? What?" Vasih Andr(5ich mocked him angrily. " I cannot see any signals, — we must have lost our way." " Stand still, then, and I will go and look for the road," said Nikita. Jumping lightly from the sleigh and taking the whip out of the straw, he went to the left, on the side he was sitting on. The snow was not deep that year, so that one could walk anywhere, but here and there it was knee-deep and dropped into Nikita's boots. Nikita walked around,^ feel- ing with his feet and the whip, but could not find the road anywhere. " Well ? " said Vasili Andrdich, as Nikita again came up to the sleigh. " The road is not on this side. I must go and try on the other." " There is a black spot in front, — go there and look," said VasiU Andreich. 436 MASTER AND WORKMAN" Nikita went there, and approached that which looked black, — it was dirt which from the bared winter fields had drifted over the snow and had dyed the snow black. After having tried on the right side, Nikita came back to the sleigh, shook the snow off himself and out of one boot, and seated himself in the sleigh. " We must travel to the right," he said, with determina- tion. " The wind blew against my left side, and now blows straight into my face. Go to the right," he said, with determination. Vasili Andr^ich obeyed him, and turned to the . right. But still there was no road. Thus they travelled for a little while. The wind did not subside, and there fell a light snow. " Vasili Andreich, it seems that we have lost the road " Nikita suddenly exclaimed, as though with pleasure. " What is this ? " he said, pointing to black potato tops, which were sticking out through the snow. Vasili Andreich stopped the sweating horse, which was breathing heavily, drawing in its sloping sides. " What is it ? " he asked. "We are in the Zakharovka field. That's where we have driven to." " Sure ? " called out Vasili Andr(^ich. " I am not lying, Vasili Andreich, but telling the truth," said Nikita. " I know it by the way the sleigh is going : we are travelling over a potato field ; and here is a pile, where they heaped the tops. It is the field of the Zakharovka plant." " 1 declare we have gone astray ! " said Vasili Andreich. '• What shall we do ? " " We must keep straight ahead, that is all, — we shall come out somewhere," said Nikita. " If not to Zakha- rovka, we may come to a proprietor's out-farm." Vasili Andr(^ich obeyed him and let the horse go as Nikita had ordered him. Thus they travelled for quite MASTER AND WORKMAN 437 awhile. At times they passed over bare sowed fields, and the sleigh thundered over clods of frozen earth. At times they travelled over stubble-tields, now over winter fields, and now over summer fields, where beneath the snow could be seen the wormwood and straw stalks tossing in the wind ; at times they drove into deep and everywhere equally white and even snow, above which nothing could be seen. The snow fell from above and sometimes rose from below. The horse was apparently fagged out ; his hair was all curled and hoarfrosted from his sweat, and be went at a slow pace. Suddenly he broke through and settled in a puddle or ditch. Vasih Andr^ich wanted to stop, but Nikita cried out to him : " Don't stop ! We have got into it, and so have to get out again. Come now, dear one ! Come, friend ! " he cried out in a loud voice to the horse, jumping out of the sleigh and himself sticking fast in the ditch. The horse jerked forward and at once came out on a frozen heap of earth. It was evident this was a dug trench. " Where are we now ? " asked Yasili Andreich. " We shall find out," replied Nikita. " Move on, we shall certainly come to some place." " This must be Goryachkino forest," said Vasili Andre- ich, pointing to something black, which appeared beyond the snow, in front of them. " We shall go on, and then we shall find out what kind of a forest it is," said Nikita. Nikita saw that long, dry willow leaves were borne toward him from the direction of the darkening spot, and so he knew that it was not a. forest, but some settlement, but he did not want to say so. And, indeed, they had not travelled ten sazhens from the trench when trees stood out black in front of them, and a new, moaning sound was heard. Nikita had guessed correctly. This 438 MASTER AND WORKMAN was not a forest, but a row of tall willow-trees, with here and there leaves trembling upon them. The willow-trees were evidently planted along the trench of a threshing- floor. When the horse reached the willows, which were monotonously whining in the wind, he suddenly rose with his fore legs higher than the sleigh, pulled his hind legs, too, out on an elevation, turned to the left, and no longer sank up to his knees into the snow. This was a road. " Here we are," Nikita said, " but we don't know where." The horse no longer strayed from the road, though it was snow-drifted, and before they had travelled forty sazhens on it, they saw in black outlines the straight strip of a wicker kiln under a snow-drifted roof, from which the snow kept drifting all the time. After passing the kiln, the road turned to the wind, and they drove into a drift. But in front of them could be seen a lane between two houses, so that apparently the drift was on the road, and they had to pass over it. And as soon as they crossed the drift, they drove into a street. At the first yard stiffly frozen linen, which was hanging on a rope, was desperately fluttering in the wind : there were shirts, one red, one white, drawers, foot-rags, and a skirt. The white shirt was whirling about most furiously, waving its sleeves. " I declare, she is a lazy woman, or she is dying, for she has not taken in the linen for the hohday," said Nikita, as he looked at the dangling shirts. III. At the entrance of the street the wind blew strongly, and the road was drifted, but in the middle of the village it was quiet, warm, and cheerful. Near one yard a dog was barking at another ; a woman, covering her head with a sleeveless coat, came running from somewhere and entered through the door of the hut, stopping on the threshold, in order to look at the travellers. From the middle of the village could be heard the songs of girls. In the village there seemed to be less wind, and snow, and frost. " Why, this is Grishkino," said Vasili Andr^ich. " So it is," replied Nikita. It was, indeed, Grishkino. It turned out that they had kept too much to the left and had travelled something like eight versts off the road, but still in the direction of their place of destination. To Goryachkino they had to travel another five versts. In the middle of the village they almost stumbled upon a tall man who was walking in the street. " Who is there ? " shouted this man, stopping the horse ; on learning that it was Vasili Andrdich, he took hold of the shaft and, groping along it with his hands, walked up to the sleigh and seated himself on the driver's seat. He was an acquaintance of VasiH Andr6ich, Is^y by name, and was in all the surrounding country known as the biggest h(ji'se-thief. " Oh, Vasili Andri^ich ! Whither does God carry you ? " said Isdy, wafting against Nikita a breath of vodka. 439 440 MASTER AND WORKMAN " We were going to Goryachkino," " And this is where you came to ! You ought to have kept toward Malakhovo." " Of course, we ought to, but we did not," said Vasili Andr^ich, stopping his horse. " The horse is a good one," said Isay, examining the horse and with a habitual motion tightening the slipping knot of the bushy tail. " Well, are you going to stay here overnight ? " " No, friend, we are obliged to go on." " On business, no doubt. And who is he ? Oh, Nikita Stepanych ! " " I should say I am ! " replied Nikita. " Now, dear man, how can we keep from losing the road again ? " " No need of losing ! Turn back, straight along the road, and when you come out, keep straight ahead. Don't take the left road. You will come out on the highway, and then to the right." " Where is the turn from the highway ? A summer sign or a winter sign ? " asked Nikita. " A winter sign. As soon as you come out on the high- way, there are some bushes, and opposite the bushes a large, curly signal oak, — there it is." Vasili Andr^ich turned his horse back, and went through the outskirts of the village. " You had better stay overnight ! " Isay shouted after them. But Vasili Andr^ich did not answer him, and touched his horse ; it did not seem hard to travel the five versts of the level road, especially since the wind had died down and the snow stopped falling. After going back over the street, which was well-trav- elled, and here and there showed black spots of fresh manure, and having passed the yard with the linen, where the white shirt had got off the rope and was dangling down by one frozen sleeve, they again reached the frightfully MASTER AND WORKMAN 441 moaning willows and once more found themselves in the open field. The snow-storm had not only not subsided, but even seemed to have become stronger. The road was all covered with drifts, and the only way one could tell that one was on the road was by the signals. But it was diffi- cult to make the signals out in front, because the wind blew in the face. Vasili Andreich half-closed his eyes, bent down his head, and watched for signals, but mainly depended on the horse, to which he gave the reins. The horse actually did not lose the road, and went, turning to the right and to the left, to follow the bends of the road, which he felt under foot, so that, although the snow kept growing stronger overhead, and the wind began to blow more strongly, the signals could be seen, now on the right, and now on the left. Thus they travelled about ten minutes, when suddenly in front of the horse there appeared something black, which moved in the slanting screen of the wind-driven snow. Those were fellow travellers. Yellow-muzzle caught up with tliem, and hit his feet against the ham- per of the sleigh in front of him. " Dri-i-ive around ! " somebody shouted from the sleigh. Vasili Andrdich began to drive around. In the sleigh sat three peasants and a woman. They were apparently guests, going home from the holiday. One peasant kept whacking with a stick at the snow-covered back of the nag. Two, who were sitting in front, waved their hands and shouted something. The woman was all wrapped up and covered with snow ; she sat without moving, bump- ing herself, in the back of the sleigh. " Who are you ? " cried out Vasili Andrt^ich. " From A-a-a — ! " was all that could be heard. " From where, I say ? " " From A-a-a — ! " one of the peasants shouted with all his might, but it was still impossible to make him out 442 MASTER AND WORKMAN " Go on ! Don't give up ! " shouted another, who never stopped whacking the nag with the stick. " Evidently they have been celebrating." " Go on, go on ! Let her go, Semka ! Move on ! Keep it up ! " The sleighs struck against one another with their wings, almost caught in one another, and separated, and the peasant sleigh began to fall behind. The shaggy, snow-covered, pot-belhed nag, breathing heavily under her low arch, was evidently using her last strength to run away from the stick that was coming down on her back, and minced with her short legs in the deep snow, which she threw up as she ran. The muzzle, apparently of a young horse, with tightly drawn nether lip, as in a fish, with spreading nostrils and ears lying down from fear, for a few seconds was in a line with Nikita's shoulder and then began to fall behind. " This is what liquor does," said Nikita. " They have completely worn out the horse. They are Asiatics ! " For a few minutes could be heard the nag's heavy breathing through the nostrils and the drunken shouts of the peasants, and then the heavy breathing stopped and the sounds of the peasants were not heard. And again nothing could be heard all around them, but the wind whistling about their ears, and now and then the squeak of the runners over the wind-swept places of the road. This meeting cheered and braced up Vasili Andr^ich, and he drove the horse more boldly, without making out the signals, depending entirely on the horse. Nikita had nothing to do, and, as always, when he was in such a situation, dozed off, to make up for much sleep he had lost. Suddenly the horse stopped, and Nikita almost fell down, lurching forward on his nose. " We are again going wrong," said Vasili Andr^ich. MASTER AND WORKMAN 443 "What is it?" " I cannot see the signals. We must have lost the road again." " If we have lost the road, we must find it," Nikita said, curtly ; he got up and, stepping lightly with his in-toeing feet, started once more to walk over the snow. He walked for a long time, disappearing from view, again appearing, and again disappearing, and finally came back. " There is no road here, — maybe it is somewhere ahead," he said, as he seated himself in the sleigh. It was beginning to get quite dark. The snow-storm did not grow any stronger, nor did it subside. " If we only could hear those peasants," said Vasih Andr^ich. " They have not caught up with us, so we must have gone far astray. And maybe they have lost the road themselves," said Nikita. " Whither shall we go ? " asked Vasili Andr^ich. " We must let the horse go," said Nikita. " He wiU take us right. Let me have the reins." Vasili Andr^ich gave up the reins, more willingly so because his fingers in the warm gloves were beginning to freeze. Nikita took the reins and only held them, trying not to move them and rejoicing at the good sense of his favour- ite animal. Indeed, the clever horse, turning now one, now another ear, now to one side, and now to another, began to turn around. " All he needs is speaking," Nikita kept saying. " See what he is doing ! Go on, go on, you know better ! That's it!" The wind began to blow from behind, and it grew warmer. " He is clever," Nikita kept rejoicing at the horse. 444 MASTER AND WORKMAI^" " Kirgiz is strong, but stupid. But he, — just see what he is doing with his ears. He does not need any telegraph, — he can scent a verst off." Less than half an hour passed, when ahead there was, indeed, something black, — either a village or a forest, — and on the right side there again appeared the signals. They had evidently come out on the road. " Why, this is again Grishkino," Nikita suddenly ex- claimed. Indeed, on their left now was the same kiln, from which the snow drifted, and farther on was the same rope with the frozen hnen, the shirts and drawers, which kept flapping as desperately in the wind as before. They again drove into the street, and again it was quiet, warm, and cheerful, and again could be seen the manure-covered road ; again voices and songs were heard, and again the dog barked. It was already so dark that in several windows fires could be seen. In the middle of the street Vasili Andr^ich turned his horse to a large house consisting of two brick parts, and stopped at the porch. Nikita went up to the snow-drifted, lighted window, in the light of which sparkled the flitting snowflakes, and knocked at it with his whip butt. " Who is there ? " a voice replied to Nikita's knock. " From Kresty, the Brekhunovs, dear man," replied Nikita. " Just come out for a minute ! " The person went away from the window, and about two minutes later one could bear the door in the vesti- bule come open, then the latch clicked in the outer door, and, holding the door against the wind, there appeared an old peasant with a white beard, in a short fur coat thrown over his white holiday shirt, and after him a lad in red shirt and leather boots. " Is it you, Andr^ich ? " asked the old man. " We have lost our way, friend," said Vasili Andr^ich. MASTER AND WORKMAN 445 •' We wanted to go to Goryachkiiio, but found our way here. We went a second time, but again lost our way." " I declare, you have gone astray," said the old man. " Petrushka, go and open the gate ! " he turned to the lad in the red shirt. " I will do it," replied the lad, in a cheerful voice, and ran into the vestibule. " We do not mean to stay overnight, friend," said Vasih Andr^ich. " You can't travel, — it is night-time. Stay here ! " " I should like to, but I have to go. Business, friend, — I can't." " Well, warm yourself at least, — you have come in time for the samovar," said the old man. " It will not do any harm to get warm," said A^asili Andrt^ich. " It will not be any darker, and the moon will come out and light up things. Had we not better go in and warm ourselves, Nikita ? " " Well, it will not do any harm to get warm," said Nikita, who was stiff with cold and anxious to warm his cold limbs in a warm room. Vasili Andr(5ich went into the room with the old man, and Nikita drove through the gate which the lad had opened, and moved the horse under the penthouse of the shed, which place the lad had pointed out to him. The shed was filled witli manure, and the high arch caught in a beam. The hens, with the cock, who had settled to roost there, started cackling in dissatisfaction, and pattered with their feet over the beam. The disturbed sheep, stepping with their hoofs on the frozen manure, fled to one side. A dog, whining desperately, in fright and anger, in puppy fashion, began to bark at the stranger. Nikita talked to all of them : he excused himself to the hens and assured them that he would not disturb them again ; he rebuked the sheep for being frightened without 446 MASTER AND WORKMAN knowing why, and kept admonishing the dog all the time that he was tying his horse. " Now it will be all right," he said, shaking the snow off himself. "How he barks!" he added, to the dog. " That will do ! Come, now, stop, foolish dog ! You are only agitating yourself," he said. " We are no thieves, we are friends." " These are, as it says, the three domestic counsellors," said the lad, with his powerful hand thrusting the sleigh, which was out in the open, into the penthouse. " What counsellors ? " asked Nikita. " So it is written in Pulsou : a thief steals to the house, — the dog barks, — that means, don't dally, look out. The cock crows, — that means, get up. The cat washes herself, — that means, a dear guest : get ready to receive him," said the lad, smiling. Petriishka could read and write, and knew almost by heart the only book he had, Paulson's text-book, and he was fond, especially when he had had something to drink, as to-day, of quoting from it utterances which, he thought, fitted the occasion. " That's so," said Nikita. " I suppose you are cold, uncle," added Petrushka. " I am," said Nikita. And they went across the yard and the vestibule into the house. IV. The farm where Vasili Andr^ich stopped was one of the wealthiest in the village. The family had five allot- ments, and, besides, rented other land. There were on this farm six horses, three cows, two heifers, about twenty- sheep. There were in all twenty persons in this family : four married sons, six grandchildren, of which only Petriishka was married, two great-grandchildren, three orphans, and four daughters-in-law with their children. This was one of the extremely few farms which remained still undivided ; but even in them there was going on the silent, internal work of dissension, which, as always, be- gan among the women, and which would inevitably soon lead to division. Two sons were hving ac water-carriers in Moscow, and one was a soldier. At home were now the old man, his wife, his second son, the master, and his eldest son, who had come from Moscow for the holiday, and all the women and children ; besides the family there was also one of the neighbours, — a guest, — and a friend. Over the table, in the room, hung a lamp, with an upper shade, which brightly lighted up the tea-dishes, a bottle of vodka, a luncheon, and the brick walls, which were in the far corner adorned with images on either side of which were pictures. On the first seat, behind the table, sat Vasili Andr^ich, in his short black fur coat only, licking his frozen moustache and observing the people and the room about him with his bulging, hawk eyes. Beside Vasili Andreich, there sat at the table the bald-headed, white-bearded old man, in a white home- spun shirt; beside him, in a fine chintz shirt, with mighty 447 448 MASTER AND WORKMAN back and shoulders, was the son who had come from Moscow for the holiday, and another son, the broad- shouldered elder brother, who was the naaster of the house, and a lean, red-haired peasant, a neighbour. The peasants had had something to drink and eat, and were now getting ready to drink tea, and the samovar was already crooning, as it stood on the floor near the oven. On the hanging beds and on the oven, children could be seen. On the bed bench a woman sat over a cradle. The old man's wife, with tiny wrinkles all over her face, which ran in every direction, and which wrinkled even her lips, waited on Vasili Andr^ich. Just as Nikita entered the room, she was carrying up to the guest some vodka, which she had poured into a tumbler of thick glass. " Do not misjudge us, Vasili Andr^ich ; we must greet you," she said. " Take it, my dear." The sight and odour of the vodka, especially now that he was cold and tired, very much confused Nikita. He frowned, and, shaking the snow off his cap and caftan, stood up opposite the images and, as though not seeing any one, made three times the sign of the cross and bowed to the images, then, turning back to the old man, the master, bowed, first to him, then to all those who were at the table, then to the women, who were standing near the oven, and, saying, " With the holiday," began to take off his wraps, without looking at the table. " But you are covered with hoarfrost, uncle," said the elder brother, as he looked at Nikita's snow-covered face, eyes, and beard. Nikita took off his caftan, shook it out, hung it up near the oven, and walked over to the table. He, too, was offered some vodka. There was a minute of agonizing struggle ; he came very near taking the glass and pouring the fragrant, light-coloured moisture down his throat ; but he glanced at Vasili Andri^ich, recalled his vow, recalled MASTER AND WORKMAN 449 the boots which he had sold for drink, recalled the cooper, recalled the boy, for whom he had promised to buy a horse by spring, and so sighed and declined the vodka. " I do not drink, thank you very much," he said, frown- ing, and sat down on a bench near the second window. " Why not ? " asked the elder brother. " I don't, and that's all," said Nikita, without raising his eyes, lookiug awry at his scanty moustache and beard, and thawing out the icicles from them. " It is not good for him," said Vasili Andrt^ich, biting off a cracknel after the glass which he had drunk. " Well, then you will have some tea," said the kindly old woman. " I am afraid you are cold. Why are you women so slow with the samovar ? " " It is ready," replied a young woman, and, dusting off with her apron the boiling covered samovar, she with difficulty brought it up to the table, raised it, and set it down with a thud. In the meantime Vasili Andr^ich told them how they had lost their way, how they had twice come back to the same village, how they had wandered around, and how they had m»t the peasants. The peasants wondered, ex- plained where and why they had lost their way, and who the drunken peasants were whom they had met, and taught tliem how to travel. " A little child would find the way from here to Mol- chanovka, — all you have to do is to find the turn from the liighway, — you will see a bush there. But you did not go far enough," said the neighbour. " You had better stay overnight. The women will make beds for you," the old woman admonished them. " You had better travel in the morning, — it is nice then," affirmed the old man. " Impossible, friend, — business ! " said Vasili Audr^- ich. " If you miss your hour, you won't make up for it 450 MASTER AND WORKMAN in a year," he added, as he thought of the grove and of the merchants who might get ahead of him in this bar- gain. " We shall get there, shall we not ? " he said, turning to Nikita. Nikita for a long time made no reply, as though all the time busy thawing out his moustache and beard. " We may lose the road again," he said, gloomily. Nikita was gloomy, because he was very anxious to get some vodka, and the one thing which could drown this desire was tea, and he had not yet been offered any tea. " If we only get as far as the turn, we won't lose the way, — the road then lies straight through the forest," said Vasili Andr^ich. " It is your business, Vasili Andr^ich. If you want to go, I don't care," said Nikita, taking the glass of tea which was handed to him. " We shall driuk our tea, and then, march." Nikita said nothing, but only shook his head and, carefully pouring his tea into the saucer, began over the steam to warm his fingers, which were always swollen from work. Then, biting off a tiny piece of sugar, he bowed to the master and the mistress of the house, and said : " May you be well," and he sucked in the warming liquid. " If some one would take us as far as the turn ! " said Vasili Andr^ich. " Well, tliat can be done," said the eldest son. " Pe- trushka will hitch up and take you to the turn." " Hitch up, then, friend, and I will be thankful to you for it." " Why are you in such a hurry, dear one ! " said the kindly old woman. " We are glad to have you." " Petrushka, go and hitch up the mare," said the elder brother. " I will," said Petrushka, smiling ; and, immediately puUing his cap off a peg, he ran out to hitch up. MASTER AND WORKMAN 451 While the horse was being harnessed, the conversation passed over to what it had stopped at, when Vasili Andr^ich reached the window. The old man was com- plaining to his neighbour, the elder, about his third son, who had sent him nothing for the holiday, but had sent his wife a French kerchief. " The young people are getting unmanageable," said the old man. " Unmanageable ? " said the friend, " there is no getting along with them ! They have become awfully clever. There is Demochkin, — he broke his father's arm. It is all from too much sense, I suppose." Nikita listened and watched their faces and evidently wanted to take part in their conversation, but he was wholly occupied with the tea and only approvingly shook his head. He drank one glass after another, and he grew warmer and warmer, and happier and happier. The conversation lasted for a long time, all the while about one and the same tiling, about the harm of division, and the conversation was apparently not in the abstract, but had reference to the division in this house, — a division which the second son, who was sitting there and keeping silent, was demanding. This was obviously a sore spot, and the question interested all the people of the house, but out of propriety they did not discuss their private affair. But finally the old man did not hold out, and with tears in his eyes declared that he would permit no division so long as he was alive, that, thanks to Clod, he had the house, and that if he divided up, they would all go a-begging. " That's the way it was with the Matvy^evs," said the neighbour. " They had a house that was a house ; they divided up, and now nobody has anything." " That's the way you want it to be." the old man said, turning to his son. His son made no reply, and there ensued an awkward 452 MASTER AND WORKMAN silence. This silence was interrupted by Petrushka, who had hitched up and had several minutes ago returned to the room and had kept smiling all the time. " There is a fable in Piilson," he said : " a father gave his sons a broom to break ; they could not break it together, but broke it easily by single rods. It is just like this," he said, smiling with his whole mouth. " Eeady ! " he said. " If it is ready, we shall go," said Vasili Andr^ich. " And you, grandfather, don't give in as to the division. You have earned it, and you are the master. Complain to the justice of the peace. He will tell you what the law is." " He is carrying on so, and carrying on so," the old man said, still sticking to the same subject, " that there is no getting along with him. Just as though the devil were in him." In the meantime Nikita, having finished his fifth glass of tea, still did not turn it over, but laid it down sidewise, hoping that they would fill it again. But there was no more water in the samovar, and the hostess did not fill him another glass, and besides, Vasili Andrei ch was putting on his wraps. There was nothing to be done. Nikita himself got up, put back into the sugar-bowl the piece of sugar which he had nibbled at from all sides, with the skirt of his coat wiped his face, which was wet with perspiration, and went to put on his cloak. After he had put it on, he drew a deep sigh and, thank- ing the host and the hostess and bidding them farewell, went out of the warm, light room into the dark, cold vestibule, in which the wind moaned and the snow was carried through the chinks of the trembling door, and from there into the dark yard. Petrushka, in a fur coat, was standing with his horse in the middle of the yard, repeating, with a smile, verses from Paulson. He said : MASTER AND WORKMAN 453 " Storm iind mist beshroud the heaven, Drifts of snow fly up and whirl; Like a wolf the storm is howling, And now moaning like a girl." Nikita approvingly shook bis head and straightened out the reins. The old man, in seeing Vasili Andr^ich out, carried a lantern into the vestibule, to show him the way, but the wind put it out at once. It could be noticed in the yard that the snow-storm was now worse than before. " But this is bad weather," thought Vasili Audr^ich ; " we may not get there, — but I can't, business ! And 1 am ready to go, and the host's horse is hitched up. We shall get there, God willing ! " The host, too, thought that he ought not to travel, but he had advised him to stay, and no attention had been paid to him. There was no sense in asking again. " Maybe I am so timid on account of my old age, and they will get there," lie thought. " At least we shall go to bed in time. There will be no trouble." Petriithka did not even think of the danger : he knew the road and all the places about so well, and, besides, the verses about " drifts of snow fly up and whirl " braced him so much because they expressed precisely what was taking place in the yard. Nikita, however, did not want to travel at all ; but he had long ago become accustomed to not having his own will and to serving others, and so no one kept the travellers back. V. VasIli Andkeich walked over to the sleigh, with dif- ficulty making out in the darkness where he was, climbed into it, and took the reins. " Lead us ! " he shouted. Petru&hka was kneeling in his sledge, and he started his horse. Yellow-muzzle, who had been neighing for quite awhile, since he knew that a mare was ahead of him, rushed forward, and they drove out into the street. They drove again through the outskirt of the village, and along the same road, past the yard with the frozen linen hanging out, but the linen was no longer visible ; past the same shed, against which the snow had now drifted almost up to the roof, and from which endless snow was pouring ; past the same gloomily moaning, whistling, and bending willow-trees, and again entered into the sea of snow, which was agitated above and below. The wind was so strong that when it blew from the side and the travellers settled themselves against it, it made the sleigh careen and turned the horse to one side. Petrushka drove his good mare in front at an easy trot, and kept shouting merrily. Yellow-muzzle ran after the mare. Having travelled thus for about ten minutes, Petrushka turned around and shouted something. Neither Vasili Andr^ich nor Nikita heard through the wind what he said, but they guessed that they had arrived at the turn. Indeed, Petrushka turned to the right, and the wind, which had blown from the side, again began to blow in their face, and on the right, through the snow, something black could be seen. This was the bush at the turn. 454 MASTER AND WORKMAN 455 " Well, God aid you ! " " Thank you, Petrushka." " ' Storm and mist beshroud the heaven,' " shouted Pe- trushka, as he disappeared. " What a poet ! " said Vasili Andr^ich, pulhng the reins. *' Yes, he is a fine lad, a real peasant," said Nikita. They drove on. Nikita wrapped himself and ducked his head down between his shoulders, so that his small beard hugged his neck ; he sat quietly, trying not to lose any of the heat which he had obtained in the house with his tea. He saw in front of him the straight lines of the shafts, which kept constantly deceiving him, as they seemed to him to be the well-travelled road, and he saw the wavering crupper of the horse with his tail tied in a knot and hang- ing to one side, and farther ahead, the high arch and the shaking head and neck of the horse with the waving mane. Now and then he noticed the signals, so that he knew that so far they had been travelling on the road, and he had nothing to do. Vasih Andr^ich drove, letting the horse choose his own road. But Yellow-muzzle, in spite of his having sighed in the village, ran unwilHngly, and seemed to turn away from the road, so that Vasili Andr^ich corrected him several times. " Here, on the right, is one signal, and here another, and a third," Vasili Andr^ich counted, " and in front of us is the forest," he thought, as he looked at the black spot in front of him ; but what had appeared to him to be a forest was only a bush. They passed the bush, they went another twenty sazhens, but there was no fourth signal, and there was no forest. " No doubt we shall soon have the forest," thought Vasili Andr^ich, and, excited by the wine and the tea, he did not stop, but touched the reins, and the obedient, good animal obeyed, and now at a pace 456 MASTER AND WORKMAN and now at a slow trot ran whither he was sent, though he knew that he was not going where it was necessary to go. Ten minutes passed, and there was still no forest. " We have again lost our way," said Vasili Andr^ich, stopping his horse. Nikita silently climbed out of the sleigh and, holding up his cloak, which now stuck to him in the wind, and now blew away from him and came near falling off', started to walk over the snow ; he went to one side, and then to the other. Three or four times he was completely lost from sight. Finally he returned and took the reins out of Vasili Andrdich's hands. " We must go to the right," he said, sternly and with determination, as he turned the horse. " Very well, let it he to the right," said Vasili Andr^ich, giving him the reins and sticking his frozen hands into his sleeves. Nikita made no reply. " Come, now, friend, do your best ! " he shouted to the horse, but the horse, in spite of the shaking of the reins, went only at a walk. The snow was here and there knee-deep, and the sleigh went by jerks, with every motion of the horse. Nikita got the whip, which was hanging over the front, and struck the horse. The good horse, which was un- accustomed to the whip, yanked the sleigh, went at a trot, but immediately passed over to an amble and walk. Thus they travelled for about five minutes. It was dark and the snow fell from above and rose from below, so that it was at times impossible to see the arch. The sleigh seemed now and then to stand still, and the field to run backwards. Suddenly the horse came to an abrupt stand- still, apparently noticing something wrong in front of him. Nikita again jumped out, throwing down the reins, and went ahead of the horse, to see what it was that had brought him to a standstill, but he had barely made a step MASTER AND WORKMAN 457 in front of the horse, when his feet slipped and he rolled down an incline. " Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said to himself as he fell, and tried to stop himself, but he could not, and he stopped only when his feet cut their way into a thick layer of snow which had been blown up from the bottom of the ravine. The overhanging snow-drift, disturbed by Nikita's fall, caved in over him and fell behind his collar. " What is the matter with you ? " Nikita said, reproach- fully addressing the drift and the ravine, and shaking the snow out from behind his collar. " Nikita, oh, Nikita ! " Vasili Audr^ich called from above. But Nikita made no reply. He had no time : he was shaking off the snow ; then he looked for the whip, which he had dropped as he rolled down the incline. When he found his whip, he tried to climb straight back, where he had rolled down, but there was no possibility of getting up ; he kept rolling back, so that he had to go down-hill, to find a way up. About three sazhens from the place where he had rolled down, he with difficulty crawled up-hill, and followed the edge of the ravine back to the place where the horse should have been. He did not see either the horse or the sleigh ; but as he was walking against the wind, he heard, before seeing anything, Vasili Andrdich's shouts and Yellow-muzzle's neighing, for they had both made him out. " I am coming, I am coming ; what makes you yell so ? " he said. Only when he had come up to the sleigh did he see the horse and Vasili Andr^ich, who was standing near it and looking enormous. " Where in the devil have you been ? We have to go back. Let us get back to Grishkino," the master began angrily to reproach Nikita. 458 MASTER AND WORKMAN " I should be glad to go back, Vasili Andreich, but where shall we go ? Here is such a terrible ravine that, if we get into it, we shall never get out. I had such a fall that I barely got out ahve." " Well, are we going to stay here ? We have to go somewhere," said Vasili Andreich. Nikita did not say anything. He seated himself in the sleigh, with his back to the wind, took off his boots and shook out the snow which had fallen into them, and, getting a handful of straw, carefully stopped a hole inside his left boot. Vasili Andr(5ich was silent, as though leaving every- thing now to Nikita. After putting on his boots, Nikita stuck his feet into the sleigh, again put on his mittens, took the reins, and turned the horse alongside the ravine. But they had not travelled one hundred steps, when the horse again stood still. In front of him was another ravine. Nikita again climbed out and again trudged over the snow. He walked for quite awhile. Finally he ap- peared from the opposite side to the one from which he had started, " Andreich, are you alive ? " he shouted. " Here ! " answered Vasih Andreich. " Well, what is it?" " I can't make out. It is dark, — nothing but ravines. We must again travel against the wind." They started again ; again Nikita went trudging over the snow. He seated himself again, and again trudged, and finally stopped, out of breath, near the sleigh. " Well, what is it ? " asked Vasili Andreich. " I am all worn out, and the horse is stopping, — that's what it is." " What is to be done ? " " Well, wait." Nikita went away again, and soon came back. " Follow me," he said, walking in front of the horse. MASTER AND WORKMAN 459 Yasili Andr^ich no longer gave any orders, but submis- sively did Nikita's bidding. " Here, after me," shouted Nikita, walking swiftly to the right and seizing Yellow-muzzle by the reins and directing him somewhere down into a snow-drift. The horse at first refused to go, but then jerked for- ward, hoping to jump across the drift, but failed and settled in it up to the collar. " Get out ! " Nikita shouted to Vasili Andr^ich, who continued to sit in the sleigh, and, taking hold of one shaft, began to push the sleigh down toward the horse. " It is hard, friend," he addressed Yellow-muzzle, " but what is to be done ? Just a little pull ! Come now, come now, just a little bit ! " he shouted. The horse jerked once, then another time, but still did not get out, and again stopped, as though considering something. " Friend, this won't do," Nikita admonished Yellow- muzzle. " Just a little more ! " Again Nikita tugged at the shaft on his side. Vasili Andr^ich did the same on his. The horse moved his head, then gave a sudden jerk. " Come now, you will not drown, don't be afraid ! " cried Nikita. A jump, a second, a third, and finally the horse got out of the drift, and stopped, breathing heavily and shaking off the snow. Nikita wanted to lead on, but Vasili Andreich was so much out of breatli in liis two fur coats that he could not walk, and tlirew himself into the sleigh. " Let me rest awhile," lie said, loosening the kerchief with which he had in the village tied up the collar of his fur coat. " It's all right here ; lie there," said Nikita, " and I will lead ahead," and with Vasili Andreich in the sleigh he led the liorse by tlie l)ridle about ten steps down, and then up again, and he stopped. i60 MASTER AND WORKMAN The spot where Nikita stopped was not in the ravine, where the snow which was swept from the hillocks had lodged so as to cover them completely ; but it was none the less partly protected against the wind by the edge of the ravine. There were moments when the wind seemed to die down a little ; but this did not last long, and, as though to make up for this rest, the storm swept down later with tenfold force, and bore down and whirled worse than ever. There was such a gust of wind at the mo- ment when Vasili Andr^ich, getting his breath back, climbed out of the sleigh and walked over to Nikita, in order to speak about what they should do. Both invol- untarily bent their heads and waited before speaking, until the fury of the gust should have passed. Yellow-muzzle, too, angrily let his ears drop and shook his head. As soon as the gust subsided a little, Nikita took off his mittens, which he stuck into his belt, breathed into his hands and began to unstrap the bridle from the arch. "What are you doing there?" asked Vat-i Audr^ich. " I am unhitching, what else ? I have no more strength," Nikita answered, as though to excuse himself. " Sha'n't we get out anywhere ? " " No, we sha'n't, and we shall only wear out the horse. The dear one is not himself now," said Nikita, pointing to the horse, which was standing submissively, ready for anything, and breathing heavily with his sloping, wet sides. " We have to stay here overnight," he repeated, as though getting ready to stay overnight in an inn, and began to loosen the collar-strap. The clamp sprang open. " Sha'n't we freeze to death ? " said Vasili Andr^ich. "Well, if I do, I sha'n't refuse," said Nikita. VT. VAsfLl Andr^ich was quite warm in his two fur coats, especially after he had tried to get through the drift ; but the frost ran up aud down his back when he understood that he would really have to stay there overnight. To calm himself, he sat down in the sleigh, and began to take out his cigarettes and matches. In the meantime Nikita unharnessed the horse. He unstrapped the belly-band and the saddle-straps, took out the reins, loosened the collar-straps, took out the arch, and kept all the time talking to the horse, to encourage him. " Come out now, come," he said, taking him out from between the shafts. " We will tie you up here. I'll put some straw under you, and I'll take off" the bridle," he said, while doing what he said. " You'll have a bite, and you'll feel better." But Yellow-muzzle was apparently not quieted by Nikita's talk, and was agitated : he kept stepping now on one foot, and now on another, pressed close to the sleigh, standing with his back against the wind, and rubbed his head against Nikita's sleeve. As though not to refuse Nikita's treatment of straw, which Nikita had shoved under his nose, Yellow-nmzzle once jerked out a handful of straw from the sleigh, but immediately decided that this was no time for straw, and so dropped it, and the wind scattered it in a twinkle and covered it with snow. " Now we will make a sign," said Nikita. Turning the sleigh toward the wind, and tying up the shafts with 4G1 462 MASTER AND WORKMAN the saddle-strap, he raised them up and drew them close to the foot-board. " If we are buried in the snow, good people will see the shafts, and will dig us out," said Nikita, clapping his mittens together and putting them on. " That's the way the old people taught me." Vasili Andr^ich in the meantime opened his fur coat and covered himself with its skirts, and began to rub one sulphur match after another against the steel box ; but his hands trembled, and the lighted matches one after another, even before burning up brightly, or at the very moment that he carried them to the cigarette, were blown out by the wind. Finally one match caught fire and for a moment lighted up the fur of his coat, his hand with the gold ring on the inwardly bent forefinger, and the snow- covered straw which peeped out underneath the matting, and the cigarette caught fire. He puffed at it two or three times, swallowed the smoke, breathed it out through his moustache, and wanted to take another puff, but the tobacco with the fire was caught in a gust and carried av/ay in the same direction as the straw. But even these few swallows of the tobacco smoke cheered up Vasili Andr^ich. " If we have to stay here overnight, — let it be so ! " he said, with determination. " Wait, I'll make a flag," he said, taking up the kerchief, which he had loosened from his collar and had thrown down in the sleigh ; he took off his gloves, stood up on the foot-board of the sleigh, and, stretcliing forward, in order to reach up to the saddle- strap, tightly tied the kerchief to it near the shaft. The kerchief immediately began to flutter desperately, now sticking to the shaft, now blowing away, stretching out, and flapping. " See how well it is done ! " said Vasili Andr^ich, admir- ing his work, as he let himself down into the sleigh. " It would be warmer together, but there is no room for both of us," he said. MASTER AND WORKMAN 463 " I will find a place," replied Nikita, " only I have to cover the horse first, for the dear one is all in a sweat. Let me have it ! " he added, and, walking over to the sleigh, he pulled the matting away from underneath Vasili Andr^ich. When he had pulled it out, he doubled it, and, throwing off the crupper and taking otf the saddle-bolster, covered Yellow-muzzle with it. " You will be warmer now, silly one," he said, putting the saddle-bolster and the crupper back over the matting. " You won't need the blanket, will you ? And let me have a little straw," said Nikita, after finisliing this work and again walking up to the sleigh. And taking both away from underneath Vasili Andr^- ich, he went to the back of the sleigh, burrowed a hole for himself in the snow, put the straw into it, and pulling his cap over his face, and wrapping himself in the caftan, and covering himself with the blanket, sat down on the straw bed, leaning against the bast back of the sleigh, which protected him against the wind and the snow. Vasili Andr^ich disapprovingly shook his head at what Nikita was doing, as he in general did not approve of the ignocance and stupidity of any peasant, and began to arrange himself for the night. He straightened out what straw there was left in the sleigh, put a lot of it under him, and, sticking his hands into his sleeves, rested his head at the front of the sleigh, where he was protected against the wind. He did not feel like sleeping. He lay there thinking : he kept thinking of one thing, which formed the only aim, meaning, joy, and pride of his life, — of how much money he had made and how much more he could make ; how much other people, whom he knew, had earned and now possessed, and how these others had made their money, and how he could, hke them, make as mucli. The purchase of the Gory^chkino forest was to him an 464 MASTER AND WORKMAN affair of great moment. He expected to get rich at once from this forest, to make, probably, ten thousand. And he began mentally to estimate the value of the forest, which he had seen in the fall, and in which he had counted all the trees on an area of two desyatinas. "The oak will be good for runners; and then the beams; and there will still be left some thirty sazhens to the desyatina," he said to himself. " There will be left at the least two hundred and a quarter to each desyatina. Fifty-six desyatinas, — fifty-six hundreds, and fifty-six hundreds, and fifty-six tens, and again fifty-six tens, and fifty-six fives." He saw that it amounted to at least twelve thousand, but he was unable without the abacus to make it out exactly. " Still, I won't give ten thousand ; I will give eight, with the deduction of the clearings. I will bribe the surveyor, — I will give him one hundred, or even one hundred and fifty ; he will make out some five desyatinas of clearing. He will let me have it for eight. I'll throw three thousand at once into his face. That will soften him surely," he thought, feeling the pocketbook in his pocket with the upper part of his arm. " God knows, how we have lost our way ! The forest ought to be here and the guard-house. We should be hearing the dogs. They don't bark, the accursed ones, when you want them to." He removed the collar from his ear, and began to listen ; there could be heard the same whisthng of the wind and the flapping of the kerchief, and the pattering of the falling snow against the bast of the sleigh. He covered himself again. " If I knew for sure, we could stay here overnight. Well, we shall get there to-morrow. It will be only one day lost. They will not travel in such weather, either." And he recalled that on the ninth he was to receive money from the butcher for the steers, " He intended to come himself ; he will not find me at home, — my wife will not know how to receive the MASTER AND WORKMAN 465 money. She is very ignorant. She does not know the right way to act," he continued to think, as he recalled that on the day before she had not known how to act in the presence of the rural judge, who had called on him for the holiday. " Of course, she is a woman ! She has not seen anything ! What kind of a house did we have, when my parents were alive ? Just a wealthy peasant's house ; a groats-sheller and an irin, — and that was all the property. And wliat have I done in fifteen years ? A shop, two taverns, a mill, a grain-store, two rented estates, a house, and a granary under tin roofs," he thought, with pride. " It is different from what it was in the time of my father. Whose name is everywhere known in the district ? Brekhunov's ! "And why is this so? Because I attend to business, I work harder than others, who are lazy or busy themselves with foolish things. I do not sleep at nights. Storm or not, I go out. Well, that's the way to do business. They think that it is just play to make money. No, you have to work and trouble your head. And you have to stay overnight in the open, and not sleep nights. How your pillow is tossed under your head from much thinking," he reflected, proudly. " And people imagine that it is luck that makes men. There, the ]\lirdnovs have millions now. Why ? Work, and God will give you. If God only grants us health ! " And the thought that lie, too, might be such a mil- lionaire as Mironov, who began with nothing, so agitated Vasili Andr^ich that he felt the need of talking with somebody. But there was no one to talk to. If he could reach Goryachkino, he would talk with the landed pro- prietor, — he would show him a thing or two. " How it blows ! There will be such a drift that we shall not be able to get out in the morning," he thought, listening to the gust of the wind, which blew against the front of the sleigh, and bent it, and whisked the snow 466 MASTER AND WORKMAN against the bast. He rose a little and looked around : in the white, agitated darkness could be seen only Yellow- muzzle's black-looking head and his back, which was covered with the flapping matting, and his thick knotted tail, while aU around, in front, behind, there was every- where a monotonous, agitated darkness, which at times seemed barely lifted, and at times again more dense. " I had no business Hsteniug to Nikita," he thought. " We ought to be travelling, — we should somehow get somewhere. We could get back to Grishkino, and could stay overnight at Taras's. We shall have to stay here all night. What good could com.e from this ? Well, God rewards for labours, and gives nothing to vagabonds, lazy- bones, or fools. I must have a smoke ! " He sat up, took out his cigarette-holder, lay with his belly downward, covering the fire from the wind with the skirt of his coat, but the wind none the less found its way in and put out one match after another. Finally, he managed to light one, and he began to smoke. He was very much pleased to have at last succeeded. Though it was the wind that smoked the most of the cigarette, he none the less took three or four puffs, and he again felt more cheerful. He again lay back against the sleigh, wrapped himself up, and began once more to bring back memories and reveries, and suddenly lost his consciousness and fell asleep. But suddenly it was as though something gave him a push and woke him up. Whether it was Yellow-muzzle who had jerked out some straw under him, or something witliiu him agitated him, he awoke, and his heart began to knock so rapidly and so strongly that it seemed to him that the sleigh was shaking under him. He opened his eyes. Around him all was as before, but it seemed to him to be lighter. " It is growing lighter," he thought, " no doubt it is not far from daylight." But he immediately recalled that it was lighter because the moon was up. He raised himself MASTER AND WORKMAN 467 a little and looked first at the horse. Yellow-muzzle was still standing with his back against the wind, and was all a-tremble. The snow-covered matting was turned to one side, the crupper had shpped down, and the snow- covered head with the fluttering forelock and mane could now be made out. Vasili Andreich leaned against the back of the sleigh and glanced at the horse. Nikita was still sitting in the same posture in which he had been sitting before. The blanket, with which he had covered himself, and his feet were thickly covered with snow. " I am afraid the peasant will freeze to death ; he has miserable clothes on. They will make me responsible for him. What shiftless people they are ! Truly ignorant," thought Vasili Andreich. He felt like taking the matting off the horse and covering Nikita with it, but it was cold to get up or move around, and he was afraid the horse might freeze to death. " What did I take him for ? It is all her silliness ! " thought Vasili Andreich, as he re- called his wife, whom he did ncjt love, and he again rolled over to his former place in the front part of the sleigh. " Uncle once sat the whole night in the snow, just like me," he thought, " and he was all right. Well, when they dug out Sevastyan," another example occurred to him, " he was dead, as stiff" as a frozen carcass." " If I had remained overnight in Grishkino, nothing would have happened." And, wrapping himself carefully so that the warmth of the fur might not be wasted, but might warm him in the neck, at the knees, and in the soles of his feet, he closed his eyes, trying once more to fall asleep. But, no matter how much he tried now, he was unable to forgot himself, but, on the contrary, felt himself entirely cheerful and animated. He began once more to count up his profit, the debts people owed him, and again boasted to himself and rejoiced at himself and at his position ; but everything was now constantly inter- rupted by furtive fear and the annoying thought that he i68 MASTER AND WORKMAN had not done right in not staying in Grishkino. "I should be lying on a bench and be warm now." He turned around several times and adjusted himself, trying to find a more comfortable position, which would be pro- tected from the wind, but he felt all the time uncom- fortable; he raised himself again, changed his position, wrapped his legs, closed his eyes, and grew silent. But either his cramped feet in their strong felt boots begf.n to pain him, or the wind blew through, and he, lying awhile, again, with anger at himself, recalled how he might have been sleeping now peacefully in the warm hut at Grishkino, and he got up again, tossed about, wrapped himself, and again lay down. At one time Vasili Andr^ich was sure he heard the distant crowing of a cock. He was happy, opened his fur coat, and began to listen intently, but, no matter how much he strained his hearing, he could not hear anything but the sound of the wind, w^hich whistled in the shafts and flapped the kerchief, and the sound of the snow swishing against the bast of the sleigh. Nikita remained sitting in the same posture that he had taken in the evening, and did not even make any reply to the words of VasiH Andr^ich, who called to him two or three times. " He does not worry much, — no doubt he is asleep," Vasili Andr^ich thought in anger as he looked over the back of his sleigh at Nikita, who was covered with a thick layer of snow. Vasili Andr^ich got up and lay down again about twenty times. It seemed to him that there would be no end to this night. " Now it must be near to morning," he once thought, as he got up and looked around. "I will look at my watch. It will make me cold to unwrap myself. Well, when I know that it is near morning, I shall feel more at ease. We shall hitch up again." In the depth of his heart Vasili Andr^ich knew that it could not yet be morning, but he began to become more MASTER AND WORKMAN 469 and more timid, and wanted at one and the same time to verify and to deceive himself. He carefully slipped the hooks off the eyes of his fur coat, and, putting his hand in the bosom of his coat, rummaged for a long time before he found his waistcoat. He with difficulty drew his sil- ver watch with the enamelled flower design from his pocket, and tried to make out the time. He could not see anything witliout light. He again lay face downward on his elbows and knees, and just as when he had lighted his cigarette took out the matches and began to strike them. Now he went to work in a more methodical man- ner, and, feeling with his fingers for a match with the greatest amount of phosphorus, lighted it at once. He pushed the face of the watch toward the light, and when he looked at it he did not believe his eyes. It was only ten minutes past twelve. There was yet a whole night ahead of him. " Oh, what a long night ! " thought Vasili Andr(?ich, feeling the cold run up his spine ; and, wrapping himself and covering himself again, he pressed into the corner of the sleigh, preparing himself to wait in patience. Sud- denly he clearly heard a new, live sound through the monotonous noise of the wind. The sound increased evenly, and, upon reaching complete clearness, began just as evenly to die down. There was no doubt but that this was a wolf. And this wolf was so near that with the wind it was possible to hear how he, moving his jaws, changed the sound of his voice. Vasili Andr^ich threw back his collar and listened attentively. Yellow-muzzle, too, listened intently, pricking his ears, and, when the wolf ended his tune, changed the position of his feet and gave a cautioning snort. After this Vasili Audreich was absolutely unable to fall asleep, or even to calm himself. No matter how much he tried to think of his calculations, his business, and his fame, and of his worth and wealth, terror took even more possession of him, and above all his 470 MASTER AND WORKMAN thoughts hovered, and to all his thoughts was added the thought as to why he had not stayed for the night at Grishkino. " The devil take the forest ! I have, thank God, enough business without it. Oh, if I could but pass the night ! " he said to himself. " They say that drunken peo- ple freeze to death," he thought, " and I have had some- thing to drink." And, watching his sense of feeling, he noticed that he was beginning to tremble, not knowing himself why he was trembling, whether from cold or from fear. He tried to cover bimself and to he as before, but he was unable to do so. He could not remain in one spot, — he felt like getting up, undertaking something, in order to drown the rising terror, against which he felt himself to be powerless. He again drew out his cigarettes and matches, but there were but three matches left, and they were all bad. All three sizzled, without catching fire. " The devil take you, accursed one, — go to ! " he cursed, himself not knowing whom, and flung away the crushed cigarette. He wanted to fling away the match- box, too, but he arrested tlie motion of his hand, and stuck it into his pocket. He was assailed by such unrest that he could no longer stay in one spot. He climbed out of the sleigh and, standing with his back against the wind, began to gird himself tightly low down in the waist. " What sense is there in lying and waiting for death ? I'll get on the horse and — march ! " it suddenly occurred to him. " When I am on the horse's back, he will not stop. As for him," he thought, in reference to Nikita, " it does not make much difference if he dies. What kind of a life is his, anyway ? He does not even care much for life, while I, thank God, have something to live on." And untying the horse, he threw the reins over his neck and tried to jump on him, but the fur coats and the boots were so heavy that he fell down. Then he stood MASTER AND WORKMAN 471 up on the sleigh, and tried to mount from the sleigh. But the sleigh tottered under his weight, and he fell down again. Finally he moved the horse for the third time up to the sleigh, and, standing carefully on its edge, finally succeeded in getting on his belly across the horse. Lying thus awhile, he moved forward once, and twice, and finally threw his leg across the horse's back, and seated himself, pressing with the soles of his boots against the lower crupper strap. The motion of the tottering sleigh woke up Nikita, and he got up, and Vasili Andr^ich thought that he was saying something. " To listen to you, fools ! Why should I perish, for nothing ? " shouted Vasili Andrt!;ich, and, adjusting the flapping skirts of his fur coat under his knees, he turned the horse and drove him away from the sleigh, in the direction where, he supposed, was the forest and the guard- house. VII. From the time that Nikita had seated himself, after being covered with the blanket, against the back of the sleigh, he had remained motionless in the same posture. Like all men who live with Nature and know want, he was patient and could patiently wait for hours, even days, without experiencing either restlessness or irritation. He heard his master call him, but made no reply, because he did not want to move or talk. Though he was still warm from the tea he had drunk and from having moved about a great deal, when climbing over the snow-drifts, he knew that this heat would not last long and that he would not be able to warm himself by moving, because he felt himself as tired as a horse, when it stops and is unable, in spite of all the whipping, to move on, and the master sees that it has to be fed, to be able to work again. One foot in the torn boot was cold, and he no longer felt the big toe on it. Besides, he was getting colder and colder over his whole body. The thought that he might, and in all probability would, die that night, occurred to him, but this thought did not seem particularly disagreeable or terrible to him. This thought was not particularly disa- greeable, because his whole life had not been a continuous holiday, but, on the contrary, an unceasing service, from which he was beginning to be tired. Nor was this thought particularly terrible to him, because, besides those masters, like Vasili Andr^ich, whom he had been ierving here, he felt himself always, in this life, depend- ent on the chief Master, who had sent him into this life, and he knew that even dying he would remain in 472 MASTER AND WORKMAN 473 the power of the same Master, and that this Master would not do him any harm. " It is a pity to give up what I am used to and accustomed to. Well, what is to be done ? I shall have to get used to the new things." " Sins ? " he thought, and he recalled his drunkenness, the money wasted in drink, the insult to his wife, his cursing, non-attendance at church, non-observance of fasts, and all that for which the pope had rebuked him at the confession. " Of course, they are sins ; but have I brought them down on myself ? God has evidently made me such. Well, and the sins ! Where can one go to?" Thus he thought at first as to what might happen \\4th him that night, and later he no longer returned to these thoughts, but abandoned himself to those recollections which naturally occurred to him. Now he recalled Mar- fa's arrival, and the drunkenness of the workmen, and his refusal to drink Hquor ; now again the present journey, and Taras's hut, and the talk about dividing up ; now again he thought of his boy, of Yellow-muzzle, who would now get warmed up under the blanket, and of his master, who made the sleigh creak, as he kept tossing about in it. " I suppose, dear man, you are not a bit glad you have gone out," he thought. "A man who leads such a life does not want to die. It is not hke one of us fellows." And all these recollections began to become mixed in liis head, and he fell asleep. But when Vasili Audr^ich, seating himself on his horse, shook the sleigh, and the back of it, against which Nikita was leaning, rose, and a runner struck Nikita in liis back, he awoke avA was involuntarily compelled to change his position. With difficulty straightening out his legs and shaking off the snow from them, he got up, and im- mediately a painful cold penetrated his body. When he saw what the matter was, he wanted Vasili Andr^ich to leave him the matting, which the horse did not need 474 MASTER AND WORKMAN" any longer, so that he might cover himself with it, and he so called out to Vasili Andr^ich. But Vasili Andr^ich did not stop, and disappeared in the powdery snow. When Nikita was left alone, he mused for awhile what to do. He did not feel himself strong enough to go and look for a house. He could no longer sit down in the old place, — it was all covered with snow. He felt that in the sleigh, too, he would not get warm, because he had nothing to cover himself with, and his caftan and fur coat no longer kept him warm. He was as cold as though he had nothing but his shirt on. He felt ill at ease. " Father, heavenly Father ! " he muttered, and the con- sciousness that he was not alone, but that some one heard him and would not leave him, quieted him. He drew a deep breath and, without taking the blanket off his head, climbed into the sleigh and lay down where his master had been lying before. But he could not warm himself in the sleigh, either. At first he trembled with his whole body, then the chill passed, and he began slowly to lose consciousness. He did not know whether he was dying or falling asleep, but he felt himself equally prepared for either. VIIL In the meantime Vasili Andr^ich drove the horse with his feet and with the reins in the direction where, for some reason, he assumed that the forest and the guard- house were. The suow blinded him, and the wind, it seemed, wanted to stop him, but he, bending forward and constantly wrapping himself in his fur coat and sticking it between himself and the cold saddle-bolster, which made it hard for him to sit up, continued to drive the horse. Though with difficulty, the horse went submis- sively at a pace whither he was directed to go. For about five minutes he rode, as he thought, straight ahead, without seeing anything but the head of the horse and the white wilderness, and without hearing anything but the whistle of the wind about the ears of the horse and the collar of his fur coat. Suddenly something black stood out in front of him. His heart fluttered with joy, and he rode toward the black spot, thinking that he could make out the walls of village houses. But the blackness was not motionless ; it kept moving, and was not a village, but tall mugwort, which had grown out on a balk and was sticking out through the snow and desperately tossing about under the pressure of the wind, which carried it to one side and whistled through it. For some reason the sight of this mugwort, agitated by the merciless wind, made Vasili Andrdich tremble, and he began hurriedly to drive the horse, without noticing that, in riding up to the mugw^ort, he had changed the direction wholly and now was driving 475 476 MASTER AND WORKMAN the horse in an entirely different direction, still thinking that he was riding to the place where the guard-house ought to be. But the horse kept turning to the right, and so he kept turning it to the left. Again something black appeared in front. He re- joiced, being sure that this time it certainly was a village. But it was again a balk, which was overgrown with mug- wort. The dry mugwort was fluttering in the wind as before, for some reason filling Vasili Andr^ich with terror. But this was not only the same kind of mugwort : near by there was a horse track, which was just being drifted over. Vasili Andr^ich stopped, bent over, looked close : it was a horse track that was just being covered up, and it could be nobody else's but his own. He was evidently going around in a circle, and within a small area. " I shall perish in this way ! " he thought, but, not to submit to his terror, he began to drive his horse with more force, staring at the white snow mist, in which he thought he could discern points of light, which disap- peared as soon as he looked close at them. At one time he thought he heard the barking of dogs or the howling of wolves, but these sounds were so feeble and so indef- inite that he did not know whether he heard anything or whether it only seemed so to him, and he stopped and began to listen intently. Suddenly a terrible, deafening noise was heard near his ears, and everything trembled and shook under him. Vasili Andr^ich seized the horse's neck, but the horse's neck was also shaking, and the terrible sound became more terrible still. For a few seconds Vasili Andr^ich could not regain his senses or make out what had hap- pened. What had happened was, that Yellow-muzzle, either encouraging himself, or calling for somebody's aid, had neighed in his loud, melodious voice. " Pshaw, accursed one, how you have frightened me ! " Vasih Andr^ich said to himself. But even when he compre- I MASTER AND WORKMAN 477 heuded the true cause of his fright, ho was not able to dispel it. " I must come to my senses and regain my composure," he said to himself, and yet he could not control himself, and kept driving his horse, without noticing that he was no longer travelling with the wind, but against it. His body, especially where it was uncovered and touched the saddle-bolster, was freezing and aching, his hands and feet trembled, and Ids breath came in gusts. He saw that he was perishing amidst this terrible snow wilder- ness, and he did not see any means of salvation. Suddenly the horse lurched forward and, sticking fast in a snow-drift, began to struggle and fall sidewise. Vasili Andr^ich jumped down from his horse, and in his leap pulled the crupper on which his foot was resting to one side, and jerked down the saddle-bolster, to which he was holding as he jumped down. The moment Yasili Audr^ich jumped down, the horse straightened himself up, rushed forward, took a second leap, and, neighing and dragging along the loosened matting and harness, disap- peared from view, leaving Vasili Andreich by himself in the snow-drift. Vasili Andr(5ich started after him, but tlie snow was so deep, and the fur coats were so heavy on him, that, sinking with every leg above his knee into the snow, he, after taking not more than twenty steps, got out of breath and stopped. " The grove, the steers, the estate, the shop, the taverns, the tin-roofed house and granary, the heir," he thought, " how will all this be left ? What is this ? Impossible ! " it flashed thi'ough his head. And for some reason he recalled the mugwort fluttering in the wind, past which he had ridden twice, and he was assailed by such terror that he did not believe the reality of what happened with him. He thought : " Is not all this in a dream V and he wanted to wake up, but there was no need of waking. It was real snow, which lashed his face and covered him up and chilled his right hand, 478 MASTER AND WORKMAN from which he had lost the glove, and this was a real wilderness, in which he was now left alone, like that mugwort, awaiting inevitable, imminent, senseless death. " Queen of heaven, saintly Father Nicholas, teacher of abstinence," he recalled the mass of the previous day and the image with the black face in the gold-leaf, and the tapers which he had sold for this image and which were immediately brought back to him, and which he put away in the box almost untouched. And he began to beg this same Nicholas, the miracle-worker, to save him, promising him masses and tapers. But he at once under- stood clearly and indubitably that this image, gold-leaf, tapers, priest, masses, — all these were very important and necessary there, in the church, but that here they could do nothing for him, that between these tapers and masses and his present distressed condition there was, and could be, no connection. " I must not lose my courage," he thought. " I must follow the horse's tracks, or they will soon be covered with snow," it suddenly occurred to him. " This will take me out, and I may catch him yet. Only I must not be in haste, or I shall stick fast and be lost worse than ever." But, in spite of his intention to go slowly, he rushed forward and started on a run, falling all the time, getting up again, and falling again. The horse track became barely visible in those places where the snow was not deep. " I am lost," thought Vasili Andr^ich, " I shall lose the track, and I shall not catch the horse." But just at that moment he looked forward and saw something black. This was Yellow-muzzle, and not only Yellow-muzzle himself, but also the sleigh and the shafts with the kerchief. Yellow-muzzle, with the harness and matting knocked sidewise, now stood, not in the old place, but near the shafts, and was tossing his head, which was pulled down by the rein he was stepping upon. It turned out that Vasili Andr^ich had stuck fast MASTER AND WORKMAN" 479 in the same ravine in which he had stuck fast with iSTikita, that the horse was taking him back to the sleigh, and that lie had jumped off from him not more than fifty paces from where the sleigh was. IX. Making his way with difficulty to the sleigh, Vasili Andr(^ich grasped it, and for a long time stood motionless, trying to calm himself and get his breath, Niklta was not in his old place, but in the sleigh lay something which was covered with snow, and Vasili "Andr^ich guessed that this was Nikita. Vasili Andreich's terror was now com- pletely gone, and if he was afraid of anything, it was of that terrible condition of terror, which he had experienced on the horse, and especially when he was left alone in the drift. It was necessary by no means to permit this terror, and in order not to permit it, it was necessary for him to do something, to busy himself with something. And so the first thing he did was to stand with his back against the wind and to open up his fur coat. Then, as soon as he got his wind back a little, he shook the snow out of his boots and the left glove, — the right glove was hope- lessly lost and no doubt somewhere deep in the snow ; then he again girded himself tightly low in the w.aist, as he was in the habit of girding himself when he went out of the shop to buy the grain which the peasants brought in their carts, and began to prepare himself for work. The first thing he thought lie had to do was to get the horse's foot out of the rein. So he did, and, having freed the rein, he again tied Yellow-muzzle to the iron clamp in the front of the sleigh, where he had stood before, and began to get behind the horse, in order to straighten on him the crupper, the saddle-bolster, and the matting ; but at that moment he noticed that something moved in the sleigh, and from under the snow, with which the mass 480 MASTER AND WORKMAN 481 was covered, rose Nikita's head. It was evidently with great effort that Nikita, who was freezing stiff", raised him- self and sat up, in a strange manner, as though driving off the flies, swinging his hands in front of his face. He moved his hand and said something, — Vasili Andr^ich thought he was calling him. Vasili Andreich left the matting, without straightening it out, and walked over to tlie sleigh. " What do you want ? " he asked. " What did you say ? " " I am dy-dy-dying, that's what," Nikita said, with dif- • ficulty, in a halting voice. " Give my earnings to my lad or to my woman, — it is all the same." " Are you frozen ? " asked Vasili Andreich. " I , feel my death, — forgive, for Christ's sake," — Nikita said, in a tearful voice, continuing to move his hands in front of his face, precisely as though he were warding off flies. Vasili Andreich for about half a minute stood silent and motionless, then suddenly, with the same determina- tion with which he struck his hands at a profitable bar- gain, took a step backward, rolled up the sleeves of his fur coat, and began with both his hands to scrape the snow down from Nikita and out of the sleigh. When he had finished the work, he hurriedly loosened his belt, spread the fur coat, and giving Nikita a push, lay down on him, covering him not only with his fur coat, but also with his whole warm, heated-up body. Having with his hands fixed the skirts of the fur coat between the bast of the sleigh and Nikita, and having caught the lower edge between his knees, Vasili Andreich lay thus, face down- ward, pressing his head against the bast of the front of the sleigh, and now no longer heard the movement of the horse, nor the whistling of the storm, but only listened to Nikita's breathing. Nikita at first lay for a long time motionless, then heaved a loud sigh, and began to move. 482 MASTER AND WORKMAN " That's it, — you said you were dying. Lie still, warm yourself, — we shall — " began Vasili Andreich. But, to his great surprise, he was not able to speak more, because tears had appeared in his eyes, and his lower jaw was moving rapidly. He stopped talking, and only swallowed what came to his throat. " I am fright- ened, it seems ; I am very weak," he thought to himself. But this weakness was not only not disagreeable to him, it even afforded him a certain special joy, such as he had never experienced before. " We shall — " he said to himseK, experiencing a certain solemn meekness of spirit. He lay for quite awhile in silence, wiping his eyes against the fur of his fur coat, and catching between his knees the right skirt of the fur coat, which was being carried away by the wind. But he felt so much like telling somebody about his joyous condition. " Nikita ! " he said. " All right, I am warm," the answer came from below. " Yes, my friend, I was lost. You would have frozen to death, and so should I." But just then his jaws began to tremble, and his eyes were again filled with tears, and he was unable to con- tinue speaking. " That's nothing," he thought. " I know about myself what I know." And he grew silent. Thus he lay for a long time. He felt warm underneath, from Nikita, and warm above, from the fur coat ; only his hands, with which he held down the skirts of the fur coat on each side of Nikita, and his legs, from which the wind kept blowing his fur coat away all the time, began to freeze. Particularly his right hand, without the glove, began to freeze. But he was not thinking of his feet or of his hands, but only of how he might warm up the peasant who was lying under him. MASTER AND WORKMAN 483 He looked several times at the horse, and saw that his back was uncovered and the matting and the harness were lying in the snow, and that it was necessary to get up and cover the horse, but he could not make up his mind to leave Nikita for a minute and impair that joyous condition in wliich he was. He did not now experience any fear. " Never mind, he can't get away," he said to himself about his warming up the peasant, with the same boast- ing with which he spoke of his purchases and sales. Thus Vasili Audr^ich lay an hour, and two and three hours, but he did not know how the time passed. At first there hovered in his imagination impressions of the snow-storm, a shaft, and horses under an arch, which were shaking before his eyes, and he thought of Nikita, who was lying under him ; then there were mingled in recollec- tions of the holiday, his wife, the rural judge, the taper- box, and again Nikita, who was lying under this box ; then he saw peasants, who were buying and selling, and white walls, and houses roofed with tin, under which Nikita was lying ; then all this got mixed, — one thing entered into another, and, like the colours of the rainbow, which unite into one white colour, all the various impres- sions blended into one nothing, and he fell asleep. He slept for a long time, without dreams, but before day- break the visions returned. He imagined he stood near the taper-box, and Tikhon's wife was asking him for a five- kopek taper for the holiday, and he wanted to take the taper and give it to her, but his hands did not go up, but stuck fast in his pockets. He wanted to go around the box, but his legs did not move, and the new, clean galoshes stuck fast to the stone floor, and he could not lift them up or take his feet out of them. And suddenly the taper- box was not a box, but a bed, and Vasili Andr^ich saw himself lying with his belly on the box, that is, in his bed, in his house. And he is lying on his bed and can- 484 MASTER AXD WORKMAN not get up, but he must get up, because Ivan Matvy^ich, the rural judge, will soon come in, and he must go with Ivan Matvy(^ich to buy the forest, or fix the crupper on Yellow-muzzle. And he asks his wife, "Well, Niko- laevna, has he been here?" "No," she says, "he has not." And he hears some one driving up to the porch. It must be he. No, past. " Nikolaevna, oh, Nikolaevna, is he not yet here ? " " No." And he lies on liis bed, and cannot get up, and waits, and this waiting gives him pain and joy. And suddenly the joy is accomphshed: the one he has been waiting for has come, but it is not Ivan Matvy^ich, the rural judge, but some one else ; but still it is the one he is waiting for. He has come, and he calls him, and the one who calls him is the one who has called him and who has told him to lie down on Nikita. And Vasih Andr^ich is glad that this somebody has come for him. " I am coming ! " he cries joyfully, and this cry awakens him. And he wakes up, but he wakes up a different man from what he was when he fell asleep. He wants to get up, and he cannot ; he wants to move his hand, — he cannot ; his foot, — and again he cannot. He wants to turn his head, and he cannot do that either. And he wonders, but is not in the least worried about it. He understands that it is death, and is not in the least worried about it. And he recalls that Nikita is lying under him, that Nikita is warmed up and alive, and it seems to him that he is Nikita, and Nikita he, and that his hfe is not in him, but in Nikita. He strains his hearing, and he hears Nikita's breathing and even a feeble snoring. "Nikita is alive, consequently I am ahve," he says to himself, triumphantly. And he thinks of the money, the shop, the house, the purchases, the sales, Mirdnov's millions : he finds it hard to understand why this man, whom they used to call Vasili Brekhundv, busied himself with all these things that he did busy himself with. " Well, he did not know MASTER AND WORKMAN 485 what the matter was," he thinks of Vasili Brekhunov. " I did not know, but now I know. Now there is no mistake. Now I kuow." And again he hears the call of him who has called him before. " I am coming, I am coming ! " his whole being says joyfully, meekly. And he feels that he is free and that nothing now holds him back. And Vasili Andr^ich saw and heard and felt nothing more in this world. All about him there was the same snow mist as before. The same gusts of snow whirled about and covered the fur coat of dead Vasili Andr^ich, and all of trembling Yellow-muzzle, and the barely visible sleigh, and warmed up Nikita, who was lying deep down in it, under his dead master. NiKiTA awoke before morning. What wakened him was the cold which was beginning to go down his spine. He dreamt that he was coming from the mill with a wagon -load of his master's flour, and that, in passing a brook, he had missed the bridge and stuck fast in the mud. And he sees that he crawled under the wagon and is lifting it with his arched back. But, strange to say, the wagon does not move and is glued to his back, and he cannot raise the wagon, nor get away from under it. It is crushing his whole spine. And it is so cold ! He certainly must get out from under it. " This will do," he says to him who is pressing the wagon down on him. " Take off the bags ! " But the wagon presses him colder and colder, and suddenly something knocks with peculiar force, and he awakens completely and recalls everything. The cold wagon is the frozen dead master, who is lying on him. And the knock was produced by Yellow-muzzle, who twice struck his hoof against the sleigh. " Andr^ich, oh, Andr^ich ! " Nikita calls his master, cautiously, with a presentiment of the truth, and arching his back. But Andr^ich makes no reply, and his belly and his legs are stiff and cold and heavy, like weights. " Dead, no doubt. The kingdom of heaven be his ! " thinks Nikita. He turns his head, digs with his hand through the snow, and opens his eyes. It is light ; the wind whistles as before through the shafts, and the snow falls as before, with this difference only, that it no longer lashes the bast 486 MASTER AND WORKMAN 487 of the sleigh, but noiselessly buries the sleigh and the horse, deeper and deeper, and neither the horse's motion nor his breathing can be heard. " He, too, must be frozen dead," Mkita thought of Yellow-muzzle. And, indeed, those knocks with the hoofs against the sleigh, which awakened Nikita, were the death-efforts of stiffly frozen Yellow-muzzle to keep on his feet. " Lord, Father, apparently Thou art calling me too," Nikita said to himself. " Thy holy will be done. I feel bad. Well, there is but one death, and that cannot be escaped. If it would only come soon — " And he again hid his hand, closing his eyes, and forgot himself, fully convinced that now he was certainly dying, the whole of him. Not until noon of the following day did peasants dig Vasili Andr^ich and Nikita out with shovels, within thirty sazhens from the road, and half a verst from the village. The snow was blown higher than the sleigh, but the shafts and tlie handkerchief could still be seen on it. Yellow-muzzle, up to his belly in the snow, with the crupper and matting pulled down from his back, stood all white, pressing his dead head against his stiff throat ; his nostrils were frozen into icicles ; the eyes were covered with hoarfrost, as though filled with tears. He had grown so thin in this one night that nothing but his hide and bones were left on him. Vasili Audr^ich was cold, like a frozen carcass, and his legs were sprawhng, and he remained bent, when he was rolled off Nikita. His bulging hawk eyes were frozen, and his open mouth, beneath his clipped moustache, was filled with snow. But Nikita was alive, though badly frozen. When Nikita was awak- ened, he was sure that he was dead, and that what was taking place with him was happening in the other world, and not in this. But when he heard the shouting peasants, who were digging him out and rolling stiffened Vasili Andr^ich off from him, he was at first surprised to 488 MASTER AND WORKMAN find out that people shouted in the same way in the other world and had the same kind of a body ; but when he comprehended that he was still in this world, he was rather sorry than glad, especially when he felt that his toes on both his feet were frozen off. Nikita lay in the hospital for two months. They cut off three of his toes, and the others healed up, so that he could work again, and he continued to work another twenty years, at first as a labourer, and later, in his old age, as a watchman. He died only this last year, at home, as he had desired, under the holy images, and with a burning taper in his hands. Before his death he asked his old wife's forgiveness and forgave her for the cooper ; he bade good-bye also to his boy and his grandchildren, and died, sincerely happy because by his death he was freeing his son and daughter-in-law from the burden of additional bread, and because he was now in reality pass- ing from this, life, of which he had become tired, into that other life, which with every year and hour became more comprehensible and more attractive to him. We shall soon find out whether he is better off, or worse, there where he awoke after his real death, whether he was disappointed, or whether he found what he had expected. EPILOGUE TO "DROZHZHIN'S LIFE AND DEATH" 1895 EPILOGUE TO ^^DROZHZHIN'S LIFE AND DEATH" Even Moses in his commandments, which were given to men five thousand years ago, proclaimed the command- ment, " Thou shalt not kill." The same was preached by all the prophets ; the same was preached by the sages and teachers of the whole world ; the same was preached by Christ, who forbade men to commit not only murder, but everything which may lead to it, all irritation and anger against a brother ; and the same is written in the heart of every man so clearly that there is no act which is more loathsome to the whole being of an uncorrupted man than the murder of one's like, — man. And yet, despite the fact that this law of God was clearly revealed to us by Moses, by the prophets, and by Christ, and that it is so indelibly written in our hearts that there cannot be the slightest doubt of its obligatori- ness for us, this law is not recognized in our world, but the very opposite law is recognized, that of the obligatori- ness for every man of our time to enter military service, that is, to join the ranks of nuirderers, to swear to be ready to commit murder, to learn the art of killing, and actually to kill his like, when that is demanded of hini.^ In pagan times, the Christians were commanded in 1 In countries where there is no compulsory military service, the law of God and of conscience about not killing is also violated by all their citizens, though not so obviously, because the hiring, enlisting, 41)1 492 EPILOGUE TO "DROZHZHIN's LIFE j» words to renounce Christ and God, and in sign of the renunciation to bring sacrifices to the pagan gods. But now, in our time, the Christians are commanded not only to renounce Christ and God by bringing sacrifices to pagan gods (a person may sacrifice to pagan gods, while remaining a Christian at heart), but also by committing an act which is unquestionably most contrary to Christ and to God and which is forbidden by Christ and by God, — to swear to be ready to commit murder, to prepare him- self for murder, and frequently to commit murder itself. And as formerly there were found men who refused to worship pagan gods, and for their loyalty to Christ and God sacrificed their lives, so there have been men who have not renounced Christ and God, who have not con- sented to take an oath that they would be ready to com- mit murder, who did not join the ranks of murderers, and who for this loyalty have perished in the most terrible sufferings, as was the case with Drozhzhin, whose life is described in this book. And as in former times those who were considered half-witted and strange, the martyrs of Christianity, who perished because they did not wish to renounce Christ, by their loyalty to Christ alone destroyed the pagan world and opened a path for Christianity, so now people, like Drozhzhin, who are considered to be madmen and fanatics, who prefer sufferings and death to transgressing God's law, by their very loyalty to the law destroy the existing cruel order more surely than do the revolutions, and reveal to men the new joyful condition of universal brotherhood, of the kingdom of God, which was proclaimed by the prophets, and the foundations of which were laid eighteen hundred years ago by Christ. and maintaining of armies, with the money consciously paid by all the citizens for the business of murder, which they all consider to be indispensable, is just as much a consent to killing and a cooperation with it as the personal participation in military service. — Author's Note. EPILOGUE TO " DROZIIZHIN S LIFE " 493 But such men as Drdzhzhin, who now refuse to renounce God and Christ, by their activity not only contribute to the estabhshment of that kingdom of God which the prophets precUcted, but by their example indicate the one unquestionable road by which this king- dom of God may be attained and all that may be destroyed which interferes with its establishment. The difference between the ancient martyrs of Chris- tianity and those of the present time consists only in this, that then it was the pagans who demanded pagan acts from the Christians, while now it is not pagans, but Chris- tians, or at least those who call themselves so, that are demanding from the Christians pagan, the most terrible pagan acts, such as the pagans did not ask for, — murder ; that then paganism found its strength in ignorance, be- cause it did not know, did not understand Christianity, while now the cruelty of the so-called Christianity is based on deception, on conscious deception. To free Chris- tianity from violence it was then necessary to convince the pagans of the truth of Christianity, but that was for the most part impossible to do. Julian the Apostate and many of the best men of the time were sincerely con- vinced that paganism was enlightenment and a good, and Christianity — darkness, ignorance, and evil. But to free Christianity now from violence and cruelty, it is neces- sary to arraign the deception of the false Christianity. This deception unanswerably arraigns itself through the one simple, imperturbable profession of the trutli, which inevitably provokes the so-called Christian powers to the exercise of violence, to trrtures, and to the killing of Christians for observing precisely wliat they themselves profess. Formerly a Christian, in refusing to worship the pagan gods, said to the pagans, " I reject your faith ; I am a Christian, and I cannot and will not serve your gods, but will serve the one true God and His son Jesus Christ," 494 EPILOGUE TO " dkoziizhin's life 5> and the pagan powers punished, because he professed a rehgion which they considered to be false and harmful, and his punishment had no contradiction in itself and did not undermine the paganism, in the name of which he was punished. But now a Christian who refuses to com- mit murder no longer makes his confession to pagans, but to men who call themselves Christians. And if he says, " I am a Christian, and I cannot and will not fulfil any demands for committing murder, which are contrary to the Christian law," he can no longer be told, as he was formerly told by the pagans, " You are professing a false and harmful teaching," but he is told, " We are also Chris- tians, but you do not correctly understand Christianity, when you assert that a Christian may not kill. A Chris- tian can and must kill, when he is commanded to do so by him who at a given moment is considered to be his chief. And because you do not agree with this, that a Christian must not love his enemies, and must kill all those whom he is commanded to kill, we, the Christians, who profess the law of humility, love, and forgiveness, punish you." It turns out that the powers which recognize them- selves as being Christian, at every such a confhct with men who refuse to commit murder, are compelled in the most obvious and solemn manner to renounce that Chris- tianity and moral law on which alone their power is based. Besides, unfortunately for the false powers, and fortu- nately for all humanity, the conditions of military service have of late become quite different from what they were before, and so the demands of the authorities have become even more obviously non-Christian, and the refusals to fulfil their demands have arraigned Christianity even more. Formerly hardly one-hundredth part of all men was called to do military service, and the government was in EPILOGUE TO '•' DROZUZHIN's LIFE " 495 a position to assume that men of a lower stage of morality took to military service, men for whom military service did not present anything contrary to their Christian con- science, as was partly the case when men were put in the army for a punishment. When at that time a man, who by his moral qualities could not be a murderer, was called to do military service, such a case was unfortunate and exceptional. But now, when everybody has to do mihtary service, the best men, those who are most Christian in their thoughts and who are far removed from the possibility of taking part in murder, must all recognize themselves as being murderers and apostates from God. Formerly the hired army of the ruler was formed by especially chosen, very coarse, non-Christian, and ignorant men, or volunteers and mercenaries ; formerly no one or but few men read the Gospel, and men did not know its spirit, but only believed in what the priest told them ; and formerly only the rarest people, who were peculiarly fanatical in spirit, the sectarians, considered military ser- vice to be a sin and refused to take part in it. But now there is not a man in any Christian state who is not obliged consciously, by means of his money, and in most countries of Europe directly, to take part in the prepara- tions for murder, or in the murders themselves ; now nearly all men know the Gospel and the spirit of Christ's teaching ; all know that the priests are bribed deceivers, and none but the most ignorant men beheve in them ; and now it is not merely the sectarians, but also men who do not profess any special dogmas, cultured men, free- thinkers, who refuse to do military service, and they do not refuse merely for their own sake, but openly and out- spokenly say to all men that murder is not compatible with any profession of Christianity. And so one such refusal to do military service as Drozhzhin's, which is sustained in spite of tortures and 496 EPILOGUE TO "dkozhzhin's life" death, one such refusal shakes the whole enormous structure of violence, which is built on the lie, and threatens its destruction. The governments have a terrible power in their hands, and it is not merely a material power, — a vast amount of money, institutions, wealth, submissive officials, the clergy, and the army, — but also vast spiritual powers of in- fluencing men that are in the hands of the government. It can, if not bribe, at least crush and destroy all those who are opposed to it. A bribed clergy preaches milita- rism in the churches ; bribed authors write books which justify militarism : in the schools, both the higher and the lower, they have introduced the obligatory instruction of deceptive catechisms, in which children are impressed with the idea that it is not only allowable, but even obli- gatory, to kill in war and after a trial ; all those who enter the army are compelled to take an oath ; every- thing which could reveal the deception is strictly pro- hibited and punished, — the most terrible punishments are imposed upon men who do not fulfil the demands of serving in the army, that is, of killing. And, strange to say, all that enormous, mighty mass of men, which is vested with all the force of human power, trembles, hides itself, feeling its guilt, and shakes in its existence, and is ready any moment to go to pieces and turn to dust at the appearance of one man, like Drozhzhin, who does not yield to human demands, but obeys the demands of God and professes them openly. In our time such men as Drozhzhin do not stand alone ; there are thousands, tens of thousands of them, and their number and, above all else, their importance are growing with every year and every hour. In Kussia we know tens of thousands of men who have refused to swear allegiance to the new Tsar, and who recognize mili- tary service to be murder, which is incompatible not only with Christianity, but even with the lowest demands of EPILOGUE TO " DROZIIZHIN's LIFE " 497 honour, justice, and morality. We know such men in all European countries : we know of the Nazarenes, who appeared less than fifty years ago in Austria and Servia and who from a few hundreds have grown to be more than thirty thousand strong, and who, in spite of all kinds of persecution, have refused to take part in military serv- ice. We have learned lately of a highly cultured surgeon of the army, who refused to do military service, because he considered it contrary to his conscience to serve such an institution as is the army, which is intended only for doing violence to men and killing them. But even this is not important, that there are many of them and that they are growing more and more, but that the one true path has been found along which humanity will undoubtedly arrive at its liberation from evil, which has fettered it, and because on that path nothing and nobody can now stop it, because for liberation on this path no efforts are wanted for the destruction of evil : — it disperses of its own accord and melts Hke wax in the fire, — all that is needed is a non-participation in it. In order to stop taking part in this evil, from which we suffer, no special mental, nor bodily efforts are needed, — all that is needed is to abandon oneself to one's nature, to be good and true before God and oneself. " You want me to become a murderer, but I cannot do so, and neither God nor my conscience permit me to do so. And so do with me what you please ; but I will neither kill nor prepare myself for murder, nor be an accomplice in it." And this simple answer, which every man must inevitably make, because it arises from the consciousness of the men of our time, destroys all that evil of violence which has weighed heavily on the world for so long a time. They say that in Holy Scripture it says : " Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God : the powers that be are or- dained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power 498 EPILOGUE TO "DROZHZHIN's LIFE j> resisteth the ordinarice of God : and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power ? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid ; for he beareth not the sword in vain : for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake. For, for this cause pay ye tribute also : for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Eender there- fore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom ; fear to whom fear ; honour to whom honour " (Eom, xiii. 1-7). Consequently it is neces- sary to submit to the powers. But to say nothing of this, that the same politic Paul, who told the Eomans that it is necessary to obey the authorities, told the Ephesians something quite different. " Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. vi. 10-12). Paul's words to the Eomans about obeying the powers that be can in no way be harmonized with Christ's own teaching, the whole meaning of which consists in the liberation of men from the power of the world and their submission to the power of God. " If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you (John xv. 18). They have persecuted me, they will also persecute you (John xv. 20). If ye were of the world, the world would love his own ; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. EPILOGUE TO " DKOZIIZHIN's LIFE " 499 therefore the world hateth you (John xv. 19). And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles (Matt. x. 18, Mark xiii. 9). And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake (Matt. x. 22). They shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the syna- gogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake (Luke xxi. 12). Whosoever killeth you will think that he doetli God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them (John xvi. 2-4). Fear them not therefore : for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known (Matt. x. 26). And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul : but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body (Matt. x. 28). The prince of this world is judged (John xvi. 11). Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John xvi. 33)." Christ's whole teaching is an indication of the path of liberation from the power of the world, and Christ, when He was himself persecuted, reminded His disciples that, if they would be true to His teaching, the world would per- secute them, and advised them to have courage and not be afraid of their persecutors. He not only taught them this in words, but with His whole life and relation to the powers gave them an example of how those must act who wished to follow Him. Christ not only did not obey the powers, but kept all the time arraigning them : He ar- raigned the Pharisees for violating God's law with their human traditions ; He arraigned them for falsely observ- ing the Sabbath, for falsely sacrificing in the temple ; He arraigned them f(jr tlieir hypocrisy and cruelty ; He ar- raigned the cities of Cliorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum ; He an'aigned Jerusalem and predicted its ruin. 500 EPILOGUE TO " DROZIIZniN's LIFE j> In reply to the question as to whether He shall give the established tax upon entering Capernaum, He says dis- tinctly that the sons, that is, His disciples, are free from every tax and are not obliged to pay it, and only not to tempt the collectors of the taxes, not to provoke them to commit the sin of violence, He orders His disciples to give that stater, which is accidentally found in the fish, and which does not belong to any one and is not taken from any one. But in reply to the cunning question as to whether the tribute is to be paid to Osesar, He says, " To Csesar the things which are Ctesar's and to God the things which are God's," that is, give to Caisar what belongs to him and is made by him, — the coin, — and to God give what is made by God and is implanted in you, — your soul, your con- science ; give this to no one but God, and so do not do for Caesar what is forbidden by God. And this answer sur- prises all by its boldness — and at the same time by its unanswerableness.^ When Christ is brought before Pilate, as a ruutineer who has been perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar (Luke xxiii. 2), He, after saying what He found necessary to say, surprises and provokes all the chiefs with this, that He pays no attention to all their questions, and makes no reply to any of their questions. For this arraignment of the power and disobedience to it, Christ is sentenced and crucified. ^Not only the complete misunderstanding of Christ's teaching, but also a complete uuwilliuguess to understand it could have admitted that striking misinterpretation, according to which the words, " To Caesar the things which are Caesar's," signify the necessity of obeying Caesar. In the first place, there is no mention there of obedience ; in the second place, if Christ recognized the obligatoriness of paying tribute, and so of obedience. He would have said directly, " Yes, it should be paid ;" but He says, "Give to Caesar what is his, that is, the money, and give your life to God," and with these latter words He not only does not encourage any obedience to power, but, on the con- trary, points out that in everything which belongs to God it is not right to obey Caesar. — Author's Note. EPILOGUE TO "DROZHZHIN's LIFE " 501 The whole story of Christ's sufferings and death is notliing but the story of those calamities to which inev- itably every man will be subjected, if he follows Christ's example of obedience to God and not to the powers of the world. Suddenly we are assured that the whole of Christ's teaching must not only be corrected, but even be abolished in consequence of the thoughtless and cunning words which Paul wrote to the Romans. But Paul's words contradict Christ's teaching and hfe, with all the desire to obey the powers, as Paul commands us to do, not only from fear, but also from conviction, and in our time such an obedience has become absolutely impossible. To say nothing of the inner contradiction between Christianity and the obedience to the powers, such obedi- ence to the powers, not from fear, but from conviction, has become impossible in our day, because, in consequence of the universal diffusion of enlightenment, the power, as something worthy of respect, something exalted, and, above all, something definite and whole, has been com- pletely destroyed in our time, and there is no possibility of reestablishing it. It was all very well not only from fear, but also from conviction, to obey the power, when the men under the power saw what the Romans saw in it, — the emperor- god, or what the Chinese see in their emperor, — the sun of heaven ; or when men in the Middle Ages, and even down to the Revolution, saw in the kings and emperors divinely anointed men, just as until lately in Russia the masses saw hi the Tsar an earthly Cod, when tsars, kings, and emperors were not represented otherwise than in ma- jestic situations, doing wise and great things. But it is quite different to-day, when, in spite of all the efforts of the powers and their friends and even the subjects them- selves to reestal)lish the awe for the power, enlighten- ment, history, experience, the intercourse of men among 602 EPILOGUE TO "dROZHZHIN's LIFE " themselves have destroyed this awe, so that it is as impossible to reestablish it as it is in the spring to rees- tablish the melted snow, and as impossible to construct anything firm upon it as it is to travel in a sleigh over a widely spreading river, from which the ice has dis- appeared. It cannot be otherwise, since now all men, with the exception of the coarsest and most uncultured of men, whose number is growing less and less, know what immoral persons were Louis XL, Elizabeth of England, John IV., Catherine, Napoleon, Nicholas I., who ruled and decided the fates of millions, and who did not rule thanks to some sacred, invariable law, as people used to think formerly, but only because these people were able by means of all kinds of deceptions, by cunning, and by rascalities so to strengthen their power that it was im- possible to dethrone, kill, or drive them away, as was done in the case of Charles I., Louis XVI., Maximilian of Mex- ico, Louis Philippe, and others. It cannot be otherwise, since all men know that even the kings and emperors who rule at the present time are not only not some especial, holy, great, wise people, who are interested in the good of their nations, but, on the contrary, for the most part very badly educated, ignorant, vainglorious, immoral, frequently very stupid and bad men, who are always corrupted by luxury and flattery, who are not at all interested in the good of their subjects, but in their own personal affairs, and are, above all else, without cessation concerned in maintaining their tottering power, which is upheld only by means of cunning and deception. Not only do men now see the material of which are made their rulers, who formerly presented themselves to them as especial beings, and not only have men peeped behind the curtain, so that it is impossible to reconstruct the old illusion, they also see and know, besides, that it EPILOGUE TO " DFvOZUZHIN's LIFE " 603 is not really these rulers that rule, but, in constitutional states, the members of the Chambers, the ministers, who attain their positions by means of intrigues and bribes, and in unconstitutional countries, the wives, paramours, favourites, flatterers, and all kinds of parasitic accomphces. How can a man respect the power and obey it, not from fear, but from conviction, when he knows that this power is not something which exists separately from him, but is the product of men's intrigues and cunning, and constantly passes from one person to another ? Knowing this, a man can not only not obey the power from convic- tion, but cannot even help trying to destroy the existing power and himself to become it, that is, making his way into power, to seize as much of it as he can. And this is actually taking place. The power of which Paul spoke, the power which one can obey from conviction, has outlived its day. It no longer exists. It has melted like the ice, and it will not support anything. What formerly was a solid surface of the river is now liquid, and in order to journey over it we do not need a sleigh and horses, but a boat and oars. Even so the composition of life has so completely changed, as the result of education, that the power, in the sense in which it used to be understood, has no longer any place in our world, and all there is left is rude violence and deception. But violence and deception can- not be obeyed, " not from fear, but from conviction." " But how can we help obeying the powers ? If we do not obey the powers, there will happen terrible calamities, and bad men will torment, oppress, and kill the good." " How can we help but obey the power ? " say I myself. " How can we make up our minds not to obey the power, the one unquestionable power, from which we shall never get away, under which we always are, and the demands of which we know incontestably and unerr- ingly ? " 504 EPILOGUE TO " DROZHZHIN'S LIFE " They say : " How can we make up our minds not to obey the powers ? " What powers ? In the time of Catherine, when Puga- chev rebelled, half the people swore allegiance to Pugach^v and were under his power. Well, what power had to be obeyed ? Catherine's or Pugachev's ? And again, who was to be obeyed in the time of the same Catherine, who usurped the power from her husband, the Tsar, to whom people had sworn allegiance ? Was it Peter III. or Catherine ? Not one Eussian Tsar, from Peter I. to Nicholas I. included, assumed the throne in such a way that it was clear what power was to be obeyed. Who was to be obeyed, Peter I. or Sophia, or John, Peter's elder brother ? Sophia had just as much right to the throne, and the proof of it is this, that after her ruled women who had even less right to it, — the two Catherines, Anna, Eliza- beth. Whose power was to be obeyed after Peter, when some courtiers raised to the throne a soldier woman, the paramour of M^nshikov, Sherem^tev, and Peter, — Cather- ine I., — and then Peter II., and then Anna and Ehza- beth, and finally Catherine II., who had no more right to the throne than had Pugach^v, since during her reign the legitimate heir, John, was kept in prison and was killed by her order, and there was another, unquestionably a legitimate heir, Paul, who was of age? And whose power had to be obeyed, Paul's or Alexander's, at the time that the conspirators, who killed Paul, were just getting ready to kill him ? And whose power had to be obeyed, Constantiae's or Nicholas's, when Nicholas took the power away from Coustantine ? All history is the history of the struggle of one power against another, not only in Eussia, but also in all the other countries. More than this : must we, not in time of civil war and the dethronement of one set of rulers and the substitution of another set in their place, but in the most peaceful EPILOGUE TO "DROZHZHIN'S LIFE " 505 times, obey Arakch^ev, who seized the power, or must we try to overthrow him and convince the Tsar of the worth- lessness of his ministers ? Not the supreme power, but its servants control men : must we obey these servants, when their demands are obviously bad and detrimental ? Thus, no matter how much we may desire to obey the power, we cannot do so, because there is not one definite earthly power, but all the powers of the earth waver, change, fight among themselves. What power is the real one, and when is it real ? And so, what power is to be obeyed ? But not only is the power which demands obedience doubtful, and we cannot know whether it is the real one or not, — it also demands of us not indifferent, harmless acts, such as this, that we should build a pyramid, a temple, a castle, or even sliould serve the mighty of this earth and should satisfy their lusts and their luxury. That would still be possible to do. But this doubtful power demands of us that we should commit the most terrible act for a man, — murder, the preparation for it, the acknowledgment of our readiness for it ; it demands an act which is obviously prohibited by God, and which, therefore, causes our souls to perish. Is it possible that I must, out of obedience to this human, accidental, waver- ing, discordant power, forget the demands of that one divine power, which is so clearly and so indubitably known to me, and cause my soul to perish ? " We cannot help obeying the power." " Yes, we cannot help obeying the power," say I myself, " only it is not the power of an emperor, king, president, parliament, and the chiefs chosen by them, whom I do not know and with whom I have nothing in common, but the power of God whom I know, with whom I live, from whom I received my soul, and to whom I shall return it to-morrow, if not to-day." I am told, " There will be calamities, if we are not going to obey the power." And they tell the actual truth 506 EPILOGUE TO "DROZHZHIN's LIFE " if by power they mean the real power, and not the human deception which is called power. There are those calami- ties, and they are terrible, horrible calamities, through which we are passing now, for the very reason that we do not obey the one unquestionable power of God which was clearly revealed to us in Scripture and in our hearts. We say : " Our calamities consist in this, that the rich and the idle are growing richer, and the poor, the labouring people are growing poorer ; that the masses are deprived of the land, and so are compelled to do convict labour in the factories which manufacture articles that thev do not use ; that the masses are made drunk on whiskey, which the government sells to them ; that young men go into the army, become corrupted, spread diseases, and are made unfit for a simple life of labour ; that the rich sit in judgment in the courts, while the poor sit in prisons ; that the masses are stultified in the schools and churches, and that officials and the clergy are re- warded for this by means of the money taken from the masses ; that all the popular forces, men and money, are used for war and the army, and this army is in the hands of the rulers, who by means of this army crush everything which is not in harmony with their advantage." These calamities are terrible. But whence do they come ? On what are they based ? Only on this, that men do not obey the one true power and its law, which is written in their hearts, but obey invented human stat- utes which they call the law. If men obeyed this one true power of God and His law, they would not take upon themselves the obhgation to kill their like, would not enter the army and would not give money for the hire and support of an army. If there were no army, there would not be all those cruelties and all that injustice, which it supports. Only by means of an army is it pos- sible to estabUsh and maintain such an order that all the EPILOGUE TO "DROZHZHIN's LIFE " 507 land is in the hands of those who do not work it, and those who work are deprived of it ; only by means of an army is it possible to take away the labours of the poor and give them to the rich ; only by means of an army is it possible purposely to stupefy the masses and deprive them of the possibility of real enlightenment. All that is supported by means of an army. But the army consists of soldiers, and we are the soldiers. If there were no sol- diers, there would not be anything of the kind. The condition of men is now such that nothing can change it but obedience to the true, and not to the false, power. " But this new condition without an army, without a government, will be many times worse than the one we are in now," we are told. " Worse for whom ? " ask I. " For those who now rule, for one-hundreth part of the whole nation ? For that part of the nation, of course, it will be worse, but not for all the mass of working people, who are deprived of tlie land and of the products of their labour, for the simple reason that for these ninety-nine- hundredths of the people the condition cannot be worse than it now is." And by what right do we assume that the condition of men will become worse, if they obey the law of not com- mitting murder, which is revealed to them by God and is implanted in their hearts ? To say that everything in this world will get worse, if the men in it shall follow the law which God gave them for the life in this world, is the same as though we should say that it will be worse, if men are going to use a machine which is given to them, not according to their arbitrary will, but according to the instruction as regards the use of the machine, which is given them by him who invented and constructed the machine. There was a time when humanity lived like wild beasts, and everybody took for himself in life everything which 508 EPILOGUE TO " DROZHZHIn's LIFE " he could, taking away from others what he wanted, and killing and annihilating his neighbours. Then there came a time, when men united into societies and states, and began to establish themselves as nations, defending them- selves against other nations. Men became less similar to beasts, but still considered it not only possible, but even indispensable, and so proper to kill their domestic and foreign enemies. Now the time is at hand and is already here, when men, according to Christ's words, are entering into the new condition of the brotherhood of all men, into that new condition which was long ago predicted by the prophets, when all men shall be taught by God, shall for- get how to fight, shall forge the swords into ploughshares and the spears into pruning-hooks, and there will come the kingdom of God, the kingdom of union and of peace. This condition was predicted by the prophets, but Christ's teaching showed how and through what it can be materi- alized, namely, through brotherly union, one of the first manifestations of which must be the abolition of violence. The necessity of the destruction of violence is already recognized by men, and so this condition will arrive as inevitably as formerly the political condition followed after the savage state. Humanity is in our time in the child-labour of this nascent kingdom of God, and this labour will inevitably end in birth. But the arrival of this new life will not take place of its own accord, — it depends on us. We must do it all. The kingdom of God is within us. In order to produce this kingdom of God within us, we do not need, I repeat, any special mental or physical con- ditions ; we need only be what we are, what God made us, that is, rational and, above all, good beings, who follow the voice of our conscience. " But that is where the trouble is : men are neither rational nor good beings," I already hear the voice of those men who, to have the right to be bad, assert that the EPILOGUE TO "DROZHZHIN's LIFE " 609 whole human race is bad, and that this is not merely an experimental, but also a divine, revealed, religious truth. " Men are all evil and irrational," they assert, " and so it is necessary for the rational and good men to maintain order." But if all men are irrational and bad, whence shall we take the rational and the good ? And if there are such, how are we going to tell them ? And if we can tell them, by what means shall we (who are those " we " going to be ?) put them at the head of other men ? But if even we shall be able to put these especial, rational, and good men at the head of the others, will not these rational and good men stop being such, if they are going to exert violence and punish the irrational and the bad ? And, above all else, you say that, in order to keep some thieves, pillagers, and murderers from violating and killing men, you are going to establish courts, a police, an army, which will constantly violate and kill men, and whose duty will consist in nothing else, and into these institutions you will draw all men. But in such a case you are putting in the place of a small and assumed evil another which is greater, a universal and a certain evil. In order to defend ourselves against some imaginary murderers, you compel all men certainly to become murderers. And so I repeat that for the reahzation of a brotherly intercourse among men we need no special efforts, no mental or bodily efforts, but need only be what God made us, — rational and good beings, — and act in conformity with these properties. It is not for every one of us to bear all the trials which Drdzhzhin endured (although, if this shall be our fate, — may God help us to bear it all, without being false to Him) ; but whether we want it or not, — even if we Hve in a country where there is no military duty or we are not called upon to perform such duty, — every one is called in one way or another to subject himself, though 510 EPILOGUE TO " DKOZIIZHIN's LIFE " iu other, much easier forms, to the same trial and, whether he wills so or not, to stand on the side of the oppressors or himself to become an oppressor, or on the side of the oppressed and to help them to bear their trials, or himself to undergo them. Every one of us, even if we do not take any direct part in the persecutions against these new martyrs, as do the emperors, ministers, governors, judges, who sign the decrees for the torturing of these martyrs, or as still more directly do the tormentors themselves, such as the jailers, guards, executioners, — every one of us has none the less to take an active part in these affairs by means of those opinions which we pass upon them in print, in letters, and in conversations. Frequently we, out of laziness, do not reflect on the significance of such a phenomenon, only because we do not wish to impair our peace by a lively representation of what is being suffered by those men who on account of their truthfulness, sin- cerity, and love of men are pining away in prisons and in places of deportation, and we repeat, without thinking of what we are saying, opiuious which we have heard or read elsewhere, " What is to be done ? It serves them right. They are harmful fanatics and the government must sup- press such attempts," and similar words, which support the persecutors and increase the sufferings of the perse- cuted. We will think ten times about an act of ours, about the disbursement of a certain sum, about the de- struction or construction of a house, but it seems »f so little consequence to say a few words that we generally speak without thinking. And yet, speech is the most significant of all the acts which we can do. Public opin- ion is composed from what is said. And public opinion more than all the kings and sovereigns rules all the affairs of men. And so every opinion of ours, concerning acts such as Drozhzhin's act, may be a work of God, which contributes to the realization of the kingdom of God, the brotherhood of men, and which helps those ad- EPILOGUE TO ^^ DROZTIZHIn's LIFE " 511 vanced men who give their lives for its realization, or may be a work which is hostile to God, which works against Him, and which contributes to the torments of those men who abandon themselves to His service. Drozhzhin tells in his diary of one such cruel effect produced upon him Vjy frivolous words that were hostile to God. He tells how in the first of his incarceration, when he, in spite of all his physical sufferiugs and all his humiliation, continued to experience joyous peace, in the consciousness that he had done what he ought to have done, he was affected by a letter from a friend of his, a revolutionist, who, out of love for him, tried to persuade him to have pity on himself, to recant, and to do the will of the authorities, — to take the oath and serve. Ap- parently this young man, who had the spirit of a revolu- tionist and according to the customary code of the revolutionists admitted as a principle that the end jus- tifies the means and that all kinds of compromises with his conscience were allowable, absolutely failed to understand those religious sentiments which guided Drozhzhin, and so had written him frivolously, asking him not to throw away his life, which was a useful tool for the revolution, and to fulfil all the demands of the authorities. These words, it would seem, ought not to have had any special signifi- cance, and yet Drozhzhin writes that these words deprived him of his peace and that he fell ill in consequence of them. This is quite comprehensible. All men who move hu- manity forward and who are the first and foremost to step out on the path on which all men will soon walk, do not come out on this path lightly, but always with suffering and with an internal struggle. An inner voice draws them on to the new path, and all their attachments, tlie traditions of weakness, draw them back. In such moments of unstable balance every word of support or, on the contrary, of retardation has an enormous importance. 