WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 FROM THE RUSSIAN POINT OF VIEW 
 THREE CONVERSATIONS BY 
 
 VLADIMIR SOLOVYOF 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 STEPHEN 
 GRAHAM 
 
 
 LONDON 
 CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD 
 
 1915 
 

 Printed in Great Britain. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 VLADIMIR SOLOVYOF, the author of this book, is 
 Russia's greatest philosopher and one of the greatest 
 of her poets, a serene and happy writer. He was 
 born in 1853 and died in 1901, that is, he flourished 
 in Russia during the same years that Nietzsche lived 
 in Germany. He was a seeker and also a seer, a 
 thinker and also a singer. His life is not marked by 
 irritability, and it did not culminate in mental and 
 psychic collapse as did the life of Nietzsche. Prob- 
 ably life was easier for a man of genius in Russia 
 than in Germany there are wider spaces there, 
 more freedom, more tenderness between man and 
 man, less materialism, less selfishness, less to send 
 one mad. 
 
 Solovyof came from a happy home and of a 
 literary family. His father, Serge Mikhalovitch 
 Solovyof, was a historian ; his mother, a Little 
 Russian of old family and culture, was proud to 
 remind her children of a kinsman who had been a 
 great philosopher in his day. At home there was 
 an atmosphere of real things never any of the 
 cheap wit and vulgarism and mental meanness that 
 so often sterilise the creative intelligence of other- 
 wise wonderful children. There was much reading 
 aloud and many lively discussions about life and 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 religion. Every one of Solovyof's brothers and 
 sisters achieved distinction in life and letters later 
 on. Vladimir was, however, the greatest and 
 showed his gifts from the first. 
 
 The young man's distinctive tone in thought was 
 opposition to positivism, humanitarianism and the 
 ideas of Western civilisation, and throughout his 
 student days he propounded in many arguments a 
 lively belief in Russia and the Russian idea, in 
 orthodoxy and mysticism. But with all his 
 brilliance he was also an industrious scholar. He 
 graduated in 1873, and gave many of the succeeding 
 years of youth to research and study. He held a 
 professorship for a short while, but gave up his 
 chair in 1882, and the remaining eighteen years 
 of his life were devoted almost entirely to literary 
 work. 
 
 As a poet he was, nearest to Fete, one of the most 
 delicate of Russian poets. Solovyof was the first 
 poet philosopher of his country, the first to speak 
 simply and beautifully in verse of the most difficult 
 problems of man's life and religion. In his works 
 you may seek and find the Russian idea, the Eastern 
 Christian point of view. His philosophy derives in 
 part from gnostic Christianity, and is associated with 
 the idea of St. Sophia rather than the idea of St. 
 Peter, with eternal wisdom rather than eternal law. 
 
 It would be impossible to sum up in a sentence 
 the author's majestical vision of life, but we may 
 cite an exclamation from one of his poems : 
 
 " All evil is powerless, man is for ever, and God is with 
 us!" 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 In national culture Solovyof owned Dostoieffsky 
 as his prophet. With Dostoieffsky he was one of 
 the great spiritual leaders of the Russian people. 
 He was in all his work and faith opposed to Tolstoy, 
 considering Tolstoyism to be a sort of moral atrophy. 
 Yet he never attacked Tolstoy by name, and was 
 never mixed up in any acrid controversy. The 
 accompanying volume is one of the chief of those 
 in which Tolstoyism and positivism are combated. 
 At the present moment, when recurring war has 
 caused much heart-searching in the minds of 
 Christian people, it has been thought most fitting to 
 issue a translation of this Russian book. 
 
 War has not prompted so many misgivings in 
 Christian Russia as it has done in the humanitarian 
 and materialistic West. It is felt that 
 
 " Religion is never shaken down by war, but 
 logicians are shaken in their logic, agnosticism is 
 shaken, materialism is shaken, atheism is shaken, 
 positivism is shaken. The intellectual dominance 
 is shaken and falls, the spiritual powers are allowed 
 to take possession of men's being." 
 
