"--And you say that a man cannot, of himself, understand what is good
and evil; that it is all environment, that the environment swamps the man.
But I believe it is all chance. Take my own case . . ."
Thus spoke our excellent friend, Ivan Vasilievich, after a
conversation between us on the impossibility of improving individual
character without a change of the conditions under which men live.
Nobody had actually said that one could not of oneself understand
good and evil; but it was a habit of Ivan Vasilievich to answer
in this way the thoughts aroused in his own mind by conversation,
and to illustrate those thoughts by relating incidents in his own life.
He often quite forgot the reason for his story in telling it;
but he always... (From: Wikisource.org.)
Chapter I
Five wealthy young men had come, after two in the morning, to amuse themselves at a small Petersburg party.
Much champagne had been drunk, most of the men were very young, the girls were pretty, the piano and violin indefatigably played one polka after another, and dancing and noise went on unceasingly: yet for some reason it was dull and awkward, and, as often happens, everybody felt that it was all unnecessary and was not the thing.
Several times they tried to get things going, but forced merriment was worse even than boredom.
One of the five young men, more dissatisfied than the others with himself, with the others, and with the whole evening, rose with a feeling of disgust, found his had, and went o... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
Alyosha was the younger brother. He was called the Pot, because his mother had once sent him with a pot of milk to the deacon's wife, and he had stumbled against something and broken it. His mother had beaten him, and the children had teased him. Since then he was nicknamed the Pot. Alyosha was a tiny, thin little fellow, with ears like wings, and a huge nose. "Alyosha has a nose that looks like a dog on a hill!" the children used to call after him. Alyosha went to the village school, but was not good at lessons; besides, there was so little time to learn. His elder brother was in town, working for a merchant, so Alyosha had to help his father from a very early age. When he was no more than six he used to go out with the girls to watch the ... (From: Wikisource.org.)
I. TO THE GOVERNMENT.
[By Government I mean those who, availing themselves of
established authority can change the existing laws and put them in
operation. In Russia, these people were and still are: the Czar, his
Ministers, and his nearest advisers.]
The acknowledged basis of all Governmental power is solely
the promotion of the welfare of the people over whom the power
IS exerted.
But what are you who now govern Russia doing? You are
fighting the Revolutionists with shifts and cunning such as they
employ against you; and, worst of all, with cruelty even greater
than theirs. But of two contending parties, the conqueror is not always the more shifty, cunning, cruel, or harsh of the two, but the
one that is nearest to th... (From: Wikisource.org.)
In my "Appeal to the Working People" I expressed the opinion that if the working-men are to free themselves from oppression it is necessary that they should themselves cease to live as they now live, struggling with their neighbors for their personal welfare, and that, according to the Gospel rule, man should "act towards others as he desires that others should act towards himself."
The method I had suggested called forth, as I expected, one and the same condemnation from people of the most opposite views.
"It is an Utopia, unpractical. To wait for the liberation of men who are suffering from oppression and violence until they all become virtuous would mean—whilst recognizing the existing evil—to doom oneself to inaction."
Th... (From: Wikisource.org.)
There are such creatures who all live off the land, but in order for them to become harder as possible to feed, they divided their land so that only those who are not working on it can use it, but those who work, they cannot use it and suffer and die generations after generations from the inability to feed off the land. Besides, these creatures elect one family or several families out of many and renounce their will and reason for the sake of slavish obedience to everything that the elect ones will want to do to them. And the elect ones happen to be the most evil and stupid of all. But the creatures who elect and submit, praise them in every way. These creatures speak different languages, unintelligible to each other. But instead of trying ... (From: Wikisource.org.)
[The adventure here narrated is one that happened to Tolstoy himself in 1858. More than twenty years later he gave up hunting, on humanitarian grounds.]
We were out on a bear-hunting expedition. My comrade had shot at a bear, but only gave him a flesh-wound. There were traces of blood on the snow, but the bear had got away.
We all collected in a group in the forest, to decide whether we ought to go after the bear at once, or wait two or three days till he should settle down again. We asked the peasant bear-drivers whether it would be possible to get round the bear that day.
'No. It's impossible,' said an old bear-driver. 'You must let the bear quiet down. In five days' time it will be possible to surround him; but if you followed him now... (From: Wikisource.org.)