512 EPILOGUE TO " DROZHZHIN's LIFE " The strongest man can be pulled over by a child, when this man is straining all his strength in order to move a burden v^hich is above his strength. Drozhzhin experienced terrible despair from these ap- parently unimportant words of his friend, and quieted down only when he received a letter from his friend Izyumch^nko, who joyfully bore the same fate, and who expressed a firm conviction of the righteousness of his act.^ And so, no matter how far we may personally stand from events of this character, we always involunta- rily take part in them, iuflueuce them through our relation to them, through our judgments of them. Let us take the standpoint of his friend the revolutionist, and consider that, to be able at some time, somewhere, to influence the external conditions of life, we can and must depart from the very first demands of our conscience, and we not only do not alleviate the sufferings and the struggle of men who strive to serve God, but we also prepare these sufferings of an inner discord for all those who will have to solve the dilemma in life. And there is not one who will not have to solve it. And so all of us, no matter how far we may be removed from such events, take part in them with our opinions and judg- ments. A thoughtless, careless word may become the source of the greatest sufferings for the best men in the world. We cannot be too careful in the use of this tool : " By thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words shalt tlaou be condemned." But many of us are called to take part in such events not with words alone, but in a still more direct way. I am speaking of those who serve, who in one way or 1 This friend was for the same refusal to do military service locked up in the guard-house in Kursk. Just now, while I am writing these lines, this friend is kept in strictest secrecy, having no permission to see any one, in the Moscow transportation prison, on his way to the Government of Tobdlsk, whither he is deported by order of the Tsar. — Authors Note. EPILOGUE TO " DKOZHZIIIN S LIFE ' 513 another take part in those hopeless oppressions, by means of which the government persecutes such men as Drozh- zhin, and which only strengthen the movement ; I am speaking of the participants in these persecutions, begin- ning with the emperor, the ministers, the judges, the prosecuting attorneys, and ending with the guards and jailers, who torture these martyrs. You all, participants in these torments, know that this man, whom you torture, is not only not a malefactor, but also an exceptionally good man, that he is being tormented for the very reason that he wants with all the forces of his heart to be good ; you know that he is young, that he has friends, a mother, that he loves you and forgives you. And you will put him in a lockup, will take away his clothes, starve him, not give him to eat, not let him sleep, deprive him of his com- munion with his neighbours, his friends. How can you, emperor, who have signed such a decree, minister, prosecutor, superintendent of the prison, jailer, sit down to your dinner, knowing that he is lying on a cold floor and in exhaustion is weeping on account of your malice ? How can you fondle your child ? How can you think of God, of death, which will lead you to Him ? No matter how much you may pretend to be the execu- tors of some invariable laws, you are simply men, and good men, and you are to be pitied, and you show pity, and only in this pity and love for one another does our life consist. You say that necessity compels you to serve in your capacity. You know yourselves that that is not true. You know that there is no necessity, that necessity is a conventional word, that what for you is a necessity, is for another a luxury ; you know that you can find another position, one in which you will have no need to torture people, and what people ! Precisely in this way did they torture the prophets, and later Christ, and later His disciples ; thus have they always tortured those who, 514 EPILOGUE TO "DROZHZHIN'S LIFE j> loving them, lead them ahead to their good. If you could only refrain from being participants in these tortures ! It is terrible to torture an innocent bird, an animal. How much more terrible it is to torture a good, pure youth, who loves men and wishes them well. It is ter- rible to be a participant in this matter. And, above all, to be a participant for nothing, — to ruin his body, oneself, one's soul, and yet not only not to put a stop to the consummation of the establishment of the kingdom of God, but, on the contrary, against one's will to contribute to its triumph. It has come and is already here, Moscow, March 4, 1895. RELIGION AND MORALITY 1894 RELIGION AND MORALITY You asked me : (1) what I understand by the word "religion," and (2) whether I consider morahty possible apart from religion, as I understand it. I will try to the best of my ability to answer these extremely important and beautifully put questions. Among the majority of the men of modern culture it is considered a settled question that the essence of every religion consists in the personification and deification of the forces of Nature, resulting from superstitious fear be- fore the incomprehensible phenomena of Nature, and in the worship of these forces. This opinion is accepted without criticism, upon faith, by the cultured crowd of our time, and not only does not meet with any opposition from the men of science, but for the most part finds among them the most definite con- firmations. Though now and then voices, like those of Max Miiller and of others, who ascribe to religion a dif- ferent origin and meaning, are raised, they are not heard (jr noticed amidst the universal, unanimous recognition of religion as a manifestation of superstition in general. Even recently, in the beginning of the present century, the most advanced men, who rejected Catholicism and Protestantism, as did the Encyclopiedists at the end of the last century, did not deny that rehgion in general was 517 518 RELIGION AND MOllALITT a necessary condition of the life of every man. To say nothing of the Deists, such as Bernaidin de St. Pierre, Diderot, and Eousseau, Voltaire erected a monument to God, and Eobespierre established the holiday of the su- preme being. But in our time, thanks to the frivolous and superficial teaching of Auguste Comte, who, like the majority of the French, sincerely believed that Christian- ity was nothing but Catholicism, and who, therefore, saw in Catholicism a full realization of Christianity, it has been decided and recognized by the cultured crowd, which is always prone to accept the basest representa- tions, that religion is nothing but a certain outlived phase of the evolution of humanity. It is assumed that human- ity has already passed through two periods, the religious and the metaphysical, and that it has now entered on the third, the highest, the scientific period, and that all the religious phenomena among men are only the functions of some unnecessary spiritual organ of humanity, which has long ago lost its meaning and significance, like the nail of a horse's fifth toe. It is assumed that the es- sence of religion consists in the recognition of imaginary beings, evoked by fear in the presence of the incompre- hensible forces of Nature, and in the worship of them, an opinion which even in antiquity was held by Democritus, and is now reiterated by the most modern philosophers and historians of religion. But, to say nothing of the fact that the recognition of invisible supernatural beings, or of one such being, has not always originated in the fear of the unknown forces of Nature, as is witnessed by hundreds of the most ad- vanced and highly cultured men of the past, such as Socrates, Descartes, Newton, and by similar men of our time, who certainly do not recognize a higher supernatural being out of fear of the unknown forces of Nature, the assertion that religion originated in the superstitious fear of the incomprehensible forces of Nature in reality gives RELIGION AND MORALITY 519 no answer to the main question as to whence men have taken the conception of the invisible supernatural beings. If men were afraid of thunder and lightning, they would still be afraid of thunder and lightning, but why- did they invent a certain invisible, supernatural being, Jupiter, who is somewhere, and at times casts his arrows down upon men ? If men were startled by the sight of death, they would continue to be afraid of death, but why did they " invent " the souls of the dead, with whom they entered into imag- inary relations ? From thunder people could conceal themselves, from the terror of death they could run away, but they invented an eternal and powerful being, on which they consider themselves to be dependent, and the living souls of the dead, not through fear alone, but for some other reason. It is in these reasons that, obviously, the essence of what is called religion is contained. Besides, every man who at any time, be it only in childhood, has experienced the religious feeling, knows from his personal experience that this feeling has always been evoked in him, not by external, temble material phenomena, but by an internal consciousness of his insignificance, solitude, and sinfulness, which has nothing in common with the fear of the incomprehensible forces of Nature. And so a man may know from external observation and from per- sonal experience that religion is not a worship of divini- ties, provoked by a superstitious fear of the unknown forces of Nature, which is proper to men only in a certain pe- riod of their evolution, but something quite independent of fear and the degree of a man's culture, and something which cannot be destroyed by any evolution of enhghten- ment, because man's recognition of his finiteness amidst an infinite world, and of his sinfulness, that is, of the non- fulfilment of everything he could and should do, but has not done, has always existed, and will always exist so long as man remains man. 520 RELIGION x\ND MORALITY Indeed, as soon as a man leaves his animal condition of babyhood and first childhood, during which time he lives only by being guided by those demands which pre- sent themselves to his animal nature, and as soon as he awakens to a rational consciousness, he cannot help but notice that everything about him lives, renewing itself, without dying, and unswervingly submitting to one defi- nite, eternal law, and that only he alone, in recognizing himself as a distinct being from the rest of the world, is doomed to death, to disappearance in unlimited space and infinite time, and to the agonizing consciousness of re- sponsibility for his acts, that is, to the consciousness that, having acted badly, he might have acted better. Having come to see this, every rational man cannot help but reflect and ask himself what this momentary, indefinite, and wavering existence of his is doing amidst this eternal, firmly established, and infinite world. Upon entering into the true human life, a man cannot avoid this question. This question always confronts every man, and every man always answers it in one way or another. Now the answer to this question is that which forms the essence of every religion. The essence of every religion consists in nothing but au answer to the question why I live and what my relation is to the infinite world which surrounds me. And the whole metaphysics of religion, all the doc- trines about the divinities, about the origin of the world, are only different symptoms of religion, accompanying it according to the different geographical, ethnographical, and historical conditions. There is not a single religion, from the most exalted to the crudest, which has not for its base this establishment of man's relation to the world around him or to its prime cause. There is not a crude religious rite or a refined cult, which has not the same for its base. Every religious teaching is an expression by the founder of the religion of that relation v.hich he recog- RELIGION AND MORALITY 521 nizes as existiiig between himself, as a man, and conse- quently between all other men, and the world, or its beginning and prime cause. The expressions of these relations are very varied, in accordance with the ethnographic and historical condi- tions in which the founder of the religion and the nation adopting it find themselves ; besides, these expressions are always differently interpreted and distorted by the followers of the teacher, who anticipates the comprehen- sion of the masses generally for hundreds, and sometimes even for thousands of years ; and so there seem to be very many such relations of man to the w^orld, that is, religions, but in reality there are but three fundamental relations of man to the world or to its beginning: (1) the primitive personal, (2) the pagan social, and (3) the Christian, or divine relation. Strictly speaking, there are but two fundamental rela- tions which man bears toward the world, — the personal one, which consists in the recognition of the meaning of life as being in the good of personality, which may be attained separately or in conjunction with other personah- ties, and the Christian, which recognizes the meaning of life to consist iu serving Him who sent man into the world. Man's second relation to the world — the social one — is in reality nothing but an expansion of the first. The first of these relations, the most ancient one, which is now found among men standing on the lowest stage of development, consists in this, that man recognizes him- self to be a self-sufficient being, which lives in the world for the purpose of acquiring in it the greatest possible personal good, independently of how much the good of other beings may suffer from it. From this very first relation to the world, in which every child entering into the world finds himself, and in which humanity lived in its first, the pagan stage of its 522 EELiaiojq^ axd morality evolution, and in which now hve many separate morally very coarse people and savage nations, result all the ancient pagan religions, as also the lower forms of the later religions in their corrupted form, — Buddhism,^ Taoism, Mohammedanism, and others. From this same relation results also the modern spiritualism, which has for its base the preservation of personality and of its good. All the pagan cults of deification of beings which enjoy themselves like man, all the sacrifices and prayers for the acquisition of worldly goods, result from this relation to hfe. The second pagan relation of man to the world, the social one, which establishes itself at the next stage of evolution, a relation which is more especially character- istic of full-grown men, consists in this, that the signifi- cance of life is not recognized in the good of one separate personality, but in the good of a certain aggregate of per- sonalities, — the family, the race, the nation, even human- ity (the positivists' attempt at religion). The meaning of life with this relation of man to the world is transferred from the personality to the family, the race, to a certain aggregate of personalities, whose good is considered by it to be the purpose of existence. From this relation result all the patriarchal and pubhc religions, which are all of one character, — the Chinese and the Japanese religions, the religion of the chosen nation, the Jewish, the state religion of the Eomans, the presumptive religion of humanity of the positivists. All the rites of ancestral worship in China and in Japan, 1 Though Buddhism demands from its followers the renunciation of all the good of the world and of life itself, it is based on the same relation of the self-sufficient personality, which is intended for the good, to the world surrounding it, bat with this difference, that simple paganism recognizes man's right to enjoy himself, while Buddhism recognizes the right to avoid suffering. Paganism thinks that the world must serve the good of the individual ; while Buddhism thinks that the world must disappear, since it produces the sufferings of personality. Buddhism is only negative paganism. — Author's Note. KELIGION AND MORALITY 623 of the worship of the emperors in Eome, are based on this relation of man to the world. Man's third relation to the world, the Christian, the one in which involuntarily every old man feels himself to be, and which, in my opinion, is now being entered upon by humanity, consists in this, that the significance of life is no longer cognized by man as consisting in the attainment of his personal purpose or of the purpose of any aggre- gate of men, but only in the service of that Will which has produced him and the whole world, not for the attainment of his purposes, but of the purposes of this Will From this relation to the world results the highest known religious teaching, the germs of which may be found among the Pythagoreans, TherapeutcC, Esseues, among the Egyptians, Persians, Brahmins, Buddhists, and Taoists in their highest representatives, but which "re- ceived its full and final expression only in Christianity in its true and uncorrupted significance. All possible religious, whatever they may be, inevitably classify themselves among these three relations of men to the world. Every man who has left the animal condition inevitably recognizes one of these three relations, and in this recogni- tion does the true religion of every man consist, in spite t)f the profession to which he nominally counts himself as belonging. Every man has inevitably some idea about his relation to the world, because a rational being cannot live in the world which surrounds him, without having some relation to it. And since so far only three such relations to the world have been worked out by humanity and are known to us, every man inevitably holds to one of the three existing relations, and, whether he wants or not, belongs to one of these three fundamental religions, among which the whole human race is distributed. 524 KELIGION AND MORALITY And so the very common assertion of the men of the cultured crowd of the Christian world, that they have risen to such a height of evolution that they no longer are in need of any .religion and do not possess it, in reality means this, that these men, in not recognizing the Chris- tian religion, the only one which is proper for our time, are holding to a lower, the pubhc or the primitive pagan religion, without being conscious of the fact. A man without religion, that is, without any relation to the world, is as impossible as a man without a heart. He may not know that he has a religion, just as a man may not know that he has a heart ; but a man cannot live without religion, just as he cannot live without a heart. Eeligion is that relation which a man recognizes as existing between himself and the infinite world surround- ing him, or to its beginning and prime cause, and a rational man cannot help but be in some relation to it. But you wall, perhaps, say that the establishment of man's relation to the world is not the business of religion, but of philosophy, or in general of science, if philosophy is to be considered a part of it. I do not think so. I think, on the contrary, that the assumption that science in general, including philosophy in it, is able to establish man's relation to the world is quite faulty and serves as the chief cause of that confusion of ideas concerning re- ligion, science, and morality, which exists in the cultured strata of our society. Science, with the inclusion of philosophy, cannot estab- lish any relation of man to the infinite world or to its beginning, for the simple reason that before any philos- ophy or science could have originated, there had already to exist that without which no activity of the mind and no relation whatsoever of man to the world are possible. Just as no man can by means of any movement find the direction in which he is to move, while every motion inevitably takes place in some direction, so it is impos- KELIGION AND MOKALITY 525 sible by means of the mental labour of philosophy or science to fmd the direction in which this labour is to be performed, whereas every mental labour has inevitably to be performed in some one given direction. Such a direc- tion is for every mental work always pointed out by religion. Ail philosophies known to us, beginning with Plato and ending with Schopenhauer, have inevitably always followed the direction given to them by religion. The pliilosophy of Plato and of his followers was a pagan philosophy, which investigated the means for the attain- ment of the highest good for the separate personality, as also for the aggregate of personalities in the state. The mediccval philosophy, wdiich resulted from the same pagan conception of life, investigated the means for the salvation of the personality, that is, for the attainment of the high- est good of the personality in the future life, and only in its theocratic endeavours did it treat about the structure of societies. Modern philosophy, both Hegel's and Comte's, has for its basis the social religious concept of life. Schopen- hauer's and Hartmann's philosophy of pessimism, which wanted to free itself from the Jewish religious world-con- ception, involuntarily fell a prey to the religious founda- tions of Buddhism. Pliilosophy has always been and will always be an investigation of wliat results from man's relation to the world as established by religion, because previous to the establishment of this relation there does not exist any material for the philosophic investigation. Even so it is with positive science in the narrower sense of this word. Such a science has always been and always will be nothing but an investigation and study of all those subjects and phenomena which present them- selves as subject to investigation, in consequence of a certain relation of man to the world, as established by religion. Science has always been and always will be, not the 526 KELIGION AND MORALITY study of " everything," as men of science naively think now (that, indeed, is impossible, since there are an infinite number of subjects for investigation), but only of that which religion in regular order and according to the degree of its importance segregates from the infinite num- ber of subjects, phenomena, and conditions that are sub- ject to investigation. And so there is not merely one science, but there are as many sciences as there are de- grees of the development of religion. Every religion segregates a certain circle of subjects of investigation, and so the science of every separate time and nation inevi- tably bears the character of the religion from the stand- point from which it views the subject. Thus the pagan science which was resuscitated during the Eenascence, and which even now flourishes in our society, has always been and continues to be nothing but an investigation of all those conditions under w^hich a man receives the highest good, and of all those phenomena of the world which can furnish it. The Brahmin and the Buddhistic philosophic sciences have always been nothing but an investigation of those conditions under which a man is freed from the sufferings which crush him. The Jewish science (Talmud) has always been nothing but the study and elucidation of those conditions which must be observed by a man, in order to fulfil his compact with God and keep the chosen people on the height of its calling. The true Christian science, the one which is just germinating, is the investigation of those conditions under which man can know the demands of the higher Will which sent him, and apply them to life. Neither philosophy nor science can establish man's relations to the world, because such a relation must be established before any philosophy or science can begin. They cannot yet do so, for this other reason also, because science, with the inclusion of philosophy, investigates phenomena intellectually and independently of the posi- RELIGION AND MORALITY 527 tion of the investigator and of the sensations experienced by him. But man's relation to the world is not defined by reason alone, but also by feeling, by the whole aggre- gate of man's spiritual forces. No matter how much people may try to make it clear to a man that everything in existence is only ideas, that everything consists of atoms, or that the essence of life is substance or will, or that heat, light, motion, electricity are different manifesta- tions of one and the same energy, all that will not explain to him, a feeling, suffering, rejoicing, fearing, and hoping being, his place in the universe. Such a place, and so his relation to the world, is pointed out to him only by religion, which says to him : " The universe exists for you, and so take from this life everything you can take from it ; " or : " You are a member of the nation which is beloved by God, so serve this nation, do everything pre- scribed by God, and you will, together with your nation, receive the highest possible good ; " or : " You are a tool of the highest Will, which sent you into the world for the purpose of doing the work laid out for you, so get ac- quainted with this Will and do it, and you will do for yourself the best you can do." For the comprehension of the data of philosophy and of science, preparation and study are necessary ; for the religious comprehension this is not necessary : it is given to every man, even though he be most limited in compre- sion and most ignorant. For a man to know his relation to the surrounding world or to its beginning, he does not need any philo- sophical or scientific knowledge, — a mass of knowledge, by clogging consciousness, is often only in its way, — but only a renunciation of the vanity of the world, even though but for a time, the consciousness of his material insignificance, and righteousness, which is most frequently found, as it says in the Gospel, among children and the simplest, least informed men. For this reason we see 528 RELIGION AHD MORALITY that frequently the simplest, most uncultured, and unedu- cated people quite clearly, consciously, and easily accept the highest Christian life-conception, while the most learned and cultured of people continue to persist in the crudest paganism. Thus, for example, we see the most refined and highly cultured people assume the meaning of life to consist in personal enjoyment or in the liberation of self from sufferings, as was assumed by the very clever and highly cultured Schopenhauer, while a half-educated Russian peasant sectarian, without the slightest effort, takes the meaning of life to consist in the same that the greatest sages of the world, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, took it to consist in, — in the recognition of oneself as the tool of God's will, as the son of God. But you will ask me : In what does the essence of this unscientific and unphilosophical method of cognition consist ? If this cognition is not philosophical and not scientific, what is it ? By what is it defined ? To these questions I can reply only this, that, since the religious cognition is that on which every other is based, and that which precedes every other cognition, we cannot define it, since we have for it no instrument of definition. In theological parlance this cognition is called revelation. And this appellation, if we do not ascribe to the word " revelation " any false meaning, is quite exact, because this cognition is acquired, not through study, nor through the efforts of an individual person or of individual per- sons, but only through the comprehension by an indi- vidual man or by individual men of the manifestation of infinite reason, which gradually reveals itself to men. Why could not men ten thousand years ago compre- hend that the meaning of their lives is not exhausted by the good of the personahty, and why did there then come a time when the higher conception of life, the social, national, political, was revealed to men ? Why has the Christian life-conception been revealed to men within our RELIGION AND MORALITY 529 historical memory ? Why was it revealed to such a man or men, in such and such a time, in such and such a place, in such and such a form ? To try to answer these questions, by finding the causes of this life-conception in the historical conditions of the time, life, and character of those people who were the first to make it their own and to express it, — in the peculiar properties of these men, — is the same as trying to answer the question as to why the rising sun first hghted up such objects and no other. The sun of truth, rising higher and higher above the world, illuminates it more and more, and is reflected on those objects which first come under the illumination of the sun's rays and which are most capable of reflecting them. But the qualities which make certain men more capable of receiving this rising truth are not any special active properties of the mind, but, on the contrary, passive qualities of the heart, which rarely coincide with a great and curious mind, — renunciation of the vanity of the world, the recognition of his material insignificance, righteousness, as we see it in the case of all the founders of religion, who never were distinguished for any philo- sophic or scientific attainments. In my opinion, the chief error, which more than any other interferes with the true progress of our Christian humanity, consists in this, that the men of science in our time, who are sitting in the seat of Moses, are guided by the pagan world-conception, which was regenerated during the lienascence, and have decided that Christianity is a condition which people have outlived, and that, on the contrary, that pagan, social, antique conception of life, which humanity has actually outlived, and to which they hold, is the highest conception of life, and one which humanity ought unswervingly to profess. With this they not only do not understand the true Christianity, which forms that higher life-conception toward which all hu- manity moves, but even do not try to understand it. 530 RELIGION AND MORALITY The chief source of this misunderstanding consists in this, that the men of science, differing from Christianity and seeing the lack of correspondence between their science and Christianity, have found guilty of it, not their science, but Christianity ; that is, they have considered not what is the fact, namely, that their science is eighteen hundred years behind Christianity, which has already taken pos- session of a great part of modern society, but that Chris- tianity has fallen behind science for eighteen hundred years. From this exchange of roles arises that striking phe- nomenon that no people have more confused conceptions about the essence of the true significance of religions, about religion, about morality, about life, than the men of science ; and a still more striking phenomenon is this, that the science of our time, which in its field of the investigation of the conditions of the material world has indeed accomplished great results, has appeared as quite useless in the life of men, and sometimes even produces harmful results. And so I think that it is not philosophy and not science, but religion that establishes man's relation to the world. And so, in response to your first question, as to what T understand by the word " religion," I will say : religion is a certain relation which is established by man between himself and the eternal, infinite world, or its beginning and prime cause. From this answer to the first question naturally results the answer to the second : If religion is an established relation between man and the world, which determines the meaning of his life, mo- rality is the indication and elucidation of that activity of man which naturally results from this or that relation of man to the world. But since we know only two such RELIGION AND MORALITY 531 fundamental relations to the world or to its beginning, if we consider the pagan social relation as an expansion of the personal, or three, if we consider the pagan social relation separately, there exist but three moral teach- ings : the primitive savage moral teaching, the pagan personal, or social, moral teaching, and the Christian moral teaching, that is, the service of God, or the divine teaching. From man's first relation to the world arise the moral teaching common to all the pagan religions, which have for their basis the striving after the good of the separate personality, and which, therefore, define all the conditions which give the highest good to the personality and point out the means for the attainment of this good. From this relation to the world result the Epicurean moral teach- ing in its lowest manifestation, the Mohammedan teaching or morality, which promises a gross good to the personal- ity in this world and in the world to come, and the teaching of the worldly utilitarian morality, which has for its aim only the good of the personality in this world. From the same teaching, which regards as the aim of life the good of the individual person, and so liberation from the sufferings of the personality, arises the moral teaching of Buddhism in its gross form, and the worldly teaching of pessimism. From the second, the pagan relation of man to the world, which sets as the aim of life the good of a certain aggregate of personalities, there result the moral teachings which demand of man the service to this aggregate, whose good is recognized to be the aim of life. According to this teaching the enjoyment of the personal good is ad- mitted only to the extent to which it is acquired by the whole aggregate which forms the religious foundation of life. From this relation to the world arise the familiar moral teachings of the ancient Roman and Greek worlds, where the personality always sacrificed itself for society, 532 RELIGION AND MORALITY and such is also the Chinese morality ; from this same relation arises the Jewish morality, — the subordination of one's good to the good of the chosen nation, and the morality of our time, which demands the sacrifices of the personality for the conventional good of the majority. From the same relation to the universe arises the morality of the majority of women, who sacrifice their personalities for the good of the family, and chiefly of their children. All ancient history, and partly medieeval and modern history, is full of descriptions of the exploits of this domestic-social morality. And in our time the majority of men, who imagine that, by professing Christianity, they are practising Christian morality, in reality follow nothing but the pagan morality, and this morality they take as the ideal of the education of the younger generation. From the third, the Christian relation to the world, which consists in man's recognition of himself as a tool of the higher will for the fulfilment of its purposes, there result the moral teachings corresponding to this compre- hension of life, which elucidate man's dependence on the higher will, and which determine the demands of this will. From this relation of man to the world result all the higher moral teachings known to humanity, — the Pythagorean, Stoic, Buddhistic, Brahmin, Taoist, in their highest manifestations, and the Christian in its true mean- ing, which demands the renunciation of the personal will, and not only of the personal, but also of the domestic and the social good, for the sake of doing the will of Him who sent us into this life, as revealed to us in our conscious- ness. From this second or third relation to the infinite world or its beginning arises the true, unhypocritical morality of every man, independently of what he nom- inally professes or preaches as morality, or what he wants to seem. Thus in the case of a man who recognizes the essence of his relation to the world to be the acquisition of the RELIGION AND MORALITY 633 highest good for himself, no matter how much he may say about considering it moral to live for the family, for society, for the state, for humanity, or for the fulfilment of God's will, may artfully dissemble before people, de- ceiving them, the real motive of his activity will always be only the good of his personality, so that, when the necessity of the choice presents itself, he will not sacrifice his personality for the family, for the state, for the fulfil- ment of God's will, but will sacrifice everything for him- self, because, seeing the meaning of his life only in the good of his personality, he cannot act differently, so long as he does not change his relation to the world. Similarly, no matter how much a man, whose relation to the world consists in serving his family (women are preeminently such), or his race, his nation (such are the men of the oppressed nationahties or politicians in the time of struggle), may say that he is a Christian, his morahty will always be either domestic or national, but not Chris- tian, and when the necessity comes of choosing between the domestic, the social, and the personal good, or be- tween the social good and the fulfilment of God's will, he will inevitably choose the service of the good of that aggregate of men for which he exists, according to his world-conception, because only in tliis service does he see the meaning of his life. And similarly, no matter how much a man who takes his relation to the world to consist in the fulfilment of the will of Him who sent him, may be impressed with the idea that he should, in conformity with the demands of personality, family, the nation, humanity, commit acts that are contrary to this higher will, which is cognized by him in the name of the qualities of reason and love implanted in him, he will always sacrifice all his Imman ties only not to transgress the will of Him who sent him, because only in the fulfil- ment of this will does he see the meaning of his hfe. Morahty cannot be independent of religion, because it 634 EELIGION AND MOEALITY is not only the consequence of religion, that is, of the re- lation which a man recognizes himself to have to the world, but is already included, implied, in religion. Every rehgion is an answer to the question as to what constitutes the meaning of one's life. And the religious answer in- cludes a certain moral demand which at times may arise after the explanation of the meaning of life, and at times before it. In response to the question as to the meaning of life we may say : the meaning of life is in the good of personality, and so enjoy all the goods that are accessible to you ; or : the meaning of hfe is in the good of a certain group of men, and so serve this group with all your strength ; or : the meaning of life is in the doing of the will of Him who sent you, aud so try with all your strength to know this will aud to do it. The same question may also be answered as follows : the meaning of your life is in your personal enjoyment, because in this does man's destiny lie ; or : the meaning of your life is in the service of that aggregate of which you consider yourself to be a member, because in this does your destiny lie ; or : the meaning of your life is in the service of God, because in this does your destiny lie. Morality is contained in the explanation of Hfe as given by rehgion, and so it can in no way be separated from re- ligion. This truth is particularly evident in the attempts of the non-Christian philosophers to deduce the teaching of the highest morality from their philosophy. These philosophers see that the Christian philosophy is indis- pensable, that it is impossible to live without it; more than that : they see that it exists, and they want in some way to connect it with their non-Christian philosophy and even to represent matters in such a form as though the Christian philosophy resulted from their pagan or social philosophy. This they try to do, but it is these very attempts that more obviously than anything else show, not only the independence of the Christian morahty, but RELIGION AND MORALITY 535 even the complete contradiction between it and the pagan philosophy. The Christian ethics, the one which we recognize in couvsequence of our religious world-conception, not only demands the sacrifice of the personality for the aggregate of personalities, but also tlie renunciation of one's own personality and of the aggregate of personalities for the purpose of serving God ; but the pagan philosophy inves- tigates only the means for attaining the greatest good of the personality or of the aggregate of personalities, and so the contradiction is inevitable. In order to conceal this contradiction, there is but one means, — and that is, to heap abstract conventional concepts upon one another. Thus preeminently have acted the philosophers since the time of the Renascence, and to this circumstance — to the impossibility of harmonizing the demands of the Christian morality, which is assumed in advance as given, with philosophy, which starts from pagan foundations — has to be ascribed that terrible abstraction, obscurity, incom- prehensibility, and estrangement from life, which are displayed by the modern philosophy. With the ex- ception of Spinoza, who in his philosophy, in spite of his not being a Christian, starts from truly Christian founda- tions, and of ingenious Kant, who established liis ethics independently of his metaphysics, all the other philoso- phers, even brilliant Schopenhauer, apparently invent an artificial connection between their ethics and their meta- physics. It is felt that the Christian ethics is something given in advance, which stands quite firmly and independently of philosophy and is in no need of the fictitious supports which are put under it, and that philosophy only invents such propositions that the given ethics may not contradict it, but may combine with it and, as it were, result from it. But all th(;se propositions seem to justify the Chris- tian ethics only so long as they are \4ewed in the 536 RELIGION AND MORALITY abstract. The moment they are applied to questions of practical life, not only the disagreement, but even the obvious contradiction, between the philosophic bases with what we consider to be morality comes out in full force. Unfortunate Nietzsche, who has of late become so famous, is precious in so far as he points out this contra- diction. He is incontrovertible, when he says that all the rules of morahty, from the standpoint of the existing non-Christian philosophy, are nothing but lying and hy- pocrisy, and that it is more advantageous, more agreeable, and more rational for people to form a society of Ueber- menschen and be such, than to be that crowd which must serve only as a scaffolding for these Uebermenschen. No structures of philosophy, which starts from the pagan phil- osophical world-conception, can prove to man that it is more advantageous and rational for him to hve, not for his desirable, comprehensible, and possible good, or for the good of his family, his society, but for a foreign, undesira- ble, and incomprehensible good, which is inaccessible by any human insignificant means. A philosophy which is based on the comprehension of life as to be contained in the good of man will never be able to prove to a rational man, who knows that he may die any moment, that it is good and proper for him to renounce his desirable, com- prehensible, and undoubted good, not even for the good of others, because he can nsver know what the conse- quences from his sacrifice will be, but only because it is proper and good, because it is a categorical imperative. It is impossible to prove this from the standpoint of pagan philosophy. To prove that all men are equal, that it is better for a man to give his life in the service of others than to make other men serve him, by treading on their lives, it is necessary differently to define one's rela- tion to the world : it is necessary to prove that man's position is such that he has nothing else to do, because the meaning of his life is only in the fulfilment of the will RELIGION AND MORALITY 537 of Him who sent him ; but the will of Him who sent him is that he should give his life for the service of men. It is only rehgion which makes this change in man's relation to the world. The same is true of the attempts to deduce Christian morahty from the fundamental positions of pagan science, and to harmonize the two. No sophisms and no sinuosi- ties of thought will destroy the simple and obvious posi- tion that the law of evolution, which lies at the foundation of the whole science of our time, is based on a general, eternal, and unchangeable law, on the law of the struggle for existence and of the survival of the fittest, and that, therefore, every man, for the attainment of his good or of the good of his society, must be this fittest and must make his society such, in order tliat not he and not his society, but some other, less fitted one, may perish. No matter how much certain naturalists, who have become frightened at the logical conclusions from this law, and from their application to human life, may try to bury this law under words and circumvent it, all their attempts only show more obviously the ineradicability of this law, which guides the hfe of the whole organic world, and so also of man viewed as an animal. Just as I was writing this, there appeared a Russian translation of Mr. Huxley's article, composed from a late lecture of his on evolution and ethics, which he delivered before some English society. In this article the learned professor, like our well- known Professor Bek(5tov and many others who have written on the same subject with the same lack of suc- cess as their predecessors, tries to prove that the struggle for existence does not impair morality, and that with the recognition of the law of the struggle for existence as the fundamental law of life, morality can not only exist, but even be perfected. Mr. Huxley's article is full of all kinds of jests, verses, and general considerations of the 538 KELIGION AND MORALITY religion and the philosophy of the ancients, and in conse- quence of this is so full of flourishes, and so confused, that it is only with great difficulty that one can get at its fundamental idea. This idea is as follows : the law of evolution is contrary to the law of morality, — this was known to the ancients, both of the Greek and of the Indian world. The philosophy and the religion of the two nations brought them to the teaching of self-renunciation. This teaching, according to the author's view, is incorrect, and this is what is correct : there exists a law, which the author calls the cosmic law, according to which all beings fight among themselves, and only the fittest survives. Man, too, is subject to this law, and only thanks to this law has man developed into what he now is. But this law is contrary to morahty. How is this law to be harmon- ized with morality ? Like this : there exists a social progress, which strives to retard the cosmic and to substi- tute for it another process, the ethical, whose purpose is no longer the survival of the fittest, but of the best in the ethical sense. Mr. Huxley does not explain whence comes this ethical process, but in the nineteenth note he says that the basis of this progress consists in this, that on the one hand men, hke the animals, themselves like to be in society, and repress in themselves the property which is detrimental for society, and on the other, the members of society forcibly suppress the acts which are contrary to the good of society. It appears to Mr. Huxley that this process, which causes people to bridle their pas- sions for the preservation of the aggregate of which they are members, and the fear of being punished for the vio- lation of the orders of the aggregate, are the same ethical law, the existence of which he has to prove. Morality is something constantly developing and grow- ing, and so the non-violation of the established rules of a certain society, their retention by any external means, of which Mr. Huxley speaks as of tools of morality, will not RELIGION AND MOEALITY 639 only fail to be a confirmation, but will even be a violation of morality. Every cannibal who stops eating his like, and acts in conformity with this, will violate the order of his society. And it is uncj^uestionable that every truly moral act, which advances morality, will always be a vio- lation of the habits of society. And so, if in society there has appeared a law according to which men sacrifice their advantages for the preservation of the integrity of their so- ciety, this law is not an ethical law, but, on the contrary, generally a law which is opposed to every ethics, the same law of the struggle for existence, only in a latent condition. It is the same struggle for existence, only that it is transferred from the units to their aggregate. It is not the cessation of fighting, but the swinging of the hand in order to strike more powerfully. If the law of the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest is an eternal law of everything living (and it cannot be viewed otherwise in the case of man con- sidered as an animal), no confused reflections concerning the social progress and the ethical law, which, like the deus ex machina, leaping out no one knows whence, is supposed to result from it, can impair this law. If social progress, as Mr. Huxley asserts, collects people into groups, the same struggle and the same survival will take place among families, tribes, nations, and this strug- gle will not only not be more moral, but will be much more cruel and immoral, than the struggle of individuals, as we see to be the case in reality. If we assume the impossible, namely, tliat all humanity will in a thousand years, through the one social progress, be united into one whole, will form one nation and one state, even then, to say nothing of the fact that the struggle, made void between the nations, will pass into the struggle between humanity and the world of animals, struggle will always remain struggle, that is, an activity which radically excludes the possibility of the Christian 540 RELIGION AND MORALITY morality as recognized by us. To say nothing of this, even then the struggle between the individuals forming aggregates, and between the aggregates of families, tribes, nationalities, will not in the least be diminished, but will only take place in another form, as we see in all the combinations of men into social groups. Members of a family quarrel and struggle among themselves as much as outsiders, and frequently more savagely and more furiously. Similarly in the state : among the men who hve in the state there is continued the same struggle as among the men living outside the state, only under different forms. If the feeble are saved in the family and in the state, this does not happen at all in consequence of their social union, but because among the men united into families and states there is self-sacrifice and love. If outside the family only the fittest of two children sur- vives, while in the family, with a good mother, both will remain alive, this is not at all due to the combination of men into families, but because mothers have love and self-sacrifice. But neither self-sacrifice nor love can in any way result from social progress. To assert that social progress produces morality is the same as to assert that the construction of stoves produces heat. Heat is produced by the sun, and stoves produce heat only when wood, that is, sun's work, is put into them. Similarly morality results from religion, while the special forms of life produce morality only when into these forms of life have been put the consequences of the religious influence upon people, — morality. Fires may be made in stoves, and then they will give heat, or no fires may be made in them, and then they will remain cold ; similarly the social forms may include mo- rality and then morally affect society, or not include morality and then remain without any effect upon society. RELIGION AND MORALITY 541 Christian morality cannot be based on the pagan com- prehension of hfe, and cannot be deduced from philosophy, nor from non-Christian science ; it not only cannot be de- duced from them, but cannot even be harmonized with them. Thus every serious, severe, consistent philosophy and science have always understood the matter. " If our propositions do not agree with morahty, so much the worse for it," quite correctly say such philosophy and science, and they continue to carry on their investigations. Ethical treatises, which are not based on religion, and even lay catechisms are written and taught, and people may imagine that humanity is guided by them, but that only seems so, because in reality men are not guided by these treatises and catechisms, but by religion, which they have always had, while the treatises and catechisms only imitate what naturally results from rehgion. The prescriptions of the lay morality that are not based on the religious teaching are very much like what a man would do if, not knowing music, he should take the direc- tor's place and swing his arms in front of the musicians doing their usual work. The music, thanks to inertia and to what the musiciaiis have learned from previous direc- tors, would last a little while longer ; but it is evident that the swaying of the baton by him who does not know music would not only not be useful, but would in time certainly confuse the musicians and break up the or- chestra. A similar confusion is beginning to take place in the minds of the men of our time, in consequence of the attempts of the leaders to teach a morality which is not based on that higher religion which is l^eing adopted and partly is already adopted by the Christian morality. The attempts at founding a morality outside of religion are like what children do, when, wishing to transplant a plant to which they have taken a fancy, they tear off the root, which they do not hke and which seems super- 542 RELIGION AND MORALITY fluous, and without the root stick the plant into the ground. Without a rehgious foundation there can be no real, sincere morality, just as without a root there can be no real plant. And so, replying to your two questions, I say : " Relig- ion is a certain relation, established by man, of his sepa- rate personality to the infinite world or to its beginning ; but morality is a constant guide of hfe, resulting from this relation." CONTENTS The Kingdom of God Is within You Christianity and Patriotism Keason and Religion Patriotism or Peack Letter to Ernest Howard Crosby FAGE 1 381 459 467 481 INTRODUCTIONS TO BOOKS A. Stockham's Tokology A MI el's Diary S. T. Semi^nov's Peasant Stories Works of Guy de Maupassant . 499 501 506 509 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU Or, Christianity Not as a Mystical Teaching but as a New Concept of Life ^h3 'i THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU Or, Christianity Not as a Mystical Teaching but as a New Concept of Life And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John viii. 23). And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul : but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matt. x. 28). Ye are bought with a price ; be not ye the servants of men (1. Cor. vii. 23). In the year 1884 I wrote a book under the title, My Religion. In this book I really expounded what my religion is. In expounding my belief in Christ's teaching, I could not help but express the reason why I do not believe in the ecclesiastic faith, which is generally called Christianity, and why I consider it to be a delusion. Among the many deviations of this teaching of Christ, I pointed out the chief deviation, namely, the failure to acknowledge the commandment of non-resistance to evil, which more obviously than any other shows the distortion of Christ's teaching in the church doctrine. I knew very little, like the rest of us, as to what had 8 4 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU been done and preached and written in former days on this subject of non-resistance to evil. I knew what had been said on this subject by the fathers of the church, Origeu, Tertulhan, and others, and I knew also that there have existed certain so-called sects of the Mennonites, Herrnhuters, Quakers, who do not admit for a Christian the use of weapons and who do not enter military service, but what had been done by these so-called sects for the solution of this question was quite unknown to me. My book, as I expected, was held back by the Eussian censor, but, partly in consequence of my reputation as a writer, partly because it interested people, this book was disseminated in manuscripts and lithographic reprints in Eussia and in translations abroad, and called forth, on the one hand, on the part of men who shared my views, a series of references to works written on the subject, and, on the other, a series of criticisms on the thoughts expressed in that book itself. Both, together with the historical phenomena of recent times, have made many things clear to me and have brought me to new deductions and conclusions, which I wish to express. First I shall tell of the information which I received concerning the history of the question of non-resistance to evil, then of the opinions on this subject which were expressed by ecclesiastic critics, that is, such as profess the Christian religion, and also by laymen, that is, such as do not profess the Christian religion ; and finally, those deductions to which I was brought by both and by the historical events of recent times. Among the first answers to my book there came some letters from the American Quakers. In these letters, which express their sympathy with my views concerning the unlawfulness for Christianity of all violence and war, the Quakers informed me of the details of their so-called sect, which for more than two hundred years has in fact professed Christ's teaching about non-resistance to evil, and which has used no arms in order to defend itself. With their letters, the Quakers sent me their pamphlets, periodicals, and books. From these periodicals, pamphlets, and books which they sent me I learned to what extent they had many years ago incontestably proved the obliga- tion for a Christian to fulfil the commandment about non- resistance to evil and had laid bare the incorrectness of the church teaching, which admitted executions and wars. Having proved, by a whole series of considerations and texts, that war, that is, the maiming and killing of men, is incompatible with a religion which is based on love of peace and good-will to men, the Quakers affirm and prove that nothing has so much contributed to the obscuration of Christ's truth in the eyes of the pagans and impeded the dissemination of Christianity in the world as the non- acknowledgment of tliis commandment by men who called themselves Christians, — as the permission granted to a Christian to wage war and use violence. " Christ's teaching, which entered into the consciousness of men, not by means of the sword and of violence," they say, "but by means of non-resistance to evil, can be dis- seminated in the world oidy througli humility, meekness, peace, concord, and love among its followers. 6 6 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU " A Christian, according to the teaching of God Him- self, can be guided in his relations to men by peace only, and so there cannot be such an authority as would compel a Christian to act contrary to God's teaching and contrary to the chief property of a Christian in relation to those who are near to him. " The rule of state necessity," they say, " may compel those to become untrue to God's law, who for the sake of worldly advantages try to harmonize what cannot be har- monized, but for a Christian, who sincerely believes in this, that the adherence to Christ's teaching gives him salvation, this rule can have no meaning." My acquaintance with the activity of the Quakers and with their writings, — with Fox, Paine, and especially with Dymond's book (1827), — showed me that not only had the impossibility of uniting Christianity with violence and war been recognized long ago, but that this incompati- bility had long ago been proved so clearly and so incon- testably that one has only to marvel how this impossible connection of the Christian teaching with violence, which has been preached all this time by the churches, could have been continued. Besides the information received by me from the Quakers, I, at about the same time, received, again from America, information in regard to the same subject from an entirely different source, which had been quite un- known to me before. The son of William Lloyd Garrison, the famous cham- pion for the liberation of the negroes, wrote to me that, when he read my book, in which he found ideas resem- bling those expressed by his father in 1838, he, assuming that it might be interesting for me to know this, sent me the " Declaration of Non-resistance," which his father had made about fifty years ago. This declaration had its origin under the following con- ditions : Wilham Lloyd Garrison, in speaking before a THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 7 society for the establishment of peace among men, which existed in America in 1838, about the measures for abol- ishing war, came to the conclusion that the establishment of universal peace could be based only on the obvious rec- ognition of the commandment of non-resistance to evil (Matt. V. 39) in all its significance, as this was under- stood by the Quakers, with whom Garrison stood in friendly relations. When he came to this conclusion, he formulated and proposed to the society the following declaration, which was then, in 1838, signed by many members. DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS ADOPTED BY THE PEACE CONVENTION, HELD IN BOSTON IN 1838 " We, the undersigned, regard it as due to ourselves, to the cause which we love, to the country in which we live, and to the world, to publish a Declaration, expressive of the principles we cherish, the purposes we aim to accom- plish, and the measures we shall adopt to carry forward the work of peaceful and universal reformation. " We cannot acknowledge allegiance to any human government. . . . We recognize but one King and Law- giver, one Judge and Ruler of mankind. . . . " Our country is the world, our countrymen are all mankind. We love the land of our nativity, only as we love all other lands. The interests, rights, and liberties of American citizens are no more dear to us than are those of the whole human race. Hence we can allow no appeal to patriotism, to revenge any national insult or injury. . . . " We conceive, that if a nation has no right to defend itself against foreign enemies, or to punish its invaders, no individual possesses that right in his own case. The unit cannot be of greater importance than the aggregate. , . . But if a rappcious and bloodthirsty soldiery, throng- 8 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU ing these shores from abroad, with intent to commit rapine and destroy life, may not be resisted by the people or magistracy, then ought no resistance to be offered to domestic troublers of the public peace, or of private security. ... " The dogma, that all the governments of the world are approvingly ordained of God, and that the powers that be in the United States, in Russia, in Turkey, are in accordance with His will, is not less absurd than impious. It makes the impartial Author of human freedom and equality unequal and tyrannical. It cannot be alfirmed that the powers that be, in any nation, are actuated by the spirit, or guided by the example of Christ, in the treatment of enemies : therefore, they cannot be agreeable to the will of God : and, therefore, their overthrow, by a spiritual regeneration of their subjects, is inevitable. " We register our testimony, not only against all wars, whether offensive or defensive, but all preparations for war ; against every naval ship, every arsenal, every forti- fication ; against the militia system and a standing army ; against all military chieftains and soldiers ; against all monuments commemorative of victory over a foreign foe, all trophies won in battle, all celebrations in honour of military or naval exploits : against all appropriations for the defence of a nation by force and arms on the part of any legislative body ; against every edict of government, requiring of its subjects military service. Hence, we deem it unlawful to bear arms, or to hold a military office. " As every human government is upheld by physical strength, and its laws are enforced virtually at the point of the bayonet, we cannot hold any office which imposes upon its incumbent the obligation to do right, on pain of imprisonment or death. We therefore voluntarily exclude ourselves from every legislative and judicial body, and repudiate all human politics, worldly honours, and stations of authority. If we cannot occupy a seat in the legisla- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 9 ture, or on the bench, neither can we elect others to act as our substitutes in any such capacity. " It follows that we cannot sue any man at law, to compel him by force to restore anything which he may have wrongfully taken from us or others ; but, if he has seized our coat, we shall surrender up our cloak, rather than subject him to punishment. " We believe that the penal code of the old covenant, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, has been abrogated by Jesus Christ ; and that, under the new cov- enant, the forgiveness, instead of the punishment of enemies, has been enjoined upon all His disciples, in all cases whatsoever. To extort money from enemies, or set them upon a pillory, or cast them into prison, or hang them upon a gallows, is obviously not to forgive, but to take retribution. . . . " The history of mankind is crowded with evidences, proving that physical coercion is not adapted to moral regeneration ; that the sinful disposition of man can be subdued only by love ; that evil can be exterminated from the earth only l)y goodness; that it is not safe to rely upon an arm of flesh. ... to preserve us from harm ; that there is great security in being gentle, harm- less, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy ; that it is only the meek who sliall inherit the earth, for the violent, who resort to the sword, shall perish with the sword. Hence, as a measure of sound policy, of safety to property, life, and liberty, of public quietude, and private enjoyment, as well as on the ground of allegiance to Him who is King of kings, and Lord of lords, we cordially adopt the non- resistance principle ; being confident that it provides for all possible consequences, will ensure all things needful to us, is armed with omnipotent power, and must ulti- mately triumph over every assailing foe. " We advocate no Jacobinical doctrines. The spirit of jacobinism is the spirit of retaliation, violence, and mur- 10 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU der. It neither fears God, nor regards man. We would be filled with the spirit of Christ. If we abide by our principles, it is impossible for us to be disorderly, or plot treason, or participate in any evil work : we shall submit to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake ; obey all the requirements of government, except such as we deem contrary to the commands of the gospel ; and in no wise resist the operation of law, except by meekly submitting to the penalty of disobedience. " But, while we shall adhere to the doctrines of non- resistance and passive submission to enemies, we purpose, in a moral and spiritual sense, to speak and act boldly in the cause of God ; to assail iniquity in high places and in low places ; to apply our principles to all existing civil, political, legal, and ecclesiastical institutions ; and to hasten the time when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever. " It appears to us as a self-evident truth, that, what- ever the gospel is designed to destroy, any period of the world, being contrary to it, ought now to be abandoned. If, then, the time is predicted, when swords shall be beaten into ploughshares, and spears into pruning-hooks, and men shall not learn the art of war any more, it follows that all who manufacture, sell, or wield these deadly weapons do thus array themselves against the peaceful dominion of the Son of God on earth. " Having thus briefly, but frankly, stated our principles and purposes, we proceed to specify the measures we propose to adopt, in carrying our object into effect. " We expect to prevail through the foolishness of preach- ing — striving to commend ourselves unto every man's conscience, in the sight of God. From the press, we shall promulgate our sentiments as widely as practicable. We shall endeavour to secure the cooperation of all persons, of whatever name or sect. . . . Hence we shall employ THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 11 lectures, circulate tracts and publicatious, form societies, and petition our State and national governments in rela- tion to the subject of universal peace. It will be our leading object to devise ways and means for effecting a radical change in the views, feelings, and practices of society respecting the sinfulness of war, and the treat- ment of enemies. " In entering upon the great work before us, we are not unmindful that, in its prosecution, we may be called to test our sincerity, even as in a fiery ordeal. It may sub- ject us to insult, outrage, suffering, yea, even death itself. We anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, calumny. Tumults may arise against us. The ungodly and the violent, the proud and pharisa- ical, the ambitious and tyrannical, principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in higli places, may combine to crush us. So they treated the Messiah, whose example we are humbly striving to imitate. . . . We shall not be afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. Our confidence is in the Lord Almighty, not in man. Having withdrawn from human protection, what can sustain us but that faith whicli overcomes the world ? We shall not think it strange concerning the fiery ordeal which is to try us, as though some strange thing had happened unto us ; but rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers of Christ's sufferings. Wherefore, we com- mit the keeping of our souls to God, in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator. ' For every one that forsakes houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for Christ's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.' " Firmly relying upon the certain and universal triumph of the sentiments contained in this Declaration, however formidable may be the opposition arrayed against them, in solenm testimony of our faith in their divine origin, we hereby affix our signatures to it; commending it to the 12 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS VriTHIN YOU reason and conscience of mankind, giving ourselves no anx- iety as to what may befall us, and resolving, in the strength of the Lord God, calmly and meekly to abide the issue." Immediately after this declaration Garrison founded a society of non-resistance, and a periodical, called The Non-Resistant, in which was preached the doctrine of non-resistance in all its significance and with all its con- sequences, as it had been expressed in the " Declaration." The information as to the later fate of the society and the periodical of non-resistance I received from the beautiful biography of WilHam Lloyd Garrison, written by his sons. The society and the periodical did not exist long : the majority of Garrison's collaborators in matters of freeing the slaves, fearing lest the too radical demands, as ex- pressed in The Non-Resistant, might repel people from the practical work of the liberation of the negroes, re- fused to profess the principle of non-resistance, as it had been expressed in the " Declaration," and the society and the periodical ceased to exist. This " Declaration " by Garrison, which so powerfully and so beautifully expressed such an important profession of faith, ought, it seems, to have startled men and to have become universally known and a subject of wide discus- sion. But nothing of the kind happened. It is not only unknown in Europe, but even among the Americans, who so highly esteem Garrison's memory, this declaration is almost unknown. The same ingloriousness has fallen to the share of an- other champion of non-resistance to evil, the American Adin Ballou, who lately died, and who preached this doc- trine for fifty years. How little is known of w^hat refers to the question of non-resistance may be seen from the fact that Garrison's son, who has written an excellent biography of his father in four volumes, this son of Gar- rison, in reply to my question whether the society of non- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 13 resistance was still in existence, and whether there were any followers of it, answered me that so far as he knew the society had fallen to pieces, and there existed no fol- lowers of this doctrine, whereas at the time of his writing, there lived in Hopedale, Massachusetts, Adiu Ballon, who had taken part in Garrison's labours and had devoted fifty years of his life to the oral and printed propaganda of the doctrine of non-resistance. Later on I received a letter from Wilson, a disciple and assistant of Ballon, and en- tered into direct communication with Ballon himself. I wrote to Ballon, and he answered me and sent me his writings. Here are a few extracts from them : " Jesus Christ is my Lord and Master," says Ballou in one of the articles,^ in which he arraigns the inconsistency of the Christians who recognize the right of defence and war. " I have covenanted to forsake all and follow Him, through good and evil report, until death. But I am nevertheless a Democratic-Bepublican citizen of the United States, implicitly sworn to bear true allegiance to my country, and to support its Constitution, if need be, with my life. Jesus Christ requires me to do unto others as I would that others should do unto me. The Consti- tution of the United States requires me to do unto twenty-seven hundred slaves " (there were slaves then, now we may put the working people in their place) " the very contrary of what I would have them do unto me, viz., assist to keep them in a grievous bondage. . . . But I am quite easy. I vote on. I help govern on. I am willing to hold any olilce I may be elected to under the Constitution. And I am still a Christian. I profess on. I find no difficulty in keeping covenant both with Christ and the Constitution. . . . " Jesus Christ forbids me to resist evil-doers by taking ' eye for eye, tooth for tooth, blood for blood, and life for ^In The Non-Resistant, Vol. i., No. 4, Hopedale, Milford, Mass., Feb. 15, 1845. 14 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU life.' My government requires the very reverse, and de- pends, for its own self-preservation, on the halter, the musket, and the sword, seasonably employed against its domestic and foreign enemies. Accordingly, the land is well furnished with gibbets, prisons, arsenals, train-bands, soldiers, and ships-of-war. In the maintenance and use of this expensive life-destroying apparatus, we can exem- plify the virtues of forgiving our iujurers, loving our ene- mies, blessing them that curse us, and doing good to those that hate us. For this reason, we have regular Christian chaplains to pray for us, and call down the sins of God on our holy murderers. . . . "I see it all; and yet I insist that I am as good a Christian as ever. I fellowship all; I vote on; I help govern on ; I profess on ; and I glory in being at once a devoted Christian, and a no less devoted adherent to the existing government. I will not give in to those miser- able non-resistant notions. I will not throw away my political influence, and leave unprincipled men to carry on government alone. . . . " The Constitution says, ' Congress shall have power to declare war.' ... I agree to this. I endorse it. I swear to help carry it through. . . . What then, am I less a Christian ? Is not war a Christian service ? Is it not perfectly Christian to murder hundreds of thousands of fellow human beings ; to ravish defenceless females, sack and burn cities, and exact all the other cruelties of war ? Out upon these new-fangled scruples ! This is the very way to forgive injuries, and love our enemies ! If we only do it all in true love, nothing can be more Christian than wholesale murder ! " In another pamphlet, under the title. How Many Does It TakeJ^ he says, "How many does it take to meta- morphose wickedness into righteousness ? One man must iNot a pamphlet, but an article iu The Non-Resistant, Vol. i. No. 4, and very imperfectly quoted by Tolstdy. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 15 not kill. If he does, it is murder. Two, ten, one hun- dred men, acting on their own responsibility, must not kill. If they do, it is still murder. But a state or nation may kill as many as they please, and it is no murder. It is just, necessary, commendable, and right. Only get people enough to agi'ee to it, and the butchery of myriads of human beings is perfectly innocent. But how many men does it take ? This is the question. Just so with theft, robbery, burglary, and all other crimes. . . . But a whole nation can commit it. . . . But how many does it take ? " 1 Here is Ballou's catechism, composed for his flock (^The Catechism of Non-Resistance ^) : Q. "Whence originated the term " non-resistance ? " A. Trom the injunction, " Ptesist not evil," Matt. v. 39. Q. What does the term signify ? A. It expresses a high Christian virtue, prescribed by Christ. Q. Is the word " resistance " to be taken in its widest meaning, that is, as showing that no resistance whatever is to be shown to evil ? A. No, it is to be taken in the strict sense of the Saviour's injunction ; that is, we are not to retaliate evil with evil. Evil is to be resisted by all just means, but never with evil. Q. From what can we see that Christ in such cases prescribed non-resistance ? A. From the words which He then used. He said, i To this Tolst6y adds, on his own responsibility : " Why must one, ten, one hundred men not violate God's law, while very many may ? " 2 Translated freely, with some omissions. — Author^ s Note. I fail to 11 nd this Catechism in any of Ballou's writings accessible in and about 15o.ston. The nearest approach to these questions and answers is found scattered thmnirhont his Christian Non-Iiesisfance, in Its Important Bearings, Illustrated and Defended, Philadelphia, 1846. 16 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU " Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you that ye resist not evil ; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." Q. To whom does Jesus refer in the words, " It has been said ? " A. To the patriarchs and prophets, to what they said, — to what is contained in the writings of the Old Testa, ment, which the Jews generally call the Law and the Prophets. Q. What injunctions did Christ mean by " It hath been said ? " A. Those injunctions by which Noah, Moses, and other prophets authorize men to inflict personal injury on injurers, in order to punish and destroy evil. Q. Quote these precepts. A. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed : for in the image of God made He man (Gen. ix. 6). He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death, and if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe (Ex. xxi. 12, 23-25). And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour ; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him : breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth : as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again (Lev. xxiv. 17, 19, 20). And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testi- fied falsely against his brother ; then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: and thine eye shall not pity ; but life shall go for life. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 17 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot (Deut. xix. 18, 19, 21). These are the precepts of which Jesus is speaking. Noah, Moses, and the prophets taught that he who kills, maims, and tortures his neighbours does evil. To resist such evil and destroy it, the doer of evil is to be punished by death or maiming or some personal injury. Insult is to be opposed to insult, murder to murder, torture to torture, evil to evil. Thus taught Noah, Moses, and the proph- ets. But Christ denies it all. "But I say unto you," it says in the Gospel, " that ye resist not evil, resist not an insult with an insult, but rather bear the repeated insult from the doer of evil." What was authorized is pro- hibited. If we understand what kind of resistance they taught, we clearly see what we are taught by Christ's non- resistance. Q. Did the ancients authorize the resistance of insult with insult ? A. Yes; but Jesus prohibited this. A Christian has under no condition the right to deprive of life or to sub- ject to insult him who does evil to his neighbour. Q. May a man kill or maim another in self-defence ? A. No. Q. May he enter a court with a complaint, to have his insulter punished ? A. No ; for what he is doing through others, he is in reality doing in his own person. Q. May he fight with an army against enemies, or against domestic rebels ? A. Of course not. He cannot take any part in war or warlike preparations. He cannot use death-dealing arms. He cannot resist injury with injury, no matter whether he be alone or with others, through himself or through others. Q. May he choose or fit out military men for the government ? 18 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU A. He can do nothing of the kind, if he wishes to be true to Christ's law. Q. May he vokmtarily give money, to aid the govern- ment, which is supported by mihtary forces, capital pun- ishment, and violence in general ? A. No, if the money is not intended for some special object, just in itself, where the aim and means are good. Q. May he pay taxes to such a government ? A. No ; he must not voluntarily pay the taxes, but he must also not resist their collection. The taxes imposed by the government are collected independently of the will of the subjects. It is impossible to resist the collection, without having recourse to violence ; but a Christian must not use violence, and so he must give up his property to the violence which is exerted by the powers. Q. May a Christian vote at elections and take part in a court or in the government ? A. No ; the participation in elections, in the court, or in the government, is a participation in governmental vio- lence. Q. In what does the chief significance of the doctrine of non-resistance consist ? A. In that it alone makes it possible to tear the evil out by the root, both out of one's own heart and out of the neighbour's heart. This doctrine forbids doing that by which evil is perpetuated and multiplied. He who attacks another and insults him, engenders in another the sentiment of hatred, the root of all evil. To offend another, because he offended us, for the specious reason of removing an evil, means to repeat an evil deed, both against him and against ourselves, — to beget, or at least to free, to encourage, the very demon whom we claim we wish to expel. Satan cannot be driven out by Satan, untruth cannot be cleansed by untruth, and evil cannot be van- quished by evil. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 19 True non-resistance is the one true resistance to evil. It kills and finally destroys the evil sentiment. Q. But, if the idea of the doctrine is right, is it practi- cable ? A. It is as practicable as any good prescribed by the Law of God. The good cannot under all circumstances be executed without self-renunciation, privation, suffering, and, in extreme cases, without the loss of life itself. But he who values hfe more than the fulfilment of God's will is already dead to the one true life. Such a man, in trying to save his life, shall lose it. Besides, in general, where non-resistance costs the sacrifice of one life, or the sacrifice of some essential good of life, resistance costs thousands of such sacrifices. Non-resistance preserves, resistance destroys. It is incomparably safer to act justly than unjustly ; to bear an insult than to resist it with violence, — it is safer even in relation to the present life. If all men did not resist evil with evil, the world would be blessed. Q. But if only a few shall act thus, what wiU become of them ? A. If only one man acted thus, and all the others agreed to crucify him, would it not be more glorious for him to die in the triumph of non-resisting love, praying for his enemies, than to live wearing the crown of Casar, be- spattered with the blood of the slain ? But one or thou- sands who have firmly determined not to resist evil with evil, whether among the enlightened or among savage neighbours, are much safer from violence than those who rely on violence. A robber, murderer, deceiver, will more quickly leave them alone tlian those who resist with weapons. They who take the sword perish with the sword, and those who seek peace, who act in a friendly manner, inoffensively, who forget and forgive offences, for the most part enjoy peace or, if they die, die blessed. Thus, if all kept the commandment of non-resistance, it 20 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU is evident that there would be no offences, no evil deeds. If these formed a majority, they would establish the reign of love and good-will, even toward the ill-disposed, by never resisting evil with evil, never using violence. If there were a considerable minority of these, they would have such a corrective, moral effect upon society that every cruel pun- ishment would be abolished, and violence and enmity would be changed to peace and love. If there were but a small minority of them, they would rarely experience anything worse than the contempt of the world, and the world would in the meantime, without noticing it, and without feeling itself under obligation, become wiser and better from this secret influence. And if, in the very worst case, a few members of the minority should be persecuted to death, these men, dying for the truth, would leave behind them their teaching, which is already sanctified by their martyr's death. Peace be with all who seek peace, and all-conquering love be the imperishable inheritance of every soul, which voluntarily submits to the Law of Christ : " Eesist not evil." In the course of fifty years, Ballou wrote and edited books dealing mainly with the question of non- resistance to evil. In these works, which are beautiful in their lucidity of thought and elegance of expression, the question is discussed from every possible side. He establishes the obligatoriness of this commandment for every Christian who professes the Bible as a divine reve- lation. He adduces all the customary retorts to the com- mandment of non-resistance, both from the Old Testament and from the New, as, for example, the expulsion from the temple, and so forth, and all these are overthrown ; he shows, independently of Scripture, the practical wisdom of this rule, and adduces all the objections which are usually made to it, and meets all these objections. Thus one chapter of a work of his treats of non-resistance to evil in exclusive cases, and here he acknowledges that, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 21 if there were cases when the appKcation of non-resistance to evil were impossible, this would prove that the rule is altogether untenable. In adduciug these special cases, he proves that it is precisely in them that the application of this rule is necessary and rational. There is not a single side of the question, either for his followers or for his adversaries, which is not investigated in these works. I say all this, in order to show the unquestionable interest which such works ought to have for men who profess Christianity, and that, therefore, one would think Ballou's activity ought to have been known, and the thoughts ex- pressed by him ought to have been accepted or refuted ; but there has been nothiufif of the kind. The activity of Garrison the father, with his foundation of a society of non-resistants and his declaration, convinced me even more than my relations with the Quakers, that the departure of state Christianity from Christ's law about non-resistance to evil is something that has been observed and pointed out long ago, and that men have without cessa- tion worked to arraign it. Ballou's activity still more con- firmed this fact to me. But the fate of Garrison and especially of Ballou, who is not known to any one, in spite of his fifty years of stubborn and constant work in one and the same direction, has also confirmed to me the other fact, that there exists some kind of unexpressed but firm understanding as to passing all such attempts in silence. Ballou died in August, 1890, and his obituary was given in an American periodical with a Christian tendency (Rdigio-Philosophical Journal, August 23d). In this eulogistic obituary it says that Ballou was a spiritual guide of a community, that he delivered between eight and nine thousand sermons, married one thousand pairs, and wrote about five hundred articles, but not a word is said about the aim to which he devoted all his life, — the word " non-resistance " is not even used. 22 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOTT Like all that which the Quakers have been preaching for two hundred years, like the activity of Garrison the father, the foundation of his society and periodical, and his declaration, so Ballou's whole activity does not seem to have existed at all. A striking example of such an ingloriousness of writings intended to elucidate non-resistance to evil, and to arraign those who do not recognize this commandment, is found in the fate of the book by the Bohemian Chelcicky, which has but lately become known and has so far not yet been printed. Soon after the publication of my book in German, I received a letter from a professor of the Prague University, which informed me of the existence of a still unpublished work by the Bohemian Chelcicky, of the fifteenth century, by the name of The Drawnet of Faith. In this work, as the professor wrote me, Chelcicky about four centuries ago expressed the same view in regard to the true and the false Christianity, which I had expressed in my work. My Religion. The professor wrote to me that Chelcicky's work was for the first time to be published in Bohemian in the periodical of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. As I was unable to procure the work itself, I tried to become acquainted with what was known of Chelcicky, and such information I got from a German book sent me by the same Prague professor, and from Pepin's " History of Bohemian Literature." This is what Pypin says: " Tlie Drawnet of Faith is that teaching of Christ which is to draw man out from the dark depths of the sea of life and its untruths. True faith consists in believing in God's words ; but now there has come a time when men consider the true faith to be heresy, and so reason must show wherein the true faith consists, if one does not know it. Darkness has concealed it from men, and they do not know Christ's true law. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 23 " To explain this law, Chelcicky points out the original structure of Christian society, which, he says, is now regarded as rank heresy by the Eoman Church. " This primitive church was his own ideal of a social structure, based on equality, freedom, and brotherhood. Christianity, according to Chelcicky, still treasures these principles, and all that is necessary is, that society should return to its pure teaching, and then any other order, in which kings and popes are needed, would seem super- fluous : in everything the law of love alone is sufficient. " Historically Chelcicky refers the fall of Christianity to the times of Constantiue the Great, whom Pope Sylvester introduced into Christianity with all the pagan customs and life. Coustautine, in his turn, invested the Pope with worldly wealth and power. Since then both powers have been aiding one another and have striven after external glory. Doctors and masters and the clergy have begun to care only for the subjugation of the whole world to their dominion, have armed men against one another for the purpose of murdering and plundering, and have com- pletely destroyed Christianity in faith and in life. Chel- cicky absolutely denies the right to wage war and admin- ister capital punishment ; every warrior and even ' knight' is only an oppressor, malefactor, and murderer." The same, except for some biographical details and excerpts from Chelcicky's correspondence, is said in the German book. Having thus learned the essence of Chelcicky's teaching, I with much greater impatience waited for the appearance of The Drawnet of Faith in the journal of the Academy. But a year, two, three years passed, and the book did not appear. Only in 1888 I learned that the printing of the book, which had been begun, had come to a stop. I got the proof-slieets of as much as had been printed, and I read the book. The book is in every respect remarkable. The contents are quite correctly rendered by l*ypin. 24 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU Chelcicky's fundamental idea is this, that Christianity, having united with the power in the time of Constantine and having continued to develop under these conditions, has become absolutely corrupt and has ceased to be Chris- tianity. The title " The Drawnet of Faith," was given by Chelcicky to his work, because, taking for his motto the verse of the Gospel about calling the disciples to become fishers of men, Chelcicky, continuing this comparison, says, " Christ by means of His disciples caught in His drawnet of faith the whole world, but the larger fish, tearing the net, jumped out of it, and through the holes, which these larger fish had made, all the others went away, and the net was left almost empty." The large fish that broke through the net are the rulers, emperors, popes, kings, who, in not renouncing their power, did not accept Christianity, but its semblance only. Chelcicky taught what has been taught until the present by the Mennonites and Quakers, and what in former years was taught by the Bogomils, Paulicians, and many others. He teaches that Christianity, which demands from its followers meekness, humility, kindness, forgive- ness of sins, the offering of the other cheek when one cheek has been smitten, love of enemies, is incompatible with violence, which forms an indispensable condition of power. A Christian, according to Chelcicky's interpretation, can not only not be a chief or a soldier, but cannot even take part in the government, be a merchant or even a landowner ; he can be only an artisan or an agriculturist. This book is one of the extremely few that have sur- vived the auto-da-fes of books in which the official Chris- tianity is arraigned. All such books, which are called heretical, have been burned together with the authors, so that there are very few ancient works which arraign the departure of official Christianity, and so this book is especially interesting. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 25 Biit besides being interesting, no matter how we look upon it, this book is one of the most remarkable produc- tions of thoughts, as judged by the depth of its contents, and the wonderful force and beauty of the popular lan- guage, and its antiquity. And yet this book has for more than four centuries remained uuprinted, and continues to be unknown, except to learned specialists. One would think that all these kinds of works, by the Quakers, and Garrison, and Ballon, and Chelcicky, which assert and prove, on the basis of the Gospel, that our world comprehends Christ's teaching falsely, ought to rouse interest, agitation, discussions, in the midst of the pastors and of the flock. Works of this kind, which touch on the essence of the Christian teaching, ought, it seems, to be analyzed and recognized as true, or to be rejected and overthrown. But nothing of the kind has happened. One and the same thing is repeated with all these works. People of the most different views, both those who believe and, what is most surprising, those who are unbelieving liberals, seem to have an agreement to pass them stub- bornly in silence, and all that has been done by men to elucidate the true meaning of Christ's teaching remains unknown or forgotten. But still more startling is the ingloriousness of two works, of which I learned also in connection with the appearance of my book. These are Dymoud's book On War, published for the first time in London, in 1824, and Daniel Musser's book On Non-Resistance, written in 1864. The ignorance about these two books is particu- larly remarkable, l)ecause, to say nothing of their worth, both books treat not so much of the theory as of the practical application of the theory to life, of the relation of Christianity to military service, which is particularly important and interesting now, in connection with the universal liability to do military service. 26 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOTJ People will, perhaps, ask : " What are the duties of a subject, who believes that war is incompatible with his religion, but of whom the government demands a partici- pation in military service ? " It seems that this is a very living question, one, the answer to which is particularly important in connection with the military service of the present time. All, or a vast majority of men, — Christians, — all males, are called on to perform military service. What must a man, as a Christian, answer in reply to this demand ? Dymoud's answer is as follows : " It is his duty, mildly and temperately, yet firmly, to refuse to serve. " There are some persons, who, without any determin- ate process of reasoning, appear to conclude that responsi- bility for national measures attaches solely to those who direct them; that it is the business of governments to consider what is good for the community, and that, in these cases, the duty of the subject is merged in the will of the sovereign. Considerations like these are, I believe, often voluntarily permitted to become opiates of the con- science. ' I have no part,' it is said, ' in the councils of the government, and am not therefore responsible for its crimes.' We are, indeed, not responsible for the crimes of our rulers, but we are responsible for our own ; and the crimes of our rulers are our own, if, whilst we believe them to be crimes, we promote them by our coopera- tion. " But those who suppose that obedience in aU things is required, or that responsibihty in political affairs is trans- ferred from the subject to the sovereign, reduce themselves to a great dilemma. " It is to say that we must resign our conduct and our consciences to the will of others, and act wickedly or well, as their good or evil may preponderate, without merit for virtue, or responsibility for crime." THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU 27 What is remarkable is this, that precisely the same is expressed in the instruction to the soldiers, which they are made to learn by rote: it says there that only the general is responsible for the consequences of his com- mand. But this is not true. A man cannot shift the responsibility for his acts. And this may be seen from what follows : " If the government direct you to fire your neighbour's property, or to throw him over a precipice, will you obey ? ^ If you will not, there is an end of the argument, for if you may reject its authority in one instance, where is the limit to rejection ? There is no rational limit but that which is assigned by Christianity, and that is both rational and practicable. " We think, then, that it is the business of every man, who believes that war is inconsistent with our rehgion, respectfully, but steadfastly, to refuse to engage in it. Let such as these remember that an honourable and an awful duty is laid upon them. It is upon their fidelity, so far as human agency is concerned, that the cause of peace is suspended. Let them be wilhng to avow their opinions and to defend them. Neither let them be con- tented with words, if more than words, if suffering also, is required. If you believe that Jesus Christ has pro- hibited slaughter, let not the opinion or the commands of a world induce you to join in it. By this ' steady and determinate pursuit of virtue/ the benediction which attaches to those who hear the sayings of God and do them, will rest upon you, and the time will come when even the world will honour you, as contributors to the work of human reformation." Musser's book is called Non-Resistancc Asserted ; or, 1 Tolstdy's translation from the English, which i.s generally loose, here departs entirely from the text. Tolst6y writes: "If a chief direct you to kill your neighbour's child, or your father, or your mother, will you obey ? " 28 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU Kingdom of Christ and Kingdom of This World Sepa- rated, 1854.1 The book is devoted to the same question, which it analyzes in relation with the demand made by the gov- ernment of the United States on its citizens as regards military service during that Civil War, and it has the same contemporary importance, in that it analyzes the question as to how and under what conditions men must and can refuse to do military service. In the introduc- tion the author says : " It is well known that in the United States there are many people who consciously deny war. They are called ' non-resistant ' or ' defenceless ' Christians. These Chris- tians refuse to defend their country or to bear arms, or to engage, at the request of the government, in war against its enemies. Until now this religious cause has been respected by the government, and those who professed it were excused from service. But with the beginning of our civil war public opinion has been wrought up by this state of affairs. Naturally, people who consider it their duty to bear all the burdens and perils of a military life for the defence of their country feel harsh toward those who for a long time have with them enjoyed the protec- tion and the advantages of the government, but in time of necessity and danger do not wish to share in bearing the labours and dangers in its defence. It is also natural for the condition of such men to be considered irrational, monstrous, and suspicious. "Many orators and writers," says the author, "have raised their voice against this state and liave tried to prove the injustice of non-resistance from common sense and from Scripture; and this is quite natural, and in ^A thorough search through bibliographies, catalogues, and libra- ries lias failed to reveal such a book or such an author, and as Tol- st6y speaks above of the book as being written, it may be that Tolst6y bad a manuscript before him. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 29 many cases these authors are right, — they are right in relation to those persons who, dechning the labours con- nected with military service, do not decline the advan- tages which they receive from the governments, — but they are not right in relation to the principle of non- resistance itself." First of all the author proves the obligatoriness of the rule of non-resistance for every Christian in that it is clear and that it is given to a Christian beyond any possi- bility of misinterpretation. " Judge yourselves whether it is right to obey man more than God," said Peter and John. Similarly every man who wants to be a Christian must act in relation to the demand that he should go to war, since Christ has told him, " Eesist not evil with violence." With this the author considers the question as to prin- ciple itself completely solved. The author analyzes in detail tlie other question as to whether persons, who do not decline the advantages which are obtained through the violence of government, have a right to refuse to do military service, and comes to the conclusion that a Christian, who follows Christ's law and refuses to go to war, can just as little take part in any governmental affairs, — either in courts or in elections, — nor can he in private matters have recourse to power, poHce or court. Theju the book proceeds to analyze the relation of the Old Testament to the New, — the significance of gov- ernment for non-Christians ; there are offered objections to the doctrine of non-resistance, and these are refuted. The author concludes his book with the following : " Christ chose His disciples in the world," he says. " They do not expect any worldly goods or worldly hap- piness, but, on the contrary, everlasting life. The spirit in which they live makes them satisfied and happy in every situation. If the world tolerates them, they are always satisfied. But if the world will not leave them 30 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU in peace, they will go elsewhere, since they are wan- darers on the earth and have no definite place of abode. They consider that the dead can bury the dead, — they need but one thing, and that is to follow their teacher." Without touching the question whether the duty of a Christian in relation to war, as established in these two books, is correct or not, it is impossible not to see the practical importance and urgency of the solution of this question. There are some people, — hundreds of thousands of Quakers, — and all our Spirit Wrestlers and Milkers, and people belonging to no definite sects, who assert that vio- lence — and so military service — is not compatible with Christianity, and therefore every year several recruits in Eussia refuse to do military service on the basis of their religious convictions. What does the government do ? Does it excuse them ? No. Does it compel them to serve, and, in case of a refusal, punish them ? No. In 1818 the government acted as follows. Here is an ex- cerpt, which is almost unknown in Eussia, from a diary by N. N. Murav^v-Karski, which was not sanctioned by the censor. "TiFLis, October 2, 1818. " In the morning the commandant told me that lately five manorial peasants from the Government of Tambov had been sent to Georgia. These men had been sent to the army, but they refused to serve ; they have been flogged several times and have been sent between the rows, but they gladly undergo the most cruel torments and are prepared for death, if only they can avoid serving. ' Send us away,' they say, ' and do not touch us ; we shall not touch any one. All men are equal and the Tsar is just such a man as we are. Why should we pay him tribute ? Why should I subject my life to danger in order to kill in war a man who has done mo no wrong ? You may cut us into small pieces, but we will not change our THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 31 ideas, we will uot put on the military cloak, and will not eat rations. He who will pity us will give us an alms, but we have nothing belonging to the Crown and we want nothing.' Such are the words of these peasants, who assert that there is a large number like them in Eussia, They have four times been taken before the Committee of Ministers, and it was finally decided to refer the matter to the Tsar, who commanded that they be sent to Georgia to mend their ways, and ordered the commander-in-chief to report to him every month con- cerning the gradual success in turning these peasants to the proper ideas." It is not known how this improvement ended, just as nothing is known of the whole episode, which was kept a profound secret. Thus the government acted seventy -five years ago, — thus it has acted in the vast majority of cases, which are always cautiously concealed from the people. Thus it acts even at present, except in relation to the German Mennonites, who live in the Government of Kherson, for their refusal to do military service is heeded and they are made to serve their time in connection with forestry work. In the late cases of refusal to do military service in consequence of religious convictions, other than those of the Mennonites, the authorities have acted as follows : At first they use all moans of violence employed in our time for the purpose of " mending " them and bringing them back to " the proper ideas," and the whole matter is kept a profound secret. I know that in the case of one man in Moscow, who in 1884 refused to serve, they wrote up voluminous documents two months after his refusal, and these were kept in the ministry as the great- est secret. They generally begin by sending the one who refuses 32 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU to tlie priests, who, to their shame be it said, always admonish the person refusing. But since the admoni- tion, in the name of Christ, to renounce Christ is gener- ally fruitless, the refusing person is after the admonition by the clergy sent to the gendarmes. The gendarmes, finding nothing of a political nature in the case, generally return him, and then the refusing person is sent to the learned, to the physicians, and into the insane asylum. In all these recommitments the refuser, who is deprived of his liberty, undergoes all kinds of humiliations and sufferings, like a condemned criminal. (This was re- peated in four cases.) The physicians dismiss the refuser from the insane asylum, and then begin all kinds of secret, cunning measures, in order not to dismiss the refuser and thus encourage others to refuse like him, and at the same time not to leave him amidst the soldiers, lest the soldiers might find out from him that the levy for military service does not at all take place in accord- ance with God's law, as they are assured, but contrary to it. The most convenient thing for the government to do would be to have the refuser executed, beaten to death with sticks, as they used to do of old, or executed in some other manner. But it is impossible openly to exe- cute a man for being true to a teaching which we all profess, and it is equally impossible to let a man alone, who refuses to serve. And so the government tries either through suffering to compel the man to renounce Christ, or in some way imperceptibly to get rid of tlie man, with- out having him publicly executed, — in some way to conceal this man's act and the man himself from other people. And so there begin all kinds of devices and cun- ning and tortures of this man. Either he is sent to some outlying region, or he is provoked to commit some act of insubordination, and then he is tried for breach of dis- cipline and is locked up in prison, in a discipUnary battal- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 33 ion, where he is freely tortured in secret, or he is declared insane and is locked up in an insane asylum. Thus one man was sent to Tashkent, that is, as though he were transferred to the Tashk(5nt army, another to Omsk, a third was tried for insubordination and sent to prison, and a fourth was put into a lunatic asylum. Everywhere the same is repeated. Not only the gov- ernment, but also the majority of liberals, of freethinkers, as though by agreement, carefully turn away from every- thing which has been said, written, and done by men to show the incompatibility of violence in its most terrible, rude, and lurid form, in the form of militarism, that is, the readiness to kill anybody, with the teaching, not only of Christianity, but even of humanitarianism, which society pretends to be professing. Thus the information which I received concerning the extent to which the true significance of Christ's teaching has been elucidated and is being elucidated more and more, and concerning the attitude which the highest ruling classes, not only in Eussia, but also in Europe and in America, take toward this elucidation and execution of the teaching, convinced me that in these ruling classes there existed a consciously hostile relation toward true Christianity, which found its expression mainly in the sUence observed concerning all its manifestations. 11. The same impression of a desire to conceal, to pass in silence, what I attempted so carefully to express in my book, has been produced on me by the criticisms upon it. When my book appeared, it was, as I had expected, prohibited, and according to the law it ought to have been burned. But, instead of being burned, it was distributed among the officials, and it was disseminated in a large number of written copies and lithographic reprints, and in translations printed abroad. Very soon there appeared criticisms upon the book, not only by the clergy, but also by the laity, which the government not only sanctioned, but even encouraged, so that the refutation of the book, which was assumed to be unknown to any one, was made a theme for theological essays in the academies. The critics upon my books, both the Eussian and the foreign critics, can be divided into two classes : into the religious critics, — people who consider themselves to be believers, — and lay critics, who are freethinkers. I shall begin with the first : In my book I accuse the church teachers of teaching contrary to Christ's commandments, which are clearly and definitely expressed in the Sermon on the Mount, and especially contrary to the commandment about non- resistance to evil, thus depriving Christ's teaching of all significance. The church teachers recognize the Sermon on the Mount with the commandment about non-resist- ance to evil as a divine revelation, and so, if they have found it necessary to write about my book at all, they ought, it would seem, first of all to answer this chief 34 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 35 poiut of accusation and say outright whether they con- sider the teachiug of the Sermon on the Mount and of the commandmeDt about non-resistance to evil obligatory for a Christian, or not, — and they must not answer it as this is generally done, that is, by saying that, although on the one hand it cauuot properly be denied, on the other it cannot be affirmed, the more so that, and so forth, — but must answer it just as the question is put by me in my book : did Christ actually demand from His disciples the. fulfilment of what He taught in the Sermon on the Mount ? and so, can a Christian, remaining a Christian, go to court, taking part in it and condemning people, or seeking in it defence by means of violence, or can he not ? Can a Christian, still remaining a Christian, take part in the government, using violence against his neighbours, or not ? And the chief question, which now, with the uni- versal military service, stands before all men, — can a Christian, remaining a Christian, contrary to Christ's in- junction, make any promises as to future acts, which are directly contrary to the teaching, and, taking part in mili- tary service, prepare himself for the murder of men and commit it ? The questions are put clearly and frankly, and, it would seem, they ought to be answered clearly and frankly. But nothing of the kind has been done in all the crit- icisms upon my b(xjk, just as nothing of the kind has been done in the case of all those arraignments of the church teachers for departing from Christ's law, with which history is filled since the time of Constantine. Very much has been said in reference to my book , about how incorrectly I interpret this or that passage in the Gospel, how 1 err in not acknowledging the Trinity, the redemption, and the immortality of the soul ; very much has l:)een said, but this one thing, which for every Christian forms the chief, essential question of life : how to harmonize what was clearly expressed in the teacher's 36 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU words and is clearly expressed in the heart of every one of us, — the teaching about forgiveness, humility, renunci- ation, and love of all men, of our neighbours and of our enemies, — with the demand of military violence exerted against the men of one's own nation or another nation. Everything which may be called semblances of answers to this question may be reduced to the five following divisions. I have tried in this respect to collect every- thing I could, not only in reference to the criticisms upon my book, but also in reference to what has been writ- ten upon the subject in former times. The first, the rudest way of answering, consists in the bold assertion that violence does not contradict Christ's teaching, and that it is permitted and even prescribed by the Old and the New Testament. Assertions of this kind issue for the most part from people high up in the governmental or ecclesiastic hier- archy, who are, therefore, quite convinced that no one will dare to contradict their assertions, and that if one actually dared to do so, they would not hear these objections. These men have, in consequence of their intoxication with their power, for the most part to such an extent lost the concept of what that Christianity is, in the name of which they occupy their places, that everything of a Christian nature in Christianity presents itself to them as sectarian ; but everything which in the writings of the Old and the New Testament may be interpreted in an anti-Christian and pagan sense, they consider to be the foundation of Christianity. In favour of their assertion that Christi- anity does not contradict violence, these men with the greatest boldness generally bring forward the most offen- sive passages from the Old and the New Testament, and interpret them in the most non-Christian manner : the execution of Ananias and Sapphira, the execution of Simon Magus, and so forth. They adduce all those THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 37 words of Christ which may be interpreted as a justifica- tion of cruelty, such as the expulsion from the temple, " It shall be more tolerable on that day for Sodom, than for that city," and so forth. According to the concepts of these men, the Christian government is not in the least obliged to be guided by the spirit of humility, forgiveness of offences, and love of our enemies. It is useless to refute such an assertion, because the men who assert this refute themselves, or rather, turn away from Christ, inventing their own Christ and their own Christianity in place of Him in w^hose name the church exists and also the position which they occupy in it. If all men know that the church preaches Christ punishing, and not forgiving, and warring, no one would be believing in this church, and there would be no one t6 prove what it is proving. The second method is a little less rude. It consists in asserting that, although Christ I'eally taught to offer one's cheek and give up a sliirt, and this is a very high moral demand, there are malefactors in the world, and if these are not curljed l)y tlie exercise of force, the whole world and all good men will perish. This proof I found for the first time in John Chrysostom and I pointed out its in- correctness in my book, My Religion. This argument is ungrounded, because, in the first place, if we allow ourselves to recognize any men as special malefactors (Kaca), we thus destroy the whole meaning of the Christian teacliing, according to which we are all e([ual and brothers, as the sons of one heavenly Father ; in the second place, because, even if God per- mitted the exertion of violence against malefactors, it is absolutely impossible to find that safe and indu1)itable sign by wliich a malefactor may be unerringly told from one who is not, and so every man, or society of men, would recognize another as a malefactor, which is the case 38 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU now ; in the third place, because even if it were possible unerringly to tell malefactors from those who are not malefactors, it would still not be possible in a Christian society to execute, or mairn, or lock up these malefactors, because in Christian society there would be no one to do this, because every Christian, as a Christian, is enjoined not to use violence against a malefactor. The third method of answering is still shrewder than the previous one. It consists in asserting that, although the commandment of non-resistance to evil is obligatory for a Christian when the evil is directed against him per- sonally, it ceases to be obligatory when the evil is directed against his neighbours, and that then a Christian is not only not obliged to fulfil the commandments, but is also obliged in the defence of his neighbours, contrary to the commandment, to use violence against the violators. This assertion is quite arbitrary, and m the whole of Christ's teaching no confirmation of such an interpretation can be found. Such an interpretation is not only a limi- tation of the commandment, but a direct negation and annihilation of it. If any man has a right to use vio- lence when another is threatened by danger, then the question as to the use of violence reduces itself to the question of defining what constitutes a danger for another person. But if my private judgment decides the question of danger for another, then there does not exist such a case of violence that it could not be explained on the basis of a danger with which another is threatened. Wizards were executed and burned, aristocrats and Giron- dists were executed, and so were their enemies, because those who were in power considered them to be danger- ous for others. If this important hmitation, which radically undermines the meaning of the commandment, entered Christ's mind, there ought somewhere to be mention made of it. But iu all the preaching and the life of the teacher there is THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 39 not only no such limitation, but, on the contrary, there is expressed a particular caution against such a false and offensive limitation, which destroys the commandment. The mistake and the blunder of such a limitation is with particular clearness shown in the Gospel in connection with the judgment of Caiaphas, who made this very limi- tation. He recognized that it was not good to execute innocent Jesus, but he saw in Him danger, not for himself, but for the whole nation, and so he said : " It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not." And more clearly still was the negation of such a limitation expressed in the words said to Peter when he attempted with violence to resist the evil which was directed against Jesus (Matt. xxvi. 52). Peter was not defending himself, but his beloved and divine teacher. And Christ directly forbade him to do so, saying that he who takes the sword shall perish with the sword. Besides, the justification of violence used against a neighbour for the sake of defending another man against worse violence is always incorrect, because in using vio- lence against an evil which is not yet accomplished, it is impossible to know which evil will be greater, — whether the evil of my violence or of that against which I wish to defend my neighbour. We execute a criminal, thus freeing society from him, and we are positively unable to tell whether the criminal would not have changed on the morrow and whether our execution is not a useless cruelty. We lock up a man whom we suppose to be a dangerous member of society, but beginning with to-mor- row this man may cease to be dangerous, and his incar- ceration is futile. I see that a man whom I know to be a robber is pursuing a girl, and T have a gun in my hand, — I kill the robber and save the girl ; the robber has cer- tainly been killed or wounded, but it is unknown to me what would happen if that were not the casa What an 40 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHUST YOU enormous amount of evil must take place, as it actually does, as the result of arrogating to ourselves the right to prevent an evil that may occur ! Ninety-nine hundredths of the evil of the world, from the Inquisition to dynamite bombs and the executions and sufferings of tens of thou- sands of so-called political criminals, are based on this reflection. The fourth, still more refined answer to the question as to how a Christian should act toward Christ's command- ment of non-resistance to evil consists in asserting that the commandment of non-resistance to evil is not denied by them, but is accepted like any other ; but that they do not ascribe to this commandment any special exclusive significance, as the sectarians do. To ascribe to this com- mandment an invariable condition of Christian life, as do Garrison, Ballou, Dymond, the Quakers, the Mennonites, the Shakers, and as did the Moravian brothers, the Wal- denses, Albigenses, Bogomils, Paulicians, is one-sided sec- tarianism. This commandment has neither more nor less significance than all the others, and a man who in his weakness transgresses any one of the commandments about non-resistance does not cease to be a Christian, provided he believes correctly. This subterfuge is very clever, and men who wish to be deceived are easily de- ceived by it. The subterfuge consists in reducing the direct conscious negation of the commandment to an accidental violation of the same. But we need only compare the relation of the church teachers to this com- mandment and to others, which they actually recognize, in order that we may con\dnce ourselves that the relation of the church teachers to the commandments which they recognize is quite different from their relation to this one. They actually recognize the commandment against for- nication, and so never, under any condition, admit that fornication is not an evil. The preachers of the church never point out any cases when the commandment against THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 41 fornication ought to be broken, and they always teach that we must avoid the offences which lead to the temp- tation of fornication. But this is not the case with the commandment about non-resistance. All the church preachers know cases when this commandment may be broken. And thus they teach men. And they not only do not teach how to avoid these offences, of which the chief one is the oath, but themselves commit them. The church preachers never and under no condition preach the violation of any otlier commandment ; but in relation to the commandment of non-resistance they teach outright that this prohibition must not be understood in too direct a sense, and not only that this commandment must not be carried out at all times, but that there are conditions, situations, when directly the opposite should be done, that is, that we should judge, wage war, execute. Thus, in reference to the commandment about non-resistance to evil, they in the majority of cases preach how not to ful- fil it. The fulfilment of this commandment, they say, is very difficult and is characteristic only of perfection. But how can it help but be difficult, when its breach is not only not prohibited, but is also directly encouraged, when they directly bless the courts, prisons, guns, cannon, ar- mies, battles ? Consequently it is not true that this com- mandment is recognized by the church preachers as of equal significance with the other commandments. The church preachers simply do not recognize it, and only be- cause they do not dare to confess it, try to conceal their failure to recognize it. Such is the fourth method of answers. The fifth method, the most refined, most popular, and most powerful one, consists in begging the question, in making it appear as though the question had long ago been decided by some one in an absolutely clear and sat- isfactory manner, and as though it were not worth while to speak of it. This method is employed by more or less 42 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU cultivated ecclesiastic writers, that is, such as feel the laws of logic to be obligatory for them. Knowing that the contradiction which exists between Christ's teaching, which we profess in words, and the whole structure of our life cannot be solved with words, and that, by touch- ing it, we can only make it more obvious, they with greater or lesser agility get around it, making it appear that the question about the connection of Christianity with violence has been decided or does not exist at all.