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 Edited with introductions by Edwin D. Mead. Published for the International Union by Ginn & Company, Boston. 

 "BETHINK YOURSELVES!"

 BY LEO TOLSTOI

 PUBLISHED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL UNION GINN & COMPANY, BOSTON 1904

 Reprinted from the _London Times_

 Translated by V. Tchertkoff, Editor of the _Free Age Press_, and I. F. M. 

 "BETHINK YOURSELVES!"

 "This is your hour, and the power of darkness. "--Luke xxii. 53. 

 I

Again war. Again sufferings, necessary to nobody, utterly uncalled for;again fraud; again the universal stupefaction and brutalization of men. 

Men who are separated from each other by thousands of miles, hundreds ofthousands of such men (on the one hand--Buddhists, whose law forbids thekilling, not only of men, but of animals; on the other hand--Christians, professing the law of brotherhood and love) like wild beasts on land andon sea are seeking out each other, in order to kill, torture, andmutilate each other in the most cruel way. What can this be? Is it adream or a reality? Something is taking place which should not, cannotbe; one longs to believe that it is a dream and to awake from it. But no, it is not a dream, it is a dreadful reality!

One could yet understand how a poor, uneducated, defrauded Japanese, tornfrom his field and taught that Buddhism consists not in compassion to allthat lives, but in sacrifices to idols, and how a similar poor illiteratefellow from the neighborhood of Toula or Nijni Novgorod, who has beentaught that Christianity consists in worshipping Christ, the Madonna, Saints, and their ikons--one could understand how these unfortunate men, brought by the violence and deceit of centuries to recognize the greatestcrime in the world--the murder of one's brethren--as a virtuous act, cancommit these dreadful deeds, without regarding themselves as being guiltyin so doing. 

But how can so-called enlightened men preach war, support it, participatein it, and, worst of all, without suffering the dangers of warthemselves, incite others to it, sending their unfortunate defraudedbrothers to fight? These so-called enlightened men cannot possiblyignore, I do not say the Christian law, if they recognize themselves tobe Christians, but all that has been written, is being written, has andis being said, about the cruelty, futility, and senselessness of war. They are regarded as enlightened men precisely because they know allthis. The majority of them have themselves written and spoken about this. Not to mention The Hague Conference, which called forth universal praise, or all the books, pamphlets, newspaper articles, and speechesdemonstrating the possibility of the solution of internationalmisunderstandings by international arbitration--no enlightened man canhelp knowing that the universal competition in the armaments of Statesmust inevitably lead them to endless wars, or to a general bankruptcy, orto both the one and the other. They cannot but know that besides thesenseless, purposeless expenditure of milliards of roubles, _i. E. _ ofhuman labor, on the preparations for war, during the wars themselvesmillions of the most energetic and vigorous men perish in that period oftheir life which is best for productive labor (during the past centurywars have destroyed fourteen million men). Enlightened men cannot butknow that occasions for war are always such as are not worth not only onehuman life, but not one hundredth part of all that which is spent uponwars (in fighting for the emancipation of the negroes much more was spentthan it would have cost to redeem them from slavery). 

Every one knows and cannot help knowing that, above all, wars, callingforth the lowest animal passions, deprave and brutalize men. Every oneknows the weakness of the arguments in favor of war, such as werebrought forward by De Maistre, Moltke, and others, for they are allfounded on the sophism that in every human calamity it is possible tofind an advantageous element, or else upon the utterly arbitrary assertionthat wars have always existed and therefore always must exist, as if thebad actions of men could be justified by the advantages or theusefulness which they realize, or by the consideration that they havebeen committed during a long period of time. All so-called enlightenedmen know all this. Then suddenly war begins, and all this is instantlyforgotten, and the same men who but yesterday were proving the cruelty, futility, the senselessness of wars now think, speak, and write onlyabout killing as many men as possible, about ruining and destroying thegreatest possible amount of the productions of human labor, and aboutexciting as much as possible the passion of hatred in those peaceful, harmless, industrious men who by their labor feed, clothe, maintain thesesame pseudo-enlightened men, who compel them to commit those dreadfuldeeds contrary to their conscience, welfare, or faith. 

 II

Something is taking place incomprehensible and impossible in its cruelty, falsehood, and stupidity. The Russian Tsar, the same man who exhorted allthe nations in the cause of peace, publicly announces that, notwithstanding all his efforts to maintain the peace so dear to hisheart (efforts which express themselves in the seizing of other peoples'lands and in the strengthening of armies for the defence of these stolenlands), he, owing to the attack of the Japanese, commands that the sameshall be done to the Japanese as they had commenced doing to theRussians--_i. E. _ that they should be slaughtered; and in announcing thiscall to murder he mentions God, asking the Divine blessing on the mostdreadful crime in the world. The Japanese Emperor has proclaimed the samething in relation to the Russians. 

Men of science and of law (Messieurs Muravieff and Martens) strenuouslytry to prove that in the recent call of all nations to universal peaceand the present incitement to war, because of the seizure of otherpeoples' lands, there is no contradiction. Diplomatists, in their refinedFrench language, publish and send out circulars in which theycircumstantially and diligently prove (though they know no one believesthem) that, after all its efforts to establish peaceful relations (inreality, after all its efforts to deceive other countries), the RussianGovernment has been compelled to have recourse to the only means for arational solution of the question--_i. E. _ to the murder of men. The samething is written by Japanese diplomatists. Scientists, historians, andphilosophers, on their side, comparing the present with the past, deducefrom these comparisons profound conclusions, and argue interminably aboutthe laws of the movement of nations, about the relation between theyellow and white races, or about Buddhism and Christianity, and on thebasis of these deductions and arguments justify the slaughter of thosebelonging to the yellow race by Christians; while in the same way theJapanese scientists and philosophers justify the slaughter of those ofthe white race. Journalists, without concealing their joy, try to outdoeach other, and, not hesitating at any falsehood, however impudent andtransparent, prove in all possible ways that the Russians only are rightand strong and good in every respect, and that all the Japanese are wrongand weak and bad in every respect, and that all those are also bad whoare inimical or may become inimical toward the Russians--the English, theAmericans; and the same is proved likewise by the Japanese and theirsupporters in relation to the Russians. 

Not to mention the military, who in the way of their profession preparefor murder, crowds of so-called enlightened people, such as professors, social reformers, students, nobles, merchants, without being forcedthereto by anything or anybody, express the most bitter and contemptuousfeelings toward the Japanese, the English, or the Americans, toward whombut yesterday they were either well-disposed or indifferent; while, without the least compulsion, they express the most abject, servilefeelings toward the Tsar (to whom, to say the least, they were completelyindifferent), assuring him of their unlimited love and readiness tosacrifice their lives in his interests. 

This unfortunate, entangled young man, recognized as the leader of onehundred and thirty millions of people, continually deceived and compelledto contradict himself, confidently thanks and blesses the troops whom hecalls his own for murder in defence of lands which with yet less right healso calls his own. All present to each other hideous ikons in which notonly no one amongst the educated believes, but which unlearned peasantsare beginning to abandon; all bow down to the ground before these ikons, kiss them, and pronounce pompous and deceitful speeches in which no onereally believes. 

Wealthy people contribute insignificant portions of their immorallyacquired riches for this cause of murder or the organization of help inconnection with the work of murder; while the poor, from whom theGovernment annually collects two milliards, deem it necessary to dolikewise, giving their mites also. The Government incites and encouragescrowds of idlers, who walk about the streets with the Tsar's portrait, singing, shouting hurrah! and who, under pretext of patriotism, arelicensed in all kinds of excess. All over Russia, from the Palace to theremotest village, the pastors of churches, calling themselves Christians, appeal to that God who has enjoined love to one's enemies--to the God ofLove Himself--to help the work of the devil to further the slaughter ofmen. 