During last year, in Holland, a young man named Van der Veer was called on to enter the National Guard. To the summons of the commander, Van der Veer answered in the following letter:—
"Thou Shalt do no Murder."
To M. Herman Sneiders, Commandant of the National Guard of the Midelburg district.
Dear Sir,—Last week I received a document ordering me to appear at the municipal office, to be, according to law, enlisted in the National Guard. As you probably noticed, I did not appear, and this letter is to inform you, plainly and without equivocation, that I do not intend to appear before the commission. I know well that I am taking a heavy responsibility, that you have the right to punish me, and that you will not fail t... (From: Wikisource.org.)
(An appeal to people-brothers)
Dear brothers, especially those of you who is now fighting for one governmental structure or another, which nobody needs. All you, dear brother, whoever you are, king, minister, a worker, a peasant, you need just one thing. And this is to spend this indeterminate short moment of life in a way that the one who sent you in this life wants.
We all know, and I've always indistinctly felt this, and further I am in life, the clearer this is to me. Now, from today, I for the first time clearly felt that natural for any live person proximity of tomorrow and closeness of death, only not dreadful but as a transition that is natural and beneficial, just as transition to the next day. Now, having sensed thi... (From: Wikisource.org.)
"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."
ST. MATTHEW V. 38, 39.
It was in the time of serfdom--many years before Alexander II's liberation of the sixty million serfs in 1862. In those days the people were ruled by different kinds of lords. There were not a few who, remembering God, treated their slaves in a humane manner, and not as beasts of burden, while there were others who were seldom known to perform a kind or generous action; but the most barbarous and tyrannical of all were those former serfs who arose from the dirt and became princes.
It was this latter class who made life literally a burden to those who were unfortunate enough to come under t... (From: Wikisource.org.)
I.
A gentleman of the name of Zhilin was serving in the Caucasus as an officer. One day he received a letter from home. His aged mother wrote to him: "I am growing old and should like to see my dear little son before I die. Come to me, I pray you, if it be only to bury me, and then in God's name enter the service again. And I have found for you a nice bride besides; she is sensible, good, and has property. You may fall in love with her perhaps, and you may marry her and be able to retire."
Zhilin fell a musing: "Yes, indeed, the old lady has been ailing lately, she might never live to see me. Yes, I'll go, and if the girl is nice I may marry her into the bargain."
So he went to his colonel, obtained leave of absence, took leave of hi... (From: Wikisource.org.)
La Vita Internationale and L'Humanité nouvelle
have sent me the following letter:—
"Sir,—With the object of furthering the development of humanitarian ideas and civilization, La Vita internationale (of Milan), with the support of L'Humanité nouvelle (of Paris and Brussels), has deemed it necessary to concern itself with the difficult problem which has of late arisen in all its gravity and importance, owing to the delicate question about which France and the whole world has become so ardently impassioned,—we mean the problem of war and militarism. With this aim in view, we beg all those in Europe that take part in politics, science, art, and the labor movement, and even those that occupy the foremost positi... (From: Wikisource.org.)
CHARACTERS
AKULÍNA. An old woman of seventy, brisk, dignified, old-fashioned.
MICHAEL. Her son, thirty-five years old, passionate, self-satisfied,
vain and strong.
MARTHA. Her daughter-in-law, a grumbler, speaks much and
rapidly.
PARÁSHKA. Ten years old, daughter of Martha and Michael.
TARÁS. The village elder's assistant, speaks slowly and gives
himself airs.
A TRAMP. Forty years old, restless, thin, speaks impressively;
when drunk is particularly free and easy.
IGNÁT. Forty years old, a buffoon, merry and stupid.
305
THE CAUSE OF IT ALL
ACT I
Autumn. A peasant's hut, with a small room partitioned off.
Akulína sits spinning; Martha the housewife is knead... (From: Gutenberg.org.)
I cannot agree with those who attribute the cause of the present war to the behavior of this or that political leader.
If two men get drunk in a public-house and fight whilst playing cards, I cannot possibly take upon myself to condemn either, however convincing may be the arguments of the other. The cause of their offensive conduct does not by any means lie in the fact that one of them is right; but in the fact that, instead of quietly working and resting, they found fit to drink wine and play cards in a public-house.
Precisely in the same way, when I am told that in any given war which has broken out one side only is to blame, I can never agree with this. It may be admitted that one side is behaving worse than the other, but no investig... (From: Wikisource.org.)
