Short Fiction, Leo Tolstoy [general ebook reader .txt] 📗

the desire to be the Caesar; on the contrary, both by word and deed we fulfil one thing: patient submissiveness and work, the most humble work of all⁠—the work of the workingman. We know nothing and we care nothing about affairs of state. We know one thing, but we know it beyond question⁠—that our well-being is only when the well-being of others is found, and we strive after this well-being; the well-being of all men is in their union.”269

“But tell me, Pamphilius, why men hold aloof from you in hostility, persecute you, hunt you down, kill you? How does your doctrine of love give rise to such discord?”

“The source of this is not in us, but outside of us. We regard as higher than anything the law of God, which controls by our conscience and by reason. We can obey only such laws of the State as are not contrary to God’s: ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.’ And that is why men persecute us. We have not the power of stopping this hostility, which does not have its source in us, because we cannot cease to realize that truth which we have accepted, because we cannot live contrary to our conscience and reason. In regard to this very hostility which our faith should arouse in others against us, our Teacher said, ‘Think not that I am come to send peace into the world; I came not to send peace, but a sword.’

“Christ experienced this hostility in His own lifetime and more than once he warned us, His disciples, in regard to it. ‘Me,’ He said, ‘the world hateth because its deeds are evil. If ye were of the world the world would love you, but since ye are not of this world therefore the world hateth you, and the time will come when he who killeth you will think he is serving God.’ But we, like Christ, ‘fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. And this is their condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.’

“In this there is nothing to worry over, because the truth will prevail. The sheep hear the shepherd’s voice, and follow him because they know his voice. And Christ’s flock will not perish but will increase, attracting to it new sheep from all the lands 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 said, interrupting him, “but are there many sincere ones among you? You are often blamed for only pretending to be martyrs and glad to lay down your lives for the truth, but the truth is not on your side. You are proud madmen, destroying the foundations of social life.”

Pamphilius made no reply, and looked at Julius with melancholy.

IX

Just as Julius was saying this, Pamphilius’ little son came running into the room, and clung to his father. In spite of all the blandishments of Julius’ wife, he would not stay with her, but ran to his father. Pamphilius sighed, caressed his son, and stood up; but Julius detained him, begging him to stay and talk some more, and have dinner with them.

“It surprises me that you are married and have children,” exclaimed Julius. “I cannot comprehend how Christians can bring up children when you have no private property. How can the mothers live in any peace of mind knowing the precariousness of their children’s position?”

“Wherein are our children more precariously placed than yours?”

“Why, because you have no slaves, no property. My wife was greatly inclined to Christianity; she was at one time desirous of abandoning this life, and I had made up my mind to go with her. But what chiefly prevented was the fear she felt at the insecurity, the poverty, which threatened her children, and I could not help agreeing with her. This was at the time of my illness. All my life seemed repulsive to me, and I wanted to abandon everything. But then my wife’s anxiety, and, on the other hand, the explanation of the physician who cured me, convinced me that the Christian life, as led by you, is impossible, and not good for families; but that there is no place in it for married people, for mothers with children; that in life as you understand it, life⁠—that is the human race⁠—would be annihilated. And this is perfectly correct. Consequently the sight of you with a child especially surprised me.”

“Not one child only. At home I left one at the breast and a three-year-old girl.”

“Explain to me how this happens. I don’t understand. I was ready to abandon everything and join you. But I had children, and I came to the conclusion that, however pleasant it might be for me, I had no right to sacrifice my children, and for their sake I continued to live as before, in order to bring them up in the same conditions as I myself had grown up and lived.”

“Strange,” said Pamphilius; “we take diametrically opposite views. We say: ‘If grown people live a worldly life it can be forgiven them, because they are already corrupted; but children! That is horrible! To live with them in the world and tempt them! “Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that by whom the offense cometh.” ’270

“So spake our Teacher, and I do not say this to you as a refutation, but because it is actually so. The chiefest obligation that we have to live as we do arises from the fact that amongst us are children⁠—those beings of whom it is said, ‘Except ye become as little children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.’ ”

“But how can a Christian family