"It seems to me, too," he said, "that this book is not true, but I cannot explain where it is wrong. Still, after all, as a guess at the plan of the world, it is very pretty." I liked it when he answered: "I do not know; I cannot say." And I stood very close to him, for evidently in this lay his honesty. When a teacher decides to be conscious of his ignorance, it must be that he has some knowledge. He knew much that was unknown to me and which he related to me with marvelous simplicity. Once he told me how the sun and the stars and the earth were created, and he talked as if he himself saw this fiery work, done by an unknown and wise hand. I did not understand his God, but that did not trouble me. The principal force of this world he called some kind of matter, but I placed instead of matter God, and all went smoothly. "God is not yet created," he said, smiling. The question of God was a standing source of argument between Mikhail and his uncle. As soon as Mikhail said God, Uncle Peter would get angry. "He has begun it again. Don't you believe him, Matvei. He has inherited that from his mother." "Wait, Uncle. The question of God for Matvei is the principal question." "Don't you believe it, Mishka. Send him to the devil, Matvei. There are no Gods. It is a dark wood--religion, churches and all such things are a dark wood, where robber bandits live. It is a hoax." But Mikhail insisted obstinately. "The God about whom I speak existed when men unanimously created Him from the stuff of their brains, to illumine the darkness of their existence. But when the people were divided into slaves and masters, into little bits and pieces; when they lost their thought and their will-power, God was lost, God was destroyed." "Do you hear, Matvei?" Peter would cry out happily. "He is dead! Long live his memory!" His nephew looked straight into his face, and lowering his voice, continued: "The main crime which the masters of life have committed is the destruction of the creative power of the people. The time will come when the will of the people will again converge to one point, and then, again, the unconquerable and miraculous power will arise and the resurrection of God will take place. It is He whom you seek, Matvei." Uncle Peter waved his hands like a wood-cutter. "Don't believe him, Matvei. He is wrong." And turning to his nephew, he stormed at him: "You have caught church thoughts, Mishka, like stolen cucumbers from a strange garden, and you confuse people with them. When you say that the working people are called to renew life, then renew it, but don't gather up that which the priests have brought up from their holes and dropped!"