 Solovyof issued " War and Christianity " on 
 Easter Day, 1900, the year before his death. Accord- 
 ing to Valery Brusof, one of the most interesting 
 of contemporary Russian essayists 
 
 " Towards the end of Solovyof s life a sort of special 
 power and intensity of perception seemed to show itself in 
 his work. The poet and thinker approached the most 
 sacred problems of contemporary man. . . . Everyone 
 was listening to the powerful voice of Solovyof as to the 
 words of a master ; his right to judge was acknowledged. 
 . . . Death unexpectedly cut short this teaching so neces- 
 sary to us. ... But, bewaring of superfluous lamentation, 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 let us call to mind that he himself tried to find a sense and 
 a moral indispensability even in the shot of Dantes and the 
 destruction of the ' godly phial ' as if it were a potter's 
 vessel." 
 
 Especial thanks are due to Mr. Edward Cazalet, 
 of the Anglo-Russian Literary Society, who trans- 
 lated Conversation II., and to Mr. W. J. Barnes and 
 Mr. H. H. Haynes, who translated Conversation III., 
 and to Mr. Barnes who saw through the proofs. 
 
 STEPHEN GRAHAM. 
 
 LONDON, 
 
 April, 1915. 
 
THE SCENE 
 
 IN the garden of one of those villas which, at the 
 foot of the Alps, look down on the blue depths of the 
 Mediterranean, there met one summer five Russians : 
 an old general, of many campaigns, we shall call 
 him the General ; a politician, a " father of the 
 Senate," resting from the theoretical and practical 
 occupations of State affairs, we shall call him the 
 Politician ; a young prince, a moralist and popular 
 teacher, responsible for the editing of various more 
 or less helpful pamphlets on moral and social 
 questions, we shall call him the Prince ; a lady of 
 middle age, interested in all that concerns human 
 beings, she is the Lady ; and the fifth was a gentle- 
 man of doubtful age and social position, let us call 
 him Mr. Z. 
 
 I was a silent listener to all their conversations, 
 some of which appeared to me to have much interest, 
 and whilst they were fresh in my memory I wrote 
 them down. The first conversation was begun in 
 my absence. I believe it started apropos of some 
 newspaper article or peace pamphlet on the subject 
 of the campaign against war and military service, 
 which was being carried on by the Baroness Luttner 
 and Mr. Stead, following in the footsteps of Tolstoy. 
 
 The Politician, on being asked by the Lady 
 
 w.c. b 
 
x WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 whether he thought the peace movement was a good 
 one, gave it as his opinion that it was well-intentioned 
 and useful. At that, the General got angry and 
 began to make satirical jests at the expense of these 
 three writers, calling them the true pillars of State 
 wisdom, guiding constellations on the political 
 horizon, even calling them the three whales of 
 Russia. The Politician remarked that there were 
 other fish. This remark caused Mr. Z. to collapse 
 with laughter, and he forced both the speakers to 
 confess that they considered a whale was a fish, and 
 even persuaded them to give a conjoint definition of 
 what they thought a fish to be, that is, an animal 
 belonging partly to the marine department and 
 partly to the department of marine communications. 
 I think, however, this was an invention of Mr. Z. 
 Be that as it may, I was not fortunate enough to 
 obtain the real beginning of the conversation. 
 Being afraid to compose out of my own head after 
 the model of Plato and his imitators, I began my 
 transcript with the words of the General which I 
 heard as I approached the speakers. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 FIRST CONVERSATION 
 
 " Audiatur et prima pars." 
 
 GENERAL (agitated, stands up and then sits down 
 again, speaking in rapid gestures). No, permit me ! 
 Tell me only one thing : does a " Christ-serving and 
 worthy Russian militancy " 1 exist or not ? Yes 
 or no ? 
 
 POLITICIAN (stretching himself on his deck-chair 
 and speaking in a tone which reminds one of something 
 between that of the careless gods of Epicurus, of a 
 Prussian officer and of Voltaire). Does a Russian 
 army exist ? Obviously it exists. Surely you 
 haven't heard that it is dismissed ? 
 