^ The majority of the ecclesiastic critics of my book employ this method. I could adduce dozens of such criticisms, in which without exception one and the same thing is repeated : they speak of everything but the chief subject of the book. As a characteristic example of such criticisms, I shall quote an article by the famous, refined English writer and preacher, Farrar, a great master, like many learned theologians, of evasions and reticence. This article was printed in the American periodical. Forum, in October, 1888. Having conscientiously given a short review of my book, Farrar says : " Tolstoy came to the conclusion that a coarse deceit was palmed upon the world when these words were held by civil society to be compatible with war, courts of 1 1 know but one piece of writing, not a criticism in tlie strict sense of the word, but an article which treats the samo subject, and which has my book in view, that departs from this common definition. It is Tr6itski's pamphlet (Kazan) The Sermon on '.he Mount. The author obviously recognizes Christ's teaching in its real significance. He says that the commandment about non-resistance to evil means what it does, and the same is true of the commandment about swear- ing ; he does not deny, as others do, the significance of Christ's teach- ing, but unfortunately he does not make from this recognition those inevitable deductions, which in our life beg for recognition in connec- tion with such a comprehension of Christ's teaching. If it is not right to resist evil and to swear, every man will naturally ask: " How about military service ? " And to this question the author gives no answer, though an answer is demanded. And if it cannot be an- swered, it is best not to speak at all, because silence produces error- — Author's Note. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 43 justice, capital punishment, divorce, oaths, national preju- dice, and indeed with most of the institutions of civil and social Hfe. He now believes that the kingdom of God would come if aU men kept these five command- ments, ... (1) Live in peace with all men ; (2) be pure ; (3) take no oaths ; (4) never resist evil ; (5) renounce national distinctions. " Tolstoy," he says, " rejects the divine inspiration of the Old Testament and of the epistles ; he rejects all the dogmas of the church, that of the atonement by blood, that of the Trinity, that of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles . . . and recognizes only the words and commandments of Christ. " Is this interpretation of Christ a true one ? " he asks. " Are all men bound, or is any man bound, to act as Tolstoy has taught, that is, to fulfil the five command- ments of Christ?" One just hopes that in reply to this essential question, which alone could have urged the man to write an article on the book, he will say that this interpretation of Christ's teaching is correct, or that it is not correct, and so will prove why, and will give another, a correct interpretation to the words which I interpret incorrectly. But nothing of the kind is done. Farrar only expresses his conviction that, " though actuated by the noblest sincerity, Tolstdy has been misled by partial and one-sided interpretations of the meaning of the Gospel and the mind and will of Christ." No explanation is given as to what this error consists in, but all there is said, is : " To enter into the proof of this is impossible in this article, for I have already exceeded the space at my command." And he concludes with an easy mind : " Meanwhile the reader who feels troubled lest it should be his duty also to forsake all conditions of his life, and '14 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU to take up the position and work of a common labourer, may rest for the present on the principle, Securus judicat orhis terrarum. With few and rare exceptions," he con- tinues, " the whole of Christendom, from the days of the apostles down to our own, has come to the firm conclu- sion that it was the object of Christ to lay down great eternal principles, but not disturb the bases and revolu- tionize the institutions of all human society, which them- selves rest on divine sanction as well as on inevitable conditions. Were it my object to prove how untenable is the doctrine of communism, based by Tolstoy upon the divine paradoxes {sic !), which can be interpreted on only historical principles in accordance with the whole method of the teaching of Jesus, it would require an ampler canvas than I have here at my disposal." What a misfortune, — he has not any space ! And, strange to say, space has been lacking for fifteen centuries, to prove that Christ, whom we profess, said something different from what He said. They could prove it, if they only wanted to. However, it does not pay to prove what everybody knows. It is enough to say : " Securus judicat orhis terrarum." And such are, without exception, all the criticisms of the cultivated believers, who, therefore, do not understand the perilousness of their position. The only way out for them is the hope that, by using the authority of the church, of antiquity, of holiness, they may be able to confuse the reader and draw him away from the thought of reading the Gospel for himself and of considering the question with his own mind. And in this they are suc- cessful. To whom, indeed, will it occur that all that which with such assurance and solemnity is repeated from century to century by all these archdeacons, bishops, archbishops, most holy synods, and Popes, is a base lie and calumny, which they foist on Christ in order to secure the money which they need for the purpose of lead- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 45 ing a life of pleasure, while sitting on the backs of others, — a lie and a calumny, which is so obvious, especially now that the only possibility of continuing this lie con- sists in frightening men into belief by their assurance, their unscrupulousness ? It is precisely the same that of late years has taken place in the Eecruiting Sessions : at the head of the table, with the Mirror of Laws upon it, and beneath the full-sized portrait of the emperor, sit dignified old officials in their regaha, conversing freely and unreservedly, noting down, commanding, calling out. Here also, with the cross over his breast and in silk vest- ments, with his gray hair falling down straight over his scapulary, stands an imposing old man, the priest, in front of the pulpit, on which lies a gold cross and a gold- trimmed Gospel. Ivan Petrdv is called out. A young man steps out. He is poorly and dirtily dressed and looks frightened, and the muscles of his face tremble, and his fugitive eyes sparkle, and in a faltering voice, almost in a whisper, he says : " I — according to the law I, a Christian — I can- not— " " What is he nuittering there ? " impatiently asks the presiding officer, half-closing his eyes and listening, as he raises his head from the book. " Speak louder ! " shouts to him the colonel with the shining shoulder-straps. "I — I — I — as a Christian — " It finally turns out that the young tnan refuses to do military service, because he is a Christian. " Talk no nonsense ! Get your measure ! Doctor, be so kind as to take his measure. Is he fit for the army ? " « He is." " Reverend father, have him sworn in." No one is confused ; no one even pays any attention to what this frightened, pitiable young man is muttering. 46 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU " They all mutter something, but we have no time : we have to receive so many recruits." The recruit wants to say something again. " This is against Christ's law." "Go, go, we know without you what is according to the law, — but you get out of here. Keverend father, admonish him. Next : Vasili Nikitin." And the trembling youth is taken away. And to whom — whether the janitor, or Vasili Nikitin, who is being brought in, or any one else who witnessed this scene from the side — will it occur that those indistinct, short words of the youth, which were at once put out of court by the authorities, contain the truth, while those loud, solemn speeches of the self-possessed, calm officials and of the priest are a lie, a deception ? A similar impression is produced, not only by the arti- cles of a Farrar but by all those solemn sermons, articles, and books, which appear on all sides, the moment the truth peeps out and arraigns the ruhng lie. Immediately there begin long, clever, elegant conversations or writings about questions which touch closely upon the subject with a shrewd reticence concerning the question itself. In this consists the fifth and most effective means for removing the contradiction in which the ecclesiastic Christianity has placed itself by professing Christ in words and denying His teaching in hfe, and teaching the same to others. Those who justify themselves by the first method, asserting outright and rudely that Christ has permitted violence, — wars, murder, — withdraw themselves from Christ's teaching ; those who defend themselves according to the second, the third, and the fourth methods get themselves entangled, and it is easy to point out their untruth ; but these last, who do not discuss, who do not condescend to discuss, but hide themselves behind their greatness and make it appear that all this has been decided THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 47 long ago by them, or by somebody else, and that it no longer is subject to any doubt, seem invulnerable, and they will be invulnerable so long as people will remain under the influence of hypnotic suggestion, which is induced in them by governments and churches, and will not shake it off. Such was the attitude which the ecclesiasti-cs, that is, those who profess Christ's faith, assumed toward me. Nor could they have acted otherwise : they are bound by the contradiction in which they live, — the faith in the divinity of the teacher and the unbelief in His clearest words, — from which they must in some way extricate themselves, and so it was not possible to expect from them any free opinion concerning the essence of the question, concerning that change in the lives of men which results from the application of Christ's teaching to the existing order. Such opinions I expected from the freethinking lay critics, who are in no way bound to Christ's teaching and who can look upon it without restraint. I expected that the freethinking writers would look upon Christ not only as the estal)lisher of a religion of worship and personal salvation (as which the ecclesiastics understand him), but, to express myself in their language, as a reformer, who destroys the old, and gives the new foundations of life, the reform of which is not yet accomplished, but continues until the present. Such a view of Christ and His teaching results from my book, but, to my surprise, out of the large number of criticisms upon my book, there was not one, either lius- sian or foreign, which treated the subject from the same side from which it is expounded in my book, that is, which looked upon Christ's teaching as a philosopliical, moral, and social doctrine (again to speak in the language of the learned). This was not the case in a single criticism. The Kussian lay critics, who understood my book in 48 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU such a way that all its contents reduced themselves to non- resistance to evil, and who understood the teaching about non-resistance to evil itself (apparently for convenience of refutal) as meaning that it prohibited any struggle against evil, furiously attacked this teaching and very successfully proved for the period of several years that Christ's teaching was incorrect, since it taught us not to resist evil. Their refutals of this supposed teaching of Christ were the more successful, since they knew in advance that their views could neither be overthrown nor corrected, because the censorship, having failed to sanction the book itself, did not sanction the articles in its defence either. What is remarkable in connection with the matter is this, that with us, where not a word may be said about the Holy Scripture without a prohibition by the censor- ship, the clearly and directly expressed commandment of Matt. V. 39 has for several years been openly contorted, criticized, condemned, and ridiculed in all the periodicals. The Russian lay critics, who evidently did not know all that had been done in the development of the question as to non-resistance to evil, and who at times even seemed to assume that I personally invented the rule of not resisting evil with violence, attacked the idea itself, reject- ing and contorting it, and with much fervour advancing arguments which have long ago been analyzed from every side and rejected, proved that a man is obliged (with violence) to defend all the insulted and the oppressed, and that, therefore, the doctrine about not resisting evil with violence is immoral. The whole significance of Christ's preaching presented itself to the Russian critics as though maliciously interfer- ing with a certain activity, which was directed against what they at a given moment considered to be an evil, so that it turned out that the principle of not resisting evil with violence was attacked by two opposite camps, — THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 49 by the conservatives, because this principle interfered with their activity of resisting the evil which was produced by the revolutionists, and with their persecutions and execu- tions ; and by the revolutionists, because this principle interfered with the resistance to the evil which was pro- duced by the conservatives, and with the overthrow of the conservatives. The conservatives were provoked, because the doctrine of non-resistance to evil interfered witli the energetic suppression of the revolutionary elements, who are likely to ruin the welfare of the na- tion ; while the revolutionists were provoked, because the doctrine of non-resistance to evil interfered with the overthrow of the conservatives, who were ruining the well-being of the nation. What is remarkable is, that the revolutionists attacked the principle of non-resistance, although it is most terrible and most dangerous for every despotism, because ever since the beginning of the world the opposite principle of the necessity of resisting evil with violence has been lying at the basis of all violence, from the Inquisition to the Schliisselburg Fortress. Besides, the Prussian critics pointed out that the applica- tion to life of the commandment about non-resistance to evil would turn humanity away from the path of civiliza- tion, on which it was marching now ; but the path of civilization, on which the European civilization is march- ing, is, in their opinion, the one on which all humanity must always march. Such was the chief character of the Russian criticisms. The foreign critics proceeded from the same bases, but their reviews of my book differed from those of the Rus- sian critics not only in a lesser degree of irritability and a greater degree of culture, but also in the essence of the matter. In discussing my book and the Gospel teaching in general, as it is expressed in the Sermon on the Mount, 50 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU the foreign critics asserted that such a teaching is really not Christian (Christian in their opinion is Catholicism and Protestantism), and that the doctrine of the Sermon on the Mount is only a series of very charming, impracti- cable reveries " d^i charmant doctcur" as Eenan used to say, which were good enough for the naive and half-wild inhabitants of Galilee, who lived eighteen hundred years ago, and for the Eussian peasants, Syutaev and Bondar^v, and the Eussian mystic, Tolstoy, but can in no way be applied to the high degree of European culture. The foreign lay critics tried, in a refined manner, with- out giving me any offence, to let me know that my opinion that humanity can be guided by such a naive teaching as the Sermon on the Mount is due partly to my ignorance, lack of acquaintance with history, lack of knowledge of all those vain attempts to realize in life the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, wliich have been made in history, and have led to nothing, thanks to ignorance con- cerning the whole significance of that high degree of culture on which European civilization now stands, with its Krupp guns, smokeless powder, the colonization of Africa, the government of Ireland, parliaments, journal- ism, strikes, constitutions, and Eiffel Tower. Thus wrote Vogii^, and Leroy Beaulieu, and Matthew Arnold, and the American writer Savage, and Ingersoll, a popular American preacher of free thought, and many others. " Christ's teaching is no good, because it does not har- monize with our industrial age," naively says Ingersoll, thus expressing with absolute precision and naivet(^ what the refined and cultured men of our time think about Christ's teaching. The teaching is no good for our indus- trial age, as though the existence of the industrial age is something sacred which must not and cannot be changed. It is something like what drunkards would do, if, in response to advice about how to get themselves THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 51 into a sober state, they should reply that the advice is out of place in connection with tlieir present alcoholic state. The discussions of all the lay writers, both Russian and foreign, no matter how different their tone and the man- ner of their arguments may be, in reality reduce them- selves to one and the same strange misunderstanding, namely, that Christ's teaching, one of the consequences of which is non-resistance to evil, is useless to us, because it demands that our life be changed. Christ's teaching is useless, because, if it were put into practice, our life could not continue ; in other words, — if we began to live well, as Christ has taught us, we could not continue to live badly, as we live and are accustomed to live. The question of non-resistance to evil is not dis- cussed, and the very mention of the fact that the demand for non-resistance to evil enters into Christ's teaching is considered a sufficient proof of the inapplicability of the whole teaching. And yet, it would seem, it is indispensable to point out some kind of a solution to this question, because it lies at the foundation of nearly all affairs which interest us. The question consists in this : how are we to harmonize the conflicts of men, when some consider an evil what otliers consider to be good, and vice versa ? And so, to consider that an evil which I consider an evil, although my adversary may consider it good, is no answer. There can be but two answers : either we have to find a true and indisputable criterion of what an evil is, or we must not resist evil with violence. The first solution has been tried since the beginning of historical times, and, as we all know, has so far led to no satisfactory results. The second answer, not to resist with violence what we consider evil, so long as we have found no common criterion, was proposed by Christ. 52 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU It may be found that Christ's answer is not correct : it may be possible to put in its place another, better answer, by finding a criterion which would indubitably and simultaneously for all define the evil ; we may simply not recognize the essence of the question, as it is not recognized by the savage nations, — but it is impossible, as the learned critics of the Christian teaching do, to make it appear that such a question does not at all exist, or that the relegation of the right to determine the evil and resist it with violence to certain persons or assemblies of men (much less, if we are these men), solves the question ; whereas we all know that such a relegation does not at all solve the question, since there are some people who do not recognize this right as belonging to cei'tain people or to assemblies of men. But it is this recognition that what to us appears evil is evil, or an absolute failure to comprehend the question, which serves as a foundation for the judgment of the lay critics concerning the Christian teaching, so that the opinions concerning my book, both of the ecclesiastic and the lay critics, showed me that the majority of men abso- lutely fail to comprehend, not only Christ's very teaching, but even those questions to which it serves as an answer. in. Thus, both the information received by me after the publication of my book, as to how the Christian teaching in its direct and true sense has without interruption been understood by the minority of men, and the criticisms upon it, both the ecclesiastic and the lay criticisms, which denied the possibility of understanding Christ's teaching in the direct sense, convinced me that, while, on the one hand, the true comprehension of this teaching never ceased for the minority, and became clearer and clearer to them, on the other hand, for the majority, its meaning became more and more obscure, finally reaching such a degree of obscuration that men no longer comprehend the simplest propositions, which are expressed in the Gospel in the simplest words. The failure to comprehend Christ's teaching in its true, simple, and direct sense in our time, when the light of this teaching has penetrated all the darkest corners of human consciousness ; when, as Christ has said, that which He has spoken in the ear, they now proclaim upon the housetops ; when this teaching permeates all the sides of human lifd, — the domestic, the economic, the civil, the political, and the international, — this failure to comprehend would be incomprehensible, if there were no causes for it. One of these causes is this, that both the believers and the unbelievers are firmly convinced that Christ's teaching has been compreliended by them long ago, and so com- pletely, indubitably, and finally, that there can be no other meaning in it than the one they ascribe to it. This 53 54 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITniN TOU cause is due to the duration of the tradition of the false comprehension, and so of the faihire to understand the true teaching. The most powerful stream of water cannot add a drop to a vessel that is full. * It is possible to explain the most intricate matters to a man of very hard comprehension, so long as he has not formed any idea about them ; but it is impossible to ex- plain the simplest thing to a very clever man, if he is firmly convinced that he knows, and, besides, incontest- ably knows, what has been transmitted to him. The Christian teaching presents itself to the men of our world precisely as such a teaching, which has for a long time and in a most indubitable manner been known in its minutest details, and which cannot be comprehended in any other manner than it now is. Christianity is now understood by those who profess the church doctrines as a supernatural, miraculous revela- tion concerning everything which is given in the symbol of faith, and by those who do not believe, as an obsolete raanif(!station of humanity's need of believing in some- thing supernatural, as a historical phenomenon, which is completely expressed in Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protes- tantism, and which has no longer any vital meaning for us. For the believers the meaning of the teaching is con- cealed by the church, for unbelievers by science. I sliall begin with the .Irst : Eighteen hundred years ago there appeared in the pagan Eoman world a strange, new teaching, which re- sembled nothing which preceded it, and which was ascribed to the man Christ. This new teaching was absolutely new, both in form and in contents, for the European world, in the midst of which it arose, and especially in the Eoman world, where it was preached and became diffused. Amidst the elaborateness of the religious rules of Juda- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 55 ism, where, according to Isaiah, there was rule upon rule, and amidst the Koman legislation, which was worked out to a great degree of perfection, there appeared a teaching which not only denied all the divmities, — every fear of them, every divination and faith in them, — but also all human institutions and every necessity for them. In the place of all the rules of former faiths, this teaching ad- vanced only the model of an inner perfection of truth and of love in the person of Christ, and the consequences of this inner perfection, attainable by men, — the external perfection, as predicted by the prophets, — the kingdom of God, in which all met. will stop warring, and all will be taught by God and united in love, and the lion will lie with the lamb. In place of the threats of punishments for the non-compliance with the rules, which were made by the former laws, both religious and political, in place of the enticement of rewards for fulfilling them, this teaching called men to itself only by its being the truth. John vii. 17: "If any man wants to know of this doc- trine, whether it be of God, let him fulfil it." John viii. 46 : " If I say the truth, why do ye not believe me ? " Why do you seek to kill a man who has told you the truth ? The truth alone will free you. God must be professed in truth only. The whole teaching will be re- vealed and will be made clear by the spirit of truth. Do what I say, and you will know whether what I say is true. No proofs were given of the teaching, except the truth, except the correspondence of the teaching with the truth. The whole teaching consisted in the knowledge of the truth and in following it, in a greater and ever greater approximation to it, in matters of life. According to this teaching, there are no acts wldch can justify a man, make hiui righteous; there is only the model of truth which attracts all hearts, for the inner perfection — in the person 01 Christ, and for the outer — in the realization of the 56 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU kingdom of God. The fulfilment of the teaching is only in the motion along a given path, in the approximation to perfection, — the inner, — the imitation of Christ, and the outer, — the establishment of the kingdom of God. A man's greater or lesser good, according to this teaching, depends, not on the degree of perfection which he attains, but on the greater or lesser acceleration of motion. The motion toward perfection of the publican, of Zacchaeus, of the harlot, of the robber on the cross, is, according to this teaching, a greater good than the im- movable righteousness of the Pharisee. A sheep gone astray is more precious than ninety-nine who have not. The prodigal son, the lost coin which is found again, is more precious, more loved by God than those who were not lost. Every condition is, according to this teaching, only a certain step on the road toward the unattainable inner and outer perfectiou, and so has no meaning. The good is only in the motion toward perfection ; but the stopping at any stage whatsoever is only a cessation of the good. " Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth," and " No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." " Ee- joice not, that the spirits are subject unto you ; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." " Be ye perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." " Seek the kingdom of God and His righteous- ness." The fulfilment of the teaching is only in unceasing motion, — in the attainment of a higher and ever higher truth, and in an ever greater realization of the same in oneself by means of an ever increasing love, and outside of oneself by an ever greater realization of the kingdom of God. It is evident that, having appeared in the midst of the Jewish and the pagan world, this teaching could not have THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 57 been accepted by the majority of men, who lived a life entirely different from the one which this teaching de- manded ; and that it could not even be comprehended in its full significance by those who accepted it, as it was diametrically opposed to their former views. Only by a series of misconceptions, blunders, one-sided explanations, corrected and supplemented by generations of men, was the meaning of the Christian teaching made more and more clear to men. The Christian world-con- ception affected the Jewish and the pagan conceptions, and the Jewish and pagan conceptions affected the Chris- tian world-conception. And the Christian, as being vital, penetrated the reviving Jewish and pagan conceptions more and more, and stood forth more and more clearly, freeing itself from the false admixture, which was imposed upon it. Men came to comprehend the meaning better and better, and more and more realized it in life. The longer humanity lived, the more and more was the meaning of Christianity made clear to it, as indeed it could not and cannot be otherwise with any teaching about life. The subsequent generations corrected the mistakes of their predecessors, and more and more approached the comprehension of its true meaning. Thus it has been since the earliest times of Christianity. And here, in the earliest times, there appeared men, who began to assert that the meaning which they ascribed to the teaching was the only true one, and that as a proof of it served the supernatural phenomena which confirmed the correctness of their comprehension. It was this that was the chief cause, at first, of the failure to comprehend the teaching, and later, of its com- plete corruption. It was assumed that Christ's teaching was not trans- natted to men like any other truth, but in a special, supernatural manner, so that the truth of the comprehen- sion of the teaching was not proved by the correspondence 58 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU of what was transmitted with the demands of reason and of the whole human nature, but by the miraculousness of the transmission, which served as an incontrovertible proof of the correctness of the comprehension. This proposition arose from a lack of comprehension, and its consequence was an impossibility of comprehending. This began with the very first times, when the teaching was still understood incompletely and often perversely, as we may see from the gospels and from the Acts. The less the teaching was understood, the more obscurely did it present itself, and the more necessary were the external proofs of its veracity. The proposition about not doing unto another what one does not wish to have done to oneself did not need any proof by means of miracles, and there was no need for demanding belief in this proposition, because it is convincing in itself, in that it corresponds to both man's reason and nature, but the proposition as to Christ being God had to be proved by means of miracles, which are absolutely incomprehensible. The more obscure the comprehension of Christ's teaching was, the more miraculous elements were mixed in with it ; and the more miraculous elements were mixed in, the more did the teaching deviate from its meaning and be- come obscure ; and the more it deviated from its meaning and became obscure, the more strongly it was necessary to assert one's infallibility, and the less did the teaching become comprehensible. We can see from the gospels, the Acts, the epistles, how from the earliest times the failure to comprehend the teaching called forth the necessity of proving its truth by means of the miraculous and the incomprehensible. According to the Acts, this began with the meeting of the disciples at Jerusalem, who assembled to settle the question which had arisen as to baptizing or not baptizing the uncircumcised who were still eating meats ofifered to idols. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 59 The very putting of the question showed that those who were discussing it did not understand the teaching of Christ, who rejected all external rites — ablutious, purifications, fasts, Sabbaths. It says directly that not the things which enter a man's mouth, but those which come out of his heart, detile him, and so the question as to the baptism of the uncircumcised could have arisen only among men who loved their teacher, dimly felt His great- ness, but still very obscurely comprehended the teaching itself. And so it was. In proportion as the members of the assembly did not understand the teaching, they needed an external confirma- tion of their incomplete understanding. And so, to solve the question, the very putting of which shows the failure to comprehend the teaching, the strange words, " It has seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us," which were in an external manner to confirm the justice of certain estab- lishments, and which have caused so much evil, were, as described in the Book of Acts, for the first time pronounced at this meeting, that is, it was asserted that the justice of what they decreed was testified to by the miraculous par- ticipation of the Holy Ghost, that is, of God, in this solu- tion. But the assertion that the Holy Ghost, that is, God, spoke through the apostles, had again to be proved. And for this it was necessary to assert that on the day of Pentecost the Holy Ghost came down in the shape of tongues of fire on those who asserted this. (In the description the de- scent of the Holy Ghost precedes the assembly, but the Acts were written down much later than either.) But the descent of the Holy Ghost had to be confirmed for those who had not seen the tongues of fire (though it is incomprehensible why a tongue of fire burning above a man's head should prove that what a man says is an indis- putable truth), and there were needed new miracles, cures, resurrections, putting to death, and all those offensive miracles, with which the Acts are filled, and which not 60 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU only can never convince a man of the truth of the Christian teaching, but can only repel him from it. The consequence of such a method of confirmation was this, that the more these confirmations of the truth by means of stories of miracles heaped up upon one another, the more did the teaching itself depart from its original meaning, and the less comprehensible did it become. Thus it has been since the earliest times, and it has been increasingly so all the time, until it logically reached in our time the dogmas of the tran substantiation and of the infallibility of the Pope, or of the bishops, or of the writings, that is, something absolutely incomprehensible, which has reached the point of absurdity and the demand for a bhnd faith, not in God, not in Christ, not even in the teaching, but in a person, as is the case in Catholi- cism, or in several persons, as in Orthodoxy, or in a book, as in Protestantism. The more Christianity became dif- fused, and the greater was the crowd of unprepared men which it embraced, the less it was understood, the more definitely was the infallibility of the comprehen- sion asserted, and the less did it become possible to understand the true meaning of the teaching. As early as the time of Constantino the whole comprehension of the teaching was reduced to a rt^sum^ confirmed by the worldly power, — a r^sum^ of disputes which took place in a council, — to a symbol of faith, in which it says, I believe in so and so, and so and so, and finally, in the one, holy, cathohc, and apostolic church, that is, in the infalli- bility of those persons who call themselves the church, so that everything was reduced to this, that a man no longer believes in God, nor in Christ, as they have been revealed to him, Ijut in what the church commands him to believe. But the church is holy, — the church was founded by Christ. God could not have left it to men to give an arbitrary interpretation to His teaching, — and so He THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 61 established the church. All these expositions are to such an extent unjust aud bold that one feels some compunc- tion in overthrowing them. There is nothing but the assertion of the churches to show that God or Christ founded anything resembling what the churchmen understand by church. In the Gospel there is an indication against the church, as an external authority, and this indication is most obvious and clear in that place where it says that Christ's disciples should not call any one teachers and fathers. But nowhere is there anything said about the establish- ment of what the churchmen call a church. In the gospels the word " church " is used twice, — once, in the sense of an assembly of men deciding a dis- pute ; the other ' time, in connection with the obscure words about the rock, Peter, and the gates of hell. From these two mentions of the word " church," which has the meaning of nothing but an assembly, they deduce what we now understand by the word " church." But Christ could certainly not have founded a church, that is, what we now understand by the word, because neither in Christ's words, nor in the conceptions of the men of that time, was there anything resembling the concept of a church, as we know it now, with its sacraments, its hierarchy, and, above all, its assertion of infallibility. The fact that men named what was formed later by the same word which Christ had used in respect to some- thing else, does in no way give them the right to assert that Christ established the one, true church. Besides, if Christ had really founded such an institu- tion as the church, on which the whole doctrine and the whole faith are based. He would most likely have ex- pressed this establishment in such definite and clear words, and would have given the one, true church, out- side of the stories about the miracles, which are used in connection with every superstition, such signs as to leave 62 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU no doubts concerning its authenticity ; there is nothing of the kind, but there are now, as there have been, all kinds of institutions which, each of them, call themselves the one, true church. The Cathohc catechism says : " L'eglise est la societS de fideles etahlie par notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ, repandue sur toute la terre et soumise d, I'autorite des pasteurs legi- times, principalement notre Saint Pere — le Fape" mean- ing by "pasteurs legitimes" a human institution, which has the Pope at its head and which is composed of cer- tain persons who are connected among themselves by a certain organization. The Orthodox catechism says : " The church is a society, established by Jesus Christ upon earth, united among themselves into one whole by the one, divine teaching and the sacraments, under the guidance and management of the God-established hierarchy," meaning by " God-established hierarchy " the Greek hierarchy, which is composed of such and such persons, who are to be found in such and such places. The Lutheran catechism says : "The church is holy Christianity, or an assembly of all believers, under Christ, their chief, in which the Holy Ghost through the Gospel and the sacraments offers, communicates, and secures divine salvation," meaning, by this, that the Catholic Church has gone astray and has fallen away, and that the true tradition is preserved in Lutheranism. For the Catholics the divine church coincides with the Roman hierarchy and the Pope. For the Greek Ortho- dox the divine church coincides with the establishment of the Eastern and the Russian Church.^ For the Lutherans 1 Khomyak6v's definition of tlie church, which has some currency among Russians, does not mend matters, if we recognize with Khom- yakdv that the Orthodox is the one true church. Ivhomyak6v asserts tliat the cliureh is an assembly of men (of all, both the clergy and the congregation) united in love, and that the truth is revealed only to those who are united in love (Let us love one another, so that iu THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITIIUST YOU 63 the divine church coincides with the assemhly of men who recognize the Bible and Luther's catechism. Speaking of the origin of Christianity, men who belong to one or the other of the existing churches generally use the word " church " in the singular, as though there has been but one church. But this is quite untrue. The church, as an institution which asserts of itself that it is in possession of the unquestionable truth, appeared oidy when it was not alone, but there were at least two of them. So long as the believers agreed among themselves, and the assembly was one, it had no need of asserting that it was the church. Only when the believers divided into opposite parties, which denied one another, did there appear the necessity for each side to assert its authentic- ity, ascribing infallibility to itself. The concept of the one church arose only from this, that, when two sides dis- agreed and quarrelled, each of them, calling the other a heresy, recognized only its own as the infallible church. If we know that there was a church, which in the year 51 decided to receive the uu circumcised, this church made its appearance only because there was an- agreement of thought, and so forth), and that such a church is the one which, in the first place, recognizes the Nicene symbol, and, in the second, after the division of the churches, does not recognize the I'ope and the new dogmas. But with such a definition of the church there appears a still greater difficulty in harmonizing, as Khomyak6v wants to, the church which is united in love with the church which recognizes the Nicene symbol and the justice of Photius. Thus Klininyak6v's assertion that this church, which is united in love and so is holy, is the clnu'ch as professed by the Greek hierarchy, is still more arbitrary than the assertions of the (^atholics and of the ancient Orthodox. If we admit the concept of the church in the sense which Khomyak6v gives to it, that is, as an assembly of men united \n love and in truth, then everything a man can say in relation to this asseml)Iy is, that it is very desirable to be a member of such an assemblj', if sucli exists, that is, to be in love aTid truth ; but there are no external signs by which it would be possible to count oneself or another in with this holy assembly, or to exclude oneself from it, as no external institution can corre.spoud to this concept. — Author^ s Note. 64 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU other church, that of the Judaizing, which had decided not to receive the un circumcised. If there uow is a Cathohc Church, which asserts its infalhbility, it does this only because there are the Grseco- Russian, Orthodox, Lutheran Churches, each of which asserts its own infalhbiHty, and thus rejects all the other churches. Thus the one church is only a fantastic conception, which has not the slightest sign of reality. As an actual, historical phenomenon there have existed only many assemblies of men, each of which has asserted that it is the one church, established by Christ, and that all the others, which call themselves churches, are here- sies and schisms. The catechisms of the most widely diffused churches, the Catholic, the Orthodox, and the Lutheran, say so out- right. In the Catholic catechism it says : " Quels sont ceux, qui sont hors de I'eglise ? Les infideles, les heretiques, les schismatiqucs." As schismatics are regarded the so-called Orthodox. The Lutherans are considered to be heretics ; thus, according to the Catholic catechism, the Catholics alone are in the church. In the so-called Orthodox catechism it says : " By the one church of Christ is meant nothing but the Orthodox, which remains in complete agreement with the oecumeni- cal church. But as to the Roman Church and the other confessions " (the church does not even mention the Lu- therans and others), " they cannot be referred to the one, true church, since they have themselves separated from it." According to this definition the Catholics and Luther- ans are outside the church, and in the church are only the Orthodox. But the Lutheran catechism runs as follows : " Die ivahrc Kirclie wird daran erkannt, dass in ihr das Wort Gottes lauter und rein ohne Menschenzusiitze gelehrt vnd THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 65 die Sacramente treu nach Christi Einsetzung yewahrt iverden" According to this definition, all those who have added anything to the teaching of Christ and the apostles, as the Catholic and Greek Churches have done, are outside the church. And in the church are only the Protestants. The Catholics assert that the Holy Ghost has unin- terruptedly operated in their hierarchy ; the Orthodox assert that the same Holy Ghost has operated in their hierarchy ; the Arians asserted that the Holy Ghost operated in their hierarchy (this they asserted with as much right as the now ruling churches assert it) ; the Protestants of every description, Lutherans, Reformers, Presbyterians, Methodists, Swedenborgians, Mormons, as- sert that the Holy Ghost operates only in their assem- blies. If the Catholics assert that the Holy Ghost during the division of the Arian and of the Greek Churches left the apostatizing churches and remained only in the one, true church, the Protestants of every denomination can with the same right assert that during the separation of their church from the Catholic the Holy Ghost left the Catholic Church and passed over to the one which they recognize. And so they do. Every church deduces its profession through an uninter- rupted tradition from Christ and the apostles. And, indeed, every Christian confession, arising from Christ, must have inevitably reached the present generation through a certain tradition. But this does not prove that any one of these traditions, excluding all the others, is indubitably the correct one. Every twig on the tree goes uninterruptedly back to the root ; but the fact that every twig comes from the same root does in no way prove that there is but one twig. The same is true of the churches. Every church offers precisely the same proofs of its succession and even 66 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU of the miracles in favour of its own authenticity ; thus there is but one strict and precise definition of what the church is (not as something fantastic, which we should like it to be, but as something which in reahty exists), and this is : the church is an assembly of men, who assert that they, and they only, are in the full posses- sion of the truth. It was these assemblies, which later on, with the aid of the support of the temporal power, passed into mighty institutions, that were the chief impediments in the dissemination of the true comprehension of Christ's teaching. Nor could it be otherwise : the chief peculiarity of Christ's teaching, as distinguished from all the former teacliings, consisted in this, that the men who accepted it tried more and more to understand and fulfil the teaching, whereas the church doctrine asserted the full and final comprehension and fulfilment of this teaching. However strange it may seem to us people educated in the false doctrine about the church as a Christian institu- tion, and in the contempt for heresy, it was only in what is called heresy that there was true motion, that is, true Christianity, and it ceased to be such when it stopped its motion in these heresies and became itself arrested in the immovable forms of the church. Indeed, what is a heresy ? Eead all the theological works which treat about heresies, a subject which is the first to present itself for definition, since every theology speaks of the true teaching amidst the surrounding false teachings, that is, heresies, and you will nowhere find anything resembling a definition of heresy. As a specimen of that complete absence of any sem- blance of a definition of what is understood by the word " heresy " may serve the opinion on this subject ex- pressed by the learned historian of Christianity, E. de Pressens^ in his Histoirc du Dogme, with the epigraph, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 67 ' « UU Christus, ihi Ecclesia" (Paris, 1869). This is what he says in his introduction : " Je sais que Von nous con- teste le droit de califier ainsi," that is, to call heresies " les tendances quifurent si vivement combattues par les premiers Feres. La designation mtnie dlieresie semble une atteinte portee ci la libcrte dc conscience et de pensee. Nous ne pouvons partager ces scrupides, car Us n'iraient (i rien mains qu'di enlever au christianisme tout caractere dis- tinctifr And after saying that after Constantine the church actually misused its power in detiuiug the dissenters as heretics and persecuting them, he passes judgment on the early times and says : " Leglise est une lihre association ; il y a tout profit h se sSparer d'elle. La poUmique contre Verreur na d'autres resources que la pensee et Ic sentiment. Vn type doctrinal uniforme na pas encore etc elabore ; les divergences secon- daires se p)roduisent en Orient et en Occident avcc une entiere liberie, la theologie n'est 'point liee ci d'invariables formules. Si au sein de cette diver site apparait un fond commun de croyances, n'cst-on pas en droit d'y voir nan ^9«s un systeme formule et compose par les representants d'une autoritc d'ecole, mais let foi elle meme, dans son instinct le plus silr et sa manifestation la plus spontanee ? Si cette meme unanimitc qui se revele dans les croyances essen- ticlles, se rctrouve pour repousser telles ou telles tendances, ne seront-nous pas en droit dc conclure que ces tendances etaient en disaccord flagrant avec les principcs fon- damentaux du christianisme ? Cette presomption ne se transformer a-t-elle pas en certitude si nous reconnaissons dans la doctrine universellement repoussee par I'cglise les traits earacteristiques de I'une des religions du jpasse ? Pour dire qtie le gnosticisme ou V ebionitisvie sont les formes Ugitimes dc let pensee chretienne, il faut dire hardiment qiCil rCy a pas de pensee chretienne, ni de carac- tere specifque qui la fasse reconnaitre. Sous pr6texte de 68 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU Velargir on la dissent. Personne, au temps de Platon, n'eut ose de couvrir de son nam une doctrine qui n'eut pas fait place k la theorie des idees, et Von eut excite les justes moqueries de la Grece, en voulant faire d' Epicure ou de Zenon un disciple de V Acadcmie. Beconnaissons done que s'il existe une religion et U7ie doctrine qui sappelle le christianisme elle peut avoir ses heresies." The whole discussion of the author reduces itself to this, that every opinion which is not in agreement with a code of dogmas professed by us at a given time is a heresy ; but at a given time and in a given place people profess something, and this profession of something in some place cannot be a criterion of the truth. Everything reduces itself to this, that " Ubi Christus, ibi Ecclesia ; " but Christ is where we are. Every so- called heresy, by recognizing as the truth what it pro- fesses, can in a similar manner find in the history of the churches a consistent explanation of what it professes, using for itself all the arguments of De Pressens^ and calling only its own confession truly Christian, precisely what all the heresies have been doing. The only definition of heresy (the word aipea-i^ means part) is the name given by an assembly of men to every judgment which rejects part of the teaching, as professed by the assembly. A more particular meaning, which more frequently than any other is ascribed to heresy, is that of an opinion which rejects the church doctrine, as established and supported by the worldly power. There is a remarkable, little known, very large work (^Unptartheyisclie Kirchcn und Kctzcr-Historia, 1729), by Gottfried Arnold, which treats directly on this subject and which shows all the illegality, arbitrariness, senseless- ness, and cruelty of using the word " heresy " in the sense of rejection. This book is an attempt at describing the history of Christianity in the form of a history of the heresies. In the introduction the author puts a number of ques- THE kingdo:m of god is within tou 69 tions : (1) regarding those who make heretics (von den Ketzermachern selbst) ; (2) concerning those who were made heretics ; (3) concerning the subjects of heresy ; (4) concerning the method of making heretics, and (5) concerning the aims and consequences of making heretics. In connection with each of these points he puts dozens of questions, answers to which he later gives from the works of well-known theologians, but he chiefly leaves it to the reader himself to make the deduction from the ex- position of the whole book. I shall quote the following as samples of these questions, which partly contain the answers. In reference to the fourth point, as to how heretics are made, he says in one of his questions (the seventh) : " Does not all history show that the greatest makers of heretics and the masters of this work were those same wise men from whom the Father has hidden His secrets, that is, the hypocrites, Pharisees, and lawyers, or entirely godless and corrupt people?" Questions 20 and 21:" And did not, in the most corrupt times of Christianity, the hypocrites and envious people reject those very men who were particularly endowed by God with great gifts, and who in the time of pure Christianity would have been highly esteemed? And, on the con- trary, would not these men, who during the decadence of Christianity elevated themselves above everything and recognized themselves to be the teachers of the purest Christianity, have been recognized, in apostolic times, as the basest heretics and antichristiaus ? " Expressing in these questions this thought, among others, that the verbal expression of the essence of faith, which was demanded by the church, and a departure from which was considered a heresy, could never completely cover the world-conception of tlie believer, and tliat, therefore, the demand for an expression of faith by means of i^artiiiular words was the cause of heresy, he says, in Questions 21 and 33 : 70 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU " And if the divine acts and thoughts present them- selves to a man as so great and profound that he does not find corresponding words in which to express them, must he be recognized as a heretic, if he is not able precisely to express his ideas ? And is not this true, that in the early times there was no heresy, because the Christians did not judge one another according to verbal expressions, but according to the heart and acts, in connection with a complete Hberty of expression, without fear of being rec- ognized as a heretic ? Was it not a very common and easy method with the church," he says in Question 21, " when the clergy wanted to get rid of a person or ruin him, to make him suspected as regards his doctrine and to throw over him the cloak of heresy, and thus to con- demn and remove him ? " Though it is true that amidst the so-called heretics there were errors and sins, yet it is not less true and obvi- ous from the numberless examples here adduced " (that is, in the history of the church and of heresy), he says far- ther on, "that there has not been a single sincere and conscientious man with some standing who has not been ruined by the churchmen out of envy or for other causes." Thus, nearly two hundred years ago, was the signifi- cance of heresy understood, and yet this conception con- tinues to exist until the present time. Nor can it fail to exist, so long as there is a concept of the church. Heresy is the reverse of the church. AVhere there is the church, there is also heresy. The church is an assembly of men asserting that they are in possession of the indisputable truth. Heresy is the opinion of people who do not recog- nize the indisputableness of the church truth. Heresy is a manifestation of motion in the church, an attempt at destroying the ossified assertion of the church, an attempt at a living comprehension of the teaching. Every step of moving forward, of comprehending and ful- filling the teaching has been accomplished by the heretics : THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIJT YOU 71 such heretics were Tertullian, and Origen, and Augustine, and Luther, and Huss, and Savonarola, and Chelcick)^, and others. Nor could it be otherwise. A disciple of Christ, whose teaching con-sists in an eternally greater and greater comprehension of the teach- ing and in a greater and greater fulfilment of it, in a motion toward perfection, cannot, for the very reason that he is a disciple of Christ, assert concerning himself or concerning any one else, that he fully understands Christ's teaching and fulfils it; still less can he assert this con- cerning any assembly. No matter at what stage of comprehension and perfec- tion a disciple of Christ may be, he always feels the insufficiency of his comprehension and of his fulfilment, and always strives after a greater comprehension and ful- filment. And so the assertion about myself or about an assembly, that I, or we, possess the complete comprehen- sion of Christ's teaching, and completely fulfil it, is a renunciation of the spirit of Christ's teaching. No matter how strange this may seem, the churches, as churches, have always been, and cannot help but be, insti- tutions that are not only foreign, but even directly hostile, to Christ's teaching. With good reason Voltaire called the church " Vinfdmc ; " with good reason all, or nearly all, the Christian so-called sects have recognized the cliurch to be that whore of whom Eevelation prophesies ; witli good reason the history of the church is the history of the greatest cruelties and horrors. The churches, as churches, are not certain institutions which have at their base the Christian principle, though slightly deviated from the straight path, as some think ; the churches, as churches, as assemlilies, which assert their infallil)ility, are antichristian institutions. Between the churches, as churches, and Christianity there is not only nothing in common but the name, but they are two absolutely divergent and mutually hostile principles. One 72 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU is pride, violence, self-assertion, inamobility, and death ; the other is meekness, repentance, humihty, motion, and life. It is impossible at the same time to serve both masters, — one or the other has to be chosen. The servants of the churches of all denominations have tried, especially, of late, to appear as advocates of motion in (Christianity ; they make concessions, wish to mend the abuses which have stolen into the church, and say that for the sake of the abuses we ouglit not to deny the principle of the Christian church itself, which alone can unite all men and be a mediator between men and God. But all tbis is not true. The churches have not only never united, but have always been one of the chief causes of the disunion of men, of the hatred of one another, of wars, slaughters, inquisitions, nights of St. Bartholomew, and so forth, and the churches never serve as mediators between men and God, which is, indeed, unnecessary and is directly forbidden by Christ, who has revealed the teaching directly to every man, and they put up dead forms in the place of God, and not only fail to reveal God to man, but even conceal Him from them. Churches which have arisen from the failure to compre- hend, and which maintain this lack of comprehension by their immobility, cannot help persecuting and oppressing every comprehension of the teaching. They try to con- ceal this, but this is impossible, because every motion forward along the path indicated by Christ destroys their existence. As one hears and reads the articles and sermons, in which the church writers of modern times of all denomi- nations speak of Christian truths and virtues, as one hears and reads these clever discussions, admonitions, confes- sions, which have been worked out by the ages, and which sometimes look very much as though they were sincere, one is prepared to doubt that the churches could be THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 73 hostile to Christianity : " It certainly cannot be that these people, who have produced such men as Chrysostom, F^nelon, Butler, and other preachers of Christianity, should be hostile to it." One feels like saying : " The churches may have deviated from Christianity, may be in error, but cannot be hostile to it." But as one looks at the fruits, in order to judge the tree, as Christ has taught us to do, and sees that their fruits have been evil, that the consequence of their activity has been the dis- tortion of Christianity, one cannot help but feel that, no matter how good the men have been, the cause of the churches in which they have taken part has not been Christian. The goodness and the deserts of all these men, who served the churches, were the goodness and the deserts of men, but not of the cause which they served. All these good men — like Francis d'Assisi and Francis de Lobes, our Tikhon Zaddnski, Thomas k Kempis, and others — were good men, in spite of their having served a cause which is hostile to Christianity, and they would have been better and more deserving still, if they had not succumbed to the error which they served. But why speak of the past, judge of the past, which may have been falsely represented to us ? The churches with their foundations and with their activity are not a work of the past : the churches are now before us, and we can judge of them directly, by their activity, their influence upon men. In what does the activity of the churches now consist ? How do they act upon men ? What do the churches do in our country, among the Catholics, among the Protestants of every denomination ? In what does their activity consist, and what are the consequences of their activity ? The activity of our Russian, so-called Orthodox, Church is in full sight. It is a vast fact, which cannot be con- cealed, and about which there can be no dispute. In what consists the activity of tliis Russian Church, 74 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU this enormous, tensely active institution, which consists of an army of half a million, costing the nation tens of milhons ? The activity of this church consists in using every possible means for the purpose of instilling in the one hundred millions of the Russian population those obsolete, backward faiths, which now have no justification whatso- ever, and which sometime in the past were professed by people that are alien to our nation, and in which hardly any one now believes, frequently even not those whose duty it is to disseminate these false doctrines. The inculcation of these ahen, obsolete formulas of the Byzantine clergy, which no longer have any meaning for the men of our time, about the Trinity, the Holy Virgin, the sacraments, grace, and so forth, forms one part of the activity of the Eussian Church ; another part of its activity consists in the activity of maintaining idolatry in the direct sense of the word, — worshipping holy relics and images, bringing sacrifices to them, and expecting from them the fulfilment of their wishes. I shall not speak of what is spoken and written by the clergy with a shade of learning and hberalism in the clerical periodicals, but of what actually is done by the clergy over the breadth of the Eussian land among a population of one hundred million people. What do they carefully, persistently, tensely, everywhere without exception, teach the people ? What is demanded of them on the strength of the so-called Christian faith ? I will begin with the beginning, with the birth of a child : at the birth of a child, the clergy teaches that a prayer has to be read over the mother and the child, in order to purify them, since without this prayer the mother who has given birth to a child is accursed. For this purpose the priest takes the child in his hands in front of the representations of the saints, which the masses simply call gods, and pronounces exorcising words, and ,ai ( THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 75 thus purifies the mother. Then it is impressed on the parents, and even demanded of them under threat of punishment in case of non-fulfilment, that the child shall be baptized, that is, dipped three times in water by the priest, in connection with which incomprehensible words are pronounced and even less comprehensible acts per- formed, — the smearing of various parts of the body with oil, the shearing of the hair, and the blowing and spitting of the sponsors on the imaginary devil. All this is supposed to cleanse the child and make him a Christian. Then the parents are impressed with the necessity of giving the holy sacrament to the child, that is, of giving him under the form of bread and wine a particle of Christ's body to eat, in consequence of which the child will receive the grace of Christ, and so forth. Then it is demanded that this child, according to his age, shall learn to pray. To pray means to stand straight in front of the boards on which the faces of Christ, the Virgin, the saints, are represented, and incline his head and his whole body, and with his right hand, with fingers put together in a certain form, to touch his brow, shoulders, and stomach, and pronounce Church-Slavic words, of which all the children are particularly enjoined to repeat, " Mother of God, Virgin, rejoice ! " etc. Then the pupil is im- pressed with the necessity of doing the same, that is, crossing himself, in presence of any church or image ; then he is told that on holidays (holidays are days on which Christ was born, though no one knows when that was, and circumcised, on which the Mother of God died, the cross was brought, the image was carried in, a saintly fool saw a vision, etc.,) he must put on his laest clothes and go to church, buy tapers there and place them in front of images of saints, liand in little notes and commemorations and loaves, that triangles may be cut in them, and tlien pray many times for the health and welfare of tlie Tsar and the bishops, and for himself 76 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU and his acts, and then kiss the cross and the priest's hand. Besides this prayer he is enjoined to prepare himself at least once a year for the holy sacrament. To prepare himself for the holy sacrament means to go to church and tell the priest his sins, on the supposition that his imparting his sins to a stranger will completely cleanse him of his sins, and then to eat from a spoon a bit of bread with wine, which purifies him even more. Then it is impressed upon a man and a woman, who want their carnal intercourse to be sacred, that they must come to church, put on metallic crowns, drink potions, to the sound of singing walk three times around a table, and that then their carnal intercourse will become sacred and quite distinct from any other carnal intercourse. In life people are impressed with the necessity of ob- serving the following rules : not to eat meat or milk food on certain days, on other certain days to celebrate masses for the dead, on hohdays to receive the priest and give him money, and several times a year to take the boards with the representations out of the church and carry them on sashes over fields and through houses. Before death a man is enjoined to eat from a spoon bread with wine, and still better, if he has time, to have himself smeared with oil. This secures for Mm happiness in the next world. After a man's death, his relatives are enjoined, for the purpose of saving the soul of the defunct, to put into his hands a printed sheet with a prayer ; it is also useful to have a certain book read over the dead body and the name of the dead man pronounced several times in church. All this is considered an obligatory faith for everybody. But if one wants to care for his soul, he is taught, ac- cording to this faith, that the greatest amount of blessed- ness is secured for the soul in the world to come by contributing money for churches and monasteries, by put- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN T3U 77 ting holy men thus uoder obligation to pray for him. Other soul-saving measures, according to this faith, are the visiting of monasteries and the kissing of miracle- working images and relics. According to this faith, miracle-working images and relics concentrate in themselves particular holiness, strength, and grace, and nearness to these objects — touching, kissing them, placing tapers before them, crawl- ing up to them — contributes very much to a man's sal- vation, and so do masses, which are ordered before these sacred objects. It is this faith, and no other, which is called Orthodox, that is, the right faith, and which has, under the guise of Christianity, been impressed upon the people for many centuries by the exercise of all kinds of force, and is now being impressed with particular etf ort. And let it not be said that the Orthodox teachers place the essence of the teaching in something else, and that these are only ancient forms which it is not considered right to destroy. That is not true : throughout all of Kussia, nothing but this faith has of late been impressed upon the people with particular effort. There is nothing else. Of something else they talk and write in the capi- tals, but only this is being impressed on one hundred milhon of people, and nothing else. The churchmen talk of other things, but they enjoin only this with every means at their command. All this, and the worship of persons and images, is in- troduced into theologies, into catechisms ; the masses are carefully taught this theoretically, and, being hypnotized practically, with every means of solemnity, splendour, authority, and violence, are made to believe in this, and are jealously guarded against every endeavour to be freed from these savage superstitions. In my very presence, as I said in reference to my book, Christ's teaching and his own words concerning non- 78 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU resistance to evil were a subject of ridicule and circus jokes, and the churchmen not only did not oppose this, but even encouraged the blasphemy ; but allow yourself to say a disrespectful word concerning the monstrous idol, which is blasphemously carried about in Moscow by drunken persons under the name of the Iberian Virgin, and a groan of indignation will be raised by these same churchmen. All that is preached is the external cult of idolatry. Let no one say that one thing does not interfere with the other, that " these ought ye to have done, and not to have left the other undone," that " all, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do ; but do not ye after their works : for they say, and do not " (Matt, xxiii. 23, 3). This is said of the Pharisees, who fulfilled all the external injunctions of the law, and so the words, " whatsoever they bid you observe, that ob- serve," refer to works of charity and of goodness, and the words, " but do ye not after their works, for they say, and do not," refer to the execution of ceremonies and to the omission of good works, and have precisely the opposite meaning to what the churchmen want to ascribe to this passage, when they interpret it as meaning that ceremo- nies are to be observed. An external cult and serving charity and truth are hard to harmonize ; for the most part one thing excludes the other. Thus it was with the Pharisees, and thus it is now with the church Chris- tians. If a man can save himself through redemption, sacra- ments, prayer, he no longer needs any good deeds. The Sermon on the Mount, or the symbol of faith : it is impossible to believe in both. And the churchmen have chosen the latter : the symbol of faith is taught and read as a prayer in the churches ; and the Sermon on the Mount is excluded even from the Gospel teachings in the churches, so that in the churches the parishioners never hear it, except on the days when the whole Gospel is THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 79 read. Nor can it be otherwise : men who believe in a bad and senseless God, who has cursed the human race and who has doomed His son to be a victim, and has doomed a part of humanity to everlasting torment, can- not believe in a God of love. A man who believes in God-Christ, who will come again in glory to judge and punish the living and the dead, cannot believe in Christ, who commands a man to offer his cheek to the offender, not to judge, but to forgive, and to love our enemies. A man who believes in the divine inspiration of the Old Testament and the holiness of David, who on his death- bed orders the kilHng of an old man -who has offended him and whom he could not kill himself, because he was bound by an oath (Book of Kings, ii. 3), and similar abominations, of which the Old Testament is full, cannot believe in Christ's moral law ; a man who believes in the doctrine and the preaching of the church about the com- patibility of executions and wars with Christianity, cannot believe in the brotherhood of men. Above all else, a man who believes in the salvation of men through faith, in redemption, or in the sacraments, can no longer employ all his strength in the fulfilment in life of the moral teaching of Christ. A man who is taught by the church the blasphemous doctrine about his not being able to be saved by his own efforts, but that there is another means, will inevitably have recourse to tliis means, and not to his efforts, on which he is assured it is a sin to depend. The church doctrine, any church doctrine, with its redemption and its sacraments, excludes Christ's teaching, and the Orthodox doctrine, with its idolatry, does so especially. " But the masses have always believed so themselves, and believe so now," people will say to this. " The whole history of the Russian masses proves this. It is not right to deprive the masses of their tradition." In this does the deception consist. The masses at one time, indeed, 80 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU professed something like what the church professes now, though it was far from being the same (among the masses, there has existed, not only this superstition of the images, house spirits, relics, and the seventh Thursday after Easter, with its wreaths and birches, but also a deep moral, vital comprehension of Christianity, which has never existed in the whole church, and was met with only in its best representatives) ; but the masses, in spite of all the obstacles, which the government and the church have opposed to them, have long ago in their best repre- sentatives outlived this coarse stage of comprehension, which is proved by the spontaneous birth of rationalistic sects, with which one meets everywhere, with which Russia swarms at the present time, and with which the churchmen struggle in vain. The masses move on in the consciousness of the moral, vital side of Christianity. And it is here that the church appears with its failure to support, and with its intensified inculcation of an obso- lete paganism in its ossified form, with its tendency to push the masses back into that darkness, from which they are struggling with so much effort to get out. " We do not teach the masses anything new, but only what they believe in, and that in a more perfect form," say the churchmen. This is the same as tying up a growing chick and push- ing it back into the shell from which it has come. I have often been struck by this observation, which would be comical, if its consequences were not so terrible, that men, taking hold of each other in a circle, deceive one another, without being able to get out of the en- chanted circle. The first question, the first doubt of a Russian who is beginning to think, is the question about the miracle- working images and, above all, the relics : " Is it true that they are imperishable, and that they work miracles?" Hundreds and thousands of men put these questions to THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 81 themselves and are troubled about their solution, espe- cially because the bishops, metropolitans, and all the dig- nitaries kiss the relics and the miracle-working images. Ask the bishops and the dignitaries why they do so, and they will tell you that they do so for the sake of the masses, and the masses worship the images and relics, because the bishops and dignitaries do so. The activity of the Eussian Church, in spite of its external veneer of modernuess, learning, spirituality, which its members are beginning to assume in their writings, articles, clerical periodicals, and sermons, con- sists not only in keeping the masses in that consciousness of rude and savage idolatry, in which they are, but also in intensifying and disseminating superstition and religious ignorance, by pushing out of the masses the vital compre- hension of Christianity, which has been living in them by the side of the idolatry. I remember, I was once present in the monastery book- store of Optin Cloister, when an old peasant was choosing some religious books for his grandson, who could read. The monk kept pushing the description of relics, holidays, miraculous images, psalters, etc., into his hands. I asked the old man if he had the Gospel. "No." "Give him the Eussian Gospel," I said to the monk. " That is not proper for him," said the monk. This is in compressed form the activity of our church. " But this is only true in barbarous Eussia," a Euro- pean or American reader will say. And such an opinion will be correct, but only in the measure in which it refers to the government which aids the church in accomplish- ing its stultifying and corrupting influence in Eussia. It is true that nowhere in Europe is there such a despotic government and one to such a degree in accord with the ruling church, and so the participation of the power in the corruption of the masses in Eussia is very strong ; but it is not true that the Eussian Church in its 82 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU influence upon the masses in any way differs from any other church. The churches are everything the same, and if the Catholic, the Anghcan, and the Lutheran Churches have not in hand such an obedient government as is the Eussian, this is not due to the absence of any desire to make use of the same. The church, as a church, no matter what it may be, Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, — every church, insomuch as it is a church, cannot help but tend toward the same as the Eussian Church, — toward con- cealing the true meaning of Christ's teaching and substi- tuting in its place its own doctrine, which does not put a person under any obligations, excludes the possibility of understanding the true activity of Christ's teaching, and, above all else, justifies the existence of priests who are living at the expense of the nation. Has Catholicism been doing anything else with its pro- hibition of the reading of the Gospel, and with its demand for unreasoning obedience to the ecclesiastic guides and the infallible Pope ? Does Catholicism preach anything different from what the Eussian Church preaches ? We have here the same external cult, the same relics, miracles, and statues, the miracle-working Notre-Dames, and pro- cessions. The same elatedly misty judgments concerning Christianity in books and sermons, and, when it comes to facts, the same maintenance of a coarse idolatry. And is not the same being done in Anglicanism, Luther- anism, and in every Protestantism which has formed itself into a church ? The same demands from the congrega- tion for a belief in dogmas which were expressed in the fourth century and have lost all meaning for the men of our time, and the same demand for idolatry, if not before relics and images, at least before the Sabbath and the letter of the Bible, It is still the same activity, which is directed upon concealing the real demands of Christianity THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 83 and substituting for them externals, which do not put a man under any obligations, and " cant," as the English beautifully define the occupation to which they are par- ticularly subject. Among the Protestants this activity is particularly noticeable, since they do not even have the excuse of antiquity. And does not the same take place in the modern Eevivalism, — the renovated Calvinism, Evangelism, — out of which has grown up the Salvation Army ? Just as the condition of all the church doctrines is the same in reference to Christ's teaching, so are also their methods. Their condition is such that they cannot help but strain all their efforts, in order to conceal the, teaching of Christ, whose name they use. The incompatibility of all the church confessions with Christ's teaching is such that it takes especial efforts to conceal this incompatibility from men. Indeed, we need but stop and think of the condition of any adult, not only cultured, but even simple, man of our time, who has filled himself with conceptions, which are in the air, from the fields of geology, physics, chemistry, cosmography, history, when he for the first time looks consciously at the beliefs, instilled in him in childhood and supported by the churches, that God created the world in six days ; that there was light before the sun ; that Noah stuck all the animals into his ark, and so forth ; that Jesus is the same God, the son, who created everything before this ; that this God descended upon earth for Adam's sin ; that He rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and sits on the right of the Father, and will come in the clouds to judge the world, and so forth. All these propositions, which were worked out by the men of the fourth century and had a certain meaning for the men of that time, have no meaning for the men of the present. The men of our tinip may repeat these words with their lips, but they cannot believe, because these 84 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU words, like the statements that God lives in heaven, that the heavens opened and a voice said something from there, that Christ rose from the dead and flew somewhere to heaven and will again come from somewhere in the clouds, and so forth, have no meaning for us. It was possible for a man, who regarded the heaven as a finite, firm vault, to believe, or not, that God created the heaven, that heaven was opened, that Christ flew to heaven ; but for us these words have no meaning whatso- ever. Men of our time can only believe that they must believe so ; but they cannot beheve in what has no mean- ing for them. But if all these expressions are to have a figurative meaning and are emblems, we know that, in the first place, not all churchmen agree in this, but that, on the contrary, the majority insist on understanding Holy Scrip- ture in a direct sense, and, secondly, that these interpreta- tions are varied and not confirmed by anything, But even if a man wishes to make himself believe in the doctrine of the churches, as it is imparted, — the general diffusion of knowledge and of the Gospels, and the intercourse of men of various denominations among themselves, form for this another, even more insuperable obstacle. A man of our time need but buy himself a Gospel for three kopeks and read Christ's clear words to the woman of Samaria, which are not subject to any other interpreta- tion, about the Father needing no worsliippers in Jeru- salem, neither in this mountain, nor in that, worshippers in spirit and in truth, or the words about a Christian's being obliged to pray, not in temples, as the pagans do, and in the sight of all, but in secret, that is, in his closet, or that a disciple of Christ must not call any one father or teacher, — a man needs but read these words, to be- come convinced that nc ecclesiastic pastors, who call themselves teachers in opposition to Christ's teaching, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU 85 and who quarrel among themselves, form an authority, and that that which the churchmen teach us is not Chris- tianity. But more than that : if a man of our time con- tinues to believe in miracles and does not read the Gospel, his mere intercourse with men of other denominations and faiths, which has become so easy in our time, will make him doubt in the authenticity of his faith. It was all very well for a man who never saw any men of another faith than his own to believe that his own faith was the correct one ; but a thinking man need only come in con- tact, as he now does all the time, with equally good and equally bad men of various denominations, which condemn the doctrines of one another, in order to lose faith in the truth of the religion wliich he professes. In our time only a very ignorant man or one who is quite indifferent to the questions of life, which are sanctified by religion, can stay in the church faith. What cunning and what effort must be exerted by the churches, if, in spite of all these conditions which are sub- versive of faith, they are to continue building churches, celebrating masses, preaching, teaching, converting, and, above all, receiving for it a fat income, hke all these priests, pastors, intendants, superintendents, abbots, arch- deacons, bishops, and archbishops. Especial, supernatural efforts are needed. And such efforts, which are strained more and more, are used by the churches. With us, in Russia, they use (in addition to all other means) the simple, coarse violence of the civil power, which is obedient to the church. Persons who depart from the external expression of faith and who give expression to it are either directly punished or deprived of their rights ; while persons who strictly adhere to the external forms of faith are rewarded and sfiven rij^hts. Thus do the Orthodox ; but even all other churches, without exception, use for this all such means, of which the chief is what now is called hypnotization. 86 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU All the arts, from architecture to poetry, are put into action, to affect the souls of men and to stultify them, and this action takes place without interruption. Par- ticularly evident is this necessity of the hypnotizing action upon men, in order to bring them to a state of stupefaction, in the activity of the Salvation Army, which uses new, unfamiliar methods of horns, drums, songs, banners, uniforms, processions, dances, tears, and dramatic attitudes. But we are startled by them only because they are new methods. Are not the old methods of the temples, with especial illumination, with gold, splendour, candles, choirs, organs, bells, vestments, lackadaisical sermons, and so forth, the same ? But, no matter how strong this action of hypnotization may be, the chief and most deleterious activity of the churches does not lie in this. The chief, most pernicious activity of the church is the one which is directed to the deception of the children, those very children of whom Christ said that it will be woe to him who shall offend one of these little ones. With the very first awakening of the child, they begin to deceive him and to impress upon him with solemnity what those who impress do not believe in themselves, and they continue to impress him, until the deception, becoming a habit, is engrafted on the child's nature. The child is methodically deceived in the most important matter of life, and when the deception has so grown up with his life that it is difficult to tear it away, there is revealed to him the whole world of science and of reality, which can in no way harmonize with the beliefs instilled in him, and he is left to make the best he can out of these contradictions. If we should set ourselves the task of entangling a man in such a way that he should not be able with his sound reason to get away from the two opposite world-concep- tions, which have been instilled in him since his child- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 87 hood, we could not invent anything more powerful than what is accomplished in the case of every young man who is educated in our so-called Christian society. What the churches do to people is terrible, but if we reflect on their condition, we shall find that those men who form the institution of the churches cannot act other- wise. The churches are confronted with a dilemma, — the Sermon on the Mount, or the Nicene Creed, — one excludes the other : if a man sincerely believes in the Sermon on the Mount, the Nicene Creed, and with it the church and its representatives, inevitably lose all mean- ing and significance for him ; but if a man believes in the Nicene Creed, that is, in the church, that is, in those who call themselves its repi-esentatives, the Sermon on the Mount will become superfluous to him. And so the churches cannot help but use every possible effort to obscure the meaning of the Sermon on the Mount and to attract people toward itself. Only thanks to the tense activity of the churches in this direction has the influence, of the churches held itself until now. Let a church for the shortest time arrest this action upon the masses by means of hypnotizing them and deceiving the children, and people will understand Christ's teaching. But tJie comprehension of the teaching destroys the churches and their significance. And so the churches do not for a moment interrupt the tense activity anil hypnotization of the adults and the deception of the children. And it is this activity of the churches, which instils a false comprehen- sion of Christ's teaching in men, and serves as an obstacle in its comprehension for the majority of so-called be- lievers. IV. Now I will speak of another putative comprehension of Christianity, which interferes with the correct compre- hension of it, — the scientific comprehension. The churchmen regard as Christianity that conception of it which they have formed, and this comprehension of Christianity they regard as the one indubitably true one. The men of science regard as Christianity only what the different churches have been professing, and, assum- ing that these professions exhaust the whole significance of Christianity, they recognize it as a religious teaching which has outlived its time. To have it made clear how impossible it is with such a view to understand the Christian teaching, we must form an idea of the place which the religions in general and Christianity in particular have in reahty occupied in the life of humanity, and of the significance which is ascribed to religion by science. As an individual man cannot live without having a definite idea of the meaning of his life, and always, though often unconsciously, conforms his acts to this meaning which he ascribes to his life, even so aggregates of men living under the same conditions, — nations cannot help but have a conception about the meaning of their collect- ive life and the activity resulting therefrom. And as an individual, entering into a new age, invariably changes his comprehension of life, and a grown man sees its meaning in something else than in what a child sees it, so an aggregate of people, a nation, inevitably, according 88 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 89 to its age, changes its comprehension of life and the activity wliich results from it. The difference between the individual and the whole of humanity in this respect consists in this, that while the individual in the determination of the comprehension of life, proper to the new stage of life into which he enters, and in the activity which arises from it, makes use of the indications of men who have lived before him and who have already passed through the period of life upon which he is entering, humanity cannot have these indications, because it all moves along an untrodden path, and there is no one who can tell how life is to be understood, and how one is to act under the new cotxlitions into which it is entering, and in which no one has lived before. And yet, as a married man with children cannot continue to understand life as he understood it when he was a child, so humanity cannot in connection with all the various changes which have taken place, — the density of the population, and the established intercourse between the nations, and the improvement of the means for strug- gling against Nature, and the accumulation of science, — ■ continue to understand life as before, but must establish a new concept of life, from which should result the activ- ity which corresponds to that new condition into which it has entered or is about to enter. To this demand responds the peculiar ability of human- ity to segregate certain people who give a new meaning to the whole of human life, — a meaning from which results the whole new activity which is different from the preceding one. The establishment of the new life- ccnception, which is proper for humanity under tlie new conditions into which it is entering, and of the activity resulting from it, is what is called religion. And so religion, in the first place, is not, as science thinks, a phenomenon which at one time accompanied the evolution of humanity, and later became obsolete, but 90 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU is a phenomenon always inherent in the life of humanity, and is in our time as inevitably inherent in humanity as at any other time. In the second place, religion is always a determination of the activity of the future, and not of the past, and so it is obvious that the investigation of past phenomena can in no way include the essence of re- hgion. The essence of every religious teaching does not consist in the desire to express the forces of Nature symbolically, or in the fear of them, or in the demand for the miracu- lous, or in the external forms of its manifestation, as the men of science imagine. The essence of religion lies in the property of men prophetically to foresee and point out the path of life, over which humanity must travel, in a new definition of the meaning of life, from which also results a new, the whole future activity of humanity. This property of foreseeing the path on which human- ity must travel is in a greater or lesser degree common to all men, but there have always, at all times, been men, in whom this quality has been manifested with particular force, and these men expressed clearly and precisely what was dimly felt by all men, and established a new com- prehension of life, from which resulted an entirely new activity, for hundreds and thousands of years. We know three such conceptions of life : two of them humanity has already outlived, and the third is the one through which we are now passing in Christianity. There are three, and only three, such conceptions, not because we have arbitrarily united all kinds of life-conceptions into these three, but because the acts of men always have for their base one of these three life-conceptions, because we cannot understand life in any other way than by one of these three means. The three life-conceptions are these : the first — the personal, or animal ; the second — the social, or the pagan ; and the third — the universal, or the divine. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 91 According to the first life-conception, man's life is con- tained in nothing but his personality ; the aim of his life is the gratification of the will of this personality. Accord- ing to the second life-conception, man's hfe is not con- tained in his personahty alone, but in the aggregate and sequence of personalities, — in the tribe, the family, the race, the state ; the aim of life consists in the gratification of the will of this aggregate of personalities. According to the third life-conception, man's life is contained neither in his personality, nor in the aggregate and sequence of personalities, but in the beginning and source of hfe, in God. These three life-conceptions serve .as the foundation of all past and present religions. The savage recognizes life only in himself, in his per- sonal desires. The good of his life is centred in himself alone. The highest good for him is the greatest gratifica- tion of his lust. The prime mover of his life is his per- sonal enjoyment. His religion consists in appeasing the divinity in his favour, and in the worship of imaginary personalities of gods, who live only for personal ends. A pagan, a social man, no longer recognizes hfe in him- self alone, but in the aggregate of personahties, — in the tribe, the family, the race, the state, — and sacrifices his personal good for these aggregates. The prime mover of his life is glory. His religion consists in the glorification of the heads of unions, — of eponyms, ancestors, kings, and in the worship of gods, the exclusive protectors of his family, his race, his nation, his state.^ ^The unity of this life-conception is not impaired by the fact that so many various forms of life, as that of the tribe, the family, the race, the state, and even the life of humanity, accordinij to the theo- retical speculations of the positivists, are based on this social, or pagan, life-conception. All these various forms of life are baaed on the same concept that the life of the personality is not a sufficient aim of life and that the meaning of life can be found only in the aggre- gate of persoualities. — Author'' a Note. 92 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU The man with the divine life-conception no longer rec- ognizes life to consist in his personality, or in the aggregate of personalities (in the family, the race, the people, the country, or the state), but in the source of the everlasting, immortal life, in God ; and to do God's will he sacrifices his personal and domestic and social good. The prime mover of his religion is love. And his religion is the worship in deed and in truth of the beginning of every- thing, of God. The whole historical life of humanity is nothing but a gradual transition from the personal, the animal life-con- ception, to the social, and from the social to the divine. The whole history of the ancient nations, which lasted for thousands of years and which came to a conclusion with the history of Rome, is the history of the substitution of the social and the political life-conception for the ani- mal, the personal. The whole history since the time of imperial Eome and the appearance of Christianity has been the history of the substitution of the divine life-con- ception for the political, and we are passing through it even now. It is this last life-conception, and the Christian teach- ing which is based upon it and which governs our whole life and lies at the foundation of our whole activity, both the practical and the theoretical, that the men of so-called science, considering it in reference to its external signs only, recognize as something obsolete and meaningless for us. This teaching, which, according to the men of science, is contained only in its dogmatic part, — in the doctrine of the Trinity, the redemption, the miracles, the church, the sacraments, and so forth, — is only one out of a vast number of religions which have arisen in humanity, and now, having played its part in history, is outliving its usefulness, melting in the hght of science and true culture. What is taking place is what in the majority of cases 1 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 93 serves as a source of the coarsest human errors, — men who are standing on a lower level of comprehension, com- ing in contact with phenomena of a higher order, instead of making ell'orts to understand them, instead of rising to the point of view from which they ought to look upon a subject, judge it from their lower point of view, and that, too, with greater daring and determination the less they understand what they are talking about. For the majority of scientific men, who view Christ's vital, moral teaching from the lower point of the social conception of hfe, this teaching is only a very indefinite, clumsy combination of Hindoo asceticism. Stoical and Neo- platonic teachings, and Utopian antisocial reveries, which have no serious significance for our time, and its whole meaning is centred in its external manifestations, — in Catholicism, Protestantism, the dogmas, the struggle with the worldly power. In defining the significance of Chris- tianity according to these phenomena, they are like deaf persons who should judge of the meaning and the worth of music according to the appearance of the motions which the musicians make. The result of it is this, that all these men, beginning with Comte, Strauss, Spencer, and Eenan, who do not un- derstand the meaning of Christ's sermons, who do not understand why they are uttered and for what purpose, who do not even understand the question to which they serve as an answer, who do not even take the trouble to grasp their meaning, if they are inimically inclined, deny outright the rationality of the teaching ; but if they wish to be condescending to it, they correct it from the height, of their grandeur, assuming that Christ wanted to say pre- cisely what they have in mind, but did not know how to say it. They treat his teaching as, in correcting the words of an interlocutor, self-confident men generally speak to one whom they regard as standing below them, " Yes, what you mean to say is this." This correction is always 94 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU made in the sense of reduciug the higher, divine life-con- ception to the lower, social conception. People generally say that the moral teaching of Chris- tianity is good, but exaggerated, — that, in order that it should be absolutely good, we must reject from it what is superfluous, what does not fit in with our structure of life. " For otherwise the teaching, which demands too much, which cannot be carried out, is worse than one which demands from men what is possible and in con- formity with their strength," think and assert the wise interpreters of Christianity, repeating what was long ago affirmed and still is affirmed, and could not help but be affirmed, in relation to the Christian teaching, by those who, having failed to comprehend the teacher of it, cruci- fied Him, — by the Jews. It turns out that before the judgment of the learned of our time, the Jewish law, A tooth for a tooth, and an eye for an eye, — the law of just retaliation, which was known to humanity five thousand years ago, — is more useful than the law of love which eighteen hundred years ago was preached by Christ in place of this very law of justice. It turns out that everything which has been done by the men who comprehended Christ's teaching in a direct manner and lived in conformity with such a comprehen- sion, everything which all true Christians, all Christian champions, have done, everything which now transforms the world under the guise of socialism and communism, — is exaggeration, of which it is not worth while to speak. Men who have been educated in Christianity for eight- een centuries have convinced themselves in the persons of their foremost men, the scholars, that the Christian teaching is a teaching of dogmas, that the vital teaching is a misconception, an exaggeration, which violates the true legitimate demands of morality, which correspond to man's nature^ and that the doctrine of justice, which THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU 95 Christ rejected and in the place of which he put his own teaching, is much more profitable for us. The learned consider the commandment of non-resist- ance to evil an exaggeration and even madness. If it be rejected, it would be much better, they think, without observing that they are not talking of Christ's teaching at all, but of what presents itself to them as such. They do not notice that to say that Christ's command- ment about non-resistance to evil is an exaggeration is the same as saying that in the theory of the circle the state- ment about the equality of the radii of a circle is an exaggeration. And those who say so do precisely what a man, who did not have any conception as to what a circle is, would do if he asserted that the demand that nil the points on the circumference should be equally distant from the centre is an exaggeration. To advise that the statement concerning the equality of the radii in a circle be rejected or moderated is the same as not under- standing what a circle is. To advise that the command- ment about non-resistance to evil in the vital teaching of Christ be rejected or moderated means not to understand the teaching. And those who do so actually do not understand it at all. They do not understand that this teaching is the establishment of a new comprehension of life, which cor- responds to the new condition into which men have been entering for these eighteen hundred years, and the deter- mination of the new activity which results from it. They do not believe that Christ wanted to say what he did ; or it seems to them that what he said in the Sermon on the Mount and in other passages He said from infatuation, from lack of comprehension, from insufficient develop- ment.^ ^ Here, for example, is a characteristic judgment of the kind in an article of an American periodical, Arena, October, 1890. The article is entitled "A New Basis of Church Life." In discussing the sig- 96 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet- for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into baa-ns ; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they ? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature ? And why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin : and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ? Therefore take no thought, saying. What shall we eat ? or, What shall we drink, or. Wherewithal shall we be clothed ? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek : ) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom nificance of the Sermon on the Mount, and especially its non-resist- ance to evil, the author, who is not obliged, like the ecclesiastic writers, to conceal its meaning, says: "Christ actually preached complete communism and anarchy ; but we must know how to look upon Christ in His historical and psychologic significance." [This sen- tence is not in the English article. — Tr.] "Devout common sense must gradually come to look upon Christ as a philanthropic teacher who, like every entimsiast who ever taught, went to an Utopian ex- treme of His own philosophy. Every great agitation for the better- ment of the world has been led by men who beheld their own mission with such absorbing intensity that they could see little else. It is no reproach to Christ to say that He had the typical reformer's temperament ; that His precepts cannot be literally accepted as a complete philosophy of life ; and that men are to analyze them rever- ently, but, at the same time, in the spirit of ordinary, truth-seeking criticism," and so forth. Christ would have liked to speak well, but He did not know how to express Himself as precisely and clearly as we, in the spirit of criticism, and so we will correct him. Every- thing He said about meekness, sacrifice, poverty, the thoughtless- ness for the morrow, He said by chance, having been uuable to express himself scientifically. — Author'' s Note. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 97 of God, and His righteousness ; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow : for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof (Matt. vi. 25-34). Sell that ye have, aud give alms ; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth cor- rupteth. For where your treasure is there will your heart be also (Luke xii. 33-34). Go and sell that thou hast, and follow me, and who hath not forsaken father or mother, or children, or breth- ren, or fields, or house, cannot be my disciple. Turn away from thyself, take thy cross for every day, and come after me. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to do His work. Not my will be done, but Thine ; not what I want, but what Thou wantest, and not as I want, but as Thou wantest. The life is in this, not to do one's will, but the will of God. All these propositions seem to men who are standing on a lower life-conception to be an expression of an ecstatic transport, which has no direct applicability to life. And yet these propositions just as strictly result from the Christian conception of life as the tenet about giving up one's labour for the common good, about sacri- ficing oue's life in the defence of one's country, results from the social conception. Just as a man of the social life-conception says to a savage, " Come to your senses, bethink yourself ! The life of your personality cannot be the true life, because it is wretched aud transitory. Only the life of the aggregate and of the sequence of personalities, of the tribe, the family, the race, the state, is continued aud lives, and so a man must sacrifice his personality for the life of the family, the state." Precisely the same the Christian teaching says to a man of the aggregate, of the social 98 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU conception of life. " Repent, fieTavoelre, that is, bethink yourselves, or else you will perish. Remember that this carnal, personal life, which originated to-day and will be destroyed to-morrow, cannot be made secure in any way, that no external measures, no arrangement of it, can add firmness and rationality to it. Bethink yourselves and understand that the life which you live is not the true life : the hfe of the family, the life of society, the life of the state will not save you from ruin." The true, rational life is possible for man only in proportion as he can be a participant, not in the family or the state, but in the source of life, the Father ; in proportion as he can blend his life with the life of the Father. Such indubitably is the Christian life-comprehension, which may be seen in every utterance of the Gospel. It is possible not to share this hfe-conception ; it is pos- sible to reject it ; it is possible to prove its inexactness and irregularity ; but it is impossible to judge of the teach- ing, without having first grasped the life-conception from which it results ; still less possible is it to judge about a subject of a higher order from a lower point of view, to judge of the tower by looking at the foundation. But it is precisely this that the learned men of our time are doing. They do so because they abide in an error, which is like the one of the churchmen, the belief that they are in possession of such methods of the study of the subject that, as soon as these methods, called scientific, are used, there can be no longer any doubt as to the correctness of the comprehension of the subject under advisement. It is this possession of an instrument of cognition, which they deem infallible, that serves as the chief obstacle in the comprehension of the Christian teaching by unbelievers and so-called scientific men, by whose opinion the vast majority of unbelievers, the so-called cultured men, are guided. From this imaginary compre- hension of theirs arise all the errors of the scientific men THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 99 in respect to the Christian teaching, and especially two strange misconceptions which more than any other im- pede the correct comprehension of it. One of these misconceptions is this, that the Christian vital teaching is impracticable, and so is either entirely uuobligatory, that is, need not be taken for a guide, or else must be modified and moderated to such an extent as to make it practicable in our society. Another mis- understanding is tliis, that the Christian teaching of love of God, and so tlie service of Him, is an obscure, mystical demand, which lias no definite object of love, and so must give way to a more precise and comprehensible teaching about loving men and serving humanity. The first misconception about the impracticableness of the teaching consists in this, that the men of the social comprehension of life, being unable to comprehend the method by means of which the Christian teaching guides men, and taking the Christian indications of per- fection to be rules which determine life, think and say that it is impossible to follow Christ's teaching, because a complete fultilnient of this teaching destroys life. " If a man fulfilled what was preached by Christ, he would destroy his life ; and if all men should fulfil it, the whole human race would come to an end," they say. " If we care not for the morrow, for what we shall eat and drink and be clothed in ; if we do not defend our lives ; if we do not resist evil with force ; if we give our lives for our friends, and observe absolute chastity, no man, nor the whole human race, can exist," they think and say. And they are quite correct, if we take the indications of perfection, as given by Christ, for rules, which every man is obliged to carry out, just as in the social teaching everybody is obliged to carry out the rule about paying the taxes, about taking part in court, etc. The misconception consists in this, that Christ's teach- 100 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU ing guides men in a different way from the way those teachings guide which are based on a lower life-conception. The teachings of the social life-conception guide only by demanding a precise execution of the rules or laws. Christ's teaching guides men by indicating to them that infinite perfection of the Father in heaven, toward which it is proper for each man to strive voluntarily, no matter at what stage of perfection he may be. The misconception of people who judge about the Christian teaching from the social point of view consists in this, that they, assuming that the perfection pointed out by Christ may be attained completely, ask themselves (even as they question themselves, assuming that the social laws will be fulfilled) what will happen when all this shall be fulfilled. This assumption is false, because the perfection pointed out by Christ is infinite and can never be attained ; and Christ gives His teaching with this in view, that com- plete perfection will never be attained, but that the striving toward complete, infinite perfection will constantly increase the good of men, and that this good can, therefore, be in- creased infinitely. Christ does not teach angels, but men, who live an animal life, who are moved by it. And it is to this animal force of motion that Christ seems to apply a new, a different force of the consciousness of divine perfection, and with this He directs the motion of life along the resultant of two forces. To assume that human life will go in the direction indi- cated by Christ is the same as assuming that a boatman, in crossing a rapid river and directing his boat almost against the current, will move in that direction. Christ recognizes the existence of both sides of the paral- lelogram, of both the eternal, indestructible forces, of which man's life is composed, — the force of the animal nature and the force of the consciousness of a filial relation to God. Without saying anything of the animal force, which, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 101 asserting itself, always remains equal to itself and exists outside of man's power, Christ speaks only of the divine force, calling man to recognize it in the highest degree, to free it as much as possible from what is retarding it, and to bring it to the highest degree of tension. In this liberation and increase of the force does man's true life, according to Christ's teacliing, consist. The true life, according to the previous conditions, consisted in the execution of rules, of the law ; according to Christ's teach- ing, it consists in the greatest approach to the divine per- fection, as pointed out to every man and inwardly felt by him, in a greater and ever greater approach toward blend- ing our will with the will of G6d, a blending toward which a man strives, and which would be a destruction of life as we know it. Divine perfection is the asymptote of the human life, toward which it always tends and approaches, and which can be attained by it only at infinity. The Christian teaching seems to exclude the possibility of life only when men take the indication of the ideal to be a rule. It is only then that the demands put forth by Christ's teaching appear to be destructive of life. Witliout these demands the true life would be impossible. " Too much should not be demanded," people generally say, in discussing the demands of the Christian teaching. " It is impossible to demand that we should not care for the future, as it says in the Gospel ; all that we should do is not to care too much. It is impossible to give every- thing to the poor ; but we should give a certain, definite part to them. It is not necessary to strive after chastity ; but debauchery sliould be avoided. We must not leave our wives and children ; l)ut we should not be too much attached to them," and so forth. But to speak in this manner is the same as telHng a man who is crossing a rapid river, and who is directing his course against the current, that it is impossible to cross 102 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU the river by going against the current, but that to cross it he should row in the direction he wishes to go. Christ's teaching differs from previous teachings in that it guides men, not by external rules, but by the internal consciousness of the possibility of attaining divine per- fection. And in man's soul there are not moderated rules of justice and of philanthropy, but the ideal of the complete, infinite, divine perfection. Only the striving after this per- fection deflects the direction of man's life from the animal condition toward the divine, to the extent to which this is possible in this life. In order to land where you wish, you must direct your course much higher up. To lower the demands of the ideal means not only to diminish the possibility of perfection, but to destroy the ideal itself. The ideal which operates upon people is not an invented one, but one which is borne in the soul of every man. Only this ideal of the complete, infinite perfection acts upon people and moves them to activity. A moderated perfection loses its power to act upon men's souls. Christ's teaching' only then has force, when it demands full perfection, that is, the blending of God's essence, which abides in the soul of every man, with the will of God, — the union of the son and the Father. Only this liberation of the son of God, who hves in every man, from the animal, and his approximation to the Father form life according to Christ's teaching. The existence of the animal in man, of nothing but the animal, is not the human life. Life according to the will of God alone is also not the human life. The human life is the resultant from the animal and the divine lives, and the more this resultant approaches the divine life, the more there is of life. Life, according to the Christian teaching, is a motion toward divine perfection. No condition, according to this THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU lOo teaching, can be higher or lower than another. Every condition, according to this teaching, is only a certain step, indifferent in itself, toward the unattainable perfection, and so in itself forms neither a greater nor a lesser degree of life. The increase of life, according to this teaching, is only an acceleration of motion toward perfection, and so the motion toward perfection of the publican Zaccha'us, of the harlot, of the robber on the cross, forms a higher degree of life than the immovable righteousness of the Pharisee. And so there can be no obligatory rules for this teaching. A man who stands on a lower step, in moving toward perfection, lives more morally and better, and better performs the teaching, than a man who stands on a much higher stage of morality, but who does not move toward perfection. In this sense the lost sheep is dearer to the Father than one which is not lost. The prodigal son, the lost coin which is found again, are dearer than those which were not lost. The fulfilment of the teaching consists in the motion from oneself toward God. It is evident that for such a fulfilment of the teaching there can be no definite laws and rules. All degrees of perfection and all degrees of imperfection are equal before this teaching ; no fulfilment of the laws constitutes a fulfilment of the teaching ; and so, for this teaching there are, and there can be, no rules and no laws. From this radical distinction of Christ's teaching as compared with previous teachings, which are based on the social conception of life, there results the difference between the social and the Christian commandments. The social commandments are for the most part positive, prescribing certain acts, justifying men, giving them righteousness. But the Christian commandments (the commandment of love is not a commandment in the strict sense of the word, but an expression of the very 104 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU essence of the teaching) — the five commandments of the Sermon on the Mount — are all negative, and they all show only what men may not do at a certain stage of human development. These commandments are, as it were, signals on the infinite road to perfection, toward which humanity walks, signals of that stage of perfection which is possible at a given period of the development of humanity. In the Sermon on the Mount Christ has expressed the eternal ideal toward which it is proper for men to tend, and that degree of its attainment which can be reached even in our time. The ideal consists in having no ill-will against any one, in calling forth no ill-will, in loving all ; but the com- mandment, below which, in the attainment of this ideal, it is absolutely possible not to descend, consists in not offending any one with a word. And this forms the first commandment. The ideal is complete chastity, even in thought ; the commandment which points out the degree of attainment, below which, in the attainment of this ideal, it is abso- lutely possible not to descend, is the purity of the marital life, the abstaining from fornication. And this forms the second commandment. The ideal is not to care for the future, to live only in the present ; the commandment which points out the degree of the attainment, below which it is absolutely possible not to descend is not to swear, not to promise anything to men. And this is the third commandment. The ideal is never, under any condition, to make use of violence ; the commandment which points out the degree below which it is absolutely possible not to descend is not to repay evil with evil, but to suffer insult, to give up one's cloak. And this is the fourth commandment. The ideal is to love our enemies, who hate us ; the commandment which points out the degree of the attain- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 105 ment, below which it is possible not to descend, is to do no evil to our enemies, to speak well of them, to make no distinction between them and our fellow citizens. All these commandments are indications of what we are fully able not to do on the path of striving after per- fection, of what we ought to work over now, of what we must by degrees transfer into the sphere of habit, into the sphere of the unconscious. But these commandments fail to form a teaching, and do not exhaust it, and form only one of the endless steps in the approximation toward perfection. After these commandments there must and will follow higher and higher ones on the path to perfection, which is indicated by the teaching. And so it is the peculiarity of the Christian teaching that it makes higher demands than those which are ex- pressed in these commandments, but under no condition minimizes the demands, either of the ideal itself, or of these commandments, as is done by people who judge the teaching of Christianity free from the standpoint of the social conception of life. Such is one misconception of the scientific men con- cerning the meaning and significance of Christ's teaching ; the other, which flows from the same source, consists in the substitution of the love and service of men, of human- ity, for the Christian demand for loving God and serving Him. The Christian teaching of loving God and serving Him, and (only in consequence of this love and this service) of the love and service of our neighbour, appears obscure, mystical, and arbitrary to the men of science, and they completely exclude the demand of love of God and of serving Him, assuming that the teaching about this love of men, of humanity, is much more intelligible and firm and better grounded. The men of science teach theoretically that the good lOG THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU and sensible life is only the life of serving the whole of humanity, and in this alone do they see the meaning of the Christian teaching ; to this teaching do they reduce the Christian teaching ; for this their teaching do they seek a confirmation in the Christian teaching, as- suming that their teaching and the Christian teaching are one and the same. This opinion is quite faulty. The Christian teaching, and that of the positivists, communists, and all the preachers of a universal brotherhood of men^ which is based on the profitableness of such a brotherhood, have nothing in common among themselves, and differ from one another more especially in this, that the Christian teach- ing has firm, clear foundations in the human soul, while the teaching of the love of humanity is only a theoretical deduction from analogy. The teaching of the love of humanity alone has for its basis the social conception of life. The essence of the social conception of life consists in the transference of the meaning of our personal hves into the life of the aggregate of personalities, — the tribe, the family, the race, the state. This transference has taken place easily and naturally in its first forms, in the transference of the meaning of life from the personality to the tribe, the family. But the transference to the race or nation is more difiicult and demands a special educa- tion for it ; and the transference of the consciousness to the state forms the limit of such a transference. It is natural for any one to love himself, and every person loves himself without any special incitement ; to love my tribe, which supports and defends me, to love my wife, the joy and helpmate of my life, my children, the pleasure and hope of my life, and my parents, who have given me life and an education, is natural : and this kind of love, though far from being as strong as the love of self, is met mth quite frequently. