Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow Irina Reyfman (snow like ashes .TXT) 📖

my friend! I do not drink and eat only in order to survive but because I find in eating and drinking no small pleasure for the senses. And I must confess to you like a spiritual father: I would rather spend an entire night with a most enticing girl and fall asleep in her arms sated by voluptuousness than after burying myself in Hebrew or Arabic letters, ciphers, or Egyptian hieroglyphs, attempt to separate my spirit from body and, like the spiritual knights, modern and ancient, prowl in the vast fields of mental ravings. When I die there will be plenty of time for the imperceptible and my little soul can wander all it likes.

Look back: it seems that the time is only just behind us when superstition together with its full complement reigned: ignorance, slavery, the Inquisition, and much else. It was not long ago, was it, that Voltaire railed against superstition till he was hoarse; it was not long ago that Frederick was its implacable enemy not only in word and deed but more worryingly for it by way of his sovereign example.41 However, in this world everything reverts to its previous stage since everything has its origin in destruction. An animal, a plant, grows in order to produce others like it, then to die and cede them its place. Nomadic tribes gather in cities, establish kingdoms, grow strong, become famous, grow weak, falter, fall apart. Their dwellings disappear; even their names will perish. Initially, Christian society was humble, meek, cloistered away in deserts and caves; then it gained strength, reared its head, lost its way, succumbed to superstition. In this state of frenzy, it followed a path typical of peoples: it elevated a leader, expanded his authority, and the Pope became the most powerful of kings. Luther began the Reformation, launched a schism, seceded from the Pope’s leadership, and had many followers. The edifice of prejudices about papal power began to crumble, and superstition began to disappear; truth found enthusiasts, trampled on the enormous stronghold of prejudice but lasted only briefly on this path. Freedom of thought turned into a lack of restraint. Nothing was sacred, everything was under threat. Having reached a possible extreme, freethinking drew back. Our age faces a change in the manner of thinking. While we have not yet reached the final frontier of unbounded freethinking, many are already beginning to turn to superstition. Open the most recent occult works, you will think you have returned to the age of Scholasticism and logical disputes, when human reason was concerned with locutions and gave no thought to whether there was any sense in the locution; when the task of philosophy was, and when seekers of truth were asked to ponder the question: how many souls could fit on the head of a pin?

If delusion lies ahead for our descendants; if, in giving up to the system of nature they set about chasing after chimeras, then there would be great utility in the work of the writer who could show from previous activities the progress of human reason when, once the fog of prejudice was dispelled, it began to pursue truth to its heights; and when, wearied by its period of vigor, so to speak, once again began to dissipate its strength, grow tired, and decline into the vapidness of prejudice and superstition. The work of this writer will not be useless, for in exposing the course of our thoughts toward truth or delusion it will head off at least a few people from a dangerous path and hamper the rise of ignorance. Blessed is the writer if he is able to enlighten even one person through his creation, blessed is he if he has sown virtue in even a single heart.

We can call ourselves fortunate not to be witness to the extreme disgrace of rational beings. Our immediate descendants might be even luckier than we. But having lain dormant in the loathsomeness of filth, vapors are already floating up and are predestined to shroud the field of vision. Blessed shall we be if we do not see a new Mahomet; the hour of error will become more distant. Know that when in our speculations, when in our judgments about moral and spiritual matters, a ferment begins and a resolute man arises, one enterprising in the service of truth or deception, that is the time when a change in kingdoms will follow, when there will be a change in religious confessions.

On the ladder down whereby human reason is obliged to decline into the murk of error, if we can reveal anything that is funny and do a good deed with a smile, we shall then be considered as blessed.

In wandering from speculation to speculation, O beloved ones, take care not to enter onto a path of investigation like the following.

Akibah42 relates: “Having entered on the path of Rabbi Jehoshua to a clandestine place, I had a triple recognition. I learned firstly: one is bidden to turn not to the east and not to the west but to the north and south. I learned, secondly, one should defecate not standing on one’s feet but seated. I learned thirdly: one should wipe one’s behind not with the right hand but with the left.” To this Ben Gazas objected: “How far have you brought disgrace on your own head when you looked at your teacher in the act of defecating?” He answered: “These are the mysteries of the law; and it was to recognize them that I had to act in this way.”

See Bayle’s Dictionary, article Akibah.43

NOVGOROD

Take pride, vain builders of cities, take pride, founders of states; dream on that the glory of your name will be eternal; pile up stone upon stone until you reach the very clouds; carve out depictions of your triumphs and inscriptions proclaiming your deeds. Lay firm foundations of government in immutable law. With its sharp row of teeth, Time laughs at your boasting. Where are the wise laws of Solon