 GENERAL. Now, don't sham. You understand 
 quite well about what I am speaking. I ask, have 
 I still the right as before to consider the existent 
 army as a worthy Christ-loving militancy or is this 
 designation out of date and should we change it for 
 another ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Eh ... so that's what you're worry- 
 ing yourself about ? You shouldn't address that 
 question to me, but rather to the department of 
 heraldry where the various titles are supervised. 
 
 1 A traditional title of the Russian army. 
 W.C. B 
 
V ' ' ' : ' WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 MR. Z. The department of heraldry would prob- 
 ably answer that the use of old titles is not objected 
 to legally. Did not the last Prince Luzinian call 
 himself King of Cyprus, and nobody said him nay, 
 though not only did he not rule Cyprus, but was not 
 even rich enough to drink Cyprus wine ? So why 
 shouldn't our contemporary army have the title of 
 a Christ-serving militancy ? 
 
 GENERAL. What has title got to do with it ? Is 
 white or black a title ? Is sweet or bitter a title ? 
 Hero or scoundrel are they titles ? 
 
 MR. Z. Yes, of course. I wasn't giving my 
 own point of view, but rather the legality of the 
 matter. 
 
 LADY (to Politician). Why are you hedging over 
 words ? You may be sure the General wished to 
 put a real question with his " Christ-serving mili- 
 tancy." 
 
 GENERAL. Thank you. I did wish, and do still 
 wish, to say just this : For centuries, and up to 
 yesterday itself, every military man had a clear con- 
 science, whether it were common soldier or field- 
 marshal it was all the same ; he knew and felt that 
 he was serving a good and important end. He knew 
 it was not something merely useful, as for instance, 
 sanitation, or laundry-work, but in the highest 
 sense, something fine, noble, honourable, something 
 in which in the past the very best people had served, 
 the first people, the leaders of nations, heroes. Our 
 work has always been consecrated and magnified in 
 the churches and has become famous by general 
 consent. But suddenly one fine morning we are 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 3 
 
 told that we have got to forget all that, and that we 
 ought to interpret our position in this God's world 
 entirely in the opposite sense. We have to recognise 
 that the profession of which we were so proud is 
 something evil and damaging, contrary to God's 
 commandments and human intelligence, the most 
 dreadful trouble and calamity. We are told that all 
 nations must combine to stop it, and that its complete 
 abolition is really only a matter of time. 
 
 PRINCE. But surely, you must have heard some 
 time or other, earlier in your career, voices which 
 condemned war and military service as a survival of 
 ancient cannibalism ? 
 
 GENERAL. How not hear it? I heard it and 
 read it in various languages, but I cannot say it made 
 much impression on me. I heard it and forgot it. 
 But now we've come to a different position. There's 
 no getting past it. So I ask : How do we stand ? 
 How ought I, that is, how ought any army man to 
 consider himself, how ought he to look upon him- 
 self as a real man or as an unnatural monster ? 
 Ought I to take myself seriously as a worker in an 
 honest and important cause, or should I be horror- 
 stricken by it, repent of it, and humbly beg each 
 civilian to forgive me my professional accursedness ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Why put the question so fantas- 
 tically ? It is as if we'd been asking you to do some- 
 thing special. The new demands of society are not 
 made upon you, but upon diplomatists and other 
 civil people in authority who are very little interested 
 either in your accursedness or in your " service of 
 Christ." We only ask one thing of you, now as 
 
 B 2 
 
4 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 before, to fulfil without asking questions the orders 
 of your superiors. 
 
 GENERAL. As you are not interested in military 
 matters you naturally think I put the matter fantas- 
 tically. You evidently don't seem to know that on 
 certain occasions the commands of the authorities 
 are to the effect that we act without asking for 
 commands. 
 
 POLITICIAN. For instance ? 
 
