The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (best e book reader for android txt) 📖

taught me better

then was a thought of my dear brother’s, which I had heard from him in

childhood: “Am I worth it, that another should serve me and be ordered

about by me in his poverty and ignorance?” And I wondered at the

time that such simple and self-evident ideas should be so slow to

occur to our minds.

 

It is impossible that there should be no servants in the world,

but act so that your servant may be freer in spirit than if he were

not a servant. And why cannot I be a servant to my servant and even

let him see it, and that without any pride on my part or any

mistrust on his? Why should not my servant be like my own kindred,

so that I may take him into my family and rejoice in doing so? Even

now this can be done, but it will lead to the grand unity of men in

the future, when a man will not seek servants for himself, or desire

to turn his fellow creatures into servants as he does now, but on

the contrary, will long with his whole heart to be the servant of all,

as the Gospel teaches.

 

And can it be a dream, that in the end man will find his joy

only in deeds of light and mercy, and not in cruel pleasures as now,

in gluttony, fornication, ostentation, boasting and envious rivalry of

one with the other? I firmly believe that it is not and that the

time is at hand. People laugh and ask: “When will that time come and

does it look like coming?” I believe that with Christ’s help we

shall accomplish this great thing. And how many ideas there have

been on earth in the history of man which were unthinkable ten years

before they appeared! Yet when their destined hour had come, they came

forth and spread over the whole earth. So it will be with us, and

our people will shine forth in the world, and all men will say: “The

stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone of the

building.”

 

And we may ask the scornful themselves: If our hope is a dream,

when will you build up your edifice and order things justly by your

intellect alone, without Christ? If they declare that it is they who

are advancing towards unity, only the most simplehearted among them

believe it, so that one may positively marvel at such simplicity. Of a

truth, they have more fantastic dreams than we. They aim at justice,

but, denying Christ, they will end by flooding the earth with blood,

for blood cries out for blood, and he that taketh up the sword shall

perish by the sword. And if it were not for Christ’s covenant, they

would slaughter one another down to the last two men on earth. And

those two last men would not be able to restrain each other in their

pride, and the one would slay the other and then himself. And that

would come to pass, were it not for the promise of Christ that for the

sake of the humble and meek the days shall be shortened.

 

While I was still wearing an officer’s uniform after my duel, I

talked about servants in general society, and I remember everyone

was amazed at me. “What!” they asked, “are we to make our servants sit

down on the sofa and offer them tea?” And I answered them: “Why not,

sometimes at least?” Everyone laughed. Their question was frivolous

and my answer was not clear; but the thought in it was to some

extent right.

 

(g) Of Prayer, of Love, and of Contact with other Worlds.

 

Young man, be not forgetful of prayer. Every time you pray, if

your prayer is sincere, there will be new feeling and new meaning in

it, which will give you fresh courage, and you will understand that

prayer is an education. Remember, too, every day, and whenever you

can, repeat to yourself, “Lord, have mercy on all who appear before

Thee to-day.” For every hour and every moment thousands of men leave

life on this earth, and their souls appear before God. And how many of

them depart in solitude, unknown, sad, dejected that no one mourns for

them or even knows whether they have lived or not! And behold, from

the other end of the earth perhaps, your prayer for their rest will

rise up to God though you knew them not nor they you. How touching

it must be to a soul standing in dread before the Lord to feel at that

instant that, for him too, there is one to pray, that there is a

fellow creature left on earth to love him too! And God will look on

you both more graciously, for if you have had so much pity on him, how

much will He have pity Who is infinitely more loving and merciful than

you! And He will forgive him for your sake.

 

Brothers, have no fear of men’s sin. Love a man even in his sin,

for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on

earth. Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in

it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals,

love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will

perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you

will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at

last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love. Love the

animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy

untroubled. Do not trouble it, don’t harass them, don’t deprive them

of their happiness, don’t work against God’s intent. Man, do not pride

yourself on superiority to the animals; they are without sin, and you,

with your greatness, defile the earth by your appearance on it, and

leave the traces of your foulness after you-alas, it is true of

almost every one of us! Love children especially, for they too are

sinless like the angels; they live to soften and purify our hearts

and, as it were, to guide us. Woe to him who offends a child! Father

Anfim taught me to love children. The kind, silent man used often on

our wanderings to spend the farthings given us on sweets and cakes for

the children. He could not pass by a child without emotion. That’s the

nature of the man.