Stupefied by prayers, sermons, exhortations, by processions, pictures, and newspapers, the cannon's flesh, hundreds of thousands of men, uniformly dressed, carrying divers deadly weapons, leaving their parents, wives, children, with hearts of agony, but with artificial sprightliness, go where they, risking their own lives, will commit the most dreadful actof killing men whom they do not know and who have done them no harm. Andthey are followed by doctors and nurses, who somehow imagine that at homethey cannot serve simple, peaceful, suffering people, but can only servethose who are engaged in slaughtering each other. Those who remain athome are gladdened by news of the murder of men, and when they learn thatmany Japanese have been killed they thank some one whom they call God. 

All this is not only regarded as the manifestation of elevated feeling, but those who refrain from such manifestations, if they endeavor todisabuse men, are deemed traitors and betrayers, and are in danger ofbeing abused and beaten by a brutalized crowd which, in defence of itsinsanity and cruelty, can possess no other weapon than brute force. 

 III

It is as if there had never existed either Voltaire, or Montaigne, orPascal, or Swift, or Kant, or Spinoza, or hundreds of other writers whohave exposed, with great force, the madness and futility of war, and havedescribed its cruelty, immorality, and savagery; and, above all, it is asif there had never existed Jesus and his teaching of human brotherhoodand love of God and of men. 

One recalls all this to mind and looks around on what is now takingplace, and one experiences horror less at the abominations of war than atthat which is the most horrible of all horrors--the consciousness of theimpotency of human reason. That which alone distinguishes man from theanimal, that which constitutes his merit--his reason--is found to be anunnecessary, and not only a useless, but a pernicious addition, whichsimply impedes action, like a bridle fallen from a horse's head, andentangled in his legs and only irritating him. 

It is comprehensible that a heathen, a Greek, a Roman, even a mediævalChristian, ignorant of the Gospel and blindly believing all theprescriptions of the Church, might fight and, fighting, pride himself onhis military achievements; but how can a believing Christian, or even asceptic, involuntarily permeated by the Christian ideals of humanbrotherhood and love which have inspired the works of the philosophers, moralists, and artists of our time, --how can such take a gun, or stand bya cannon, and aim at a crowd of his fellow-men, desiring to kill as manyof them as possible?

The Assyrians, Romans, or Greeks might be persuaded that in fighting theywere acting not only according to their conscience, but even fulfilling arighteous deed. But, whether we wish it or not, we are Christians, andhowever Christianity may have been distorted, its general spirit cannotbut lift us to that higher plane of reason whence we can no longerrefrain from feeling with our whole being not only the senselessness andthe cruelty of war, but its complete opposition to all that we regard asgood and right. Therefore, we cannot do as they did, with assurance, firmness, and peace, and without a consciousness of our criminality, without the desperate feeling of a murderer, who, having begun to killhis victim, and feeling in the depths of his soul the guilt of his act, proceeds to try to stupefy or infuriate himself, to be able the better tocomplete his dreadful deed. All the unnatural, feverish, hot-headed, insane excitement which has now seized the idle upper ranks of Russiansociety is merely the symptom of their recognition of the criminality ofthe work which is being done. All these insolent, mendacious speechesabout devotion to, and worship of, the Monarch, about readiness tosacrifice life (or one should say other people's lives, and not one'sown); all these promises to defend with one's breast land which does notbelong to one; all these senseless benedictions of each other withvarious banners and monstrous ikons; all these _Te Deums_; all thesepreparations of blankets and bandages; all these detachments of nurses;all these contributions to the fleet and to the Red Cross presented tothe Government, whose direct duty is (whilst it has the possibility ofcollecting from the people as much money as it requires), having declaredwar, to organize the necessary fleet and necessary means for attendingthe wounded; all these Slavonic, pompous, senseless, and blasphemousprayers, the utterance of which in various towns is communicated in thepapers as important news; all these processions, calls for the nationalhymn, cheers; all this dreadful, desperate newspaper mendacity, which, being universal, does not fear exposure; all this stupefaction andbrutalization which has now taken hold of Russian society, and which isbeing transmitted by degrees also to the masses; all this is only asymptom of the guilty consciousness of that dreadful act which is beingaccomplished. 

Spontaneous feeling tells men that what they are doing should not be;but, as the murderer who has begun to assassinate his victim cannot stop, so also Russian people now imagine that the fact of the deadly workhaving been commenced is an unanswerable argument in favor of war. Warhas been begun, and therefore it should go on. Thus it seems to simple, benighted, unlearned men, acting under the influence of the pettypassions and stupefaction to which they have been subjected. In exactlythe same way the most educated men of our time argue to prove that mandoes not possess free will, and that, therefore, even were he tounderstand that the work he has commenced is evil, he can no longer ceaseto do it. And dazed, brutalized men continue their dreadful work. 

 IV

Ask a soldier, a private, a corporal, a non-commissioned officer, who hasabandoned his old parents, his wife, his children, why he is preparing tokill men whom he does not know; he will at first be astonished at yourquestion. He is a soldier, he has taken the oath, and it is his duty tofulfil the orders of his commanders. If you tell him that war--_i. E. _ theslaughter of men--does not conform to the command, "Thou shalt not kill, "he will say: "And how if ours are attacked--For the King--For theOrthodox faith?" (One of them said in answer to my question: "And how ifhe attacks that which is sacred?" "What do you mean?" I asked. "Why, "said he, "the banner. ") And if you endeavor to explain to such a soldierthat God's Commandment is more important not only than the banner butthan anything else in the world, he will become silent, or he will getangry and report you to the authorities. 

Ask an officer, a general, why he goes to the war. He will tell you thathe is a military man, and that the military are indispensable for thedefence of the fatherland. As to murder not conforming to the spirit ofthe Christian law, this does not trouble him, as either he does notbelieve in this law, or, if he does, it is not in the law itself, but inthat explanation which has been given to this law. But, above all, he, like the soldier, in place of the personal question, what should he dohimself, always put the general question about the State, or thefatherland. "At the present moment, when the fatherland is in danger, oneshould act, and not argue, " he will say. 

Ask the diplomatists, who, by their deceits, prepare wars, why they doit. They will tell you that the object of their activity is theestablishment of peace between nations, and that this object is attained, not by ideal, unrealizable theories, but by diplomatic action andreadiness for war. And, just as the military, instead of the questionconcerning one's own action, place the general question, so alsodiplomatists will speak about the interests of Russia, about theunscrupulousness of other Powers, about the balance of power in Europe, but not about their own position and its activities. 

Ask the journalists why, by their writings, they incite men to war; theywill say that wars in general are necessary and useful, especially thepresent war, and they will confirm this opinion of theirs by mistypatriotic phrases, and, just like the military and diplomatist, to thequestion why he, a journalist, a particular individual, a living man, acts in a certain way, he will speak about the general interests of thenation, about the State, civilization, the white race. In the same way, all those who prepare war will explain their participation in that work. They will perhaps agree that it would be desirable to abolish war, but atpresent this is impossible. At present they as Russians and as men whooccupy certain positions, such as heads of the nobility, representativesof local self-government, doctors, workers of the Red Cross, are calledupon to act and not to argue. "There is no time to argue and to think ofoneself, " they will say, "when there is a great common work to be done. "The same will be said by the Tsar, seemingly responsible for the wholething. He, like the soldier, will be astonished at the question, whetherwar is now necessary. He does not even admit the idea that the war mightyet be arrested. He will say that he cannot refrain from fulfilling thatwhich is demanded of him by the whole nation, that, although he doesrecognize that war is a great evil, and has used, and is ready to use, all possible means for its abolition--in the present case he could nothelp declaring war, and cannot help continuing it. It is necessary forthe welfare and glory of Russia. 

Every one of these men, to the question why he, so and so, Ivan, Peter, Nicholas, whilst recognizing as binding upon him the Christian law whichnot only forbids the killing of one's neighbor but demands that oneshould love him, serve him, why he permits himself to participate in war;_i. E. _ in violence, loot, murder, will infallibly answer the same thing, that he is thus acting in the name of his fatherland, or faith, or oath, or honor, or civilization, or the future welfare of the whole ofmankind--in general, of something abstract and indefinite. Moreover, these men are always so urgently occupied either by preparation for war, or by its organization, or discussions about it, that in their leisuretime they can only rest from their labors, and have not time to occupythemselves with discussions about their life, regarding such discussionsas idle. 