 GENERAL. For instance : imagine that I am 
 appointed by authority as head of a complete 
 military circuit. I should have all manner of duties 
 in that position, managing the troops entrusted to 
 me. I should have to train and confirm in them a 
 certain way of thinking. I should have to train 
 their wills in a certain direction and tune their feel- 
 ings to a certain harmony. In a word, I should have 
 to bring them up to their destiny. Very well. I 
 should have to give general commands to the troops 
 for the attainment of that end, under my name and 
 personal responsibility. Well, if I addressed myself 
 to superior authority to find out exactly what I 
 should do, should I not be put down at once by them 
 as an old fool, the first time I did it, and have to 
 go into retirement at the second ? That means, I 
 am simply obliged to act on my own responsibility 
 and interpret the spirit of war and the will of the 
 authorities as best I can since to ask about it 
 would be either stupidity or audacity. But I am 
 asking this question now about our position because 
 the spirit which has been one and the same from 
 Sargon and Assurbanipal to William the Second 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 5 
 
 appears suddenly to be in doubt. Until yesterday 
 I knew that I had to train and confirm in our troops 
 nothing other than just this military spirit the 
 readiness of each soldier to kill his enemies and to be, 
 if necessary, killed and for that it is absolutely 
 necessary to be perfectly sure that war is something 
 holy. Suddenly the habitual confidence of the 
 officer loses its foundation and military deeds are 
 deprived of their " moral-religious sanction," to use 
 a learned phrase. 
 
 POLITICIAN. That's all fearfully exaggerated. 
 There has been no radical change in the accepted 
 point of view. Even formerly, everyone always 
 knew that war was evil and the less of it the better, 
 and, on the other hand, wise people know now that 
 it is a kind of evil which cannot yet be removed once 
 and for all in our time. The problem is not the 
 complete abolition of war, but its gradual limitation 
 and isolation within certain narrow boundaries. 
 The fundamental notion about war remains what it 
 has always been, i.e., that it is an inevitable evil, a 
 calamity which must be endured upon extreme 
 occasions. 
 
 GENERAL. And only that ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Yes, that only. 
 
 GENERAL dumping from his seat). Did you ever 
 by any chance look in the Saints ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. You mean in the Calendar ? I've 
 had to look up names of patron saints, the name-days 
 of my friends and relatives. 
 
 GENERAL. And have you remarked the sorts of 
 saints in the Calendar ? 
 
6 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 POLITICIAN. There were various sorts. 
 
 GENERAL. But of what calling ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. And of various callings, I fancy. 
 
 GENERAL. Well, that's just it. They are not so 
 very various. 
 
 POLITICIAN. What do you mean ? You don't 
 mean to say that they're all military men ? 
 
 GENERAL. Not all ; but half are. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Oh, again, what exaggeration ! 
 
 GENERAL. Well, we can't go over them one by 
 one. But I affirm that the saints of our own 
 Russian Church belong to two classes only : they 
 are either monks of various grades, or princes. And 
 to be a prince meant in old time to be a warrior. 
 We have no other saints of course, I am speaking 
 of men-saints, they are all either monks or soldiers. 
 
 LADY. But you've forgotten our fanatics, 
 General ! 
 
 GENERAL. I haven't forgotten them at all, but 
 they were a sort of irregular monks. What the 
 Cossacks are to the army, they were for monas- 
 ticism. What's more, if you can find for me among 
 the Russian saints one white priest, or a merchant, 
 or a deacon, or a chancellor's clerk, or a citizen, or a 
 peasant, or, in one word, any representative of any 
 profession other than that of monk or soldier you 
 can have all I shall bring back from Monte Carlo 
 next Sunday. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Thank you. You can keep your 
 treasure and your half of the saints. But tell me, 
 please, what did you want to deduce from this dis- 
 covery or observation of yours ? Surely you don't 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 7 
 
 mean to argue that only monks and soldiers can be 
 moral patterns ? 
 