 

At some thoughts one stands perplexed, especially at the sight

of men’s sin, and wonders whether one should use force or humble love.

Always decide to use humble love. If you resolve on that once for all,

you may subdue the whole world. Loving humility is marvellously

strong, the strongest of all things, and there is nothing else like

it.

 

Every day and every hour, every minute, walk round yourself and

watch yourself, and see that your image is a seemly one. You pass by a

little child, you pass by, spiteful, with ugly words, with wrathful

heart; you may not have noticed the child, but he has seen you, and

your image, unseemly and ignoble, may remain in his defenceless heart.

You don’t know it, but you may have sown an evil seed in him and it

may grow, and all because you were not careful before the child,

because you did not foster in yourself a careful, actively

benevolent love. Brothers, love is a teacher; but one must know how to

acquire it, for it is hard to acquire, it is dearly bought, it is

won slowly by long labour. For we must love not only occasionally, for

a moment, but for ever. Everyone can love occasionally, even the

wicked can.

 

My brother asked the birds to forgive him; that sounds

senseless, but it is right; for all is like an ocean, all is flowing

and blending; a touch in one place sets up movement at the other end

of the earth. It may be senseless to beg forgiveness of the birds, but

birds would be happier at your side-a little happier, anyway-and

children and all animals, if you were nobler than you are now. It’s

all like an ocean, I tell you. Then you would pray to the birds too,

consumed by an all-embracing love, in a sort of transport, and pray

that they too will forgive you your sin. Treasure this ecstasy,

however senseless it may seem to men.

 

My friends, pray to God for gladness. Be glad as children, as

the birds of heaven. And let not the sin of men confound you in your

doings. Fear not that it will wear away your work and hinder its being

accomplished. Do not say, “Sin is mighty, wickedness is mighty, evil

environment is mighty, and we are lonely and helpless, and evil

environment is wearing us away and hindering our good work from

being done.” Fly from that dejection, children! There is only one

means of salvation, then take yourself and make yourself responsible

for all men’s sins, that is the truth, you know, friends, for as

soon as you sincerely make yourself responsible for everything and for

all men, you will see at once that it is really so, and that you are

to blame for everyone and for all things. But throwing your own

indolence and impotence on others you will end by sharing the pride of

Satan and murmuring against God.

 

Of the pride of Satan what I think is this: it is hard for us on

earth to comprehend it, and therefore it is so easy to fall into error

and to share it, even imagining that we are doing something grand

and fine. Indeed, many of the strongest feelings and movements of

our nature we cannot comprehend on earth. Let not that be a

stumbling-block, and think not that it may serve as a justification to

you for anything. For the Eternal judge asks of you what you can

comprehend and not what you cannot. You will know that yourself

hereafter, for you will behold all things truly then and will not

dispute them. On earth, indeed, we are, as it were, astray, and if

it were not for the precious image of Christ before us, we should be

undone and altogether lost, as was the human race before the flood.

Much on earth is hidden from us, but to make up for that we have

been given a precious mystic sense of our living bond with the other

world, with the higher heavenly world, and the roots of our thoughts

and feelings are not here but in other worlds. That is why the

philosophers say that we cannot apprehend the reality of things on

earth.

 

God took seeds from different worlds and sowed them on this earth,

and His garden grew up and everything came up that could come up,

but what grows lives and is alive only through the feeling of its

contact with other mysterious worlds. If that feeling grows weak or is

destroyed in you, the heavenly growth will die away in you. Then you

will be indifferent to life and even grow to hate it. That’s what I

think.

 

(h) Can a Man judge his Fellow Creatures? Faith to the End.

 

Remember particularly that you cannot be a judge of anyone. For no

one can judge a criminal until he recognises that he is just such a

criminal as the man standing before him, and that he perhaps is more

than all men to blame for that crime. When he understands that, he

will be able to be a judge. Though that sounds absurd, it is true.

If I had been righteous myself, perhaps there would have been no

criminal standing before me. If you can take upon