 V

Men of our Christian world and of our time are like a man who, havingmissed the right turning, the further he goes the more he becomesconvinced that he is going the wrong way. Yet the greater his doubts, thequicker and the more desperately does he hurry on, consoling himself withthe thought that he will arrive somewhere. But the time comes when itbecomes quite clear that the way along which he is going will lead tonothing but a precipice, which he is already beginning to discern beforehim. 

In such a position stands the Christian humanity of our time. It isperfectly evident that, if we continue to live as we are now living, guided in our private lives, as well as in the life of separate States, by the sole desire of welfare for ourselves and for our State, and will, as we do now, think to ensure this welfare by violence, then, inevitablyincreasing the means of violence of one against the other and of Stateagainst State, we shall, first, keep subjecting ourselves more and more, transferring the major portion of our productiveness to armaments; and, secondly, by killing in mutual wars the best physically developed men, wemust become more and more degenerate and morally depraved. 

That this will be the case if we do not alter our life is as certain asit is mathematically certain that two non-parallel straight lines mustmeet. But not only is this theoretically certain in our time; it isbecoming certain not only to thought, but also to the consciousness. Theprecipice which we approach is already becoming apparent to us, and themost simple, non-philosophizing, and uneducated men cannot but see that, by arming ourselves more and more against each other and slaughteringeach other in war, we, like spiders in a jar, can come to nothing elsebut the destruction of each other. 

A sincere, serious, rational man can no longer console himself by thethought that matters can be mended, as was formerly supposed, by auniversal empire such as that of Rome or of Charles the Great, orNapoleon, or by the mediæval spiritual power of the Pope, or by HolyAlliances, by the political balance of the European Concert, and bypeaceful international tribunals, or, as some have thought, by theincrease of military strength and the newly discovered powerful weaponsof destruction. 

It is impossible to organize a universal empire or republic, consistingof European States, as different nationalities will never desire to uniteinto one State. To organize international tribunals for the solution ofinternational disputes? But who will impose obedience to the decision ofthe tribunal upon a contending party who has an organized army ofmillions of men? To disarm? No one desires it or will begin it. To inventyet more dreadful means of destruction--balloons with bombs filled withsuffocating gases, shells, which men will shower upon each other fromabove? Whatever may be invented, all States will furnish themselves withsimilar weapons of destruction. And cannon's flesh, as after cold weaponsit submitted to bullets, and meekly exposed itself to shells, bombs, far-reaching guns, mitrailleuses, mines, so it will also submit to bombscharged with suffocating gases scattered down upon it from balloons. 

Nothing shows more evidently than the speeches of M. Muravieff andProfessor Martens about the Japanese war not contradicting The HaguePeace Conference--nothing shows more obviously than these speeches towhat an extent, amongst the men of our time, the means for thetransmission of thought--speech--is distorted, and how the capacity forclear, rational thinking is completely lost. Thought and speech are usedfor the purpose, not of serving as a guide for human activity, but ofjustifying any activity, however criminal it may be. The late Boer warand the present Japanese war, which can at any moment pass into auniversal slaughter, have proved this beyond all doubt. All anti-militarydiscussions can as little contribute to the cessation of war as the mosteloquent and persuasive considerations addressed to fighting dogs as toits being more advantageous to divide the piece of meat over which theyare struggling than to mutilate each other and lose the piece of meat, which will be carried away by some passing dog not joining in the fight. We are dashing on toward the precipice, cannot stop, and we areapproaching its edge. 

For every rational man who reflects upon the position in which humanityis now placed and upon that which it is inevitably approaching, it cannotbut be obvious that there is no practical issue out of this position, that one cannot devise any combination or organization which would saveus from the destruction toward which we are inevitably rushing. Not tomention the economical problems which become more and more complex, thosemutual relations between the States arming themselves against each otherand at any moment ready to break out into wars clearly point to thecertain destruction toward which all so-called civilized humanity isbeing carried. Then what is to be done?

 VI

Two thousand years ago John the Baptist and then Jesus said to men: Thetime is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand; (μετανοεῖτε)bethink yourselves and believe in the Gospel (Mark i. 15); and if you donot bethink yourselves you will all perish (Luke xiii. 5). 

But men did not listen to them, and the destruction they foretold isalready near at hand. And we men of our time cannot but see it. We arealready perishing, and, therefore, we cannot leave unheeded that--old intime, but for us new--means of salvation. We cannot but see that, besidesall the other calamities which flow from our bad and irrational life, military preparations alone and the wars inevitably growing from themmust infallibly destroy us. We cannot but see that all the means ofescape invented by men from these evils are found and must be found to beineffectual, and that the disastrous position of the nations armingthemselves against each other cannot but go on advancing continually. Andtherefore the words of Jesus refer to us and our time more than to anytime or to any one. 

Jesus said, "Bethink yourselves"--_i. E. _ "Let every man interrupt thework he has begun and ask himself: Who am I? From whence have I appeared, and in what consists my destiny? And having answered these questions, according to the answer decide whether that which thou doest is inconformity with thy destiny. " And every man of our world and time, thatis, being acquainted with the essence of the Christian teaching, needsonly for a minute to interrupt his activity, to forget the capacity inwhich he is regarded by men, be it of Emperor, soldier, minister, orjournalist, and seriously ask himself who he is and what is hisdestiny--in order to begin to doubt the utility, lawfulness, andreasonableness of his actions. "Before I am Emperor, soldier, minister, or journalist, " must say to himself every man of our time and of theChristian world, "before any of these, I am a man--_i. E. _ an organicbeing sent by the Higher Will into a universe infinite in time and space, in order, after staying in it for an instant, to die--_i. E. _ to disappearfrom it. And, therefore, all those personal, social, and even universalhuman aims which I may place before myself and which are placed before meby men are all insignificant, owing to the shortness of my life as wellas to the infiniteness of the life of the universe, and should besubordinated to that higher aim for the attainment of which I am sentinto the world. This ultimate aim, owing to my limitations, isinaccessible to me, but it does exist (as there must be a purpose in allthat exists), and my business is that of being its instrument--_i. E. _ mydestiny, my vocation, is that of being a workman of God, of fulfillingHis work. " And having understood this destiny, every man of our world andtime, from Emperor to soldier, cannot but regard differently those dutieswhich he has taken upon himself or other men have imposed upon him. 

"Before I was crowned, recognized as Emperor, " must the Emperor say tohimself: "before I undertook to fulfil the duties of the head of theState, I, by the very fact that I live, have promised to fulfil thatwhich is demanded of me by the Higher Will that sent me into life. Thesedemands I not only know, but feel in my heart. They consist, as it isexpressed in the Christian law, which I profess, in that I should submitto the will of God, and fulfil that which it requires of me, that Ishould love my neighbor, serve him, and act towards him as I would wishothers to act towards me. Am I doing this?--ruling men, prescribingviolence, executions, and, the most dreadful of all, --wars. Men tell methat I ought to do this. But God says that I ought to do something quitedifferent. And, therefore, however much I may be told that, as the headof the State, I must direct acts of violence, the levying of taxes, executions and, above all, war, that is, the slaughter of one's neighbor, I do not wish to and cannot do these things. "

So must say to himself the soldier, who is taught that he must kill men, and the minister, who deemed it his duty to prepare for war, and thejournalist who incited to war, and every man, who puts to himself thequestion, Who is he, what is his destination in life? And the moment thehead of the State will cease to direct war, the soldier to fight, theminister to prepare means for war, the journalist to incitethereto--then, without any new institutions, adaptations, balance ofpower, tribunals, there will of itself be destroyed that hopelessposition in which men have placed themselves, not only in relation towar, but also to all other calamities which they themselves inflict uponthemselves. 