 GENERAL. You haven't altogether guessed my 
 meaning. I have known many virtuous people 
 amongst the white clergy, amongst bankers, amongst 
 officials, and amongst peasants. The most virtuous 
 being I can call to mind is the peasant nurse-girl of 
 one of my friends. But we are not speaking of that. 
 My point really is how could so many soldiers have 
 found place side by side with monks and have been 
 given a preference to ordinary civilians if their pro- 
 fession was a tolerated evil, such as, for instance, 
 the liquor business or something even worse ? It is 
 clear that the Christian nations who showed their 
 thoughts by the recognition of sainthood not only 
 respected, but even specially respected the military 
 calling, and that of all worldly professions they 
 reckoned the military alone to be the best training 
 place for sanctity. And that point of view is not 
 compatible with the present movement to abolish 
 war. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Oh, have I said that there has been 
 no change ? Undoubtedly there has been some 
 desirable change in point of view. The religious 
 aureole which once surrounded war and warriors in 
 the eyes of the crowd has now been taken away. 
 That's so. But we had got to that point long since. 
 And whom does that practically affect ? The clergy 
 perhaps, since the preparation of aureoles belongs to 
 its department. But the clergy have got a good deal 
 still to get rid of. What they cannot preserve 
 literally they interpret in an allegorical sense, and, 
 
8 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 for the rest, take refuge in blessed silence and blessed 
 forgetfulness. 
 
 PRINCE. Yes, the blessed adaptation to new ideas 
 has commenced. I follow our religious literature 
 pretty closely for my own publications. And I have 
 already had the pleasure of reading in two journals 
 that Christianity unconditionally condemns war. 
 
 GENERAL. Surely not. 
 
 PRINCE. Yes, I couldn't believe my eyes. But 
 I can show it you. 
 
 POLITICIAN (to General). You see ! But why 
 should that worry you. You are people of deeds, 
 not of fine words. Professional amour-propre and 
 vanity, eh ? That's not a good state of things. 
 But all the same, I repeat, that in practice all remains 
 as before. Though the system of militarism which 
 has prevented us breathing these last thirty years 
 must now disappear, yet troops in certain dimensions 
 will remain as many as are considered indispen- 
 sable. And from them will be demanded the same 
 military qualities as before. 
 
 GENERAL. Oh, now you're asking milk from a 
 dead cow. Who will provide you with the military 
 qualities when the primal inspiration of these 
 military qualities has been removed the faith in 
 the holiness of the work ? And this faith cannot 
 remain, once it is held that war is an evil and a 
 calamity only tolerated on extreme occasions. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Oh, we shan't ask military men to 
 hold that opinion. Let them consider themselves 
 the first people in the world whose business is it ? 
 Didn't I say that Prince Luzinian was permitted to 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 9 
 
 call himself King of Cyprus as long as he didn't ask 
 us to provide him with money to buy Cyprus wine ? 
 Don't tempt yourselves to our pockets more than 
 you need, that's all. And then, if you will, you may 
 remain in your own eyes the salt of the earth and 
 the flower of mankind ; who is to prevent you ? 
 
 GENERAL. He says in our own eyes ! Are we 
 talking on the moon ? Are we going to keep our 
 military forces in a Torricellian vacuum to save them 
 from outside influences ? This in the time of 
 universal military service, with conscripts who have 
 only to serve short terms, in the time of cheap news- 
 papers ? No,, the matter is clear enough. Once 
 military service became obligatory for all and each, 
 and at the same time this negative attitude towards 
 military work became recognised throughout society, 
 beginning with the representatives of the State, as 
 you for instance, then undoubtedly that negative 
 attitude must be assimilated by the officers and the 
 soldiers themselves. If people came to look on 
 military service as merely an inevitable evil, then 
 no one would voluntarily choose the military pro- 
 fession as a life career, unless indeed it were some 
 sport of Nature who could find no other refuge ; and 
 all those who against their will are obliged to bear 
 arms for a while will bear them in the same spirit as 
 penal convicts bear their chains. In the face of 
 that, what have you to say about the relation of 
 military qualities to the military spirit ? 
 
 MR. Z. I have always been convinced that, after 
 the bringing in of universal military service, the 
 final dismissal of the troops and the break-up of 
 
io WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 separate States is only a question of time, and a time 
 not very far distant, considering the present tempo 
 of history. 
 
 GENERAL. Perhaps you're right. 
 