1. Having freed himself from religious deceptions, a person would be able to comprehend the teachings of Christ if it weren't for temptations. But – even being free of religious deception and having understood the meaning of the teaching of Christ, the human is always in danger of falling into temptations.
2. The essence of all temptations is that a person, awakened to consciousness, experiences splitting and suffering because of the committed sin, and wants to destroy the splitting and the suffering following it, not by conquering the sin but by justifying it.
3. And the justification of a sin can't be anything but a lie.
4. And therefore, to avoid falling into a temptation, a person, first and foremost, needs not to be afraid to ... (From: Wikisource.org.)
In the town of Surat, in India, was a coffee-house where many travelers and foreigners from all parts of the world met and conversed.
One day a learned Persian theologian visited this coffee-house. He was a man who had spent his life studying the nature of the Deity, and reading and writing books upon the subject. He had thought, read, and written so much about God, that eventually he lost his wits, became quite confused, and ceased even to believe in the existence of a God. The Shah, hearing of this, had banished him from Persia.
After having argued all his life about the First Cause, this unfortunate theologian had ended by quite perplexing himself, and instead of understanding that he had lost his own reason, he began to think that the... (From: Wikisource.org.)
In olden times — long, long before the coming of Christ — there reigned over a certain country a great king called Croesus. He had much gold and silver, and many precious stones, as well as numberless soldiers and slaves. Indeed, he thought that in all the world there could be no happier man than himself.
But one day there chanced to visit the country which Croesus ruled a Greek philosopher named Solon. Far and wide was Solon famed as a wise man and a just; and, inasmuch as his fame had reached Croesus also, the king commanded that he should be conducted to his presence.
Seated upon his throne, and robed in his most gorgeous apparel, Croesus asked of Solon: "Have you ever seen aught more splendid than this?"
"Of a sur... (From: Archive.org.)
In midwinter of 185 - the division of our battery- was doing frontier service in the Great Chechnya. Having learned, on the evening of the 14th of February, that
the platoon, which I was to command in the absence of the officer, was detailed for the following day to cut
timber, and having received and given the proper orders
on that very evening, I repaired earlier than usual to my
tent ; as I did not have the bad habit of warming it up
with burning coal, I lay down in my clothes on my bed,
which was constructed of paling, drew my lambskin cap
down to my eyes, wrapped myself in a fur coat, and fell
into that peculiar, profound, and heavy sleep which one
sleeps in moments of alarm and agitation before an imminent peril. The... (From: Wikisource.org.)
Another two weeks went by in this way and during that fortnight an even occurred that Ivan Ilych and his wife had desired. Petrishchev formally proposed. It happened in the evening. The next day Praskovya Fedorovna came into her husband's room considering how best to inform him of it, but that very night there had been a fresh change for the worse in his condition. She found him still lying on the sofa but in a different position. He lay on his back, groaning and staring fixedly straight in front of him. She began to remind him of his medicines, but he turned his eyes towards her with such a look that she did not finish what she was saying; so great an animosity, to her in particular, did that look express. "For Christ's sake let me di... (From: ClassicalLibrary.org.)
It happened not long ago, in the reign of the Emperor Alexander II.,—in our epoch of civilization, of progress, of questions, of the regeneration of Russia, etc.,—the time when the victorious Russian army had returned from Sevastopol, which had just been surrendered to the enemy, when all Russia was celebrating its triumph in the destruction of the Black Sea fleet, and White-walled Moscow had gone forth to meet and congratulate the remains of the crews of that fleet, and reach them a good Russian glass of vodka, and in accordance with the good Russian custom offer them the bread and salt of hospitality,[1] and bow their heads to the ground; at the time when Russia in the person of perspicacious virgin-politicians bewailed the de... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
Before dinner Liza came to him and, still wondering what could be the cause of his discontent, began to say that she was afraid he did not like the idea of her going to Moscow for her confinement, and that she had decided that she would remain at home and on no account go to Moscow. He knew how she feared both her confinement itself and the risk of not having a healthy child, and therefore he could not help being touched at seeing how ready she was to sacrifice everything for his sake. All was so nice, so pleasant, so clean, in the house; and in his soul it was so dirty, despicable, and foul. the whole evening Eugene was tormented by knowing that notwithstanding his sincere repulsion at his own weakness, notwithstanding his firm intention t... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)