So that, however strange this may appear, the most effective and certaindeliverance of men from all the calamities which they inflict uponthemselves and from the most dreadful of all--war--is attainable, not byany external general measures, but merely by that simple appeal to theconsciousness of each separate man which, nineteen hundred years ago, wasproposed by Jesus--that every man bethink himself, and ask himself, whois he, why he lives, and what he should and should not do. 

 VII

The evil from which men of our time are suffering is produced by the factthat the majority live without that which alone affords a rationalguidance for human activity--without religion; not that religion whichconsists in belief in dogmas, in the fulfilment of rites which afford apleasant diversion, consolation, stimulant, but that religion whichestablishes the relation of man to the All, to God, and, therefore, givesa general higher direction to all human activity, and without whichpeople stand on the plane of animals and even lower than they. This evilwhich is leading men to inevitable destruction has manifested itself withspecial power in our time, because, having lost all rational guidance inlife, and having directed all efforts to discoveries and improvementsprincipally in the sphere of technical knowledge, men of our time havedeveloped in themselves enormous power over the forces of nature; but, not having any guidance for the rational adaptation of this power, theynaturally have used it for the satisfaction of their lowest and mostanimal propensities. 

Bereft of religion, men possessing enormous power over the forces ofnature are like children to whom powder or explosive gas has been givenas a plaything. Considering this power which men of our time possess, andthe way they use it, one feels that considering the degree of their moraldevelopment men have no right, not only to the use of railways, steam, electricity, telephones, photography, wireless telegraphs, but even tothe simple art of manufacturing iron and steel, as all these improvementsand arts they use only for the satisfaction of their lusts, foramusement, dissipation, and the destruction of each other. 

Then, what is to be done? To reject all these improvements of life, allthis power acquired by humanity--to forget that which it has learnt? Thisis impossible, however perniciously these mental acquisitions are used;they still are acquisitions, and men cannot forget them. To alter thosecombinations of nations which have been formed during centuries and toestablish new ones? To invent such new institutions as would hinder theminority from deceiving and exploiting the majority? To disseminateknowledge? All this has been tried, and is being done with great fervor. All these imaginary methods of improvement represent the chief methods ofself-oblivion and of diverting one's attention from the consciousness ofinevitable perdition. The boundaries of States are changed, institutionsare altered, knowledge is disseminated; but within other boundaries, withother organizations, with increased knowledge, men remain the samebeasts, ready any minute to tear each other to pieces, or the same slavesthey have always been, and always will be, while they continue to beguided, not by religious consciousness, but by passions, theories, andexternal influences. 

Man has no choice; he must be the slave of the most unscrupulous andinsolent amongst slaves, or else the servant of God, because for manthere is only one way of being free--by uniting his will with the will ofGod. People bereft of religion, some repudiating religion itself, othersrecognizing as religion those external, monstrous forms which havesuperseded it, and guided only by their personal lusts, fear, human laws, and, above all, by mutual hypnotism, cannot cease to be animals orslaves, and no external efforts can extricate them from this state; foronly religion makes a man free. And most of the people of our time aredeprived of it. 

 VIII

"But, in order to abolish the evil from which we are suffering, " thosewill say who are preoccupied by various practical activities, "it wouldbe necessary that not a few men only, but all men, should bethinkthemselves, and that, having done so, they should uniformly understandthe destination of their lives, in the fulfilment of the will of God andin the service of one's neighbor. 

"Is this possible?" Not only possible, do I answer, but it is impossiblethat this should not take place. It is impossible for men not to bethinkthemselves--_i. E. _ impossible that each man should not put to himself thequestion as to who he is and wherefore he lives; for man, as a rationalbeing, cannot live without seeking to know why he lives, and he hasalways put to himself this question, and always, according to the degreeof his development, has answered it in his religious teaching. In ourtime, the inner contradiction in which men feel themselves elicits thisquestion with special insistence, and demands an answer. It is impossiblefor men of our time to answer this question otherwise than by recognizingthe law of life in love to men and in the service of them, this being forour time the only rational answer as to the meaning of human life; andthis answer nineteen hundred years ago has been expressed in theChristian religion and is likewise known to the vast majority of allmankind. 

This answer in a latent state lives in the consciousness of all men ofthe Christian world of our time; but it does not openly express itselfand serve as guidance for our life, only because, on the one hand, thosewho enjoy the greatest authority, so-called scientists, being under thecoarse error that religion is a temporary and outgrown step in thedevelopment of mankind and that men can live without religion, inculcatethis error to those of the masses who are beginning to be educated; and, on the other hand, because those in power, sometimes consciously, butoften unconsciously (being under the error that the Church faith isChristian religion), endeavor to support and excite in the people crudesuperstitions given out as the Christian religion. If only these twodeceptions were to be destroyed, then true religion, already latent inmen of our time, would become evident and obligatory. 

To bring this about it is necessary that, on the one hand, men of scienceshould understand that the principle of the brotherhood of all men andthe rule of not doing unto others what one does not wish for oneself isnot one casual idea out of a multitude of human theories which can besubordinated to any other considerations, but is an incontestableprinciple, standing higher than the rest, and flowing from the changelessrelation of man to that which is eternal, to God, and is religion, allreligion, and, therefore, always obligatory. 

On the other hand, it is necessary that those who consciously orunconsciously preach crude superstitions under the guise of Christianityshould understand that all these dogmas, sacraments, and rites which theysupport and preach are not only, as they think, harmless, but are in thehighest degree pernicious, concealing from men that central religioustruth which is expressed in the fulfilment of God's will, in the serviceof men, and that the rule of acting toward others as one would wishothers to act toward oneself is not merely one of the prescriptions ofthe Christian religion, but is the whole of practical religion, as indeedis stated in the Gospels. 

To bring about that men of our time should uniformly place beforethemselves the question of the meaning of life, and uniformly answer it, it is only necessary that those who regard themselves as enlightenedshould cease to think and to inculcate to other generations that religionis atavism, the survival of a past wild state, and that for the good lifeof men the spreading of education is sufficient--_i. E. _ the spread of themost varied knowledge which is in some way to bring men to justice and toa moral life. These men should understand instead that for the good lifeof humanity religion is vital, and that this religion already exists andlives in the consciousness of the men of our time. Men who areintentionally and unintentionally stupefying the people by churchsuperstitions should cease to do so, and recognize that what is importantand binding in Christianity is not baptism, nor Communion, nor professionof dogmas, etc. , but only love to God and to one's neighbor, and thefulfilling of the commandment of acting toward others as one wishesothers to act toward oneself--and that in this lies all the law and theprophets. 

If only both pseudo-Christians and men of science understood and preachedto children and to the uneducated these simple, clear, and necessarytruths as they now preach their complicated, confused, and unnecessarytheories, all men would uniformly understand the meaning of their livesand recognize one and the same duties as flowing from this meaning. 

 IX

But "How are we to act now, immediately among ourselves, in Russia, atthis moment, when our foes have already attacked us, are killing ourpeople, and threatening us; what should be the action, " I shall be asked, "of a Russian soldier, officer, general, Tsar, private individual? Arewe, forsooth, to allow our enemies to ruin our possessions, to seize theproductions of our labors, to carry away prisoners, or kill our men? Whatare we to do now that this thing has begun?"

But before the work of war was commenced, by whomsoever it wascommenced--every awakened man must answer--before all else the work of mylife was commenced. And the work of my life has nothing in common withrecognition of the rights of the Chinese, Japanese, or Russians to PortArthur. The work of my life consists in fulfilling the will of Him whosent me into this life. This will is known to me. This will is that Ishould love my neighbor and serve him. Then why should I, followingtemporary, casual, irrational, and cruel demands, deviate from the knowneternal and changeless law of all my life? If there be a God, He will notask me when I die (which may happen at any moment) whether I retainedChi-nam-po with its timber stores, or Port Arthur, or even thatconglomeration which is called the Russian Empire, which He did notconfide to my care; but He will ask me what I have done with that lifewhich He put at my disposal;--did I use it for the purpose for which itwas predestined, and under the conditions for fulfilling which it wasintrusted to me? Have I fulfilled His law?