 PRINCE. I will even affirm that you are certainly 
 right, though it never came into my head till this 
 moment. But that's splendid. Only think of it : 
 militarism brings forth as its extreme expression the 
 system of universal military service, and, thanks 
 just to that, there perish not only the most modern 
 form of militarism, but all the ancient foundations 
 of the military idea. Wonderful ! 
 
 LADY. The Prince's face has become quite gay. 
 That is good. He had been going about with such a 
 gloomy expression not at all that which becomes 
 a " true Christian." 
 
 PRINCE. Yes, we are surrounded already by too 
 many sad things ; one joy remains mine, however 
 the knowledge of the inevitable triumph of reason 
 over all things. 
 
 MR. Z. There isn't the slightest doubt that 
 militarism in Europe and in Russia will eat itself up 
 and die of surfeit, but what sort of joys and triumphs 
 will result from that fact remains to be seen. 
 
 PRINCE. How ? Do you mean to say you have 
 any doubt but that war and the military business is 
 anything but an unconditional and extreme evil 
 from which humanity has got to free itself absolutely, 
 and as soon as it can ? Do you mean to say you 
 doubt that a complete and rapid disappearance of 
 this cannibalism would not be, under any circum- 
 stances, a triumph of reason and goodness ? 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY n 
 
 MR. Z. I am absolutely convinced to the con- 
 trary. 
 
 PRINCE. That is to say ? 
 
 MR. Z. . . . that war is not an unconditional 
 evil, and that peace is not an unconditional good, or, 
 speaking more simply, it is possible to have a good 
 war ; it is also possible to have a bad peace. 
 
 PRINCE. Oh, now I see the difference between 
 your point of view and that of the General. He 
 thinks that war is always good and peace is always 
 bad. 
 
 GENERAL. No, no. I understand perfectly that 
 war can be upon occasion a very bad affair, for 
 instance, when we are beaten, as at Narva or 
 Austerlitz ; and peace can be splendid, as for 
 instance, the peace of Nishstadt or Kutchuk- 
 Kainardzh. 
 
 LADY. That seems to be another variation of the 
 famous remark of some Kaffir or Hottentot, who 
 told the missionary that he understood the difference 
 between good and evil quite well : good was when 
 he carried off other people's wives and cattle, evil 
 was when others carried off his. 
 
 GENERAL. The African let that fall accidentally, 
 I made that humorous remark on purpose. But 
 now I'd like to hear how clever people determine the 
 moral point of view about war. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Ah, if our " clever people " would 
 only put aside scholasticism and metaphysics when 
 they come to such a clear, historically conditioned 
 problem. 
 
 PRINCE. Clear from what point of view ? 
 
12 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 POLITICIAN. My point of view is the ordinary 
 European one, which, by the way, nowadays, even 
 in other parts of the world, educated people are 
 beginning to assimilate. 
 
 PRINCE. And its essence is, of course, that every- 
 thing is comparative, and that an unconditional 
 difference between ought and ought not, between good 
 and bad, must never be allowed. Isn't that it ? 
 
 MR. Z. Beg pardon ; this point of dispute is 
 surely futile. I, for instance, whole-heartedly 
 acknowledge an irreconcilable opposition between 
 moral good and evil, but, even holding that opinion, 
 it is still quite clear to me that war and peace cannot 
 be checked off in that way, and that it would be 
 impossible to say that war was all black and peace 
 was all white. 
 
 PRINCE. But you are making a contradiction in 
 terms. If something which is in itself evil, as for 
 instance, murder, can under certain circumstances 
 be good, when, for instance, you choose to call it war, 
 then where will you put your unconditional dis- 
 tinction between good and evil ? 
 
 MR. Z. How simple it is for you. Every murder 
 is an unconditional evil, war is murder ; therefore 
 war is an unconditional evil. A syllogism of the 
 first order. But you have forgotten that both the 
 larger and the smaller premisses have yet to be 
 demonstrated, so consequently your conclusion still 
 hangs in the air. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Didn't I say that we should drop 
 into scholasticism ? 
 
 LADY. Yes. What are they talking about ? 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 13 
 
 POLITICIAN. About the larger and the smaller 
 premiss. 
 