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 107 To love one's race, one's nation, for the sake of oneself, of one's pride, though not so natural, is still to be met with. The love of one's nation, which is of the same race, tongue, and faith with one, is still possible, though this sentiment is far from being as strong as the love of self, or even of family and race ; but the love of a country, like Turkey, Germany, England, Austria, Russia, is almost an impossible thing, and, in spite of the intensified educa- tion in this direction, is only assumed and does not exist in reahty. With this aggregate there ends for man the possibility of transferring his consciousness and of expe- riencing in this fiction any immediate sensation. But the positivists and all the preachers of a scientific brotherhood, who do not take into consideration the weakening of the sentiment in proportion as tlie subject is widened, continue the discussion theoretically along the same direction : " If," they say, " it was more advantageous for the person- ality to transfer its consciousness to the tribe, the family, and then to the nation, the state, it will be still more advantageous to transfer the consciousness to the whole aggregate of humanity, and for all to live for humanity, just as individuals live for the family, the state." Theoretically it really comes out that way. Since tlie consciousness and the love of personality are transferred to the family, from the family to the race, the nation, the state, it would be quite logical for men, to save themselves from struggle and calamities, which are due to the division of humanity into nations and states, most naturally to transfer their love to humanity. This would seem to be the most logical thing, and this is theo- retically advocated by men, who do not observe that love is a sentiment which one may have, but cannot preach, and that, besides, for love there must be an object, whereas humanity is not an object, but only a fiction. The tribe, the family, even the state, are not invented by men, but were formed naturally like a swarm of bees or 108 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU ants, and actually exist. A man who loves his family for the sake of his animal personality, knows whom he loves : Anna, Mary, John, Peter, and so forth. A man who loves a race and is proud of it, knows that he loves the whole race of the Guelphs, or all the Ghibellines ; he who loves the state knows that he loves France as far as the Rhine and the Pyrenees, and its capital, Paris, and its history, and so forth. But what does a man love, when he loves humanity ? There is the state, the nation ; there is the abstract conception — man ; but there is not, and there cannot be, a real conception of humanity. Humanity ? Where is the limit of humanity ? Where does it end and where does it begin ? Does humanity stop short of a savage, an idiot, an alcohohc, an insane person ? If we are going to draw a line of demarcation for humanity, so as to exclude the lower representatives of the human race, where are we going to draw it ? Are we going to exclude the negroes, as the Americans do, and the Hindoos, as some English do, and the Jews, as some do ? But if we are going to include all men with- out exception, why include men only, and not the higher animals, many of whom stand higher than the lower representatives of the human race ? We do not know humanity as an external object, — we do not know its limits. Humanity is a fiction, and it cannot be loved. It would indeed be very convenient, if men could love humanity just as they love the family ; it would be very convenient, as the communists talk of doing, to substitute the communal for the competitive tendency of human activity, and the universal for the individual, so that every man may be for all, and all for every man, only there are no motives whatever for it. The positivists, the communists, and all the preachers of the scientific brotherhood preach the widening of that love which men have for themselves and for their families and for the state, so as to embrace all humanity, forget- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 109 ting that the love which they advocate is the personal love, which, by spreading out thinner, could extend to the family ; wliich, by spreading out still thinner, could extend to the natural country of Ijirth, wbich completely vanishes as soon as it reaches an artificial state, as Austria, Turkey, England, and wliich we are not even able to imagine, when we come to humanity, an entirely mystical subject. " Man loves himself (his animal life), loves his family, loves even his country. Why should he not love also humanity ? How nice that would be ! By the way, this is precisely what Christianity teaches." Thus think the preacliers of the positivist, communistic, socialistic brotherhoods. It would indeed be very nice, but it cannot be, because love which is based on the per- sonal and the social conception of life cannot go beyond the state. The error of judgment consists in this, that the social life-conception, on which is based the love of family and of country, is built on the love of personality, and that this love, being transferred from the personality to the family, the race, the nationality, the state, keeps growing weaker and weaker, and in the state reaches its extreme hmit, beyond which it cannot go. The necessity for widening the sphere of love is incon- testable ; but at the same time this very necessity for its widening in reahty destroys the possibility of love and proves the insufiiciency of the personal, the human love. And here the preachers of the positivist, communistic, socialistic brotherhoods, to succour the human love, which has proved insufficient, propose the Christian love, — in its consequences alone, and not in its foundations : they propose the love of humanity alone, without the love of God. But there can be no such love. There exists no mo- tive for it. Christian love results only from the Christian 110 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU conception of life, according to which the meaning of life consists in the love of God and in serving Him. By a natural progression, from the love of self to the love of family, of the race, of the nation, of the state, the social conception of life has brought men to the con- sciousness of the necessity for a love of humanity, which has no hmits and blends with everything in existence, — to something which evokes no sensations in man ; it has brought them to a contradiction, which cannot be solved by the social conception of life. Only the Christian teaching in all its significance, by giving a new meaning to life, solves it. Christianity recog- nizes the love of self, and of the family, and of the nation, and of humanity, — not only of humanity, but of every- thing living, of everything in existence ; it recognizes the necessity for an endless widening of the sphere of love ; but the object of this'love it does not find outside of self, or in the aggregate of personalities, — in the family, the race, the state, humanity, in the whole external world, but in oneself, in one's personality, — which, however, is a divine personality, the essence of which is the same love, to the necessity of widening which the animal personahty "was brought, in saving itself from the consciousness of its perdition. The difi'erence between the Christian teaching and what preceded it is this, that the preceding social teaching said : " Live contrary to your nature (meaning only the animal nature), subordinate it to the external law of the family, the society, the state ; " but Christianity says : " Live in accordance with your nature (meaning the divine nature), subordinating it to nothing, — neither to your own, nor to anybody else's animal nature, — and you will attain what you are striving after by subordinating your external nature to external laws." The Christian teaching takes man back to the primi- tive consciousness of self, not of self — the animal, but THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 111 of self — God, the divine spark, of self — the son of God, of just such a God as the Father himself, but included in an animal integument. And the recognition of self as this sou of God, whose chief quality is love, satisfies also all those demands for the widening of the sphere of love, to which the man of the social conception of life was brought. There, with a greater and ever greater widening of the sphere of love for the salvation of the personality, love was a necessity and was applied to certain objects, — self, the family, society, humanity ; with the Christian. concep- tion of life, love is not a necessity and is not adapted to anything, but is an essential quality of man's soul. Man does not love because it is advantageous for him to love this man or these men, but because love is the essence cf his soul, — because he cannot help loving. The Christian teaching consists in pointing out to man that the essence of his soul is love, that his good is derived not from the fact that he will love this or that man, but from the fact that he will love the beginning of everything, God, whom he recognizes in himself through love, and so will love everybody and everything. In this does the fundamental difference between the Christian teaching and the teaching of the positivists and of all the theorists of the non-Christian universal brother- hood consist. Such are the two chief misconceptions concerning the Christian teaching, from whicli originate the majority of the false opinions in regard to it. One is, that, like the preceding teachings, Christ's teaching inculcates rules, which men are obliged to follow, and that these rules are impracticable ; the other is, that the whole significance of Christianity consists in the teaching about the advanta- geous cohal)itation of humanity, as one family, for which, without mentioning the love of God, it is necessary only to follow the rule of love toward humanity. The false opinion of the scieutitic men, that the teach- 112 THE KINGDOM OP GOD IS WITHIN YOU ing of the supernatural forms the essence of the Christian teaching, and that Christ's vital teaching is impracticable, together with the misconception which arises from this false opinion, forms the second cause why Christianity is not understood by the men of our time. There are many causes for the failure to comprehend Christ's teaching. One cause lies in this, that men assume that they understand the teaching, when they decide, as the churchmen do, that it was transmitted to us in a supernatural manner ; or, as the scientific men do, that they understand it, when they have studied a part of those external phenomena in which it is expressed. Another cause of a failure to comprehend lies in the mis- conceptions as to the impracticability of the teaching and as to this, that it ought to give way to the teaching about the love of humanity ; but the chief cause which has engendered all these misconceptions is this, that Christ's teaching is considered to be such as can be accepted, or not, without changing one's life. The men who are accustomed to the existing order of things, who love it and are afraid to change it, try to comprehend the teaching as a collection of revelations and rules, which may be accepted, without changing their Uves, whereas Christ's teaching is not merely a teaching about rules which a man may follow, but the elucidation of a new meaning of life, which determines the whole, entirely new activity of humanity for the period upon which it is entering. Human life moves, passes, like the life of the individ- ual, and every age has its corresponding life-conception, and this life-conception is inevitably accepted by men. Those men who do not consciously accept the life-con- ception proper for their age are brought to it unconsciously. 113 114 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU What takes place with the change of views on life in the case of individuals, takes place also with the change of the views on life in the case of nations and of all humanity. If a man with a family continues to he guided in his activity by a childish comprehension of life, his life will become so hard for him that he will involuntarily seek another comprehension of life, and will gladly accept the one which is proper for his age. The same is now taking place in our humanity in the transition from the pagan conception of life to the Chris- tian, which is now going on. The social man of our time is brought by life itself to the necessity of renouncing the pagan conception of life, which is no longer proper for the present age of humanity, and of submitting to the de- mands of the Christian teaching, the truths of which, no matter how distorted and misinterpreted they may be, are still known to him and alone furnish a solution to those contradictions in which he is losing himself. If the demands of the Christian teaching seem strange and even perilous to the man of the social life-conception, the demands of the social teaching anciently seemed just as incomprehensible and perilous to a savage, when he did 'not yet fully comprehend them and was unable to foresee their consequences. " It is irrational for me to sacrifice my peace or even my life," says the savage, " in order to defend something incomprehensible, intangible, conventional, — the family, the race, the country, and, above all else, it is dangerous to give myself over to the disposition of "a foreign power." But the time came when the savage, on the one hand, comprehended, however dimly, the significance of the social life, the significance of its prime mover, — the pub- lic approval or condemnation, — glory ; on the other hand, when the sufferings of his personal life became so THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 115 great that he no longer continued to believe in the truth of his former conception of life, and accepted the social, the political teaching and submitted to it. The same now takes place with the social, the political man. " It is irrational for me," says the social man, *' to sacri- fice my good, the good of my family, my country, for the fulfilment of the conditions of some higher law, which de- mauds from me the renunciation of the most natural and the best sentiments of love for myself, my family, my country, and, above all, it is dangerous to reject the secu- rity of life, which is given by the political structure." But the time comes when, on the one hand, the dim consciousness in his soul of a higher law of love for C4od and for his neighbour, and, on the other, the sufferings which arise from the contradictions of life, compel him to reject the social life-conception and to accept the new, Christian conception of life, w^hich is offered to him, and which solves all the contradictious aud removes the suf- ferings of his life. And this time has now come. To us, who thousands of years ago experienced the transition from the animal, personal life-conception to the social one, it seems that that transition was necessary and natural, and this, the one through which we have been passing these eighteen hundred years, is arbitrary, unnatural, and terrible. But tliat only seems so to us, because the other transition is already accomplished, and its activity has already passed into the subconscious, while the present transition is not yet accomplished, aud we have to accomphsh it consciously. The social life-conception entered into the conscious- ness of men through centuries and millenniums, passed through several fornis, and has now passed for humanity into the sphere of the subconscious, which is transmitted through heredity, education, and habit, and so it seems natural to us. But five thousand years ago it seemed to 116 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU men just as unnatural and terrible as now the Christian teaching seems to us in its true meaning. It now seems to us that the demands of the Christian teaching for a universal brotherhood, abolition of nation- alities, absence of property, the apparently so strange non- resistance to evil, are impossible demands. But just so strange, thousands of years ago, seemed the demands, not only of the state, but also of the family, as, for example, the demand that the parents should support their chil- dren, and the young — the old, and that husband and wife should he true to one another. Still more strange, even senseless, seemed the political demands, — that the citizens should submit to the powers that be, pay taxes, go to war in the defence of their country, and so forth. It now seems to us that all such demands are simple, in- telligible, natural, and have nothing mystical or even strange about them ; but five or three thousand years ago, these demands seemed impossible. The social life-conception served as a basis for religions for the very reason that, when it manifested itself to men, it seemed to them quite unintelligible, mystical, and su- pernatural. Now, since we have outlived this phase of the life of humanity, we understand the rational causes of the union of men in families, communes, states ; but in antiquity the demands for such a uuion were manifested in the name of the supernatural, and were confirmed by it. ^ The patriarchal religion deified the families, races, nations : the political religions deified kings and states. Even now the majority of the men of little culture, such as our peasants, who call the Tsar an earthly God, submit to the social laws, not from a rational consciousness of their necessity, not because they have a conception of the idea of the state, but from a religious sentiment. Even so now the Christian teaching represents itself to the men of the social, or pagan, world-conception in the THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 117 form of a supernatural religion, whereas in reality there is in it nothing mysterious, or mystical, or supernatural ; it is nothing but the teaching about life, which corresponds to that stage of the material development, to that age, in which humanity is, and which must therefore inevitably be accepted by it. The time will come, and is already at hand, when the Christian foundations of life, equality, brotherhood of men, community of possession, non-resistance to evil, will become as natural and as simple as the foundations of the family, the social, and the political life now appear to us. Neither man nor humanity can in their . motion turn back. The social, family, and political life- conceptions have been outlived by men, and it is necessary to go ahead and accept the liigher life-conception, which indeed is being done now. Tiiis motion takes place from two sides, consciously, in consequence of spiritual causes, and unconsciously, in consequence of material causes. Just as the individual seldom changes his life merely in accordance with the indications of reason, but as a rule, in spite of tlie new meaning and the new aims indicated by reason, continues to live his former life and changes it only when his life becomes entirely contradictory to his consciousness, and, therefore, agonizing, so also humanity, having come tln-ough its rehgious guides to know the new meaning of life, the new aims, toward which it must tend, even after this knowledge continues for a long time, in the case of the majority of men, to live the previous life, and is guided to the acceptance of a new life-conception only through the impossibihty of continuing the former hfe. In spite of the demands for the change of life, as cog- nized and expressed by the religious guides and accepted by the wisest men, the majority of men, in spite of the religious relation to these guides, that is, the faith in their 118 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU teaching, continue in the more complex life to be guided by the previous teaching, just as a man of a family would act, if, knowing how he ought to live at his age, he should from habit and frivolity continue to live a child's life. It is this that takes place in the matter of the transition of humanity from one age to another, such as is now go- ing on. Humanity has outgrown its social, political age, and has entered upon a new one. It knows the teaching which ought to be put at the foundation of the life of this new age, but from inertia continues to hold on to the previous forms of life. From this lack of correspondence between the life-conception and the practice of hfe there arises a series of contradictions and sufferings, which poison our life and demand its change. We need only to compare the practice of life with its theory, in order that we may be frightened at the crying contradiction of the conditions of life and of our con- sciousness, in which we live. Our whole life is one solid contradiction to everything we know and consider necessary and right. This contra- diction is in everything, — in the economic, the political, the international life. As though forgetting what we know, and for a time putting aside what we believe in (we cannot help but believe, because this constitutes our only foundations of hfe), we do everything contrary to what our conscience and our common sense demand of us. In economic, pohtical, and international relations we are guided by those foundations which were useful to men three and five thousand years ago, and which directly contradict our present consciousness and those conditions of life in which we now are. It was well enough for a man of antiquity to live amidst a division of men into slaves and masters, when he believed that this division was from God, and that it could not be otherwise. But is a similar division possible in our day ? THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 119 A man of the ancient world could consider himself in the right to use the benefits of this world to the disadvan- tage of other men, causiug them to suffer for generations, because he believed that men are born of various breeds, noble and base, of the generation of Japheth and of Ham. Not only the greatest sages of the world, the teachers of humanity, Plato, Aristotle, justified the existence of slaves and proved the legality of it, but even three centuries aso men who wrote of the imaginarv society of the future, of Utopia, could not imagine it without slaves. The men of antiquity, and even of the Middle Ages, be- lieved, believed firmly, that men are not equal, that only the Persians, only the Greeks, ouly the Romans, only the French were real men. But those men who in our time champion aristocratism and patriotism do not believe, can- not believe, in what they say. We all know, and we cannot help but know, even if we have never heard or read this thought clearly ex- pressed and have never expressed it ourselves, we, having imbibed this consciousness, which is borne in the Chris- tian atmosphere, know with our whole lieart, and we can- not help but know, that fundamental truth of tlie Christian teaching, that we all are the sons of one Father, all of us, no matter where we may live or what language we may speak, — that we are all brothers and are subject only to the law of love, which by our common Father is implanted in our hearts. No matter what the manner of thought and degree of culture of a man of our time may be, be he a cultured liberal of any shade whatever, be he a philosopher of any camp, be he a scientific man, an economist, of any school, be he an uncultured, even a religious man of any confes- sion of faith, — every man of our time knows that all men have the same right to life and to the benefits of this world, that no man is better or worse than any one else, that all men are equal. Everybody knows this with 120 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU absolute certainty and with his whole being, and at the same time not only sees all about him the division of men into two castes : one, which is working, is oppressed, in need, in suffering, and the other, idle, oppressing, and living in luxury and pleasure, — he not only sees this, but involuntarily from one side or another takes part in this division of men, which his reason rejects, and he cannot help but suffer from the consciousness of such a contradiction and from participation in it. Be he master or slave, a man of our time cannot help but experience a constant agonizing contradiction between his consciousness and reahty, and sufferings which arise from it. The working masses, the great majority of people, suffering from the constant, all-al3sorbing, senseless, dawn- less labour and sufferings, suffer most of all from the consciousness of the crying contradiction between what exists and what ought to be, as the result of everything which is professed by them and by those who have placed them in this position and maintain them in it. They know that they are in slavery, and are perishing in want and darkness, in order to serve the lust of the minority, which keeps them in slavery. They know this and give expression to it. And this consciousness not only increases their sufferings, but even forms the essence of their sufferings. The ancient slave knew that he was a slave by nature, but our workman, feeling himself to be a slave, knows that he should not be a slave, and so experiences the tor- ments of Tantalus, eternally wishing for and not receiving what not only could, but even should be. The sufferings of the working classes which result from the contradic- tion between what is and what ought to be, are increased tenfold by the envy and hatred which result from them. A workman of our time, even though his work may be lighter than that of an ancient slave and he may have THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 121 attained an eight-hour work-day and a wage of three dol- lars per day, will not cease sufi'ering, because, in manufac- turing articles wdiich he will not make use of, and working, not for himself and at his pleasure, but from necessity, for whims of luxurious and idle people in general and for the enrichment of one man, the rich owner of the factory or plant, in particular, he knows that all this is taking place in a world in which not (mly they have accepted the scientific proposition that only work is wealtji, that the exploitation of other men's labour is unjust, illegal, amenable to punishment by law, but also they profess Christ's teaching, according to which all are brothers, and a man's worth and merit consists only in serving his neighbour, and not in making use of him. He knows all this, and he cannot help but suffer tor- ments from this crying contradiction between what ought to be and what actually exists. " From all the data and from everything which I know all men profess," the labouring man says to liimself, " I ought to be free, equal to all other men, and loved ; but I am a slave, — I am humiliated and hated." And he himself hates and seeks for means to save himself from this position, to throw off his foe, who is pressing dow^n on him, and him- self to get on top of him. They say, " The working men are not right in their desire to take the place of the cap- italists, nor the poor in their desire to take the place of the rich." This is not true : the working men and the poor would be in the wrong, if they wished for it in a world in which slaves and masters, the rich and the poor, are established by God ; but they wish for it in a world in which is professed the Gospel teaching, the first propo- sition of which is the filial relation of men to God, and so the brotherhood and equality of all men. And no matter how much men may try, it is impossible to conceal the fact that one of the first conditions of a Christian life is love, not in words, but in work. 122 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU In a still greater contradiction and in still greater suf- ferings lives the man of the so-called cultured class. Every such man, if he believes in anything, believes, if not in the brotherhood of men, at least in humanitarianism ; if not in humanitarianism, at least in justice ; if not in justice, at least in science, — and with all that knows that his whole life is built on conditions which are quite the reverse of all that, of all the tenets of Christianity, and humanity, and justice, and science. He knows that all the habits in which he is brought up, and the deprivation of which would be a torment for him, can be gratified only by the painful, often perilous labour of oppressed working men, that is, by the most pal- pable, coarse violation of those principles of Christianity, humanitarianism, justice, and even science (I mean the demands of political economy), which he professes. He professes the principles of brotherhood, humanitarianism, justice, science, and yet lives in such a way that he needs that oppression of the labouring men which he denies, and even in such a way that his whole life is an exploita- tion of this oppression, and not only does he live in this way, but also he directs his activity to the maintenance of this order of things, which is directly opposed to every- thing in which he believes. We are all brothers, and yet every morning my brother or my sister carries out my vessel. We are all brothers, and I need every morning my cigar, sugar, a mirror, and so forth, objects in the manufacture of which my brothers and my sisters, who are my equals, have been losing their health, and I employ these articles and even demand them. We are all brothers, and I live by working in a bank, or in a business liouse, or a shop, in order to make all the wares which my brothers need more expensive for them. We are all brothers, and yet I live by receiving a salary for arraigning, judging, and punishing a thief or a prostitute, whose existence is conditioned by the whole THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 123 composition of my life, and who, I know myself, ought not to be punished, but corrected. We are all brothers, and I live by receiving a salary for collecting the taxes from poor working men, to be used for the luxury of the idle and the rich. We are all brothers, and I receive a salary for preaching to people what is supposed to be the Christian religion, in whicii I do not believe myself, and which deprives them of the possibility of finding out the real faith. I receive a salary as a priest, a bishop, for deceiving people in what is the most important matter for them. We are all brothers, but I give to the poor my pedagogical, medical, literary labours for money only. We are all brothers, but I receive a salary for preparing myself to commit nuirder, studying how to kill, or making a gun, powder, fortresses. The whole life of our higher classes is one solid contra- diction, wliich is the more agonizing, the more sensitive man's conscience is. The man with a sensitive conscience cannot help but suffer, if he lives this life. There is one means by which he can free himself from this suffering, — it consists in drowning his conscience ; but even if such men suc- ceed in drowning their conscience, they cannot drown their terror. Insensitive people of the higher, the oppressing classes, and those who have drowned their consciences, if they do not suffer from their consciences, suffer from fear and hatred. Nor can they help but suffer. They know of that hatred against them which exists, and cannot help but exist, among the labouring classes ; and they know that the working men know that they are deceived and outraged, and they are beginning to organize for the pur- pose of throwing off the oppression and retaliating upon the oppressors. The higher classes see the unions, strikes, the First of May, and they feel the calamity which is threatening them, and this terror poisons their life. They 124 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU feel the calamity which is threatening them, and the terror which they experience passes into a feeling of self-defence and hatred. They know that if they weaken for a moment in their struggle with the slaves oppressed by them, they will themselves perish, because the slaves are enraged, and this rage is growing with every day of the oppression. The oppressors cannot stop oppressing, even if they should wish to do so. They know that they themselves will perish, the moment they stop or even weaken in their oppressions. And they do oppress, in spite of their seem- ing concern for the welfare of the labouring people, for an eight-hour day, for the prohibition to employ children and women, for pensions and rewards. All this is a deception or a provision for eliciting work from the slave ; but the slave remains a slave, and the master, who could not live without the slave, is less than ever prepared to free him. The ruling classes are, in relation to the workingmen, in the position of a man who is astride a man whom he holds down and does not let go of, not so much because he does not want to let go of him, as because he knows that he need but for a moment let go of the subdued man, and the subdued man will cut his throat, because the subdued man is enraged and has a knife in his hand. And so, whether they be sensitive or not, our wealthy classes cannot enjoy the good things which they have taken from the poor, as the ancients did, who believed in their right. Their whole life and all their pleasures are poisoned by rebukes of conscience or by terror. Such is the economical contradiction. More striking still is the political contradiction. All men are above all else educated in the habits of obedience to the laws of the state. The whole life of the men of our time is determined by the law of the state. A man marries or gets a divorce, educates his children, even professes a faith (in many states) in accordance with the law. What is this law, which determines the whole life THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 125 of men ? Do the meu believe in this law ? Do they con- sider it to be true ? Not in the least. In the majority of cases, the men of our time do not believe in the justice of this law, despise it, and yet obey it. It was all very well for the men of antiquity to carry out their laws. They believed firmly that their law (which for the most part was also religious) was the one true law which all meu must obey. But we ? We know, and we cannot help but know, that the law of our state is not only not the one eterual law, but that it is only one of many laws of various countries, equally imperfect, and frequently and palpably false and unjust, and widely discussed in tlie newspapers. It was all very well for a Jew to submit to his laws, when he had no doubt but that they were written by God's finger ; or, for a Eoman, when he thought that the nymph Egeria had written his laws ; or even when they believed that the kings who gave the laws were the anointed of the Lord, or even that the legislative bodies had a desire to find the best laws, and were able to do so. But we know how laws are made ; we have all been behind the scenes ; we all know that laws are the results of greed, deception, the struggle of parties, — that in them there is and there can be no true justice. And so the men of our time cannot believe that obedience to civil or politi- cal laws would satisfy the demands of the rationality of human nature. Men have known for a long time tbat it is not sensible to obey a law of the correctness of whicli there can be any doubt, and so they cannot help but suffer, if they obey a law the rationality and obligatoriness of which they do not acknowledge. A man cannot help but suffer, when his whole life is determined in advance l>y laws whicli he nmst obey under the menace of punishment, and in the rationahty and justice of whicli he does not believe, and tbe unnatural- ness, cruelty, injustice of which he clearly recognizes. We recognize the uselessness of custom-houses and import 126 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU duties, and we must pay the duties ; we recognize the uselessness of the expenses for the support of royal courts and many governmental offices ; we recognize the harmful- ness of the church propaganda, and we must contribute to the support of these institutions ; we recognize the cruelty and unscrupulousness of the penalties imposed by courts of justice, and we must take part in them ; we recognize the irregularity and harmfulness of the distribution of land-ownership, and we must submit to it ; we do not recognize the indispensableness of armies and of war, and must bear terrible burdens for the maintenance of armies and the waging of wars, and so forth. But these contradictions are as nothing in comparison with the contradiction which has now arisen among men in their international relations, and which, under threat of ruining both human reason and human life, demands a solution. This is the contradiction between the Christian conscience and war. We are all Christian nations, who live the same spiritual life, so that every good, fruitful thought, which springs up in one corner of the earth, is at once communicated to the whole Christian world, evoking similar sensations of joy and pride, independently of nationality ; we, who not only love the thinkers, benefactors, poets, scholars of other nations, but also pride ourselves on the exploit of a Da- mien, as though it were our own; we, who just love the men of other nationalities, — the French, the Germans, the Americans, the English ; we, who not only respect their qualities, but rejoice when we meet them, who give them a smile of recognition, who not only could not re- gard a war with them as something to be proud of, but who could not even think without horror that any dis- agreement may arise between these men and us, — we are all called to take part in murder, which must inevitably take place, to-morrow, if not to-day. It was all very well for a Jew, a Greek, a Roman not THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 127 only to defend the independence of his nation by means of murder, but by the means of murder also to cause other nations to submit to him, for he believed firmly that his nation was the one true, good, kind nation, which was loved by God, and that all the other nations were Philis- tines, barbarians. Even the men of the Middle Ages and the men of the end of the last and the beginning of this century could have believed so. But we, no matter how much we may be teased to do so, can no longer believe in this, and this contradiction is so terrible for the men of our time that it is impossible to live, if we do not destroy it. " We live in a time which is full of contradictions," Count Komarovski, professor of international law, writes in his learned treatise. " In the press of all countries there is constantly shown a universal tendency toward peace, toward its necessity for all nations. In the same sense express themselves the representatives of govern- ments, as private individuals and as official organs, in parliamentary debates, in diplomatic exchanges of opinion, and even in international treaties. At the same time, however, the governments annually increase the military forces of their countries, impose new taxes, make loans, and leave to future generations, as a legacy, the obligation to bear the blunders of the present senseless politics. What a crying contradiction between words and deeds ! " Of course, the governments, to justify these measures, point to the exclusively defensive character of all these expenditures and armaments, but none the less it remains a puzzle for every unbiassed man, whence we are to ex- pect attacks, since all the great powers unanimously in their politics pursue the one aim of defence. In reality this looks as though each of these powers waited every moment to be attacked by another, and these are the con- sequences, — universal distrust and a preternatural en- deavour of one power to surpass the force of the others. 128 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU Such an emulation in itself increases the danger of war : the nations cannot for any length of time stand the intensified arming, and sooner or later will prefer war to all the disadvantages of the present condition and con- stant menace. Thus the most insignificant cause will be sufficient to make the fire of a universal war flame up in the whole of Europe. It is incorrect to think that such a crisis can cure us of the political and economical calamities which oppress us. Experience from the wars which have been waged in recent years teaches us that every war has only sharpened the hostility of the nations, increased the burden and the unendurableuess of the pres- sure of mihtarism, and made the politico-economic condi- tion of Europe more hopeless and complex." " Modern Europe keeps under arms an active army of nine millions of men," writes Enrico Ferri, " and fifteen millions of reserves, expending on them four milhards of francs per year. By arming itself more and more, it para- lyzes the sources of the social and the individual welfare, and may easily be compared to a man who, to provide himself with a gun, condemns himself to anaemia, at the same time wasting all his strength for the purpose of mak- ing use of the very gun with which he is providing him- self, and under the burden of which he will finally fall." The same was said by Charles Butt,i in his speech which he dehvered in London before the Association for the Eeform and Codification of the Law of Nations, July 26, 1887. After pointing out the same nine millions and over of the active armies and seventeen millions of re- serves, and the enormous expenses of the governments for the support of these armies and equipments, he says: " But this forms only a small part of the actual cost, for besides the figures mentioned, which constitute merely the war budgets of the nations, we have to take into account tlie enormous loss to society by the withdrawal of so 1 Not Charles Butt, but Henry Richard. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 129 many able-bodied men . . . from the occupations of pro- ductive industry, together with the prodigious capital invested in all warlike preparations and appliances, and which is absolutely unproductive. . . . One necessary re- sult of the expenditure on wars and preparations for war is the steady growth of national debts. , . . The aggregate national debts of Europe, by far the larger proportion of which has been contracted for war purposes, amount at the present time to £4,680,000,000." The same Komarovski says in another place : " We are living in a hard time. Everywhere do we hear com- plaints as to the slackness of business and industry and in general as to the bad economic conditions: people point out the hard conditions of the life of the labouring classes and the universal impoverishment of the masses. But, in spite of it, the governments, in their endeavour to maintain their independence, reach the extreme limits of madness. Everywhere they invent new taxes and im- posts, and the financial oppression of the nations knows no limits. If we look at the budgets of the European states for the last one hundred years, we shall first of all be struck by their constantly progressive and rapid growth. How can we explain this extraordinary phenom- enon, which sooner or later threatens us with inevitable bankruptcy V " This is incontestably due to the expenditures caused by the maintenance of an army, which swallow one-third and even one-half of the budgets of the European states. WTiat is most lamentable in connection wnth it is this, that no end can be foreseen to this increase of the budgets and impoverishment of the masses. What is socialism, if not a protest against this abnormal condition, in which the greater part of the population of our part of the world finds itself ? " " We ruin ourselves," says Frederic Passy, in a note read at the last Congress (1890) of Universal Peace, at 130 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU London, " in preparing the means for taking part in the mad butcheries of the future, or in paying the interests of debts bequeathed to us by the mad and culpable butcheries of the past. We die of starvation, in order to be able to kill one another off." Farther on, speaking of how France looks upon this subject, he says : " We believe that one hundred years after the Declaration of the rights of man and of a citizen it is time to recognize the rights of nations and to re- nounce for ever all these enterprises of force and violence, which, under the name of conquests, are real crimes against humanity, and which, whatever the ambition of the sovereigns or the pride of the races . . . weaken even those who seem to profit from them." " I am always very much surprised at the way religion is carried on in this country, " says Sir Wilfrid Lawson, at the same Congress. " You send a boy to the Sunday school, and you tell him, ' My dear boy, you must love your enemies ; if any boy strikes you, don't strike him again ; try to reform him by loving him.' Well, the boy stays in the Sunday school till he is fourteen or fifteen years of age, and then his friends say, ' Put him in the army.' What has he to do in the army ? Why, not to love his enemies, but whenever he sees an enemy to run him through the body with a bayonet. That is the na- ture of all rehgious teaching in this country. I do not think that that is a very good way of carrying out the precepts of religion. I think if it is a good thing for the boy to love his enemy, it is a good thing for the man to love his enemy." And farther : " The nations of Europe . . . keep some- where about twenty-eight millions of armed men to settle quarrels by killing one another, instead of by arguing. That is what the Christian nations of the world are doing at this moment. It is a very expensive way also ; for this publication which I saw made out that since the year THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 131 1872 these nations had spent the almost incredible amount of £1,500,000,000 of money in preparing, and settling their quarrels by killing one another. Now it seems to me that with that state of things one of two positions must be accepted : either that Christianity is a failure or, that those who profess to expound Christianity have failed in expounding it properly." " Until our ironclads are withdrawn, and our army disbanded, we are not entitled to call ourselves a Christian nation," says Mr. J. Jowet Wilson. In a discussion which arose in connection with the ques- tion of the obligatoriness of Christian pastors to preach against war, Mr. 6. D. Bartlett said, among other things : " If I understand the Scriptures, I say that men are only playing with Christianity when they ignore this question," that is, say nothing about war. " I have lived a longish life, I have heard many sermons, and I can say without any exaggeration that I never heard universal peace recommended from the pulpit half a dozen times in my life. . . . Some twenty years ago I happened to stand in a drawing-room where there were forty or fifty people, and I dared to moot the proposition that war was incom- patible with Christianity. They looked upon me as an arrant fanatic. The idea that we could get on without war was regarded as unmitigated weakness and folly." In the same sense spoke the Catholic Abb(5 Defourny : " One of the first precepts of this eternal law which burns in the consciences of men is the one which forbids takincc the life of one's like, shedding human blood without just cause, and without being constrained by necessity. It is one of those laws which are most indehbly engraved in the human heart. . . . But if it is a question of war, that is, of the shedding of human blood in torrents, the men of the present do not trouble themselves about a just cause. Those who take part in it do not think of asking themselves whether these innumerable murders are justi- 132 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU fied or not, that is, if the wars, or what goes by that name, are just or iniquitous, legal or illegal, permissible or criminal . . . wliether they violate, or not, the primor- dial law which prohibits homicide and murder . . . without just cause. But their conscience is mute in this matter. " War has ceased for them to be an act v^hich has anything to do with morality. They have no other joy, in the fatigue and perils of the camp, than that of being victorious, and no other sadness than that of being van- quished. ... Do not tell me that they serve their country. A long time ago a great genius told you these words, which have become proverbial, ' Eeject justice, and what are the empires but great societies of brigands ? ' And are not a band of brigands themselves small empires ? Brigands themselves have certain laws or conventions by which they are ruled. There, too, they fight for the con- quest of booty and for the honour of the band. . . . The principle of the institution " (he is talking of the establishment of an international tribunal) " is this, that the European nations should stop being a nation of thieves, and the armies gangs of brigands and of pirates, and, I must add, of slaves. Yes, the armies are gangs of slaves, slaves of one or two rulers, or one or two min- isters, who dispose of them tyrannically, without any other guarantee, we know, than a nominal one. " What characterizes the slave is this, that he is in the hands of his master like a chattel, a tool, and no longer a man. Just so it is with a soldier, an officer, a general, who march to murder and to death without any care as to justice, by the arbitrary will of ministers. . . . Thus military slavery exists, and it is the worst of slaveries, particularly now, when by means of enforced military service it puts the chain about the necks of all free and strong men of the nations, in order to make of them tools of murder, killers by profession, butchers of human flesh, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 133 for this is the only opus servile for which they are chaiued up and trained. . . . " Itulers, to the number of two or three . . . united into a secret cabinet, dehberate without control and with- out minutes which are intended for publicity . . . consequently without any guarantee for the conscience of those whom they send out to be killed." " The protests against the heavy arming do not date from our day," says Signer E. T. Moneta. " Listen to what Montesquieu wrote in his time. " ' France ' (you may substitute the word ' Europe ') ' will be ruined by the military. A new malady has spread through Europe ; it has infected our princes and has made them keep a disproportionate number of troops. It has its exacerbations, and it necessarily becomes contagious, because, as soon as one state increases what it calls its troops, the others suddenly increase theirs, so that nothing is gained by it but the common ruin. " ' Every monarch keeps on a war footing all the troops which he might need in case his people were in danger of being exterminated, and this state of tension, of all against all, is called peace. As a result, Europe is so ruined that if private individuals were in the condition in which the powers are in this part of the world, the richest of them would not have anything to live on. We are poor with the riches and the commerce of the whole universe.' "This was written almost 150 years ago; the picture seems to be made for to-day. One single thing has changed, — -the system of government. In the time of Montesquieu, and also afterward, they used to say that the cause for the uiainLenance of great armies lay in the absolute kings, who waged war in the hope of finding in the conquests the means for enriching their private budgets and passing down to history in the aureole of glory. " Then they said, ' Oh, if the peoples could choose them- 134 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU selves those who have the right to refuse the governments soldiers and money, for then the politics of war would come to an end.' " We have to-day representative governments in nearly all of Europe, and none the less the expenditures for war and for its preparation are increased in a frightful propor- tion. " Evidently the folly of the princes has passed down to the governing classes. At the present time they no longer make war because a prince was disrespectful to a courtesan, as such things happened in the time of Louis XIV., but by exaggerating the respectable sentiments, like that of the national dignity and of patriotism, by exciting public opinion against a neighbouring nation, there will come a day when it will be sufficient to say, though the information may not be true, that the ambassador of your government was not received by the chief of a state, in order to make break forth the most terrible and disastrous of wars ever seen. "At the present time Europe keeps under arms more soldiers than there were in the time of Napoleon's great wars. All citizens, with few exceptions, are obliged on our continent to pass several years in the barracks. They build fortresses, construct arsenals and ships, constantly manufacture arms, which after awhile have to be replaced by others, because science, which ought always to be du-ected toward the well-being of men, unfortunately lends its aid to works of destruction, invents at every instant new engines for kiDing great masses of men as rapidly as possible. " And in order to maintain so many soldiers and to make such vast preparations for murder, they spend yearly hundreds of millions, that is, what would be sufficient for the education of the people, for the execution of the greatest works of public utility, and would furnish the means for solving pacifically the social question. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 135 " Europe, therefore, finds itself, in spite of the scientific conquests, in a condition as though it were still living in the worst times of the ferocious Middle Ages. All men complain of this situation, which is not yet war, but which is not peace either, and everybody would like to get out of it. The chiefs of governments protest that they want peace, and it is a matter of emulation between them as to who will make the most solemn pacific declarations. But on the same day, or the day following, they present to the legislative chamjjers propositions for increasing the standing army, and they say that it is for the purpose of maintaining and assuring peace that they take so many precautions. " But it is not the kind of peace we like ; nor are the nations deceived. True peace has reciprocal confidence for its basis, while these enormous preparations betray a profound distrust, if not a concealed hostility, between the states. What would we say of a man who, wishing to prove his sentiments of friendship for his neighbour, should invite him to discuss some question with him, wbile he himself is holding a revolver in his hand ? It is this flagrant contradiction between the pacific decla- rations and the warlike policy of the governments that all good citizens want to see stopped at any price and as quickly as possible." They marvel why annually sixty thousand suicides are committed in Europe, and those only the ones that are recorded, which excludes Russia and Turkey ; but wliat we ought to marvel at is not that there are so many suicides, but so few. Every man of our time, if he grasps the contradiction between his consciousness and his life^ is in a very desperate condition. To say nothing of all the other contradictions between life and consciousness, which fill the life of a man of our time, the contradiction between this last military condition, in which Europe is, and the Christian profession of Europe is enough to make 136 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU a man despair, doubt the rationality of human nature, and put an end to his life in this mad and beastly world. This contradiction, the military contradiction, which is the quintessence of all others, is so terrible that a man can live and take part in it only by not thinking of it, by being able to forget it. How is this ? We are all Christians, — w^e not only profess love of one another, but actually live one common life, the pulse of our life beats with the same beats, we aid one another, learn from one another, more and more approach one another, for a common joy ! In this closer union lies the meaning of the whole of life, — and to- morrow some maddened head of a government will say something foolish, another man like him will answer him, and I shall go, making myself liable to be killed, to kill men who not only have done me no harm, but whom I love. And this is not a distant accident, but what we are preparing ourselves for, and it is not only a possible, but even an inevitable event. It is enough to understand this clearly, in order to lose our mind and shoot ourselves. And it is precisely what happens with especial frequency among the military. We need but think for a moment, in order that we may come to the necessity of such an ending. It is only thus that we can explain that terrible tension with which the men of our time incline to intoxicate themselves with wine, tobacco, opium, cards, the reading of newspapers, travelling, all kinds of spectacles, and amusements. All these things are done like serious, important affairs. They are indeed important affairs. If there existed no external means for dimming their consciences, one-half of the men would at once shoot themselves, because to live contrary to one's reason is a most intolerable state, and all men of our time are in such a state. All men of our time live in a constant crying contradiction between consciousness and life. These contradictions are expressed THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU 137 Iq the economic and political relations, but most startling is this contradiction between the recognition of the law of the brotherhood of men, as professed by Christians, and the necessity, in which all men are placed by the universal military service, of being prepared for hostility, for murder, — of being at the same time a Christian and a gladiator. VI The removal of the contradiction between life and con- sciousness is possible in two ways, — by a change of life or by a change of consciousness, and in the choice of one of the two there can be no doubt. A man may stop doing what he considers bad, but he cannot stop considering bad what is bad. Even so the whole of humanity may stop doing what it considers bad, but is powerless, not only to change, but even for a time to retard the all-elucidating and expanding consciousness of what is bad and what, therefore, ought not to be. It would seem that the choice between the change of life and that of the consciousness ought to be clear and above doubt. And so, it would seem, it is indispensable for the Chris- tian humanity of our time to renounce the pagan forms of life, which it condemns, and to build up its life on the Christian foundations, which it professes. But so it would be, if there did not exist the law of inertia, which is as invariable in the lives of men and nations as in inanimate bodies, and which is for men ex- pressed by the psychological law, so well stated in the Gospel with the words, " and did not walk toward the light, because their deeds were evil." This law consists in this, that the majority of men do not think in order to know the truth, but in order to assure themselves that the life which they lead, and which is agreeable and habitual to them, is the one which coincides with the truth. Slavery was contrary to all the moral principles which were preached by Plato and Aristotle, and yet neither the 138 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 139 one nor the other saw this, because the negation of slavery destroyed all that life which they lived. The same hap- pens in pur world. The division of men into two castes, like the violence of the state and of the army, is repugnant to all those moral principles by which otu- world lives, and at the same time the leading men of culture of our time do not seem to see it. The majority, if not all, of the cultured people of our time unconsciously try to maintain the previous social concept of hfe which justifies their position, and to con- ceal from themselves and from men its inadequacy, and, above all, the necessity of the condition of the Christian hfe-conception, which destroys the whole structure of the existing life. They stride to maintain the orders that are based on the social life-conceptiou, but themselves do not believe in it, because it is obsolete, and it is impossible to believe in it any longer. All literature, the philosophic, the political, and that of the helles-lettrcs, of our time is striking in this respect. What a wealth of ideas, forms, colours, what erudition, elegance, abundance of thoughts, and what total absence of serious contents, and even what fear of every definite- ness of thought and of its expression ! Circumlocutions, allegories, jests, general, extremely broad reflections, and nothing simple, clear, pertinent to the matter, that is, to the question of life. But it is not enough that they write and say graceful vapidities ; they even write and say abominable, vile things, they in the most refined manner adduce reflections which take men back to primeval savagery, to the foundations, not only of pagan, but even of animal life, which we out- lived as far back as five thousand years ago. It can, indeed, not be otherwise. In keeping shy of the Christian life-conception, which for some impairs only the habitual order, and for others both the habitual and the 140 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU advantageous order, men cannot help but return to the pa- gan concept of hfe, and to the teachings which are based on them. In our time they not only preach patriotism and aristocratism, as it was preached two thousand years ago, but they even preach the coarsest epicurism, animality, with this one difference, that the men who then preached it believed in what they preached, while now the preachers themselves do not believe in what they say, and they can- not believe, because what they preach no longer has any meaning. It is impossible to remain in one place, when the soil is in motion. If you do not go ahead, you fall behind. And, though it is strange and terrible to say so, the cultured people of our time, the leaders, with their refined reflections, in reality are dragging society back, not even to the pagan state, but to the stale of primeval savagery. In nothing may this direction of the activity of the leading men of our time be seen so clearly as in their relation to the phenomenon in which in our time the whole inadequacy of the social concept of life has been expressed in a concentrated form, — in their relation to war, to universal armaments, and to universal military service. The indefiniteness, if not the insincerity, of the relation of the cultured men of our time to this phenomenon is striking. The relation to this matter in our cultured society is threefold : some look upon this phenomenon as something accidental, which arose from the peculiar politi- cal condition of Europe, and consider it corrigible, without the change of the whole structure of life, by means of ex- ternal, diplomatic, international measures ; others look upon this phenomenon as upon something terrible and cruel, but inevitable and fatal, like a disease or death ; others again calmly and coolly look upon war as an indis- pensable, beneficent, and therefore desirable phenomenon. These people look differently at the matter, but aU of THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 141 them discuss war as an incident which is quite inde- pendent of the will of men who take part in it, and so do not even admit that natural question, which presents itself to every simple man, " Must I take part in it ? " Accord- ing to the opinion of all these men, these questions do not even exist, and every person, no matter how he himself may look upon war, must in this respect slavishly submit to the demands of the government. The relation of the first, of those who see a salvation from wars in diplomatic, international measures, is beauti- fully expressed in the result of the last Congress of Peace in London, and in an article and letters concerning war by prominent authors in No. 8 of the Revue des Revues for 1891. Here are the results of the Cougress : having collected the personal or written opinions from learned men all over the world, the Cougress began by a Te Deum in the Cathe- dral, and ended with a dinner with speeches, having for the period of five days listened to a large number of speeches, and having arrived at the following resolutions : 1. "The Congress affirms its belief that the brother- hood of man involves as a necessary consequence a brotherhood of nations, in which the true interests of all are acknowledged to be identical 2. " The Congress recognizes the important influence which Christianity exercises upon the moral and political progress of mankind, and earneslly urges upon ministers of the Gospel, and other teachers of religion and morality, the duty of setting forth the principles of Peace and Good-will, and recommends that the third Sunday in De- cember in each year be set apart for that purpose. 3. " This Congress expresses its opinion that all teachers of history should call the attention of the young to the grave evils inflicted on mankind in all ages by war, and to the fact that such war has been waged, as a rule, foi most inadequate causes. 142 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 4. " The Congress protests against the use of military exercises in connection with the physical exercises of school, and suggests the formation of brigades for saving life rather than any of a quasi-military character ; and it urges the desirability of impressing on the Board of Ex- aminers, who formulate the questions for examination, the propriety of guiding the minds of children into the principles of Peace. 5. " The Congress holds that the doctrine of the uni- versal rights of man requires that aboriginal and weaker races shall be guarded from injustice and fraud when brought into contact with civilized peoples, alike as to their territories, their liberties, and their property, and that they shall be shielded from the vices which are so preva- lent among the so-called advanced races of men. It further expresses its conviction that there should be con- cert of action among the nations for the accomplishment of these ends. The Congress desires to express its hearty appreciation of the conclusions arrived at by the late Anti-Slavery Conference, held in Brussels, for the amelio- ration of the condition of the peoples of Africa. 6. " The Congress believes that the warlike prejudices and traditions which are still fostered in the various nationalities, and the misrepresentations by leaders of public opinion in legislative assemblies, or through the press, are not infrequently indirect causes of war. The Congress is therefore of opinion that these evils should be counteracted by the publication of accurate statements and information that would tend to the removal of mis- understanding among nations, and recommends to the Inter-Parhamentary Committee the importance of consid- ering the question of commencing an international news- paper, which should have such a purpose as one of its primary objects. 7. "The Congress proposes to the Inter-Parliamentary Conference that the utmost support should be given to THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 143 every project for the unification of weights and measures, of coinage, tariffs, postal and telegraphic arrangements, means of transport, etc., which would assist in constituting a commercial, industrial, and scientific union of the peoples. 8. " The Congress, in view of the vast moral and social influence of woman, urges upon every woman throughout the world to sustain the things that make for peace ; as otherwise she incurs grave responsibilities for the contin- uance of the systems of war and militarism. 9. " This Congress expresses the hope that the Financial Eeform Association, and other Similar Societies in Europe and America, should unite in convoking at an early date a Conference to consider the best means of establishing equitable commercial relations between states by the reduction of import duties. The Congress feels that it can affirm that the whole of Europe desires Peace, and is impatiently waiting for the moment when it shall see the end of those crushing armaments which, under the plea of defence, become in their turn a danger, by keep- ing alive mutual distrust, and are at the same time the cause of that economic disturbance which stands in the way of setthng in a satisfactory manner the problems of labour and poverty, which should take precedence of all others. 10. " The Congress, recognizing that a general disarm- ament would be the best guarantee of Peace, and would lead to the solution, in the general interest, of those questions which must now divide states, expresses the wish that a Congress of Kepresentatives of all the states of Europe may be assembled as soon as possible, to con- sider the means of accepting a gradual general dis- armament. 11. "The Congress, considering the timidity of the single Powers or other causes might delay indefinitely the convocation of the above-mentioned Congress, is of 144 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU opinion that the Government which should first dismiss any considerable number of soldiers would confer a signal benefit on Europe and mankind, because it would oblige other Governments, urged on by public opinion, to follow its example, and by the moral force of this accom- plished fact, would have increased rather than diminished the condition of its national defence. 12. " This Congress, considering the question of disarma- ment, as well as the Peace question generally, depends upon public opinion, recommends the Peace Societies here represented, and all friends of Peace, to carry on an active propaganda among the people, especially at the time of Parliamentary elections, in order that the electors should give their vote to those candidates who have included in their programme Peace, Disarmament, and Arbitration. 13. "The Congress congi-atulates the friends of Peace on the resolution adopted by the International American Conference at Washington in April last, by which it was recommended that arbitration should be obligatory in all controversies concerning diplomatic and consular privi- leges, boundaries, territories, indemnities, right of naviga- tion, and the validity, construction, and enforcement of treaties, and in all other cases, whatever their origin, nature, or occasion, except only those which, in the judgment of any of the nations involved in the contro- versy, may imperil its independence. 14. " The Congress respectfully recommends this resolu- tion to the attention of the statesmen of Europe, and expresses the ardent desire that treaties in similar terms be speedily entered into between the other nations of the world. 15. " The Congress expresses its satisfaction at the adoption by the Spanish Senate, on June 16th last, of a project of law authorizing the Government to negotiate general or special treaties of arbitration for the settlement of all disputes, except those relating to the independence THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 145 and internal government of the state affected ; also at the adoption of resolutions to a hke effect by the Norwegian Storthing, and by the Italian Chamber, on July 11th. 16. " The Congress addresses official communications to the principal religious, political, commercial, labour, and peace organizations in civilized countries, requesting them to send petitions to governmental authorities of their respective countries, praying that measures be taken for the formation of suitable tribunals for the adjudicature of any international questions, so as to avoid the resort to war. 17. " Seeing (a) that the object pursued by all Peace Societies is the estabHshment of juridical order between nations ; (b) that neutralization by international treaties constitutes a step toward this juridical state, and lessens the number of districts in which war can be carried on ; the Congress recommends a larger extension of the rule of neutralization, and expresses the wish : (a) that all treaties which at present assure to a certain state the benefit of neutrality remain in force, or, if necessary, be amended in a manner to render the neutrality more effect- ive, either by extending neutralization to the whole of the state, of which a part only may be neutralized, or by ordering the demolition of fortresses which constitute rather a peril than a guarantee of neutrality ; (h) that new treaties, provided they are in harmony with the wishes of the population, be concluded for the establishment of the neutralization of other states. 18. " The Sul)-Committee of the Congress recommends : " I. That the next Congress be held immediately before or immediately after the next session of the Inter-Parlia- mentary Conference, and at the same place. " II. That the question of an international Peace Em- blem be postponed sine die. " III. The adoption of the following resolution : " (a) Resolved, that we express our satisfaction at the 146 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU formal and official overtures of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, addressed to the highest representatives of each church organization in Christen- dom, inviting the same to unite with itself in a general conference, the object of which shall be to promote the substitution of international arbitration for war ; (b) that this Congress, assembled in London from the 14th to the 19th July, desires to express its profound reverence for the memory of Aurelio Salli, the great Itahan jurist, a member of the Committee of the International League of Peace and Liberty, " IV. That the Memorial to the various Heads of Civi- lized States, adopted by this Congress and signed by the President, should so far as practicable be presented to each power, by an influential deputation. " V. That the Organization Committee be empowered to make the needful verbal emendations in the papers and resolutions presented. " VI. That the following resolutions be adopted : " (a) A resolution of thanks to the Presidents of the various sittings of the Congress ; (h) a resolution of thanks to the Chairman, the Secretary, and the Members of the Bureau of the Congress ; (c) a resolution of thanks to the conveners and members of Sectional Committees ; (d) a resolution of thanks to Eev. Cannon Scott Holland, Eev. Doctor Keuen, and Rev. J. Morgan Gibbon, for their pulpit addresses before the Congress, and that they be requested to furnish copies of the same for publication ; and also to the Authorities of St. Paul's Cathedral, the City Temple, and Stamford Hill Congregational Church for the use of those buildings for public services ; (e) a letter of thanks to Her Majesty for permission to visit Windsor Castle ; (/) and also a resolution of thanks to the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, to Mr. Passmore Edwards, and other friends, who had extended their hospitality to the mem- bers of the Congress. N THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 147 19. " This Congress places on record a heartfelt expres- sion of gratitude to Almighty God for the remarkable harmony and concord which have characterized the meet- ings of the Assembly, in which so many men and women of varied nations, creeds, tongues, and races have gathered in closest cooperation, and in the conclusion of the labours of the Congress ; it expresses its firm and unshaken belief in the ultimate triumph of the cause of Peace and of the principles which have been advocated at these meetings." The fundamental idea of the Congress is this, that it is necessary, in the first place, to diffuse by all means pos- sible the conviction among men that war is very unprofit- able for people and that peace is a great good, and in the second, to act upon the governments, impressing them with the superiority of the international tribunal over wars, and, therefore, the advantages and the necessity of disarmament. To attain the first end, the Congress turns to the teachers of history, to the women, and to the clergy with the advice that the evil of war and the good of peace be preached to men on every tliird Sunday in -December ; to attain the second end, the Congress addresses the gov- ernments, proposing that they disarm and substitute arbi- tration for war. To preach the evil of war and the good of peace to men ! But the evil of war and the good of peace are so well known to men that, so long as we have known meu, the best greeting has been, " Peace be with you." What need is there, then, in preaching ? Not only the Christians, but all the pagans thousands of years ago knew tlie evil of war and the good of peace, — consequently the advice given to the preachers of the Gospel to preach on the evil of war and the good of peace on every third Sunday in December is quite superfluous. A Christian cannot help but preach this at all times, on all the days of his life. If Christians and preachers of Christianity do not do so, there must be causes for this, 148 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU and so long as these causes are not removed, no advice will be effective. Still less effective can be the advice given to the governments, to dismiss the armies and substitute international tribunals for them. The governments them- selves know very well all the difficulty and burdensome- ness of collecting and maintaining armies, and if, in spite of it, they continue with terrible efforts and tension to collect and maintain armies, they obviously cannot do otherwise, and the advice of the Congress cannot change anything. But the learned do not want to see this, and all hope to find a combination by which the governments, who produce the wars, v/ill limit themselves. " Is it possible to be freed from war ? " writes a learned man in the Rctnie des Revues. " All admit that when it breaks loose in Europe, its consequences will be like a great incursion of the barbarians. In a forthcoming war the existence of whole nationalities will be at stake, and so it will be sanguinary, desperate, cruel. " It is these considerations, combined with those terrible implements of war which are at the disposal of modern science, that are retarding the moment of the declaration of war and are maintaining the existing temporary order of things, which might be prolonged for an indefinite time, if it were not for those terrible expenses that oppress the European nations and tlireaten to bring them to no lesser calamities than those which are produced by war. " Startled by this idea, the men of the various countries have sought for a means for stopping or at least mitigating the consequences of the terrible slaughter which is men- acing us. " Such are the questions that . are propounded by the Congress soon to be held in Eome and in pamphlets deal- ing with disarmament. " Unfortunately it is certain that with the present structure of the majority of the European states, which are removed from one another and are guided by various THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 149 interests, the complete cessation of war is a dream with which it would be dangerous to console ourselves. Still, some more reasonable laws and regulations, accepted by all, in these duels of the nations might considerably reduce the horrors of war. " Similarly Utopian would be the hope of disarmament, which is almost impossible, from considerations of a national character, which are intelligible to our readers." (This, no doubt, means that France cannot disarm previ- ous to avenging its wrongs.) " Pubhc opinion is not prepared for the adoption of projects of disarmament, and, besides, the international relations are not such as to make their adoption possible. " Disarmament, demanded by one nation of another, is tantamount to a declaration of war. "It must, however, be admitted that the exchange of views between the interested nations will to a certain extent aid in the international agreement and will make possible a considerable diminution of the military ex- penses, which now oppress the European nations at the expense of the solution of social questions, the necessity of which is felt by every state individually, threatening to provoke an internal war in the effort to avert one from without. " It is possible at least to assume a diminution of the enormous expenses which are needed in connection with the present business of war, which aims at the possibility of seizing the adversary's possessions within twenty-four hours and giving a decisive battle a week after the decla- ration of war." What is needed is, that states should not be able to attack other states and in twenty-four hours to seize the possessions of others. This practical idea was expressed by Maxime du Camp, and to this the conclusion of the article is reduced. 150 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU M. du Camp's propositions are these : " (1) A diplomatic congress ought to meet every year. " (2) No war can be declared sooner than two months after the incident provoking it. (The difficulty will be to determine which incident it is that provokes the war, because with every war there are a very large number of such incidents, and it would be necessary to decide from which incident the two months are to be counted.) " (3) War cannot be declared before it is submitted to the vote of the nations preparing for it. " Military action cannot begin sooner than a month after the declaration of war." " War cannot be begun . . . must ..." and so forth. But who will see to it that war cannot be begun? Who will see to it that men must do so and so ? Who will compel the power to wait until the proper time ? All the other powers need just as much to be moderated and placed within bounds and compelled. Who will do the compelling ? and how ? — Public opinion. — But if there is a pubhc opinion which can compel a power to wait for a given time, the same public opinion can compel the power not to begin the war at all. But, they reply to all this, we can have such a balance oi iovcQQ, ponder ation dcs forces, that the powers will sup- port one another. This has been tried and is being tried even now. Such were the Holy Alliance, the League of Peace, and so forth. "But if all should agree to it?" we are told. If all should agree to it, there would be no war, and there would be no need for supreme tribunals and courts of arbitration. " Arbitration will take the place of war. The questions will be decided by a court of arbitration. The Alahama question was decided by a court of arbitration, it was proposed to have the question about the Caroline Islands submitted to the arbitration of the Pope. Switzerland, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 151 and Belgium, and Denmark, and HoUand, — all have declared that they prefer the decisions of a court of arbi- tration to war." Monaco, it seems, also declared itself in this way. What is a pity is, that Germany, Kussia, Austria, France have not yet made such declarations. It is wonderful how men can deceive themselves. The governments will decide to submit their differences to a court of arbitration and so will disband their armies. The differences between Eussia and Poland, between Eng- land and Ireland, between Austria and Bohemia, between Turkey and the Slavs, between France and Germany will be decided by voluntary consent. This is the same as though it should be proposed that merchants and bankers should not sell anytliing at a higher price than at what they have bought the articles, should busy themselves with the distribution of wealth without profit, and should abolish the money which has thus become useless. But commerce and the banking industry consist in nothing but selling at a higher price than that at which the purchases are made, and so the proposition that articles should not be sold except at a purchase price, and that money should be abolished, is tantamount to a proposi- tion that they should abohsh themselves. The same is true of the governments. The proposition made to the governments that no violence be used, and that the differ- ences be decided on their merits, is a proposition that the government as such should abolish itself, and to this no government can consent. Learned men gather in societies (there are many such societies, more than a hundred of them), congi'esses are called (lately such met at Paris and London, and one will soon meet at Pome), speeches are made, people dine, make toasts, publish periodicals, which are devoted to the cause, and in all of them it is proved that the tension of the nations, who are compelled to support milhons of troops. 152 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU has reached the utmost limit, and that this armament contradicts all the aims, properties, and desires of all the nations, but that, if a lot of paper is covered with writing, and a lot of speeches are made, it is possible to make all people agree and to cause them not to have any opposing interests, and then there will be no war. When I was a little fellow, I was assured that to catch a bird it was just necessary to pour some salt on its tail. I went out with the salt to the birds, and immediately convinced myself that, if I could get near enough to pour the salt on a bird's tail, I could catch it, and I understood that they were making fun of me. It is the same that must be understood by those who read books and pamphlets on courts of arbitration and dis- armament. If it is possible to pour salt on a bird's tail, this means that it does not fly, and that there is no need of catch- ing it. But if a bird has wings and does not want to be caught, it does not allow any one to pour salt on its tail, because it is the property of a bird to fly. Even so the property of a government does not consist in being sub- jected, but in subjecting, and a government is a govern- ment only in so far as it is able, not to be subjected, but to subject, and so it strives to do so, and can never volun- tarily renounce its power ; but the power gives it the army, and so it will never give up the army and its use for pur- poses of war. The mistake is based on this, that learned jurists, deceiving themselves and others, assert in their books that the government is not what it is, — a collection of one set of men, doing violence to another, — but, as science makes it out to be, a representation of the aggregate of citizens. The learned have for so long a time assured others of this fact that they have come themselves to believe in it, and they often think seriously that justice can be obligatory for the governments. But history shows that from Csesar to THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 153 Napoleou, both the first and the third, and Bismarck, the government has by its essence always been a justice-impair- ing force, as, indeed, it cannot be otherwise. Justice can- not be obHgatory for a man or for men, who keep in hand deceived men, drilled for violence, — the soldiers, — and by means of them rule others. And so the governments cannot agree to the diminution of the number of these drilled men, who obey them and who form aU their strength and significance. Such is the relation of one set of learned men to the contradiction which weighs heavily on our world, and such are the means for its solution. Tell these men that the question is only in the personal relation of every man to the moral, religious question, now standing before all, of the legitimacy and illegitimacy of his participation in the universal military service, and these savants will only shrug their shoulders, and will not even deign to give you an answer, or pay attention to you. The solution of the question for them consists in reading addresses, writing books, choosing presidents, vice-presidents, secretaries, and meeting and talking, now in this city, and now in that. From these talks and writings there will, in their opinion, come this result, that the governments will cease drafting soldiers, on whom their whole power is based, but will listen to their speeches and will dismiss their soldiers, will remain defenceless, not only against their neighbours, but even against their subjects, — like rol)bers who, having bound defenceless men, for the purpose of robbing them, upon hearing speeches about the pain caused to the bound men by the rope, should immediately set them free. But there are people who believe in it, who busy them- selves with peace congresses, deliver addresses, write little books ; and the governments, of course, express their sym- pathy with this, let it appear that they are supporting this, just as they make it appear that they are supporting a temperance society, whereas they for the most part Hve 154 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU by the drunkenness of the masses ; just as they make it appear that they are supporting education, whereas their strength is based on ignorance ; just as they make it appear that they are supporting the liberty of the constitution, whereas their strength is based only on the absence of a constitution ; just as they make it appear that they are concerned about the betterment of the labouring classes, whereas it is on the oppression of the labourer that their existence is ; just as they make it appear that they are supporting Christianity, whereas Christianity destroys every government. To.be able to do this, they have long ago worked out such provisions for temperance, that drunkenness is not impaired ; such provisions for education, that ignorance is not only not interfered with, but is even strengthened ; such provisions for liberty and for the constitution, that despotism is not impeded ; such provisions for the labour- ers, that they are not freed from slavery ; such Christianity as does not destroy, but maintains the governments. Now they have also added their concern about peace. The governments, simply the kings, who travel about with their ministers, of their own accord deciding the questions as to whether they shall begin the slaughter of millions this year or next, know full well that their talks about peace will not keep them, whenever they feel like it, from sending millions to slaughter. The kings even listen with pleasure to these talks, encourage them, and take part in them. All this is not only harmless, but even useful to the governments, in that it takes people's minds away from the most essential question, as to whether each individual man, who is called to become a soldier, should perform the universal military service or not. " Peace will soon be established, thanks to alliances and congresses and in consequence of books and pam- phlets, but in the meantime go, put on uniforms, and be THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 155 prepared to oppress and torture yourselves for our advan- tage," say the governments. And the learned authors of congresses and of writings fully agree to this. This is one relation, the most advantageous one for the governments, and so it is encouraged by all wise govern- ments. Another relation is the tragic relation of the men who assert that the contradiction between the striving and love for peace and the necessity of war is terrible, but that such is the fate of men. These for the most part sensitive, gifted men see and comprehend the whole terror and the whole madness and cruelty of war, but by some strange turn of mind do not see and do not look for any issue from tliis condition, and, as though irritating their wound, enjoy the desperate plight of humanity. Here is a remarkable specimen of such a relation to war, by a famous French author (Maupassant). As he looks from his yacht at the exercises and target-shooting of the French soldiers, the following ideas come to him : " War ! When 1 but think of this word, I feel be- wildered, as though they were speaking to me of sorcery, of the Inquisition, of a distant, finished, abominable, mon- strous, unnatural thing. " When they speak to us of cannibals, we smile proudly, as we proclaim our superiority to these savages. Who are the savages, the real savages ? Those who struggle in order to eat those whom they vanquish, or those who struggle to kill, merely to kill ? " The httle soldiers of the rank and file who are run- ning down there are destined for death, like flocks of sheep, whom a butcher drives before him on the highway. They will fall in a plain, their heads cut open by a sword- stroke, or their chests pierced by bullets ; and these are young men who might have worked, produced, been use- ful. Their fathers are, old and poor ; their mothers, who have loved them for twenty years and adored them as 7H 156 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU only mothers can, will learn in six months or, perhaps, in a year that their son, their child, their grandchild, who had been reared with so much love, was thrown into a hole, like a dead dog, after he had been eviscerated by a ball, trampled underfoot, crushed, mashed into pulp by the charges of cavalry. Why did they kill her boy, her fine boy, her only hope, her pride, her life ? She does not know. Yes, why ? " War ! To fight ! To butcher ! To massacre people ! And to-day, at our period of the world, with our civiliza- tion, with the expansion of science and the degree of philosophy which we deem the human genius to have attained, we have schools in which they teach how to kill; to kill at a great distance, with perfection, a lot of people at the same time, — to kill poor innocent fel- lows, who have the care of a family and are under no judicial sentence. " And what is most startling is the fact that the people do not rise against the governments ! What difference is there really between the monarchies and the republics ? It is most startling that society does not rise in a body and revolt at the very mention of the word ' war.' " Oh, we shall always live under the burden of the ancient and odious customs, criminal prejudices, and savage ideas of our barbarous ancestors, because we are beasts, and shall remain beasts, who are dominated by instinct and do not change. " Would not any other man than Victor Hugo have been disgraced, if he sent forth this cry of deliverance and truth ? " ' To-day force is called violence and is about to be judged ; war is summoned to court. Civilization, at the instigation of the human race, institutes proceedings and prepares the great criminal brief of the conquerors and captains. The nations are coming to understand that the increase of an offence cannot be its diminution ; that if THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 157 it is a crime to kill, killing much cannot be an extenua- ting circumstance; that if stealing is a disgrace, forcible seizing cannot be a glory. Oh, let us proclaim these absolute verities, — let us disgrace war ! ' " Vain fury and indignation of a poet ! War is hon- oured more than ever. " A versatile artist in these matters, a gifted butcher of men, Mr. von Moltke, one day spoke the following words to some delegates of peace : " ' War is sacred and divinely instituted ; it is one of the sacred laws of the world ; it nurtures in men all the great and noble sentiments, — honour, disinterestedness, virtue, courage, — and, to be short, keeps men from falling into the most hideous materialism.' " Thus, uniting into herds of four hundred thousand men, marching day and night without any rest, not thinking of anything, nor studying anything, nor learn- ing anything, nor reading anything, not being useful to a single person, rotting from dirt, sleeping in the mire, living like the brutes in a constant stupor, pillaging cities, burning villages, ruining peoples, then meeting another conglomeration of human flesh, rushing against it, mak- ing lakes of blood and fields of battered flesh, mingled with muddy and l)lood-stained earth and mounds of corpses, being deprived of arms or legs, or having the skull crushed without profit to any one, and dying in the corner of a field, while your old parents, your wife, and your children are starving, — that's what is called not to fall into the most hideous materialism. " The men of war are the scourges of the world. We struggle against Nature, against ignorance, against ob- stacles of every sort, in order to make our miserable life less hard. Men, benefactors, savants use their exist- ence in order to work, to find what may help, may succour, may ease their brothers. They go with vim about their useful business, accumulate discovery upon discovery, 158 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU increasiDg the human spirit, expanding science, giving every day a sum of new knowledge to the intelhgence of man, giving every day well-being, ease, and force to their country. "War arrives. In six months the generals destroy twenty years of effort, of patience, and of genius. " This is what is called not to fall into the most hideous materialism. " We have seen what war is. We have seen men turned into brutes, maddened, killing for the sake of pleasure, of terror, of bravado, of ostentation. Then, when law no longer exists, when law is dead, when every notion of right has disappeared, we have seen men shoot innocent people who are found on the road and who have roused suspicion only because they showed fear. We have seen dogs chained near the doors of their masters killed, just to try new revolvers on them ; we have seen cows lying in the field shot to pieces, for the sake of pleasure, only to try a gun on them, to have something to laugh at. " This is what is called not to fall into the most hideous materialism. " To enter a country, to kill a man who is defending his home, simply because he wears a blouse and has no cap on his head, to burn the habitations of wretched people who have no bread, to smash the furniture, to steal some of it, to drink the wine which is found in the cellars, to rape the women who are found in the streets, to burn milhons of dollars' worth of powder, and to leave behind them misery and the cholera, — this is what is called not to fall into the most hideous materialism. "What have the men of war done to give evidence of even a little intelligence ? Nothing. What have they invented ? Cannon and guns. That is all. "What has Greece left to us? Books, marbles. Is she great because she has conquered, or because she has produced ? THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 159 " Is it the invasion of the Persians that kept her from falling into the most hideous materialism ? " Is it the invasions of the barbarians that saved Kome and regenerated her ? " Was it Napoleon I. who continued the great intel- lectual movement which was begun by the philosophers at the end of the last century ? " Oh, well, if the governments arrogate to themselves the right to kill the nations, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the nations now and then take upon them- selves the right to do away with the governments. " They defend themselves. They are right. Nobody has the absolute right to govern others. This can be done only for the good of the governed. Whoever rules is as much obliged to avoid war as a captain of a boat is obliged to avoid a shipwreck, " When a captain has lost his boat, he is judged and condemned, if he is found guilty of negligence or even of incapacity. " Why should not the governments be judged after the declaration of a war ? If the nations understood this, if they themselves sat in judgment over the death-dealing powers, if they refused to allow themselves to be killed without reason, if they made use of their weapons against those who gave them to them for the purpose of mas- sacring, war would be dead at once ! But this day will not come!" {Sur I'Eau, ipix 71-80.) The author sees all the horror of war ; he sees that its cause is in this, that the governments, deceiving people, compel them to go out to kill and die without any need ; he sees also that the men composing the armies might turn their weapons against the governments and demand accounts from them. But the author tliinks that this will never happen, and that, therefore, there is no way out of this situation. He thinks that the business of war is terrible, but that it is inevitable and that the de- 160 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU mands of the governments that the soldiers shall go and fight are as inevitable as death, and that, since the governments will always demand it, there will always exist wars. Thus writes a talented, sincere author, who is endowed with that penetration into the essence of the matter which forms the essence of the poetical genius. He pre- sents to us all the cruelty of the contradiction between men's conscience and their activity, and, without solving it, seems to recognize that this contradiction must exist and that in it consists the tragedy of life. Another, not less gifted author (E. Eod), describes the cruelty and madness of the present situation in still more glaring colours, and similarly, recognizing the tragical ele- ment in it, does not offer or foresee any way out of it. " What good is there in doing anything ? What good is there in undertaking anything ? " he says. " How can we love men in these troubled times, when the morrow is but a menace ? Everything we have begun, our maturing ideas, our incepted works, the little good which we shall have been able to do, — will it not all be carried away by the coming hurricane ? Everywhere the earth is trembling under our feet, and the clouds that are gathering upon our horizon will not pass by us. " Oh, if it were only the Revolution, with which we are frightened, that we had to fear ! As I am incapable of imagining a more detestable society than is ours, I have more mistrust than fear for the one which will succeed it. If I were to suffer from the transformation, I should con- sole myself with the thought that the executioners of to- day are the victims of yesterday, and the expectation of what is better would make me put up with what is worse. But it is not this distant peril that frightens me, — I see another, nearer, above all, a more cruel peril, more cruel, because it has no excuse, because it is absurd, because no good can result from it. Every day men weigh the THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 161 chances of war for the morrow, and every day they are more merciless. " Thought staggers before the catastrophe which appears at the end of the century as the limit of the progress of our era, — but we must get used to it : for twenty years all the forces of science have been exhausting themselves to ■invent engines of destruction, and soon a few cannon- shots will sufhce to annihilate a whole army ; they no longer arm, as formerly, a few thousands of poor devils, whose blood was paid for, but whole nations, who go out to cut each others' throats ; they steal their time, in order later more surely to steal their hves ; to prepare them for the massacre, their hatred is fanned, by pretending that they are hated. And good people are tricked, and we shall see furious masses of peaceful citizens, into whose hands the guns will be placed by a stupid order, rush against one another with the ferocity of wild animals, God knows for the sake of what ridiculous incident of the border or of what mercantile colonial interests • They will march, like sheep, to the slaughter, — but knowing whither they are going, knowing that they are leaving their wives, knowing that their children will be hungry, and they will go with anxious fear, but none the less intoxicated by the sonorous, deceptive words that will be trumpeted into their ears. They will go without revolt, passive and resigned, though they are the mass and the force, and could be the power, if they wished and if they knew how to establish common sense and brotherhood in the place of the savage trickeries of diplomacy. They will go, so deceived, so duped, that they will believe the carnage to be a duty, and will ask God to bless their sanguinary appetites. They will go, trampling on the crops which they have sown, burning the cities which they have built, with enthusiastic songs, joyous cries, and festive music. And their sons will erect statues to those who shall have massacred them better than any one else ! 162 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU " The fate of a whole generation depends on the hour at which some sombre pohtician will give the signal, which will be followed. We know that the best among us will be mowed down and that our work will be destroyed in the germ. We know this, and we tremble from anger, and we are unable to do anything. We are caught in the net of offices and red tape, which it would take too violent an effort to break. We belong to the laws which we have called into life to protect us, but which oppress us. We are only things of this Antinomian abstraction, the state, which makes every individual a slave in the name of the will of all, who, taken separately, would want the very opposite of what they are compelled to do. " If it were only one generation that is to be sacrificed ! But there are other interests as well. " All these salaried shouters, these ambitious exploiters of the evil passions of the masses and the poor in spirit, who are deceived by the sonority of words, have to such an extent envenomed the national hatreds that the war of to-morrow will stake the existence of a race : one of the elements which have constituted the modern world is menaced, — he who will be vanquished must disappear morally, — and, whatever it be, we shall see a force anni- hilated, as if there were one too many for the good ! We shall see a new Europe formed, on bases that are so unjust, so brutal, so bloody, so soiled with a monstrous blotch, that it cannot help but be worse than that of to-day, — more iniquitous, more barbarous, more vio- lent. " One feels oneself oppressed by a terrible discourage- ment. We are tossing about in a blind alley, with guns trained on us from all the roofs. Our work is that of sailors going through their last exercise before the ship goes down. Our pleasures are those of the condemned criminal, who fifteen minutes before his execution is offered a choice morsel. Anguish paralyzes our thought, I THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU 163 and the best effort of which it is capable is to calculate by spelling out the vague discourses of ministers, by twisting the sense of the words uttered by sovereigns, by contorting the words ascribed to diplomats and re- ported by the newspapers at the uncertain risk of their in- formation — whether it is to-morrow or the day after, this year or next year, that we shall be crushed. We should, indeed, seek in vain in history for a more uncertain epoch, one which is so full of anxieties " (E. Rod, Le Sens de la Fte, pp. 208-213). It is pointed out that the power is in the hands of those who are ruining themselves, in the hands of the separate individuals forming the mass ; it is pointed out that the source of evil is in the state. It would seem clear that the contradiction of the consciousness and of life has reached the limit beyond which it is impossible to go and after which its solution must ensue. But the author does not think so. He sees in this the tragedy of human life, and, having pointed out all the terror of the situation, concludes that human life must take place in this terror. Such is the second relation to war of those men who see something fatal and tragical in it. The third relation is tliat of men who have lost their conscience, and so their common sense and human feeling. To this class belong Moltke, whose opinion is quoted by Maupassant, and the majority of military men, who are educated in this cruel superstition, who live by it, and so are often naively convinced that war is not only an in- evitable, but even a useful matter. Tlius, judge also non- military, so-called learned, cultured, refined people. Here is what the famous Academician, Dousset, writes in the number of the Revue des Remtes in which the letters about war are collected, in reply to the editor's inquir}' as to his views on war : 164 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU "Dear Sir: — When you ask the most peaceable of Academicians whether he is an advocate of war, his answer is ready in advance : unfortunately, dear sir, you yourself regard as a dream the peaceful thoughts which at the present time inspire our magnanimous countrymen. " Ever since I have been living in the world, I have heard many private people express their indignation against this terrifying habit of international slaughter. All men recognize and deplore this evil ; but how is it to be mended ? People have very often tried to abolish duels, — this seemed so easy ! But no ! All the efforts made for the attainment of this end have done no good and never will do any good. " No matter how much may be said against war and against duelling at all the congresses of the world, above all arbitrations, above all treaties, above all legislations, will eternally stand man's honour, which has ever de- manded duelling, and the national advantages, which will eternally demand war. " I none the less with all my heart hope that the Con- gress of Universal Peace will succeed in its very grave and very honourable problem. " Eeceive the assurance, etc. " K. DOUSSET." The meaning is this, that men's honour demands that people should tight, and the advantages of the nations de- mand that they should ruin and destroy one another, and that the attempts at stopping war are only worthy of smiles. Similar is the opinion of another famous man, Jules Claretie : " Dear Sir," he writes : " For an intelligent man there can exist but one opinion in respect to the question of peace and war. " Humanity was created that it should live, being free I THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIIS" YOU 165 to perfect and better (its fate) its condition by means of peaceful labour. The universal agreement, for which the Universal Congress of Peace is asking and which it preaches, may present but a beautiful dream, but it is in any case the most beautiful dream of all. Man has always before him the promised land of the future, — the harvest will mature, without fear of harm from grenades and cannon- wheels. " But . . . Yes, but ! Since the world is not ruled by philosophers and benefactors, it is fortunate that our soldiers protect our borders and our hearths, and that their arms, correctly aimed, appear to us, perhaps, as the very best guarantee of this peace, which is so fervently loved by all of us. " Peace is given only to the strong and the determined. " Keceive the assurance, etc. " J. Claretie." The meaning of this is, that it does no harm to talk of what no one intends to do, and what ought not to be done at all. But when it comes to business, we must fight. Here is another recent expression of opinion concerning war, by the most popular novelist of Europe, E. Zola : " I consider war a fatal necessity, which appears inevi- table to us in view of its close connection with human nature and the whole world-structure. I wish war could be removed for the longest possible time ; none the less the moment will arrive when we shall be compelled to fight. I, at the present moment, am placing m.yself on the universal point of view, and in no way have any reference to our difference with (^Sermany, which presents itself only as an insignificant incident in the history of humanity. I say that war is indispensable and useful, because it appears to humanity as one of the conditions of its existence. We everywhere meet with war, not only among various tribes and nations, but also in domestic and private life. It 166 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU appears as one of the chief elements of progress, and every step forward, which humanity has taken, has been accom- panied by bloodshed. " People used to speak, and even now speak, of disarma- ment, but disarmament is something impossible, and even if it were possible, we should be obliged to reject it. Only an armed nation appears powerful and great. I am con- vinced that a universal disarmament would bring with it something like a moral fall, which would find its expres- sion in universal impotence, and would be in the way of a progressive advancement of humanity. A martial nation has always enjoyed virile strength. Military art has brought with it the development of all the other arts. History testifies to that. Thus, in Athens and in Kome, commerce, industry, and literature never reached such development as at the time when these cities ruled over the then known world by force of arms. To take an example from times nearer to us, let us recall the age of Louis XIV. The wars of the great king not only did not retard the progress of the arts and sciences, but, on the contrary, seemed to aid and foster their development." War is a useful thing ! But best of all in this sense is the opinion of the most talented writer of this camp, the opinion of the Academi- cian Vogii^. Here is what he writes in an article about the exhibition, in visiting the mihtary department : " In the Esplanade des Invalides, amidst exotic and colonial buildings, one structure of a more severe style rises in the picturesque bazaar ; all these representatives of the terrestrial globe adjoin the Palace of War. A superb subject of antitheses for humanitarian rhetorics ! Indeed, it does not let pass an occasion for deploring such juxtaposition and for asserting that this will kill that (ceci tuera cela)} that the union of the nations through 1 Words from Victor Hugo's novel, Notre Dame, in regard to print- ing, which will kill architecture. — Author's Note. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 167 science and labour will conquer the martial instincts. We shall not keep it from fondling the hope of the chimera of a golden age, which, if it should be realized, would soon become an age of mire. All history teaches us that blood is needed to speed and confirm the union of the nations. The natural sciences have in our time confirmed the mys- terious Irw which was revealed to Joseph de Maistre by the inspiration of his genius and the consideration of primitive dogmas ; he saw how the world redeems its hereditary falls by a sacrifice ; the sciences show us how the world is perfected by struggle and by compulsory selection ; this is the assertion from two sides of the same decree, written out in different expressions. The assertion is naturally not a pleasant one ; but the laws of the world are not established for our pleasure, — they are established for our perfection. Let us, then, enter into this unavoid- able, indispensable Palace of War; and we shall have occasion to observe in what manner the most stubborn of our instincts, without losing anything of its force, is trans- formed, in submitting to the different demands of historic moments." This idea, that the proof of the necessity of war is to be found in two expressions of Maistre and Darwin, two great thinkers according to his opinion, pleases Vogii^ so much that he repeats it. " Dear Sir," he writes to the editor of the Revue des Revues : " You ask for my opinion in regard to the suc- cess of the Universal Congress of Peace. I believe, with Darwin, that a violent struggle is a law of "Nature, by which all beings are ruled. " Like Joseph de Maistre, I believe that it is a divine law, — two diiferent appellations for one and the same thing. If, past all expectation, some particle of humanity, say the whole civilized West, succeeded in arresting the action of this law, other, more primitive nations would 168 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU apply it against us. In these nations the voice of Nature would vanquish the voice of human reason, and they would act with success, because the assurance of peace — I do not say * peace ' itself, but the •' full assurance of peace ' — would evoke in men corruption and fall, which act more destructively than the most terrible war. I find that for that criminal law, war, it is necessary to do the same as for all the other criminal laws, — to mitigate them, to try to make them unnecessary, and to apply them as rarely as possible. But the whole of history teaches us that it is impossible to abolish these laws, so long as there are left in the world two men, money, and a woman between them. " I should be very happy, if the Congress could prove the contrary to me. But I doubt whether it will be able to overthrow history, the law of Nature, and the law of God. " Accept the assurance, etc. "E. M. Vogue." The idea is this, that history, man's nature, and God show us that, so long as there shall be two men and between them bread, money, and a woman, there wiU be war ; that is, that no progress will bring men to get away from the one conception of life, where it is impossible without quarrelling to divide the bread, the money (the money is very good here), and the woman. How strange the people are that assemble in congresses, to talk about how to catch birds by throwing salt on their tails, though they cannot help but know that it is impos- sible to do so ; queer are those who, like Maupassant, Rod, and many others, see clearly the whole horror of war, the whole contradiction which arises from this, that men do not do what they ought to do, what is advan- tageous and necessary for them to do, deplore the tragedy of life, and do not see that all this tragedy will stop as THE KINGDOM OP GOD IS WITHIN YOU 169 soon as men will cease to discuss what they ought not to discuss, and will begin not to do what is painful for them to do, what displeases and disgusts them. These people are queer, but those who, like Vogii^ and others, profess- ing the law of evolution, recognize war not only as un- avoidable, but even as useful, and so as desirable, are strange and terrible with their moral perversion. The others at least say that they hate the evil and love the good, but these simply recognize that there is no good and no evil. All the talk about establishing peace, in the place of eternal war, is a harmful sentimental rodomontade of bab- blers. There is a law of evolution, from which it follows that I must Hve and act badly. What is to be done ? I am an educated man, and I know the law of evolution, and so I will act badly. " Entrons au palais de la gtierre." There is a law of evolution, and so there is nothing bad, nor good, and we must live for nothing but our personal life, leaving every- thing else to the law of evolution. This is the last expression of refined culture, and at the same time of that obscuration of consciousness with which all the cultured classes of our time are occupied. The desire of the cultured classes in one way or another to maintain their favourite ideas and their life, which is based upon them, has reached its utmost limits. They lie, deceive themselves and others in the most refined way, if only they can in some way obscure and drown their consciences. Instead of changing the life in accord with the con- sciousness, they try in every manner possible to obscure and drown their consciousness. But the light shines even in the dark, and so it is beginning to shine in our time. VIL The cultured people of the higher classes try to drown the consciousness of the necessity of changing the present order of things, which is becoming all the time clearer and clearer; but life, continuing to develop and to become more complex in the former direction and intensifying the contradictions and sufferings of men, brings them to that last limit, beyond which it is impossible to go. Such a last limit, beyond which it is impossible to go, is the universal military service. People generally think that universal military service and the ever increased arming, which is connected with it, and the consequent increase of taxation and of state debts among all the nations, are an accidental phenomenon, due to some political condition of Europe, and may also be removed by some political considerations, without an internal change of life. This is quite erroneous. Universal military service is nothing but an inner contradiction which, having been carried to its utmost limits and having at a certain stage of material development become obvious, has stolen its way into the social concept of life. The social concept of life consists in this very fact, that the meaning of life is transferred from the individual to the aggregate, and its consequence is transferred to the tribe, the family, the race, or the state. From the social concept of life it follows that, in so far as the meaning of life is contained in the aggregate of individuals, the individuals themselves voluntarily sacri- fice their interests for the interests of the aggregate. 170 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 171 Thus it has always been in reality in the case of certain forms of the aggregate, in the family or the tribe, inde- pendently of which preceded, or in the race, or even in the patriarchal state. In consequence of the habit, which is transmitted by education and confirmed by religious influence;., the individuals have without compulsion blended their interests with the interests of the aggre- gate and have sacrificed their own interests for the common interest. But the more societies became complex, the greater they grew, especially the more frequently conquests were the causes why men united into societies, the more fre- quently did individuals strive after attaining their ends to the disadvantage of the common good, and the more fre- quently was there felt the need of the exercise of power, that is, of violence, for the sake of curbing these insub- missive individuals. The defenders of the social concept of life generally try to mix up the concept of power, that is, of violence, with that of spiritual influence, but this admixture is quite impossible. A spiritual influence is an action upon a man, such that in consequence of it the very desires of a man are changed and coincide with what is demanded of him. A man who submits to a spiritual influence acts in accordance with his desires. But power, as this word is generally under- stood, is a means for compelling a man to act contrary to his wishes. A man who submits to power does not act as he would wish, but as the power compels him to act. Now what can compel a man to do, not what he wishes, but what he does not wish, is physical violence, or a threat of using such, that is, the deprivation of liberty, beating, maiming, or executable menaces that such actions will be carried out. In this has power always consisted. In spite of the unceasing efforts made by men in power 172 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU to conceal this and to ascribe a different meaning to power, power is the application of a rope, a chain, by which a man will be bound and dragged along, or of a whip, with which he will be flogged, or of a knife, an axe, with which they will cut off his hands, feet, ears, head, — an application of these means, or a threat that they will be used. Thus it was in the time of Nero and of Dzhin- gis-Khan, and thus it is even now, in the most liberal of governments, in the republic of America and in that of France. If men submit to power, they do so only because they are afraid that in case they do not submit these actions will be applied to them. All governmental demands, the payment of taxes, the execution of pubhc works, the submission to punishments imposed upon one, exile, penalties, and so forth, to which men seem volunta- rily to submit, have always had bodily violence, or a threat that such will be used, for their base. The basis of power is bodily violence. The possibility of exerting bodily violence against people is first of all given by an organization of armed men in which all the armed men act in agreement, sub- mitting to one will. Such assemblies of armed men, who submit to one will, are formed by the army. The army has always stood at the base of power. Power is always found in the hands of those who command an army, and all potentates — from the Eoman Caesars to the Eussian and German emperors — are more than anytliing else concerned about the army, knowing that if the army is with them, the power will remain in their hands. It is this formation and increase of the army, which is necessary for the support of power, that has introduced a decomposing principle into the social concept of life. The end of power and its justification consists in the limitation of those men who might wish to attain their interests to the disadvantage of the interests of the aggre- gate. But whether the power has been acquired by the THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 173 formation of a new power, by inheritance, or by election, men who possess power by means of an army have in no way differed from other men, and so have, hke other men, been prone not to subordinate their interests to those of the aggregate, but, on the contrary, having in their hands the possibiUty of doing so, have been more prone than any one else to subordinate the common interests to their own. No matter how much men have devised means for depriving men in power of the possibility of subordi- nating the common interests to their own, or for entrust- ing the power only into the hands of infallible men, there have so far been discovered no means for doing either. All methods employed, either of divine sanction, or of election, or of heredity, or of suffrage, or of assemblies, or of parliaments, or of senates, have proved ineffective. All men know that not one of these methods attains the aim of entrusting the power into none but infallible hands, or of preventing its being misused. All know that, on the contrary, men in power, be they emperors, ministers, chiefs of police, policemen, become, by the very fact of having power, more prone to commit immorahties, that is, to subordinate the common interests to their own, than men who have no power, as indeed it could not be otherwise. The social concept of life justified itself only so long as all men voluntarily sacrificed their interests to the common interests ; but the momeut there appeared men who did not voluntarily sacrifice their interests, and power was needed, that is, violence, for the purpose of limiting these individuals, the decomposing principle of power, that is, violence exerted by one set of people against another, entered into the social concept of life and the structure which is based upon it. For the power of one set of men over another to attain its end of limiting men who strove after their individual interests to the disadvantage of those of the aggregate, 174 THE KIN'GDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU it was necessary to have the power vested in the hands of infallible men, as is assumed to be the case by the Chinese, and as has been assumed in the ]VIiddle Ages and at the present time by men who believe in the sanc- tity of anointment. It was only under this condition that the social structure received its justification. But since this does not exist, and men in power, on the contrary, by the very fact of their possession of power, are never saintly, the social structure, which is based on power, should not have any justification. Even if there was a time when, with a certain low level of morahty and with the universal tendency of men to exert violence against each other, the existence of the power which limited this violence was advantageous, that is, when the violence of the state was not so great as that exerted by individuals against each other, it is impos- sible to overlook the fact that such a superiority of the state over its absence could not be permanent. The more the tendency of individuals to exert violence was di- minished, the more the manners were softened, and the more the power was corrupted in consequence of its unrestraint, the more did this superiority grow less and less. In this change of the relation between the moral devel- opment of the masses and the corruption of the govern- ments does the whole history of the last two thousand years consist. In the simplest form the case was like this : men lived by tribes, families, races, and waged war, committed acts of violence, and destroyed and killed one another. These cases of violence took place on a small and on a large scale: individual struggled with individual, tribe with tribe, family with family, race with race, nation with nation. Larger, more powerful aggregates conquered the weaker, and the larger and the more powerful the aggre- gate of people became, the less internal violence took THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 175 place in it, and the more secure did the continuance of the life of the aggregate seem to be. The members of the tribe or of the family, uniting into one aggregate, war less among themselves, and the tribe and the family do not die, like one man, but continue their exisoence ; between the members of one state, who are subject to one power, the struggle seems even weaker, and the life of the state seems even more secure. These unions into greater and ever greater aggregates did not take place because men consciously recognized such unions as more advantageous to themselves, as is described in the story about the calling of the Varangians, but in consequence, on the one hand, of natural growth, and on the other, of struggle and conquests. When the conquest is accomplished, the power of the conqueror actually puts an end to internecine strife, and the social concept of life receives its justification. But this confirmation is only temporary. Internal strifes cease only in proportion as the pressure of the power is exerted upon individuals who heretofore have been warring against one another. The violence of internal struggle, which is destroyed by the power, is conceived in the power itself. The power is in the hands of just such people as all men are, that is, of such as are always or frequently prepared to sacrifice the common good for the sake of their personal good, with this one difference, that these men do not have the tempering force of the counter- action of the violated, and are subjected to the full cor- rupting influence of power. Thus the evil of violence, passing over into the hands of power, keeps gi-owing more and more, and in time comes to be greater than the one which it is supposed to destroy, whereas in the members of society the proneness to violence keeps weakening more and more, and the violence of power grows less and less necessary. The governmental power, even if it destroys inner vio- 176 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU lence, invariably introduces new forms of violence into the lives of men, and this grows greater and greater in proportion with its continuance and intensification. Thus, although the violence is less perceptible in the state than the violence of the members of society against one another, since it is not expressed by struggle, but by submission, the violence none the less exists and for the most part in a much more powerful degree than be- fore. This cannot be otherwise, because the possession of power not only corrupts men, but the purpose or even un- conscious tendency of the violators will consist in bringing the violated to the greatest degree of weakening, since, the weaker the violated man is, the less effort will it take to suppress him. For this reason the violence which is exerted against him who is violated keeps growing to the farthest limit which it can attain without killing the hen that is laying the golden eggs. But if this hen does not lay, as in the case of the American Indians, the Fijians, the Negroes, it is killed, in spite of the sincere protestations of the philan- thropists against such a mode of action. The best confirmation of this is found in the condition of the labouring classes of our time, who in reality are nothing but subjugated people. In spite of all the hypocritical endeavours of the higher classes to alleviate the condition of the working people, all the working people of our world are subject to an in- variable iron law, according to which they have only as much as they need to be always incited by necessity to work and to have the strength for working for their masters, that is, for the conquerors. Thus it has always been. In proportion with the dura- tion and increase of power, its advantages have always been lost for those who subjected themselves to it, and its disadvantages have been increased. 