So that to this question as to what is to be done now, when war iscommenced, for me, a man who understands his destiny, whatever position Imay occupy, there can be no other answer than this, whatever be mycircumstances, whether the war be commenced or not, whether thousands ofRussians or Japanese be killed, whether not only Port Arthur be taken, but St. Petersburg and Moscow--I cannot act otherwise than as God demandsof me, and that therefore I as a man can neither directly nor indirectly, neither by directing, nor by helping, nor by inciting to it, participatein war; I cannot, I do not wish to, and I will not. What will happenimmediately or soon, from my ceasing to do that which is contrary to thewill of God, I do not and cannot know; but I believe that from thefulfilment of the will of God there can follow nothing but that which isgood for me and for all men. 

You speak with horror about what might happen if we Russians at thismoment ceased to fight, and surrendered to the Japanese what they desirefrom us. But if it be true that the salvation of mankind frombrutalization and self-destruction lies only in the establishment amongstmen of that true religion which demands that we should love our neighborand serve him (with which it is impossible to disagree), then every war, every hour of war, and my participation in it, only renders moredifficult and distant the realization of this only possible salvation. 

So that, even if one places oneself on the unstable point of view ofdefining actions according to their presumed consequences--even then thesurrender to the Japanese by the Russians of all which the former desireof us, besides the unquestionable advantage of the cessation of ruin andslaughter, would be an approach to the only means of the salvation ofmankind from destruction; whereas the continuance of the war, however itmay end, will be a postponement of that only means of salvation. 

"Yet even if this be so, " it is replied, "wars can cease only when allmen, or the majority, will refuse to participate in them. But the refusalof one man, whether he be Tsar or soldier, would only, unnecessarily, andwithout the slightest profit to any one, ruin his life. If the RussianTsar were now to throw up the war, he would be dethroned, perhaps killed, in order to get rid of him; if an ordinary man were to refuse militaryservice, he would be sent to a penal battalion and perhaps shot. Why, then, without the slightest use should one throw away one's life, whichmay be profitable to society?" is the common question of those who do notthink of the destination of their life and therefore do not understandit. 

But this is not what is said and felt by any man who understands thedestination of his life--_i. E. _ by any religious man. Such a man isguided in his activity not by the presumed consequences of his action, but by the consciousness of the destination of his life. A factoryworkman goes to his factory and in it accomplishes the work which isallotted him without considering what will be the consequences of hislabor. In the same way a soldier acts, carrying out the will of hiscommanders. So acts a religious man in fulfilling the work prescribed tohim by God, without arguing as to what precisely will come of that work. Therefore for a religious man there is no question as to whether many orfew men act as he does, or of what may happen to him if he does thatwhich he should do. He knows that besides life and death nothing canhappen, and that life and death are in the hands of God whom he obeys. 

A religious man acts thus and not otherwise, not because he desires toact thus, nor because it is advantageous to himself or to other men, butbecause, believing that his life is in the hands of God, he cannot actotherwise. 

In this lies the distinction of the activity of religious men; andtherefore it is that the salvation of men from the calamities which theyinflict upon themselves can be realized only in that degree in which theyare guided in their lives, not by advantage nor arguments, but byreligious consciousness. 

 X

"But how about the enemies that attack us?"

"Love your enemies, and ye will have none, " is said in the teaching ofthe Twelve Apostles. This answer is not merely words, as those mayimagine who are accustomed to think that the recommendation of love toone's enemies is something hyperbolical, and signifies not that whichexpressed, but something else. This answer is the indication of a veryclear and definite activity, and of its consequences. 

To love one's enemies--the Japanese, the Chinese, those yellow peopletoward whom benighted men are now endeavoring to excite our hatred--tolove them means not to kill them for the purpose of having the right ofpoisoning them with opium, as did the English; not to kill them in orderto seize their land, as was done by the French, the Russians, and theGermans; not to bury them alive in punishment for injuring roads, not totie them together by their hair, not to drown them in their river Amur, as did the Russians. 

"A disciple is not above his master. .. . It is enough for a disciple thathe be as his master. "

To love the yellow people, whom we call our foes, means, not to teachthem under the name of Christianity absurd superstitions about the fallof man, redemption, resurrection, etc. , not to teach them the art ofdeceiving and killing others, but to teach them justice, unselfishness, compassion, love--and that not by words, but by the example of our owngood life. And what have we been doing to them, and are still doing?

If we did indeed love our enemies, if even now we began to love ourenemies, the Japanese, we would have no enemy. 

Therefore, however strange it may appear to those occupied with militaryplans, preparations, diplomatic considerations, administrative, financial, economical measures, revolutionary, socialistic propaganda, and various unnecessary sciences, by which they think to save mankindfrom its calamities, the deliverance of man, not only from the calamitiesof war, but also from all the calamities which men inflict uponthemselves, will take place not through emperors or kings institutingpeace alliances, not through those who would dethrone emperors, kings, orrestrain them by constitutions, or substitute republics for monarchies, not by peace conferences, not by the realization of socialisticprogrammes, not by victories or defeats on land or sea, not by librariesor universities, nor by those futile mental exercises which are nowcalled science; but only by there being more and more of those simple menwho, like the Dukhobors, Drojjin, Olkhovik, in Russia, the Nazarenes inAustria, Condatier in France, Tervey in Holland, and others, havingplaced as their object not external alterations of life, but the closestfulfilment in themselves of the will of Him who has sent them into life, will direct all their powers to this realization. Only such peoplerealizing the Kingdom of God in themselves, in their souls, willestablish, without directly aiming at this purpose, that external Kingdomof God which every human soul is longing for. 

Salvation will come to pass only in this one way and not in any other. Therefore what is now being done by those who, ruling men, inspire themwith religious and patriotic superstitions, exciting in themexclusiveness, hatred, and murder, as well as by those who, for thepurpose of freeing men from slavery and oppression, invoke them toviolent external revolution, or think that the acquisition by men of verymuch incidental and for the most part unnecessary information will ofitself bring them to a good life--all this, by distracting men from whatalone they need, only removes them further from the possibility ofsalvation. 

The evil from which the men of the Christian world suffer is that theyhave temporarily lost religion. 

Some people, having come to see the discord between the existing religionand the degree of mental and scientific development attained by humanityat the present time, have decided that in general no religion whatever isnecessary. They live without religion and preach the uselessness of anyreligion of whatever kind. Others, holding to that distorted form of theChristian religion which is now preached, likewise live without religion, professing empty external forms, which cannot serve as guidance for men. 

Yet a religion which answers to the demands of our time does exist and isknown to all men, and in a latent state lives in the hearts of men of theChristian world. Therefore that this religion should become evident toand binding upon all men, it is only necessary that educated men--theleaders of the masses--should understand that religion is necessary toman, that without religion men cannot live a good life, and that whatthey call science cannot replace religion; and that those in power andwho support the old empty forms of religion should understand that whatthey support and preach under the form of religion is not only notreligion, but is the chief obstacle to men's appropriating the truereligion which they already know, and which can alone deliver them fromtheir calamities. So that the only certain means of man's salvationconsists merely in ceasing to do that which hinders men from assimilatingthe true religion which already lives in their consciousness. 

 XI

I had finished this writing when news came of the destruction of sixhundred innocent lives opposite Port Arthur. It would seem that theuseless suffering and death of these unfortunate deluded men who haveneedlessly and so dreadfully perished ought to disabuse those who werethe cause of this destruction. I am not alluding to Makaroff and otherofficers--all these men knew what they were doing, and wherefore, andthey voluntarily, for personal advantage, for ambition, did as they did, disguising themselves in pretended patriotism, a pretence not condemnedmerely because it is universal. I allude rather to those unfortunate mendrawn from all parts of Russia, who, by the help of religious fraud, andunder fear of punishment, have been torn from an honest, reasonable, useful, laborious family life, driven to the other end of the world, placed on a cruel, senseless machine for slaughter, and torn to bits, drowned along with this stupid machine in a distant sea, without any needor any possibility of advantage from all their privations, efforts, andsufferings, or from the death which overtook them. 

