The Kingdom of God is Within You / Christianity and Patriotism / MiscellaniesTolstoy, Leo, graf
Religion
The Kingdom of God is Within You / Christianity and Patriotism / Miscellanies
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
Russian literature -- Translations into English
Even so it was in the present case. A few persons, participants and
non-participants in this affair, who were free from suggestion,
needed but at the time when they were getting ready for this affair
boldly to express their indignation with tortures administered in
other places, and their disgust and contempt for those men who
took part in them; in the present Túla affair a few persons needed
but to express their unwillingness to take part in it; the lady
passenger and a few other persons at the station needed but in the
presence of those who were travelling on the train to express their
indignation at the act which was about to be committed; one of the
regimental commanders, a part of whose troops were demanded for the
pacification, needed but to express his opinion that the military
cannot be executioners,--and thanks to these and certain other,
seemingly unimportant, private influences exerted against people
under suggestion, the affair would take a different turn, and the
troops, upon arriving on the spot, would not commit any tortures,
but would cut down the forest and give it to the proprietor. If
there should not be in certain men any clear consciousness as to
their doing wrong, and if there should be, in consequence of this,
no mutual influence of men in this sense, there would take place the
same as in Orél. But if this consciousness should be even stronger,
and so the amount of the interactions even greater than what it was,
it is very likely that the governor and his troops would not even
dare to cut down the forest, in order to give it to the proprietor.
If this consciousness had been even stronger and the amount of
interactions greater, it is very likely the governor would not even
have dared to travel to the place of action. If the consciousness
had been stronger still and the amount of interactions even
greater, it is very likely that the minister would not have made up
his mind to prescribe, and the emperor to confirm such a decree.
Everything, consequently, depends on the force with which the
Christian truth is cognized by every individual man.
And so, it would seem, the activity of all the men of our time, who
assert that they wish to continue to the welfare of humanity, should
be directed to the increase of the lucidity of the demands of the
Christian truth.
4
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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