1 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 177 Thus it has been independently of those forms of gov- ernment under which the nations have lived. The only difference is this, that in a despotic form of govern meut the power is concentrated in a small number of violators, and the form of the violence is more pronounced ; in the constitutional monarchies and repubhcs, as in France and in America, the power is distributed among a larger number of violators, and its forms are less pronounced ; but the matter of violence, with which the disadvantages of the power are gi-eater than its advantages, and its process, which brings the violated to the extreme limit of weaken- ing to which they can be brought for the advantage of the violators, are always one and the same. Sucli has been the condition of all the violated, but be- fore this they did not know it, and in the majority of cases they believed naively that governments existed for their good ; that without government they would perish ; that the thought that men could live without governments was a blasphemy wliif;h ought not even be uttered ; that this was for some reason a terrible doctrine of anarchism, with which is connected the conception of everything terrible. Men believed, as in something absolutely proved and so needing no further proofs, that, since until now all the nations have developed in a governmental form, this form was for ever an indispensable condition of the development of humanity. Thus it went on for hundreds and for thousands of years, and the governments, that is, men in power, have tried, and now try more and more, to keep the nations in this error. Thus it was in the time of the Roman emperors, and thus it is at present. In spite of the fact that the idea of the uselessness and even harm of the governmental vio- lence more and more enters into the consciousness of men, this would last for ever, if the governments were not obliged 178 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU to increase the armies for the purpose of maintaining their power. People generally think that the armies are increased by the governments for the purpose of defending the states against other states, forgetting the fact that armies are needed by the governments for the purpose of protect- ing themselves against their own crushed and enslaved subjects. This has always been indispensable, and has become more and more necessary in proportion as culture has been developed among the nations, in proportion as the intercourse among the men of the same and of different nations has been increased, and it has become particularly indispensable now in connection with the communistic, socialistic, anarchistic, and universal movements among the labouring classes. The governments feel this, and so increase their main force of the disciplined army.^ Answering lately to a question why money was needed for the increase of the wages of under-officers, the German chancellor declared frankly in the German Eeichstag that there was a need of reliable under-officers, in order to fight against socialism. Caprivi only said in the hearing of all what everybody knows, though it is carefully concealed from the nations ; he explained why guards of Swiss and Scotchmen were hired out to French kings and Popes, and why in Russia they carefully shuffle up the recruits ^The fact that in America there exist abuses of power, in spite of the small number of troops, not only does not contradict, but even supports this proposition. In America there is a smaller army than in other countries, and so there is nowhere a lesser oppression of the oppressed classes, and nowhere can we foresee so soon the abolition of the abuses of power and of the power itself. But in America itself there have of date, in proportion as the labouring classes become more unified, been heard voices asking more and more frequently for an increase of the army, although America is not threatened by any external attack. The higher ruling classes know that fifty thou- sand soldiers will soon be insufiicient, and, no longer depending on Pinkerton's army, they feel that the security of their position lies only in an increase of the army. — Author's Note. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 179 in such a way that the regiments which are located in the centre are made up of recruits from the outlying districts, while the regiments in the outlying districts are completed by soldiers from the centre of Kussia. The meaning of Caprivi's speech, translated into simple language, is this, that money was not needed for counteracting the foreign enemies, but for bribing the under-officers, so as to make them willing to act against the oppressed labouring masses. Caprivi accidentally gave utterance to what everybody knows, or feels, if he does not know, namely, that the existing structure of hfe is such as it is, not because it naturally must be such, because the nation wants it to be such, but because it is maintained as such by the violence of the governments, by the army with its bribed under- olhcers, officers, and generals. If a labouring man has no laud, no chance of making use of the right, so natural for every man, to obtain from the land his own means of support and those of his fam- ily, this is not so because tbe nation wants it to be so, but because certain men, the owners of land, are granted the right to admit, or not to admit, the labouring people to it. And this unnatural order of things is maintained by means of the army. If the immense wealth, accumulated by tbe lajjouring people, is not considered as belonging to all men, but to an exclusive number of men ; if the power to col- lect taxes from labour and to use the money for anything they may see fit is entrusted to a few men ; if a few men are permitted to select the method of the religious and civil instruction and education of the children ; if strikes of the labourers are opposed and strikes of the capitalists are encouraged ; if a few men are granted the right to compose laws, which all must obey, and to dispose of men's property and life, — all this does not take place because the nation wants it so, but because the govern- ments and the ruling classes want it so, and by means of bodily violence establish it so. 180 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN Y0I7 Every person who does not know this will find it out in every attempt at not conforming or at changing this order of things. Therefore armies are first of all indis- pensable to the governments and the ruling classes, in order to maintain the order of things which not only does not result from the necessity of the nation, but is fre- quently opposed to it and is advantageous only to the government and to the ruling classes. Every government needs armies, first of all, in order to keep its subjects in submission, and to exploit their labours. But the government is not alone ; side by side with it there is another government, which exploits its subjects by means of the same violence, and which is always ready to take away from another government the labours of its already enslaved subjects. And so every government needs an army, not only for internal use, but also for the protection of its booty against neighbouring ravishers. Every government is in consequence of this involuntarily led to the necessity of increasing its army in emula- tion with the other governments ; but the increasing of armies is contagious, as Montesquieu remarked 150 years ago. Every increase of an army in a state, directed against its subjects, becomes dangerous even for its neighbours, and evokes an increase in the neighbouring states. The armies have reached their present millions not merely because the neighbours threatened the states ; this resulted above all from the necessity of crushing all attempts at revolt on the part of the subjects. The increase of armies arises simultaneously from two causes, which provoke one another : armies are needed against domestic enemies and for the purpose of defending one's position against one's neighbours. One conditions the other. The despotism of a government always increases with the increase and strengthening of armies and exter- nal successes, and the aggressiveness of governments is THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 181 increased with the intensification of the internal despot- ism. In consequence of this, the European governments, in emulating one another in the greater and ever greater increase of the army, arrived at the inevitable necessity of the universal military service, since the universal mili- tary service was a means for obtaming in time of war the greatest quantity of soldiers at the least expense. Ger- many was the first to hit upon this plan, and the moment one government did it, all the others were obliged to do the same. The moment this happened, it happened that all the citizens were put under arms for the purpose of maintaining all that injustice which was committed against them ; what happened was that all the citizens became oppressors of themselves. The universal military service was an inevitable logical necessity, at which it was impossible not to arrive ; at the same time it is the last expression of the inner contradic- tion of the social concept of life, wliich arose at a time when violence was needed in order to maintain it. In the universal military service this contradiction became obvious. Indeed, the meaning of the social concept of life consists in this, that a man, recognizing the cruelty of the struggle of individuals among themselves and the perishableness of the individual himself, transfers the meaning of his life to the aggregate of individuals; but in the universal military service it turns out that men, having brought all the sacrifices demanded of them, in order to free themselves from the cruelty of the struggle and the insecurity of life, are, after all the sacrifices which they have made, again called to bear all those dangers from which they thought they had freed themselves, and, besides, that aggregate, tlie state, in the name of which the individuals renounced their advantages, is again sub- jected to the same danger of destruction to which the iudividual himself was subjected before. 182 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOTJ The governments were to have freed men from the cruelty of the struggle of individuals and to have given them the assurance of the inviolability of the order of the state life ; but, instead, they impose upon the individuals the necessity of the same struggle, except that the strug- gle with the nearest individuals is transferred to the struggle with the individuals of other states, and they leave the same danger of the destruction of the individual and of the state. The establishment of the universal military service is like what would happen if a man were to brace up a dilapidated house : the walls bend inwards — supports are put up ; the ceiling is sagging down — other sup- ports are put up ; boards hang down between the supports — some more supports are put up. A point is finally reached when the supports indeed hold the house to- gether, but it is impossible to live in the house because there are so many supports. The same is true of the universal military service. It destroys all those advantages of the social life which it is called to preserve. The advantages of the social life consist in the security of property and labour and in the cooperation in the aggregate perfection of life, — the universal mihtary serv- ice destroys all that. The taxes which are collected from the masses for war preparations swallow the greater share of the production of labour which the army is supposed to protect. The tearing away of the men from the habitual course of life impairs the possibility of the work itself. The menaces of a war that is likely to break out at any time make all the perfections of the social life use- less and in vain. If a man was formerly told that if he did not submit to the power of the state he would be subjected to the attacks of evil men, of external and internal enemies ; THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 183 that he would be compelled himself to struggle with them aud to subject himself to being killed ; that there- fore it would be advantageous for him to bear certain privations, in order to free himself from these calamities, — he WPS able to believe it all, because the sacritices which he made for the state were only private sacri- fices and gave him the hope for a peaceful hfe in an imperishable state, in the name of which he made these sacriiices. But now, when these sacrifices have not only increased tenfold, but the advantages promised to him are absent, it is natural for any one to imagine that his sub- nassion to power is quite useless. But not in this alone lies the fatal significance of the universal military service, as a manifestation of that con- tradiction which is contained in the social concept of life. The main manifestation of this contradiction consists in the fact that with the universal military service every citizen, upon becoming a soldier, becomes a supporter of the state structure, and a participant in everything which the government does and the legality of which he does not recognize. The governments assert that the armies are needed mainly for the purpose of external defence ; but that is not true. They are needed first of all against their sub- jects, and every man who does military service involun- tarily becomes a participant in all the violence which the state exerts over its own subjects. To convince himself that every man who does his military service becomes a participant in such deeds of the government as he does not acknowledge and cannot acknowledge, let a man only remember what is being done in every state in the name of order and of the good of the nation, things which the army appears as the executor of. All the struggles of dynasties and of the various parties, all the executions, which are connected with these disturbances, all the suppressions of revolts, all 184 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU the employment of military force for the dispersion of popular crowds, the suppression of strikes, all the extor- tions of taxes, all the injustice of the distribution of the ownership of land, all the oppressions of labour, — all this is produced, if not directly by the armies, at least by the police, which is supported by the armies. He who does military service becomes a participant in all these matters, which in some cases are doubtful to him and in many cases are directly opposed to his conscience. Some people do not wish to leave the land which they have been working for generations ; people do not wish to disperse, as they are commanded to do by the government ; people do not want to pay the taxes which are exacted of them ; people do not wish to recognize the obligatoriness for them of laws which they have not made ; people do not wish to be deprived of their nationality, — and I, by doing military service, am obliged to come and beat these people. Being a participant in these deeds, I cannot help but ask myself whether these deeds are good, and whether I ought to contribute to their execution. Universal military service is for the government the last degree of violence, which is necessary for the support of the whole structure ; and for the subjects it is the extreme limit of the possibility of their obedience. It is that keystone which holds the walls and the extraction of which causes the building to cave in. The time came when the growing abuses of the govern- ments and their strifes among themselves had this effect, that from every subject there were demanded, not only material, but also moral sacrifices, when every man had to stop and ask himself, " Can I make these sacrifices ? And in the name of what nmst I make these sacri- iices ? These sacrifices are demanded in the name of the state. In the name of the state they demand of me the renunciation of everything which may be dear to man, of peace, of family, of security, of human dignity. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 185 What is that state in the name of which such terrible sacrifices are demanded of me ? And why is it so indis- pensably necessary ? " " The state," we are told, " is indispensably necessary, in the first place, because without the state, I and all of us would not be protected against violence and the attack of evil men ; in the second place, without the state all of us would be savages, and would have no religious, nor educational, nor mercantile institutions, nor roads of com- munication, nor any other public establishments ; and, in the third place, because without the state we should be subject to enslavement by neighbouring nations." " Without the state," we are told, " we should be sub- ject to violence and to the attacks of evil men in our own country." But who among us are these evil men, from the violence and attacks of whom the state and its army save us ? If three, four centuries ago, when men boasted of their mili- tary art and their accoutrements, when it was considered a virtue to kill men, there existed such men, there are none now, for no men of the present time use or carry weapons, and all, professing the rules of philanthropy and of compassion for their neighbours, wish the same as we, — the possibility of a calm and peaceful life. There now are no longer those particular violators against whom the state should defend us. Ijut if, by the people, from whose attack the state saves us, we are to understand those men who commit crimes, we know that they are not some especial beings, like rapacious animals among the sheep, but just such people as we are, who are just as disinclined to com- mit crimes as those against whom they commit them. We know now that threats and punishments cannot diminish the inimber of such men, and that it is only the change of surroundings and the moral influence upon people that diminish it. Thus the explanation of the necessity of governmental violence for the purpose of de- 186 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU fending men against violators may have had a basis three or four centuries ago, but has none at the present time. Now the contrary would be more correct, namely, that the activity of the governments, with their morahty whicl: has fallen behind the common level, with their cruel methods of punishments, of prisons, of hard labour, of gallows, of guillotines, rather contributes to the brutalization of the masses than to the softening of their manners, and so rather to the increase than to the diminution of the num- ber of violators. " Without the state," they also say, " there would not be all those institutions of education, of learning, of re- ligion, of roads of communication, and others. Without the state men would not be able to estabhsh the public things which are indispensable for all men." But this argument, too, could have a basis only several centuries ago. If there was a time when men were so disunited among themselves and the means for a closer union and for the transmission of thought were so little worked out that they could not come to any understanding nor agree upon any common mercantile, or economical, or cultural matter without the medium of the state, there now no longer exists such a disunion. The widely developed means for communion and for the transmission of thought have had this effect, that, for the formation of societies, assemblies, corporations, congresses, learned, economic, or political institutions, the men of our time can get along without any government, and the governments in the majority of cases are more likely to interfere with the attainment of these ends than to cooperate with it. Beginning with the end of the last century, almost every forward step of humanity has not only not been encouraged by the government, but has always been retarded by it. Thus it was with the abolition of corporal punishment, of torture, of slavery, and with the establishment of the free- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOTT 187 dom of the press and of assemblies. In our time the power of the state and the governments not only fail to cooperate with, but are distinctly opposed to, all that activity by means of which men work out new forms of life. The solutions of labouring, agronomic, political, re- ligious questions are not only not encouraged, but directly interfered with by the power of the state. " Without the state and the government, the nations woald be enslaved by their neighbours." It is hardly necessary to retort to this last argument. The retort is found in itself. The governments, so we are told, are necessary with their armies for the purpose of defending us against our neighbours, who might enslave us. But this is what all the governments say of one another, and at the same time we know that all the European nations profess the same principles of freedom and of brotherhood, and so are in no need of defending themselves against one another. But if protection against barbarians is meant, then one- thousandth of all the armies now under arms would suffice. Thus the contrary to what is asserted is what actually happens : the power of the state, far from saving us from the attacks of our neighbours, on the contrary causes the danger of the attacks. Thus a man, who by means of his military service is placed under the necessity of thinking about the signifi- cance of the state, in the name of which the sacrifice of his peace, his security, and his life is demanded of him, cannot help but see clearly that for these sacrifices there no longer exists any basis in our time. But it is not only by theoretical reflections that any man may see that the sacrifices demanded of him by the state have no foundation whatever; even by reflecting practi- cally, that is, by weighing all those hard conditions in which a man is placed by the state, no one can fail to see that for him personally the fulfilment of the demands of 188 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU the state and his submission to military service is in the majority of cases more disadvantageous than a refusal to do military service. If the majority of men prefer submission to insub- mission, this is not due to any sober weighing of the ad- vantages and disadvantages, but because the men are attracted to submission by means of the hypnotization to which they are subjected in the matter. In submitting, men only surrender themselves to those demands which are made upon them, without reflection, and without making any effort of the will ; for in submission there is a need of independent reflection and of effort, of which not every man is capable. But if, excluding the moral signifi- cance of submission and insubmission, we should consider nothing but the advantages, insubmission would in general always be more advantageous to us than submission. No matter who I may be, whether I belong to the well-to-do, oppressing classes, or to the oppressed labour- ing classes, the disadvantages of insubmission are less than the disadvantages of submission, and the advantages of insubmission are greater than the advantages of sub- mission. If I belong to the minority of oppressors, the disadvan- tages of insubmission to the demands of the government will consist in this, that I, refusing to comply with the demands of the government, shall be tried and at best shall be discharged or, as they do with the Mennonites, shall be compelled to serve out my time at some unmili- tary work ; in the worst case I shall be condemned to deportation or imprisonment for two or three years (I speak from examples that have happened in Eussia), or, perhaps, to a longer term of incarceration, or to death, though the probability of such a penalty is very small. Such are the disadvantages of insubmission ; but the disadvantages of submission will consist in this : at best I shall not be sent out to kill men, and I myself shall not THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 189 be subjected to any great probability of crippling or death, but shall only be eulisted as a military slave, — I shall be dressed up iu a fool's garments ; I shall be at the mercy of every man above me in rank, from a corporal to a field-marshal ; I shall be compelled to contort my body according to their desire, and, after being kept from one to five years, I shall be left for ten years in a condition of readiness to appear at any moment for the purpose of going through all these things again. In the worst case I shall, in addition to all those previous conditions of slavery, be sent to war, where I shall be compelled to kill men of other nations, who have done me no harm, where I may be crippled and killed, and where I may get into a place, as happened at Sevastopol and as happens in every war, where men are sent to certain death ; and, what is most agonizing, I may be sent out against my own coun- trymen, when I shall be compelled to kill my brothers for dynastic or other reasons, which are entirely alien to me. Such are the comparative disadvantages. The comparative advantages of submission and of insub- missiou are these : For him who has not refused, the advantages will con- sist in this, that, having submitted to all the humiliations and having executed all the cruelties demanded of him, he may, if he is not killed, receive red, golden, tin-foil decorations over his fool's garments, and he may at best command hundreds of thousands of just such bestialized meu as himself, and be called a field-marshal, and receive a lot of money. But the advantages of him who refuses will consist in this, that he will retain his human dignity, will earn the respect of good meu, and, above all else, will know without fail that he is doing God's work, and so an incontestable good to men. Such are the advantages and the disadvantages on both sides for a man from the wealthy classes, for an oppressor ; 190 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU for a man of the poor, working classes the advantages and disadvantages will be the same, but with an important addition of disadvantages. The disadvantages for a man of the labouring classes, who has not refused to do military service, will also consist in this, that, by entering upon military service, he by his participation and seeming con- sent confirms the very oppression under which he is suffering. But it is not the reflections as to how much the state which men are called upon to support by their participa- tion in the military service is necessary and useful to men, much less the reflections as to the advantages or disad- vantages accruing to each man from his submission or insubmission to the demands of the government, that decide the question as to the necessity of the existence or the abolition of the state. What irrevocably and with- out appeal decides this question is the religious conscious- ness or conscience of every individual man, before whom, in connection with the universal military service, involun- tarily rises the question as to the existence or non-exist« ence of the state. VIII. People frequently say that if Christianity is a truth, it ought to have been accepted by all men at its very appear- ance, and ought at that very moment to have changed the lives of men and made them better. But to say this is the same as saying that if the seed is fertile, it must immediately produce a sprout, a flov^^er, and a fruit. The Christian teaching is no legislation which, being introduced by violence, can at once change the lives of men. Christianity is another, newer, higher concept of life, which is different from the previous one. But the new concept of life cannot be prescribed ; it can only be freely adopted. Now the new life-conception can be acquired only in two ways : in a spiritual (internal) and an experimental (external) way. Some people — the minority — immediately, at once, by a prophetic feeling divine the truth of the teaching, abandon themselves to it, and execute it. Others — the majority — are led only through a long path of errors, experiences, and sufferings to the recognition of the truth of the teaching and the necessity of acquiring it. It is to this necessity of acquiring the teaching in an experimental external way that the whole mass of the men of the Christian world have now been brought. Sometimes we think : what need was there for that corruption of Christianity which even now more than any- thing else interferes with its adoption in its real sense ? And yet this corruption of Christianity, having brought men to the condition in which they now are, was a neces- 101 192 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU sary condition for the majority of men to be able to receive it in its real significance. If Christianity had been offered to men in its real, and not its corrupted, form, it would not have been accepted by the majority of men, and the majority of men would have remained ahen to it, as the nations of Asia are alien to it at the present time. But, having received it in its corrupted form, the nations who received it were sub- jected to its certain, though slow, action, and by a long experimental road of errors and of sufferings resulting therefrom are now brought to the necessity of acquiring it in its true sense. The corruption of Christianity and its acceptance in its corrupted form by the majority of men was as indispen- sable as that a seed, to sprout, should be for a time con- cealed by the earth. The Christian teaching is a teaching of the truth and at the same time a prophecy. Eighteen hundred years ago the Christian teaching revealed to men the truth of how they should live, and at the same time predicted what human life would be if men would not live thus, but would continue to live by those principles by which they had lived heretofore, and what it would be if they should accept the Christian teaching and should carry it out in life. In imparting in the Sermon on the Mount the teaching which was to guide the lives of men, Christ said : " Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock : and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it fell not : for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand : and the rain de- scended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 193 beat upon that house ; and it fell : and great was the fall of it " (Matt. vii. 24-27). Now, after eighteen hundred years, the prophecy has been fulfilled. By not following Christ's teaching in general and its manifestation in public life as non-resist- ance to evil, men involuntarily came to that position of inevitable ruin which was promised by Christ to those who would not follow His teaching. People frequently think that the question of non-resist- ance to evil is an invented question, a question which it is possible to circumvent. It is, however, a question which life itself puts before all men and before every thinking man, and which invariably demands a solution. For men in their public life this question has, ever since the Christian teaching has been preached, been the same as the question for a traveller which road to take, when he comes to a fork on the highway on which he has been walking. He must go on, and he cannot say, " I will not think, and I will continue to walk as before." Before this there was one road, and now there are two of them, and it is impossible to walk as before, and one of the two roads must inevitably be chosen. Even so it has been impossible to say, ever since Christ's teaching was made known to men, " I will continue to hve as I lived before, without solving the question as to resisting or not resisting evil by means of violence." It is inevitably necessary at the appearance of every struggle to solve the question, " Shall I with violence resist that which I consider to be an evil and violence, or not ? " The question as to resisting or not resisting evil by means of violence appeared when there arose the first struggle among men, since every struggle is nothing but a resistance by means of violence to what each of the contend- ing parties considers to be an evil. But the men before Christ did not see that the resistance by means of violence to what each considers to be an evil, only because he re- 194 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU gards as an evil what another regards as a good, is only one of the means of solving the struggle, and that another means consists in not at all resisting evil by means of violence. Previous to Christ's teaching it appeared to men that there was but one way of solving a struggle, and that was by resisting evil with violence, and so they did, each of the contending parties trying to convince himself and others that what each of them considered to be an evil was a real, absolute evil. And so since most remote times men have endeavoured to discover such definitions of evil as would be obligatory for all men, and as such were given out the statutes of law which, it was assumed, were received in a super- natural manner, or the injunctions of men or of assem- blies of men, to whom is ascribed the quality of infallibility. Men have employed violence against other men and have assured themselves and others that they have employed this violence against the evil, which was acknowledged by all men. This means has been employed since remote antiquity, especially by those men who usurped the power, and men for a long time did not see the irrationality of this means. But the longer men lived, the more complex their relations became, the more obvious did it become that it was irrational by means of violence to resist that which is by every one regarded as an evil, that the struggle was not diminished by doing so, and that no human definitions could succeed in making that which was considered to be evil by one set of men considered such by others. Even at the time of the appearance of Christianity, in the place where it made its appearance, in the Eoman Empire, it was clear for the majority of men that what by Nero and Caligula was considered to be an evil which ought to be resisted with violence could not be con- sidered an evil by other men. Even then men began to THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 195 understand that human laws which were given out as being divine had been written by men, that men could not be infalHble, no matter with what external grandeur they might be vested, and that erring men could not become infallible simply because they came together and called themselves a senate or some such name. This was even then felt and understood by many, and it was then that Christ preached His teaching, which did not con- sist simply in this, that evil ought not to be resisted by means of violence, but in the teaching of the new compre- hension of life, a part, or rather an apphcation of which to public life was the teaching about the means for abolishing the struggle among all men, not by obliging only one part of men without a struggle to submit to what would be prescribed to them by certain authorities, but by having no one, consequently even not those (and preeminently not those) who rule, employ violence against any one, and under no consideration. The teaching was at that time accepted by but a small number of disciples ; but the majority of men, especially all those who ruled over men, continued after the nominal acceptance of Christianity to hold to the rule of violently resisting that which they considered to be evil. Tlius it was in the time of the Roman and the Byzantine em- perors, and so it continued even afterward. The inadequacy of the principle of defining with au- thority what is evil and resisting it with violence, which was already obvious in the first centuries of Christianity, became even more obvious during the decomposition of the Roman Empire into many states of equal right, with their mutual hostilities and the inner struggles which took place in the separate states. But men were not prepared to receive the solution which was given by Christ, and the former means for the definition of the evil, which had to be resisted by estab- lishing laws which, being obligatory for all, were carried 196 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU out by the use of force, continued to be applied. The arbiter of what was to be considered an evil and what was to be resisted by means of force was now the Pope, now the emperor, now the king, now an assembly of the elect, now the whole nation. But both inside and out- side the state there always existed some men who did not recognize the obligatoriness for themselves either of the injunctions which were given out to be the commands of the divinity, or of the decrees of men who were vested with sanctity, or of the institutions which purported to represent the will of the people, and these men, who considered to be good what the existing powers regarded as evil, fought against the powers, using the same violence which was directed against themselves. Men who were vested with sanctity regarded as evil what men and institutions that were vested with civil power considered to be good, and vice versa, and the struggle became ever more acute. And the more such people held to this method for solving their struggle, the more obvious did it become that this method was useless, because there is and there can be no such external authority for the definition of evil as would be recognized by all men. Thus it lasted for eighteen hundred years, and it reached the present point, — the complete obviousness of the fact that there is and there can be no external defini- tion of evil which would be obligatory for all men. It reached such a point that men ceased to believe in the possibility of finding this common definition which would be obligatory for all men, and even in the necessity of putting forward such a definition. It came to such a pass that the men in power stopped proving that that which they considered to be an evil was an evil, and said out- right that they considered that an evil which did not please them ; and the men who obeyed the power began to obey it, not because they believed that the definitions THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 197 of evil given by this power were correct, but only because they could not help but obey. Nice is added to France, Lorraine to Germany, Bohemia to Austria ; Poland is divided ; Ireland and India are subjected to English rule ; war is waged against China and the Africans ; the Ameri- cans expel the Chinese, and the Russians oppress the Jews ; the landowners use the land which they do not work, and the capitalists make use of the labours of others, not because tliis is good, useful, and needful to men and because the contrary is evil, but because those who are in power want it to be so. What has happened is what happens now : one set of men commit acts of violence, no longer in the name of resisting evil, but in the name of their advantage or whim, while another set submit to violence, not because they assume, as was the case formerly, that violence is exerted against them in the name of freeing them from evil and for their good, but only because they cannot free themselves from this violence. If a Roman, a man of the Middle Ages, a Russian, as I remember him to have been fifty years ago, was incon- testably convinced that the existing violence of the power was necessary in order to free him from evil, that taxes, levies, serf law, prisons, whips, knouts, hard labour, capital punishment, militarism, wars, must exist, — it will be hard now to find a man who either believes that all acts of violence free any one from anything, or even does not see clearly that the majority of all those cases of violence to which he is subject and in which he partly shares are in themselves a great and useless evil. There is now no such a man who does not see, not only the uselessness, but even the insipidity, of collecting taxes from the labouring classes for the purpose of enriching idle officials ; or the senselessness of imposing punish- ments upon corrupt and weak people in the shape of deportation from one place to another, or in the form of imprisonment in jails, where they live in security and 198 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU idleness and become more corrupted and weakened ; or, not the uselessness and insipidity, but simply the madness and cruelty of military preparations and wars, which ruin and destroy the masses and have no explana- tion and justification, — and yet these cases of violence are continued and even maintained by the very men who see their uselessness, insipidity, and cruelty, and suffer from them. If fifty years ago a rich idle man and an ignorant labouring man were both equally convinced that their condition of an eternal holiday for the one and of eternal labour for the other was ordained by God Himself, it is now, not only in Europe, but even in Russia, thanks to the migration of the populace, and the dissemination of culture and printing, hard to find either a rich or a poor man who, from one side or another, has not been assailed by doubts of the justice of such an order of things. Not only do the rich know that they are guilty even because they are rich, and try to redeem their guilt by offering contributions to art and science, as formerly they redeemed their sins by means of contributions to the churches, but even the greater half of the working people recognize the present order as being false and subject to destruction or change. One set of religious people, of whom there are millions in Russia, the so-called sectarians, recognize this order as false and subject to destruction on the basis of the Gospel teaching as taken in its real meaning ; others consider it to be false on the basis of socialistic, communistic, anarchistic theories, which now have pene- trated into the lower strata of the working people. Violence is now no longer maintained on the ground that it is necessary, but only that it has existed for a long time, and has been so organized by men to whom it is advantageous, that is, by governments and the ruling classes, that the men who are in their power cannot tear themselves away from it. II THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 199 The governments in our time — all governments, the most despotic and the most hberal — have become what Herzen so aptly called Dzhingis-Khans with telegraphs, that is, organizations of violence, which have nothing at their base but the coarsest arbitrary will, and yet use all those means which science has worked out for the aggre- gate social peaceful activity of free and equal men, and which they now employ for the enslavement and oppres- sion of men. The governments and the ruling classes do not now lean on the right, not even on the semblance of justice, but on an artificial organization which, with the aid of the perfections of science, encloses all men in the circle of violence, from which there is no possibility of tearing themselves away. This circle is now composed of four means of influencing men. All those means are connected and sustain one another, as the links in the ring of a united chain. The first, the oldest, means is the means of intimidation. This means consists in representing the existing state structure (no matter what it may be, — whether a free republic or the wildest despotism) as something sacred and invariable, and so in inflicting the severest penalties for any attempt at changing it. This means, having been used before, is even now used in an unchanged form wherever there are governments: in Russia — against the so-called nihilists ; in America — against the anar- chists ; in France — against the imperialists, monarchists, communists, and anarchists. The railways, telegraphs, photographs, and the perfected method of removing people, without killing them, into eternal solitary con- finement, where, hidden from men, they perish and are forgotten, and many other modern inventions, which governments employ more freely than any one else, give them such strength that as soon as the power has fallen into certain hands, and the visible and the secret police, 200 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU and the administration, and all kinds of prosecutors, and jailers, and executioners are earnestly at work, there is no possibility of overthrowing the government, no matter how senseless or cruel it may be. The second means is that of bribery. It consists in tak- ing the wealth away from the labouring classes in the shape of monetary taxes, and distributing this wealth among the officials, who for this remuneration are obliged tc maintain and strengthen the enslavement of the masses. These bribed officials, from the highest ministers to the lowest scribes, who, forming one continuous chain of men, are united by the same interest of supporting them- selves by the labours of the masses, and grow wealthier in proportion as they more humbly do the will of their gov- ernments, always and everywhere, stopping short before no means, in all branches of activity, in word and deed, defend the governmental violence, upon which their very well-being is based. The third means is what I cannot call by any other name than the hypnotization of the people. This means consists in retarding the spiritual development of men and maintaining them with all kinds of suggestions in a concept of life which humanity has already outlived, and on which the power of the governments is based. This hypnotization is at the present time organized in the most complex manner, and, beginning its action in childhood, continues over men to their death. This hyp- notization begins at early youth in compulsory schools which are established for the purpose, and in which the children are instilled with world-conceptions which were peculiar to their ancestors and are directly opposed to the modern consciousness of humanity. In countries in which there is a state religion, the children are taught the senseless blasphemies of ecclesiastical catechisms, in which the necessity of obeying the powers is pointed out ; in re- publican governments they are taught the savage supersti- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 201 tion of patriotism, and the same imaginary obligation of obeying the authorities. At a more advanced age, this hypnotization is continued by encouraging the religious and the patriotic superstitions. The religious superstition is encouraged by means of the institution of churches, processions, monuments, fes- tivities, from the money collected from the masses, and these, with the aid of painting, architecture, music, in- cense, but chiefly by the maintenance of the so-called clergy, stupefy the masses : their duty consists in this, that with their representations, the pathos of the services, their sermons, their interference in the private lives of the people, — at births, marriages, deaths, — they bedim the people and keep them in an eternal condition of stupe- faction. The patriotic superstition is encouraged by means of public celebrations, spectacles, monuments, fes- tivities, which are arranged by the governments and the ruling classes on the money collected from the masses, and which make people prone to recognize the exclusive importance of their own nation and the grandeur of their own state and rulers, and to be ill inclined toward all other nations and even hate them. In connection with this, the despotic governments directly prohibit the print- ing and dissemination of books and the utterance of speeches which anlighten the masses, and deport or incar- cerate all men who are likely to rouse the masses from their lethargy ; besides, all governments without excep- tion conceal from the masses everything which could free them, and encourage everything which could corrupt them, such as the authorship of books which maintain the masses in the savagery of their rehgious and patriotic superstitions, all kinds of sensuous amusements, specta- cles, circuses, theatres, and even all kinds of physical in- toxications, such as tobacco, and brandy, which furnish the chief income of states ; they even encourage prostitu- tion, which is not only acknowledged, but even organ- 202 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU ized by the majority of governments. Such is the third means. The fourth means consists in this, that with the aid of the three preceding means there is segregated, from the men so fettered and stupefied, a certain small number of men, who are subjected to intensified methods of stupefac- tion and brutalization, and are turned into involuntary tools of all those cruelties and bestiahties which the gov- ernments may need. This stupefaction and brutalization is accomplished by taking the men at that youthful age when they have not yet had time to form any firm convic- tions in regard to morality, and, having removed them from all natural conditions of human hfe, from home, family, native district, rational labour, locking them all up together in narrow barracks, dressing them up in pecul- iar garments, and making them, under the influence of shouts, drums, music, ghttering objects, perform daily exercises specially invented for the purpose, and thus inducing such a state of hypnosis in them that they cease to be men, and become unthinking machines, which are obedient to the command of the hypnotizer. These hyp- notized, physically strong young men (all young men, on account of the present universal military service), who are provided with instruments of murder, and who are always obedient to the power of the governments and are prepared to commit any act of violence at their com- mand, form the fourth and chief means for the enslave- ment of men. With this means the circle of violence is closed. Intimidation, bribery, hypnotization, make men desirous to become soldiers ; but it is the soldiers who give the power and the possibility for punishing people, and picking them clean (and bribing the officials with the money thus obtained), and for hypnotizing and enlisting them again as soldiers, who in turn afford the possibihty for doing all this. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 203 The circle is closed, and there is no way of tearing one- self away from it by means of force. If some men affirm that the liberation from violence, or even its weakening, may be effected, should the oppressed people overthrow the oppressing government by force and substitute a new one for it, a government in which such violence and enslavement would not be necessary, and if some men actually try to do so, they only deceive them- selves and others by it, and thus fail to improve men's condition, and even make it worse. The activity of these men only intensifies the despotism of the governments. The attempts of these men at freeing themselves only give the governments a convenient excuse for strengthening their power, and actually provoke its strengthening. Even if we admit that, in consequence of an unfortunate concurrence of events in the government, as, for example, in France in the year 1870, some governments may be overthrown by force and the power pass into other hands, this power would in no case be less oppressive than the former one, and, defending itself against the infuriated deposed enemies, would always be more despotic and cruel than the former, as indeed has been the case in every revolution. If the socialists and communists consider the individu- alistic, capitalistic structure of society to be an evil, and the anarchists consider the government itself to be an evil, there are also monarchists, conservatives, capitalists, who consider the socialistic, communistic, and anarchistic order to be evil ; and all these parties have no other means than force for the purpose of uniting men. No matter which of these parties may triumph, it will be compelled, for the materialization of its tenets, as well as for the maintenance of its power, not only to make use of all the existing means of violence, but also to invent new ones. Other men will be enslaved, and men will be compelled to do something else ; but there will be, not only the same, but even a more cruel I 204 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU form of violence and enslavement, because, in consequence of the struggle, the hatred of men toward one another will be intensified, and at the same time new means of enslave- ment will be worked out and confirmed. Thus it has always been after every revolution, every attempt at a revolution, every plot, every violent change of government. Every struggle only strengthens the means of the enslavement of those who at a given time are in power. The condition of the men of our Christian world, and especially the current ideals themselves prove this in a striking manner. There is left but one sphere of human activity which is not usurped by the governmental power, — the domestic, economic sphere, the sphere of the private life and of labour. But even this sphere, thanks to the struggle of the com- munists and socialists, is slowly being usurped by the governments, so that labour and rest, the domicile, the at- tire, the food of men will by degrees be determined and directed by the governments, if the wishes of the reformers are to be fulfilled. The whole long, eighteen-centuries-old course of the life of the Christian nations has inevitably brought them back to the necessity of solving the question, so long evaded by them, as to the acceptance or non-acceptance of Christ's teaching, and the solution of the question resulting from it as regards the social life, whether to resist or not to resist evil with violence, but with this difference, that formerly men could accept the solution which Christianity offered, or not accept it, while now the solution has become imperative, because it alone frees them from that condition of slavery in which they have become entangled as in a snare. But it is not merely the wretchedness of men's condition that brings them to this necessity. Side by side with the negative proof of the falseness of THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 205 the pagan structure, there went the positive proof of the truth of the Christian teaching. There was a good reason why, in the course of eighteen centuries, the best men of the wliole Christian world, having recognized the truths of tlie teaching by means of an inner, spiritual method, should have borne witness to them before men, in spite of all threats, privations, calami- ties, and torments. With this their martyrdom these best men have put the stamp of truthfulness upon the teaching and have trausmitted it to the masses. Christianity penetrated into the consciousness of human- ity, not merely by the one negative way of proving the impossibihty of continuing the pagan hfe, but also by its simplification, elucidation, liberation from the dross of su- perstitions, and dissemination among all the classes of people. Eighteen hundred years of the profession of Christianity did not pass in vain for the men who accepted it, even though only in an external manner. These eighteen cen- turies have had this effect that, continuing to live a pagan life, which does not correspond to the age of humanity, men have not only come to see clearly the whole wretched- ness of the condition in which they are, but believe in the depth of tlieir hearts (they live only because they believe) in this, that the salvation from this condition is only in the fulfilment of the Christian teaching in its true signifi- cance. As to when and how this salvation will take place, all men think differently, in accordance with their mental development and the current prejudices of their circle ; but every man of our world recognizes the fact that our salvation lies in tlie fulfilment of the Christian teaching. Some believers, recognizing the Christian teaching as divine, think that the salvation will come when all men shall believe in Christ, and the second advent shall ap- proach ; others, who also recognize the divinity of Christ's teaching, think that this salvation will come through the 206 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU church, which, subjecting all men to itself, will educate in them Christian virtues and will change their lives. Others again, who do not recognize Christ as God, think that the salvation of men will come through a slow, gradual prog- ress, when the foundations of the pagan life will slowly give way to the foundations of liberty, equality, fraternity, that is, to Christian principles ; others again, who preach a social transformation, think that the salvation will come when men by a violent revolution shall be compelled to adopt community of possession, absence of government, and collective, not individual, labour, that is, the material- ization of one of the sides of the Christian teaching. In one way or another, all men of our time in their consciousness not only reject the present obsolete pagan order of life, but recognize, frequently not knowing it themselves and regarding themselves as enemies of Chris- tianity, that our salvation lies only in the application of the Christian teaching, or of a part of it, in its true mean- ing, to life. For the majority of men, as its teacher has said, Chris- tianity could not be realized at once, but had to grow, hke an immense tree, from a small seed. And so it- grew and has spread, if not in reality, at least in the conscious- ness of the men of our time. Now it is not merely the minority of men, who always comprehended Christianity internally, that recognizes it in its true meaning, Imt also that vast majority of men which on account of its social hfe seems to be so far re- moved from Christianity. Look at the private life of separate individuals ; listen to those valuations of acts, which men make in judging one another ; listen, not only to the public sermons and lectures, but also to those instructions which parents and educators give to their charges, and you will see that, no matter how far the political, social life of men, which is united through violence, is from the reahzation of THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 207 Chiistian truths iu private life, it is only the Christian virtues that are by all and for all, w^ithout exception and indubitably, considered to be good, and that the anti- Christian vices are by all aud for all, without exception and indubitably, considered to be bad. Those are con- sidered to be the best of men who renounce and sacrifice their lives in the service of humanity and who sacrifice themselves for others ; those are considered to be the worst who are selfish, who exploit the misery of their neighbours for their own personal advantage. If by some, who have not yet been touched by Chris- tianity, are recognized the non-Christian ideals, force, valour, wealth, these are ideals which are not experienced and shared by all men, and certainly not by men who are considered to be the best. The condition of our Christian humanity, if viewed from without, with its cruelty and its slavery, is really terrible. But if we look upon it from the side of its con- sciousness, an entirely different spectacle is presented to us. The whole evil of our life seems to exist for no other reason than that it was done long ago, aud the men who have done it liave not yet had time to learn how not to do it, though none of them wish to do it. All this evil seems to exist for some other reason, which is independent of the consciousness of men. No matter how strange and contradictory this may seem, all the men of our time despise the very order of things which they help to maintain. I think it is Max Mtiller who tells of the surprise of an Indian converted to Christianity, who, having grasped the essence of the Christian teaching, arrived in Europe and saw the life of the Christians. He could not recover from his astonishment in the presence of the reality, which was the very opposite of what he had expected to find among the Christian nations. If we are not surprised at the contradiction between 208 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU our beliefs, convictions, and acts, this is due only to the fact that the influences which conceal this contradiction from men act also upon us. We need only look upon our life from the standpoint of the Indian, who understood Christianity in its real significance, without any compro- mises and adaptations, and upon those savage bestialities, with which our life is filled, in order that we may be frightened at the contradictions amidst which we live, frequently without noticing them. We need but think of warlike preparations, mitrail- leuses, silver-plated bullets, torpedoes, — and the Eed Cross ; of the construction of prisons with solitary cells, of the experiments at electrocution, — and of the be- nevolent cares for the imprisoned ; of the philanthropic activity of rich men, — and of their lives, which are pro- ductive of those very poor whom they benefit. And these contradictions do not result, as may appear, because people pretend to be Christians, when in reahty they are pagans, but, on the contrary, because people lack some- thing, or because there is some force which keeps them from being what they already feel themselves to be in their consciousness and what they actually wish to be. The men of our time do not pretend to hate oppression, inequality, the division of men, and all kinds of cruelty, not only toward men, but also toward animals, — they actually do hate all this, but they do not know how to destroy it all, and they have not the courage to part with what maintains all this and seems to them to be indispen- sable. Indeed, ask any man of our time privately, whether he considers it laudable or even worthy of a man of our time to busy himself with collecting taxes from the masses, who frequently are poverty-stricken, receiving for this work a salary which is entirely out of proportion with his labour, this money to be used for the construc- tion of cannon, torpedoes, and implements for murdering THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 209 men, with whom we wish to be at peace, and who wish to be at peace with us ; or for a salary to devote all his life to the construction of these implements of murder ; or to prepare himself and others to commit murder. And ask him whether it is laudable and worthy of a man, and proper for a Christian, to busy himself, again for money, with catching unfortunate, erring, frequently ignorant, drunken men for appropriating to themselves other people's possessions in much smaller quantities than we appropriate things to ourselves, and for killing men differ- ently from what we are accustomed to kill men, and for this to put them in prisons, and torment, and kill them, and whether it is laudable and worthy of a man and a Christian, again for money, to preach to the masses, in- stead of Christianity, what is well known to be insipid and harmful superstitions ; and whether it is laudable and worthy of a man to take from his neighbour, for the sake of his own lust, what his neighbour needs for the gratification of his prime necessities, as is done by the large landowners ; or to compel him to perform labour above his strength, which ruins his life, in order to in- crease his own wealth, as is done by manufacturers, by owners of factories ; or to exploit men's want for the purpose of increasing his wealth, as is done by merchants. And each of them taken privately, especially in speaking of another, will tell you that it is not. And yet this same man, who sees all the execrableness of these acts, who is himself not urged by any one, will himself volun- tarily, and frequently without the monetary advantage of a salary, for the sake of childish vanity, for the sake of a porcelain trinket, a ribbon, a piece of lace, which he is permitted to put on, go into military service, become an examining magistrate, a justice of the peace, a minister, a rural officer, a bisliop, a sexton, that is, he will take an office in which he is obliged to do things the disgrace and execrableness of which he cannot help but know. 210 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU I know many of these men will self-conceitedly prove that they consider their positions not only legitimate, but even indispensable; they will say in their defence that the power is from God, that political offices are necessary for the good of humanity, that wealth is not contrary to Christianity, that the rich young man was told to give up his wealth only if he wished to be perfect, that the now existing distribution of wealth and commerce must be so and is advantageous for everybody, and so forth. But, no matter how they may try to deceive themselves and others, all these men know that what they do is contrary to everything they believe in, and in the name of which they live, and in the depth of their hearts, when they are left alone with their consciences, they think with shame and pain of what they are doing, especially if the execra- bleuess of their activity has been pointed out to them. A man of our time, whether he professes the divinity of Christ or not, cannot help but know that to take part, whether as a king, a minister, a governor, or a rural officer, in the sale of a poor family's last cow for taxes, with which to pay for cannon or the salaries and pensions of luxuriating, idle, and harmful officials ; or to have a share in putting the provider of a family into prison, be- cause we ourselves have corrupted him, and let his family go a-begging ; or to take part in the plunders and murders of war ; or to help substitute savage and idolatrous super- stitions for Christ's law ; or to detain a trespassing cow of a man who has no land of his own ; or to deduct a sum from the wages of a factory hand for an article which he accidentally ruined ; or to extort a double price from a poor fellow, only because he is in need, — a man of our time cannot help but know that all these things are dis- graceful and execrable, and that they should not be done. They all know it : they know that what they do is bad, and they would not be doing it under any consideration, if they were able to withstand those forces which, closing THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 211 their eyes to the criminality of their acts, draw them on to committing them. In nothing is the degree of the contradiction which the lives of the men of our time have reached so striking, as in that phenomenon which forms the last means and expression of violence, — in the universal mihtary serv- ice. Only because this condition of universal arming and military service has come step by step and imperceptibly, and because for its maintenance the governments employ all means in their power for intimidating, bribing, stupe- fying, and ravishing men, we do not see the crying con- tradiction between this condition and those Christian feelings and thoughts, with which all the men of our time are really permeated. This contradiction has become so habitual to us that we do not even see all the terrifying senselessness and immorality of the acts, not only of the men who volun- tarily choose the profession of killing as something hon- ourable, but even of those unfortunate men who agree to perform military duty, or even of those who in coun- tries where military service is not introduced, voluntarily give up their labours to hire soldiers and prepare them to commit murder. All these men, be they Christians or men who profess humanity and liberalism, certainly know that, in committing these crimes, they become the partici- pants, and, in personal military service, the actors, in the most senseless, aimless, cruel of murders, and yet they commit them. But more than this : in Germany, whence comes the universal military service, Caprivi said openly, what be- fore was carefully concealed, that the men who had to be killed were not merely the foreigners, but the working people, from whom come the majority of the soldiers. And this confession did not open men's eyes, did not frighten them. Even after this, as before, they continue 212 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU to go like sheep to the enlistment and to submit to every- thing demanded of them. And this is not enough : lately the German Emperor stated more definitely the significance and the calling of a soldier, when distinguishing, thanking, and rewarding a soldier for having shot a defenceless prisoner, who had attempted to run away. In thanking and rewarding the man for an act which has always been regarded as the lowest and basest by men who stand on the lowest stage of morality, William showed that the chief duty of a soldier, the one most valued by the authorities, consisted in being an executioner, not one hke the professional exe- cutioners, who kill only condemned criminals, but one who kills all those innocent men whom he is ordered by his superiors to kill. But more than this: in 1891 this same William, the enfant terrible of the political power, who expresses what others think, in speaking with some soldiers, said the fol- lowing in public, and the next day thousands of news- papers reprinted these words : " Recruits ! In the sight of the altar and the servant of God you swore allegiance to me. You are still too young to understand the true meaning of everything which is said here, but see to this, that you first of all follow the commands and instructions given you. You have sworn allegiance to me ; this, children of my guard, means that you are now my soldiers, that you have sur- rendered your souls and bodies to me. For you there now exists but one enemy, namely, the one who is my enemy. With the present socialistic propaganda it may happen that I will command you to shoot at your own rel- atives, your brothers, even parents, — which God forfend, — and then you are obliged without murmuring to do my commands." This man expresses what all wise men know, but care- fully conceal. He says frankly that men who serve in THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 213 the army serve him and his advantage, and must be pre- pared for his advantage to kill their brothers and fathers. He expresses frankly and vs^ith the coarsest of words all the horror of the crime for which the men who enter into military service are prepared, all that abyss of degradation which they reach, when they promise obedience. Like a bold hypnotizer, he tests the degree of the hypnotized man's sleep : he puts the glowing iron to his body, the body sizzles and smokes, but the hypnotized man does not wake. This miserable, ill man, who has lost his mind from the exercise of power, with these words offends every- thing which can be holy for a man of our time, and men, — Christians, Hberals, cultured men of our time, — all of them, are not only not provoked by this insult, but even do not notice it. The last, extreme trial, in its coarsest, most glaring form, is offered to men, and men do not even seem to notice that this is a trial, that they have a choice. It looks as though it seemed to them that there was not even any choice, and that there was but the one path of slavish obedience. One would tliink that these senseless words, which offend everything which a man of our time considers to be sacred, ought to have provoked people, but nothing of the kind took place. All the young men of all Europe are year after year subjected to this trial, and with the rarest exceptions they all renounce everything which is and can be sacred to a man, they all express their readiness to kill their brothers, even their fathers, at the command of the first erring man who is clad in a red livery embroidered witli gold, and all they ask is when and whom to kill. And they are ready. Every savage has something sacred for which he is prepared to suffer and for which he will make no conces- sions. But where is this sacredness for a man of our time ? He is told, " Go into slavery to me, into a slavery in which you have to kill your own fatlier," and he, who 214 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOtJ very frequently is a learned man, who has studied all the sciences in a university, submissively puts his neck into the yoke. He is dressed up in a fool's attire, is com- manded to jump, to contort his body, to bow, to kill, — and he does everything submissively. And when he is let out, he returns briskly to his former life and continues to talk of man's dignity, liberty, equahty, and fraternity. " Yes, but what is to be done ? " people frequently ask, in sincere perplexity. " If all should refuse, it would be well ; otherwise I alone shall suffer, and no one will be helped by it." And, indeed, a man of the social concept of life cannot refuse. The meaning of his life is the good of his person- ality. For the sake of his personality it is better for him to submit, and he submits. No matter what may be done to him, no matter how he may be tortured and degraded, he will submit, because he can do nothing himself, because he has not that founda- tion in the name of which he could by himself withstand the violence ; but those who govern men will never give them a chance to unite. It is frequently said that the invention of terrible implements of murder will abolish war and that war will abolish itself. That is not true. As it is possible to increase the means for the slaughter of men, so it is possible to increase the means for subju- gating the men of the social concept of life. Let them be killed by the thousand, by the million, and be torn to pieces, — they will none the less go to the slaughter like senseless cattle, because they are driven with a goad; others will go, because for this they will be permitted to put on ribbons and galloons, and they wiU even be proud of it. And it is in connection with such a contingent of men, who are so stupefied that they promise to kiU their parents, that the public leaders — the conservatives, liber- als, sociahsts, anarchists — talk of building up a rational THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 215 and moral society. What rational and moral society can be built up with such men ? Just as it is impossible to build a house with rotten and crooked logs, no matter how one may transpose them, so it is impossible with such people to construct a rational and moral society. Such people can only form a herd of animals which is directed by the shouts and goads of the shepherds. And so it is. And so, on the one hand. Christians by name, who pro- fess liberty, equality, and fraternity, are side by side with that prepared in the name of liberty for the most slavish and degraded submission, in the name of equality for the most glaring and senseless divisions of men by external signs alone into superiors and inferiors, their allies and their enemies, and in the name of fraternity for the murder of these brothers.^ The contradictions of consciousness and the resulting wretchedness of life have reached the extremest point, beyond which it is impossible to go. The life which is built up on the principles of violence has reached the negation of those very principles in the name of which it was built up. The establishment of society on the principles of violence, which had for its aim the security of the personal, domestic, and social good, has led men to a complete negation and destruction of this good. The first part of the prophecy has been fulfilled in respect to men and their generations, who did not accept the teaching, and their descendants have now been brought to tlie necessity of experiencing the justice of its second part. 1 The fact that some nations, the English and the Americans, have not yet any universal military service (though voices in its favour are already heard), but only the enlistment and hire of soldiers, does in no way change the condition of slavery in which the citizens stand relative to the governments. Here everybody has to go himself to kill and be killed ; there everybody has to give his labours for the hire and preparation of murderers. — Author's Note. IX. The condition of the Christian nations in our time has remained as cruel as it was in the times of paganism. In many relations, especially in the enslavement of men, it has become even more cruel than in the times of pa- ganism. But between the condition of the men of that time and of our time there is the same difference that there is for the plants between the last days of autumn and the first days of spring. There, in the autumnal Nature, the external lifelessness corresponds to the internal condition of decay ; but here, in the spring, the external lifelessness is in the sharpest contradiction to the condition of the internal restoration and the change to a new form of life. The same is true of the external resemblance between the previous pagan life and the present one : the external condition of men in the times of paganism and in our time is quite different. There the external condition of cruelty and slavery was in full agreement with the internal consciousness of men, and every forward movement increased this agree- ment ; but here the external condition of cruelty and slavery is in complete disagreement with the Christian consciousness of men, and every forward step only in- creases this disagreement. What is taking place is, as it were, useless sufferings, — something resembling childbirth. Everything is pre- pared for the new life, but the life itself has not made its appearance. The situation seems to be without an issue, and it 216 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 217 would be so, if the individual man, and so all men, were not given the possibility of another, higher conception of life, which at once frees him from all those fetters which, it seemed, bound him indissolubly. Such is the Christian concept of life, which was pointed out to humanity eighteen hundred years ago. A man need only make this life-concept his own, in order that the chains which seemed to have fettered him so indissolubly may fall off of themselves, and that he may feel himself quite free, something the way a bird would feel free when it expanded its wings in a place which is fenced in all around. People speak of the liberation of the Christian church from the state, of granting or not granting liberty to Christians. In these thoughts and expressions there is some terrible misconception. Liberty cannot be granted to a Christian or to Christians, or taken from them. Lib- erty is a Christian's inalienable property. When people si)eak of granting liberty to Christians, or taking it from them, it is evident that they are not speaking of real Christians, but of men who call them- selves Christians. A Christian cannot be anvthing else but free, because the attainment of the end which he has set before himself cannot be retarded or detained by any one or anything. A man need but understand his hfe as Christianity teaches him to understand it, that is, understand that life does not belong to him, his personality, or the family, or the state, but to Hiu) who sent him into this life ; that, therefore, he must not fulfil the law of his personality, liis family, or the state, but the unlimited law of Him from whom he has come, in order that he may feel himself quite free from every human power and may even stop seeing this power as something which may be oppressive for any one. A man need but understand that the aim of his life is 218 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU the fulfilment of God's law, in order that this law, taking for him the place of all other laws and subjugating him to itself, by this very subjugation may deprive all the human laws in his eyes of all their obligatoriness and oppression. A Christian is freed from every human power in that he considers for his life and for the lives of others the divine law of love, which is implanted in the soul of every man and is brought into consciousness by Christ, as the only guide of his life and of that of other men. A Christian may submit to external violence, may be deprived of his bodily freedom, may not be free from his passions (he who commits a sin is a slave of sin), but he cannot help but be free, in the sense of not being com- pelled by some danger or external threat to commit an act which is contrary to his consciousness. He cannot be compelled to do this, because the priva- tions and sufferings which are produced by violence, and which form a mighty tool against the men of the social concept of hfe, have no compulsory force with him. The privations and sufferings which take from the men of the social concept of life the good for which they live, cannot impair the Christian's good, which consists in the fulfilment of God's will; they can only strengthen him, when they assail him in the performance of this will. And so a Christian, in submitting to the internal, divine law, cannot only not perform the prescription of the ex- ternal law, when it is not in accord with the divine law of love as recognized by him, as is the case in the demands set forth by the government, but cannot even recognize the obligation of obeying any one or anything, — he cannot recognize what is called the subject's allegiance. For a Christian the promise of allegiance to any govern- iiient — that very act which is regarded as the foundation of the political life — is a direct renunciation of Chris- tianity, because a man who unconditionally promises in THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 219 advance to submit to laws which are made and will be made by men, by this very promise in a very definite manner renounces Christianity, which consists in this, that in all problems of life he is to submit only to the divine law of love, of which he is conscious in himself. It was possible with the pagan world-conception to promise to do the will of the civil authorities, without violating the will of God, which consisted in circumcision, the Sabbath, praying at set times, abstaining from a certain kind of food, and so forth. One did not contradict the other. But the Christian profession differs in this very thing from the pagan, in that it does not demand of a man certain external negative acts, but places him in an- other relation to man from what he was in before, a rela- tion from which may result the most varied acts, which cannot be ascertained in advance, and so a Christian cannot promise to do another person's will, without knowing in what the demands of this will may consist, and cannot obey the variable human laws ; he cannot even promise to do anything definite at a certain time or to abstain from anything at a certain time, because he cannot know what at any time that Christian law of love, the sulunis- sion to which forms the meaning of his life, may demand of him. In promising in advance unconditionally to fulfil the laws of men, a Christian would by this very promise indicate that the inner law of God does not form for him the only law of his life. For a Christian to promise that he will obey men or human laws is the same as for a labourer who has hired out to a master to promise at the same time that he will do everything which other men may command him to do. It is impossible to serve two masters. A Christian frees himself from human power by recog- nizing over himself nothing but God's power, the law of which, revealed to him by Christ, he recognizes in himself, and to which alone he submitS; 220 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU And this liberation is not accomplished by means of a struggle, not by the destruction of existing forms of life, but only by means of the changed comprehension of life. The liberation takes place in consequeoce of this, in the first place, that a Christian recognizes the law of love, which was revealed to him by his teacher, as quite sufficient for human relations, and so regards all violence as superflu- ous and illegal, and, in the second place, that those priva- tions, sufl'erings, threats of sufferings and privations, with which the public man is brought to the necessity of obeying, present themselves to a Christian, with his different con- cept of life, only as inevitable conditions of existence, which he, without struggling against them by exercising violence, bears patiently, like diseases, hunger, and all other calamities, but which by no means can serve as a guide for his acts. What serves as a guide for a Chris- tian's acts is only the divine principle that lives within him and that cannot be oppressed or directed by any- thing. A Christian acts according to the word of the prophecy applied to his teacher, " He shall not strive, nor cry ; neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets ; a bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory " (Matt. xii. 19-20). A Christian does not quarrel with any one, does not attack any one, nor use violence against one ; on the con- trary, he himself without murmuring bears violence ; but by this very relation to violence he not only frees himself, but also the world from external power. " And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free " (John viii. 32). If there were any doubt as to Christianity being truth, that complete freedom, which cannot be oppressed by anything, and which a man experi- ences the moment he makes the Christian life-conception his own, would be an undoubted proof of its truth. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 221 In their present condition men are like bees which have just swarmed and are hanging down a limb in a cluster. The position of the bees on the limb is temporary, and must inevitably be changed. They must rise and find a new home for themselves. Every one of the bees knows that and wishes to change its position and that of the others, but not one is able to do so before the others are going to do so. They cannot rise all at once, because one hangs down from the other, keeping it from separating itself from the swarm, and so all continue to hang. It would seem that the bees could not get out of this state, just as it seems to worldly men who are entang.^ -.d in the snare of the social world-conception. But tht re would be no way out for the bees, if each of the bees were not separately a living being, endowed with wings. So there would also be no way out for men, if each of them were not a separate living being, endowed with the ability of acquiring the Christian concept of life. If every bee which can fly did not fly, the rest, too, would not move, and the swarm would never change its position. And as one bee need but open its wings, rise up, and fly away, and after it a second, third, tenth, hundredth, in order that the immovable cluster may become a freely flying swarm of bees, so one man need but understand life as Christianity teaches him to understand it, and begin to live accordingly, and a second, third, liundrcdth, to do so after him, in order that the magic circle of the social Hfe, from which there seemed to be no way out, be destroyed. But people think that the liberation of all men in this manner is too slow, and that it is necessary to find and use another such a means, so as to free all at once ; some- thing like what the bees would do, if, wishing to rise and fly away, they should find that it was too long for them to wait for the whole swarm to rise one after another, and should try to find a way where every individual bee would not have to unfold its wings and fly away, but the whole ^22 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOtT swarm could fly at once wherever it wanted. But that is impossible : so long as the first, second, third, hundredth bee does not unfold its wings and fly, the swarm, too, will not fly away or find the new life. So long as every indi- vidual man does not make the Christian Efe-conception his own, and does not live in accordance with it, the con- tradiction of the human life will not be solved and the new form of life will not be established. One of the striking phenomena of our time is that preaching of slavery which is disseminated among the masses, not only by the governments, which need it, but also by those men who, preaching socialistic theories, imagine that they are the champions of liberty. These people preach that the improvement of life, the bringing of reality in agreement with consciousness, will not take place in consequence of personal efforts of sepa- rate men, but of itself, in consequence of a certain violent transformation of society, which will be inaugurated by somebody. What is preached is that men do not have to go with their own feet whither they want and have to go, but that some kind of a floor will be put under their feet, so that, without walking, they will get whither they have to go. And so all their efforts must not be directed toward going according to one's strengtli whither one has to go, but toward constructing this imaginary floor while standing in one spot. In the economic relation they preach a theory^ the essence of which consists in this, that the worse it is, the better it is, that the more there shall be an accumula- tion of capital, and so an oppression of the labourer, the nearer will the liberation be, and so every personal effort of a man to free himself from the oppression of capital is useless ; in the relation of the state, they preach that the greater the power of the state, which according to this theory has to take in the still unoccupied field of the private life, the better it will be, and that, therefore, the THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU 223 interference of the governments in the private life has to be invoked ; in the political and international relations they preach that the increase of the means of destruction, the increase of the armies, will lead to the necessity of disarmament by means of congresses, arbitrations, and so forth. And, strange to say, the obstinacy of men is so great that they believe in these theories, although the whole course of life, every step in advance, betrays its incorrectness. Men suffer from oppression, and to save themselves from this oppression, they are advised to invent common means for the improvement of their situation, to be applied by the authorities, while they themselves continue to submit to them. Obviously, nothing results from it but a strength- ening of the power, and consequently the intensification of the oppression. Not one of the errors of men removes them so much from the end which they have set for themselves as this one. In order to attain the end which they have set before themselves, men do all khids of things, only not the one, simple thing which all have to do. They invent the most cunning of ways for changing the situation which oppresses them, except the one, simple one that none of them should do that which produces this situation. I was told of an incident which happened with a brave rural judge who, upon arriving at a village where the peasants had been riotous and whither the army had been called out, undertook to settle the riot in the spirit of Nicholas L, all by himself, through his personal influence. He sent for several wagon-loads of switches, and, col- lecting all the peasants in the corn-kiln, locked himself up with them, and so intimidated the peasants with his shouts, that they, obeying him, began at his command to flog one another. They continued flogging one another until there was found a little fool who did not submit and shouted to his companions to stop flogging one an- 224 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU other. It was only then that the flogging stopped, and the rural judge ran away from the kiln. It is this advice of the fool that the men of the social order do not know how to follow, for they flog one another without cessation, and men teach this mutual flogging as the last word of human wisdom. Indeed, can we imagine a more striking example of how men flog themselves than the humbleness with which the men of our time carry out the very obligations which are imposed upon them and which lead them into servitude, especially the military service ? Men obviously enslave themselves, suff'er from this slavery, and believe that it must be so, that it is all right and does not inter- fere with the liberation of men, which is being prepared somewhere and somehow, in spite of the ever increasing and increasing slavery. Indeed, let us take a man of our time, whoever he be (I am not speaking of a true Christian, but of a man of the rank and file of our time), cultured or uncultured, a believer or unbeliever, rich or poor, a man of a family or a single man. Such a man of our time lives, doing his work or enjoying himself, employing the fruits of his own labour or those of others for his own sake or for the sake of those who are near to him, hke any other man, despis- ing all kinds of oppressions and privations, hostility, and sufferings. The man lives peacefully ; suddenly people come to him, who say : " In the first place, promise and swear to us that you will slavishly obey us in everything which we shall prescribe to you, and that everything we shall invent, determine, and call a law you will consider an indubitable truth and will submit to ; in the second place, give part of your earnings into our keeping : we shall use this money for keeping you in slavery and preventing you from forcibly opposing our decrees ; in the third place, choose yourself and others as imaginary participants in the government, knowing full well that the government I THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 225 will take place entirely independently of those stupid speeches which you will utter to your like, and that it will take place according to our will, in whose hands is the army ; in the fourth place, appear at a set time in court and take part in all those senseless cruelties which we commit against the erring men, whom we ourselves have corrupted, in the shape of imprisonments, exiles, solitary confinements, and capital punishments. And finally, in the fifth place, besides all this, though you may be in the most friendly relations with people belonging to other nations, be prepared at once, when we command you, to consider such of these men as we shall point out to you your enemies, and to cooperate personally or by hiring others in the ruin, pillage, and murder of their men, women, children, old people, and, perhaps, your own countrymen, even your parents, if we want it." What could any man of our time who is not stupefied answer to such demands ? " Why should I do all this ? " every spiritually healthy man, we should think, ought to say. " Why should I promise to do all tliat which I am commanded to do, to-day by Salisbury, to-morrow by Gladstone, to-day by Boulanger, to-morrow by a Chamber of just such Boulan- gers, to-day by Peter III., to-morrow by Catherine, day after to-morrow by Pugachev, to-day by the crazy King of Bavaria, to-morrow by William ? Why should I promise to obey them, since I know them to be bad or trifling men, or do not know them at all ? Why should I in the shape of taxes give them the fruits of my labours, know- ing that the money will be used for bril)iug the officials, for prisons, churches, armies, for bad tilings and my own enslavement ? Why should I flog myself ? Why should I go, losing my time and pulhng the wool over my eyes, and ascribing to the violators a semblance of legality, and take part in the government, when I know full well that the government of the state is in the hands of those in 226 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU whose hands is the army ? Why should I go into courts and take part in the torture and punishments of men for having erred, since I know, if I am a Christian, that the law of revenge has given way to the law of love, and, if I am a cultured man, that punishments do not make men who are subjected to them better, but worse ? And why should I, above all, simply because the keys of the temple at Jerusalem will be in the hands of this bishop and not of that, because in Bulgaria this and not that German will be prince, and because English and not American merchants will catch seals, recognize as enemies the men of a neighbouring nation, with whom I have heretofore lived at peace and wish to live in love and concord, and why should I hire soldiers or myself go and kill and destroy them, and myself be subjected to their attack ? And why, above all else, should I cooperate personally or by the hiring of a military force in the enslavement and murder of my own brothers and fathers ? Why should I flog myself ? All this I do not need, and all this is harmful for me, and all this on all sides of me is immoral, abominable. So why should I do it all ? If you tell me that without it I shall fare ill at somebody's hands, I, in the first place, do not foresee anything so bad as that which you cause me if I listen to you ; in the second place, it is quite clear to me that, if you do not flog your- self, nobody is going to flog us. The government is the kings, the ministers, the officials with their pens, who cannot compel me to do anything like what the rural judge compelled the peasants to do : those who will take me forcibly to court, to prison, to the execution are not the kings and the officials with their pens, but those very people who are in the same condition in which I am. It is just as useless and harmful and disagreeable for them to be flogged as it is for me, and so in all probability, if I open their eyes, they not only must do me no violence, but must even do as I do. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 227 " In the third place, even if it should happen that I must suffer for it, it still is more advantageous for me to be exiled or shut up in a prison, while defending com- mon sense and the good, which shall triumph, if not to-day, certainly to-morrow, or in a very short time, than to suffer for a foolish thing and an evil, which sooner or later must come to an end. And so it is even in this case more advantageous for me to risk being deported, locked up in a prison, or even executed, than through my own fault to pass my whole life as a slave to other bad men, than to be ruined by an enemy making an incursion and stupidly to be maimed or killed by him, while defend- ing a cannon, or a useless piece of land, or a stupid rag which they call a flag. " I do not want to flog myself, and I won't. There is no reason why I should. Do it yourselves, if you are so minded, but I won't." It would seem that not only the religious or moral feeling, but the simplest reflection and calculation would make a man of our time answer and act in this manner. But no : the men of tlie social life-concej)tion find that it is not right to act in this manner, and that it is even harmful to act thus if we wish to obtain the end of the liberation of men from slavery, and that it is necessary for us, as in the case of the rural judge and the peasants, to continue to flog one another, consoling ourselves with the thought that the fact that we prattle in Chambers and assemblies, form labour-unions, parade the streets on the first of May, form plots, and secretly tease the govern- ment which flogs us, — that all this will liave the effect of freeing us very soon, though we are enslaving ourselves more and more. Nothing so much impedes the liberation of men as this remarkable delusion. Instead of directing all his forces to the liberation of himself, to the change of his world-conception, every man seeks for an external 228 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU aggregate means for freeing himself, and thus fetters him- self more and more. It is as though men should affirm that, in order to fan a fire, it is not necessary to make every coal catch fire, but to place the coals in a certain order. In the meantime it has been getting more and more obvious of late that the liberation of all men will take place only through the liberation of the individual men. The liberation of individual persons in the name of the Christian life-conception from the enslavement of the state, which used to be an exclusive and imperceptible phenomenon, has of late received a significance which is menacing to the power of state. If formerly, in the days of Eome, in the Middle Ages, it happened that a Christian, professing his teaching, re- fused to take part in sacrifices, to worship the emperors and gods, or in the Middle Ages refused to worship the images, to recognize the papal power, these refusals were, in the first place, accidental ; a man might have been put to the necessity of professing his faith, and he might have lived a life without being placed in this necessity. But now all men without exception are subject to these trials. Every man of our time is put to the necessity of recog- nizing his participation in the cruelties of the pagan life, or rejecting it. And, in the second place, in those days the refusals to worship the gods, the images, the Pope., did not present any essential phenomena for the state : no matter how many men worshipped the gods, the images, or the Pope, the state remained as strong as ever. But now the refusal to comply with the non-Christian de- mands of governments undermines the power of state to the root, because all the power of the state is based on these non-Christian demands. The worldly powers were led by the course of life to the proposition that for their own preservation they had to demand from all men such acts as could THE KINGDOxM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 229 not be performed by those who professed true Chris- tianity. And so in our time every profession of true Chris- tianity by a separate individual most materially under- mines the power of the government and inevitably leads to the emancipation of all men. What importance can there be in such phenomena as the refusals of a few dozens of madmen, as they are called, who do not wish to swear to the government, or pay taxes, or take part in courts and military service ? These men are punished and removed, and life continues as of old. It would seem that there is nothing important in these phenomena, and yet it is these very phenomena that more than anything else undermine the power of the state and prepare the emancipation of men. They are those individual bees which begin to separate from the swarm and fly about, awaiting what cannot be delayed, — the rising of the whole swarm after them. The govern- ments know this, and are afraid of these phenomena more than of all socialists, communists, anarchists, and their plots with their dynamite bombs. A new reign begins : according to the general rule and customary order all the subjects are ordered to swear alle- giance to the new government. A general order is sent out, and everybody is called to the cathedral to swear. Suddenly one man in Perm, another in Tula, a third in Moscow, a fourth in Kaluga declare that they will not swear, and they base their refusal, every one of them, without having plotted togctlicr, on one and the same reason, which is, that the oath is proliibited by the Chris- tian law, and that, even if it were .not proliibited, they could not, according to the spirit of the Christian law, promise to commit the evil acts which are demanded of them in the oath, such as denouncing all those who will violate tlie interests of the government, defending their government with weapons in their hands, or attacking its 230 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU enemies. They are summoned before the rural judges or chiefs, priests, or governors, are admonished, implored, threatened, and punished, but they stick to their determi- nation and do not swear. Among millions of those who swear, there are a few dozens who do not. And they are asked : " So you have not sworn ? " " We have not." " Well, nothing happened ? " " Nothing." All the subjects of a state are obliged to pay taxes. And all pay ; but one man in Kharkov, another in Tver, a third in Samara, refuse to pay their taxes, all of them repeating, as though by agreement, one and the same thing. One says that he will pay only when he is told what the money taken from him will be used for : if for good things, he says, he will himself give more than is asked of him ; but if for bad things, he will not give any- thing voluntarily, because, according to Christ's teaching, which he follows, he cannot contribute to evil deeds. The same, though with different words, is said by the others, who do not voluntarily pay their taxes. From those who possess anything, the property is taken by force, but those who have nothing to give are left alone. " Well, you did not pay the taxes ? " « I did not." " Well, and nothing happened to you ? " " Nothing." Passports are established. All who remove themselves from their place of abode are obliged to take them and pay a revenue for them. Suddenly on all sides appear men who say that it is not necessary to take passports and that it is not right to recognize one's dependence on a government which lives by violence, and they take no passports and pay no revenue. Again it is impossible to make these people carry out what is demanded of them. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 231 They are locked up in prisons and let out again, and they continue to live without passports. All the peasants are obliged to serve as hundred-men, ten-men, and so forth. Suddenly a peasant refuses in Kharkov to perform this office, explaining his refusal by this, that, according to the Christian law which he pro- fesses, he cannot bind, lock up, and lead a man from one place to another. The same is asserted by a peasant in Tver, in Tambov. The peasants are cursed, beaten, locked up, but they stick to their determination and do not do what is contrary to their faith. And they are no longer chosen as hundred-men, and that is the end of it. All the citizens must take part in court proceedings in the capacity of jurymen. Suddenly the greatest variety of men, wheelwrights, professors, merchants, peasants, gentlemen, as though by agreement, all refuse to serve, not for causes which are recognized by the law, but because the court itself, according to their conviction, is an illegal, non-Christian thing, wliich ought not to exist. These men are fined, \vithout being allowed publicly to express the motives of their refusal, and others are put in their places. The same is done to those who on the same grounds refuse to be witnesses at court. And noth- ing more happens. All men of twenty-one years of age are obliged to draw lots. Suddenly one young man in Moscow, another in Tver, a third in Kharkov, a fourth in Kiev, appear, as though by previous agreement, in court, and declare that they will neither swear nor serve, because they are Chris- tians. Here are the details of one of the first cases (since then these refusals have become more and more frequent), with which I am acquainted.^ In all the other cases approximately the same was done. A young man of 1 All the details of this and the preceding cases are authentic. — Author's Note. 232 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU medium culture refuses in the Moscow Council to serve. No attention is paid to his words, and he is ordered to pronounce the words of the oath, just like the rest. He refuses, pointing out the definite place in the Gospel where taking an oath is prohibited. No attention is paid to his arguments, and they demand that he fulfil their command, but he does not do so. Then it is assumed that he is a sectarian and so understands Christianity in- correctly, that is, not in the way the clergy in the govern- ment pay understand it, and so the young man is sent under convoy to the priests, to be admonished. The priests begin to admonish the young man, but their ad- monitions in the name of Christ to renounce Christ have apparently no effect upon the young man, and he is sent back to the army, having been declared incorrigible. The young man still refuses to take the oath and openly de- clines to fulfil his military duties. This case is not pro- vided for in the laws. It is impossible to admit a refusal to do the wiU of the authorities, and it is equally impos- sible to rate this as a case of simple disobedience. In a consultation the military authorities determine to get rid of the troublesome young man by declaring him to be a revolutionist, and send him under guard into the office of the secret police. The police and the gendarmes examine the young man, but nothing of what he says fits in with the crimes dealt with in their departments, and there is absolutely no way of accusing him of revolution- ary acts, or of plotting, since he declares that he does not wish to destroy anything, but, on the contrary, rejects all violence, and conceals nothing, but seeks an opportunity for saying and doing in a most open manner what he says and does. And the gendarmes, though no laws are bind- ing on them, hke the clergy, find no cause for an accusa- tion and return the young man to the army. Again the chiefs confer and decide to enlist the young man in the army, though he refuses to take the oath. He is THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 233 dressed up, entered on the lists, and sent under guard to the place where the troops are distributed. Here the chief of the section into which he enters again de- mands of the young man the fulfilment of military duties, and he again refuses to obey, and in the presence of other soldiers gives the cause for his refusal, saying that, as a Christian, he cannot voluntarily prepare himself to commit murder, which was prohibited even by the laws of Moses. The case takes place in a provincial city. It evokes interest and even sympathy, not only among outsiders, but also among officers, and so the superiors do not dare to apply the usual disciplinary measures for a refusal to serve. However, for decency's sake the young man is locked up in prison, and an inquiry is sent to the higher military authority, requesting it to say what is to be done. From the official point of view a refusal to take part in military service, in which the Tsar himself serves and which is blessed by the church, presents itself as madness, and so they write from St. Petersburg that, since the young man is, no doubt, out of his mind, no severe measures are to be used against him, but he is to be sent to an insane asylum, where his mental health is to be investigated and he is to be cured. He is sent there in the hope that he will stay there, just as happened ten years before with another young man, who in Tver refused to do military service and who was tortured in an insane asylum until he gave in. But even this meas- ure does not save the military authorities from the incon- venient young man. The doctors examine him, are very much interested in him, and, finding in him no symptoms whatever of any mental trouble, naturally return him to the army. He is received, and, pretending that his refusal and motives are forgotten, they again propose to him that he go to the exercises ; but he again, in the presence of other soldiers, refuses, and gives the cause for his refusal. This case more and more attracts the attention of the 234 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU soldiers and the inhabitants of the town. Again they write to St. Petersburg, and from there comes the decision that the young man be transferred to the army at the frontier, where it is in a state of siege, and where he may be shot for refusing to serve, and where the matter may pass unnoticed, since in that distant country there are few Russians and Christians, and mostly natives and Moham- medans. And so they do. The young man is attached to the troops located in the Transcaspian Territory, and with criminals he is despatched to a chief who is knowQ for his determination and severity. During aU this time, with all these transportations from one place to another, the young man is treated rudely : he is kept cold, hungi-y, and dirty, and his life in general is made a burden for him. But all these tortures do not make him change his determination. In the Transcaspian Territory, when told to stand sentry with his gun, he again refuses to obey. He does not refuse to go and stand near some haystacks, whither he is sent, but he refuses to take his gun, declaring that under no con- dition would he use violence against any one. All this takes place in the presence of other soldiers. It is impos- sible to let such a case go unpunished, and the young man is tried for violation of discipline. The trial takes place, and the young man is sentenced to incarceration in a military prison for two years. He is again sent by Stapes with other criminals to the Caucasus and is shut up in a prison, where he falls a prey to the uncontrolled power of the jailer. There he is tormented for one year and six months, but he still refuses to change his decision about taking up arms, and he explains to all those with whom he comes in contact why he does not do so, and at the end of his second year he is discharged before the expiration of his term, by counting, contrary to the law, his time in prison as part of his service, only to get rid of him as nuicklj as possible. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 235 Just like this man, as though having plotted together, act other men in various parts of IJussia, and in all those cases the mode of the government's action is as timid, indefinite, and secretive. Some of these men are sent to insane asylums, others are enlisted as scribes and are transferred to service in Siberia, others are made to serve in the forestry department, others are locked up in prisons, and others are fined. Even now a few such men who have refused are sitting in prisons, not for the essential point in the case, the rejection of the legality of the gov- ernment's action, but for the non-fulfilment of the private demands of the government. Thus an officer of the reserve, who did not keep the authorities informed of his residence and w^ho declared that he would not again serve as a miUtary man, was lately, for not fulfilhng the com- mands of the authorities, fined thirty roubles, which, too, he refused to pay voluntarily. Thus several peasants and soldiers, who lately refused to take part in military exer- cises and take up arms, were locked up for disobedience and contempt. And such cases of refusing to comply with the govern- ment demands which are contrary to Christianity, espe- cially refusals to do military service, have of late occurred not in Russia alone, but even elsewhere. Thus, I know that in Scrvia men of the so-called sect of Nazarenes con- stantly refuse to do military service, and the Austrian government has for several years been vainly struggling with them, subjecting them to imprisonment. In the year 1885 there were 130 such refusals. In Switzerland, I know men were incarcerated in the Chillou Fortress in the year 1890 for refusing to do military service, and they did not change their determination in consequence of their imprisonment. Such refusals have also happened in Prussia. I know of an under-oflicer of the Guard, who in 1891 declared to the authorities in BerUn that as a Christian he would not continue to serve, and, in spite of 236 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU all admonitions, threats, and punishments, he stuck to his decision. In France there has of late arisen in the south a community of men, who bear the name of Hinschists (this information is received from the Peace Herald, July, 1891), the members of which on the basis of the Christian profession refuse to do military service, and at first were inscribed in hospitals, but now, having increased in numbers, are subjected to punishments for disobedience, but still refuse to take up arms. The socialists, communists, anarchists, with their bombs, riots, and revolutions, are by no means so terrible to the governments as these scattered people, who from various sides refuse to do military service, — all of them on the basis of the same well-known teaching. Every govern- ment knows how and why to defend itself against revolu- tionists, and they have means for it, and so are not afraid of these external enemies. But what are the governments to do against those men who point out the uselessness, superfluity, and harmfulness of all governments, and do not struggle with them, but only have no use for them, get along without them, and do not wish to take part in them ? The revolutionists say, " The governmental structure is bad for this and that reason, — it is necessary to put this or that in its place." But a Christian says, " I know nothing of the governmental structure, about its being good or bad, and do not wish to destroy it for the very reason that I do not know whether it is good or bad, but for the same reason I do not wish to sustain it. I not only do not wish to, but even cannot do so, because what is demanded of me is contrary to my conscience." What is contrary to a Christian's conscience is all obligations of state, — the oath, the taxes, the courts, the army. But on all these obligations the state is founded. The revolutionary enemies struggle with the state from THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 237 without ; but Christianity does not struggle at all, — it inwardly destroys all the foundations of government. Among the Kussiau people, where, especially since the time of Peter I., the protest of Christianity against the government has never ceased, where the structure of life is such that men have gone away by whole communities to Turkey, to China, to uninhabitable lands, and not only are in no need of the government, but always look upon it as an unnecessary burden, and only bear it as a calam- ity, be it Turkish, Russian, or Chinese, — among the Eus- sian people there have of late been occurring more and more frequently cases of the Christian conscious emanci- pation of separate individuals from submission to the gov- ernment. And now especially these manifestations are very terrible to the government, because those who refuse frequently do not belong to the so-called lower uncultured classes, but to the people with a medium or higher educa- tion, and because these men no longer base their refusals on some mystical exclusive beliefs, as was the case for- merly, nor connect them with some superstition or savage practices, as is the case with the Self-Consumers and Runners, but put forth the simplest and clearest truths, which are accessible to all men and recognized by them all. Thus they refuse to pay their taxes voluntarily, be- cause the taxes are used for acts of violence, for sal- aries to violators and military men, for the construction of prisons, fortresses, cannon, while they, as Christians, consider it sinful and immoral to take part in these things. Those who refuse to take the common oath do so because to promise to obey the authorities, that is, men who are given to acts of violence, is contrary to the Christian teaching ; they refuse to take their oath in courts, because the oath is directly forbidden in the Gos- pel. They decline to serve in the police, because in con- nection with these duties they have to use force against 238 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU their own brothers and torment them, whereas a Christian may not do so. They decline to take part in court pro- ceedings, because they consider every court proceeding a fulfilment of the law of revenge, which is incompatible with the Christian law of forgiveness and love. They decline to take part in all military preparations and in the army, because they do not wish to be and cannot be executioners, and do not want to prepare themselves for the office of executioner. All the motives of these refusals are such that, no matter how despotic a government may be, it cannot punish them openly. To punish them for such refusals, a government must itself irretrievably renounce reason and the good ; whereas it assures men that it serves only in the name of reason and of the good. What are the governments to do against these men ? Indeed, the governments can kill off, for ever shut up in prisons and at hard labour their enemies, who wish by the exercise of violence to overthrow them ; they can bury in gold half of the men, such as they may need, and bribe them ; they can subject to themselves millions of armed men, who will be ready to destroy all the enemies of the governments. But what can they do with men who, not wishing to destroy anything, nor to establish anything, wish only for their own sakes, for the sake of their lives, to do nothing which is contrary to the Chris- tian law, and so refuse to fulfil the most common obliga- tions, which are most indispensable to the governments ? If they were revolutionists, who preach violence and murder, and who practise all these things, it would be easy to oppose them : part of them would be bribed, part deceived, part frightened into subjection ; and those who could not be bribed, or deceived, or frightened, would be declared malefactors and enemies of society, would be exe- cuted or locked up, and the crowd would applaud the action of the government. If they were some horrible THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 239 sectarians who preached a peculiar faith, it would be pos- sible, thanks to those superstitions of falsehood, which by them are mixed in with their doctrine, to overthrow what- ever truth there is in their faith. But what is to be done with men who preach neither revolution, nor any special religious dogmas, but only, because they do not wish to harm any one, refuse to take the oath of allegiance, to pay taxes, to take part in court proceedings, in military serv- ice, and in duties on which the whole structure of the government is based ? What is to be done with such men ? It is impossible to bribe them : the very risk which they take shows their unselfishness. Nor can they be deceived by claiming that God wants it so, because their refusal is based on the explicit, undoubted law of God, which is professed by the very men who wish to make them act contrary to it. Still less is it possible to intimidate them with threats, because the privations and sufferings to which they are subjected for their faith only strengthen their desire, and because it says distinctly in their law that God must be obeyed more than men, and that they should not fear those who may ruin their bodies, but that which may ruin both their bodies and their souls. Nor can they be executed or locked up for ever. These men have a past, and friends, and their manner of thinking and acting is known; all know them as meek, good, peaceful men, and it is impossible to declare them to be malefactors who ought to be removed for the safety of society. The execution of men who by all men are recognized to be good will only call forth defenders of the refusal and commentators on it ; and the causes of the refusal need but be made clear, in order that it may become clear to all men that the causes which make these Christians refuse to comply with the demands of the state are the same for all other men, and that all men ought to have done so long ago. In the presence of the refusals of the Chiistians the I 240 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU governments are in a desperate plight. They see thai the prophecy of Christianity is being fulfilled, — it tears asunder the fetters of the fettered and sets free the men who lived in slavery, and they see that this liberation will inevitably destroy those who keep others in slavery. The governments see this ; they know that their hours are numbered, and are unable to do anything. All they can do for their salvation is to defer the hour of their ruin. This they do, but their situation is none the less desperate. The situation of the governments is like the situation of a conqueror who wants to save the city that is fired by its own inhabitants. He no sooner puts out the fire in one place than it begins to burn in two other places ; he no sooner gives way to the fire and breaks off what is burning in a large building, than even this building begins to burn from two sides. These individual fires are still rare, but having started with a spark, they will not stop until everything is consumed. And just as the governments find themselves in such unprotected straits in the presence of men who profess Christianity, and when but very little is wanting for this force, which seems so powerful and which was reared through so many centuries, to fall to pieces, the public leaders preach that it is not only unnecessary, but even harmful and immoral, for every individual to try and free himself from slavery. It is as though some people, to free a dammed up river, should have all but cut through a ditch, when nothing but an opening is necessary for the water to flow into this ditch and do the rest, and there should appear some people who would persuade them that, rather than let off the water, they should construct above the river a machine with buckets, which, drawing the water up on one side, would drop it into the same river from the other side. But the matter has gone too far : the governments feel their indefensibleness and weakness, and the men of the THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 241 Christian consciousness are awakening from their lethargy and are beginning to feel their strength. " I brought the fire upon earth," said Christ, " and how I long for it to burn up ! " And this fire is beginning to burn up. X. Christianity in its true meaning destroys the state. Thus it was understood from the very beginning, and Christ was crucified for this very reason, and thus it has always been understood by men who are not fettered by the necessity of proving the justification of the Christian state. Only when the heads of the states accepted the external nominal Christianity did they begin to invent all those impossible finely spun theories, according to which Christianity was compatible with the state. But for every sincere and serious man of our time it is quite obvious that true Christianity — the teaching of humility, of forgive- ness of offences, of love — is incompatible with the state, with its magnificence, its violence, its executions, and its wars. The profession of true Christianity not only ex- cludes the possibility of recognizing the state, but even destroys its very foundations. But if this is so, and it is true that Christianity is incompatible with the state, there naturally arises the question : " What is more necessary for the good of hu- manity, what more permanently secures the good of men, the political form of life, or its destruction and the sub- stitution of Christianity in its place ? " Some men say that the state is most necessary for humanity, that the destruction of the political form would lead to the destruction of everything worked out by humanity, that the state has been and continues to be the only form of the development of humanity, and that all that evil which we see among the nations who live in 242 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 243 the political form is not due to this form, but to the abuses, which can be mended without destruction, and that humanity, without impairing the political form, can develop and reach a high degree of well-being. And the men who think so adduce in confirmation of their opinion philosophic, historic, and even rehgious arguments, which to them seem incontrovertible. But there are men who assume the opposite, namely, that, as there was a time when humanity lived without a political form, this form is only temporary, and the time must arrive when men shall need a new form, and that this time has arrived even now. And the men who think so also adduce in confirmation of their opinion philosophic, and historic, and religious arguments, which also seem incontrovertible to them. It is possible to write volumes in the defence of the first opinion (they have been written long ago, and there is still no end to them), and there can be written much against it (though but lately begun, many a brilliant thing has been written against it). It is impossible to prove, as the defenders of the state claim, that the destruction of the state will lead to a social chaos, mutual rapine, murder, and the destruction of all public institutions, and the return of humanity to barba- rism ; nor can it be proved, as the opponents of the state claim, that men have already become so wise and good that they do not rob or kill one another, that they prefer peace to hostility, that they will themselves without the aid of the state arrange everything they need, and that therefore the state not only does not contribute to all this, but, on the contrary, under the guise of defending men, exerts a harmful and bestializing influence upon them. It is impossible to prove either the one or tlie other by means of abstract reflections. Still less can it be proved by experience, since the question consists in this, whether the experiment is to be made or not. The question as to 244 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU whether the time has come for abolishing the state, or not, would be insoluble, if there did not exist another vital method for an incontestable solution of the same. Quite independently of anybody's reflections as to whether the chicks are sufficiently matured for him to drive the hen away from the nest and let the chicks out of their eggs, or whether they are not yet sufficiently matured, the incontestable judges of the case will be the chicks themselves, when, unable to find enough room in their eggs, they will begin to pick them with their bills, and will themselves come out of them. The same is true of the question whether the time for destroying the poHtical form and for substituting another form has come, or not. If a man, in consequence of the higher consciousness matured in him, is no longer able to comply with the demands of the state, no longer finds room in it, and at the same time no longer is in need of the preservation of the political form, the question as to whether men have matured for the change of the pohtical form, or not, is decided from an entirely different side, and just as incontestably as for the chick that has picked its shell, into which no power in the world can again return it, by the men themselves who have outgrown the state and who cannot be returned to it by any power in the world. " It is very likely that the state was necessary and even now is necessary for all those purposes which you ascribe to it," says the man who has made the Christian life-concep- tion his own, " but all I know is that, on the one hand, I no longer need the state, and, on the other, I can no longer perform those acts which are necessary for the existence of the state. Arrange for yourselves what you need for your lives : I cannot prove either the common necessity, or the common harm of the state ; all I know is what I need and what not, what I may do and what not, I know for myself that I do not need any separation from THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 245 the other nations, and so T cannot recognize my exchisive belonging to some one nation or state, and my subjection to any government ; I know in my own case that I do not need all those government offices and courts, which are the product of violence, and so I cannot take part in any of them ; I know in my own case that I do not need to attack other nations and kill them, nor defend myself by taking up arms, and so I cannot take part in wars and in prepa- rations for them. It is very likely that there are some people who cannot regard all that as necessary and indis- pensable. I cannot dispute with them, — all I know con- cerning myself, but that I know incoutestably, is that I do not need it all and am not able to do it. I do not need it, and I cannot do it, not because I, my personality, do not want it, but because He who has sent me into life, and has given me the incontestable law for guidance in my life, does not want it." No matter what arguments men may adduce in proof of the danger of abohshing the power of the state and that this abolition may beget calamities, the men who have outgrown the political form can no longer find their place in it. And, no matter what arguments may be adduced to a man who has outgrown the political form, about its indispensableness, he cannot return to it, cannot take part in the affairs which are denied by his consciousness, just as the full-grown chicks can no longer return into the shell wdiich they have outgrown. " But even if this is so," say the defenders of the exist- iny habit. He reads, and they repeat after him : " I promise and swear by the Almighty God, before His holy Gospel . . . etc., to defend, that is, to kill all those whom I am commanded to kill, and to do everything I am ordered to do by those people whom I do not know, and who need me for nothing else but that I should commit the evil deeds by which they are kept in their positions, and by which they oppress my brothers." All the accepted recruits senselessly repeat these wild words, and the so- called " father " drives away with the consciousness of having correctly and scrupulously done his duty, and all these deceived lads think that all those insipid, incompre- hensible words, which they have just pronounced, have now, for the whole time of their military service, freed them from their human obligations and have bound them to new, more obligatory mihtary obligations. And this is done publicly, and no one will shout to the deceivers and to the deceived : " Bethink yourselves and scatter, for this is the basest and meanest lie, which ruins not only our bodies, but also our souls." No one does so ; on the contrary, when all are accepted, and it becomes necessary to let them out, the military chief, as though to scorn them, enters with self-confident, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 317 majestic mien into the hall where the deceived, drunken lads are locked up, aud boldly exclaims to them in military fashion, " Your health, boys ! I congratulate you on your Tsar's service." And the poor fellows (somebody has in- structed them what to do) babble something with an unaccustomed, half-intoxicated tongue to the effect that they are glad of it. In the meantime, the crowd of fathers, mothers, and wives stand at the door and wait. The women look with tearful, arrested eyes through the door. And the door opens, and out come, staggering, and with a look of bravado, the accepted recruits, — Petrukha, and Vanyiikha, and Makar, — trying not to look at their relatives. The wail of the motliers aud wives is heard. Some embrace one another and weep ; others try to look brave ; others again console their people. Mothers and wives, knowing that now they will be orphaned for three, four, or five years, without a supporter, wail* and lament at the top of their voices. The fathers do not speak much, and only pitifully smack their tongues and sigh, knowing that now they will no longer see their helpers, whom they have raised and instructed, and that there will return to them, not those peaceful, industrious agriculturists that they have been, but generally debauched, dandyish soldiers, who are no longer used to a simple hfe. And now the whole crowd take up seats in their sleighs and start down the street, in the direction of inns aud restaurants, and still louder are heard, interfering with one another, songs, sobs, drunken shouts, the laments of the mothers and wives, the sounds of the accordion, and curses. All make for saloons and restaurants, the revenue from which goes to the government, aud they abandon them- selves to intoxication, which drowns in them the percepted consciousness of tlie illegality of what is being done to them. For two or three weeks they live at home, and for the 318 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU most part are having a good time, that is, are out on a spree. On a set day they are collected, and driven like cattle to one place, and are taught military methods and ex- ercises. They are instructed by just such deceived and bestialized men as they, who entered the service two or three years ago. The means of instruction are deception, stupefaction, kicks, vodka. And not a year passes but that spiritually sound, bright, good fellows are turned into just such wild beings as their teachers. " Well, and if the prisoner, your father, runs away ? " I asked a young soldier. " I can run the bayonet through him," he replied, in the peculiar, senseless voice of a soldier. " And if he ' re- moves himself,' I must shoot," he added, apparently proud of his knowledge of what to do when his father " removes himself." When he, the good young rnan, is brought to a condi- tion lower than an animal, he is such as those who use him as an instrument of violence want him to be. He is all ready : the man is lost, and a new instrument of vio- lence has been created. And all this takes place every year, every autumn, everywhere, in the whole of Eussia, in broad dayhght, in a populous city, in the sight of all men, and the deception is so clever, so cunning, that all see it and in the depth of their hearts know all its baseness, all its terrible conse- quences, and are unable to free themselves from it. When the eyes shall be opened to this terrible decep- tion which is practised on men, one must marvel how preachers of the religion of Christianity and morahty, educators of youth, simply good, intelligent parents, who always exist in every society, can preach any doctrine of THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU 319 morality amidst a society in which all the churches and governments openly acknowledge that tortures and mur- ders form an indispensable condition of the life of all men, and that amidst all men there must always be some special men, who are prepared to kill their brothers, and that every one of us may be such. How can children and youths be taught and men in general be enlightened, to say nothing of the enlighten- ment in the Christian spirit, how can they be taught any morality by the side of the doctrine that murder is in- dispensable for the maintenance of the common, conse- quently of our own, well-being, and so is legitimate, and that there are men (any of us may be these men) whose duty it is to torture and kill our neighbours and to commit all kinds of crime at the will of those who have the power in their hands ? If it is possible and right to torture and kill and commit all kinds of crimes by the will of those who have the power in their hands, there is, and there can be, no moral teaching, but there is only the right of the stronger. And so it is. In reality, such a teaching, which for some men is theoretically justified by the the- ory of the struggle for existence, does exist in our society. Really, what kind of a moral teaching can there be, which would admit murder for any purposes whatsoever ? This is as impossible as any mathematical doctrine, which would admit that two is equal to three. With the admission of the fact that two is equal to three there may be a semblance of mathematics, but there can be no real mathematical knowledge. With the ad- mission of murder in the form of executions, wars, self- defence, there may be a semblance of morality, but no real morality. The recognition of the sacredness of every man's life is the first and only foundation of all morality. The doctrine of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life was put aside by Christianity for the very reason that this doctrine is only a justification of ini- 320 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU morality, only a semblance of justice, and is devoid of sense. Life is a quantity which has no weight and no measure and which cannot be equalized to any other, and so the destruction of one life for another can have no meaning. Besides, every social law is a law which has for its purpose the improvement of human life. But in what way can the destruction of the lives of a few indi- viduals improve the lives of men ? The destruction of life is not like its improvement, but an act of suicide. The destruction of another man's life for the purpose of preserving justice is like what a man would do who, to mend the calamity which consists in his having lost one arm, should for the sake of justice cut off his other arm. But, to say nothing of the sin of deception, with which the most terrible crime presents itself to men as their duty ; to say nothing of the terrible crime of using Christ's name and authority for the purpose of legalizing what is most denied by this same Christ, as is done in the case of the oath ; to say nothing of the offence by means of which not only the bodies, but even the souls of " these little ones " are ruined ; to say nothing of all that, how can men, even in view of their personal security, men who think highly of their forms of life, their progress, admit the formation among them of that terrible, senseless, cruel, pernicious force which is established by every or- ganized government that rests on the army ? The most cruel and terrible of robber bands is not so terrible as such a state organization. Every leader of robbers is none the less limited in his power, because the men who form his band retain at least a small part of their human liberty and may oppose the performance of acts contrary to their conscience. But for men forming a part of a regularly organized government with an army, with dis- cipline carried to the point to which it is at the present time, there are no barriers whatsoever. There are no THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 321 crimes so terrible that they would not be committed by men forming a part of the government and of the army, by the will of him who accidentally (Boulanger, Pugach^v, Napoleon) may stand at its head. Frequently, w^hen I see, not only the levies of recruits, the military exercises, the manoeuvres, but also the police- men with loaded revolvers, the sentries standing with guns and adjusted bayonets ; when I hear (as I do in the Khamovniki, where 1 live) for whole days the whistling and the pinging of bullets striking the target ; and when I see, in the very city where every attempt at self-help and violence is prohibited, where there is a prohibition against the sale of powder, medicines, fast driving, un- hcensed medical practice, and so forth, when I see in this same city thousands of disciplined men, who have been taught to commit murder and who are subject to one man, — I ask myself : " How can the men who think so highly of their security bear all this ? " To say nothing of the harmfulness and immorality, nothing can be more danger- ous than this. How can all men, I do not say Cliristians, Christian pastors, but all philanthropists, morahsts, all those men who value their lives, their security, their well- being, quietly look on ? This organization will certainly act in the same way, no matter in whose hands it may be : to-day, let us say, this power is in the hands of an endurable ruler ; to-morrow a Biron, an EHzabeth, a Catherine, a Pugacliev, a Napoleon the First, a Napoleon the Third may usurp it. And again, the man in whose hands is the power, and who to-day may be endurable, may to-morrow turn into a beast, or his place may be taken by an insane or half-witted heir of his, as was the case with the King of Bavaria and Paul. And not only these higher rulers, but also all those minor satraps, who are distributed everywhere like so many Bar^novs, chiefs of police, even rural officers, com- manders of companies, uuder-officers, may commit terrible 322 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU crimes before there has been time to depose them, as happens constantly. Invohmtarily one asks himself : " How can men permit such things to happen, if not for the sake of higher con- siderations of state, at least for the sake of their se- curity ? " The answer to this question is this, that it is not all men who permit this to happen (one part of them, — the great majority of men, — the deceived and the subjected, cannot help but permit anything to be done), but those who with such an organization hold an advantageous position ; they permit it, because for them the risk of suffering, because at the head of the government or the army there may be a senseless or cruel man, is always less than the disadvantages to which they would be subjected in case of the destruction of the organization itself. The judge, policeman, governor, officer will hold his position equally under Boulanger, or a republic, or Puga- chev or Catherine ; but he will certainly lose his position, if the existing order, which secures for him his advan- tageous position, falls to pieces. And so all these men are not afraid of who will stand at the head of the organi- zation of violence, — they adapt themselves to anybody, — but only of the destruction of the organization itself, and so they always support it, often unconsciously. One often marvels why free men, who are not urged to it by anything, the so-called flower of society, enter the army, in Eussia, in England, Germany, Austria, even France, and why they seek an opportunity for becoming murderers. Why do parents, moral men, send their chil- dren to institutions which prepare them for military matters ? Why do mothers buy their children helmets, guns, swords as their favourite toys ? (The children of peasants never play soldier.) Why do good men, and even women, who are in no way connected with military THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 323 affairs, go into ecstasies over the exploits of a Skobel^vski and of others, and why do they take so much pains to praise them ? Why do men, who are not urged to do so, who do not receive any salary for it, like the marshals of nobility in Russia, devote whole months of assiduous work to performing a physically hard and morally agoniz- ing piece of business, — the reception of recruits ? Why do all the emperors and kings wear military costumes, attend manoeuvres and parades, distribute rewards to sol- diers, erect monuments to generals and conquerors ? Why do free, wealthy men consider it an honour to perform lackeys' duties to crowned heads, why do they humble themselves, and flatter them, and pretend that they be- lieve in the special grandeur of these persons ? Why do men, who have long ago stopped believing in the medi- aeval superstitions of the church, and who are unable to believe in them, seriously and invariably pretend that they believe, thus maintaining the offensive and blas- phemous religious institution ? Why is the ignorance of the masses so zealously guarded, not only by the govern- ments, but also by the free men from the higher classes ? Why do they with such fury attack every attempt at destroying the religions superstitions, and every true en- lightenment of the masses? Why do men, — historians, novelists, poets, — who can certainly receive nothing for their flattery, describe as heroes long deceased emperors, kings, or generals ? Why do men who call themselves learned devote their whole lives to the formation of the- ories, from which it follows that violence which is exerted by the power against the nation is not violence, but some especial right ? One often marvels why, for what reason a lady of the world or an artist, who, it would seem, is interested neither in social, nor in military questions, condemns labour strikes and preaches war, and always definitely attacks one side and defends the other? 324 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU But one marvels at this only so long as one does not know that this is all done so because all the men of the ruling classes feel instinctively what it is that maintains and what destroys the organization under which they can enjoy the privileges they are enjoying. The lady of the world has not even made the reflection that, if there are no capitalists, and no armies to defend them, her husband will have no money, and she will have no salon and no costumes ; and the artist has not made the reflection as to this, that he needs the capitalists, who are protected by the armies, to buy his pictures ; but the instinct, which in this case takes the place of reason, guides them unerringly. It is precisely the same instinct that with few exceptions guides all those men who support all those pohtical, religious, economic establishments, which are advantageous to them. But can the men of the upper classes maintain this order of things, only because it is advantageous for them ? These men cannot help but see that this order of things is in itself irrational, no longer corresponds to the degree of men's consciousness, not even to public opinion, and is full of dangers. The men of the ruling classes — the honest, good, clever men among them — cannot help but suffer from these internal contradictions, and cannot help but see the dangers with which this order threatens them. Is it possible the men of the lower classes, all the millions of these people, can with a calm conscience perform all these obviously bad acts, tortures, and murders, which they are compelled to perform, only because they are afraid of punishment ? Indeed, that could not have been, and neither the men of the one class nor of the other could help but see the irrationality of their activity, if the peculiarity of the state structure did not conceal from them the whole unnaturalness and irrationality of the acts committed by them. This irrationality is concealed by the fact that in the THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 325 commission of each of these acts there are so many insti- gators, accomplices, abettors, that not one of the men taking part in it feels himself to be morally respon- sible. Murderers compel all the persons who are present at a murder to strike the dead victim, so that the responsibility may be distributed among the largest possible number of men. The same thing, haviug assumed definite forms, has established itself iu the structure of the state in the commission of all those crimes, without the constant com- mission of which no state organization is thinkable. The rulers of the state always try to draw as large a number of citizens as possible into the greatest possible participa- tion in all the crimes committed by them and indispen- sable for them. Of late this has found a most lucid expression iu the drafting of the citizens into the courts in the form of jurors, into the armies in the form of soldiers, and into the local government and into the legislative assembly in the form of electors and representatives. In the structure of the state, in which, as in a basket made of rods, all the ends are so concealed that it is not possible to find them, the responsibility for crimes com- mitted is so concealed from men that they, in committing the most awful deeds, do not see their own responsibility in them. In olden times the tyrants were blamed for the com- mission of evil deeds, but in our time most awful crimes, unthinkable even iu the time of a Nero, are committed, and there is no one to blame. Some men demanded, others decreed, others again con- firmed, others proposed, others reported, others prescribed, others executed. Women, old men, innocent people, are killed, hanged, flogged to death, as lately happened in Russia in the Yuzov Plant, and as happens everywhere in Europe and in America, in the struggle with anarchists 326 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU and all kinds of violators of the existing order ; hundreds, thousands of men will be shot to death, killed, and hanged, or, as is done ia wars, millions of men will be killed or ruined, or, as is constantly done, the souls of men are ruined in soHtary confinement, in the debauched condition of militarism, — and no one is to blame. On the lowest stage of the social ladder, soldiers with guns, pistols, swords, torture and kill men, and with the same tortures and murders compel men to enter the army, and are fully convinced that the responsibility for these acts is taken from them by those authorities who prescribe these acts to them. On the highest stage, kings, presidents, ministers, Chambers, prescribe these tortures and murders and the enlistment of soldiers, and are fully convinced that, since they are put into their places by God, or since the society which they rule over demands from them precisely what they prescribe, they cannot be blamed. In the middle between the two are the intermediate persons, who order the tortures and murders and the en- listment of soldiers, and they are fully convinced that their responsibility has been taken from them, partly by the commands from above, and partly because the same orders are demanded of them by all those who stand on the lower stages. The administrative and the executive powers, which lie at the two extremes of the structure of the state, meet like two ends that are united into a ring, and one condi- tions and maintains the other and all the intervening links. Without the conviction that there exists such a person, or such a number of persons, who take upon themselves the responsibihty for the acts committed, not one soldier would be able to raise his hands for the purpose of tor- turiQCf or killing. Without the conviction that this is demanded by the whole nation, not one emperor, king, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 327 president, not one assembly would be able to prescribe these same tortures and murders. Without the conviction that there are persons who stand above him and take upon themselves the responsibility for his act, and men who stand below him and demand the fulfilment of such acts for their own good, not one of the men who stand on the stages intermediate between the ruler and the soldier would be able to commit those acts which he is com- mitting. The structure of the state is such that, no matter on what rung of the social ladder a man may stand, his degree of irresponsibility is always one and the same : the higher he stands, the more is he subjected to the influence of the demand for orders from below and the less he is subjected to the influence of the prescriptions from above, and vice versa. Thus, in the case before me, every one who had taken part in the matter was the more under the influence of the demand for orders from below and the less under the influence of prescriptions from above, the higher his posi- tion was, and vice versa. But not only do all men who are connected with the structure of the state shift their responsibility for deeds committed upon others : the peasant who is drafted into the army, upon the nobleman or merchant who has become an officer; and the officer, upon the nobleman who holds the position of governor ; and the governor, upon the son of an official or nobleman who occupies the position of minister ; and the minister, upon a member of the imperial house who holds the position of emperor ; and the emperor again, upon all these officials, noble- men, merchants, and peasants ; not only do men in this manner free themselves from the consciousness of respon- sibility for acts committed by them, — they even lose the moral consciousness of their responsibility for this other reason, that, uniting into a political structure, they 328 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU SO constantly, continuously, and tensely convince them- selves and others that they are not all identical men, but men who differ from one another as does " one star from another," that they begin themselves sincerely to believe so. Thus they convince one set of men that they are not simple men, identical with others, but a special kind of men, who have to be honoured, while they impress others with the idea that they stand beneath all other men and so must unflinchingly submit to what they are commanded to do by their superiors. On this inequality and exaltation of one class of men and the annihilation of the other is mainly based the inability of men to see the irrationality of the existing order and its cruelty and criminality, and of that decep- tion which is practised by some and to which the others submit. Some, those who are impressed with the idea that they are vested with some supernatural significance and grandeur, are so intoxicated by this imaginary grandeur that they stop seeing their responsibility in the acts committed by them ; the other men, who, on the contrary, are impressed with the idea that they are insignificant creatures, who must in everything submit to the higher, in consequence of this constant condition of humiliation fall into a strange condition of intoxication of servility, and under the influence of their intoxication also fail to see the significance of their acts, and lose the consciousness of their responsibility for them. The intermediate people, who, partly submitting to the higher, and partly consider- ing themselves to be superior, succumb simultaneously to the intoxication of power and that of servility, and so lose the consciousness of their responsibility. We need but look in any country at a superior chief, intoxicated by his grandeur, accompanied by his staff, all of them on magnificently caparisoned horses, in special uniforms and signs of distinction, as he, to the sound THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 329 of the harmonious and festive music produced by wind- instruments, rides past a line of soldiers stiffened up from a sense of servility and presenting arms, — we need but look at him, in order that we may understand that at these moments the highest chief and the soldier and all the intermediate persons, being in a state of intoxication, are equally capable of committing acts which they would not think of committing under other circumstances. But the intoxication experienced by men under such phenomena as are parades, imperial receptions, church solemnities, coronations, is a temporary and acute condi- tion ; there are also other, chronic, constant conditions of intoxication, which are equally experienced by all men who have any power, from the power of the emperor to that of a policeman in the street, and by men who sub- mit to power and who are in a condition of intoxication through servility, and who in justification of this their condition always ascribe, as has always shown itself in the case of slaves, the greatest significance and dignity to him whom they obey. On this deception of the inequality of men and the resulting intoxication of power and of servility is pre- eminently based the ability of men united into a political structure to commit, without experiencing any pangs of conscience, acts which are contrary to their conscience. Under the influence of such an intoxication, both of power and of servility, men present themselves to them- selves and to others, not as what they are in reality, — men, — but as especial, conventional beings, — noblemen, merchants, governors, judges, officers, kings, ministers, soldiers, who no longer are subject to common human obligations, but, above all else, and before all human, to nobiliary, commercial, gubernatorial, judicial, military, royal, ministerial obligations. Thus, the proprietor who litigated concerning the forest did what he did only because he did not present himself 330 THE KIJfGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU to himself as a simple man, like any of the peasants who were living by his side, but as a large landed proprietor and a member of the gentry, and so, under the influence of the intoxication of power, he felt himself insulted by the pretensions of the peasants. It was only for this reason that, without paying any attention to the conse- quences which might arise from his demand, he handed in the petition requesting the restitution of his imaginary right. Similarly, the judges who irregularly adjudged the forest to the proprietor did so only because they do not imagine themselves to be simple men, just like all other men, and so under obligation in all cases to be guided only by what is the truth, but under the intoxication of power they imagine themselves to be the guardians of jus- tice, who cannot err ; but under the influence of the intoxication of servility they imagine themselves to be men who are obliged to carry out certain words which are written in a certain book and are called the law. As just such conventional persons, and not as what they are in reahty, present themselves, under the influence of the intoxication of power and of servility, to themselves and to others, all the other participants in this matter, from the highest representatives of power, who sign their approval on documents, from the marshal, who drafts recruits at the levy of soldiers, and the priest, who deceives them, to the last soldier, who is now getting ready to shoot at his brothers. They all did what they did, and are preparing themselves to do what awaits them, only because they present themselves to themselves and to others, not as what they are in reahty, — men who are confronted with the question as to whether they should take part in a matter which is condemned by their con- science, or not, — but as different conventional persons, — one, as an anointed king, a special being, who is called upon to care for the well-being of one hundred miUion THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU 331 men ; another, as a representative of nobility ; a third, as a priest, who with his ordainment has received a special grace ; a fourth, as a soldier, who is obliged by his oath to fulfil without reflection what he is commanded to do. Only under the influence of the intoxication of power and servility, which result from their imaginary positions, can all these men do what they do. If all these men did not have a firm conviction that the callings of kings, ministers, governors, judges, noble- men, landed proprietors, marshals, officers, soldiers, are something actually in existence and very important, not one of these men would think without terror and disgust of participating in the acts which he is committing now. The conventional positions, which were established hundreds of years ago, which have been recognized through the ages, and which are now recognized by all men about us, and which are designated by especial names and particular attires, and which, besides, are maintained by means of every kind of magnificence and effects on the outer senses, are to such a degree instilled in people that they, forgetting the habitual conditions of life, common to all, begin to look upon themselves and upon all men only from this conventional point of view, and are guided by nothing but this conventional point of view in the valuation of other men's acts. Thus a mentally sound old man, for no other reason than that some trinket or fool's dress is put over him, some keys on his buttocks, or a blue ribbon, which is proper only for a dressed-up little girl, and that he is on that occasion impressed with the idea that he is a general, a chamberlain, a Cavalier of St. Andrews, or some such silliness, suddenly becomes self-confident, proud, and even happy ; or, on the contrary, because he loses or does not receive a desired trinket or name, becomes so sad and unhappy that he even grows sick. Or, what is even more startling, an otherwise mentally sound, free. 332 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU and even well-to-do young man, for no other reason than that he calls himself, and others call him, an investigat- ing magistrate or County Council chief, seizes an unfor- tunate widow away from her minor children, and locks her up, or has her locked up in a prison, leaving her chil- dren without a mother, and all that because this unfortu- nate woman secretly trafficked in liquor and thus deprived the Crown of twenty-five roubles of revenue, and he does not feel the least compunction about it. Or, what is even more startling, an otherwise intelligent and meek man, only because a brass plate or a uniform is put on him and he is told that he is a watchman or a customs soldier, begins to shoot with bullets at men, and neither he nor those who surround him consider him blameworthy for it, and would even blame him if he did not shoot ; I do not even speak of the judges and jurors, who sentence to executions, and of the military, who kill thousands with- out the least compunction, only because they have been impressed with the idea that they are not simply men, but jurors, judges, generals, soldiers. Such a constant, unnatural, and strange condition of men in the life of the state is generally expressed in words as follows : " As a man I pity him, but as a watch- man, judge, general, governor, king, soldier, I must kill or torture him," as though there can exist a given position, acknowledged by men, which can make void duties which are imposed upon each of us by a man's position. Thus, for example, in the present case, men are travel- ling to commit murder and tortures on hungry people, and they recognize that in the dispute between the peasants and the proprietor the peasants are in the right (all men in authority told me so), and know that the peasants are unfortunate, poor, and hungry ; the proprietor is rich and does not inspire sympathy, and all these men none the less are on their way to kill the peasants, in order thus to secure three thousand roubles to the proprietor, for no THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 333 other reason than that these men at this moment do not consider themselves to be men, but a governor, a general of gendarmes, an officer, a soldier, and think that not the eternal demands of their consciences, but the accidental, temporary demands of their positions as officers and sol- diers are binding on them. However strange this may seem, the only explanation for this remarkable phenomenon is this, that these men are in the same position as those hypnotized persons who are commanded to imagine and feel themselves in certain conventional positions, and to act like those beings whom they represent ; thus, for example, when a hypnotized person receives the suggestion that he is lame, he begins to hmp, or that he is blind, he does not see, or that he is an animal, he begins to bite. In this state are not only the men who are travelling on this train, but also all men who preferably perform their social and their political duties, to the disadvantage of their human duties. The essence of this condition is this, that the men under the influence of the one idea suggested to them are not able to reflect upon their acts, and so do, without any reflection, what is prescribed to them in correspond- ence with the suggested idea, and what they are led up to through example, advice, or hints. The difference between those who are hypnotized by artificial means and those who are under the influence of the political suggestion consists in this, that to the artificially hypnotized their imaginary condition is sug- gested at once, by one person, and for the briefest space of time, and so the suggestion presents itself to us in a glaring form, which sets us to wondering, while to the men who act under the political suggestion tlieir imaginary position is suggested by degrees, slowly, imperceptibly, from childhood, at times not only in a certain number of years, but through whole generations, and, besides, is 334 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU not suggested by one person, but by all those who sur- round them. " But," I shall be told, " in all societies the majority of men, — all the children, all the women, who are absorbed in the labour of pregnancy, child-bearing, and nursing, all the enormous masses of the working people, who are placed under the necessity of tense and assiduous physical labour, all the mentally weak by nature, all abnormal men with a weakened spiritual activity in consequence of nicotine, alcohol, and opium poisoning, or for some other reason, — all these men are always in such a condition that, not being able to reason independently, they submit either to those men who stand on a higher stage of rational consciousness, or to family and pohtical tradi- tions, to what is called public opinion, and in this sub- mission there is nothing unnatural or contradictory." And, indeed, there is nothing unnatural in it, and the ability of unthinking people to submit to the indications of men standing on a higher stage of consciousness is a constant property of men, that property in consequence of which men, submitting to the same rational principles, are able to live in societies : some, — the minority, — by consciously submitting to the same rational principles, on account of their agreement with the demands of their reason; the others, — the majority, — by submitting un- consciously to the same principles, only because these demands laave become the public opinion. Such a sub- jection of the unthinking to public opinion presents noth- ing unnatural so long as the public opinion is not spht up. But there are times when the higher truth, as compared with the former degree of the consciousness of the truth, which at first is revealed to a few men, in passing by degrees from one set to another, embraces such a large number of men that the former public opinion, which is based on a lower stage of consciousness, begins to waver, and the new is ready to establish itself, but is not yet THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 335 established. There are times, resembling spring, when the old public opinion has not yet been destroyed and the new is not yet estabhshed, and when men begin to criti- cize their own acts and those of others on the basis of the new consciousness, and yet in life, from inertia, from tra- dition, continue to submit to principles which only in former times formed the higher degree of rational con- sciousness, but which now are already in an obvious contradiction to it. And then the men, feeling, on the one hand, the necessity of submitting to the new public opinion, and not daring, on the other, to depart from the former, find themselves in an uiinatural, wavering state. It is in such a condition that, in relation to the Christian truths, are not only the men on this train, but also the majority of the men of our time. In the same condition are equally the men of the higher classes, who enjoy exclusive, advantageous posi- tions, and the men of the lower classes, who without opposition obey what they are commanded to obey. Some, the men of the ruling classes, who no longer possess any rational explanation for the advantageous positions held by them, are put to the necessity, for the purpose of maintaining these positions, of suppressing in themselves the higher rational faculties of love and of impressing upon themselves the necessity for their exclu- sive position ; the others, the lower classes, wdio are op- pressed by labour and purposely stupefied, are in a constant state of suggestion, which is unflinchingly and constantly produced on them by the men of the higher classes. Only thus can be explained those remarkable phenomena with which our life is filled, and as a striking example of which there presented themselves to me my good, peace- ful acquaintances, whom I met on September 9th, and who with peace of mind were travelling to commit a most beastly, senseless, and base crime. If the consciences of these men had not been in some way put to sleep, not 336 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU one of them would be able to do one hundredth part of what they are getting ready to do, and, in all probability, will do. It cannot be said that they do not have the conscience which forbids them to do what they are about to do, as there was no such conscience in men four hundred, three hundred, two hundred, one hundred years ago, when they burned people at the stake, tortured people, and flogged them to death ; it exists in all these men, but it is put to sleep in them, — in some, the ruling men, who are in exclusive, advantageous positions, by means of auto-sug- gestion, as the psychiaters call it ; in the others, the executors, the soldiers by a direct, conscious suggestion, hypnotization, produced by the upper classes. The conscience is in these men put to sleep, but it exists in them, and through the auto-suggestion and sug- gestion, which hold sway over them, it already speaks in them and may awaken any moment. All these men are in a condition resembling the one a hypnotized man would be in, if it were suggested to him and he were commanded to do an act which is con- trary to everything which he considers rational and good, — to kill his mother or child. The hypnotized man feels himself bound by the suggestion induced in him, and it seems to him that he cannot stop ; at the same time, the nearer he comes to the time and the place of the commis- sion of the crime, the stronger does the drowned voice of the conscience rise in him, and he begins to show more and more opposition and to writhe, and wants to wake up. And it is impossible to say in advance whether he will do the suggested act, or not, and what it is that will win, the rational consciousness or the irrational suggestion. Everything depends on the relative strength of the two. Precisely the same is now taking place in all the men on this train, and in general in all the men who in our time commit political acts of violence and exploit them. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 337 There was a time when men, who went out for the purpose of torturing and killing |3eople, for the purpose of setting an example, did noi return otherwise than having performed the act for which they had gone out, and, hav- ing performed the act, they were not tormented by re- pentance and doubt, but, having flogged men to death, calmly returned home to their family, and petted their children, — jested, laughed, and abandoned themselves to quiet domestic pleasures. It did not then occur even to those who gained by these acts of violence, to the landed proprietors and the rich men, that the advantages which they enjoyed had any direct connection with these cruelties. But now it is not so : men know already, or are very near to knowing, what they are doing, and for what purpose they are doing what they are doing. They may shut their eyes and cause their consciences to be inactive, but with eyes unshut and consciences unim- paired they — both those who commit the acts and those who gain by them — no longer can fail to see the signifi- cance which these acts have. It happens that men understand the significance of what they have done only after they have performed the act; or it happens that they understand it before the very act. Thus the men who had in charge the toitures in Nizlini-Novgorod, Saratov, Or4I, Yiizov Plant, understood the significance of what they did only after the commission of the act, and now they are tormented with shame before public opinion and before their consciences. Both those who ordered the tortures and those who executed them are tormented. I have spoken with soldiers who have executed such acts, and they have always cautiously evaded all conversation about it; when they spoke, they did so with perplexity and terror. Cases happen when men come to their senses immediately before the commission of the act. Thus I know a case of a sergeant, who during a pacification was beaten by two peasants, and who reported accord- 338 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU ingly, but who the next day, when he saw the tortures to which the peasants were subjected, begged the com- mander of the company to tear up the report and to discharge the peasants who had beaten him. I know a case when the soldiers, who were commanded to shoot some men, declined to obey ; and I know many cases where the commanders refused to take charge of tortures and murders. Thus it happens that the men who estab- lish violence and those who commit acts of violence at times come to their senses long before the commission of the act suggested to them, at others before the very act, and at others again after the act. The men who are travelling on this train have gone out to torture and kill their brothers, but not one of them knows whether he will do what he has set out to do, or not. No matter how hidden for each of them is the responsibility in this matter, no matter how strong the suggestion may be, in all these men, that they are not men, but governors, rural judges, officers, soldiers, and that, as such beings, they may violate their human obliga- tions, the nearer they approach the place of their desti- nation, the stronger will the doubt rise in them whether they should do what they have started out to do, and this doubt will reach the highest degree when they reach the very moment of the execution. The governor, in spite of all the intoxication of the surrounding circumstance, cannot help but reflect for a moment, when he has to give his last decisive command concerning the murder or the torture. He knows that the case of the Governor of Orel provoked the indignation of the best men of society, and he himself, under the influence of the public opinion of those circles to which he belongs, has more than once expressed his disapproval of it ; he knows that the prosecutor, who was to have gone with them, refused outright to take part in this business, because he considered it disgraceful ; he knows THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 339 also that changes may take place in the government at any time, and that in consequence of them that which was a desert to-day may to-morrow be the cause of dis- favour ; he knows, too, that there is a press, if not in Eussia, at least abroad, which may describe this matter and so disgrace him for life. He already scents that new public opinion which is making void what the former public opinion demanded. Besides, he cannot be abso- lutely sure that at the last moment the executors will obey him. He wavers, and it is impossible to foretell what he will do. The same thing, in a greater or lesser measure, is experienced by all the officials and officers who are travel- ling with him. They all know in the depth of their hearts that the deed which is to be done is disgraceful, that participation in it lowers and defiles a man in the eyes of a few men, whose opinion they already value. They know that it is a shame to appear after the torture or murder of defenceless men in the presence of their fiancees or wuves, whom they treat with a show of ten- derness. Besides, like the governor, they are in doubt whether the soldiers are sure to obey them. And, no matter how unlike it is to the self-confident look with which all these ruling men now move in the station and up and down the platform, they all in the depth of their hearts suffer and even waver. It is for this very reason that they assume this confident tone, in order to conceal their inner wavering. And this sensation increases in proportion as they come nearer to the place of action. However imperceptible this may be, and however strange it may appear, all this mass of young soldiers, who seem so subservient, is in the same state. They are all of them no longer the soldiers of former days, men who have renounced their natural life of laliour, and who have devoted their lives exclusively to dissipation, ra- pine, and murder, like some Koman legionaries or the war 340 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU riors of the Thirty- Years War, or even the late soldiers of twenty-five years of service ; they are, for the most part, men who have but lately been taken away from their families, all of them full of recollections of that good, natural, and sensible life from which they have been taken away. All these lads, who for the most part come from the country, know what business is taking them out on the train ; they know that the proprietors always offend their brothers, the peasants, and that therefore the same thing is taking place here. Besides, the greater half of these men know how to read books, and not all books are those in which the business of war is lauded, — there are also those in which its immorality is pointed out. Amidst them frequently serve freethinking companions, - — volunteer soldiers, — and just such liberal young offi- cers, and into their midst has been thrown the seed of doubt as to the unconditional legality and valour of their activity. It is true, all of them have passed through that terrible, artificial drill, worked out by ages, which kills all independence in a man, and they are so accustomed to mechanical obedience that at the w^ords of command, " Fire by company ! Company, lire ! " and so forth, their guns rise mechanically and the habitual motions take place. But " Fire ! " will not mean now having fun while shooting at a target, but killing their tormented, offended fathers and brothers, who — here they are — are standing in crowds, with their women and children in the street, and shouting and waving their hands. Here they are, — one of them, with a sparse beard, in a patched caftan and in bast shoes, just like their own fathers at home in the Government of Kazan or of Eyazan ; another, with a gray beard and stooping shoulders, carrying a large stick, just like their father's father, their grandfather; anotlier, a young lad in boots and red shirt, exactly as the soldier who is now to shoot at him was a year ago. And THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU 341 here is a woman in bast shoes and linen skirt, just like mother at home Are they really going to shoot at them ? God knows what each soldier will do during this last mouient. One slightest indication as to its not being rigbt, above all as to the possibiHty of not doing it, one such word, one hint, will be sufficient, in order to stop them. All men who are travelling on this train will, when they proceed to execute the deed for which they have set out, be in the same position in which a hypnotized person would be, who has received the suggestion to chop a log, and, having walked up to what has been pointed out to him as a log and having raised the axe to strike, suddenly sees or is told that it is not a log, but his sleeping brother. He may perform the act suggested to him, and he may wake up before its performance. Even so all these men may awaken, or not. If they do not, as terrible a deed as the one in Orel will be done, and in other men the auto-suggestion and the suggestion under which they act will be increased ; if tliey awaken, such a deed will not only not be performed, but many others, upon finding out the turn which the affair has takeA, will be freed from that suggestion in which they are, or at least will approach such a liberation. But if not all men travelling on this train shall awaken and refrain from doing the deed which has been Ijegun, if only a few of them shall do so and shall boldly express to other men the criminality of this affair, these few men even may have the effect of awakening all the other men from the suggestion, under which they are, and the pro- posed evil deed will not take place. More than that : if only a few men, who do not take part in this affair, but are only present at the preparations for the same, or who have heard of similiar acts previ- ously committed, will not remain indifferent, but will 342 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU frankly and boldly express their disgust with the partici- pants in these matters, and will point out to them their whole senselessness, cruelty, and criminality, even that will not pass unnoticed. Even so it was in the present case. A few persons, participants and Don-participants in this affair, who were free from suggestion, needed but at the time when they were getting ready for this affair boldly to express their indignation with tortures administered in other places, and their disgust and contempt for those men who took part in them ; in the present Tilla affair a few persons needed but to express their unwillingness to take part in it ; the lady passenger and a few other persons at the station needed but in the presence of those who were travelling on the train to express their indignation at the act which was about to be committed ; one of the regi- mental commanders, a part of whose troops were de- manded for the pacification, needed but to express his opinion that the military cannot be executioners, — and thanks to these and certain other, seemingly unimportant, private influences exerted against people under suggestion, the affair would take a different turn, and the troops, upon arriving on the spot, would not commit any tortures, but would cut down the forest and give it to the proprietor. If there should not be in certain men any clear conscious- ness as to their doing wrong, and if there should be, in consequence of this, no mutual influence of men in this sense, there would take place the same as in Or^l. But if this consciousness should be even stronger, and so the amount of the interactions even greater than what it was, it is very likely that the governor and his troops would not even dare to cut down the forest, in order to give it to the proprietor. If this consciousness had been even stronger and the amount of interactions greater, it is very likely the governor would not even have dared to travel to the place of action. If the consciousness had THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 343 been stronger still and the amount of interactions even greater, it is very likely that the minister would not have made up his mind to prescribe, and the emperor to confirm such a decree. Everything, consequently, depends on the force with which the Christian truth is cognized by every individual man. And so, it would seem, the activity of all the men of our time, who assert that they wish to continue to the welfare of humanity, should be directed to the increase of the lucidity of the demands of the Christian truth. But, strange to say, those very men, who in our time assert more than any one else that they care for the amelioration of human life, and who are regarded as the leaders in public opinion, affirm that it is not neces- sary to do that, and that for the amelioration of the condi- tion of men there exist other, more efficacious means. These men assert that the amehoratiou of human life does not take place in consequence of the internal efibrts of the consciousness of individual men and the elucida- tion and profession of the truth, but in consequence of the gradual change of the common external conditions of life, and that the profession by every individual man of the truth which is not in conformity with the existing order is not only useless, but even harmful, because on the part of the power it provokes oppressions, which keep these individuals from continuing tlieir useful activity in the service of society. According to this doctrine, all the changes in human life take place under the same laws under which they take place in the life of the animals. Thus, according to this doctrine, all the founders of religions, such as Moses and the prophets, Confucius, Lao-tse, Buddha, Christ, and others preached their teach- 344 THE KINGDOM OP GOD IS WITHIN YOU ings, and their followers accepted them, not because they loved truth, elucidated it to themselves, and professed it, but because the political, social, and, above all, economic conditions of the nations among whom these teachings appeared and were disseminated were favourable for their manifestation and diffusion. And so the chief activity of a man wishing to serve society and amehorate the condition of humanity must according to this doctrine be directed, not to the elucida- tion of the truth and its profession, but to the ameliora- tion of the external political, social, and, above all else, economic conditions. Now the change of these pohtical, social, and economic conditions is accomplished partly by means of serving the government and of introducing into it liberal and progressive principles, partly by contribut- ing to the development of industry and the dissemination of socialistic ideas, and chiefly by the diffusion of scien- tific education. According to this teaching it is not important for a man to profess in life the truth that has been revealed to him, and so inevitably be compelled to realize it in life, or at least not to do acts which are contrary to the pro- fessed truth ; not to serve the government and not to increase its power, if he considers this power to be delete- rious ; not to make use of the capitalistic structure, if he considers this structure to be irregular ; not to show any respect for various ceremonies, if he considers them to be a dangerous superstition ; not to take part in the courts, if he considers their establishment to be false ; not to serve as a soldier ; not to swear ; in general, not to lie, not to act as a scoundrel, but, without changing the existing forms of life, and submitting to them, contrary to his opinion, he should introduce liberalism into the existing institutions ; cooperate with industry, the propaganda of sociahsm, the advancement of what is called the sciences, and the diffusion of culture. According to this theory is THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 345 it possible, though remaining a landed proprietor, a mer- chant, a manufacturer, a judge, an official, receiving a salary from the government, a soldier, an officer, to be, withal, not only a humane man, but even a socialist and revolutionist. Hypocrisy, which formerly used to have a religious foundation in the doctrine about the fall of the human race, about redemption, and about the church, in this teaching received in our time a new scientific foundation, and so has caught in its net all those men who from the degree of their development can no longer fall back on the religious hypocrisy. Thus, if formerly only a man who pro- fessed the ecclesiastic religious doctrine could, considering himself with it pure from every sin, take part in all kinds of crimes committed by the government, and make use of them, so long as he at the same time fulfilled the external demands of his profession, now all men, who do not be- lieve in the church Christianity, have the same kind of a worldly scientific basis for recognizing themselves as pure, and even highly moral men, in spite of their participation in the evil deeds of the state and of their making use of them. There lives — not in Russia alone, but anywhere you please, in France, England, Germany, America — a rich landed proprietor, and for the right which he gives to certain people living on his land, to draw their sustenance from it, he fleeces these for the most part hungry people to their fullest extent. This man's right to the posses- sion of the land is based on this, that at every attempt of the oppressed people at making use of the lands which he considers his own, witliout his consent, there arrive some troops which subject the men who have seized the lands to tortures and extermination. One would think that it is evident that a man who lives in this manner is an ego- tistical being and in no way can call himself a Christian or a liberal. It would seem to be obvious that the first 346 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU thing such a man ought to do, if he only wants in some way to come near to Christianity or to liberalism, would be to stop plundering and ruining men by means of his ■ right to the land, which is supported by murders and tor- tures practised by the government. Thus it would be if there did not exist the metaphysics of hypocrisy, which says that from a religious point of view the possession or non-possession of the land is a matter of indifference as regards salvation, and that from the scientific point of view the renunciation of the ownership of land would be a useless personal effort, and that the cooperation with the good of men is not accomplished in this manner, but through the gradual change of external forms. And so this man, without the least compunction, and without any misgivings as to his being believed, arranges an agricul- tural exhibition, or a temperance society, or through his wife and children sends jackets and soup to three old women, and in his family, in drawing-rooms, committees, the press, boldly preaches the Gospel or humane love of one's neighbour in general, and of that working agri- cultural class in particular which he constantly torments and oppresses. And the men who are in the same condi- tion with him believe him, praise him, and with him solemnly discuss the questions as to what measures should be used for the amelioration of the condition of the work- ing masses, on the spoliation of whom their hfe is based, inventing for the purpose all kinds of means, except the one without which no amelioration of the people's condi- tion is possible, of ceasing to take away from these people the land, which is necessary for their maintenance. A most striking example of such hypocrisy is to be found in the measures taken last year by the Kussian landed proprietors in the struggle with the famine, which they themselves had produced, and which they immedi- ately set out to exploit, when they not only sold the corn at the highest possible price, but even sold to the freezing THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 34' \ peasants as fuel the potato-tops at five roubles per des- yatiua. Or there lives a merchant, whose whole commerce, like any commerce, is based on a series of rascalities, by means of which, exploiting the ignorance and need of men, arti- cles are bought of them below their value, and, again ex- ploiting the ignorance, need, and temptation of men, are sold back at prices above their value. It would seem to be obvious that a man whose activity is based on what in his own language is called rascality, so long as these same acts are performed under difi'erent conditions, ought to be ashamed of his position, and is by no means able, continuing to be a merchant, to represent himself as a Christian or a liberal. But the metaphysics of hypocrisy says to him that he may pass for a virtuous man, even though continuing his harmful activity : a religious man need only be believed, but a liberal has only to cooperate with the change of external conditions, — the progress of industry. And so this merchant, who frequently, in addi- tion, performs a whole series of direct rascalities, by selling bad wares for good ones, cheating in weights and meas- ures, or trading exclusively in articles which are perui- cious to the people's health (such as wine or opium), boldly considers himself, and is considered by others, so loug as he in business does not directly cheat his fellows in deception, that is, his fellow merchants, to be a model of honesty and couscientiousness. If he spends one-thou- sandth of the money stolen by him on some public insti- tution, a hospital, a museum, an institution of learning, he is also regarded as a benefactor of those very people on the deception and corruption of whom all his fortune is based ; but if he contributes part of his stolen money to a church and for the poor, he is regarded even as a model Christian. Or there lives a manufacturer, whose whole income con- sists of the pay which is taken away from the workmen, 348 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU and whose whole activity is based on compulsory, unnatural labour, which ruins whole generations of men ; it would seem to be obvious that first of all, if this man professes any Christian or liberal principles, he must stop ruining human lives for the sake of his profit. But according to the existing theory, he is contributing to industry, and he must not — it would even be injurious to men and to society — stop his activity. And here this man, the cruel slaveholder of thousands of men, building for those who have been crippled while working for him little houses with little gardens five feet square, and a savings-bank, and a poorhouse, and a hospital, is fully convinced that in this way he has more than paid for all those physically and mentally ruined lives of men, for which he is re- sponsible, and quietly continues his activity, of which he is proud. Or there lives a head of a department, or some civil, clerical, military servant of the state, who serves for the purpose of satisfying his ambition or love of power, or, what is most common, for the purpose of receiving a salary, which is collected from the masses that are emaci- ated and exhausted with labour (taxes, no matter from whom they come, always originate in labour, that is, in the labouring people), and if he, which is extremely rare, does not directly steal the government's money in some unusual manner, he considers himself and is considered by others like him to be a most useful and virtuous member of society. There lives some judge, prosecutor, head of a depart- ment, and he knows that as the result of his sentence or decree hundreds and thousands of unfortunate people, torn away from their families, are lingering in solitary confine- ment, at hard labour, going mad and killing themselves with glass, or starving to death ; he knows that these thousands of people have thousands of mothers, wives, children, who are suffering from the separation, are de- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 349 prived of the possibility of meeting them, are disgraced, vainly implore forgiveness or even alleviation of the fates of their fathers, sons, husbands, brothers, — and the judge or head of a department is so hardened in his hypocrisy that he himself and his like and their wives and relatives are firmly convinced that he can with all this be a very good and sensitive man. According to the metaphysics of hypocrisy, it turns out that he is doing useful public work. And this man, having ruined hundreds, thousands of men, who curse him, and who are in despair, thanks to his activity, believing in the good and in God, with a beaming, benevolent smile on his smooth face, goes to mass, hears the Gospel, makes liberal speeches, pets his children, preaches to them morality, and feels meek of spirit in the presence of imaginary sufferings. All these men and those who live on them, their wives, teachers, children, cooks, actors, jockeys, and so forth, live by the blood which in one way or another, by one class of leeches or by another, is sucked out of the working peo- ple ; thus they live, devouring each day for their pleasures hundreds and thousands of work-days of the exhausted labourers, who are driven to work by the threat of being killed ; they see the privations and sufferings of these labourers, of their children, old men, women, sick people ; they know of the penalties to which the violators of this established spoliation are subjected, and they not only do not diminish their luxury, do not conceal it, but impu- dently display before these oppressed labourers, who for the most part hate them, as though on purpose to provoke them, their parks, castles, theatres, chases, races, and at the same time assure themselves and one another that they are all very much concerned about the good of the masses, whom they never stop treading underfoot ; and on Sundays they dress themselves in costly attire and drive in expensive carriages into houses especially built for the purpose of making fun of Christianity, and there listen to 350 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU men especially trained in this lie, who in every manner possible, in vestments and without vestments, in white ' neckties, preach to one another the love of men, which they all deny with their whole lives. And, while doing all this, these men so enter into their parts that they seriously believe that they actually are what they pretend to be. The universal hypocrisy, which has entered into the flesh and blood of all the classes of our time, has reached such limits that nothing of this kind ever fills any one with indignation. Hypocrisy with good reason means the same as acting, and anybody can pretend, — act a part. Nobody is amazed at such phenomena as that the suc- cessors of Christ bless the murderers who are lined up and hold the guns which are loaded for their brothers ; that the priests, the pastors of all kinds of Christian confes- sions, always, as inevitably as the executioners, take part in executions, with their presence recognizing the murder as compatible with Christianity (at an electrocution in America, a preacher was present). Lately there was an international prison exhibition in St. Petersburg, where implements of torture were ex- hibited, such as manacles, models of solitary cells, that is, worse implements of torture than knouts and rods, and sensitive gentlemen and ladies went to look at all this, and they enjoyed the sight. Nor is any one surprised at the way the liberal science proves, by the side of the assumption of equality, fraternity, liberty, the necessity of an army, of executions, custom- houses, the censorship, the regulation of prostitution, the expulsion of cheap labour, and the prohibition of immigra- tion, and the necessity and justice of colonization, which is based on the poisoning, plundering, and destruction of whole tribes of men who are called savage, and so forth. People talk of what will happen when all men shall profess w^hat is called Christianity (that is, various THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 351 mutually hostile professions) ; when all shall be well fed and well clothed ; when all shall be united with one another from one end of the world to the other by means of telegraphs and telephones, and shall communicate with one another by means of balloons ; when all the labourers shall be permeated with social teachings, and the labour- unions shall have collected so many millions of members and of roubles ; when all men shall be cultured, and all shall read the papers and know the sciences. But of what use or good can all these improvements be, if people shall not at the same time speak and do what they consider to be the truth ? The calamities of men are certainly due to their dis- union, and the disunion is due to this, that men do not follow the truth, which is one, but the lies, of which there are many. The only means for the union of men into one is the union in truth ; and so, the more sincerely men strive toward the truth, the nearer ihey are to this union. But how can men be united in truth, or even approach it, if they not only do not express the truth which they know, but even think that it is unnecessary to do so, and pretend that they consider to be the truth what they do not regard as the truth. And so no amelioration of the condition of men is pos- sible, so long as men will pretend, that is, conceal the truth from themselves, so long as they do not recognize that their union, and so their good, is possible only in the truth, and so will not place the recognition and profession of the truth, the one which has been revealed to them, higher than anything else. Let all those external improvements, of which religious and scientific men may dream, be accomplished ; let all men accept Christianity, and let all those ameliorations, whicli all kinds of Bellamys and Richets wish for, take place, with every imaginable addition and correction — but let with all that the same hypocrisy remain as before ; let mou 352 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU not profess the truth which they know, but continue to pretend that they believe in what they really do not believe, and respect what they really do not respect, and the condition of men will not only remain the same, but will even grow worse and worse. The more people shall have to eat, the more there shall be of telegraphs, tele- phones, books, newspapers, journals, the more means will there be for the dissemination of discordant lies and of hypocrisy, and the more will men be disunited and, there- fore, wretched, as is indeed the case at present. Let all these external changes take place, and the condi- tion of humanity will uot improve. But let each man at once in his life, according to his strength, profess the truth, as he knows it, or let him at least not defend the untruth, which he does, giving it out as the truth, and there would at once, in this present year 1893, take place such changes in the direction of the emancipation of men and the establishment of truth upon earth as we do not dare even to dream of for centuries to come. For good reason Christ's only speech which is not meek, but reproachful and cruel, was directed to the hyp- ocrites and against hypocrisy. What corrupts, angers, bestiaJizes, and, therefore, disunites men, is not thieving, nor spoliation, nor murder, nor fornication, nor forgery, but the lie, that especial lie of hypocrisy which in the consciousness of men destroys the distinction between good and evil, deprives them of the possibility of avoid- ing the evil and seeking the good, deprives them of what forms the essence of the true human life, and so stands in the way of every perfection of men. Men who do not know the truth and who do evil, awakening in others a sympathetic feeling for their vic- tims and a contempt for their acts, do evil only to those whom they injure ; but the men who know the truth and do the evil, which is concealed under hypocrisy, do evil to themselves and to those whom they injure, and to thou- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 353 sands of others who are offended by the lie, with which they attempt to conceal the evil done by them. Thieves, plunderers, murderers, cheats, who commit acts that are recognized as evil by themselves and by all men, serve as an example of what ought not to be done, and deter men from evil. But the men who commit the same act of thieving, plundering, torturing, killing, man- tling themselves with religious and scientific liberal justi- fications, as is done by all landed proprietors, merchants, manufacturers, and all kinds of servants of the govern- ment of our time, invite others to emulate their acts, and do evil, not only to those who suffer from it, but also to thousands and milhons of men, whom they cor- rupt, by destroying for these men the difference between good and evil. One fortune acquired by the trade in articles necessary for the masses or by corrupting the people, or by specula- tions on 'Change, or by the acquisition of cheap land, which later grows more expensive on account of the popular want, or by the establishment of plants ruining the health and the life of men, or by civil or military serviqp to the state, or by any means which pamper to the vices of men — a fortune gained by such means, not only with the consent, but even with the approval of the leaders of society, corrupts people incomparably more than millions of thefts, rascalities, plunderings, which are committed outside the forms recognized by law and subject to criminal prosecution. One execution, which is performed by well-to-do, cul- tured men, not under the influence of passion, but with the approval and cooperation of Christian pastors, and presented as something necessary, corrupts and bestializes men more than hundreds and thousands of murders, com- mitted by uncultured labouring men, especially under the incitement of passion. An execution, such as Zhu- kovski proposed to arrange, when men, as Zhukovski 354 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU assumed, would even experience a religious feeling of meekness of spirit, would be the most corrupting action that can be imagined. (See Vol. VI. of Zhukovski's Connplete Works.) Every war, however short its duration, with its usual accompanying losses, destruction of the crops, thieving, admissible debauchery, looting, murders, with the in- vented justifications of its necessity and its justice, with the exaltation and eulogizing of military exploits, of love of flag and country, with the hypocritical cares for the wounded, and so forth, corrupts in one year more than do millions of robberies, incendiarisms, murders, committed in the course of hundreds of years by individual men under the influence of the passions. One luxurious life, running temperately within the lim- its of decency, on the part of one respectable, so-called virtuous, family, which, none the less, spends on itself the products of as many labouring days as would suffice for the support of thousands of people living in misery side by side with this family, corrupts people more than do thousands of monstrous orgies of coarse merchants, officers, labouring men, who abandon themselves to drunkenness and debauchery, who for fun break mirrors, dishes, and so forth. One solemn procession, Te Deum, or sermon from the ambo or pulpit, dealing with a lie in which the preachers themselves do not beheve, produces incomparably more evil than do thousands of forgeries and adulterations of food, and so forth. We talk of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. But the hypocrisy of the men of our time far surpasses the com- paratively innocent hypocrisy of the Pharisees. They had at least an external religious law, in the fulfilment of which they could overlook their obligations in relation to their neighbours, and, besides, these obligations were at that time not yet clearly pointed out ; in our time, in the THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 355 first place, there is no such religious law which frees men from their obligations to their neighbours, to all their neighbours without exception (I do not count those coarse and stupid men who even now think that sacra- ments or the decision of the Pope can absolve one from sins) : on the contrary, that Gospel law, which we all pro- fess in one way or another, directly points out these obligations, and besides these obligations, which at that time were expressed in dim words by only a few prophets, are now expressed so clearly that they have become tru- isms, which are repeated by gymnasiasts and writers of feuilletons. And so the men of our time, it would seem, cannot possibly pretend that they do not know these their obligations. The men of our time, who exploit the order of things which is supported by violence, and who at the same time assert that they are very fond of their neighbours, and entirely fail to observe that they are with their whole lives doing evil to these their neighbours, are like a man who Itas incessantly robbed people, and who, being finally caught with his knife raised over his victim, who is calling for aid in a desperate voice, should assert that he did not know that what he was doing was unpleasant for him whom he was robbing and getting ready to kill. Just as this robber and murderer cannot deny what is obvious to all men, so, it would seem, it is impossible for the men of our time, who live at the expense of the sufferings of op- pressed men, to assure themselves and others that they wish for the good of those men whom they rob inces- santly, and that they did not know in what manner they acquire what they use as their own. It is impossible for us to believe that we do not know of those one hundred thousand men in Russia alone, who are always locked up in prisons and at hard labour, for the purpose of securing our property and our peace ; and that we do not know of those courts, in which we our- 356 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU selves take part, and which in consequence of our petitions sentence the men who assault our property or endanger our security to imprisonment, deportation, and hard labour, where the men, who are in no way worse than those who sentence them, perish and are corrupted ; that we do not know that everything we have we have only because it is acquired and secured for us by means of murders and tortures. We cannot pretend that we do not see the policeman who walks in front of the windows with a loaded revolver, defending us, while we eat our savoury dinner or view a new performance, or those soldiers who will immediately go with their guns and loaded cartridges to where our property will be violated. We certainly know that if we shall finish eating our dinner, or seeing the latest drama, or having our fun at a ball, at the Christmas tree, at the skating, at the races, or at the chase, we do so only thanks to the Ijullet in the policeman's revolver and in the soldier's gun, which will at once bore a hole through the hungry stomach of the dispossessed man who, with watering mouth, is staying around the corner and watching our amusements, and is prepared to violate them the moment the policeman with the revolver shall go away, or as soon as there shall be no soldier in the barracks ready to appear at our first call. And so, just as a man caught in broad daylight in a robbery can in no way assure all men that he did not raise his hand over the man about to be robbed by him, in order to take his purse from him, and did not threaten to cut his throat, so we, it would seem, cannot assure our- selves and others that the soldiers and policemen with the revolvers are all about us, not in order to protect us, but to defend us against external enemies, for the sake of order, for ornament, amusement, and parades ; and that we did not know that men do not like to starve, having no right to make a living off the land on which they live, do not like to work undergi-ound, in the water, in hellish THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 357 heat, from ten to fourteen hours a day, and in the night, in all kinds of factories and plants, for the purpose of manufacturing articles for our enjoyment. It would seem to be impossible to deny that which is so obvious. And yet it is precisely what is being done. Though there are among the rich some honest people, — fortunately I meet more and more of them, especially among the young and among women, — who, at the men- tion of how and with what their pleasures are bought, do not try to conceal the truth, and grasp their heads and say, " Oh, do not speak of it. If it is so, it is impossible to go on living ; " though there are such sincere people, who, unable to free themselves from their sin, none the less see it, the vast majority of the men of our time have so entered into their rule of hypocrisy, that they boldly deny what is so startlingly obvious to every seeing person. " All this is unjust," they say ; " nobody compels the people to work for the proprietors and in factories. This is a cfuestion of free agreement. Large possessions and capital are indispensable, because they organize labour and give work to the labouring classes ; and the w'ork in the factories and plants is not at all as terrible as you imagine it to be. If there are some abuses in the fac- tories, the government and society will see to it that they be removed and that the work be made still more easy and even more agreeable for the labourers. The working people are used to physical labour, and so far are not good for anything else. The poverty of the masses is not at all due to the ownership of land, nor to the ojtpression of capital, but to other causes : it is due to tlie ignorance, the coarseness, the drunkenness of the masses. We, the men of state, who are counteracting this impoverishment by wise enactments, and we, the capitalists, who are counter- acting it by the dissemination of useful inventions, we, the clergy, by religious instruction, and we, the liberals, 358 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU by the establishment of labour-unions, the increase and diffusion of knowledge, in this manner, without changing our position, increase the welfare of the masses. We do not want all men to be poor, like the poor, but want them to be rich, like the rich. The statement that men are tortured and killed to compel them to work for the rich is nothing but sophistry ; troops are sent out against the masses only when they, misunderstanding their advan- tages, become riotous and disturb the peace, which is necessary for the common good. Just as much do we need the curbing of malefactors, for whom are intended the prisons, gallows, and hard labour. We should our- selves like to do away with them, and we are working in this direction." The hypocrisy of our time, which is supported from two sides, by the quasi-religion and the quasi-science, has reached such a point that, if we did not live in the midst of it, we should not be able to believe that men could reach such a degree of self-deception. The people have in our time reached the remarkable state when their hearts are so hardened that they look and do not see, that they listen and do not hear or understand. Men have long been living a life which is contrary to their consciousness. If it were not for hypocrisy, they would not be able to live this life. This order of life, which is contrary to their consciousness, is continued only because it is hidden under hypocrisy. The more the distance is growing between reality and tlie consciousness of men, the more does hypocrisy ex- pand, but there are limits even to hypocrisy, and it seems to me that in our time we have reached that limit. Every man of our time, with the Christian conscious- ness, which is involuntarily acquired by him, finds him- self in a situation which is exactly like that of a sleeping man, who sees in his sleep that he must do what he knows even in his sleep is not right for him to do. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN' TOU 359 He knows this in the very depth of his heart, and yet, as though unable to change his position, he cannot stop and cease doing what he knows he ought not to do. And, as happens in sleep, his condition, becoming more and more agonizing, finally reaches the utmost degree of tension, aud then he begins to doubt the reality of what presents itself to him, and he makes an effort of consciousness, in order to break the spell that holds him fettered. In the same condition is the average man of our Chris- tian world. He feels that everything which is done by himself and about him is something insipid, monstrous, impossible, and contrary to his consciousness, that this condition is becoming more and more agonizing, and has reached the utmost limit of tension. It cannot be : it cannot be that the men of our time, with our Christian consciousness of the dignity of man, the equality of men, which has permeated our flesh and blood, with our need for a peaceful intercourse and union among the nations, should actually be living in such a way that every joy of ours, every comfort, should be paid for by the sufferings, the lives of our brothers, and that we, besides, should every moment be within a hair's breadtli of throwing ourselves, like wild beasts, upon one another, nation upon nation, mercilessly destroying labour and life, for no other reason than that sonic deluded di- plomatist or ruler has said or written something stupid to another dehuled diplomatist or ruler hke himself. It cannot be. And yet every man of our time sees thnt it is precisely what is being done, and that the same thing awaits him. The state of affairs is getting more and more agonizing. As the man in his sleep does not believe that what pre- sents itself to him as reality is actually real, and wants to awaken to the other, the actual reality, so also the average man of our time cannot in the depth of his heart believe that the terrible state in which he is, and which is getting 360 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU worse and worse, is the reality, and he wants to awaken to the actual reality, the reality of the consciousness which already abides in him. And as the man asleep needs but make an effort of his consciousness and ask himself whether it is not a dream, in order that what to him appeared as such a hopeless state may be at once destroyed, and he may awaken to a calm and joyous reality, even so the modern man needs only make an effort of his consciousness, needs only doubt in the reality of what his own and the surrounding hypoc- risy presents to him, and ask himself whether it is not all a deception, in order that he may immediately feel him- self at once passing over, like the awakened man, from the imaginary, terrible world to the real, to the calm and joyous reality. This man need not perform any acts or exploits, but has only to make an internal effort of consciousness. Cannot man make this effort ? According to the existing theory, indispensable for hypocrisy, man is not free and cannot change his life. " Man cannot change his life, because he is not free ; he is not free, because all of his acts are conditioned by previous causes. No matter what a man may do, there always exist these or those causes, from which the man has committed these or those acts, and so man cannot be free and himself change his life," say the defenders of the metaphysics of hypocrisy. They would be abso- lutely right, if man were an unconscious being, immovable in relation to truth ; that is, if, having once come to know the truth, he always remained on the selfsame stage of his cognition. But man is a conscious being, recognizing a higher and still higher degree of the truth, and so, if a man is not free in the commission of this or that act, because THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN TOU 361 for every act there exists a cause, the very causes of these acts, which for conscious man consist in his recognizing this or that truth as an adequate cause for his action, are within man's power. Thus man, who is not free in the commission of these or those acts, is free as regards the basis for his acts, something as the engineer of a locomotive, who is not free as regards the change of an accomplished or actual motion of the locomotive, is none the less free in deter- mining beforehand its future motions. No matter what a conscious man may do, he acts in this way or that, and not otherwise, only because he either now recognizes that the truth is that he ought to act as he does, or because he formerly recognized it, and now from inertia, from habit, acts in a manner which now he recognizes to be false. In either case the cause of his act was not a given pheno^nenon, but the recognition of a given condition as the truth and, consequently, the recognition of this or that phenomenon as an adequate cause of his act. Wliether a man eats or abstains from food, whether he works or rests, runs from danger or is subject to it, if he is a conscious man, he acts as he does only because he now considers this to be proper and rational : he con- siders the truth to consist in his acting this way, and not otherwise, or he has considered it so for a long time. The recognition of a certain truth or the non-recognition of it does not depend on external causes, but on some others, which are in man himself. Thus with all the external, apparently advantageous conditions for the recog- nition of truth, one man at times does not recognize it, and, on the contrary, another, under all the most unfa- vourable conditions, without any apparent cause, does recognize it. As it says in the Gospel : " No man can come to me, except the Father draw him " (John vi. 44), 362 THE KINGDOM OF GOD JS WITHIN YOU that is, the recognition of the truth, which forms the cause of all the phenomena of human life, does not depend on external phenomena, but on some internal qualities of man, which are not subject to his observation. And so a man, who is not free in his acts, always feels himself free in what serves as the cause of his actions, — in the recognition or non-recognition of the truth, and feels himself free, not only independently of external conditions taking place outside him, but even of liis own acts. Thus a man, having under the influence of passion committed an act which is contrary to the cognized truth, none the less remains free in its recognition or non-rec- ognition, that is, he can, without recognizing the truth, regard his act as necessary arjd justify himself in its com- mission, and can, by recognizing the truth, consider his act bad and condemn it in himself. Thus a gambler or a drunkard, who has not withstood temptation and has succumbed to his passion, remains none the less free to recognize his gambling or his intoxi- cation either as an evil or as an indifferent amusement. In the first case, he, though not at once, frees himself from his passion, the more, as he the more sincerely recognizes the truth ; in the second, he strengthens his passion and deprives himself of every possibility of liberation. Even so a man, who could not stand the heat and ran out of a burning house without having saved his compan- ion, remains free (by recognizing the truth that a man must serve the lives of others at the risk of his own life) to consider his act bad, and so to condemn himself for it, or (by not recognizing this truth) to consider his act natural, and necessary, and to justify himself in it. In the first case, in recognizing the truth, he, in spite of his departure from it, prepares for himseK a whole series of self-sacrificing acts, which inevitably must result from such a recognition ; in the second case, he prepares a THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 363 whole series of egotistical acts, which are opposed to the first. Not that a man is always free to recognize every truth, or not. There are truths which have long ago been rec- ognized by a man himself or have been transmitted to him by education and tradition, and have been taken by him on faith, the execution of which has become to him a habit, a second nature ; and there are truths which pre- sent themselves to him indistinctly, in the distance. A man is equally unfree in the non-recognition of the first and the recognition of the second. But there is a third class of truths, which have not yet become for man an unconscious motive for his activity, but which at the same time have already revealed themselves to him with such lucidity that he cannot evade them, and must inevi- tably take up this or that relation to them, by recognizing or not recognizing them. It is in relation to these same truths that man's freedom is manifested. Every man finds himself in his life in relation to truth in the position of a wanderer who walks in the dark by the light of a lantern moving in front of him : he does not see what is not yet illuminated by the lantern, nor what he has passed over and what is again enveloped in dark- ness, and it is not in his power to change his relation to either ; but he sees, no matter on what part of the path he may stand, what is illuminated by the lantern, and it is always in his power to select one side of the road on which he is moving, or the other. For every man there always are truths, invisible to him, which have not yet been revealed to his mental vision ; there are other truths, already outlived, forgotten, and made his own ; and there are certain truths which have arisen before him in the light of his reason and which demand his recognition. It is in the recognition or non- recognition of these truths that there is manifested what we cognize as our freedom. 364 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU The whole difficulty aud seeming insolubility of the question about man's freedom is due to this, that the men who decide this question present man to themselves as immovable in relation to truth. Man is unquestionably not free, if we represent him to ourselves as immovable, if we forget that the life of man and of humanity is only a constant motion from darkness to the light, from the lower stage of the truth to the higher, from a truth which is mixed with errors to a truth which is more free from them. Man would not be free, if he did not know any truth, and he would not be free and would not even have any idea about freedom, if the whole truth, which is to guide him in his life, were revealed to him in all its purity, without any admixture of errors. But man is not immovable in relation to truth, and every individual man, as also all humanity, in proportion to its movement in life, constantly cognizes a greater and ever gi-eater degree of the truth, and is more and more freed from error. Therefore men always are in a threefold relation to truth : one set of truths has been so acquired by them that these truths have become unconscious causes of their actions, others have only begun to be revealed to them, and the third, though not yet made their own, are revealed to them with such a degree of lucidity that inevitably, in one way or another, they must take up some stand in relation to them, must recognize them, or not. It is in the recognition or non-recognition of these truths that man is free. Man's freedom does nofconsist in this, that he can, independently of the course of his life and of causes already existing and acting upon him, commit arbitrary acts, but in this, that he can, by recognizing the truth revealed to him and by professing it, become a free and joyous performer of the eternal and infinite act performed THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 365 by God or Ihe life of the world, and can, by not recogniz- ing the truth, become its slave and be forcibly and painfully drawn in a direction which he does not wish to take. Truth not only indicates the path of human life, but also reveals that one path, on which human life can pro- ceed. And so all men will inevitably, freely or not freely, walk on the path of life : some, by naturally doing the work of life destined for them, others, by involuntarily submitting to the law of life. Man's freedom is in this choice. Such a freedom, within such narrow limits, seems to men to be so insignificant that they do not notice it : some (the determinists) consider this portion of freedom to be so small that they do not recognize it at all ; others, the defenders of complete freedom, having in view their imaginary freedom, neglect this seemingly insignificant degree of freedom. The freedom which is contained between the limits of the ignorance of the truth and of the recognition of a certain degree of it does not seem to men to be any freedom, the more so since, whether a man wants to recognize the truth which is revealed to him or not, he inevitably will be compelled to fulfil it in life. A horse that is hitched with others to a wagon is not free not to walk in front of the wagon ; and if it will not draw, the wagon will strike its legs, and it will go whither the wagon goes, and will pull it involuntarily. But, in spite of this limited freedom, it is free itself to pull the wagon or be dragged along by it. The same is true of man. Whether this freedom is great or not, in comparison with that fantastic freedom which we should like to have, this freedom unquestionably exists, and this freedom is freedom, and in this freedom is contained the good which is accessible to man. Not only does this freedom give the good to men, but 366 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU it is also the one means for the accomplishment of the work which is done by the life of the v*'orld. According to Christ's teaching, the man who sees the meaning of life in the sphere in which it is not free, in the sphere of consequences, that is, of acts, has not the true life. According to the Christian teaching, only he has the true life who has transferred his life into that sphere in which it is free, into the sphere of causes, that is, of the cognition and the recognition of the truth which is revealing itself, of its profession, and so inevitably of its consequent fulfilment as the wagon's following the horse. In placing his life in carnal things, a man does that work which is always in dependence on spatial and tem- poral causes, which are outside of him. He himself really does nothing, — it only seems to him that he is doing something, but in reality all those things which it seems to him he is doing are done through him by a higher power, and he is not the creator of life, but its slave ; but in placing his life in the recognition and profession of the truth that is revealed to him, he, by uniting with the source of the universal life, does not do personal, private works, which depend on conditions of space and time, but works which have no causes and themselves form causes of everything else, and have an endless, unlimited sig- nificance. By neglecting the essence of the true life, which con- sists in the recognition and profession of the truth, and by straining their efforts for the amelioration of their lives upon external acts, the men of the pagan life-concep- tion are like men on a boat, who, in order to reach their goal, should put out the boiler, which keeps them from distributing the oarsmen, and, instead of proceeding under steam and screw, should try in a storm to row with oars that do not reach to the water. The kingdom of God is taken by force and only those who make an effort get hold of it, — and it is this effort THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 367 of the renunciation of the change of the external condi- tions for the recognition and profession of truth which is the effort by means of which the kingdom of God is taken and which must and can be made in our time. Men need but understand this : they need but stop troubhng themselves about external and general matters, in which they are not free, and use but one hundredth part of the energy, which they employ on external mat- ters, on what they are free in, on the recognition and pro- fession of the truth which stands before them, on the emancipation of themselves and of men from the lie and hypocrisy which conceal the truth, in order that without effort and struggle there should at once be destroyed that false structure of life which torments people and threatens them with still worse calamities, and that there should be reahzed that kingdom of God or at least that first step of it, for which men are already prepared according to their consciousness. Just as one jolt is sufficient for a liquid that is satu- rated with salt suddenly to become crystallized, thus, per- haps, the smallest effort will suffice for the truth, which is already revealed to men, to take hold of hundreds, thousands, millions of men, — for a public opinion to be established to correspond to the consciousness, and, in con- sequence of its establishment, for tlie whole structure of the existing life to be changed. And it depends on us to make this effort. If every one of us would only try to understand and recognize the Christian truth which surrounds us on all sides in the most varied forms, and begs for admission into our souls ; if we only stopped lying and pretending that we do not see that truth, or that we wish to carry it out, only not in what it first of all demands of us ; if we only recognized the truth which calls us and boldly professed it, we should immediately see that hundreds, thousands, millions of men are in the same condition that we are in, 368 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU that they see the truth, just as we do, aud that, like us, they are only waiting for others to recognize it. If men only stopped being hypocritical, they would see at once that the cruel structure of life, which alone binds them and which presents itself to them as something firm, indispensable, and sacred, as something established by God, is shaking already and is holding only by that lie of hypocrisy by means of which we and our like sup- port it. But if this is so, if it is true that it depends on us to destroy the existing order of life, have we the right to destroy it, without knowing clearly what we shall put in its place ? What will become of the world, if the existing order of things shall be destroyed ? " What will be there, beyond the walls of the world which we leave behind ? " (Herzen's words.) " Terror seizes us, — the void, expanse, freedom. . . . How can we go, without knowing whither ? How can we lose, without seeing any acquisition ? " If Columbus had reflected thus, he would never have weighed anchor. It is madness to sail the sea without knowing the way, to sail the sea no one has traversed be- fore, to make for a country, the existence of which is a question. With this madness he discovered a new world. Of course, if the nations could move from one hdtel garni into another, a better one, it would be easier, but unfortunately there is no one to arrange the new quarters. In the future it is worse than on the sea, — there is nothing, — it will be what circumstances and men make it. " If you are satisfied with the old world, try to preserve it, — it is very decrepit and will not last long ; but if it is unbearable for you to live in an eternal discord between convictions and life, to think one thing and do another, come out from under the whited mediaeval vaults at your risk. I know full well that this is not easy. It is not THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 369 a trifling matter to part from everything a man is accus- tomed to from the day of his birth, with what he has grown up with from childhood. Men are prepared for terrible sacrifices, but not for those which the new life demands of them. Are they prepared to sacrifice modern civilization, their manner of life, their religion, the accepted conventional morality ? Are they prepared to be deprived of all the fruits which have been worked out with such efforts, of the fruits we have been boasting of for three centuries, to be deprived of all the comforts and charms of our existence, to prefer wild youth to cultured debility, to break up their inherited palace from the mere pleasure of taking part in laying the foundation for the new house, which will, no doubt, be built after us ? " (Herzen, Vol. v., p. 55.) Thus spoke almost half a century ago a Russian author, who with his penetrating mind even at that time saw very clearly what now is seen by the least reflecting man of our time, — the impossibility of continuing hfe on its former foundations, and the necessity for establishing some new forms of life. From the simplest, lowest, worldly point of view it is already clear that it is madness to remain under the vault of a building, which does not sustain its weight, and that it is necessary to leave it. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a state which is more wretched than the one in which is now the Christian world, with its nations armed against each other, with the ever growing taxes for the support of these ever growing armaments, with the hatred of the labouring class against the rich, which is being fanned more and more, with Damocles's sword of war hanging over all, and ready at any moment to drop down, and inevitably certain to do so sooner or later. Hardly any revolution can be more wretched for the great mass of the people than the constantly existing order, or rather disorder, of our life, with its habitual sac- 370 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU rifices of unnatural labour, poverty, drunkenness, debauch- ery, and with all the horrors of an imminent war, which is in one year to swallow up more victims than all the revolutions of the present century. What will happen with us, with all humanity, when each one of us shall perform what is demanded of him by God through the conscience which is implanted in him ? Will there be no calamity, because, finding myself entirely in the power of the Master, I in the establishment built up and guided by Him shall do what He commands me to do, but what seems strange to me, who do not know the final ends of the Master ? ■, But it is not even this question as to what will happen that troubles men, when they hesitate to do the Master's will: they are troubled by the question as to how they could live without those conditions of their life which they have become accustomed to, and which we call science, art, civilization, culture. We feel for ourselves personally the whole burden of the present life, we even see that the order of this life, if continued, will inevitably cause our ruin ; but, at the same time, we want the condi- tions of this our life, which have grown out of it, our arts, sciences, civilizations, cultures, to remain unharmed in the change of our life. It is as though a man living in an old house, suffering from the cold and the inconveniences of this house, and knowing, besides, that this house is about to falKin, should consent to its rebuilding only on condition that he should not come out of it : a condition which is equal to a refusal to rebuild the house. " What if I leave the house, for a time am deprived of all com- forts, and the new house will not be built at all or will be built in such a way that it will lack what I am used to?" But, if the material is on hand and the builders are there, all the probabihties are in favour of the new house being better than the old one, and at the same time there THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 371 is not only a probability, but even a certainty, that the old house will fall in and will crush those who are left in it. Whether the former, habitual conditions of life will be retained, whether they will be destroyed, or whether entirely new ones, better ones, will arise, it is inevitably necessary to leave the old conditions of our life, which have become impossible and pernicious, and to go ahead and meet the future conditions. " The sciences, arts, civilizations, and cultures will disappear ! " All these are only different manifestations of the truth, and the imminent change is to take place only in the name of an approximation to truth and its realization. How, then, can the manifestations of the truth disappear in consequence of its realization ? They will be different, better, and higher, but they will by no means be destroyed. What will be destroyed in them is what is false ; but what there was of truth in them will only blossom out and be strengthened. Come to your senses, men, and believe in the Gospel, in the teaching of the good. If you shall not come to your senses, you will all perish, as perished the men who were killed by Pilate, as perished those who were crushed by the tower of Siloam, as perished millions and millions of men, slayers and slain, executioners and executed, tor- mentors and tormented, and as foolishly perished that man who filled up his granaries and prepared himself to live for a long time, and died the same night on which he wanted to begin his new life. " Come to your senses and believe in the Gospel," Christ said eighteen hundred years ago, and says now with even greater convincingness, through the utter wretchedness and irrationahty of our life, predicted by Him and now an accomplished fact. Now, after so many centuries of vain endeavours tu 372 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITniN YOU make our life secure by means of the pagan institution of violence, it would seem to be absolutely obvious to everybody that all the efforts which are directed toward this end only introduce new dangers into our personal and social life, but in no way make it secure. No matter what we may call ourselves ; what attires we may put on ; what we may smear ourselves with, and in the presence of what priests ; how many millions we may have ; what protection there may be along our path ; how many policemen may protect our wealth ; how much we may execute the so-called revolutionary malefactors and anarchists ; what exploits we ourselves may perform ; what kingdoms we may found, and what fortresses and towers we may erect, from that of Babel to that of Eiffel, — we are all of us at all times confronted by two inevi- table conditions of our Hfe, which destroy its whole mean- ing : (1) by death, which may overtake any of us at any moment, and (2) by the impermanency of all the acts performed by us, which are rapidly and tracklessly des- troyed. No matter what we may do, whether we found kingdoms, build palaces, erect monuments, compose poems, it is but for a short time, and everything passes, without leaving a trace. And so, no matter how much we may conceal the fact from ourselves, we cannot help but see that the meaning of our life can be neither in our personal, carnal existence, which is subject to inevitable sufferings and inevitaMe death, nor in any worldly institution or structure. Whoever you, the reader of these lines, may be, think of your condition and of your duties, — not of the condi- tion of landowner, merchant, judge, emperor, president, minister, priest, soldier, which people temporarily ascribe to you, nor of those imaginary duties, which these posi- tions impose upon you, but of that real, eternal condition of existence, which by somebody's will after a whole eternity of non-existence has issued forth from uncon- THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 373 sciousness, and at any moment by somebody's will may return to where you come from. Think of your duties, — not of your imaginary duties as a landowner to your estate, of a merchant to your capital, of an emperor, min- ister, official to the state, — but of those real duties of yours, which result from your real condition of existence, which is called into life and is endowed with reason and love. Are you doing what is demanded of you by Him who has sent you into the world, and to whom you will very soon return ? Are you doing what He is demanding of you ? Are you doing what is right, when, being a landowner, manufacturer, you take away the productions of labour from the poor, building up your life on this spoliation, or when, being a ruler, a judge, you do violence to people and sentence them to capital punishment, or when, being a soldier, you prepare yourself for wars, and wage war, plunder, and kill ? You say that the world is constructed that way, that this is unavoidable, that you are not doing this of your own will, but that you are compelled to do so. But is it possible that the aversion for human sufferings, for tor- tures, for the killing of men should be so deeply implanted in you ; that you should be so imbued with the necessity for loving men and the still more potent necessity of being loved by them ; that you should clearly see that only with the recognition of the equality of all men, with their mutual service, is possible the realization of the greatest good which is accessible to men ; that your heart, your intellect, the religion professed by you should tell you the same ; that science should tell you the same, — and that, in spite of it, you should be by some very dim, complex considerations compelled to do what is precisely opposed to it ? that, being a landowner or a capitalist, you should be compelled to construct all your hfe on the op- pression of the masses ? or that, being an emperor or a president, you should be compelled to command troops, 374 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU that is, to be the leader and guide of murderers ? or that, being a government official, you should be compelled by violence to take from poor people their hard-earned money, in order to use it yourself and give it to the rich ? or that, being a judge, a juror, you should be compelled to sen- tence erring men to tortures and to death, because the truth has not been revealed to them ? or that, — a thing on which all the evil of the world is chiefly based, — you, every young man, should be compelled to become a sol- dier and, renouncing your own will and all human senti- ments, should promise, at the will of men who are alien to you, to kill all those men whom they may command you to kill ? It cannot be. Even though men tell you that all this is necessary for the maintenance of the existing structure of life ; that the existing order, with its wretchedness, hunger, prisons, executions, armies, wars, is indis]3ensable for society; that, if this order should be impaired, there would come worse calamities, — it is only those to whom this structure of hfe is advantageous that tell you this, while those — and there are ten times as many of them — who are suf- fering from this structure of life think and say the very opposite. You yourself know in the depth of your heart that this is not true, that the existing structure of life has outlived^its time and soon must be reconstructed on new principles, and that, therefore, there is no need to main- tain it, while sacrificing human sentiments. Above all else, even if we admit that the existing order is necessary, why do you feel yourself obliged to maintain it, while trampling on all better human sentiments ? Who has engaged you as a nurse to this decaying order? Neither society, nor the state, nor any men have ever asked you to maintain this order, by holding the place of landowner, merchant, emperor, priest, soldier, which you now hold; and you know full well that you took up THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU o75 your position, uot at all with the self-sacrificing purpose of maintaining an order of life which is indispensable for the good of men, but for your own sake, — for the sake of your greed, love of glory, ambition, indolence, cowardice. If you did not want this position, you would not be doing everything it is necessary for you to do all the time, in order to keep your place. Just try to stop doing those complex, cruel, tricky, and mean things, which you are doing without cessation in order to keep your place, and you will immediately lose it. Just try, while being a ruler or an official, to stop lying, committing base acts, taking part in acts of violence, in executions ; being a priest, to stop deceiving ; being a soldier, to stop killing ; being a landowner, a manufacturer, to stop protecting your property by means of the courts and of violence, — and you will at once lose the position which, you say, is imposed upon you, and which, you say, weighs heavily upon you. It cannot be that a man should be placed against his will in a position which is contrary to his consciousness. If you are in this position, it is not because that is necessary for anybody, but because you want it. And so, knowing tliat this position is directly opposed to your heart, your reason, your faith, and even to science, in which you believe, you cannot help but meditate on the question as to whether you are doing right by staying in this position and, above all, by trying to justify it. You might be able to risk making a mistake, if you had tifme to see and correct your mistake, and if that in the name of which you should take your risk had any importance. ]3ut when you know for certain that you may vanish any second, without tlie slightest chance of correcting the mistake, either for your own sake or for the sake of those whom you will draw into your error, and when you know, besides, that, no matter what you may do in the external structure of the world, it will disappear 376 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU very soon, and just as certainly as you yourself, without leaving any trace, it is obvious to you that you have no reason to risk such a terrible mistake. This is all so simple and so clear, if only we did not with hypocrisy bedim the truth which is revealed to us. " Share with others what you have, do not amass any wealth, do not glorify yourself, do not plunder, do not tor- ture, do not kill any one, do not do unto others what you do not wish to have done to yourself," was said, not eighteen hundred, but five thousand years ago, and there could be no doubt as to the truth of this law, if there were no hypocrisy : it would have been impossible, if not to do so, at least not to recognize that we ought always to do so, and that he who does not do so is doing wrong. But you say that there also exists a common good, for which it is possible and necessary to depart from these rules, — for the common good it is right to kill, torture, rob. It is better for one man to perish, than that a whole nation should perish, you say, like Caiaphas, and you sign one, two, three death-warrants, load your gun for that man who is to perish for the common good, put him in prison, take away his property. You say that you do these cruel things, because you feel yourself to be a man of society, the state, under obligation to serve it and to carry out its laws, a landowner, a judge, an em- peror, a soldier. But, besides your belonging to a certain state, and the obligations resulting therefrom, you also belong to the infinite life of the world and to God, and have certain obligations resulting from this relation. And as your duties, which result from your belonging to a certain family, a certain society, are always sub- ordinated to the higher duties, which result from your belonging to the state, so also your obligations, which result from your belonging to the state, must necessarily THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 377 be subordinated to the duties which result from your belonging to the Hfe of the world, to God. And as it would be senseless to cut down the telegraph- posts, in order to provide fuel for the family or society, and to increase its well-being, because this w^ould violate the laws which preserve the good of the state, so it would be senseless, for the purpose of making the state secure and increasing its well-being, to torture, execute, kill a man, because this violates the unquestionable laws which preserve the good of the world. Your obligations, which result from your belonging to the state, cannot help but be subordinated to the higher eternal duty, which results from your belonging to the infinite life of the world, or to God, and cannot con- tradict them, as Christ's disciples said eighteen hundred years ago : " Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye " (Acts iv. 19), and, " We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts v. 29). You are assured that, in order not to violate the con- stantly changing order, which was yesterday established by some men in some corner of the world, you must com- mit acts of torture and murder separate men, who violate the eternal, invariable order of the universe, which was established by God, or by reason. Can that be ? And so you cannot help but meditate on your position as a landowner, merchant, judge, emperor, president, min- ister, priest, soldier, which is connected with oppression, violence, deception, tortures, and murders, and you cannot help but recognize their illegality. I do not say that, if you are a landowner, you should at once give your land to the poor ; if you are a capitalist, you should at once give your money, your factory to the labourers ; if you are a king, a minister, an official, a judge, a general, you should at once give up your advan- tageous position ; if you are a soldier (that is, occupy a 378 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU position on which all violence is based), you should, in spite of all the dangers of a refusal to obey, at once throw up your position. If you do so, you will do the very best possible ; but it may happen — and this is most likely — that you will not have the strength to do so : you have connections, a family, inferiors, superiors ; you may be under such a strong influence of temptations that you will not be able to do so, — but you are always able to recognize the truth as a truth, and to stop lying. Do not assert that you remain a lauded proprietor, a manufacturer, a merchant, an artist, a writer, because this is useful for men ; that you are serving as a governor, a prosecutor, a king, not because that gives you pleasure and you are used to it, but for the good of humanity ; that you continue to be a soldier, not because you are afraid of punishment, but because you consider the army indispensable for the secu- rity of human life ; you can always keep from lying thus to yourself and to men, and you are not only able, but even must do so, because in this alone, in the Hberation of oneself from the lie and in the profession of the truth, does the only good of your life consist. You need but do this, and your position will inevitably change of its own accord. There is one, only one thing in which you are free and almighty in your life, — every- thing else is beyond your power. This thing is, to recog- nize the truth and to profess it. Suddenly, because just such miserable, erring people like yourself have assured you that you are a soldier, emperor, landed proprietor, rich man, priest, general, you begin to do evil, which is obviously and unquestionably contrary to your reason and heart : you begin to torture, rob, kill men, to build up your life on their sufferings, and, above all, instead of doing the one work of your life, — recognizing and professing the truth which is known to you, — you carefully pretend that you do not THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU 379 know it, and conceal it from yourself and from others, doing thus what is directly opposed to the one thing to which you have been called. And under what conditions do you do that ? You, who are likely to die at any moment, sign a sentence of death, declare war, go to war, sit in judgment, torture, fleece the labourers, live luxuriously among the poor, and teach weak, trustful people that this must be so, and that in this does the duty of men consist, and you are running the chance that, at the moment that you are doing this, a bacterium or a bullet will fly into you, and you will rattle in your throat and die, and wdll for ever be deprived of the possibility of correcting and changing the evil which you have done to others and, above all, to yourself, losing for nothing the hfe which is given to you but once in a whole eternity, without having done the one thiug which you ought unquestionably to have done. However simple and old this may be, and however much we may have stupefied ourselves by hypocrisy and the auto-suggestion resulting from it, nothing can destroy the absolute certainty of that simple and clear truth that no external efforts can safeguard our hfe, which is inevitably connected with unavoidable sufferings and which ends in still more unavoidable death, that may come to each of us at any moment, and that, therefore, our life can have no other meaning than the fulfilment, at any moment, of what is wanted from us by the power that sent us into life and gave us in this life one sure guide, — our rational consciousness. And so this power cannot want from us what is irra- tional and impossible, — the establishment of our temporal, carnal life, the life of society or of the state. This power demands of us what alone is certain and rational and possible, — our serving the kingdom of God, that is, our cooperation in the establishment of the greatest union of everything Uving, which is possible only in the truth, and, 380 THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU therefore, the recognition of the truth revealed to us, and the profession of it, precisely what alone is always in our power. " Seek ye the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." The only meaning of man's life consists in serving the world by cooperating in the establishment of the kingdom of God ; but this service can be rendered only through the recog- nition of the truth, and the profession of it, by every separate individual. " The kingdom of God cometh not with observation : neither shall they say, Lo here ! or, Lo there ! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Ydsnaya Polydna, May IJ/., 1893. CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 1894 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM The Franco-Russian celebrations which took place in France, in the month of October of last year, provoked in me, as no doubt in many other people, at first a feeling of amusement, then of perplexity, and at last of indigna- tion, which I intended to express in a short article in a periodical ; but, the more I dwelt on the chief causes of this strange phenomenon, the more did I arrive at the considerations which I now offer to my readers. Russians and Frenchmen have lived for many cen- turies, knowing one another, entering with one another at times into friendly, more often, I am sorry to say, into very hostile relations, which have been provoked by their governments ; suddenly, because two years ago a French S(|uadron arrived at Kronstadt, and the officers of the squadron, upon landing, ate and drank a lot of wine in various places, hearing and uttering upon these occasions many lying and stupid words, and because, in the year 1893, a similar Russian squadron arrived at Toulon, and the officers of the Russian squadron ate and drank a lot in Paris, hearing and uttering upon that occasion more lying and stupid words than before, it happened that not only the men who ate, drank, and talked, but even those who were present, and even those who were not present, 383 384 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM but only heard and read of it in newspapers, all these millions of Russians and Frenchmen suddenly imagined that they somehow were particularly in love with one another, that is, that all the French loved all the Russians, and all the Russians loved all the French. These sentiments were last October expressed in France in a most unusual manner. Here is the way the reception of the Russian sailors is described in the Rural Messenger, a newspaper which collects its information from all the others : " At the meeting of the Russian and French vessels, both, besides the salvos of guns, greeted one another with hearty, ecstatic shouts, ' Hurrah,' ' Long live Russia,' ' Long live France ! ' " These were joined by bands of music (which came on many private steamers), playing the Russian hymn, ' God save the Tsar,' and the French Marseillaise ; the public on the private vessels waved their hats, flags, handkerchiefs, and bouquets ; on many barques there were peasants with their wives and children, and they all had bouquets in their liands, and even the children waved the bouquets and shouted at the top of their voices, ' Vive la Russie ! ' Our sailors, upon seeing such national transport, were unable to restrain their tears. . . . '' In the harbour all the ships-of-war which were then at Toulon were drawn out in two lines, and our squadron passed between them ; in front was the ironclad of the admiralty, and this was followed by the rest. There en- sued a most solemn minute. " On the Russian ironclad, fifteen salvos were fired in honour of the French squadron, and a French ironclad replied with double the number, with thirty salvos. From the French vessels thundered the sounds of the Russian hymn. The French sailors climbed up on the sail-yards and masts ; loud exclamations of greeting proceeded uninter- ruptedly from the two squadrons and from the private CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 385 vessels ; the caps of the sailors, the hats and handkerchiefs of the public, — all were thrown up triumphantly in honour of the dear guests. On all sides, on the water and on the shore, there boomed one common call, ' Long live Eussia ! Long live France ! ' " In conformity with naval law. Admiral Avelan and the officers of his staff landed, in order to greet the local authorities. On the quay the Eussian sailors were met by the chief marine staff of France and the superior offi- cers of the port of Toulon. There ensued a universal friendly hand-shaking, accompanied by the boom of cannon and the ringing of bells. A band of marine music played the hymn * God save the Tsar,' drowned by the thunderous shouts of the public, ' Long live the Tsar ! Long live Eussia ! ' These exclamations blended into one mighty sound, which drowned the music and the salvos from the guns. " Eye-witnesses declare that at this moment the en- thusiasm of the innumerable mass of people reached its highest limits, and thot it is impossible to express in words with what sensations the hearts of all those present were filled. Admiral Avelan, with bared head, and accom- panied by Eussian and French officers, directed his steps to the building of the Marine Office, where the French minister of marine was waiting for him. " In receiving the admiral, the minister said : ' Kron- stadt and Toulon are two places which bear witness to the sympathy between the Eussian and the French nations ; you will everywhere be met as dear friends. The govern- ment and all of France welcome you upon your arrival and that of your companions, who represent a great and noble nation.' " The admiral replied that he was not able to express all liis gratitutle. ' The Eussian squadron and all of Eussia,' he said, ' will remember the reception you have given us.' 386 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM " After a short conversation, the admiral, saying good- bye to the minister, a second time thanked him for the reception, and added, ' I do not want to part from you before pronouncing those words which are imprinted in all Kussian hearts : " Long live France ! " '" {Rural Mes' senger, 1893, No. 41.) Such was the meeting at Toulon. In Paris the meeting and the celebrations were more remarkable still. Here is the way the meeting in Paris was described in the newspapers : " All eyes were directed to the Boule- vard des Itahens, whence the Kussian sailors were to appear. Finally the boom of a whole hurricane of ex- clamations and applauses is heard in the distance. The boom grows stronger and more audible. The hurricane is apparently approaching. A mighty motion takes place on the square. Policemen rush forward to clear a path toward the Cercle Militaire, but this is by no means an easy task. There is an incredible crush and pressure in the crowd. . . . Finally the head of the procession ap- pears in the square. At the same moment a deafening shout, * Vive la Bussie ! Vive les Busses ! ' rises over it. All bare their heads, the public, packed close in the windows, on the balconies, perched even on the roofs, wave hand- kerchiefs, flags, and hats, applaud madly, and from the windows of the upper stories throw clouds of small many- coloured cockades. A whole sea of handkerchiefs, hats, and flags surges above the heads of the crowd in the square : ' Vive la Bussie ! Vive les Busses ! ' shouts this mass of one hundred thousand people, trying to get a look at the dear guests, extending their hands to them, and in every way expressing their sympathies " {New Time). Another correspondent writes that the transport of the crowd bordered on delirium. A Piussian pubhcist, who was in Paris at that time, describes this entrance of the sailors in the following manner : " They tell the truth, — it was an incident of world-wide import, wondrous, CHRTSTTANTTT AND PATRIOTISM 387 touching, soul-stirring, making the heart quiver with that love which discerns the brothers in men, and which detests bloodshed and concomitant acts of violence, the tearing away of the children from their beloved mother. I have been in some kind of an intoxication for several hours. I felt so strange, and even so weak, as I stood at the station of the Lyons Railway, among the representa- tives of the French administration in their gold-embroid- ered uniforms, among the members of the municipality in full dress, and heard the shouts, ' Vive la Bussie ! Vive le Czar!' and our national hymn, which was played several times in succession. Where am I ? What has happened ? What magic stream has united all this into one feeling, into one mind ? Does one not feel here the presence of the God of love and brotherhood, the presence of something higher, something ideal, which descends upon men only in lofty moments ? The heart is so full of something beautiful and pure and exalted, that the pen is not able to express it all. Words pale before what I saw, what I felt. It is not transport, — the word is too banal, — it is something better than transport. It is more picturesque, profounder, more joyous, more varied. It is impossible to describe what happened at the Cercle Mili- taire, when Admiral Avelan appeared on the balcony of a second story. Words will not tell anything here. Dur- ing the Te Deum, when the choristers sang in the church * Save, Lord, thy people,' tliere burst through the open door the solemn sounds of the IMarseillaise, which was played in tlie street by an orchestra of wind- instruments. There was something astounding and in- expressible in the impression conveyed" {New Time, October, 1893). n. After arriving in France, the Russian sailors for two weeks went from one celebration to another, and in the middle or at the end of every celebration they ate, drank, and talked ; and the information as to what they ate and drank on Wednesday and where and what on Fri- day, and what was said upon that occasion, was wired home and conveyed to the whole of Russia. The moment some Russian captain drank the health of France, this at once became known to the whole world, and the moment the Russian admiral said, " I drink to fair France ! " these words were immediately borne over the whole world. But more than that : the scrupulousness of the news- papers was such that they reported not only the toasts, but even many dinners, with the cakes and appetizers which were used at these dinners. Thus it said in one issue of a newspaper that the dinner was " an artistic production : " " Consomm^ de volailles, petits pS,t6s Mousse de hoinmard parisienne Noisette de boeuf a la b(5aniaise Faisans a la Pferigord Casseroles de truffes av; champagne Chaufroid de volailles a la Toulouse Salade russe Croute de fruits toulonaise Parfait a Tanaiias Desserts " In the next number it said : " In a culinary sense the dinner left nothing to be desired. The menu consisted of the following: 388 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 389 " Potage livonien et St. Germain Zephyrs Nantua Esturgeon brais6 uioldave Selle de daguet grand veneur," and so forth. The next number described another menu. With every menu a detailed description was given of the wines which the feted men consumed, — such and such " voodka " such and 'such Bourgogne vieux, Grand Moet, and so f(jrth. In an English paper there was an account of all the intoxicants consumed by the celebrators. This amount is so enormous that it is doubtful if all the drunkards of Russia and of France could have drunk so much in so short a time. They reported also the speeches which were made by the celebrators, but the menus were more varied than the speeches. The speeches consisted invariably of the same words in all kinds of combinations and permutations. The meaning of these words was always one and the same : " We love one another tenderly, we are in transport, because we have so suddenly fallen in love with one another. Our aim is not war and not revanche, and not the return of provinces taken, but only peace, the benefac- tion of peace, the security of peace, the rest and peace of Europe. Long live the l^^mperor of Russia and the empress, — we love them and we love peace. Long live the president of the republic and his wife, — we love them, too, and we love peace. Long live France, Russia, their fleets, and their armies. We love the army, too, and peace, and the chief of the squadron." The speeches gen- erally ended, as in couplets, with the words, " Toulon, Kronstadt," or " Kronstadt, Toulon." And the names of these places, where so much food was eaten and so many kinds of wine were consumed, were pronounced like words reminding one of the loftiest, most valorous of acts of the representatives of both nations, words after which there 390 CHKISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM was nothing else to be said, because everything was com- prehensible. " We love one another, and we love peace. Kronstadt, Toulon ! " What else can be added to this ? Especially with the accompaniment of solemn music, playing simultaneously two hymns, one — praising the Tsar and asking God for all kinds of benefactions for him, and the other — cursing all kings and promising their ruin. The men who expressed their sentiments of love partic- ularly well received decorations and rewards ; other men for the same services, or simply out of a superabundance of feehngs, were given the strangest and most unexpected presents, — thus the Emperor of Russia received from the French squadron some kind of a golden book, in which, I think, nothing was written, and if there was, it was something that nobody needed to know, and the chief of the Russian squadron received, among other pres- ents, a still more remarkable object, an aluminum plough, covered with flowers, and many other just as unexpected presents. Besides, all these strange acts were accompanied by still stranger religious ceremonies and public prayers, which, it would seem, the French had long ago outlived. Since the days of the Concordat there had hardly been offered so many prayers as in that short time. All the French suddenly became unusually pious, and carefully hung up in the rooms of the Russian sailors those very images which they had just as carefully removed from their schools, as being harmful tools of superstition, and they kept praying all the time. Cardinals and bishops everywhere prescribed prayers, and themselves prayed, ut- tering the strangest prayers. Thus the Bishop of Toulon at the launching of the ironclad Joriguiheri prayed to the God of peace, making people feel, however, that, if it came to a pinch, he could address also the God of war. " What her fate will be," said the bishop, in reference to CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 391 the ironclad, " God alone knows. No one knows whether she will belch forth death from her appalling bosom. But if, invoking now the God of peace, we should later have occasion to invoke the God of war, we are firmly con- vinced that the Joriguiberi will go forth side by side with the mighty boats whose crews have this day entered into such a close fraternal union with our own. Far from us be such a prospect, and may the present festivity leave nothing but a peaceful recollection, like the recollection of the Grand Duke Constantine, which was present here (in 1857) at the launching of the ship Quirinal, and may the friendship of France and of Eussia make these two nations the guardians of peace." In the meantime tens of thousands of telegrams flew from Eussia to France, and from France to Eussia. French women greeted Eussian women, Eussian women expressed their gratitude to the French women. A troupe of Eussian actors greeted some French actors, and the French actors informed them that they harboured deeply in their hearts the greeting of the Eussian actors. Some Eussian candidates for judicial positions, who served in a Circuit Court of some town or other, expressed their enthusiasm for the French nation. General So and So thanked Madame So and So, and Madame So and So as- sured General So and So of her sentiments for the Eus- sian nation ; Eussian children wrote verses of welcome to French children, and the French children answered in verse and in prose ; the Eussian minister of education assured the French minister of education of the senti- ments of sudden love for the French, which were experi- enced by all the children, scholars, and authors subject to his ministry ; members of a society for the protection of animals expressed their ardent attachment for the French, and so did the Council of the City of Kazj^n. The canon of the eparchy of Arras informed his Wor- ship, the chief priest of the Eussian court clergy, that he 392 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM could affirm that deep in the hearts of all the French car- dinals and archbishops there was imprinted a love for Russia and his Majesty Alexander III. and his most august family, and that the Eussian and French clergy professed almost the selfsame religion and equally hon- oured the Virgin ; to which his Worship, the chief priest, replied that the prayers of the French clergy for the most august family reechoed joyfully in the hearts of the whole Russian Tsar-loving family, and that, since the Russian people also worshipped the Holy Virgin, it could count on France in life and in death. Almost the same information was vouchsafed by different generals, telegraph operators, and dealers in groceries. Everybody congratu- lated somebody on something and thanked somebody for something. The excitement was so great that the most unusual acts were committed, but no one observed their unusual character, and all, on the contrary, approved of them, went into ecstasies over them, and, as though fearing lest they should be too late, hastened to commit similar acts, so as not to fall behind the rest. If protests were expressed in words and in writing and in printing against these mad acts, pointing out their irrationality, such protests were concealed or squelched.^ iThus I know of the following protest of students, sent to Paris, which was not accepted by a single newspaper : "open letter to the FRENCH STUDENTS "Lately a group of Moscow students of law, with the university authorities at their head, took it upon themselves to speak in behalf of all the student body of Moscow University in respect to the Toulon festivities. " We, the representatives of the association of student societies, protest in the most emj^hatic manner possible both against the arro- gation of this group and substantially against the exchange of civili- ties between it and the French students. We, too, look with ardent love and profound respect upon France, and we do so, because we see in it a great nation, which formerly used to appear before the whole world as the herald and proclaimer of great ideals of liberty, CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 393 To say nothing of all the millions of work-days which were wasted on these festivities, of the wholesale drunk- enness of all the participants, which was encouraged by all the powers, to say nothing of the insipidity of the speeches made, the maddest and most cruel things were done, and no one paid any attention to them. Thus several dozens of men were crushed to death, and no one found it necessary to mention this fact. One cor- respondent wrote that a Frenchman told him at a ball that now there could hardly be found a woman in Paris equality, and fraternity; and which was also the first in the matter of bold endeavour for the materialization of these great ideals, — and the best part of the Russian youth has always been ready to welcome France as the leading champion for the best future of humanity ; but we do not consider such festivities as those of Kroustadt and Toulon a suitable occasion for such civilities. " On the contrary, these festivities signal a sad but, let us hope, temporary phenomenon, — the disloyalty of France to its former great historic role : the country, which once called the whole world to break the fetters of despotism and offered its fraternal aid to every nation that revolted for the sake of its freedom, now burns incense before the Russian government, which systematically trigs the normal, organic, and vital growth of the national life, and mercilessly crushes, without stopping at anything, all the strivings of Russian society toward the light, toward freedom, and toward independence. The Toulon manifestations are one of the acts of that drama which is pre- sented by the antagonism — the creation of Napoleon III. and Bis- marck — between two great nations, France and Germany. This antagonism keeps all of Europe under arms, and makes the Russian absolutism, whicli has always been the stay of despotism and arbitra- riness against freedom, of the exploiters against the exploited, the executor of the political destinies of the world. A sensation of an- guish for our country, of pity for the blindness of a considerable part of French society, such are the sensations evoked in us by these festivities. " We are fully convinced that the young generation of France will not be carried away by the national Chauvinism, and that, prepared to struggle for that better social structure toward which humanity is marching, it will know how to render to itself an account of the present events and to take the proper stand about them ; we hope that our fervent protest will find a sympathetic echo in the hearts of the French youth. " The union council of twenty -four united Moscow student socie- ties." -^Author's Note. 394 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM who would not be false to her duties, in order to satisfy the wishes of some Eussian sailor — and all this passed by unnoticed, as something that ought to be. There oc- curred cases of distinct madness. Thus one woman, dressing herself in a garment of the colours of the Franco- Kussian flags, waited for the sailors and, exclaiming, " Vive la Bussie ! " jumped from the bridge into the river and was drowned. Women in general played in these festivities a promi- nent part and even guided the men. Besides throwing flowers and all kinds of ribbons, and offering presents and addresses, French women made for the Eussian sailors and kissed them ; some of them for some reason brought their children to them, to be kissed by them, and when the Eussian sailors complied with their wish, all persons present went into ecstasies and wept. This strange excitement was so infectious that, as one correspondent tells, an apparently absolutely sound Eus- sian sailor, after two days of contemplation of what took place around him, in the middle of the day jumped from the ship into the sea and, swimming, shouted, " Vive la France ! " When he was taken aboard and asked why he had done so, he replied that he had made a vow that in honour of France he would swim around the ship. Thus the undisturbed excitement grew and grew, like a ball of rolling wet snow, and finally reached such dimen- sions that not only the persons present, not only predis- posed, weak-nerved, but even strong, normal men fell a prey to the general mood and became abnormally affected. I remember how I, absent-mindedly reading one of these descriptions of the solemnity of the reception of the sailors, suddenly felt a feeling, akin to meekness of spirit, even a readiness for tears, communicated to me, so that I had to make an effort to overcome this feeling. m. Lately Sikdrski, a professor of psychiatry, described in the Kiev University Record the psychopathic epidemic, as he calls it, of the Mal^vannians, as manifested in a few villages of Vasilkov County of the Government of Kiev, The essence of this epidemic, as Mr. Sikdrski, the investi- gator of it, says, consisted in this, that certain persons of these villages, under the influence of their leader, by the name of Maldvanny, came to imagine that the end of the world was at hand, and so, changing their whole mode of life, began to distribute their property, to dress up, and to eat savoury food, and stopped working. The professor found the condition of these men to be abnormal. He says : " Their unusual good nature frequently passed into exaltation, a joyous condition, which was devoid of external motives. They were sentimentally disposed : excessively polite, talkative, mobile, with tears of joy appearing easily and just as easily disappearing. They sold their necessaries, in order to provide themselves with umbrellas, silk kerchiefs, and similar objects, and at that the kerchiefs served them only as ornaments for their toilet. They ate many sweet things. They were always in a cheerful mood, and they led an idle life, — visited one another, walked together. . . . When the obviously absurd character of their refusal to work was pointed out to them, one every time heard in reply the stereotyped phrase, ' If I want to, I shall work, and if I do not want to, why should I compel myself ? ' " The learned professor considers the condition of these men a pronounced case of a psychopathic epidemic, and, 395 396 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM advising the government to take certain measures against its spread, ends his communication with the words : " Male- vannism is the wail of a morbidly sick population and a supplication to be freed from liquor and to have education and sanitary conditions improved." But if Malevannism is the wail of a morbidly sick pop- ulation and a supplication to be freed from liquor and from harmful social conditions, then this new disease, which has appeared in Paris and has with alarming rapidity embraced a great part of the city population of France and almost the whole of governmental and cultured Eus- sia, is just such an alarming wail of a morbid population and just such a supplication to be freed from liquor and from false social conditions. And if we must admit that the psychopathic suffering of Malevannism is dangerous, and that the government has done well to follow the professor's advice and remove the leaders of MaMvannism by confining some of them in lunatic asylums and monasteries and by deporting others to distant places, how much more dangerous must be con- sidered to be this new epidemic, which appeared in Toulon and Paris and from there spread over the whole of France and of Eussia, and how much more necessary it is, if not for the government, at least for society, to take decisive measures against the spread of such epidemics ! The resemblance between the diseases is complete. There is the same good nature, passing into causeless and joyful exaltation, the same sentimentality, excessive po- hteness, talkativeness, the same constant tears of meek- ness of spirit, which come and go without cause, the same festive mood, the same walking for pleasure and visiting one another, the same dressing up in the best clothes, the same proneness for sweet food, the same senseless talks, the same idleness, the same singing and music, the same leadership of the women, and the same clownish phase of attitudes passionelles, which Mr. Sikorski has noticed in CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 397 the case of the Mal^vannians ; that is, as I understand this word, those different, unnatural poses, which men assume during solemn meetings, receptions, and after-dinner speeches. The resemblance is complete. The only difference is this, — and the difference is very great for the society in which these phenomena are taking place, — that there it is the aberration of a few dozen peaceful, poor village people, who live on their small means and, therefore, can- not exert any violence on their neighl)0urs, and who infect others only by the personal and oral transmission of their mood, while here it is the aberration of millions of people, who possess enormous sums of money and means for exerting violence against other people, — guns, bayonets, fortresses, ironclads, melinite, dynamite, and who, besides, have at their command the most energetic means for the dissemination of their madness, the post, the telegraph, an enormous number of newspapers, and all kinds of pub- lications, which are printed without cessation and carry the infection to all the corners of the globe. There is also this difference, that the first not only do not get themselves drunk, but even do not use any intoxicating liquor, while the second are constantly in a state of semi- intoxication, which they never stop maintaining in them- selves. And so for a society in which these phenomena are taking place, there is the same difference between the Kiev epidemic, during which, according to Mr. Sikorski's information, it does not appear that they commit any violence or murders, and the one which made its appear- ance in Paris, where in one procession twenty women were crushed to death, as there is between a piece of coal, which has leaped out of the stove and is glowing on the Huor without igniting it, and a fire which is already en- veloping the door and walls of the house. In the worst case the consequences of the Kiev epidemic will consist in this, that the peasants of one millionth part of Russia will 398 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM spend what they have earned by hard labour, and will be unable to pay the Crown taxes ; but the consequences from the Toulon-Paris epidemic, which is embracing men who are in possession of a terrible power, of vast sums of money, and of implements of violence and of the dissemi- nation of their madness, can and must be terrible. I ■ I IV. We can with pity listen to the delirium of a feeble, defenceless, crazy old man, in his cap and cloak, and even not contradict him, and even jestingly agree with him ; but when it is a whole crowd of sound insane people, who have broken away from their confinement, and these people bristle from head to foot with sharp daggers, swords, aud loaded revolvers, and madly flourish these death-dealing weapons, we can no longer agree with them, and we can- not be at rest even for a minute. The same is true of that condition of excitement, provoked by the French celebrations, in which Russian and French society finds itself at the present time. It is true, in all the speeches, in all the toasts, pro- nounced at these celebrations, in all the articles concern- ing these celebrations, they never stopped talking of the importance of everything which was taking place for the guarantee of peace. Even the advocates of war did not speak of hatred of those who snatch away provinces, but of some kind of a love which somehow hates. But we know of the slyness of all men who are men- tally diseased, and it is this most persistent repetition of our not wanting war, but peace, and the reticence regard- ing that of which all think, that form a most menacing phenomenon. In answering a toast at a dinner given in the Palace of the Elys^es, the Eussian ambassador said : " Before drink- ing a toast to which will respond from the depth of their hearts, not only those who are within these walls, but even ttiose — and, that, too, with equal force — whose hearts near by and far away, at aU the points of great, fair 399 400 CHKISTIANITY AND PATKIOTISM France, as also in all of Eussia, at the present moment are beating in unison with ours, — permit me to offer to you the expression of our profoundest gratitude for the words of welcome which were addressed by you to our admiral, whom our Tsar has charged with the mission of paying back your visit at Kronstadt. Considering the high importance which you enjoy, your words characterize the true significance of the magnificent peaceful festivities, which are celebrated with such wonderful unanimity, loyalty, and sincerity." The same unjustifiable mention of peace is found in the speech of the French president : " The ties of love, which unite Russia and France," he said, " and which two years ago were strengthened by touching manifestations, of which our fleet was the object at Kronstadt, become tighter and tighter with every day, and the honourable exchange of our amicable sentiments must inspire all those who take to heart the benefactions of peace, confidence, and security," and so forth. Both speeches quite unexpectedly and without any cause refer to the benefactions of peace and to peaceful celebrations. The same occurs in the telegrams which were ex- changed between the Emperor of Eussia and the Presi- dent of France. The Emperor of Eussia telegraphed : " Au mome7it ou Vescadre russe quitte la France, il me tient a cceur de vous expriincr comhien je suis louche et reconnaissant de Vaccueil chaleureux et splendide, que 7nes marins ont trouve partout sur le sol frangais. Les temoignages de vive sympatliie qui se sont manifestes encore une fois avec tant d' eloquence, joindront un nouveau lien ii ceux qui unissent les deux pays et contrihueront, je I'cspere, h I' affermissement de la paix generate, ohjet de leurs efforts et de leurs vceux les plus constants," etc. The President of France in his reply telegraphed as follows : CHRISTIANITY AND i'd^TRIOTISM 401 " La depeche dont je remercie voire Majeste iii'est par- venue au moment oit je quittais Toulon pour rcntrer d, Paris. La hellc escadre sur laquelle fai eu la vive satis- faction de saluer le pavilion russe dans les eaux fran- ^aises, I'accueil cordial et spontane que vos braves marins out rencontre partoiit en France ajjirment une fois de plus avec eclat les sympathies sinceres qui unissent nos deux pays. lis marquent en mhne temps une foi profonde dans I'injluence bicnfaisante que peuvent exercer ensemble deux grandcs nations devouees h la cause de la paioz^ Again there is in both telegrams a gratuitous mention of peace, which has nothing in common with the celebra- tions of the sailors. There is not one speech, not one article, in which men- tion is not made of this, that the aim of all these past orgies is the peace of Europe. At a dinner, which is given by the representatives of the Eussian press, every- body speaks of peace. Mr. Zola, who lately wrote about the necessity and even usefulness of war, and Mr. Voglit^, who more than once expressed the same idea, do not say one word about war, but speak only of peace. The meet- ings of the Chambers are opened with speeches respecting the past celebrations, and the orators affirm that these fes- tivities are the declaration of the peace of Europe. It is as though a man, coming into some peaceful society, should go out of his way on every occasion to assure the persons present that he has not the slightest intention of knocking out anybody's teeth, smashing eyes, or breaking arms, but means only to pass a peaceable evening. " But nobody has any doubts about that," one feels like saying to him. " But if you have such base intentions, at least do not dare speak of them to us." In many articles, which were written about these cele- brations, there is even a direct and naive expression of pleasure, because during the festivities no one gave utterance to what by tacit consent it had been decided to 402 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM conceal from everybody, and what only one incautious man, who was immediately removed by the police, dared to shout, giving expression to the secret thought of all, namely, " A has rAllemagne ! " Thus children are fre- quently so happy at having concealed their naughtiness, that their very joy gives them away. Why should we so rejoice at the fact that no mention was made of war, if we indeed are not thinking of it ? V. No one is thinking of war, but yet milliards are wasted on military preparations, and, millions of men are under arms in Eussia and in France. " But all this is being done for the security of peace. Si vis pacem, 2Jctra helium. L'empire c'est la paix, la re- puhlique c'est la paix." But if it is so, why are the military advantages of our alliance with France in case of a war with Germany explained, not only in all the periodicals and newspapers pul)hshed for the so-called cultured people, but also in the Rural Messenger, a newspaper published by the Russian government for the masses, by means of which these unfortunate masses, deceived by the government, are im- pressed with this, that " to be friendly with France is also useful and profitable, because, if, beyond all expectation, the a})ove-mentioned powers (Germany, Austria, Italy) should decide to violate the peace with Russia, Russia, though able with God's aid to protect itself and handle a very powerful alliance of adversaries, would not find this to be an easy task, and for a successful struggle great sacrifices and losses would be needed," and so forth {Rural Messenger, No. 43, 1893). And why do they in all the French colleges teach history from a text-l)ook composed by Mr. Lavisse, twenty-first edition, 1889, in which the following passage is found : " Depuis que V insurrection de la Commune a M vaincue, la France n'a plus etc trouhUe. Au hndcmain de la gverre, elk s'est remise au travail. JElle a paijS aux Allemands 403 404 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM sans difficulte I'enorme contribution de guerre de cinq milliards. Mais la France a perdu sa renommee militaire 'pendant la guerre de 1870. Elle a perdu, une partie de son territoire. Plus de qicinze cents mille hommes, qui hahitaient nos departements du Haut Rhin, du Bas Rhin et de la Moselle, et quietaient de Ions Frangais, out ete obli- ges de devenir Allemands. lis ne sont pas resignes ^ leitr sort. lis detestent VAllemagne ; Us espercnt toujour s redevenir Franfciis. Mais I'Allemagne tient it sa conquete, et c'est un grand pays, dont tous les habitants aiment sin- cerement leur patrie et dont les soldats sont braves et disciplines. Pour reprendre h I'Allemagne ce quelle nous a pris, il faut que nous soyons de bons citoyens et de bons soldats. C'est pour que vous deveniez de bons soldats, que vos maitres vous apprennent I'histoire de la France. Z'his- toire de la France monti^e que dans notre pays les fits ont toujours venge les desastres de leurs peres. Les Frangais du temps de Charles VII. ont venge leiirs percs vaincus a Crecy, a Poitiers, d, Azincourt. C'est a vous, enfants eleves aujourd'hid dans nos ecoles, qu'il appartient de venger vos peres, vaincus a Sedan et h Metz. C'est votre devoir, le grand devoir de votre vie. Vous devez y penser toujours," etc. At the foot of the page there is a whole series of ques- tions, to correspond to the articles. The questions are as follows : " What did France lose when she lost part of her territory ? How many Frenchmen became German with the loss of this territory ? Do the French love Germany ? What must we do, in order to regain what was taken away from us by Germany ? " In addition to these there are also " Reflexions sur le Livre VII.," in which it says that " the children of France must remem- ber our defeats of 1870," that " they must feel on their hearts the burden of this memory," but that " this memory must not discourage them : it should, on the contrary, incite them to bravery." CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 405 Thus, if in official speeches peace is mentioned with great persistency, the masses, the younger generations, yes, all the Paissiaus and Frenchmen in general, are im- perturbably impressed with the necessity, legahty, profit- ableness, and even virtue of war. " We are not thinking of war, — we are concerned only about peace." One feels like asking " Qid, diahle, trompe-t-on ici ? " if it were necessary to ask this, and if it were not quite clear who the unfortunate cheated are. The cheated are the same eternally deceived, stupid, labouring masses, the same who with their callous hands have built all tliesci ships, and fortresses, and arsenals, and barracks, and guns, and steamboats, and quays, and moles, and all these palaces, halls, and platforms, and tri- umphal arches ; and have set and printed all these news- papers and books ; and have secured and broiiglit all those pheasants, and ortolans, and oysters, and wines, which are consumed by all those men, whom they, again, have nurtured and brought up and sustained, — men who, deceiving the masses, prepare the most terrible calamities for them ; the same good-natured, stupid masses, who, displaying their sound, white teeth, have grinned in childish fashion, naively enjoying the sight of all the dressed-up admirals and presidents, of the flags fluttering above them, the fireworks, the thundering music, and who will hardly have time to look around, when there shall be no longer any admirals, nor presidents, nor flags, nor music, but there will be only a wet, waste field, hunger, cold, gloom, in front the slaying enemy, beliind the goading authorities, blood, wounds, sufferings, rotting corpses, and a senseless, useless death. And the men like those who now are celebrating at the festivities in Toulon and Paris, will be sitting, after a good dinner, with unfinished glasses of good wine, with a cigar between their teeth, in a dark cloth tent, and will with 406 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM pins mark down the places on the map where so much food for cannon, composed of the masses, should be left, in order to seize such and such a fortress, and in order to obtain such or such a ribbon or promotion. VI. " But there is nothing of the kind, and there are no warlike intentions," we are told. " All there is, is that two nations feeling a mutual sympathy are expressing this sentiment to one another. What harm is there in this, that the representatives of a friendly nation were received with especial solemnity and honour by the repre- sentatives of the other nation ? What harm is there in it, even if it be admitted that the alliance may have the significance of a protection against a' dangerous neighbour, threatening the peace of Europe ? " The harm is this, that all this is a most palpable and bold lie, an unjustifiable, bad lie. The sudden outburst of an exclusive love of the liussians for the French, and of the French for the Kussians, is a lie ; and our hatred for the Germans, our distrust of them, which is understood by it, is also a lie. And the statement that the aim of all these indecent and mad orgies is the guarantee of European peace, is a still greater lie. We all know that we have experienced no particular love for the French, neither before, nor even now, even as we have not experienced any hostile feeling toward the Germans. We are told that Germany has some intentions against Eussia, that the Triple Alliance threatens the peace of Europe and us, and that our alliance with France bal- ances the forces, and so guarantees the peace. But this assertion is so obviously absurd, that it makes one feel ashamed to give it a serious denial. For this to be so, that is, for the alliance to guarantee peace, it is necessary 407 408 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM that the forces be mathematically even. If now the ex- cess is on the side of the Franco-Eussian alliance, the danger is still the same. It is even greater, because, if there was a danger that William, who stood at the head of the European alliance, would violate the peace, there is a much greater danger that France, which cannot get used to the loss of her provinces, will do so. The Triple Alli- ance was called a league of peace, but for us it was a league of war. Even so now the Franco-Eussian alliance cannot present itself as anything else than what it is, — a league of war. And then, if peace depends on the balance of the powers, how are the units to be determined, between whom the balance is to be estabhshed ? Now the Enghsh say that the alliance between Eussia and France menaces them, and that they must, therefore, form another alliance. And into how many units of alliances must Europe be divided, in order that there be a balance ? If so, then every man stronger than another in society is already a danger, and the others must form into alliances, to withstand him. They ask, " What harm is there in this, that France and Eussia have expressed their mutual sympathies for the guarantee of peace ? " What is bad is, that it is a lie, and a lie is never spoken with impunity, and does not pass unpunished. The devil is a slayer of men and the father of lies. And the lies always lead to the slaying of men, — in this case more obviously than ever. In just the same manner as now, the Turkish war was preceded by a sudden outburst of love of our Eussians for their brothers, the Slavs, whom no one had known for hundreds of years, while the Germans, the French, the English have always been incomparably nearer and more closely related to us than Montenegrins, Servians, or Bul- garians. And there began transports, receptions, and fes- tivities, which were fanned by such men as Aksdkov and CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 409 Katkov, who are mentioned now in Paris as models of patriotism. Then, as now, they spoke of nothing but the mutual sudden outburst of love between the Eussians and the Slavs. In the beginning they ate and drank in Moscow, even as now in Paris, and talked nonsense to one another, becoming affected by their own exalted sentiments, spoke of union and peace, and did not say anything about the chief thing, the intentions against Turkey. The news- papers fanned the excitement, and the government by degrees entered into the game. Servia revolted. There began an exchange of diplomatic notes and the publica- tion of semiofficial articles ; the newspapers lied more and more, invented and waxed wroth, and the end of it all was that Alexander II., who really did not want any war, could not help but agree to it, and we all know what happened : the destruction of hundreds of thousands of in- nocent people and the bestialization and dulling of millions. What was done in Toulon and in Paris, and now con- tinues to be done in the newspapers, obviously leads to the same, or to a still more terrible calamity. Just so all kinds of generals and ministers will at first, to the sounds of " God save the Tsar " and the Marseillaise drink the health of France, of Pussia, of the various regiments of the army and the navy ; the newspapers will print their lies ; the idle crowd of the rich, who do not know what to do witli their powers and with their time, will babble patriotic speeches, fanning hatred against Germany, and no matter how peaceful Alexander III. may be, the con- ditions will be such that he will be unable to decline a war which will be demanded by all those who surround liim, l)y all the newspapers, and, as always seems, by the ])ublic opinion of the whole nation. And before we shall have had time to look around, there will appear in the columns of the newspapers the usual, ominous, stupid proclamation : " By God's grace, we, the most autocratic great Emperor 410 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM of all Russia, the King of Poland, the Grand Duke of Fin- land, etc., etc., inform all our faithful subjects that for the good of these dear subjects, entrusted to us by Gpd, we have considered it our duty before God to send them out to slaughter. God be with them," and so forth. The bells will be rung, and long-haired men will throw gold-embroidered bags over themselves and will begin to pray for the slaughter. And there will begin again the old, well-known, terrible deed. The newspaper writers, who under the guise of patriotism stir people up to hatred and murder, will be about, in the hope of double earnings. Manufacturers, merchants, purveyors of military supplies, will bestir themselves joyfully, expecting double profits. All kinds of officials will bestir themselves, foreseeing a chance to steal more than they usually do. The military authorities will bestir themselves, for they will receive double salaries and rations, and will hope to get for the killing of people all kinds of trifles, which they value very much, — ribbons, crosses, galloons, stars. Idle gentlemen and ladies will bestir themselves, inscribing themselves in advance in the Red Cross, preparing themselves to dress the wounds of those whom their own husbands and brothers will kill, and imagining that they are thus doing a most Christian work. And, drowning in their hearts their despair by means of songs, debauches, and vodka, hundreds of thousands of simple, good people, torn away from peaceful labour, from their wives, mothers, children, will march, with weapons of murder in their hands, whither they will be driven. They will go to freeze, to starve, to be sick, to die from diseases, and finally they will arrive at the place where they will be killed l)y the thousand, and they will kill by the thousand, themselves not knowing why, men whom they have never seen and who have done them and can do them no harm. And when there shall be collected so many sick, CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 411 wounded, and killed that nobody will have the time to pick them up, and when the air shall already be so in- fected by this rotting food for cannon that even the authorities will feel uncomfortable, then they will stop for awhile, will somehow manage to pick up the wounded, will haul off and somewhere throw into a pile the sick, and will bury the dead, covering them with lime, and again they will lead on the whole crowd of the deceived, and will continue to lead them on in this manner until those who have started the whole thing will get tired of it, or until those who needed it will get what they needed. And again will men become infuriated, brutalized, and bestiahzed, and love will be diminished in the world, and the incipient Christianization of humanity will be delayed for decades and for centuries. And again will the people, who gain thereby, begin to say with assurance that, if there is a war, this means that it is necessary, and again they will begin to prepare for it the future generations, by corrupting them from childhood. VII. And so, when there appear such patriotic manifestations as were the Toulon celebrations, which, though still at a distance, in advance bind the wills of men and obhge them to commit those customary malefactions which al- ways result from patriotism, every one who understands the significance of these celebrations cannot help but pro- test against everything which is tacitly included in them. And so, when the journalists say in print that all the Russians sympathize with what took place at Kronstadt, Toulon, and Paris ; that this alliance for life and death is confirmed by the will of the whole nation ; and when the Russian minister of education assures the French minis- ters that his whole company, the Russian cbildren, the learned, and the authors, share his sentiments ; or when the commander of the Russian squadron assures the French that the whole of Russia will be grateful to them for their reception ; and when the chief priests speak for their flocks and assure the French that their prayers for the life of the most august house have reechoed joyfully in the hearts of the Russian Tsar-loving nation ; and when the Russian ambassador in Paris, who is considered to be the representative of the Russian nation, says after a din- ner of ortolans h la souhisc et logojpecles glacis, with a glass of champagne Grand Moet in his hand, that all Russian hearts are beating in unison with his heart, which is filled with a sudden outburst of exclusive love for fair France {la belle France), — we, the people who are free from the stultification, consider it our sacred duty, not only for our 412 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 413 own sakes, but also for the sake of tens of millions of Eussians, in the most emphatic manner to protest against it and to declare that our hearts do not beat in unison with the hearts of the journaUsts, ministers of education, commanders of squadrons, chief priests, and ambassadors, but, on the contrary, are full to the brim with indignation and loathing for that harmful lie and that evil which they consciously and unconsciously disseminate with their acts and their speeches. Let them drink Moet as much as they please, and let them write articles and deliver ad- dresses in their own name, but we, all the Christians, who recognize ourselves as such, cannot admit that we are bound by everything that these men say and write. We cannot admit it, because we know what is concealed be- neath all these drunken transports, speeches, and embraces, which do not resemble the confirmation of peace, as we are assured, but rather those orgies and that drunkenness to which evil-doers abandon themselves when they prepare themselves for a joint crime. VIII. About four years ago, — the first swallow of the Toulon spring, — a certain French agitator in favour of a war with Germany came to Russia for the purpose of prepar- ing the Franco-Russian alHance, and he visited us in the country. He arrived at our house when we were working in the mowing. At breakfast, as we returned home, we made the acquaintance of the guest, and he immediately proceeded to tell us how he had fought, had been in cap- tivity, had run away from it, and how he had made a patriotic vow, of which he was apparently proud, that he would not stop agitating a war against Germany until the integrity and glory of France should be reestablished. In our circle all the convictions of our guest as to how necessary an alliance between Russia and France was for the reestablishment of the former borders of France and its might and glory, and for making us secure against the malevolent intentions of Germany, were of no avail to him. In reply to his arguments that France could not be at peace so long as the provinces taken from it were not returned to it, we said that similarly Prussia could not be at rest, so long as it had not paid back for Jena, and that, if the French " revanche " should now be suc- cessful, the Germans would have to pay them back, and so on without end. In reply to his arguments that the French were obliged to save their brothers, who had been torn away from them, we said that the condition of the inhabitants, of the majority of the inhabitants, of the working people in Alsace-Lorraine, was hardly any worse under German 41i CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 415 rule than it had been under France, and that, because some Alsatians preferred to belong to France rather than to Germany, and he, our guest, found it desirable to re- establish the glory of French arms, it was not worth while, either to begin those terrible calamities which re- sult from war, or even to sacrifice one single human life. In reply to liis arguments that it was all very well for us to speak thus, since we had not experienced the same, and that we should be speaking differently, if we had the Baltic provinces and Poland taken away from us, we said that even from the political standpoint the loss of Poland and of the Baltic provinces could not be a calamity for us, but might rather be considered an advantage, since it would diminish the necessity for a military force and the expenses of state ; and from the Christian point of view we never could permit a war, since a war demanded the killing of men, whereas Christianity not only forbade every murder, but even demanded that we do good to all men, considering all, without distinction of nationalities, as our brothers. The Christian state, we said, which enters upon war, to be consistent, must not only haul down the crosses from the churches, turn all the churches into buildings for different purposes, give the clergy other offices, and, above all, prohibit the Gospel, but must also renounce all the demands of morality which result from the Christian law. " C'est ti prendre ou t't laisser," we said. But until Christianity was abolished, it would be possible to entice men to war only by cunning and deceit, as indeed is being done nowadays. We see this cunning and deception, and so cannot submit to it. As there was no music, no champagne, nothing intoxicating about us, our guest only shrugged his shoulders and with customary French amiability remarked tliat he was very thankful for the fine reception accorded to him in our house, but that he was sorry that his ideas were not treated in the same way. IX. After this conversation we went to the mowing, and there he, in the hope of finding more sympathy for his ideas among the masses, asked me to translate to the peasant Prokdfi, an old, sickly man, with an enormous rupture, who none the less stuck to his work, and was my companion in the mowing, his plan of attacking the Ger- mans, which was to squeeze the Germans, who were be- tween the French and the Russians, from both sides. The Frenchman gave an ocular demonstration of this to Prokofi, by touching from two sides Prokdfi's sweaty hempen shirt with his white fingers. I recall Prokofi's good-naturedly scornful surprise, when I explained to him the Frenchman's words and gestures. The proposition to squeeze the Germans from both sides was apparently taken by Prokofi as a joke, for he would not admit the idea that a grown man and a scholar should calmly and when he was sober talk of the desirability of war. " Well, if we squeeze the German from both sides," he replied jestingly to what he thought was a joke, " he will have no place to go to. We must give him room." I translated this to my guest. " Dites lui que nous aimons les Busses" he said. These words obviously startled Prokofi even more than the proposition to squeeze the German, and provoked a certain sentiment of suspicion. " Who is he ? " Prokofi asked me, with mistrust, indicat- ing my guest with his head. I told him that he was a Frenchman, a rich man. 416 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 417 " What is his business ? " Prokofi asked me. When I explained to him that he had come to invite the Russians to form an alliance with France in case of a war with Germany, Prokofi apparently became quite dissatisfied, and, turning to the women, who were sitting near a haycock, he shouted at them in a strong voice, which involuntarily betrayed the feelings which this con- versation had provoked in him, that they should go and rake up the unraked hay. " Come now, you crows ! Have you fallen asleep ? Come ! Much time we have to squeeze the German ! We have not finished the mowing yet, and it looks likely that we shall be mowing on Wednesday," he said. And then, as though fearing to oft'end the stranger by such a remark, he added, displaying his half-worn-off teeth in a good-natured smile, " You had better come and work with us, and send the German, too. When we get through working, we shall have a good time. We'll take the German along. They are just such folk as we." And, having said this, Prokofi took his muscular arm out of the crotch of the fork, on which he had been leaning, threw the fork over his shoulders, and went away to the women. " Oh, le brave Jiomme ! " the polite Frenchman exclaimed, smiling. And with this he then concluded his diplo- matic mission to the Russian people. The sight of these so radically different men, — the one beaming with freshness, alacrity, elegance, the well-fed Frenchman, in a silk hat and long overcoat of the latest fashion, energetically illustrating with his white hands, unused to labour, how to squeeze the Germans, and the sight of the dishevelled Prokdfi, with hay-seed in his hair, dried up from work, sunburnt, always tired and always working, in spite of his immense rupture, with fingers swollen from work, with his loosely hanging homespun trousers, battered bast shoes, jogging along with an im- 418 CHKISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM mense forkful of hay over his shoulder in that indoleut pace of a labouring man, which economizes motion, — the sight of these two so radically different men elucidated to me then many things, and has occurred to me now, after the Toulon-Paris celebrations. One of them personified all those men, nurtured by the labours of the masses, who later use these masses as food for cannon ; and Prokdfi personified to me that food for cannon, which nurtures and makes secure the men who dispose of it. X. " But France has been deprived of two provinces, — two children have been violently removed from their mother. But Eussia cannot permit Germany to prescribe laws to it and to deprive it of its historic destiny in the East, — it cannot tolerate the chance of having its prov- inces, the Baltic provinces, Poland, the Caucasus, taken from it, as was done in the case of France, But Germany cannot tolerate the possibility of losing its prerogatives, which it has gained through so many sacrifices. But, England cannot yield its supremacy on the seas to any one." And, having spoken such words, it is generally assumed that a Frenchman, a Russian, a German, an Englishman must be prepared to sacrifice everything in order to regain the lost provinces, to establish their predominance in the East, to maintain their unity and power, their supremacy on the seas, and so forth. It is assumed that the sentiment of patriotism is, in the first place, a sentiment which is always inherent in men, and, in the second, such an exalted moral senti- ment that, if it is absent, it has to be evoked in those who do not have it. But neither is correct. I have passed half a century among the Russian masses, and among the great majority of the real Russian people I have in all that time never seen or heard even once any manifestation or expression of this sentiment of patriot- ism, if we do not count those patriotic phrases, which are learned by rote during military service or are repeated from books by the most frivolous and spoiled men of the nation. I have never heard any expression of patriotic sentiments from the people ; but, I have, on the contrary, 419 420 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM frequently heard the most serious and respectable men from among the masses giving utterance to the most absolute indifference and even contempt for all kinds of manifestations of patriotism. The same tiling I have observed among the labouring classes of other nations, and I have often been assured of the same by cultured Frenchmen, Germans, and Englishmen concerning their own working people. The working people are too busy with the all-absorbing business of supporting themselves and their families, to be interested in those pohtical questions, which present themselves as the chief motive of patriotism, — the ques- tions of Eussia's influence in the East, the unity of Ger- many, or the restitution of the lost provinces to France, •or the acts of this or that part of one state toward another, and so forth, do not interest them, not only because they hardly ever know the conditions under which these questions have arisen, but also because the in- terests of their lives are quite independent of the political interests. It is always very much a matter of indifference to a man from the masses, where certain borders will be marked down, or to whom Constantinople will belong, or whether Saxony or Brunswick will be a member of the German union, or whether Australia or Matabeleland will belong to England, or even to what government he will have to pay taxes and to what army he will have to send his sons ; but it is always very important for him to know how much he will have to pay in taxes, how long he has to serve, and how much he will receive for his labour, — and these are questions that are quite independent of the common pohtical interests. It is for this reason that, in spite of all the intensified means used by the governments for the inoculation of the masses with a patriotism which is alien to them and for the sup- pression of the ideas of socialism, which are developing among them, the socialism more and more penetrates CHKISTIANITY AND PATKIOTISM 421 into the masses, and the patriotism, which is so carefully inoculated by the governments, is not only not adopted by the masses, but is disappearing more and more, maintain- ing itself only among the upper clasps, to whom it is advantageous. If it happens that at times patriotism takes hold of the popular crowd, as was the case in Paris, this is only so when the masses are subjected to an in- tensitied hypnotic influence by the governments and the ruling classes, and the patriotism is maintained among the masses only so long as this influence lasts. Thus, for example, in Eussia, where patriotism, in the form of love and loyalty for the faith, the Tsar, and the country, is inoculated in the masses with extraordi- nary tension and with the use of all the tools at the com- mand of the governments, such as the church, the school, the press, and all kinds of solemnities, the Eussian labour- ing classes, — one hundred millions of the Eussian nation, — in spite of Eussia's unearned reputation as a nation that is particularly devoted to its faith, its Tsar, and its coun- try, are most free from the deception of patriotism and from loyalty to faith, the Tsar, and country. The men of the masses for the most part do not know their Orthodox, state faith, to which they are suj)posed to be so loyal, and when they come to know it, they immediately give it up and become rationalists, that is, accept a faith which it is impossible to attack or to defend ; on their Tsar they, in spite of the constant and persistent influences brought to bear upon them, look as upon all the powers of violence, if not with condemnation, at least with abso- lute indifference ; but their country, if by that we do not mean their village or township, they do not know at all, or, if they do, they do not distinguish it from any other countries, so that, as Eussian colonists used to go to Austria and to Turkey, they now with just as much indiiference settle in Eussia, outside of Eussia, in Turkey or in China. XL My old friend D , who in the winter hved alone in the country, while his wife, whom he went to see but rarely, lived in Paris, used to talk during the long autumn evenings with an illiterate, but very clever and respectable peasant, an elder, who came in the evening to report, and my friend told him, among other things, of the superior- ity of the French political order over our own. This was on the eve of the last Polish insurrection and the inter- ference of the French government in our affairs. The patriotic Eussian newspapers at that time burned with indignation on account of such interference, and so heated up the ruling classes that they talked of a war with France. My friend, who had read the papers, told the elder also of these relations between Eussia and France. Submit- ting to the tone of the papers, my friend said that if there should be any war (he was an old soldier), he would serve and fight against France. At that time the " re- vanche " against the French seemed necessary to the Eus- sians on account of Sevastopol. " But why should we wage war ? " asked the elder. "How can we permit France to manage our affairs?" " But you say yourself that things are better arranged with them than with us," the elder said, quite seriously, " Let them arrange matters in our country, too." My friend told me that this reflection so startled him that he was absolutely at a loss what to say, and only laughed, as laugh those who awaken from a deceptive dream. 422 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 423 Such reflections one may hear from any sober Russian labouring man, if only he is not under any hypnotic influence of the government. They talk of the love of the Russian masses for their faith, their Tsar, and their government, and yet there will not be found one com- mune of peasants in the whole of Russia, which would hesitate for a moment, which of the two places to choose for its colonization, — Russia, with the Tsar, the little father, as they write in books, and with the holy Ortho- dox faith in its adored country, but with less and worse land, or without the little father, the white Tsar, and without the Orthodox faith, somewhere outside of Russia, in Prussia, China, Turkey, Austria, but with some greater and better advantages, as indeed we have seen before and see at present. For every Russian peasant the question as to what government he will be under (since he knows that, no matter under what government he may be, he will be fleeced just the same) has incomparably less meaning than the question as to whether, I will not say the water is good, but as to whether the clay is soft and as to whether there will be a good crop of cabbage. But it may be thought that the indifference of the Rus- sians is due to this, that any other government under whose power they may come will certainly be better than the Russian, because in Europe there is not one that is worse than the Russian ; but that is not so : so far as I know, we have seen the same in the case of the English, Dutch, German immigrants in America, and of all the other colonists in Russia. The transference of the European nations from the power of one government to another, from the Turkish to the Austrian, or from the French to the German, changes the condition of the nations so little that in no cass can they provoke the dissatisfaction of the working classes, so long as they are not artificially subjected to the sug- gestions of the governments and the ruling classes. XII. People generally adduce, in proof of the existence of patriotism, the manifestations of patriotic sentiments in a nation during a time of all kinds of celebrations, as, for example, in Eussia during a coronation or the meeting of the emperor after the calamity of the seventeenth of October, or in France during the proclamation of war against Prussia, or in Germany during the festivities of victory, or during the Franco-Eussian celebrations. But it ought to be known how these manifestations are prepared. In Eussia, for example, people are especially dressed up by the village commune and the owners of factories to meet and welcome the emperor whenever he passes through a given locality. The transports of the masses are generally prepared artificially by those who need them, and the degree of transport expressed by the crowd shows only the degree of the art of the arrangers of these transports. This busi- ness has long been practised, and so the specialists in arranging such transports have reached a high degree of virtuosity in these arrangements. When Alexander II. was still an heir apparent, and was in command, as is usually the case, of the Preobrazhenski regiment, he once drove out after dinner to the regiment in camp. The moment his carriage appeared, the soldiers, coatless as they were, rushed out to meet him, and with such trans- port welcomed, as they say, their most august commander, that all ran a race behind his carriage, and many of them made the sign of the cross while on a run, looking all the time at the heir apparent. All those who saw this meet- 424 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 425 ing were deeply touched by this naive loyalty and love of the Eussian soldiers for their Tsar and his heir, and by that sincere religious and apparently unprepared transport which was expressed in the faces, the motions, and es- pecially in the sigus of the cross, which the soldiers made. However, all that was done artificially and prepared in the following manner : after the inspection of the previous day the heir said to the brigade commander that he would drive up the next day to the regiment. " When are we to expect your Imperial Majesty ? " " In all probability in the evening. Only, please, no preparations." The moment the heir drove off, the brigade commander called together the commanders of the companies and gave the order that on the following day all the soldiers were to appear in clean shirts, and, as soon as they saw the heir's carriage, which the signallers were to announce, they were to run at haphazard after the carriage, shouting " Hurrah ! " and that, at the same time, every tenth man in the company was to run and make the sign of the cross. The sergeants drew up the companies, and, count- ing the soldiers, stopped at every tenth man : " One, two, three . . . eight, nine, ten, — Sidor^nko — the sign of the cross ; one, two, three, four . . . Ivanov — the sign of the cross ..." Everything was carried out as by com- mand, and the impression of transport was complete, both on the heir apparent and on all the persons present, even on the soldiers and the officers, and even on the com- mander of the brigade, who had invented all that. Just so, though less coarsely, they do in all places, wherever there are any patriotic manifestations. Thus the Franco- Eussian celebrations, which present themselves to us as free expressions of the people's sentiments, did not origi- nate with the people, but were, on the contrary, very artfully and quite obviously prepared and provoked by the French government. 426 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM " The moment the arrival of the Russian sailors became known," I am again quoting the same Rural Messenger, the official organ, which collects its information from all the other newspapers, " committees for the arrangement of celebrations were being formed, not only in all the large and small cities lying on the route from Toulon to Paris, a considerable distance, but also in a large number of towns and villages which lie quite to either side of this route. Everywhere a subscription was opened for contri- butions to meet the expenses for these celebrations. Many cities sent deputations to Paris to our imperial ambassador, imploring him to let the sailors visit their cities even for one day or even for one hour. The munic- ipal governments of all those cities in which our sailors were ordered to stay set aside vast sums, averaging more than one hundred thousand roubles, for the arrangement of all kinds of festivities and amusements, and expressed their wilhngness to expend even greater sums, as much as should be needed, provided the welcome and the cele- brations should be as magnificent as possible. " In Paris itself a private committee collected, in addi- tion to the sum set aside by the city government for this purpose, an immense sum by private subscription, also for the arrangement of amusements, and the French govern- ment assigned more than one hundred thousand roubles for expenses incurred by the ministers and other authori- ties in welcoming the guests. In many cities, where our sailors will not set foot at all, they none the less decided to celebrate the first of October with all kinds of festivities in honour of Eussia. A vast number of cities and prov- inces decided to send special deputations to Toulon and Paris, in order to welcome the Russian guests and to oher them presents to remember France by, or to send to them addresses and telegrams of welcome. It was decided everywhere to consider the first of October a national holiday and to dismiss the pupils of all the educational CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 427 institutions for that day, and in Paris for two days. Officials of lower rank had their penalties remitted, that they might gratefully remember the joyful day for France, — the first of October. " To make it easier for those who wished to visit Toulon and take part in the welcome to the Eussian squadron, the railways lowered the rates to one-half and sent out special trains." And thus, when by means of a whole series of universal, simultaneous measures, which the government can always take by dint of the power which it has in its hands, a certain part of the nation, preeminently the scum of the people, the city crowd, is brought to a condition of a1)nor- mal excitement, they say : " Behold, this is the free ex- pression of the will of the whole nation." Manifestations like those which just took place in Toulon and in Paris, which in Germany take place at the meeting of the em- peror or of Bismarck, or at manoeuvres in Lorraine, and which are constantly repeated in Russia at every meet- ing circumstanced with solemnity, prove only this, that the means of an artificial excitation of the people, which now are in the hands of the governments and the ruling classes, are so powerful that the governments and the ruhng classes, which are in possession of them, are always able at will to provoke any kind of a patriotic manifesta- tion they may wish by rousing the patriotic sentiments of the masses. Nothing, on the contrary, proves the absence of patriotism in the masses with such obviousness as those tense efforts which now are made by the govern- ments and the ruling classes for the artificial excitation of patriotism, and the insignificant results which are ob- tained in spite of all the efforts. If patriotic sentiments are so proper to the nations, they should be permitted to manifest themselves freely, and should not be provoked by all kinds of exclusive and artificial means, apphed on every possible occasion. Let 428 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM them even for a time, for one year, stop in Eussia compel- ling all the people, as they are doing now, upon the acces- sion of every Tsar, to swear allegiance to him ; let them at every divine service stop solemnly repeating several times the customary prayers for the Tsar ; let them stop cele- brating his birthdays and name-days with ringing of bells, illumination, and the prohibition to work ; let them stop everywhere liangiug out and displaying representations of him ; let them stop, in prayer-books, almanacs, text-books, printing his name and the names of his family, and even the pronouns referring to him, in capitals ; let them stop glorifying him in special books and newspapers printed for the purpose ; let them stop imprisoning men for the shghtest disrespectful word uttered concerning the Tsar, — let them stop doing all that for a time only, and then we should see how proper it is for the masses, for the real labouring masses, for Prokdfi, for elder Ivan, and for all the men of the Russian masses, — as the nation is made to believe and as all the foreigners are convinced of it, — to worship the Tsar, who in one way or another turns them over into the hands of a landed proprietor or of the rich in general. So it is in Russia ; but let them similarly stop in Germany, France, Italy, England, Amer- ica doing all that which is done there with the same ten- sion by the ruling classes in order to rouse patriotism and loyalty and submission to the existing government, and we should see in how far this imaginary patriotism is characteristic of the nations of our time. But, as it is, the masses are stultified from childhood by all possible means, by school-books, divine services, sermons, books, newspapers, verses, monuments, which all tend in one and the same direction ; then they select by force or bribery a few thousands of the people, and when these assembled thousands, joined by all the loafers who are always happy to be present at any spectacle, to the sounds of cannon-shots and of music, and at the sight of CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 429 every kind of splendour and light begin to shout what the leaders shout to them, we are told that this is an expres- sion of the sentiments of the whole nation. But, in the first place, these thousands, or, if it is a great crowd, these tens of thousands, who shout something at such celebra- tions, form but a tiny, a ten-thousandth part of the whole nation ; in the second place, out of these tens of thousands of shouting men, who wave their hats, the greater part are either collected by force, as is the case with us in Kussia, or artificially provoked by some enticement ; in the third place, among all these thousands, there are scarcely tens wlio know what it is all about, and all the rest would as gladly shout and wave their hats if the very opposite took place ; and, in the fourth place, the police are always present, and they will make any one shut up if he does not shout what the government wants and demands shall be shouted, and lock him up at once, as was done with much force during the Franco-Eussian festivities. In France they welcomed with cc^ual enthusiasm the war with Russia under Napoleon I., and then Alexander I., against whom the war was waged, and then again Napoleon, and again the allies, and Bourbon, and Orleans, and the Republic, and Napoleon III., and Boulanger ; and in Russia they acclaim with the same enthusiasm, to-day Peter, to-morrow Catherine, the next day I*aul, Alexander, Constantine, Nicholas, the Duke of Leuchtenberg, the brother Slavs, the King of Prussia, the French sailors, and all those whom the government wants them to welcome. The same happens in England, America, Germany, Italy. What in our time is called patriotism is, on the one hand, only a certain mood, which is constantly produced and maintained in the masses by the schools, the religion, the venal press, having such a tendency as the govern- ment demands, and, on the other, a temporary excitation, produced with exclusive means by the ruling classes, in the masses, who stand on a lower moral and even mental 430 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM plane, — an excitation, which later is given out as a con- stant expression of the will of the whole nation. The patriotism of the oppressed nationalities does not form an exception to this. It is as little characteristic of the working classes, and is artificially inculcated upon them by the upper classes. XIII. " But if the men of the masses do not experience the sentiment of patriotism, this is due to the fact that they have not yet reached that exalted sentiment, which is characteristic of every cultured man. If they do not ex- perience this exalted sentiment, it has to be educated in them. It is this that the government is doing." Thus generally speak the men of the ruling classes, with such full confidence that patriotism is an exalted sentiment, that the naive men of the masses, who do not experience it, consider themselves at fault, because they do not experience this sentiment, and try to assure them- selves that they experience it, or at least pretend that they do. But what is this exalted sentiment, which, in the opin- ion of the ruhng classes, ought to be educated in the nations ? This sentiment is in its most precise definition nothing but a preference shown to one's own state or nation in comparison with any other state or nation, a sentiment which is fully expressed in the German patriotic song, " Deutschland, Deutschland ilber alles" in which we need only substitute Russland, Frankreich, Italicn, or any other state for Deutschland, and we shall get the clearest formula of the exalted sentiment of patriotism. It may be that this sentiment is very desirable and useful for the govern- ments and the integrity of the state, but one cannot help but observe that this sentiment is not at all exalted, but, on the contrary, very stupid and very immoral : stupid, because, if every state will consider itself better than any 431 432 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM other, it is obvious that they will all be in the wrong ; and immoral, because it inevitably leads every man who expe- riences the feeling to try to obtain advantages for his own state and nation, at the expense of other states and na- tions — a tendency which is directly opposed to the fun- damental moral law recognized by all men : not to do unto another what we do not wish to have done to our- selves. Patriotism may have been a virtue in the ancient world, when it demanded of man that he serve the highest ideal accessible to him at the time, — the ideal of his country. But how can patriotism be a virtue in our time, when it demands of men what is directly opposed to what forms the ideal of our religion and morality, — not the recognition of the equality and brotherhood of all men, but the recognition of one state and nationality as predominating over all the others. This sentiment is in our time not only not a virtue, but unquestionably a vice ; no such sentiment of patriotism in its true sense does or can exist in our time, because the material and moral foundations for it are lacking. Patriotism could have some sense in the ancient world, when every nation, more or less homogeneous in its structure, professing one and the same state religion, and submitting to the same unlimited power of its supreme, deified ruler, appeared to itself as an island in the ocean of the barbarians, which ever threatened to inundate it. We can see how with such a state of affairs, patriotism, that is, the desire to ward off the attacks of the barbari- ans, who were not only prepared to destroy the social order, but who also threatened whelesale plundering and murder, with the enslavement of men and the rape of women, was a natural feeling, and we can see why a man, to free himself and his compatriots from such calamities, could have preferred his nation to all the others, and could experience a hostile feeling toward the barbarians CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 433 around him, and could kill them, in order to protect his nation. But what significance can this sentiment have in our Christian time ? On what ground and for what purpose can a man of our time, a Russian, go and kill Frenchmen or Germans, or a Frenchman Germans, when he knows full well, no matter how little educated he may be, that the men of the other state and nation, against which they are rousing his patriotic hostility, are not barbarians, but just such Christians as he, frequently of the same faith and profession with him, desiring like him nothing but peace and a peaceful exchange of labour, and that, besides, they are for the most part united with him either by the interests of common labour, or by commercial or spiritual interests, or by all together ? Thus frequently the men of another country are nearer and more indispensable to a mail than his own countrymen, as is the case with labour- ers who are connected with employers of other nation- alities, and as is the case with commercial people, and especially with scholars and artists. Besides, the conditions of life themselves have so changed now that what we call our country, what we are supposed to distinguish from everything else, has ceased to be something clearly defined, as it was with the ancients, where the men forming one country belonged to one nationality, one state, and one faith. We can understand the patriotism of an Egyptian, a Jew, a Greek, who, defending his country, was at the same time defend- ing his faith, and his nationality, and his home, and his state. But in what way will in our time be expressed the patriotism of an Irishman in the United States, who by his faith belongs to Eome, by his nationality to Ireland, by his state allegiance to the United States ? In the same condition are a Bohemian in Austria, a Pole in Russia, Prussia, and Austria, a Hindoo in England, a 434 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM Tartar and an Armenian in Eussia and in Turkey. But, even leaving out these men of the separate conquered nationalities, the men of the most homogeneous states, such as are Eussia, France, Prussia, can no longer experi- ence that sentiment of patriotism, which was peculiar to the ancients, because frequently all the chief interests of their life (sometimes their domestic ones, — they are married to women of another nation ; the economic ones, — their capital is abroad ; their spiritual, scientific, or artistic ones) are not in their own country, but outside it, in that state against which the government is rousing his patri- otic hatred. But most of all is patriotism impossible in our time, because, no matter how much we have tried for eighteen hundred years to conceal the meaning of Christianity, it has none the less trickled through into our life, and is guiding it in such a way that the coarsest and most stupid of men cannot help but see the absolute incompatibihty of patriotism with those moral rules by which they live. XIV. Patriotism was necessary for the formation, out of heterogeneous nationalities, of strong, united kingdoms, protected against the barbarians. But as soon as the Christian enhghtenment transformed all these kingdoms ahke from within, by giving them the same foundations, patriotism not only became unnecessary, but was also the one barrier against that union of the nations for which they are prepared by dint of their Christian consciousness. Patriotism is in our time the cruel tradition of a long- gone-by period of time, which holds itself only through inertia and because the governments and the ruhng classes feel that with this patriotism is connected not only their power, but also their existence, and so with care and cunning and violence rouse and sustain it in the nations. Patriotism is in our time like the scaffolding, which at one time was necessary for the construction of the walls of a building, but which now, though it only interferes with the proper use of the building, is not taken down, because its existence is advantageous for some persons. Among the Christian nations there has for a long time ceased to exist any cause for discord, and there can be no such cause. It is even impossible to imagine why and how Russian and German labourers, who peacefully work together near the border and in the capital cities, should begin to quarrel among themselves. And much less can we imagine any hostility between, let us say, a Kazan peasant, wIkj sup})lies a German with corn, and the Ger- man, who supplies him with scythes and machines, and 435 436 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM similarly among French, German, and Italian labourers. It is even ridiculous to talk of quarrels among the schol- ars, artists, writers of various nationalities, w^ho live by the same interests, that are independent of nationality and the state structure. But the governments cannot leave the nations alone, that is, in peaceful relations among themselves, because the chief, if not the only justification of the existence of the governments consists in making peace between the nations, that is, in allaying their hostile relations. And so the governments provoke these hostile relations under the guise of patriotism, and then make it appear that they are making peace among the nations. It is something like what a gipsy does, who pours some pepper under his horse's tail, and lashes it in the stall, and then leads it out, wdiile hanging on to the bridle, pretending that he has the hardest time to restrain the mettled horse. We are assured that the governments are concerned about preserving the peace among the nations. In what way do they preserve this peace ? People are living along the Ehine in peaceful inter- course among themselves, — suddenly, in consequence of all kinds of disputes and intrigues between the kings and emperors, war breaks out, and the French government finds it necessary to recognize some of these inhabitants as Frenchmen. Ages pass, men have become accustomed to this state of affairs ; again there begin hostilities be- tween the governments of the great nations, and war breaks out on the slightest pretence, and the Germans find it necessary to recognize these inhabitants once more as Germans, and in all the French and the Germans ill- will flames up toward one another. Or Germans and Russians are living peacefully near the border, peacefully exchanging their labour and the products of labour, and suddenly the same institutions which exist only in the name of the pacification of the nations begin to quarrel, CHKISTIANITY AND TATIIIOTISM 437 to do one foolish thing after another, and are not able to invent anything better than the coarsest childish method of self-inflicted punishment, if only they can thus have their will and do something nasty to their adversary (which in this case is especially advantageous, since not those who start a customs war, but others, suffer from it) ; thus the Customs War between Russia and Germany was lately started. Then, with the aid of the newspapers, there flames up a malevolent feeling, which is still fartlier fanned by the Franco-Eussian celebrations, and which, before we know it, may lead to a sanguinary war. I have cited the last two examples of the manner in which the governments affect the people by rousing in them a hostile feeling toward other nations, because they are contemporary ; but there is not one war in all history, w^hich was not provoked by the governments, by the governments alone, independently of the advantages to the nations, to which war, even if it is successful, is always harmful. The governments assure the nations that they are in danger of an incursion from other nations and from inter- nal enemies, and that the only salvation from this danger consists in the slavish obedience of the nations to their governments. This is most obvious in the time of revolu- tions and dictatorships, and this takes place at all times and in all places, wherever there is power. Every gov- ernment explains its existence and justifies all its violence by insisting that, if it did not exist, things would be worse. By assuring the nations that they are in danger, the governments subject them to themselves. When the nations submit to the governments, these governments compel these naticjns to attack the other nations. In this manner the nations find confirmed the assurances of their governments in regard to the danger from being attacked by other nations. Divide et impcra. 438 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM Patriotism in its simplest, clearest, and most unques- tionable significance is for the rulers nothing but a tool for attaining their ambitious and selfish ends, and for the ruled a renunciation of human dignity, reason, conscience, and a slavish submission to those who are in power. Thus is patriotism actually preached, wherever it is preached. Patriotism is slavery. The advocates of peace through arbitration judge like this : two animals cannot divide their prey otherwise than by fighting, as do children, barbarians, and barbarous nations. But sensible people settle their differences by discussion, conviction, the transmission of the solution of the question to disinterested, sensible men. Even thus must the sensible nations of our time act. These reflec- tions seem quite correct. The nations of our time have reached an age of discretion, are not hostile to one another, and should be able to settle their differences in a peace- able manner. But the reflection is correct only in refer- ence to the nations, to the nations alone, if they were not under the power of their governments. But the nations which submit to their governments cannot be sensible, because submission to the governments is already a sign of the greatest senselessness. How can we talk of the sensibleness of men who promise in advance to do everything (including the murder of men) which the government, that is, certain men who have accidentally come to hold this position, may command them to do ? Men who are able to accept such a duty of unflinching submission to what certain strangers will, from St. Peters- burg, Vienna, Paris, command them to do, cannot be sensible, and the governments, that is, the men who pos- sess such power, can still less be sensible, and cannot help abusing it, — they cannot help losing their minds from such a senselessly terrible power. For that reason the CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 439 peace among the nations cannot be attained by any sen- sible means, through conventions, through arbitrations, so long as there exists a submission to the governments, which is always senseless and always pernicious. But the submission of men to the governments will always exist, so long as there is any patriotism, because every power is based on patriotism, that is, on the readi- ness of men, for the sake of defending their nation, their country, that is, the state, against supposed dangers that are threatening it, to submit to the power. On this patriotism was based the power of the French kings over the whole nation previous to the Eevolution ; on the same patriotism was based the power of the Com- mittee of Public Safety after the Revolution ; on the same patriotism was reared the power of Napoleon (as consul and as emperor) ; and on the same patriotism, after the downfall of Napoleon, was estabhshed the power of the Bourbons, and later of the Eepublic, and of Louis Philippe, and again of the Eepublic, and again of Bonaparte, and again of the Eepublic, and on the same patriotism came very near being established the power of Mr. Boulanger, It is terrible to say so, but there does not exist, and there has not existed, a case of aggregate violence com- mitted by one set of men against another which has not been committed in the name of patriotism. In the name of patriotism the Russians fought with the French, and the Frencli with the Eussians, and in the name of patriot- ism the Eussians and the French are now preparing them- selves to wage war against the Germans, — to fight from two flanks. But war is not all, — in the name of patriot- ism the Eussians crush tlie Poles, and the Germans the Slavs ; in the name of patriotism the Communists killed the Versaillians, and the Versaillians, the Communists. XV. It would seem that with the dissemination of culture, of improved means of locomotion, of frequent intercourse among the men of the various nations, in connection with the diffusion of the press, and, above all, in connection with the complete absence of danger from other nations, the deception of patriotism ought to become harder and harder, and ought in the end to become impossible. But the point is, that these same means of a universal external culture, of improved methods of locomotion, and of intercommunication, and above all, of the press, which the governments have seized upon and seize upon more and more, give them now such a power of exciting in the nations hostile feelings toward one another, that, though on the one hand the obviousness of the uselessness and harm of patriotism has increased, there has, on the other, increased the power of the governments and of the ruling classes to influence the masses, by rousing patriotism in them. The difference between what was and what now is consists only in this, that, since now a much greater num- ber of men share in the advantages which patriotism affords to the upper classes, a much greater number of men take part in the dissemination and maintenance of this wonderful superstition. The more difficult it is to maintain the power, the greater and greater is the number of men with whom the government shares it. Formerly a small group of rulers had the power, — em- perors, kings, dukes, their officials, and warriors ; but now the participants in this power and in the advantages 440 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 441 which it affords are not only the officials and the clergy, but also capitaHsts, great and small, the landowners, hankers, members of Chambers, teachers, rural officers, scholars, even artists, and especially journalists. And all these persons consciously and unconsciously spread the deception of patriotism, which is indispensable to them for the maintenance of their advantageous position. And the deception, thanks to the fact that the means of deception have become more powerful and that now an ever-growing number of men are taking part in it, is produced so successfully that, in spite of the great diffi- culty of deceiving, the degree of the deception remains the same. One hundred years ago, the illiterate masses, who had no conception as to who composed their government and as to what nations surrounded them, blindly obeyed those local officials and gentry, whose slaves they were. And it sufficed for the government by means of bribes and rewards to keep these officials and this gentry in their power, in order that the masses might obediently do what was demanded of them. But now, when the masses for the most part can read and more or less know of whom their government is composed, and what nations surround them ; when the men of the masses constantly move about with ease from one place to another, bringing to the masses information about what is going on in the world, a mere demand to carry out the commands of the govern- ment no longer suffices : it becomes necessary to obscure the true conceptions which the masses have concerning life, and to impress tliem with improper ideas concern- ing the conditions of their life and concerning the rela- tion of other nations toward them. And so, thanks to the diffusion of the press, of the rudi- ments, and of the means of communication, the govern- ments, having their agents everywhere, by means of decrees, church sermons, the schools, the newspapers iucul- 442 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM cate on the masses the wildest and most perverse con- ceptions about their advantages, about the relation of the peoples among themselves, about their properties and intentions ; and the masses, which are so crushed by labour that they have no time and no chance to under- stand the significance and verify the correctness of those conceptions which are inculcated upon them, and of those demands which are made on them in the name of their good, submit to them without a murmur. But the men from the masses who free themselves from constant labour and who educate themselves, and who, it would seem, should be able to understand the de- ception which is practised upon them, are subjected to such an intensified effect of menaces, bribery, and hypno- tization by the governments, that they almost without an exception pass over to the side of the governments and, accepting advantageous and well-paid positions as teach- ers, priests, officers, officials, become participants in the dissemination of the deception which ruins their fellow men. It is as though at the door of education stood a snare, into which inevitably fall those who in one way or another leave the masses that are absorbed in labour. At first, as one comes to understand the cruelty of the deception, there involuntarily rises an indignation against those who for their personal, selfish, ambitious advantage produce this cruel deception, which destroys, not only men's bodies, but also their souls, and one feels like showing up tbese cruel deceivers. But the point is, that the deceivers do not deceive because they want to de- ceive, but because they almost cannot do otherwise. And they do not deceive in any Machiavellian way, with a consciousness of the deception which they practise, but for the most part with the naive assurance that they are doing something good and elevated, in which opinion they are constantly maintained by the sympathy and approval of all the men who surround them. It is true that. CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 443 feeling dimly that their power and their advantageous position is based on this deception, they are involuntarily drawn toward it ; but they do not act because they wish to deceive the masses, but because they think that the work which they are doing is useful for the masses. Thus emperors and kings and their ministers, perform- ing their coronations, manoeuvres, inspections, mutual visits, during which time they, dressing themselves up in all kinds of uniforms and travelling from one place to another, consult with one another with serious faces about how to pacify presumably hostile nations (who will never think of fighting with one another), are absolutely convinced that everything they do is exceedingly sensible and useful. Similarly all the ministers, diplomatists, and all kinds of officials, who dress themselves up in their uniforms, with all kinds of ribbons and little crosses, and with pre- occupation write on fine paper their obscure, twisted, useless numbered reports, communications, prescriptions, projects, are absolutely convinced that without this their activity the whole life of the nations will come to a standstill or will be entirely destroyed. Similarly the military, who dress themselves up in their ridiculous costumes and who seriously discuss with what guns or cannon it is better to kill people, are fully convinced that their manasuvres and parades are luost important and necessary for the nation. The same conviction is held by the preachers, journal- ists, and writers of patriotic verses and text-books, who receive a liberal reward for preaching patriotism. Nor is any doubt concerning this harboured by the managers of celebrations, like the Franco-Eussian ones, who are sincerely affected when they utter their patriotic speeches and toasts. All people do unconsciously what they do, because that is necessary, or because their whole life is based on this deception and they are unable to do any- 444 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM thing else, while these same acts evoke the sympathy and the approval of all those men among whom they are committed. Not only do they, being all connected with one another, approve and justify the acts and the activi- ties of one another, — the emperors and kings, the acts of the soldiers, the officials, and the clergy ; and the military, the officials, and the clergy, the acts of the emperors, the kings, and one another, — the popular crowd, especially the city crowd, which sees no compre- hensible meaning in everything which is being done by these men, involuntarily ascribes a special, almost a supernatural significance to them. The crowd sees, for example, that triumphal arches are being erected ; that men masquerade in crowns, uniforms, vestments ; that fireworks are displayed, cannon are fired, bells are rung, regiments are marching with music, documents, telegrams, and couriers fly from one place to another, and strangely masquerading men with preoccupation keep riding from one place to another, saying and writing something, and so forth, — and, not being able to verify whether there is the slightest need for what is being done (as, indeed, there is none), ascribes to all this a special, mysterious, and important meaning, and with shouts of transport or with silent awe meets all these manifestations. But in the meantime these expressions of transport and the constant respect of the crowd still more strengthen the assurance of the men who are doing all these foolish things. Lately William II. ordered a new throne for himself, with some special ornaments, and, dressing himself up in a white uniform with patches, in tight trousers, and in a helmet with a bird on it, and throwing a red mantle over all, came out to his subjects and seated himself on this throne, with the full assurance that this was a very nec- essary and important act, and his subjects not only did not see anything funny in all this, but even found this spectacle to be very majestic. .-* XVL The power of the governments has now for a long time ceased to be based on force, as it was based in those times when one nationality conquered another and by force of arms held it in subjection, or when the rulers, amidst a defenceless people, maintained separate armed troops of janissaries, oprichniks, or guardsmen. The power of the governments has now for a long time been based on what is called public opinion. There exists a public opinion that patriotism is a great moral sentiment, and that it is good and right to consider one's own nation, one's own state, the best in the world, and from this there naturally establishes itself a public opinion that it is necessary to recognize the power of the government over ourselves and to submit to it ; that it is good and right to serve in the army and to submit to discipline; that it is good and right to give up our savings in the shape of taxes to the government ; that it is good and right to submit to the decisions of the courts; that it is good and right to believe without verification in what is given out as a divine truth by the men of the government. Once such a pubhc opinion exists, there establishes itself a mighty power, which in our time has command of milliards of money, of an organized mechanism of government, the post, the telegraphs, the telephones, disci- plined armies, courts, the pohce, a submissive clergy, the school, even the press, and this power maintains in the nations that public opinion wliich it needs. The power of the governments is maintained through 445 446 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM public opinion ; but, haviug the power, the governments by means of all their organs, the officers of the courts, the school, the church, even the press, are always able to keep up the public opinion which they need. Public opinion produces power, — power produces public opinion. There seems to be no way out from this situation. Thus it would, indeed, be, if pubhc opinion were some- thing stable and unchanging, and if the governments were able to produce the public opinion which they need. But fortunately this is not the case, and public opinion is, in the first place, not something which is constant, unchanging, stable, but, on the contrary, something eter- nally changing, moving together with the motion of human- ity ; and, in the second, public opinion not only cannot be produced by the will of the governments, but is that which produces the governments and gives them power or takes it away from them. It may appear that public opinion remains immovable and now is such as it was decades ago, and it may appear that public opinion wavers in relation to certain special cases, as though going back, so that, for example, it now destroys the republic, putting the monarchy in its place, and now again destroys the monarchy, putting the republic in its place ; but that only seems so when we view the external manifestations of that public opinion which is artificially produced by the governments. We need only take public opinion in its relation to the whole life of men, and we shall see that public opinion, just like the time of the day or year, never stands in one place, but is always in motion, always marching unrestrictedly ahead along the path on which humanity proceeds, just as, in spite of retardations and waverings, day or spring moves on unrestrictedly along the path over which the sun travels. Thus, though by the external signs the condition of the nations of Europe in our time is nearly the same that it CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 447 was fifty years ago, the relation of the nations toward it is now entirely different from what it was fifty years ago. Though there exist, even as tifty years ago, the same- rulers, armies, wars, taxes, luxury, and misery, the same Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, these existed before because the public opinion of the nations demanded them, but now they all exist because the governments artificially maintain that which formerly was a living public opinion. If we frequently do not notice this motion of public opinion, as we do not notice the motion of water in the river, with the current of which we are swimming, this is due to the fact that those imperceptible changes of public opinion which form its motion are taking place in ourselves. The property of public opinion is that of constant and unrestricted motion. If it seems to us that it is standing in one place, this is due to the fact that everywhere there are people who have estabhshed an advantageous position for themselves at a certain moment of public opinion, and so with all their strength try to maintain it and not to admit the manifestation of the new, the present public opinion which, though not yet fully expressed, is living in the consciousness of men. Such people, who retain the obsolete public opinion and conceal the new, are all those who at the present time form the governments and the ruling classes, and who profess patriotism as an indispen- sable condition of human life. The means which are at the command of these people are enormous, but since public opinion is something eter- nally flowing and increasing, all their efforts cannot help but be vain : the old grows old, and the youthful grows. The longer the expression of the new public opinion shall be retained, the more it will grow, and the greater will be the force with which it will express itself' The government and the ruling classes try witli all their strength to retaiu that old public opinion of patriotism, on 448 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM which their power is based, and to retard the manifestation of the new, which will destroy it. But it is possible only within certain limits to retain the old and retard the new, just as running water can be held back by a dam only within certain limits. No matter how much the governments may try to rouse in the nations the past public opinion, now no longer characteristic of them, concerning the dignity and virtue of patriotism, the men of our time no longer believe in patriotism, but more and more believe in the solidarity and brotherhood of the nations. Patriotism now presents to men nothing but the most terrible future ; but the brotherhood of the nations forms that ideal which more and more grows to be comprehensible and desirable for humanity. And so the transition of men from the for- mer obsolete public opinion to the new must inevitably be accomplished. This transition is as inevitable as the falling of the last sere leaves in autumn and the unfold- ing of the young leaves in swelling buds. The longer this transition is delayed, the more impera- tive does it become, and the more obvious is its necessity. Indeed, we need only recall what it is we are professing, as Christians, and simply as men of our time, we need but recall those moral bases which guide us in our pubhc, domestic, and private life, and that position in which we have placed ourselves in the name of patriotism, in order that we may see what degree of contradiction we have reached between our consciousness and that which among us, thanks to the intensified influence of the government in this respect, is regarded as our public opinion. We need only reflect on those very usual demands of patriotism, which present themselves to us as something very simple and natural, in order that we may understand to what extent these demands contradict that real public opinion which we all share now. We all consider our- selves free, cultured, humane men, and even Christians, CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 449 and at the same time we are in such a position that if to-morrow William takes umbrage at Alexander, or Mr, N writes a clever article on the Eastern question, or some prince robs the Bulgarians or the Servians, or some queen or empress takes offence at something, we all, the cultured, humane Christians, must go out to kill men, whom we do not know, and toward whom we are friendly- disposed, as toward all men. If this has not yet happened, we owe tliis, as we are assured, to the peaceful mind of Alexander III., or to this, that Nicholas Aleksandrovich is going to marry Victoria's grandchild. But let another man be in the place of Alexander, or let Alexander himself change his mood, or Nicholas Aleksandrovich marry Ama- lia, and not Alice, and we shall throw ourselves like blood- thirsty animals upon one another, to take out one another's guts. Such is the supposed public opinion of our time. Such opinions are calmly repeated in all the leading and liberal organs of the press. If we, the Christians of one thousand years' standing, have not yet cut one another's throats, it is because Alex- ander 111. does not let us do so. This is, indeed, terrible. XVIL For the greatest and most important changes to take place in the life of humanity, no exploits are needed, — neither the armament of millions of soldiers, nor the con- struction of new roads and machines, nor the establishment of exhibitions, nor the establishment of labour-unions, nor revolutions, nor barricades, nor explosions, nor the inven- tion of aerial motion, and so forth, but only a change in public opinion. But for public opinion to change, no efforts of the mind are needed, nor the rejection of any- thing existing, nor the invention of anything unusual and new ; all that is needed is, that every separate man should say what he actually thinks and feels, or at least should not say what he does not think. Let men, even a small number of them, do so, and the obsolete public opinion will fall of its own accord and there will be manifested the youthful, live, present public opinion. And let public opinion change, and the inner structure of men's Kfe, which torments and pains them, will be changed without any effort. It is really a shame to think how little is needed for all men to be freed from all those calamities which now oppress them ; they need only stop lying. Let men only not suc- cumb to that lie which is inculcated on them, let them not say what they do not think or feel, and immediately a revolution will take place in the whole structure of our life, such as the revolutionists will not accomplish in cen- turies, even if all the power were in their hands. If men only believed that the strength is not in strength, but in the truth, and if they boldly expressed it, or at least 450 CHRISTIANITY AND PATKIOTISM 451 3id not depart from it in words and deeds, — if they did Qot say what they do not think, and did not do what they consider bad and stupid. " What harm is there in crying * Vive la France ! ' or ' Hurrah ! ' to some emperor, king, victor, or in going in a uniform, with the chamberlain's key, to wait for him in the antechamber, to bow, and to address him by strange titles, and then to impress all young and uncultured men with the fact that this is very praiseworthy ? " Or, " What harm is there in writing an article in defence of the Frauco- Eussiau alliance or the Customs War, or in condemnation of the Germans, Russians, Frenchmen, Englishmen ? " Or, " What harm is there in attending some patriotic celebra- tion and eulogizing men whom you do not care for and have nothing to do with, and drinking their health ? " Or even, " What harm is there in recognizing, in a conversa- tion, the benefit and usefulness of treaties, or alliances, or even in keeping silent, when your nation and state is praised in your presence, and other nationalities are cursed and blackened, or when Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Luther- anism are praised, or when some war hero or ruler, like Napoleon, Peter, or the contemporary Boulanger or Skdbe- lev, are praised ? " All that seems so unimportant, and yet in these seem- ingly unimportant acts, in our aloofness from them, in our readiness to point out, according to our strength, the irra- tionahty of what is obviously irrational, — in this does our great, invincible power consist, the power which com- poses that insuperable force which forms the real, actual, public opinion, which, moving itself, moves the whole of humanity. The governments know this, and tremble be- fore this force, and with all the means at their command try to counteract it and to get possession of it. They know that the force is not in force, but in thought and in its clear enunciation, and so they are more afraid of the expression of independent thought than of armies, and 452 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM establish censorships, bribe newspapers, take possession of the management of religion and of schools. But the spiritual force which moves the world slips away from them : it is not even in a book, a newspaper, — it is in- tangible and always free, — it is in the depth of men's consciousness. The most powerful, intangible, freest force is the one which is manifested in man's soul, when he by himself reflects on the phenomena of the world, and then involuntarily expresses his thoughts to his wife, brother, friend, to all those men with whom he comes together, and from whom he considers it a sin to conceal what he regards as the truth. No milliards of roubles, milHons of soldiers, no institutions, nor wars, nor revolutions will pro- duce what will be produced by the simple expression of a free man as to what he considers just, independently of what exists and what is inculcated upon him. One free man will truthfully say what he thinks and feels, amidst thousands of men, who by their acts and words affirm the very opposite. It would seem that the man who frankly expressed his thought would remain alone, while in reality it happens that all those men, or the majority of them, have long been thinking and feeling the same, but have not expressed their thought. And what yesterday was the new opinion of one man, to-day becomes the common opinion of all men. And as soon as this opinion has established itself, men's acts begin to change imperceptibly, slowly, but irresistibly. For, as it is, every free man says to himself : " What can I do against all this sea of evil and deceit, which inundates me ? Why should I give expression to my thought ? Why even give form to it ? It is better not to think of these obscure and intricate questions. Maybe these contradictions form an inevitable condition of all the phenomena of life. And why should I alone struggle against all this evil of the world ? Would it not be better if I abandoned myself to the current which sweeps me I CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 453 along ? If anything can be done, it can be done only in conjunction with other men." And, abandoning that powerful instrument of thought and its expression, which moves the world, this man takes up the instrument of public activity, without noticing that all public activity is based on the very principles against which he has to struggle, that in entering upon any pub- He activity which exists amidst our world, he must at least partially depart from the truth, make such concessions as will destroy the wliole force of that powerful instrument of the struggle which is given to him. It is as though a man, into whose hands an unusually sharp dagger is given, one that cuts everything, should drive in nails with the blade. We all deplore the senseless order of life which con- tradicts all our existence, and yet not only fail to make use of the one most powerful tool, which is in our hands, — the recognition of the truth and its expression, — but, on the contrary, under the pretext of struggling with evil, destroy this tool and sacrifice it to the imaginary struggle against this order. One man does not tell the truth which he knows, be- cause he feels himself under obligation to the men with whom he is connected ; another, — because the truth might deprive him of the advantageous position by means of which he is supporting his family ; a third, — because he wants to attain glory and power, to use them later in the service of men ; a fourth, — because he does not wish to violate the ancient sacred traditions ; i. fifth, — because the expression of the truth will provoke persecution and will impair that good public activity to which he is de- voting himself, or intends to devote himself. One man serves as an emperor, king, minister, official, soldier, and assures himself and others that the deviation from the truth which is necessary in his position is more than redeemed by his usefulness. 