In 1830, during the Polish war, the adjutant Vilijinsky sent to St. Petersburg by Klopitsky, in a conversation held in French with Dibitch, in answer to the latter's demand that the Russian troops should enterPoland, said to him:--

"Monsieur le Maréchal, I think that in that case it will be quiteimpossible for the Polish nation to accept this manifesto. .. . "

"Believe me, the Emperor will make no further concessions. "

"Then I foresee that, unhappily, there will be war, that much blood willbe shed, there will be many unfortunate victims. "

"Do not think so; at most there will be ten thousand who will perish onboth sides, and that is all, "[1] said Dibitch in his German accent, quiteconfident that he, together with another man as cruel and foreign toRussian and Polish life as he was himself, --Nicholas I, --had the right tocondemn or not to condemn to death ten or a hundred thousand Russians andPoles. 

 [1] Vilijinsky adds on his own behalf, "The Field-Marshal did not then think that more than sixty thousand Russians alone would perish in this war, not so much from the enemy's fire as from disease--nor that he would himself be amongst their number. "

One hardly believes that this could have been, so senseless and dreadfulis it, --and yet it was; sixty thousand maintainers of their families losttheir lives owing to the will of those men. And now the same thing istaking place. 

In order not to let the Japanese into Manchuria, and to expel them fromKorea, not ten thousand, but fifty and more thousands will, according toall probability, be necessary. I do not know whether Nicholas II andKuropatkin say like Dibitch in so many words that not more than fiftythousand lives will be necessary for this on the Russian side alone, onlyand only that; but they think it--they cannot but think it, because thework they are doing speaks for itself; that ceaseless stream ofunfortunate, deluded Russian peasants now being transported by thousandsto the Far East--these are those same not more than fifty thousand liveRussian men whom Nicholas Romanoff and Alexis Kuropatkin have decidedthey may get killed, and who will be killed, in support of thosestupidities, robberies, and every kind of abomination which wereaccomplished in China and Korea by immoral ambitious men now sittingpeacefully in their palaces and expecting new glory and new advantage andprofit from the slaughter of these fifty thousand unfortunate, defraudedRussian workingmen guilty of nothing and gaining nothing by theirsufferings and death. For other people's land, to which the Russians haveno right, which has been criminally seized from its legitimate owners, and which, in reality, is not even necessary to the Russians--and alsofor certain dark dealings by speculators, who in Korea wished to gainmoney out of other people's forests--many millions of money are spent, _i. E. _ a great part of the labor of the whole of the Russian people, while the future generations of this people are bound by debts, its bestworkmen are withdrawn from labor, and scores of thousands of its sons aremercilessly doomed to death; and the destruction of these unfortunate menis already begun. More than this: the war is being managed by those whohave hatched it so badly, so negligently, all is so unexpected, sounprepared, that, as one paper admits, Russia's chief chance of successlies in the fact that it possesses inexhaustible human material. It isupon this that those rely who send to death scores of thousands ofRussian men!

It is frankly said that the regrettable reverses of our fleet must becompensated on the land. In plain language this means that if theauthorities have badly directed things on sea, and by their negligencehave destroyed not only the nation's millions, but thousands of lives, wecan make it up by condemning to death on land several more scores ofthousands!

When crawling locusts cross rivers, it happens that the lower layers aredrowned until from the bodies of the drowned is formed a bridge overwhich the upper ranks can pass. In the same way are the Russian peoplebeing disposed of. Thus the first lower layer is already beginning todrown, indicating the way to other thousands, who will all likewiseperish. 

And are the originators, directors, and supporters of this dreadful workbeginning to understand their sin, their crime? Not in the least. Theyare quite persuaded that they have fulfilled, and are fulfilling, theirduty, and they are proud of their activity. People speak of the loss ofthe brave Makaroff, who, as all agree, was able to kill men verycleverly; they deplore the loss of a drowned excellent machine ofslaughter which had cost so many millions of roubles; they discuss thequestion of how to find another murderer as capable as the poor benightedMakaroff; they invent new, still more efficacious, tools of slaughter;and all the guilty men engaged in this dreadful work, from the Tsar tothe humblest journalist, all with one voice call for new insanities, newcruelties, for the increase of brutality and hatred of one's fellow-men. 

"Makaroff is not the only man in Russia, and every admiral placed in hisposition will follow in his steps and will continue the plan and the ideaof Makaroff, who has nobly perished in the strife, " writes the _NovoeVremya_. 

"Let us earnestly pray God for those who have laid down their lives forthe sacred Fatherland, without doubting for one moment that theFatherland will give us new sons, equally virtuous, for the furtherstruggle, and will find in them an inexhaustible store of strength for aworthy completion of the work, " writes the St. Petersburg _Viedomosti_. 

"A ripe nation will draw no other conclusion from the defeat, howeverunprecedented, than that we should continue, develop, and conclude thestrife; therefore let us find in ourselves new strength; new heroes ofthe spirit will arise, " writes the _Russ_, --and so forth. 

So murder and every kind of crime go on with greater fury. Peopleenthusiastically admire the martial spirit of the volunteers who, havingcome unexpectedly upon fifty of their fellow-men, slay all of them, ortake possession of a village and slaughter all its population, or hang orshoot those accused of being spies--_i. E. _ of doing the very same thingwhich is regarded as indispensable and is constantly done on our side. News about these crimes is reported in pompous telegrams to their chiefdirector, the Tsar, who, in return, sends to his virtuous troops hisblessing on the continuation of such deeds. 

Is it not evident that, if there be a salvation from this position, it isonly one: that one which Jesus teaches?--"Seek ye first the Kingdom ofGod and His righteousness (that which is within you), and all therest--_i. E. _ all that practical welfare toward which man isstriving--will of itself be realized. "

Such is the law of life: practical welfare is attained not when manstrives toward this practical welfare--such striving, on the contrary, for the most part removes man from the attainment of what he seeks; butonly when man, without thinking of the attainment of practical welfare, strives toward the most perfect fulfilment of that which before God, before the Source and Law of his life, he regards as right. Then only, incidentally, is practical welfare also attained. 

So that the true salvation of men is only one thing: the fulfilment ofthe will of God by each individual man within himself--_i. E. _ in thatportion of the universe which alone is subject to his power. In this isthe chief, the only, destiny and duty of every individual man, and at thesame time this is the only means by which every individual man caninfluence others; and, therefore, to this, and to this only, should allthe efforts of every man be directed. 

May 2, 1904. 

 XII

I had only just despatched the last of the preceding pages of this paperwhen the dreadful news came of a new iniquity committed in regard to theRussian people by those light-minded men who, crazed with power, haveappropriated the right of managing them. Again coarse and servile slavesof slaves, dressed up in various dazzling attires--varieties of Generalswishing to distinguish themselves, or to earn the right to add one morelittle star, fingle fangle, or scrap of ribbon to their idiotic glaringget-up, or else from stupidity or carelessness--again these miserable menhave destroyed amid dreadful sufferings thousands of those honorable, kind, hard-working laborers who feed them. And again this iniquity notonly does not cause those responsible for it to reflect and repent, butone hears and reads only about its being necessary as speedily aspossible to mutilate and slaughter a greater number of men, and to ruinstill more families, both Russian and Japanese. 

