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
The learned professor considers the condition of these men a
pronounced case of a psychopathic epidemic, and, advising the
government to take certain measures against its spread, ends his
communication with the words: "Malévannism is the wail of a morbidly
sick population and a supplication to be freed from liquor and to
have education and sanitary conditions improved."
But if Malévannism is the wail of a morbidly sick population and
a supplication to be freed from liquor and from harmful social
conditions, then this new disease, which has appeared in Paris
and has with alarming rapidity embraced a great part of the
city population of France and almost the whole of governmental
and cultured Russia, is just such an alarming wail of a morbid
population and just such a supplication to be freed from liquor and
from false social conditions.
And if we must admit that the psychopathic suffering of Malévannism
is dangerous, and that the government has done well to follow
the professor's advice and remove the leaders of Malévannism by
confining some of them in lunatic asylums and monasteries and by
deporting others to distant places, how much more dangerous must be
considered to be this new epidemic, which appeared in Toulon and
Paris and from there spread over the whole of France and of Russia,
and how much more necessary it is, if not for the government, at
least for society, to take decisive measures against the spread of
such epidemics!
The resemblance between the diseases is complete. There is the same
good nature, passing into causeless and joyful exaltation, the
same sentimentality, excessive politeness, talkativeness, the same
constant tears of meekness of spirit, which come and go without
cause, the same festive mood, the same walking for pleasure and
visiting one another, the same dressing up in the best clothes, the
same proneness for sweet food, the same senseless talks, the same
idleness, the same singing and music, the same leadership of the
women, and the same clownish phase of _attitudes passionelles_,
which Mr. Sikórski has noticed in the case of the Malévannians;
that is, as I understand this word, those different, unnatural
poses, which men assume during solemn meetings, receptions, and
after-dinner speeches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account