454 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM Another exercises the office of a spiritual pastor, though in the depth of his heart he does not believe in what he teaches, permitting himself a deviation from the truth in view of the good which he does. A third instructs men in literature and, in spite of the suppression of the whole truth, in order not to provoke the government and society against himself, has no doubt as to the good which he does ; a fourth simply struggles against the existing order, as do the revolutionists and anarchists, and is fully con- vinced that the aim which he pursues is so beneficent that the suppression of the truth, which is indispensable in his activity, and even lying will not destroy the good effect of his activity. For the order of life which is contrary to the conscious- ness of men to give way to one in accord with it, it is necessary for the obsolete pubHc opinion to give way to a live and new one. For the old, obsolete public opinion to give way to the new, live one, it is necessary that the men who are conscious of the new demands of life should clearly ex- press them. Meanwhile all the men who recognize all these new demands, one in the name of one thing, and another in the name of another, not only repress them, but even in words and deeds confirm what is directly opposed to these demands. Only the truth and its expression can establish that new public opinion which will change the obsolete and harmful order of hfe ; we, however, not only do not express the truth which we know, but frequently even express precisely what we con- sider to be an untruth. If free men would only not depend on what has no force and is never free, — on external power, — and would always believe in what is always powerful and free, — in the truth and its expression. If men only expressed boldly the truth, already revealed to them, about the brotherhood of all the nations and about the criminality CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 455 of the exclusive membership in one nation, the dead, false public opinion, on which the whole power of the governments is based, and all the evil produced by them, would fall off by itself like a dried-up skin, and there would appear that new, live public opinion, which is only waiting for the sloughing off of the hampering old opinion, in order clearly and boldly to proclaim its demands and establish the new forms of life in accordance with the consciousness of men. xvin. Men need but understand that what is given out to them as public opinion, what is maintained by such complex and artificial means, is not public opinion, but only the dead consequence of the quondam public opinion ; they need only, above all, believe in themselves, in this, that what is cognized by them in the depth of their hearts, what begs for recognition and finds no expression only because it contradicts public opinion, is that force which changes the world, and the manifestation of which forms man's destiny ; men need but believe that the truth is not what men about him say, but what his con- science, that is, God, says to him, and immediately there will disappear the false, artificially sustained public opin- ion, and the true one will be established. If men only said what they believe, and did not say what they do not believe, there would immediately dis- appear the superstitions that result from patriotism, and all the evil feelings and all the violence, which are based on them. There would disappear the hatred and hostility of states against states and of nationalities against nation- alities, which are fanned by the governments ; there would disappear the eulogizing of military exploits, that is, of murder ; there would, above all else, disappear the respect for the authorities, the surrender of people's labours and the submission to them, for which there are no founda- tions outside of patriotism. Let all this be done, and immediately all that vast mass of weak men, who are always guided from without, will sweep over to the side of the new public opinion. 456 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM 457 And the new public opinion will become the ruling one in the place of the old public opinion. Let the governments have possession of the school, the church, the press, milliards of roubles, and millions of disciplined men turned into machines, — all that appar- ently terrible organization of rude force is nothing in comparison with the recognition of the truth, which arises in the heart of one man who knows the force of the truth, and is communicated by this man to another, a third man, just as an endless number of candles are hghted from one. This light need only burn, and, like the wax before the face of the lire, all this seemingly so powerful organization will waste away. If men only understood that terrible power which is given them in the word which expresses the truth. If men only did not sell their birthright for a mess of pottage. If men only made use of this power of theirs, — the rulers would not only not dare, as they dare now, to threaten men with universal slaughter, to which they will drive men or not, as they may see fit, but would not even dare in the sight of peaceable citizens to bring the disci- plined murderers out on parade or in manoeuvres ; the governments would not dare for their own profit, for the advantage of their accomplices, to make and unmake customs treaties, and they would not dare to collect from the people those millions of roubles which they distribute to their accomplices and for which they prepare them- selves for the commission of murder. And so the change is not only possible, but it is even irupossible for it not to take place, as it is impossible for an overgrown, dead tree not to rot, and for a young one not to grow. " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you ; let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid," said Christ. And this peace is actually already among us, and it depends on us to attain it. 458 CHRISTIANITY AND PATRIOTISM If only the hearts of separate men did not grow faint from those temptations with which they are tempted every hour, and if they were not frightened by those imaginary fears with which they are terrified. If men only knew in what their mighty, all-conquering force consists, the peace for which men have always wished, not the one which is obtained by means of diplomatic treaties, journeys of em- perors and kings from one city to another, dinners, speeches, fortresses, cannon, dynamite, and melenite, but the one which is obtained not by the exhaustion of the masses by taxes, not by tearing the flower of the popula- tion away from work and debauching them, but by the free profession of the truth by every separate individual, would long ago have come to us. Moscow, March 17, 1894. REASON AND RELIGION 1895 I REASON AND RELIGION You ask me : 1. Should people who are not particularly advanced mentally seek an expression in words for the truths of the inner life, as comprehended by them ? 2. Is it worth while in one's inner life to strive after complete consciousness ? 3. What are we to be guided by in moments of struggle and wavering, that we may know whether it is indeed our conscience that is speaking in us, or whether it is reflec- tion, which is bribed by our weakness ? (The third ques- tion I for brevity's sake expressed in my own words, without having changed its meaning, I hope.) These three questions in my opinion reduce themselves to one, — the second, because, if it is not necessary for us to strive after a full consciousness of our inner life, it will be also unnecessary and impossible for us to express in words the truths which we have grasped, and in moments of wavering we shall have nothing to be guided by, in order to ascertain whether it is our conscience or a false reflection that is speaking within us. But if it is necessary to strive after the greatest consciousness acces- sible to human reason (whatever this reason may be), it is also necessary to express the truths grasped by us in words, and it is these expressed truths which liave been carried into full consciousness that we have to be guided by in moments of struggle and wavering. And so I answer your 461 462 REASON" AND RELIGION radical question in the affirmative, namely, that every man, for the fulfilment of his destiny upon earth and for the attainment of the true good (the two things go to- gether), must strain all the forces of his mind for the purpose of elucidating to himself those religious bases by which he lives, that is, the meaning of his life. I have frequently met among illiterate earth-diggers, who have to figure out cubic contents, the wide-spread conviction that the mathematical calculation is deceptive, and that it is not to be trusted. Either because they do not know any mathematics, or because the men who figured things out mathematically for them had fre- quently consciously or unconsciously deceived them, the opinion that mathematics was inadequate and useless for the calculation of measures has established itself as an undoubted truth which they think it is even unnecessary to prove. Just such an opinion has established itself among, I shall say it boldly, irreligious men, — an opinion that reason cannot solve any religious questions, — that the application of reason to these questions is the chief cause of errors, that the solution of religious questions by means of reason is criminal pride. I say this, because the doubt, expressed in your ques- tions, as to whether it is necessary to strive after con- sciousness in our religious convictions, can be based only on this supposition, namely, that reason cannot be applied to the solution of religious questions. However, such a supposition is as strange and obviously false as the supposition that calculation cannot settle any mathe- matical questions. God has given man but one tool for the cognition of himself and his relation to the world, — there is no other, — and this tool is reason, and suddenly he is told that he can use his reason for the elucidation of his domestic, economic, political, scientific, artistic questions, but not for the elucidation of what it is given him for. It turns REASON AND RELIGION 463 out that for the elucidation of the most important truths, of those on which his whole life depends, a man must by- no means employ reason, but must recognize these truths as beyond reason, whereas beyond reason a man cannot cognize anything. They say, "Find it out, through reve- lation, faith." But a man cannot even beheve outside of reason. If a man beheves in this, and not in that, he does so only because his reason tells him that he ought to beheve in this, and not to believe in that. To say that a man should not be guided by reason is the same as say- ing to a man, who in a dark underground room is carry- ing a lamp, that, to get out from this underground room and find his way, he ought to put out his lamp and be guided by something different from the light. But, perhaps, I shall be told, as you say in your letter, that not all men are endowed with a great mind and with a special abihty for expressing their thoughts, and that, therefore, an awkward expression of their thoughts con- cerning religion may lead to error. To this I will auswer in the words of the Gospel, " What is hidden from the wise is revealed to babes." This saying is not an exag- geration and not a paradox, as people generally judge of those utterances of the Gospel which do not please them, but the assertion of a most simple and unquestionable truth, which is, that to every being in the world a, law is given, which this being must follow, and that for the cog- nition of this law every being is endowed with corre- sponding organs. And so every man is endowed with reason, and in this reason there is revealed to him the law which he must follow. This law is hidden only from those who do not want to follow it and who, in order not to follow it, renounce reason and, instead of using their reason for the cognition of the truth, use for this purpose the indications, taken upon faith, of people like them- selves, who also reject reason. But the law which a man must follow is so simple 464 REASON AND EELIGION that it is accessible to any child, the more so since a man has no longer any need of discovering the law of his life. Men who lived before him discovered and expressed it, and all a man has to do is to verify them with his reason, to accept or not to accept the propositions which he finds expressed in the tradition, that is, not as people, who wish not to fulfil the law, advise us to do, by verifying reason through tradition, but by verifying tradition through reason. Tradition may be from men, and false, but reason is certainly from God, and cannot be false. And so, for the cognition and the expression of truth, there is no need of any especial prominent capacity, but only of the faith that reason is not only the highest divine quality of man, but also the only tool for the cognition of truth. A special mind and gifts are not needed for the cogni- tion and exposition of the truth, but for the invention and exposition of the lie. Having once departed from the indications of reason, men heap up and take upon faith, generally in the shape of laws, revelations, dogmas, such complicated, unnatural, and contradictory propositions that, in order to expound them and harmonize them with the lie, there is actually a need of astuteness of mind and of a special gift. We need only think of a man of our world, educated in the religious tenets of any Christian profession, — Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, — who wants to elucidate to himself the religious tenets inculcated upon him since childhood, and to harmonize them with life, — what a comphcated mental labour he must go through in order to harmonize all the contradictions which are found in the profession inoculated in him by his edu- cation : God, the Creator and the good, created evil, pun- ishes people, and demands redemption, and so forth, and we profess the law of love and of forgiveness, and we punish, wage war, take away the property from poor people, and so forth, and so forth. It is for the unravelling of these contradictions, or REASON AND RELIGION 465 rather, for the concealment of them from ourselves, that a great mind and special gifts are needed ; but for the discovery of the law of our life, or, as you express it, in order to bring our faith into full consciousness, no special mental gifts are needed, — - all that is necessary is not to admit anything that is contrary to reason, not to reject reason, rehgiously to guard reason, and to believe in noth- ing else. If the meaning of a man's life presents itself to him indistinctly, that does not prove that reason is of no use for the elucidation of this meaning, but only this, that too much of what is irrational has been taken upon faitli, and that it is necessary to reject everything which is not confirmed by reason. And so my answer to your fundamental question, as to whether it is necessary to strive after consciousness in our inner life, is this, that this is the most necessary and important work of our Hfe. It is necessary and important because the only rational meaning of our life consists in the fulfilment of the will of God who sent us into this life. But the will of God is not recognized by any special miracle, by the writing of the law on tablets with God's finger, or by the composition of an infallible book with the aid of the Holy Ghost, or by the infallibility of some holy person or of an assembly of men, — but only by the activity of the reason of all men who in deeds and words transmit to one another the truths which have become more and more elucidated to their consciousness. This cognition has never been and never will be complete, but is constantly increased with the movement of human- ity : the longer we live, the more clearly do we recognize God's will and, consequently, what we ought to do for its fulfilment. And so I think that the elucidation by any man (no matter how small he himself and others may consider him to be — it is the little ones who are great) of the whole religious truth, as it is accessible to him, and its expression in words (since the expression in words is 466 REASON AND RELIGION the one unquestionable symptom of a complete clearness of ideas) is one of the most important and most sacred duties of man. I shall be very much pleased if my answer shall satisfy you even in part. i PATRIOTISM OR PEACE l^etter to Manson 1896 i PATRIOTISM OR PEACE Letter to Manson Dear Sir : — You write to me asking me to express myself in respect to the United States of North America " in the interests of Christian consistency and true peace," and express the hope that " the nations will soon awaken to the one means of securing national peace." I harbour the same hope. I harbour the same hope, because the blindness in our time of the nations that extol patriotism, l)ring up their young generations in the superstition of patriotism, and, at the same time, do not wish for the inevitable consequences of patriotism, — war, — has, it seems to me, reached such a last stage that the simplest reflection, which begs for utterance in the mouth of every unprejudiced man, is suflficient, in order that men may see the crying contradiction in which they are. Frequently, when you ask children which they will choose of two things which are incompatible, but which they want alike, they answer, " Both." " Which do you want, — to go out driving or to stay at home ?" — " Both, — go out driving and stay at home." Just so the Christian nations answer the question which life puts to them, as to which they will choose, patriotism or peace, they answer " Both patriotism and peace," 46y 470 PATRIOTISM OR PEACE though it is as impossible to unite patriotism with peace, as at the same time to go out driving and stay at home. The other day there arose a difference between the United States and England concerning the borders of Venezuela. Salisbury for some reason did not agree to something ; Cleveland wrote a message to the Senate ; from either side were raised patriotic warlike cries ; a panic ensued upon 'Change ; people lost milhons of pounds and of dollars ; Edison announced that he would invent engines with which it would be possible to kill more men in an hour than Attila had killed in all his wars, and both nations began energetically to arm them- selves for war. But because, simultaneously with these preparations for war, both in England and in America, all kinds of literary men, princes, and statesmen began to admonish their respective governments to abstain from war, saying that the subject under discussion was not sufficiently important to begin a war for, especially between two related Anglo-Saxon nations, speaking the same lan- guage, who ought not to war among themselves, but ought calmly to govern others ; or because all kinds of bishops, archdeacons, canons prayed and preached con- cerning the matter in all the churches ; or because neither side considered itself sufficiently prepared, — it happened that there was no war just then. And people calmed down. But a person has to have too little perspicacity not to see that the causes which now are leading to a conflict between England and America have remained the same, and that, if even the present conflict shall be settled with- out a war, there will inevitably to-morrow or the day after appear other conflicts, between England and Eussia, between England and Turkey, in all possible permutations, as they arise every day, and one of these will lead to war. If two armed men live side by side, having been im- pressed from childhood with the idea that power, wealth, PATRIOTISM OE PEACE 471 and glory are the highest virtues, and that, therefore, to acquire power, wealth, and glory by means of arms, to the detriment of other neighbouring possessors, is a very praiseworthy matter, and if at the same time there is no moral, religious, or political restraint for these men, is it not evident that such people will always fight, that the normal relation between them will be war ? and that, if such people, having clutched one another, have separated for awhile, they have done so only, as the French prov- erb says, " 2Jour mieux sauter," that is, they have separa- ted to take a better run, to throw themselves with greater fury upon one another ? Strange is the egotism of private individuals, but the egotists of private life are not armed, do not consider it right either to prepare or use arms against their adversa- ries ; the egotism of private individuals is under the con- trol of the political power and of public opinion. A private person who with gun in his hand takes away his neighbour's cow, or a desyatina of his crop, will immedi- ately be seized by a policeman and put into prison. Be- sides, such a man will be condemned by pubhc opinion, — he will be called a thief and robber. It is quite different with the states : they are all armed, — there is no power over them, except the comical attempts at catching a bird by pouring some salt on its tail, — attempts at es- tablishing international congresses, which, apparently, will never be accepted by the powerful states (who are armed for the very purpose that they may not pay any attention to any one), and, above all, public opinion, wliich rebukes every act of violence in a private individual, ex- tols, raises to the virtue of patriotism every appropriation of what belong to others, for the increase of the power of the country. Open the newspapers for any period you may wish, and at any moment you will see the black spot, — the cause of every possible war: now it is Korea, now 472 PATKIOTISM OR PEACE the Pamir, now the lands in Africa, now Abyssinia, now Turkey, now Venezuela, now the Transvaal. The work of the robbers does not stop for a moment, and here and there a small war, like an exchange of shots in the cordon, is going on all the time, and the real war can and will begin at any moment. If an American wishes the preferential grandeur and well-being of America above all other nations, and the same is desired for his state by an EngHshman, and a Eussian, and a Turk, and a Dutchman, and an Abyssinian, and a citizen of Venezuela and of the Transvaal, and an Armenian, and a Pole, and a Bohemian, and all of them are convinced that these desires need not only not be con- cealed or repressed, but should be a matter of pride and be developed in themselves and in others ; and if the greatness and well-being of one countiy or nation cannot be obtained except to the detriment of another nation, frequently of many countries and nations, — how can war be avoided ? And so, not to have any war, it is not necessary to preach and pray to God about peace, to persuade the English-speaking nations that they ought to be friendly toward one another, in order to be able to rule over other nations ; to form double and triple alliances agaiQst one another ; to marry princes to princesses of other nations, — but to destroy what produces war. But what produces war is the desire for an exclusive good for one's own nation, — what is called patriotism. And so to aboHsh war, it is necessary to abohsh patriotism, and to abolish patriotism, it is necessary first to become convinced that it is an evil, and that it is hard to do. Tell people that war is bad, and they will laugh at you : who does not know that ? Tell them that patriotism is bad, and the majority of people wiU agree with you, but with a small proviso. " Yes, bad patriotism is bad, but there is also another patriotism, the one we adhere to." But wherein PATRIOTISM OR PEACE 473 this good patriotism consists no one can explain. If good patriotism consists in not being acquisitive, as many say, it is none the less retentive ; that is, men want to retain what was formerly acquired, since there is no country which was not based on conquest, and it is impossible to retain what is conquered by any other means than those by which it was acquired, that is, by violence and mur- der. But even if patriotism is not retentive, it is restora- tive, — the patriotism of the vanquished and oppressed nations, the Armenians, Poles, Bohemians, Irish, and so forth. This patriotism is almost the very worst, because it is the most enraged and demands the greatest degree of violence. Patriotism cannot be good. Why do not people say that egotism can be good, though this may be asserted more easily, because egotism is a natural sentiment, with which a man is born, while patriotism is an unnatural sentiment, which is artificially inoculated in him ? It will be said : " Patriotism has united men in states and keeps up the unity of the states." But the men are already united in states, — the work is all done : why should men now maintain an exclusive loyalty for their state, when this loyalty produces calamities for all states and nations ? The same patriotism which produced the unification of men into states is now destroying those states. If there were but one patriotism, — the patriotism of none but the English, — it might be regarded as unifica- tory or beneficent, but when, as now, there are American, Englisli, German, French, Eussian patriotisms, all of them opposed to one another, patriotism no longer unites, but disunites. To say that, if patriotism was beneficent, by uniting men into states, as was the case during its high- est development in Greece and Eome, patriotism even now, after eighteen hundred years of Christian Hfe, is just as beneficent, is the same as saying that, since the plough- ing was useful and beneficent for the field before tlie 474 PATRIOTISM OR PEACE sowing, it will be as useful now, after the crop has grown up. It would be very well to retain patriotism in memory of the use which it once had, as people preserve and re- tain the ancient monuments of temples, mausoleums, and so forth. But the temples and mausoleums stand, with- out causing any harm to men, while patriotism produces without cessation innumerable calamities. What now causes the Armenians and the Turks to suffer and cut each other's throats and act like wild beasts ? Why do England and Eussia, each of them con- cerned about her share of the inheritance from Turkey, lie in wait and do not put a stop to the Armenian atroci- ties ? Why do the Abyssinians and Italians fight one another ? Why did a terrible war come very near break- ing out on account of Venezuela, and now on account of the Transvaal ? And the Chino-Japanese War, and the Turkish, and the German, and the French wars ? And the rage of the subdued nations, the Armenians, the Poles, the Irish ? And the preparation for war by all the nations ? All that is the fruits of patriotism. Seas of blood have been shed for the sake of this sentiment, and more blood will be shed for its sake, if men do not free themselves from this outhved bit of antiquity. I have several times had occasion to write about patriot- ism, about its absolute incompatibility, not only with the teaching of Christ in its ideal sense, but even with the lowest demands of the morahty of Christian society, and every time my arguments have been met with silence or with the supercilious hint that the ideas expressed by me were Utopian expressions of mysticism, anarchism, and cosmopolitanism. My ideas have frequently been re- peated in a compressed form, and, instead of retorting to them, it was added that it was nothing but cosmopolitan- ism, as though this word " cosmopolitanism " unanswer- ably overthrew all my arguments. Serious, old, clever, PATRIOTISM OR PEACE 475 good men, who, above all else, stand like the city on a hill, and who involuntarily guide the masses by their example, make it ai3pear that the legality and beneficence of patriotism are so obvious and incontestable that it is not worth while to answer the frivolous and senseless attacks upon this sentiment, and the majority of men, who have since childhood been deceived and infected by patriotism, take this supercilious silence to be a most convincing proof, and continue to stick fast in their ignorance. And so those people who from their position can free the masses from their calamities, and do not do so, commit a great sin. The most terrible thing in the world is hypocrisy. There was good reason why Christ once got angry, — that was against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. But what was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in com- parison with the hypocrisy of our time ? In comparison with our men, the Pharisees were the most truthful of men, and their art of hypocrisy was as child's play in comparison with the hypocrisy of our time ; nor can it be otherwise. Our whole life, with the profession of Chris- tianity, the teaching of humility and love, in connection with the life of an armed den of robbers, can be nothing but one solid, terrible hypocrisy. It is very convenient to profess a teaching at one end of which is Christian sanc- tity and infallibility, and at the other — the pagan sword and gallows, so that, when it is possible to impose or deceive by means of sanctity, sanctity is put into effect, and when the deception does not work, the sword and the gallows are put into effect. Such a teaching is very con- venient, but the time comes when this spider-web of lie is dispersed, and it is no longer possible to continue to keep both, and it is necessary to ally oneself with either one or the other. It is tliis which is now getting to be the case in relation to the teaching about patriotism. Whether people want it or not, the question stands 476 PATRIOTISM OR PEACE clearly before humanity : how can that patriotism, from which result innumerable physical and moral calamities of men, be necessary and a virtue ? It is indispensable to give an answer to this question. It is necessary either to show that patriotism is such a great good that it redeems all those terrible calamities which it produces in humanity ; or to recognize that patri- otism is an evil, which must not only not be inoculated in men and impressed upon them, but from which also we must try to free ourselves at all cost. G'est d, 'prendre ou d, laisser, as the French say. If patriotism is good, then Christianity, which gives peace, is an idle dream, and the sooner this teaching is eradi- cated, the better. But if Christianity really gives peace, and we really want peace, patriotism is a survival from barbarous times, which must not only not be evoked and educated, as we now do, but which must be eradicated by all means, by means of preaching, persuasion, contempt, and ridicule. If Christianity is the truth, and we wish to live in peace, we must not only have no sympathy for the power of our country, but must even rejoice in its weak- ening, and contribute to it. A Russian must rejoice when Poland, the Baltic provinces, Finland, Armenia, are sepa- rated from Russia and made free; and an Englishman must similarly rejoice in relation to Ireland, Australia, India, and the other colonies, and cooperate in it, because, the greater the country, the more evil and cruel is its patriotism, and the greater is the amount of the suffering on which its power is based. And so, if we actually want to be what we profess, we must not, as we do now, wish for the increase of our country, but wish for its diminu- tion and weakening, and contribute to it with all our means. And thus must we educate the younger genera- tions : we must bring up the younger generations in such a way that, as it is now disgraceful for a young man to manifest his coarse egotism, for example, by eating every- PATRIOTISM OR PEACE 477 thing up, without leaving anything for others, to push a weaker person down from the road, in order to pass by himself, to take away by force what another needs, it should be just as disgraceful to wish for the increase of his country's power ; and, as it now is considered stupid and ridiculous for a person to praise himself, it should be considered stupid to extol one's nation, as is now done in various lying patriotic histories, pictures, monuments, text- books, articles, sermons, and stupid national hymns. But it must be understood that so long as we are going to extol patriotism and educate the younger generations in it, we shall have armaments, which ruin the physical and spiritual life of the nations, and wars, terrible, horrible wars, like those for which we are preparing ourselves, and into the circle of which we are introducing, corrupting them with our patriotism, the new, terrible fighters of the distant East. Emperor William, one of the most comical persons of our time, orator, poet, nuisician, dramatic writer, and artist, and, above all, patriot, has lately painted a picture representing all the nations of Europe with swords, stand- ing at the seashore and, at the indication of Archangel Michael, looking at the sitting figures of Buddha and Con- fucius in the distance. According to William's intention, this should mean that the nations of Europe ought to unite in order to defend themselves against the peril which is proceeding from there. He is quite right from his coarse, pagan, patriotic point of view, which is eighteen hundred years behind the times. The European nations, forgetting Christ, have in the name of their patriotism more and more irritated these peaceful nations, and have taught them patriotism and war, and have now irritated them so much that, indeed, if Japan and China will as fully forget the teachings of Buddha and of Confucius as we have forgotten the teaching of Christ, they will soon learn tlie art of killing people (they learn these things quickly, as 478 PATllIOTISM OR PEACE Japan has proved), and, being fearless, agile, strong, and populous, they will inevitably very soon make of the coun- tries of Europe, if Europe does not invent something stronger than guns and Edison's inventions, what the countries of Europe are making of Africa. " The dis- ciple is not above his master : but every one that is perfect shall be as his master " (Luke vi. 40). In reply to a prince's question how to increase his army, in order to conquer a southern tribe which did not submit to him, Confucius rephed : " Destroy all thy army, and use the money, which thou art wasting now on the army, on the enlightenment of thy people and on the improve- ment of agriculture, and the southern tribe will drive away its prince and will submit to thy rule without war." Thus taught Confucius, whom we are advised to fear. But we, having forgotten Christ's teaching, having re- nounced it, wish to vanquish the nations by force, and thus are only preparing for ourselves new and stronger enemies than our neighbours. A friend of mine, who saw William's picture, said : " The picture is beautiful, only it does not at all represent what the legend says. It means that Archangel Michael shows to all the governments of Europe, which are represented as robbers bedecked with arms, what it is that will cause their ruin and annihilation, namely, the meekness of Buddha and the wisdom of Con- fucius." He might have added, "And the humility of Lao-tse." Indeed, we, thanks to our hypocrisy, have forgotten Christ to such an extent, have so squeezed out of our life everything Christian, that the teachings of Buddha and Confucius stand incomparably higher than that beastly patriotism, by which our so-called Christian nations are guided. And so the salvation of Europe and of the Christian world at large does not consist in this, that, bedecking themselves with swords, as William has repre- sented them, they should, like robbers, cast themselves PATRIOTISM OR PEACE 479 upon their brothers beyond the sea, in order to kill them, but, on the contrary, they should renounce the survival of barbarous times, — patriotism, — and, having renounced it, should take off their arms and show the Eastern nations, not an example of savage patriotism and beastliness, but an example of brotherly love, which Christ has taught us. Moscow, January 2, 1896. LETTER TO ERNEST HOW- ARD CROSBY On Non-Resistance 1896 LETTER TO ERNEST HOW- ARD CROSBY On Non-Resistance My dear Crosby : — I am very glad to hear of your activity and that it is beginning to attract attention. Fifty years ago Garrison's proclamation of non-resistance only cooled people toward him, and the whole fifty years' activity of Ballon in this direction was met with stubborn silence. I read with great pleasure in Peace the beautiful ideas of the American authors in regard to non-resistance. I make an exception only in the case of Mr. Bemis's old, unfounded opinion, which calumniates Christ in assum- ing that Christ's expulsion of the cattle from the temple means that he struck the men with a whip, and com- manded his disciples to do likewise. The ideas expressed by these writers, especially by H. Newton and G. Herron, are beautiful, but it is to be re- gretted that they do not answer the question which Christ put before men, but answer the question which the so- called orthodox teachers of the churches, the chief and most dangerous enemies of Christianity, have put in its place. Mr. Higginson says that the law of non-resistance is not admissible as a general rule. H. Newton says that the practical results of the application of Christ's teaching 483 484 LETTER TO ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY will depend on the degree of faith which men will have in this teaching. Mr. C. Martyn assumes that the stage at which we are is not yet suited for the apphcation of the teaching about non-resistance. G. Herron says that in order to fulfil the law of non-resistance, it is necessary to learn to apply it to life. Mrs. Livermore says the same, thinking that the fulfilment of the law of non- resistance is possible only in the future. All these opinions treat only the question as to what would happen to people if all were put to the necessity of fulfilling the law of non-resistance ; but, in the first place, it is quite impossible to compel all men to accept the law of non-resistance, and, in the second, if this were possible, it would be a most glaring negation of the very principle which is being established. To compel all men not to practise violence against others ! Who is going to compel men ? In the third place, and above all else, the question, as put by Christ, does not consist in this, whether non- resistance may become a universal law for all humanity, but what each man must do in order to fulfil his destiny, to save his soul, and do God's work, which reduces itself to the same. The Christian teaching does not prescribe any laws for all men ; it does not say, " Follow such and such rules under fear of punishment, and you will all be happy," but explains to each separate man his position in the world and shows him what for him personally results from this position. The Christian teaching says to each individual man that his life, if he recognizes his life to be his, and its aim, the worldly good of his personality or of the personalities of other men, can have no rational mean- ing, because this good, posited as the end of life, can never be attained, because, in the first place, all beings strive after the goods of the worldly life, and these goods are always attained by one set of beings to the detriment of LETTER TO ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY 485 others, so that every separate man cannot receive the de- sired good, but, in all probability, must even endure many unnecessary sufferings in his struggle for these unattained goods ; in the second place, because if a man even attains the worldly goods, these, the more of them he attains, satisfy him less and less, and he wishes for more and more new ones ; in the third place, mainly because the longer a man lives, the more inevitably do old age, dis- eases, and finally death, which destroys the possibility of any worldly good, come to him. Thus, if a man considers his life to be his, and its end to be the worldly good, for himself or for other men, this life can have for him no rational meaning. Life receives a rational meaning only when a man understands that the recognition of his life as his own, and the good of per- sonality, of his own or of that of others, as its end, is an error, and that the human life does not belong to him, who has received this life from some one, but to Him who produced this life, and so its end must not consist in the attainment of his own good or of the good of others, but only in the fulfilment of the will of Him who produced it. Only with such a comprehension of life does it receive a rational meaning, and its end, which consists in the ful- filment of God's will, become attainable, and, above all, only with such a comprehension does man's activity be- come clearly defined, and he no longer is subject to de- spair and suffering, which were inevitable with his former comprehension. " The world and I in it," such a man says to himself, " exist by the will of God. I cannot know the whole world and my relation to it, but I can know what is wanted of me by God, who sent men into this world, endless in time and space, and therefore inaccessible to my understanding, because this is revealed to me in the tradition, that is, in the aggregate reason of the best people in the world, who hved before me, and in my 486 LETTER TO EENEST HOWARD CROSBY reason, and in my heart, that is, in the striving of my whole being. " In the tradition, the aggregate of the wisdom of all the best men, who lived before me, I am told that I must act toward others as I wish that others should act toward me ; my reason tells me that the greatest good of men is possible only when all men will act hkewise. " My heart is at peace and joyful only when I abandon myself to the feeling of love for men, which demands the same. And then I can not only know what I must do, but also the cause for which my activity is necessary and defined. " I cannot grasp the whole divine work, for which the world exists and lives, but the chvine work which is being accomplished in this world and in which I am taking part with my life is accessible to me. This work is the de- struction of the discord and of the struggle among men and other beings, and the establishment among men of the greatest union, concord, and love ; this work is the realization of what the Jewish prophets promised, saying that the time will come when all men shall be taught the truth, when the spears shall be forged into pruning-hooks, and the scythes and swords into ploughshares, and when the hon shall lie with the lamb." Thus the man of the Christian comprehension of life not only knows how he must act in life, but also what he must do. He must do what contributes to the establishment of the kingdom of God in the world. To do this, a man must fulfil the inner demands of God's will, that is, he must act amicaljly tow^ard others, as he would like others to do to him. Thus the inner demands of a man's soul coincide with that external end of life which is placed before him. And here though we have an indication which is so clear to a man of the Christian comprehension, and incon- LETTER TO EENEST HOWARD CROSBY 487 testable from two sides, as to what the meaning and end of human life consists in, and how a man must act, and what he must do, and what not, there appear certain people, who call themselves Christians, who decide that in such and such cases a man must depart from God's law and the common cause of life, which are given to him, and must act contrary to the law and the common cause of life, because, according to their ratiocination, the conse- quences of the acts committed according to God's law may be profitless and disadvantageous for men. Man, according to the Christian teaching, is God's workman. The workman does not know his master's whole business, but the nearest aim to be attained by his work is revealed to him, and he is given definite indica- tions as to what he should do ; especially definite are the indications as to what he must not do, in order that he may not work against the aim for the attainment of which he was sent to work. In everything else he is given complete hberty. And so for a man who has grasped the Christian conception of life the meaning of his life is clear and rational, and he cannot have a moment of wavering as to how he should act in life and what he ought to do, in order to fulfil the destiny of his life. According to the law given him in the tradition, in his reason, and in his heart, a man must always act toward another as he wishes to have done to him : he must con- tribute to the establishment of love and union among men; but according to the decision of these far-sighted people, a man must, while the fulfilment of the law, according to their opinion, is still premature, do violence, deprive of liberty, kill people, and with this contribute, not to union of love, but to the irritation and enragement of people. It is as though a mason, who is put to do certain definite work, who knows that he is taking part with others in the building of a house, and who has 488 LETTER TO ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY received a clear and indubitable command from the master himself that he is to lay a wall, should receive the command from other masons like him, who, like him, do not know the general plan of the structure and what is useful for the common work, to stop laying the wall, and to undo the work of the others. Wonderful delusion ! The being that breathes to-day and disappears to-morrow, that has one definite, incontest- able law given to him, as to how he is to pass his short term of life, imagines that he knows what is necessary and useful and appropriate for all men, for the whole world, for that world which moves without cessation, and goes on developing, and in the name of this usefulness, which is differently understood by each of them, he pre- scribes to himself and to others for a time to depart from the unquestionable law, which is given to him and to all men, and not to act toward all men as he wants others to act toward him, not to bring love into the world, but to practise violence, to deprive of freedom, to punish, to kill, to introduce malice into the world, when it is found that this is necessary. And he enjoins us to do so know- ing that the most terrible cruelties, tortures, murders of men, from the Inquisitions and punishments and terrors of all the revolutions to the present bestiahties of the anarchists and the massacres of them, have all proceeded from this, that men suppose that they know what people and the world need ; knowing that at any given moment there are always two opposite parties, each of which asserts that it is necessary to use violence against the opposite party, — the men of state against the anarchists, the anarchists against the men of state ; the Enghsh against the Americans, the Americans against the Eng- lish ; the English against the Germans ; and so forth, in all possible combinations and permutations. Not only does a man of the Christian concept of life see clearly by reflection that there is no ground whatever LETTER TO ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY 489 for his departure from the law of his life, as clearly indi- cated to him by God, in order to follow the accidental, frail, frequently contradictory demands of men ; but if he has been living the Christian life for some time, and has developed in himself the Christian moral sensitiveness, he can positively not act as people demand that he shall, not only as the result of reflection, but also of feeling. As it is for many men of our world impossible to sub- ject a child to torture and to kill it, though such a torture may save a hundred other people, so a whole series of acts becomes impossible for a man who has developed the Christian sensitiveness of his heart in himself. A Chris- tian, for example, who is compelled to take part in court proceedings, where a man may be sentenced to capital punishment, to take part in matters of forcible seizure of other people's property, in discussions about the declara- tion of war, or in preparations for the same, to say nothing of war itself, finds himself in the same position in which a good man would be, if he were compelled to torture or kill a child. It is not that he decides by reflection what he ought not to do, but that he cannot do what is de- manded of him, because for a man there exists the moral impossibility, just as there is a physical impossibility, of committing certain acts. Just as it is impossible for a man to lift up a mountain, as it is impossible for a good man to kill a child, so it is impossible for a man who lives a Christian life to take part in violence. Of what significance for such a man can be the reflections that for some imaginary good he must do wliat has become morally impossible for him ? How, then, is a man to act when he sees the obvious harm of following the law of love and the law of non- resistance, which results from it ? How is a man to act — this example is always adduced — when a robber in his sight kills or injures a child, and when the child cannot be saved otherwise than by killing the robber ? 490 LETTER TO ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY It is generally assumed that, when they adduce such an example, there can be no other answer to the question than that the robber ought to be killed, in order that the child be saved. But this answer is given so emphatically and so quickly only because we are not only in the habit of acting in this manner in the case of the defence of a child, but also in the case of the expansion of the borders of a neighbouring state to the detriment of our own, or in the case of the transportation of lace across the border, or even in the case of the defence of the fruits of our garden against depredations by passers-by. It is assumed that it is necessary to kill the robber in order to save the child, but we need only stop and think on what ground a man should act thus, be he a Christian or a non-Christian, to convince ourselves that such an act can have no rational foundations, and is considered neces- sary only because two thousand years ago such a mode of action was considered just and people were in the habit of acting thus. Why should a non-Christian, who does not recognize God and the meaning of life in the fulfil- ment of His will, kill the robber, in defending the child ? To say nothing of this, that in killing the robber he is certainly killing, but does not know for certain until the very last moment whether the robber will kill the child or not, to say nothing of this irregularity : who has decided that the life of the child is more necessary and better than the life of the robber ? If a non-Christian does not recognize God, and does not consider the meaning of life to consist in the fulfilment of God's will, it is only calculation, that is, the consideration as to what is more profitable for him and for all men, the continuation of the robber's hfe or that of the child, which guides the choice of his acts. But to decide this, he must know what will become of the child which he saves, and what would become of the robber if he did not kill him. But that he cannot know. And so, if he is a non-Chris- LETTER TO ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY 491 tian, he has no rational foundation for saving the child through the death of the robber. But if a man is a Christian, and so recognizes God and sees the meaning of life in the fulfilment of His will, no matter what terrible robber may attack any innocent and beautiful child, he has still less cause to depart from the law given him by God and to do to the robber what the robber wants to do to the child ; he may implore the robber, may place his body between the robber and his victim, but there is one thing he cannot do, — he cannot consciously depart from the law of God, the fulfilmeut of which forms the meaning of his life. It is very likely that, as the result of his bad bringing up and of his ani- mality, a man, being a pagan or a Christian, will kill the robber, not only in the defence of the child, but also in his own defence or in the defence of his purse, but that will by no means signify that it is right to do so, that it is right to accustom ourselves and others to think that that ought to be done. This will only mean that, in spite of the external edu- cation and Christianity, the habits of the stone age are still strong in man, that he is capable of committing acts which have long ago been disavowed by his conscious- ness. A robber in my sight is about to kill a child and I can save it by killing the robber ; consequently it is necessary under certain conditions to resist evil with vio- lence. A man is in danger of his life and can be saved only through my lie; consequently it is necessary in certain cases to lie. A man is starving, and I cannot save him otherwise than by stealing ; consequently it is necessary in certain cases to steal. I lately read a story by Coppee, in which an orderly kills his officer, who has his life insured, and thus saves his honour and the life of his family. Consequently in certain cases it is right to kill. 492 LETTER TO ERNEST HOWxlRD CROSBY | Such imaginary cases and the conclusions drawn from them prove only this, that there are men who know that it is not right to steal, to lie, to kill, but who are so loath to stop doing this that they use all the efforts of their mind in order to justify their acts. There does not exist a moral rule for which it would be impossible to invent a situation when it would be hard to decide which is more moral, the departure from the rule or its fulfilment. The same is true of the question of non-resistance to evil: men know that it is bad, but they are so anxious to live by violence, that they use all the efforts of their mind, not for the elucidation of all the evil which is produced by man's recognition of the right to do violence to others, but for the defence of this right. But such invented cases in no way prove that the rules about not lying, stealing, killing are incorrect. " Fais ce que doit, advienne que pourra, — do what is right, and let come what may," — is an expression of pro- found wisdom. Each of us knows unquestionably what he ought to do, but none of us knows or can know what will happen. Thus we are brought to the same, not only by this, that we must do what is right, but also by this, that we know what is right, and do not know at all what will come and result from our acts. The Christian teaching is a teaching as to what a man must do for the fulfilment of the will of Him who sent him into the world. But the reflections as to what con- sequences we assume to result from such or such acts of men not only have nothing in common with Christianity, but are that very delusion which destroys Christianity. No one has yet seen the imaginary robber with the imaginary child, and all the horrors, which fill history and contemporary events, have been produced only because men imagine that they can know the consequences of the possible acts. How is this ? Men used to live a beastly life, violating LETTER TO ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY 493 and killing all those whom it was advantageous for them to violate and kill, and even eating one another, thinking that that was right. Then there came a time, when, thousands of years ago, even in the time of Moses, there appeared the consciousness in men that it was bad to violate and kill one another. But there were some men for whom violence was . ad vantageous, and they did not recognize the fact, and assured themselves and others that it was not always bad to violate and kill men, but that there were cases when this was necessary, useful, and even good. And acts of violence and murder, though not as frequent and cruel, w^ere continued, but with this dif- ference, that those who committed them justified them on the ground of usefulness to men. It was this false justi- fication of violence that Christ arraigned. He showed that, since every act of violence could be justified, as actually happens, when two enemies do violence to one another and both consider their violence justifiable, and there is no chance of verifying the justice of the determi- nation of either, it is necessary not to believe in any justifications of violence, and under no condition, as at first was thought right by humanity, is it necessary to make use of them. It would seem that men who profess Christianity would have carefully to unveil this deception, because in the un- veiling of this deception does one of the chief manifesta- tions of Christianity consist. But the very opposite has happened : men to whom violence was advantageous, and who did not want to give up these advantages, took upon themselves the exclusive propaganda of Christianity, and, preaching it, asserted that, since there are cases in which the non-application of violence produces more evil than its application (the imaginary robber who kills the child), we must not fully accept Christ's teaching about non-resist- ance to evil, and that we may depart from this teaching in the defence of our Uves and of those of other men, in 494 LETTER TO ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY the defence of our country, the protection of society from madmen and malefactors, and in many other cases. But the decision of the question as to when Christ's teaching ought to be set aside was left to those very men who made use of violence. Thus Christ's teaching about non- resistance to evil turned out to be absolutely set aside, and, what is worse than all that, those very men whom Christ arraigned began to consider themselves the exclu- sive preachers and expounders of His teaching. But the light shineth in the dark, and the false preachers of Christianity are again arraigned by His teaching. We can think of the structure of the world as we please, we may do what is advantageous and agreeable for us to do, and use violence against people under the pretext of doing good to men, but it is absolutely impos- sible to assert that, in doing so, we are professing Christ's teaching, because Christ arraigned that very deception. The truth will sooner or later be made manifest, and will arraign the deceivers, even as it does now. Let only the question of the human life be put correctly, as it was put by Christ, and not as it was corrupted by the churches, and all the deceptions which by the churches have been heaped on Christ's teaching will fall of their own accord. The question is not whether it will be good or bad for human society to follow the law of love and the resulting law of non-resistance, but whether you — a being that lives to-day and is dying by degrees to-morrow and every moment — will now, this very minute, fully do the will of Him who sent you and clearly expressed it in tradition and in your reason and heart, or whether you want to act contrary to this will. As soon as the question is put in this form, there will be but one answer : I want at once, this very minute, without any delay, without waiting for any one, and without considering the seeming conse- quences, with all my strength to fulfil what alone I am LETTER TO ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY 495 indubitably commanded to do by Him who sent me into the world, and in no case, under no condition, will I, can I, do what is contrary to it, because in this lies the only possibility of my rational, unwretched life. January 12, 1896. INTRODUCTIONS TO BOOKS A. STOCKHAM'S TOKOLOGY The present book does not belong to the vast number of all kinds of books, from the philosophical and the scientific to the artistic and practical, which, with other words, in other permutations and combinations, say and repeat the old familiar, sickeningly familiar, common- places. This book is one of those rare books which do not treat of what everybody talks about and nobody needs, but of what nobody talks about and what is important and necessary for all. It is important for the parents to knov/ how they should act, in order without unnecessary suffering to bring forth uncorrupted and healthy children, and still more important it is for the future children to be born under the best of conditions, as, indeed, it says in one of the mottoes of the book, " To be well-born is the right of every child." The book is not one of those which are read only that no one may say that he has not read this book, but one of those the reading of which leaves traces, comjielling men to change their lives, to mend what is irregular in them, or at least to think of doing so. This book is called Tokology, the science of the bearing of children. There are all kinds of strange sciences, but there is no such science, and yet, after the science of how to live and die, this is the most important science. This book has had enormous 499 500 A. stockham's tokology success in America, and has greatly influenced American mothers and fathers. In Eussia it ought to have an even greater influence. The questions about abstaining from tobacco and all kinds of exciting beverages, beginning with alcohol and ending with tea, the questions about eating without the slaughter of living beings, vegeta- rianism, the questions about sexual continence in domestic life, and many others, which partly have been solved and partly are being worked out, and possess a vast literature in Europe and in America, have not yet been touched upon by us, and so Mrs. Stockham's book is particularly important for us : it at once transfers the reader into a new world of a living human movement. In this book every thinking woman — for this book is chiefly intended for women — will find first of all an indication that there is absolutely no need of continuing to live as insipidly as her forefathers lived, but that it is possible to find better paths of hfe, using for this purpose science, the experience of men, and her own free thought, and, as the first model of such a use she will find in this book many precious counsels and hints, which will make life easier for herself, her husband, and her children. February 2, 1890. AMIEL'S DIAEY About a year and a half ago 1 chanced for the first time to read Amiel's book, Fragments d'un Journal Intime. I was struck by the significance and profundity of its contents, the beauty of the exposition, and, above all, the sincerity of this book. As J. read it, I marked down the passages which more particularly startled me. My daughter undertook to translate these passages, and thus were formed the extracts from the Fragments d'un Journal Intime," that is, the extracts from the extracts of Amiel's diary in several volumes not yet printed, which he conducted from day to day for the period of thirty years. Henri Amiel was born in Geneva in 1821 and was early left an orphan. Having graduated from the higher courses in Geneva, Amiel went abroad and there passed several years at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin. Upon returning in 1849 to his home, he at the age of twenty-eight years received in the Geneva Academy a professorship, at first of aesthetics, and later of philosophy, and this he held until his death. Amiel's whole life was passed in Geneva, where he died in 1881, having in no way risen above the large number of the most ordinary of professors, who, mechanically compiling their lectures from the latest books in their particular specialties, just as mechanically transmit them to their hearers, and from a still greater number of poets without contents, who furnish these quite useless, but still marketable wares to periodicals that are published in tens of thousands of copies. Amiel did not have the slightest success either in the 601 502 AMIEL*S DIARY learned or in the literary field. As he was approaching old age, he wrote of himself as follows : "What have I been able to extract -from those gifts which were bestowed upon me, fvom the peculiar condi- tions of my life of half a century ? Are all my collected scribbliugs, my correspoudeuce, these thousands of intimate pages, my lectures, my articles, my verses, my different notes anything but dry leaves ? To whom and for what have I ever been of any use ? And will my name live a day longer than I myself, and will it have any significance for any one ? Insignificant, empty life ! Vie nulle." About Amiel and his diary two well-known French writers, his friend, the well-known critic, E. Scherer, and the philosopher, Caro, have written after his death. In- teresting is that sympathetic, but partially patronizing air with which both these authors treat Amiel, when they regret that he was deprived of those qualities which are necessary for the performance of real work. And yet, the real work of these two writers — the critical labours of E. Scherer and the philosophic labours of Caro — will hardly much outlive their authors, while the accidental, not real work of Amiel, his diary, will always remain a live book, necessary for men and influencing them for the good. A writer is dear and necessary for us only in the measure in which he reveals to us the inner working of his soul, of course, if this work is new, and not previously accomplished. No matter what he may write, a drama, a learned work, 'a story, a philosophic treatise, a lyric poem, a criticism, a satire, it is only this inner work of his soul which is dear to us, and not the architectural structure in which he, for the most part, and I think, always, distorting them, clothes his thoughts and feelings. Everything which Amiel poured into a ready mould, his lectures, treatises, poems, was completely dead ; but his diary, where, without thinking of the form, he spoke amiel's diary 503 only to himself, full of life, wisdom, instruction, consola- tion, will for ever remain one of the best books acciden- tally left to us by such men as Marcus Aurelius, Pascal, Epictetus. Pascal says : " There are but three kinds of people : those who, having found God, serve Him ; those who, not having found Him, are busy seeking Him, and those who, not having found Him, none the less do not seek Him. " The tirst are sensible and happy, the last are senseless and unhappy, the second are unhappy, but sensible." I think that the difference established by Pascal be- tween the first and the second, between those who, as he says in another passage, having found God, serve Him with their whole hearts, and those who, not having found Him, seek Him with their whole hearts, is not only not so great as he thought, but does not even exist. I think that those who with their whole hearts and suffering (" en geinissant" as Pascal says) seek (}od, already serve Him, They serve Him with this, that with these sufferings of their seeking tiiey lay out and open for others the road to God, as Pascal himself did in liis thoughts, and as Amiel did all his life in his diary. Amiel's whole life, as it is presented to us in this diary, is full of this seeking after God, wliich is suffering with the whole heart. The contemplation of this seeking is the more instructive in that it never ceases to be a seek- ing, never stops, never passes into the consciousness of the acquisition of truth and into instruction. Amiel says neither to himself nor to others : " I now know the truth, — hear me ! " On the contrary, it seems to him, as is proper for him who sincerely seeks the truth, that the more he finds out, the more he has still left to know, and he, without stopping, does everything he can for the purpose of finding out more and more of the truth, and so con- stantly feels his ignorance. He constantly dwells upon what Christianity and the condition of a Christian ought 604 amiel's diary to be, without for a moment dwelliug on the thought that Christianity is precisely what he professes, and that he himself personifies the condition of a Christian. And yet his whole diary is full of expressions of the profoundest Christian understanding and feeling. These expressions act most powerfully on the reader on account of their very unconsciousness and sincerity. He speaks with himself, without thinking that he is heard, without trying to appear sure of what he is not sure, without concealing his suffering and his seeking. It is as though we were present, without the master's knowledge, at the most secret, profound, impassioned inner work of the soul, which is generally concealed from the view of an outsider. For this reason it is possible to find many statelier and more eloquent expressions of Amiel's religious feeling, but it is hard to find such as are more intimate and more heart-stirring. Shortly before his death, when he knew that his disease might any day end in strangulation, he wrote : " When you no longer reflect that you have tens of years, one year, a month free before yourself, when you already count tens of hours, and the future night bears in itself the menace of the unexplored, it is evident that you decline art, science, politics, and are satisfied with conversing with yourself, and that is possible until the very end. This inward conversation is the only thing which is left to him who is sentenced to death and whose execution is delayed. He (this condemned man) concen- trates upon himself. He no longer emits rays, but only converses with his soul. He no longer acts, but only contemplates. . . . Like a hare, he returns to his lair to die ; and this lair is his conscience, his thought. So long as he can hold a pen and has a moment of solitude, he concentrates himself before this echo of himself and holds converse with God. amiel's diary 505 " This, by the way, is not a moral investigation, a re- pentance, a call. It is only the * amen ' of submission. " My child, give me your heart. " Renunciation and agreement are less difficult for me than for others, because I want nothing. I should only want not to suffer. Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane asked for the same. Let us do the same that He did. * Nevertheless not as I will but as Thou wilt/ — and we will wait." Such he is on the day before his death. He is not less sincere and serious throughout his whole diary, in spite of the elegance, and now and then choiceness of his dic- tion, which became a habit with him. In the course of all the thirty years of his diary he feels that we all so thoroughly forget, that we are all condemned to death and that our execution is only delayed. And it is for this very reason that this book is so sincere, serious, and use- ful. 1893. S. T. SEMENOV'S PEASANT STORIES I HAVE long ago formed a rule to judge every artistic production from three sides : (1) from the side of its con- tents, — in how far that which is revealed by the artist from a new side is important and necessary for men, because every production is a production of art only when it reveals a new side of life ; (2) to what extent the form of the production is good, beautiful, and in correspondence with the contents ; and (3) in how far the relation of the artist to his subject is sincere, that is, in how far he believes in what he represents. This last quality always seems to me to be the most important one in an artistic production. It gives to an artistic production its force, makes an artistic production infectious, that is, evokes in the hearer and reader those sensations which the artist experiences. Sem^nov possesses this quality in the highest degree. There is a certain story by Flaubert, translated by Turg^nev, Julian the Merciful. The last episode of the story, which is intended to be most touching, consists in this, that Julian lies down in the same bed with a leper, whom he warms up with his body. This leper is Christ, who carries Julian off to heaven with Him. All that is told with great mastery, but I always remain very cold during the reading of this story. I feel that the author himself would not have done, and would not even have wished to do so, and I never feel any agitation in reading about this wonderful exploit. But Sem^nov describes the simplest story, and it always 606 S. T. SEM^NOV'S PEASAJ^T STORIES 507 touches me. A village lad comes to Moscow to find himself a place, and with the influence of a countryman of Ms, a coachman, who is liviug with a wealthy mer- chant, he here gets the position of assistant janitor. Tliis place was formerly occupied by an old man. It was by the advice of his coachman that the merchant sent away the old .man and in his place put the young lad. The lad arrives in the evening to begin his work, and in the yard hears the old man's complaints in the servants' room, for having been discharged for no cause whatsoever, only to make room for the young fellow. The lad suddenly feels pity for the old man and is ashamed to have pushed him out. He reflects for a moment, wavers, and finally decides to give up the place, which he needs and which has pleased him so much. All this is told in such a way that every time when I read it I feel that the author not only would have wished to act similarly in such a case, but would certainly have done so, and his feeling infects me, and I am happy, and it seems to me that I have done something good or would be glad to do something good. Sincerity is Semenov's chief characteristic. But, besides it, the contents are always significant, — significant, because they deal with the most important class of Eussia, the peasantry, which Semenov knows as only a peasant, who himself lives the hard life of a peasant, can know. The contents of his stories are also significant, because in all of them the chief interest is not in the external events, not in the peculiarities of the situations, but in the approxi- mation to and the removal from the ideal of Christian truth, which stands firm and clear in the soul of the author and serves him as a safe measure for the valuation of the worth and importance of human acts. The form of the stories fully corresponds to the con- tents : it is serious and simple, and the details are always correct, — there are no false notes. What is particularly 508 S. T. SEMENOV'S PEASANT STORIES good is the figurative language of the persons in the stories, which is frequently quite new, and always artless and strikingly powerful March 23, 1894. THE WOEKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT It was, I think, in the year 1881 that Turg(^nev, during a visit at my house, took a French novel, under the name of Maison Tellier, out of his satchel and gave it to me. " Eead it, if you have a chance," he said, apparently with indifference, just as the year before he had handed me a number of the Russian Wealth, in which there was an article by Garshin, who was making his d^but. Evi- dently, as in the case of Garshin, so even now, he was afraid he might influence me in one way or another, and wished to know my uninfluenced opinion. " He is a young French author," he said ; " look at it, — it is not bad ; he knows you and esteems you very much," he added, as though to encourage me. " As a man he reminds me of Druzhinin. He is just as excellent a son and friend, un homme d\cn commerce sur, as was Druzhinin, and, besides, he has relations with the labouring people, whom he guides and aids. Even in his relations to women he reminds me of Druzhinin." And Turg^nev told me something remarkable and in- credible in regard to Maupassant's relations in this respect. This time, the year 1881, was for me the most ardent time of the inner reconstruction of my whole world-con- ception, and in this reconstruction the activity wliich is called artistic, and to which I formerly used to devote all my strength, not only lost for me the significance formerly ascribed to it, but even became distinctly distasteful to me on account of the improper place which it had occu- 509 510 THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT pied in my life and which in general it occupies in the concepts of the men of the wealthy classes. For this reason I was at that time not in the least interested in such productions as the one which Turg^nev recommended to me. But, to oblige him, I read the book which he gave me. Judging from the first story, Maison Tellier, I could not help but see, in spite of the indecent and insignificant subject of the story, that the author possessed what is called talent. The author was endowed with that particular gift, called talent, which consists in the author's ability to direct, according to his tastes, his intensified, strained attention to this or that subject, in consequence of which the author who is endowed with this ability sees in those subjects, upon which he directs his attention, something new, something which others did not see. Maupassant evi- dently possessed that gift of seeing in subjects something which others did not see. But, to judge from the small volume which I had read, he was devoid of the chief con- dition necessary, besides talent, for a truly artistic produc- tion. Of the three conditions: (1) a correct, that is, a moral relation of the author to the subject, (2) the clear- ness of exposition, or the beauty of form, which is the same, and (3) sincerity, that is, an undisguised feeling of love or hatred for what the artist describes, — Maupas- sant possessed only the last two, and was entirely devoid of the first. He had no correct, that is, no moral relation to the subjects described. From what I had read, I was convinced that Maupassant possessed talent, that is, the gift of attention, which in the objects and phenomena of life revealed to him those qualities which are not visible to other men ; he also possessed a beautiful form, that is, he expressed clearly, simply, and beautifully what he wished to say, and also possessed that condition of the worth of an artistic production, without which it does not THE WORKS OF GUT DE MAUPASSANT 511 produce any effect, — sincerity, — that is,' he did not simulate love or hatred, but actually loved and hated what he described. But, unfortunately, being devoid of the first, almost the most important condition of the worth of an artistic production, of the correct, moral relation to what he represented, that is, of the knowledge of the difference between good and evil, he loved and represented what it was not right to love and represent, and did not love and did not represent what he ought to have loved and represented. Thus the author in this little volume describes with much detail and love how women tempt men and men tempt women, and even some incomprehen- sible obscenities, which are represented in La Fcmmc de Paul, and he describes the labouring country people, not only with indifference, but even with contempt, as so many animals. Particularly striking was that lack of distinction between bad and good in the story Unc Fartie de Camjjagne, in which, in the form of a most clever and amusing jest, he gives a detailed account of how two gentlemen with bared arms, rowing in a boat, simultaneously tempted, the one an old mother, and the other a young maiden, her daugh- ter. The author's sympathy is during the whole time obvi- ously to such an extent on the side of the two rascals, that he ignores, or, rather, does not see what the tempted mother, the girl, the father, and the young man, evidently the fianc^^of the daughter, must have suffered, and so we not only get a shocking description of a disgusting crime in the form of an amusing jest, but the event itself is described falsely, because only the most insignificant side of the subject, the pleasure afforded to the rascals, is described. In the same volume there is a story, Histoire d'une Fille de Ferme, which Turg^uev recommended to me more par- ticularly, and which more particularly displeased me on 512 THE WOKKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT account of tl\e author's incorrect relation to the subject. The author apparently sees in all the working people whom he describes nothing but animals, who do not rise above sexual and maternal love, and so the description leaves us with an incomplete, artificial impression. The insufficient comprehension of the lives and interests of the working classes, and the representation of the men from those classes in the form of half-animals, which are moved only by sensuality, malice, and greed, forms one of the chief and most important defects of the majority of the modern French authors, among them Maupassant, not only in this story, but also in all. the other stories, in which he touches on the people and always describes them as coarse, dull animals, whom one can only ridicule. . Of course, the French authors must know the conditions of their people better than I know them ; but, although I am a Russian and have not lived with the French people, I none the less assert that, in describing their masses, the French authors are wrong, and that the French masses cannot be such as they are described. If there exists a France as we know it, with her truly great men and with those great contributions which these great men have made to science, art, civil polity, and the moral perfection of humanity, those labouring masses, which have held upon their shoulders this France and her great men, do not consist of animals, but of men with great spiritual qualities ; and so I do not believe what I am told in nov- els Hke La Terre, and in Maupassant's stories^ just as I should not believe if I were told of the existence of a beautiful house standing on no foundation. It is very possible that the high qualities of the masses are not such as are described in La petite Fadctte and in La Mare au Diable, but these qualities exist, that I know for certain, and the writer who describes the masses, as Maupassant does, by telling sympathetically of the " hanches " and " gorges " of Breton domestics, and with contempt and ridi- THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT 513 cule the life of the labouring people, commits a great error in an artistic sense, because he describes the subject from only one, the most uninteresting, physical side, and completely overlooks the other, the most important, spirit- ual side, which forms the essence of the subject. In general, the reading of the volume which Turg(5nev gave me left me completely indifferent to the young writer. I was at that time so disgusted with the stories, Une Partie de Campagne, La Femme de Paul, and L'Histoire d'une Fille de Ferme, that I did not at that time notice the beautiful story, Le Papa de Simon, and the superb story, so far as the description of a night is concerned, Su7' I'Eau. " There are in our time, when there are so many who are willing to write, a number Of people with talent, who do not know to what to apply it, or who boldly apply it to what ought not and should not be described," I thought. I told Turg(5uev so. And I entirely forgot about Mau- passant. The first thing from Maupassant's writings which after that fell into my hands was Une Vie, which somebody advised me to read. This book at once made me change my opinion concerning Maupassant, and after that I read with interest everything which was written over his name. Une Vie is an excellent novel, not only incomparably the best novel by Maupassant, but almost the best French novel since Hugo's Les MiseraUcs. Besides the remarka- ble power of his talent, that is, of that peculiar, strained attention, directed upon an object, in consequence of which the author sees entirely new features in the life which he is describing, this novel combines, almost to an equal degree, all three conditions of a true artistic produc- tion : (1) the correct, that is, the moral, relation of the author to the suljject, (2) the beauty of form, and (3) sin- cerity, that is, love for what the author describes. Here the meaning of life no longer presents itself to the author 514 THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT in the experiences of all kinds of debauched persons, — here the contents, as the title says, are formed by the description of a ruined, innocent, sweet woman, who is prepared for anything beautiful, a woman who is ruined by that very gross, animal sensuality which in the former stories presented itself to the author as the central phe- nomenon of life, which dominates everything, and the author's whole sympathy is on the side of the good. The form, which is beautiful even iq the first stories, is here carried to a high degree of perfection, such as, in my opinion, has not been reached by any other French prose writer. And, besides, what is most important, the author here really loves, and loves strongly, the good fam- ily which he describes, and actually despises that coarse male who destroys the happiness and peace of this dear family and especially of the heroine of the novel. It is for that reason that all the events and persons of this novel are so vivid and impress themselves on our memory : the weak, good, slatternly mother ; the noble, weak, dear father, and the daughter, who is still dearer in her simplicity, absence of exaggeration, and readiness for everything good ; their mutual relations, their first journey, their servants, their neighbours, the calculating, coarsely sensuous, stingy, petty, impudent fianc^, who, as always, deceives the innocent girl with the customary base ideal- ization of the grossest of sentiments ; the marriage ; Cor- sica, with the charming descriptions of nature ; then the life in the country ; the coarse deception of the husband ; the seizure of the power over the estate ; his conflicts with his father-in-law ; the yielding of the good people ; the victory of impudence ; the relation to the neighbours, — all that is life itself, with all its complexity and variety. But not only is all this described vividly and well, — there is over all a sincere, pathetic tone, which involunta- rily affects the reader. One feels that the author loves this woman, and that he does not love her merely for her THE WORKS OF GUT DE MAUPASSANT 515 external forms, but for her soul, for what there is good in it, and that he sympathizes with her and suffers for her, and this sensation is involuntarily transferred to the reader. And the questions as to why, for what purpose, this fair creature was ruined, and why it should be so, naturally arise in the reader's soul, and make him stop and reflect on the meaning and significance of human life. In spite of the false notes, which here and there occur in the novel, as, for example, the detailed account of the girl's skin, or the impossible and unnecessary details about how the deserted wife, by the advice, of the abbot, again becomes a mother, details which destroy all the charm of the heroine's purity ; in spite of the melodramatic and unnatural history of the revenge of the insulted husband, — in spite of these blemishes, the novel not only appears to me to be beautiful, but through it I no longer saw in the author the talented babbler and jester, who does not know and does not want to know what is good and what bad, such as he had appeared to me to be, judging him from the first book, but a serious man, who looks deeply into man's life and is beginning to make things out in it. The next novel of Maupassant which I read was Bel- Ami. Bel-Ami is a very filthy book. The author apparently gives himself the reins in the description of what attracts him, and at times seems to be losing the fundamental, negative point of view upon his hero and passes over to his side ; but in general, Bel-Ami, like Une Vie, has for its basis a serious thought and sentiment. In Une Vie the fundamental thought is the perplexity in the presence of the cruel senselessness of the agonizing life of a beautiful woman, who is ruined by the gross sensuality of a man ; here it is not only the perplexity, but also the indignation of the author at the sight of the welfare and success of a gross sensuous beast, who by his very sensuality makes a career for himself and attains 516 THE WORKS OF GUT DE MAUPASSANT a high position in the world, an indignation also at the sight of the corruption of that milieu in which the hero attains his success. There the author seems to ask: " Why, for what purpose, is the fair creature ruined ? Why did it happen ? " Here he seems to be answering the questions : " Everything pure and good has perished and continues to perish in our society, because this society is corrupt, senseless, and terrible." The last scene of the novel, the marriage in a fashion- able church of the triumphant rascal, who is adorned with the Order of the Legion of Honour, with the pure young maiden, the daughter of the old, formerly irreproachable mother of the family, whom he seduced, the marriage, which is blessed by the bishop and is recognized as some- thing good and proper by all the persons present, ex- presses this idea with unusual force. In this novel, in spite of its being clogged with obscene details, in which the author unfortunately seems to delight, we can see the same serious relations of the author to life. Read the conversation of the old poet with Duroy, when they come out after dinner from the Walters, I think. The old poet lays bare life before his young in- terlocutor and shows it to him such as it is, with its eternal, unavoidable companion and end, — death. " It already holds me, la gueuse," he says of death. " It has already loosened my teeth, pulled out my hair, mauled my limbs, and is about to swallow me. I am already in its power, — it only plays with me, as a cat plays with a mouse, knowing that I cannot get away from it. Glory, wealth, — what is it all good for, since it is not possible to buy a woman's love with them, and it is only a woman's love that makes life worth living. And death will take that away. It will take this first, and then health, strength, and life itself. And it is the same with every- body. And that is all." Such is the meaning of the remarks of the aging poet. THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT 517 But Duroy, the fortunate lover of all those women whom he likes, is so full of sensuous energy and strength that he hears, and yet does not hear, and understands, and yet does not understand, the words of the old poet. He hears and understands, but the spring of his sensuous life bubbles up with such force that the incontestable truth, which promises the same end to him, does not appal him. It is this inner contradiction which, besides its satirical significance, forms the chief meaning of Bel- Ami. The same thought sparkles in the beautiful scenes of the death of the consumptive journalist. The author puts the ques- tion to himself as to what life is and how the contra- diction between the love of life and the knowledge of unavoidable death is to be solved, — and he does not answer the questions. He seems to be seeking and wait- ing, and does not decide one way or another. Conse- quently the moral relation to life continues to be correct in this novel also. But in the next novels after that this moral relation to life begins to become entangled, the valuation of the phenomena of life begins to waver, to grow dim, and in the last novels is completely distorted. In Mont-Oriol Maupassant seems to combine the motives of the two preceding novels, and repeats himself as regards contents. In spite of the beautiful descriptions, full of refined humour, of a fashionable watering-place and of the activity of the doctors in this place, we have here the same male, Paul, wlio is just as base and heartless as the hus- band in Une Vie, and the same deceived, ruined, yielding, weak, lonely, always lonely, dear woman, and the same indifferent triumph of insignificance and baseness as in Bel- Ami. The thought is the same, but the author's relation to what he describes is now considerably lower, especially lower than in the first novel. The inner valuation of the 518 THE WOEKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT author as to what is good and bad begins to become entangled. In spite of all the mental desire of the author to be objective without any bias, the rascal Paul appar- ently enjoys the author's complete sympathy. For this reason the history of Paul's love, his attempts to seduce, and his success in this produce a false impression. The reader does not know what the author wants, — whether he wants to show the whole emptiness and baseness of Paul, who with indifference turns away from the woman and offends her, only because her form is spoiled from being pregnant with a child by him, or whether he wants, on the contrary, to show how agreeable and nice it is to live the way this Paul lives. In the next novels after that, Pierre et Jean, Fort comme la Mort, and Notre Cceur, the moral relation of the author to his persons is still more entangled, and is entirely lost in the last. On all these novels already lies the stamp of indifference, haste, fictitiousness, and, above all, again that absence of a correct moral rela- tion to life which was noticeable in his first writings. This begins at the same time that Maupassant's reputa- tion as a fashionable author becomes established, and he is subject to that terrible temptation to which every well- known author, particularly such an attractive one as Maupassant, falls a prey. On the one side, the success of the first novels, newspaper laudations, and flattery of society, especially of the women; on the second, the evergrowing rewards, which, however, do not keep pace with the constantly growing demands ; on the third, — the insistence of publishers, who vie with one another, flatter, implore, and no longer judge of the quahty of the productions offered by the author, but in ecstasy accept everything which appears over the name that has estab- lished its reputation with the reading public. All these temptations are so great that they evidently intoxicate the author : he succumbs to them, and, though he coi* THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT ' 519 tinues to work out his novels as regards their forms, and does it even better than before, and even loves what he describes, he no longer loves what he describes because it is good and moral, that is, because it is loved by every- body, and hates what he describes not because it is bad and despised by everybody, but only because one thing accidentally pleases and another displeases him. Upon all the novels of Maupassant, beginning with Bel-Ami, lies this stamp of haste and, above all, of ficti- tiousness. From that time on Maupassant no longer does what be did in his first two novels, — he does not take for the foundation of his novels certain moral de- mands and on their basis describe the activity of his persons, but writes his novels as all artisan novelists write theirs, that is, he iuvents the most interesting and the most pathetic or most contemporary persons and sit- uations, and from these composes his novel, adorning it with all those observations which he has happened to make and which fit into the canvas of the novel, without the slightest concern how the events described are related to the demands of morahty. Such are Pierre et Jean, Fort comme la Mort, and Notre Coeur. No matter how much we are accustomed to read in French novels about how famihes live by threes, and how there is always a lover, whom all but the husband know, it still remains quite incomprehensible to us how it is that all husbands are always fools, cocus, and ridictdes, and all lovers, who in the end marry and become husbands, are neither ridicules nor cocus, but heroes. And still less can we understand in wbat way all women are loose in morals and all mothers holy. It is on these unnatural and improbable and, above all, profoundly immoral situations tliat Pierre et Jean and Fort comme la Mort are constructed. And so the suffer- ings of the persons who are in these situations do not touch us much. Pierre's and Jean's mother, who was 520 THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT able to pass all her life in deceiving her husband, evokes little sympathy for herself when she is compelled to con- fess her sin to her son, and still less when she justifies herself, asserting that she could not help making use of the opportunity of happiness which presented itself to her. Still less can we sympathize with the gentleman who, in Fort comme la Mort, during his whole hfe deceived his friend, corrupted his wife, and now laments because, having grown old, he is not able to corrupt also the daughter of his paramour. But the last novel, Notre Cceur, does not even have any inner problem, except the description of all kinds of shades of sexual love. What is described is a satiated, idle debauchee, who does not know what he wants, and who now falls in with just as debauched, mentally debauched^ a woman, without even any justification of sensuality, and now parts from her and falls in with a servant girl, and now again falls in with the first and, it seems, lives with both. Though in Pierre et Jean and Fort comme la Mort there are touch- ing scenes, this last novel provokes nothing but disgust in us. The question in Maupassant's first novel, Une Vie, stands hke this. Here is a good, clever, dear human being, ready for anything good, and this being for some reason is sacrificed, at first to a coarse, petty, stupid animal of a husband, and then to just such a son, and perishes aimlessly, without having given anything to the world. What is this for ? The author puts the question like that, and does not seem to give any answer. But his whole novel, all his sentiments of sympathy for her and disgust with what ruined her serve as an answer to his question. If there is one man who has understood her suJEferings and has given expression to this understanding, these sufferings are redeemed, as Job says to his friends, when they say that no one will find out about his suffer- ing. Let a suffering be made known and understood, THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT 521 and it is redeemed. Here the author saw and compre- hended this suffering and showed it to men. And this suffering is redeemed, because, as soon as it is understood by men, it will sooner or later be destroyed. In the next novel, Bel- Ami, the question is no longer as to why there is any suffering for the worthy, but why there is wealth and glory for the unworthy. And what are this wealth and glory, and how are they acquired ? And just as before, this question includes an answer, which consists in the negation of everything which is so highly valued by the crowd. The contents of this sec- ond novel are stdl serious, but the moral relation of the author to the subject described is considerably weakened, and while in the first novel only here and there occur Ijlemishes of sensuality, which spoil the novel, in Bel- Ami these blemishes expand, and many chapters are written in mere obscenity, in which the author seems to revel. In the next novel, Mont-Oriol, the questions as to why and for what purpose are the sufferings of the dear woman and the success and joys of the savage male are no longer put, but it seems to be assumed that it ought to be so, and the moral demands are almost not felt ; instead there appear, without any need and evoked by no artistic demands, obscene, sensuous descriptions. As a striking example of this violation of art, in consequence of the incorrect relation of the author to the subject, may with particular vividness serve the detailed description of the appearance of the hercjine in the bathtub, which is given in this novel. This description is of no use whatsoever, and is in no way connected with the external or the in- ternal meaning of the novel: bubbles cling to the pink body. " Well ? " asks the reader. " That's all," replies the author. " I describe, because I like such descriptions." In the next two novels, Pierre et Jean and Fort comme 522 THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT la Mort, no moral demand whatever is to be founds Both novels are constructed on debauchery, deception, and lying, which bring the dramatis personce to tragic situations. In the last novel, Notre Coeur, the condition of the dramatis personm is most monstrous, savage, and immoral, and these persons no longer .struggle against anything, but only seek enjoyments, of ambition, of the senses, of the sexual passion, and the author seems to sympathize completely with their strivings. The only conclusion one can draw from this last novel is this, that the great- est happiness in life is sexual intercourse, and that, there- fore, we must in the most agreeable manner make use of this happiness. Still more startling is this immoral relation to life as it is expressed in the quasi-novel, Yvette. The contents of this terribly immoral production are as follows : a charming girl, with an innocent soul, but corrupted in the forms which she has acquired in the corrupt surroundings of her mother, deludes the debauchee. He falls in love with her, but, imagining that this girl consciously talks that insinuating nonsense which she has learned in her mother's company, and which she repeats like a parrot, without understanding it, he imagines that the girl is cor- rupt, and coarsely proposes a liaison with her. This prop- osition frightens and offends her (she loves him), opens her eyes to her position and to that of her mother, and makes her suffer deeply. The touching situation — the conflict of the beauty of the innocent soul with the immo- rality of the world — is beautifully described, and it would have been well to stop here, but the author, without the least external or internal need, continues his narration and causes this gentleman to make his way to the girl at night and seduce her. In the first part of the novel the author had evidently been on the side of the girl, and in the second he suddenly passed over to the side of the THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT 523 debauchee. One impression destroys the other, and the whole novel falls to pieces and breaks up, like bread which has not been kneaded. In all his novels after Bel-Ami (I am not speaking now of his shorter stories, which form his chief desert and fame, — of them I shall speak later), Maupassant obviously surrendered himself to the theory, which not only existed in his circle in Paris, but which now exists everywhere among artists, that for an artistic production we not only need have no clear conception of what is good and what bad, but that, on the contrary, the artist must absolutely ignore all moral questions, — that in this does a certain merit of the artist consist. According to this theory an artist can and must represent what is true, what exists, or what is beautiful, what, consequently, pleases him, or even what can be useful as material for " science," but it is not the business of the artist to trouble himself about what is moral or immoral, good or bad. I remember, a famous painter showed me once his paiutiug, which represented a reHgious procession. Every- thing was exquisitely painted, but I could not see any relation of the artist to his subject. " Well, do you consider these rites good, and do you think that they ought to be performed, or do you not ? " I asked the artist. The artist said to me, with a certain condescension to my naivete, that he did not know and did not consider it necessary to know : his business was to represent life. " But do you at least love this ? " " I cannot tell you." " Well, do you despise these rites ? " " Neither the one nor the other," replied, with a smile of compassion for my stupidity, the modern highly cul- tured artist, who represented life without understanding its meaning and without either loving or hating its phe- nomena. Even so unfortunately thought Maupassant. 624 THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT In his introduction to Pierre et Jean he says that people tell the writer : " Consolez-moi, attristez-moi, atten- drissez-moi, faites-tnoi rever, faites-moi rire, faites-'tnoi fremir, faites-JThoi pleurer, faites-moi penser. Seuls quel- ques esprits d'elites demaiident k I'artiste : faites-moi quel- que chose de beau dans la forTne qui vous conviendra le mieux d'apres votre temperament." It was to satisfy the demand of these chosen spirits that Maupassant wrote his novels, imagining naively that that which was considered beautiful in his circle was the beautiful which art ought to serve. In the same circle in which Maupassant moved, it is woman, a young, beautiful, for the most part a nude woman, and the sexual intercourse with her that have preeminently been considered to be that beauty which art must serve. Such an opinion was held not only by Mau- passant's fellows in " art," by painters, sculptors, noveUsts, and poets, but also by philosophers, the teachers of the younger generations. Thus the famous Eenan says frankly in his work, Marc Aurele, while condemning Christianity for its lack of appreciation of feminine beauty . " Le dcfaut du cliristianisme apparait hien id, il est trop uniquemcnt moral : la leaute chez-lui est tout-d,-fait sacrifiee. Or, aux yeux d'une philosophie complete, la heaute, loin d'etre un avantage sui^erficiel, un danger, un inconvenient, est un don de Dieu, comme la vertu. Elle vaut la vertu ; la femme belle exprime aussi bien une face du but divin, U7ie des fins de Dieu, que I'homme' de genie ou la femme vertueuse. Elle le sait et de Id, sa fierte. Elle sent i/istinctivement le tresor iiifini qu'elle porte en son corps ; elle sait bien, que sans esprit, sans talent, sans grave vertu, elle compte entre les premieres manifestations de Dieu : et pourquoi lui interdire de mettre en valeur le don, qui lui a etc fait, de sortir le diamant qui lui est echu ? " La femme, en se passant, accomplit un devoir ; elle THE WORKS OF GUY T)E MAUPASSA:N'T 525 pratique un art, art exquis, en un sens le plus charmant des arts. Nc nous laissons pas cgarer par le sourire que certains mots provoquent chez les gens frivoles. Ondecerne la palme du genie a V artiste grec qui a su resoudre le plus delicat des prohlemes, orner le corps humain, c'est d orner la perfection mtme, et Von ne veut voir qu'une affaire de chiffons dans I'essai de collaborer di la plus belle ceuvre de Dieii, ci la heaute de lafemrne ! La toilette de la femtne, avec tous ses raffinements, est du grand art tt sa maniere. " Les siecles et les pays, qui savent y reussir, — sont les grands siecles, les grands pays, et le christianisme montra par V exclusion dont il frappa le genre de reclierches que I'ideal social qu'il concevait ne dcviendrait le cadre d'une societe complete que hien plus tard, quand la revolte des gens du monde aurait brise lejoug etroit impose primitivement h la secte par un pietisme exalte" {Marc Aurele, p. 555). (Thus, according to the opinion of this guide of the younger generations, it is only now that the Parisian tailors and wigmakers have mended the mistake made by Christianity, and have ree'stablished beauty in its real, high significance.) To leave no doubt in what sense beauty is to be taken, this same famous writer, historian, and scholar wrote a drama, L'Abbesse de Jouarrc, in which he showed that sexual intercourse with a woman is that very ministra- tion to beauty, that is, a high and good work. In this drama, which is remarkable for its absence of talent and especially for the coarseness of Darcy's conversations with the Abbess, where we can see from the very first words of what love this gentleman is speaking with the appar- ently innocent and highly moral girl, who is not in tlie least offended by this, — it appears that the most highly moral people, in the sight of death, to which they are condemned, a few hours before it can do nothing more beautiful than surrender themselves to their animal passion. Thus, in the circle in w^hich Maupassant grew up and 526 THE WOKKS OF GUT DE MAUPASSANT was educated, the representation of feminine beauty and love has quite seriously, and as something long ago de- cided and determined by the cleverest and most learned of men, been considered to be the true problem of the highest art, — Ic grand art. lu is to this theory, frightful in its insipidity, that Maupassant was subjected, when he became a fashionable writer. And, as was to have been expected, in the novels this false ideal led Maupassant to a series of mistakes and to weaker and ever weaker productions. In this showed itself the radical difference which exists between the demands of the novel and those of the story. The novel has for its problem, even for its external prob- lem, the description of the whole human life or of many human lives, and so the writer of a novel must have a clear and firm idea of what is good and what bad in life, and Maupassant did not possess that; on the contrary, according to the theory to which he held, it was thought that that was not necessary. If he had been a novelist like some untalented writers of sensuous novels, he would have calmly described as good what is bad, and his novels would be complete and interesting for people sharing the same views as the author. But Maupassant had talent, that is, he saw things in their real form, and so he invol- untarily revealed the truth : he involuntarily saw the bad in what he wanted to regard as good. For this reason his sympathy is constantly wavering in all his novels, with the exception of the first : now he represents the bad as being good, now he recognizes the bad to be bad and the good to be good, and now again he keeps all the time jumping from one to the other. But this destroys the very essence of every artistic impression, the charpcntc, on which he stands. People who are not very sensitive to art frequently imagine that an artistic production forms one whole, because the same persons act in it all the time, because everything is constructed on one plot, or because THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT 527 the life of one man is described. That is not true. That only seems so to the superficial observer : the cement which binds every artistic production into one whole and so produces the illusion of a reflection of life is not the unity of persons and situations, but the unity of the original, moral relation of the author to his subject. In reality, when we read or contemplate an artistic produc- tion by a new author, the fundamental question which arises in our soul is always this : " Well, what kind of a man are you ? How do you differ from all other men whom I know, and what new thing can you tell me about the way we ought to look upon our life ? " No matter what the artist may represent, — saints, robbers, kings, lackeys, — we seek and see only the artist's soul. If he is an old, familiar artist, the question is no longer, " Who are you ? " but, " Well, what new thing can you tell me ? From wliat new side will you now illumine my life for me ? " And so an author who has no definite, clear, new view of the world, and still more so the one who does not consider this to be necessary, cannot give an artistic pro- duction. He can write beautifully, and a great deal, but there will be no artistic production. Even so it was with Maupassant in his novels. In his first two novels, es- pecially in the first, Une Vie, there was that clear, definite, new relation to life, and so there was an artistic production ; but as soon as he, submitting to the fashion- able theory, decided that there is no need whatever for this relation of the author to life, and began to write only in order to faire quclque chose de beau, his novels ceased to be artistic productions. In Une Vie and Bel-Ami the author knows who is to be loved and who is to be hated, and the reader agrees with him and believes him, believes in those persons and events which are described to him. But in Notre Cceur and in Yvcttc the author does not know who is to be loved and who is to be hated ; nor does the reader know it. And as the reader does 528 THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT ^! III not know it, he does not believe in the events described and is not interested in them. And so, with the excep- tion of the first two, or, speaking strictly, of the one first novel, all of Maupassant's novels, as novels, are weak ; and if Maupassant had left us only his novels, he would be a striking example of how a brilliant gift may perish in consequence of that false milieu in which it was evolved, and of those false tlieories of art which are in- vented by men who do not love it and so do not under- stand it. But, fortunately, Maupassant has written short stories, in which he did not succumb to the false theory which he adopted, and wrote, not quelque chose de heau, but what touched and provoked his moral feeling. It is in these stories, not in all, but in the best of them, that we see how the moral feeling grew in the author. In this, indeed, does the remarkable quality of every true talent consist, so long as it does not do violence to itself under the influence of a false theory, that it teaches its possessor, leads him on over the path of moral develop- ment, makes him love what is worthy of love, and hate what is worthy of hatred. An artist is an artist for the very reason that he sees the objects, not as he wants to see them, but as they are. The bearer of talent, — man, — may make mistakes, but the talent, as soon as the reins are given to it, as was done by Maupassant in his stories, will reveal and lay bare the subject and will make the writer love it, if it is worthy of love, and hate it, if it is worthy of hatred. What happens to every true artist, when, under the influence of his surroundings, he begins to desci'ibe somethiag different from what he ought to describe, is what happened to Balaam, who, when he wanted to bless, cursed that which ought to have been cursed, and, when he wanted to curse, began to bless that which ought to have been blessed ; he will involuntarily do, not what he wants, but what he ought to do. The same happened with Maupassant. THE WORKS OF GUT DE MAUPASSANT 529 There has hardly been another such an author, who thought so sincerely that all the good, the whole meaning of life was in woman, in love, and who with such force of passion described woman and the love of her from all sides, and there has hardly been another author, who with such clearness and precision has pointed out all the terrible sides of the same phenomenon, which to him seemed to be the highest, and one that gives the greatest good to men. The more he comprehended this phenomenon, the more did it become unveiled ; the shrouds fell off, and all there was left was its terrible consequences and its still more terrible reality. Eead his " Idiot Son," " A Night with the Daughter " (Z'Urmite), "The Sailor and His Sister" (Le Por^)," Field of Olives," Za Petite Eoque, the English Miss Harriet, Monsieur Parent, LArmoire (the girl that fell asleep in the safe), " The Marriage " in Sur VEau, and the last ex- pression of everything, Un Gas de Divorce. What Marcus Aurelius said, trying to find means with which to destroy in imagination the attractiveness of this sin, Maupassant does in glaring, artistic pictures, which upset one com- pletely. He wants to laud love, but the more he knew of it, the more he cursed it. He cursed it for the calamities and sufferings which it brings with it, and for the disap- pointments, and, above all, for the simulation of true love, for the deception which is in it, and from which man suffers the more, the more he abandons himself to this deception. The mighty moral growth of the author, during his literary activity, is written in indelible characters in these exquisite short stories and in his best book, Sur VEau. And not merely in this discrowning, this involuntary and, therefore, so nnich more powerful discrowning of sexual love, do we see the author's moral growth ; we see it also in all those higher and ever higher demands which he makes on life. Not only in sexual love does he see the inner contra- 630 THE WORKS OF GUT DE MAUPASSANT diction between the demands of the animal and of the rational man, — he sees it in the whole structure of the world. He sees that the world, the material world, such as it is, is not only not the best of worlds, but, on the contrary, might have been quite different, — this idea is strikingly expressed in Horla, — and does not satisfy the demands of reason and of love ; he sees that there is a certain other world, or at least there are the demands for such a world, in man's soul. He is tormented, not only by the irrationality of the material world and the absence of beauty in it, but also by its lack of love, by its disunion. I know of no more heartrending cry of despair of an erring man who recog- nizes his loneliness, than the expression of this idea in the exquisite story, Solitude. The phenomenon which more than any other tortured Maupassant, and to which he frequently returned, is the agonizing state of loneliness, the spiritual lonehness of a man, that barrier which stands between a man and others, that barrier which, as he says, is felt the more painfully, the closer the bodily contact. What is it that tortures him ? And what would he have ? What destroys this barrier, what puts a stop to this loneliness ? Love, not love of woman, of which he is tired, but pure, spiritual, divine love. And it is this that Maupassant seeks ; toward this saviour of life, which was long ago clearly revealed to all, that he painfully tugs at the fetters with which he feels himself bound. He is not yet able to name what he is seeking, he does not want to name it with his hps alone, for fear of defil- ing his sanctuary. But his unnamed striving, which is expressed by his terror in the presence of solitude, is so sincere that it infects us and draws us more powerfully than many, very many sermons of love, which are enun- ciated with the lips alone. THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT 531 The tragedy of Maupassant's life consists in this, that, living in surroundings that are terrible because of their monstrousness and immorality, he by the force of his talent, that unusual light which was in him, broke away from the world-conception of his circle, was near to libera- tion, already breathed the air of freedom, but, having spent his last strength in this struggle, perished without becoming free, because he did not have the strength to make this one last effort. The tragedy of this ruin consists in the same in which it even now continues to consist for the majority of the so-called men of our time. Men have in general never lived without an explana- tion of the meaning of the life they live. Everywhere and at all times there have appeared advanced, highly gifted men, prophets, as they are called, who have ex- plained to men this meaning and significance of life, and at all times the men of the rank and file, who have no strength to make this meaning clear to themselves, have followed that explanation of life which their prophets revealed to them. This meaning was eighteen hundred years ago simply, lucidly, indubitably, and joyously explained by Chris- tianity, as is proved by the life of all those who have accepted this meaning and follow that guide of life which follows from this meaning. But there appeared men who interpreted this meaning in such a way that it became nonsense. And people are in a dilemma, — whether to recognize Christianity, as it is interpreted by Catholicism, Lourdes, the Pope, the dogma of the seedless conception, and so forth, or to live on, being guided by thci instructions of Renan and his like, that is, to live without any guidance and comprehen- sion of Hfe, surrendering themselves to their lusts, so long as they are strong, and to their habits, when the passions have subsided. 532 THE WORKS OF GUT DE MAUPASSANT And the people, the people of the rank and file, choose one or the other, sometimes both, at first libertinism, and then Catholicism. And people continue to live thus for generations, shielding themselves with different theories, which are not invented in order to find out the truth, but in order to conceal it. And the people of the rank and file, especially the dull ones among them, feel at ease. But there are also other people, — there are but a few of them and they are far between, — and such was Mau- passant, who with their own eyes see things as they are, see their meaning, see the contradictions of life, which are hidden from others, and vividly present to themselves that to which these contradictions must inevitably lead them, and seek for their solutions in advance. They seek for them everywhere except where they are to be found, in Christianity, because Christianity seems to them to have outlived its usefulness, to be obsolete and foolish and repellent by its monstrosity. Trying in vain to arrive by themselves at these solutions, they come to the conclu- sion that there are no solutions, that the property of life consists in carrying within oneself these unsolved contra- dictions. Having arrived at such a solution, these people, if they are weak, unenergetic natures, make their peace with such a senseless life, are even proud of their condi- tion, considering their lack of knowledge to be a desert, a sign of culture ; but if they are energetic, truthful, and talented natures, such as was Maupassant, they cannot bear it and in one way or another go out of this insipid life. It is as though thirsty people in the desert should be looking everywhere for water, except near those men who, standing near a spring, pollute it and offer ill-smelling mud instead of water, which still keeps on flowing farther down, below the mud. Maupassant was in that position ; he could not believe, — it even never occurred to him that the truth which he was seeking had been discovered long THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT 533 ago and was near him ; nor could he believe that it was possible for a man to live in a contradiction such as he felt himself to be living in. Life, according to those theories in which he was brought up, which surrounded liim, and which were veri- fied by all the passions of his youthful and spiritually and physically strong being, consists in enjoyment, chief of which is woman and the love of her, and in the doubly reflected enjoyment, — in the representation of this love and the excitation of this love in others. All that would be very well, but, as we look closely at these enjoyments, we see amidst them appear phenomena which are quite ahen and hostile to tliis love and this beauty : woman for some reason grows homely, looks horrid in her preg- nancy, bears a cliild in uastiuess, then more children, unwi^hed-for children, then deceptions, cruelties, then moral sufferings, then simply old age, and finally death. And then, is this beauty really beauty ? And then, what is it all for ? It would be nice, if it were possible to arrest life. But it goes on. What does it mean, — life goes on ? Life goes on, means, — the hair falls out and grows gray, the teeth decay, there appear wrinkles, and there is an odour in the mouth. Even before every- thing ends, everything becomes terrible and disgusting : you perceive the pasty paint and powder, the sweat, the stench, the homeliness. Where is that which I served ? Where is beauty ? And it is all. If it is not, — there is nothing. There is no life. Not only is there no life in what seemed to have life, but you, too, begin to get away from it, to grow feeble, to look homely, to decay, while others before your very eyes seize from you those pleasures in which was the whole good of life. More than that : there begins to glint the possibility of another life, something else, some other union of men with the whole world, such as excludes all those deceptions, sometliiug else, something that cannot be 534 THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT impaired by anything, that is true and always beautiful. But that cannot be, — it is only the provoking sight of an oasis, when we know that it is not there and that every- thing is sand. Maupassant Hved down to that tragic moment of life, when there began the struggle between the lie of the Hfe which surrounded him, and the truth which he was beginning to see. He already had symptoms of spiritual birth. It is these labours of birth that are expressed in his best productions, especially in his short stories. If it had been his fate not to die in the labour of birth, but to be born, he would have given great, instructive productions, but even what he gave us during the process of his birth is much. Let us be grateful to this strong, Lruthful man for what he gave us. Voronezh, April 2, 1894' THE END. University of California SOUTHERN REGiONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. I uc SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FM AA 000 502 861 e .iilj 'I'll