More than this, to prepare men for fresh iniquities of this kind, theperpetrators of these crimes, far from recognizing what is evident toall--viz. That for the Russians this event, even from their patriotic, military point of view, was a scandalous defeat--endeavor to assurecredulous people that these unfortunate Russian laboring men--lured intoa trap like cattle into a slaughterhouse, of whom several thousands havebeen killed and maimed merely because one General did not understand whatanother General had said--have performed an act of heroism because thosewho could not run away were killed and those who did run away remainedalive. As to the fact that one of these immoral and cruel men, distinguished by the titles of Generals, Admirals, drowned a quantity ofpeaceful Japanese, this is also described as a great and glorious act ofheroism, which must gladden the hearts of Russians. And in all the papersare reprinted this awful appeal to murder:--

"Let the two thousand Russian soldiers killed on the Yalu, together withthe maimed _Retvisan_ and her sister ships, with our lost torpedo-boats, teach our cruisers with what devastation they must break in upon theshores of base Japan. She has sent her soldiers to shed Russian blood, and no quarter should be afforded her. Now one cannot--it is sinful--besentimental; we must fight; we must direct such heavy blows that thememory of them shall freeze the treacherous hearts of the Japanese. Nowis the time for the cruisers to go out to sea to reduce to ashes thetowns of Japan, flying as a dreadful calamity along its shores. No moresentimentality. "

The frightful work commenced is continued. Loot, violence, murder, hypocrisy, theft, and, above all, the most fearful fraud--the distortionof religious teachings, both Christian and Buddhistic--continue. TheTsar, the chief responsible person, continues to review the troops, tothank, reward, and encourage them; he issues an edict for the calling outof the reserves; his faithful subjects again and again lay down theirproperty and lives at the feet of him they call, only with their lips, their adored Monarch. On the other hand, desiring to distinguishthemselves before each other in deeds and not in words only, they tearaway the fathers and the bread-winners from their orphaned families, preparing them for slaughter. The worse the position of Russia, the morerecklessly do the journalists lie, transforming shameful defeats intovictories, knowing that no one will contradict them; and they quietlycollect money from subscriptions and sales. The more money and labor ofthe people is devoted to the war, the more is grabbed by variousauthorities and speculators, who know that no one will convict thembecause every one is doing the same. The military, trained for murder, having passed years in a school of inhumanity, coarseness, and idleness, rejoice--poor men--because, besides an increase of their salary, theslaughter of superiors opens vacancies for their promotion. Christianpastors continue to invite men to the greatest of crimes, continue tocommit sacrilege, praying God to help the work of war; and, instead ofcondemning, they justify and praise that pastor who, with the cross inhis hands on the very scene of murder, encouraged men to the crime. Thesame thing is going on in Japan. The benighted Japanese go in for murderwith yet greater fervor, owing to their victories; the Mikado alsoreviews and rewards his troops; various Generals boast of their bravery, imagining that, having learned to kill, they have acquired enlightenment. So, too, groan the unfortunate working people torn from useful labor andfrom their families. So their journalists also lie and rejoice over theirgains. Also probably--for where murder is elevated into virtue every kindof vice is bound to flourish--also probably all kinds of commanders andspeculators earn money; and Japanese theologians and religious teachersno less than the masters in the techniques of armament do not remainbehind the Europeans in the techniques of religious deceit and sacrilege, but distort the great Buddhistic teaching by not only permitting butjustifying that murder which Buddha forbade. The Buddhistic scientist, Soyen-Shaku, ruling over eight hundred monasteries, explains thatalthough Buddha forbade manslaughter he also said he could never be atpeace until all beings are united in the infinitely loving heart of allthings, and that, therefore, in order to bring into harmony that which isdiscordant it is necessary to fight and to kill men. [2]

 [2] In the article it is said: "This triple world is my own possession. All the things therein are my own children . .. The ten thousand things in this world are no more than the reflections of my own self. They come from the one source. They partake of the one body. Therefore I cannot rest, until every being, even the smallest possible fragment of existence, is settled down to its proper appointment. .. . This is the position taken by the Buddha, and we, his humble followers, are but to walk in his wake. Why, then, do we fight at all? Because we do not find this world as it ought to be. Because there are here so many perverted creatures, so many wayward thoughts, so many ill-directed hearts, due to ignorant subjectivity. For this reason Buddhists are never tired of combating all productions of ignorance, and their fight must be to the bitter end. They will show no quarter. They will mercilessly destroy the very root from which arises the misery of this life. To accomplish this end, they will never be afraid of sacrificing their lives. .. . " There follow, just as is usual with us, entangled arguments about self-sacrifice and kindness, about the transmigration of souls and about much else--all this for the sole purpose of concealing the simple and clear commandment of Buddha: not to kill. Further it is said: "The hand that is raised to strike and the eye that is fixed to take aim do not belong to the individual, but are the instruments utilized by a principle higher than transient existence. " ("The Open Court, " May, 1904. "Buddhist Views of War, " by the Right Rev. Soyen-Shaku. )

It is as if there never had existed the Christian and Buddhistic teachingabout the unity of the human spirit, the brotherhood of men, love, compassion, the sacredness of human life. Men, both Japanese andRussians, already enlightened by the truth, yet like wild animals, nay, worse than wild animals, throw themselves upon each other with the soledesire to destroy as many lives as possible. Thousands of unfortunatesgroan and writhe in cruel sufferings and die in agony in Japanese andRussian field hospitals, asking themselves in bewilderment why thisfearful thing was done with them, while other thousands are alreadyrotting in the earth or on the earth, or floating in the sea, in swollendecomposition. And scores of thousands of wives, fathers, mothers, children, are bemoaning their bread-winners; uselessly destroyed. Yet allthis is still too little; new and newer victims are being prepared. Thechief concern of the Russian organizers of slaughter is that on theRussian side the stream of food for cannon--three thousand men per daydoomed to destruction--should not be interrupted for one minute. TheJapanese are preoccupied with the same thing. The locusts are incessantlybeing driven down into the river in order that the rows behind may passover the bodies. 

When will this cease, and the deceived people at last recover themselvesand say: "Well, go you yourselves, you heartless Tsars, Mikados, Ministers, Bishops, priests, generals, editors, speculators, or howeveryou may be called, go you yourselves under these shells and bullets, butwe do not wish to go and we will not go. Leave us in peace, to plough, and sow, and build, --and also to feed you. " It would be so natural to saythis now, when amongst us in Russia resounds the weeping and wailing ofhundreds of thousands of mothers, wives, and children, from whom arebeing snatched away their bread-earners, the so-called "reserve. " Thesesame men, the majority of the reserve, are able to read; they know whatthe Far East is; they know that war is going on, not for anything whichis in the least necessary to Russia, but for some dealings in strangeland, leased lands, as they themselves call them, on which it seemedadvantageous to some corrupt speculators to build railways and so gainprofit; also they know, or might know, that they will be killed likesheep in a slaughterhouse, since the Japanese possess the latestimprovements in tools of murder, which we do not, as the Russianauthorities who are sending these people to death had not thought in timeof furnishing themselves with the same weapons as the Japanese. Knowingall this, it would indeed be so natural to say, "Go you, those who havebrought on this work, all you to whom war is necessary, and who justifyit; go you, and face the Japanese bullets and mines, but we will not go, because we not only do not need to do this, but we cannot understand howit can be necessary to any one. "

But no, they do not say this; they go, and they will continue to go; theycannot but go as long as they fear that which ruins the body and not thatwhich ruins both the body and the soul. "Whether we shall be killed, "they argue, "or maimed in these chinnampos, or whatever they are called, whither we are driven, we do not know; it yet may happen that we shallget through safely, and, moreover, with rewards and glory, like thosesailors who are now being feasted all over Russia because the Japanesebombs and bullets did not hit them, but somebody else; whereas should werefuse, we should be certainly sent to prison, starved, beaten, exiled tothe province of Yakoutsk, perhaps even killed immediately. " So withdespair in their hearts, leaving behind a good rational life, leavingtheir wives and their children, --they go. 

Yesterday I met a Reservist soldier accompanied by his mother and wife. All three were riding in a cart; he had had a drop too much; his wife'sface was swollen with tears. He turned to me:--

"Good-by to thee! Lyof Nikolaevitch, off to the Far East. "

"Well, art thou going to fight?"

