Part Eight: Chapter 16

by Leo Tolstoy

　　Sergey Ivanovitch, being practiced in argument, did not reply,but at once turned the conversation to another aspect of thesubject.

　　"Oh, if you want to learn the spirit of the people byarithmetical computation, of course it's very difficult to arriveat it. And voting has not been introduced among us and cannot beintroduced, for it does not express the will of the people; butthere are other ways of reaching that. It is felt in the air, itis felt by the heart. I won't speak of those deep currents whichare astir in the still ocean of the people, and which are evidentto every unprejudiced man; let us look at society in the narrowsense. All the most diverse sections of the educated public,hostile before, are merged in one. Every division is at an end,all the public organs say the same thing over and over again, allfeel the mighty torrent that has overtaken them and is carryingthem in one direction."

　　"Yes, all the newspapers do say the same thing," said the prince."That's true. But so it is the same thing that all the frogscroak before a storm. One can hear nothing for them."

　　"Frogs or no frogs, I'm not the editor of a paper and I don'twant to defend them; but I am speaking of the unanimity in theintellectual world," said Sergey Ivanovitch, addressing hisbrother. Levin would have answered, but the old princeinterrupted him.

　　"Well, about that unanimity, that's another thing, One may say,"said the prince. "There's my son-in-law, Stepan Arkadyevitch,you know him. He's got a place now on the committee of acommission and something or other, I don't remember. Onlythere's nothing to do in it--why, Dolly, it's no secret!--and asalary of eight thousand. You try asking him whether his post isof use, he'll prove to you that it's most necessary. And he's atruthful man too, but there's no refusing to believe in theutility of eight thousand roubles."

　　"Yes, he asked me to give a message to Darya Alexandrovna aboutthe post," said Sergey Ivanovitch reluctantly, feeling theprince's remark to be ill-timed.

　　"So it is with the unanimity of the press. That's been explainedto me: as soon as there's war their incomes are doubled. How canthey help believing in the destinies of the people and theSlavonic races...and all that?"

　　"I don't care for many of the papers, but that's unjust," saidSergey Ivanovitch.

　　"I would only make one condition," pursued the old prince."Alphonse Karr said a capital thing before the war with Prussia:'You consider war to be inevitable? Very good. Let everyone whoadvocates war be enrolled in a special regiment ofadvance-guards, for the front of every storm, of every attack, tolead them all!'"

　　"A nice lot the editors would make!" said Katavasov, with a loudroar, as he pictured the editors he knew in this picked legion.

　　"But they'd run," said Dolly, "they'd only be in the way."

　　"Oh, if they ran away, then we'd have grape-shot or Cossacks withwhips behind them," said the prince.

　　"But that's a joke, and a poor one too, if you'll excuse mysaying so, prince," said Sergey Ivanovitch.

　　"I don't see that it was a joke, that..." Levin was beginning,but Sergey Ivanovitch interrupted him.

　　"Every member of society is called upon to do his own specialwork," said he. "And men of thought are doing their work whenthey express public opinion. And the single-hearted and fullexpression of public opinion is the service of-the press and aphenomenon to rejoice us at the same time. Twenty years ago weshould have been silent, but now we have heard the voice of theRussian people, which is ready to rise as one man and ready tosacrifice itself for its oppressed brethren; that is a great stepand a proof of strength."

　　"But it's not only making a sacrifice. but killing Turks," saidLevin timidly. "The people make sacrifices and are ready to makesacrifices for their soul, but not for murder," he added,instinctively connecting the conversation with the ideas that hadbeen absorbing his mind.

　　"For their soul? That's a most puzzling expression for a naturalscience man, do you understand? What sort of thing is the soul?"said Katavasov, smiling.

　　"Oh, you know!"

　　"No, by God, I haven't the faintest idea!" said Katavasov with aloud roar of laughter.

　　"'I bring not peace, but a sword,' says Christ," SergeyIvanovitch rejoined for his part, quoting as simply as though itwere the easiest thing to understand the very passage that hadalways puzzled Levin most.

　　"That's so, no doubt," the old man repeated again. He wasstanding near them and responded to a chance glance turned in hisdirection.

　　"Ah, my dear fellow, you're defeated, utterly defeated!" criedKatavasov good-humoredly.

　　Levin reddened with vexation, not at being defeated, but athaving failed to control himself and being drawn into argument.

　　"No, I can't argue with them," he thought; "they wearimpenetrable armor, while I'm naked."

　　He saw that it was impossible to convince his brother andKatavasov, and he saw even less possibility of himself agreeingwith them. What they advocated was the very pride of intellectthat had almost been his ruin. He could not admit that somedozens of men, among them his brother, had the right, on theground of what they were told by some hundreds of glib volunteersswarming to the capital, to say that they and the newspapers wereexpressing the will and feeling of the people, and a feelingwhich was expressed in vengeance and murder. He could not admitthis, because he neither saw the expression of such feelings inthe people among whom he was living, nor found them in himself(and he could not but consider himself one of the persons makingup the Russian people), and most of all because he, like thepeople, did not know and could not know what is for the generalgood, though he knew beyond a doubt that this general good couldbe attained only by the strict observance of that law of rightand wrong which has been revealed to every man, and therefore hecould not wish for war or advocate war for any general objectswhatever. He said as Mihalitch did and the people, who hadexpressed their feeling in the traditional invitations of theVaryagi: "Be princes and rule over us. Gladly we promisecomplete submission. All the labor, all humiliations, allsacrifices we take upon ourselves; but we will not judge anddecide." And now, according to Sergey Ivanovitch's account, thepeople had foregone this privilege they had bought at such acostly price.

　　He wanted to say too that if public opinion were an infallibleguide, then why were not revolutions and the commune as lawful asthe movement in favor of the Slavonic peoples? But these weremerely thoughts that could settle nothing. One thing could beseen beyond doubt--that was that at the actual moment thediscussion was irritating Sergey Ivanovitch, and so it was wrongto continue it. And Levin ceased speaking and then called theattention of his guests to the fact that the storm clouds weregathering, and that they had better be going home before itrained.