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

his master’s wife, boasts of having done so, and is hanged. —⁠A. M. ↩

In Russian the word for “forgive me” is very similar to that for “goodbye,” and is sometimes used in place of the latter. —⁠A. M. ↩

The Institute was a boarding-school for the daughters of the nobility and gentry, in which great attention was paid to the manners and accomplishments of the pupils. —⁠A. M. ↩

An “envelope” was a small mattress with a coverlet attached, on which babies were carried about. —⁠A. M. ↩

What would you have? ↩

At this place the alternative ending, printed at the end of the story, begins. ↩

Trial by jury was introduced in 1864, and at first the juries were inclined to be extremely lenient to the prisoners. —⁠A. M. ↩

“The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.” ↩

1st October o.s. —⁠A. M. ↩

“Lise, look to the right. That is he.” ↩

“Where? Where? He is not so very handsome.” ↩

Two hundred miles. ↩

Páshenka is a familiar pet name. Praskóvya Mikháylovna (Michael’s daughter) is the full Christian name and patronymic proper when formally addressing an adult. —⁠A. M. ↩

£6. ↩

About a penny. ↩

“Sometimes two shillings, sometimes one, or sometimes sevenpence.” ↩

“Ask them whether they are quite sure that their pilgrimage pleases God.” ↩

“What does he say? He does not answer.” ↩

“He says that he is a servant of God. That one is probably a priest’s son. He is not a common man. Have you any small change?” ↩

“But tell them that I give it them not to spend on church candles, but that they should have some tea. Tea, tea for you, old fellow.” ↩

Count Leo Tolstoy’s article “The Overthrow of Hell and Its Restoration” is a vigorous attack on the Church. It constitutes the first part of a pamphlet which may be regarded as Tolstoy’s confession of faith, or rather the programme of his social and religious convictions. He is severe on both the Church and the established government, and while in many respects he denounces the Russian government in particular, his comments strike home to government in any form. When speaking of the Church, he thinks first of all of the Greek Catholic Church; but he hits the Episcopalians as well, saying:

“The Church is produced thus: Some people assure themselves and others that their teacher, God, has chosen special men who, with those to whom they transfer this power, can alone correctly interpret His teaching. Those men who call themselves the Church regard themselves as holding the truth, not because what they preach is truth, but because they regard themselves as the only true successors of the disciples of the disciples of the disciples, and at last of the disciples of the teacher Himself, God⁠ ⁠…

“Having recognised themselves as the only expositors of God’s law, and having persuaded others of this, these men became the highest arbiters of man’s fate, and therefore were entrusted with the highest power over men. Having received this power, they naturally became infatuated and, for the most part, depraved, thus exciting against themselves the anger and enmity of men. In order to overcome their enemies they, having no other arms but violence, began to persecute, to kill, to burn all those who would not recognise their power. Thus by their very position they were forced to misrepresent the teaching so that it should justify both their wicked lives and their cruelties to their enemies.”

Tolstoy claims that Christ’s teaching was so simple that no one could possibly misinterpret it. It is expressed in the saying: “Do unto others what thou desirest that others should do unto thee.” But Satan’s helpers succeeded in obscuring the Golden Rule.

Concerning government, Beelzebub says, according to Tolstoy’s description:

“He who destroyed Hell taught mankind to live like the birds of Heaven, commanding men to give to him that asks and to surrender one’s coat to him who wishes to take one’s shirt, saying that to be saved one must give away one’s property. How then dost thou induce men who have heard this to go on plundering?”

“We do this,” said the moustached devil haughtily, throwing back his head, “exactly as did our father and ruler when Saul was elected King. Even as then, we instil into men the idea that instead of ceasing to plunder each other it is more convenient to allow one man to plunder them all, giving him full authority over all. What as new in our methods is only this⁠—that for confirming this one man’s right of plundering we lead him into a church, put a special cap on his head, seat him on an elevated armchair, give him a little stick and a ball, rub him with some oil, and in the name of God and His Son proclaim the person of this man, rubbed with oil, to be sacred. Thus the plunder performed by this personage, regarded as sacred, can in no way be restricted. So these sacred personages and their assistants and the assistants of their assistants, all without ceasing, quietly and safely plunder the people. Generally, laws and regulations are instituted by which the idle minority, even without anointing, may plunder with impunity the laboring majority. In some States of late the plunder goes on without anointed men, even as much as where they exist. As our father and ruler sees, the method we use is in substance the old one. What is new in it is that we have made this method more general, more insidious, more widespread in extent