"Well, some one has to fight!"

"No one need fight!"

He reflected for a moment. "But what is one to do; where can oneescape?"

I saw that he had understood me, had understood that the work to which hewas being sent was an evil work. 

"Where can one escape?" That is the precise expression of that mentalcondition which in the official and journalistic world is translated intothe words--"For the Faith, the Tsar, and the Fatherland. " Those who, abandoning their hungry families, go to suffering, to death, say as theyfeel, "Where can one escape?" Whereas those who sit in safety in theirluxurious palaces say that all Russian men are ready to sacrifice theirlives for their adored Monarch, and for the glory and greatness ofRussia. 

Yesterday, from a peasant I know, I received two letters, one after theother. This is the first:--

"Dear Lyof Nikolaevitch, --Well, to-day I have received the officialannouncement of my call to the Service; to-morrow I must present myselfat the headquarters. That is all. And after that--to the Far East to meetthe Japanese bullets. About my own and my household's grief I will nottell you; it is not you who will fail to understand all the horror of myposition and the horrors of war; all this you have long ago painfullyrealized, and you understand it all. How I have longed to visit you, tohave a talk with you! I had written to you a long letter in which Idescribed the torments of my soul; but I had not had time to copy it, when I received my summons. What is my wife to do now with her fourchildren? As an old man, of course, you cannot do anything yourself formy folks, but you might ask some of your friends in their leisure tovisit my orphaned family. I beg you earnestly that if my wife provesunable to bear the agony of her helplessness with her burden of childrenand makes up her mind to go to you for help and counsel, you will receiveand console her. Although she does not know you personally, she believesin your word, and that means much. I was not able to resist the summons, but I say beforehand that through me not one Japanese family shall beorphaned. My God! how dreadful is all this--how distressing and painfulto abandon all by which one lives and in which one is concerned. "

The second letter is as follows: "Kindest Lyof Nikolaevitch, Only one dayof actual service has passed, and I have already lived through aneternity of most desperate torments. From 8 o'clock in the morning till 9in the evening we have been crowded and knocked about to and fro in thebarrack yard, like a herd of cattle. The comedy of medical examinationwas three times repeated, and those who had reported themselves ill didnot receive even ten minutes' attention before they were marked'Satisfactory. ' When we, these two thousand satisfactory individuals, were driven from the military commander to the barracks, along the roadspread out for almost a verst stood a crowd of relatives, mothers, andwives with infants in arms; and if you had only heard and seen how theyclasped their fathers, husbands, sons, and hanging round their neckswailed hopelessly! Generally I behave in a reserved way and can restrainmy feelings, but I could not hold out, and I also wept. [In journalisticlanguage this same is expressed thus: "The upheaval of patriotic feelingis immense. "] Where is the standard that can measure all this immensityof woe now spreading itself over almost one-third of the world? And we, we are now that food for cannon, which in the near future will be offeredas sacrifice to the God of vengeance and horror. I cannot manage toestablish my inner balance. Oh! how I execrate myself for thisdouble-mindedness which prevents my serving one Master and God. "

This man does not yet sufficiently believe that what destroys the body isnot dreadful, but that which destroys both the body and the soul, therefore he cannot refuse to go; yet while leaving his own family hepromises beforehand that through him not one Japanese family shall beorphaned; he believes in the chief law of God, the law of allreligions--to act toward others as one wishes others to act towardoneself. Of such men more or less consciously recognizing this law, thereare in our time, not in the Christian world alone, but in the Buddhistic, Mahomedan, Confucian, and Brahminic world, not only thousands butmillions. 

There exist true heroes, not those who are now being fêted because, having wished to kill others, they were not killed themselves, but trueheroes, who are now confined in prisons and in the province of Yakoutskfor having categorically refused to enter the ranks of murderers, and whohave preferred martyrdom to this departure from the law of Jesus. Thereare also such as he who writes to me, who go, but who will not kill. Butalso that majority which goes without thinking, and endeavors not tothink of what it is doing, still in the depth of its soul does nowalready feel that it is doing an evil deed by obeying authorities whotear men from labor and from their families and send them to needlessslaughter of men, repugnant to their soul and their faith; and they goonly because they are so entangled on all sides that--"Where can oneescape?"

Meanwhile those who remain at home not only feel this, but know andexpress it. Yesterday in the high road I met some peasants returning fromToula. One of them was reading a leaflet as he walked by the side of hiscart. 

I asked, "What is that--a telegram?"

"This is yesterday's, --but here is one of to-day. " He took another out ofhis pocket. We stopped. I read it. 

"You should have seen what took place yesterday at the station, " he said;"it was dreadful. Wives, children, more than a thousand of them, weeping. They surrounded the train, but were allowed no further. Strangers wept, looking on. One woman from Toula gasped and fell down dead. Fivechildren. They have since been placed in various institutions; but thefather was driven away all the same. .. . What do we want with thisManchuria, or whatever it is called? There is sufficient land here. Andwhat a lot of people and of property has been destroyed. "

Yes, the relation of men to war is now quite different from that whichformerly existed, even so lately as the year '77. That which is nowtaking place never took place before. 

The papers set forth that, during the receptions of the Tsar, who istravelling about Russia for the purpose of hypnotizing the men who arebeing sent to murder, indescribable enthusiasm is manifested amongst thepeople. As a matter of fact, something quite different is beingmanifested. From all sides one hears reports that in one place threeReservists have hanged themselves; in another spot, two more; in yetanother, about a woman whose husband had been taken away bringing herchildren to the conscription committee-room and leaving them there; whileanother hanged herself in the yard of the military commander. All aredissatisfied, gloomy, exasperated. The words, "For the Faith, the King, and the Fatherland, " the National Anthem, and shouts of "Hurrah" nolonger act upon people as they once did. Another warfare of a differentkind--the struggling consciousness of the deceit and sinfulness of thework to which people are being called--is more and more taking possessionof the people. 

Yes, the great strife of our time is not that now taking place betweenthe Japanese and the Russians, nor that which may blaze up between thewhite and yellow races, not that strife which is carried on by mines, bombs, bullets, but that spiritual strife which without ceasing has goneon and is now going on between the enlightened consciousness of mankindnow waiting for manifestation and that darkness and that burden whichsurrounds and oppresses mankind. 

In His own time Jesus yearned in expectation, and said, "I came to castfire upon the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled. " Lukexii. 49. 

That which Jesus longed for is being accomplished, the fire is beingkindled. Then do not let us check it, but let us spread and serve it. 

13 May, 1904. 

I should never finish this paper if I were to continue to add to it allthat corroborates its essential idea. Yesterday the news came in of thesinking of the Japanese ironclads; and in the so-called higher circles ofRussian fashionable, rich, intellectual society they are, without theslightest conscientious scruples, rejoicing at the destruction of athousand human lives. Yet to-day I have received from a simple seaman, aman standing on the lowest plane of society, the following letter:[3]

"Much respected Lyof Nikolaevitch, I greet you with a low bow, with love, much respected Lyof Nikolaevitch. I have read your book. It was verypleasant reading for me. I have been a great lover of reading your works. Well, Lyof Nikolaevitch, we are now in a state of war, please write to mewhether it is agreeable to God or not that our commanders compel us tokill. I beg you, Lyof Nikolaevitch, write to me please whether or not thetruth now exists on earth. Tell me, Lyof Nikolaevitch. In church here aprayer is being read, the priest mentions the Christ-loving army. Is ittrue or not that God loves war? I pray you, Lyof Nikolaevitch, have yougot any books from which I could see whether truth exists on earth ornot? Send me such books. What they cost, I will pay. I beg you, LyofNikolaevitch, do not neglect my request. If there are no books then sendme a letter. I will be very glad when I receive a letter from you. I willawait your letter with impatience. Good-by for the present. I remainalive and well and wish the same to you from the Lord God. Good healthand good success in your work. "

 [3] The letter is written in a most illiterate way, filled with mistakes in orthography and punctuation. (Trans. )