 MR. Z. Forgive me. We shall get to business in 
 a moment. So you affirm that on any occasion to 
 take away another person's life is unconditional evil ? 
 
 PRINCE. Without doubt. 
 
 MR. Z. And to be killed is that an uncondi- 
 tional evil, or not ? 
 
 PRINCE. According to the Hottentots, the 
 answer is yes, but we were speaking about moral 
 evil, and that can consist only in the personal 
 actions of a reasoning being, it cannot consist in 
 what happens to a being against his will. That 
 means, to be killed just as to die from cholera or 
 influenza not only is not an unconditional evil, but 
 even is not evil. Socrates and the Stoics taught us 
 that in their day. 
 
 MR. Z. Well, for people of such antiquity I will 
 not take it upon myself to answer. But your idea 
 of unconditional evil goes a bit lame when we take 
 into consideration the moral significance of a murder. 
 According to you it works out that an unconditional 
 evil consists in causing to another something which 
 in itself is not even evil. As you will, but the theory 
 limps a little there. However, we will dismiss this 
 question of limping, lest through it we should really 
 climb into an academic discussion. The point is that 
 the evil of murder consists not in the physical fact 
 of the deprivation of life, but in the moral reason of 
 that fact, that is, in the evil will of the murderer. 
 You agree ? 
 
 PRINCE. Of course. Without that evil will there 
 
I 4 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 is no murder. There is only misfortune or careless- 
 ness. 
 
 MR. Z. It is quite clear when the will to kill is 
 completely absent, as for instance in the case of an 
 unsuccessful surgical operation. But it is possible to 
 imagine a different situation, when the will, although 
 it has not the direct aim of taking away the life of a 
 man, has yet agreed to that idea as possible upon an 
 extreme occasion. Would a murder resulting from 
 such a state of will be, from your point of view, 
 unconditionally evil ? 
 
 PRINCE. Yes, of course, once the will agrees to 
 murder. 
 
 MR. Z. But surely it happens that a will, though 
 agreeing to the idea of murder, is still not an evil 
 will, and that consequently, murder cannot be an 
 unconditional evil, even from the subjective side. 
 
 PRINCE. That's quite incomprehensible. . . . 
 However, I guess what you're after. You mean the 
 famous instance when in a wild district a father is 
 face to face with an engaged scoundrel who is about 
 to fling himself on his innocent (for greater effect add 
 the word little) daughter, and the father being unable 
 to protect her otherwise, slays the would-be ravisher. 
 I've heard the argument a thousand times. 
 
 MR. Z. The remarkable thing, however, is not 
 that you have heard it a thousand times, but that 
 no one has ever heard from those who think like 
 you even a fair-seeming objection to the argument. 
 
 PRINCE. But what is there to answer ? 
 
 MR. Z. There, there. Well, if you do not wish 
 to answer in the form of an objection, then state a 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 15 
 
 direct and positive case to the effect that on all 
 occasions without exception, and consequently in 
 this of which we are speaking, to abstain from 
 material opposition of evil is better than to employ 
 force with the risk of killing an evil and dangerous 
 man. 
 
 PRINCE. What sort of generalisation can there 
 be for a unique case ? Once you have agreed that 
 murder in general is in the moral sense evil, then it 
 is clear that in every single instance it will be evil 
 also. 
 
 LADY. Oh, but that's weak. 
 
 MR. Z. It is even very weak, Prince. That it is 
 generally better not to kill than to kill, we are all 
 agreed, and there is no argument about it. The 
 question is about separate occasions. It is asked : 
 Is the general or generally accepted rule not to kill 
 really an absolute rule permitting no exceptions 
 whatever, neither upon a unique occasion nor under 
 any circumstances whatsoever, or does it permit, 
 be it even one exception, and become therefore a 
 rule which is not absolute, not unconditional ? 
 
 PRINCE.- No, I don't agree to such a formal state- 
 ment of the question. To what end ? If I admit 
 that in your exceptional example specially thought 
 out for argument . . . 
 
 LADY (reproachfully) . Dear, dear ! 
 
 GENERAL (ironically). Oh-ho-ho ! 
 
 PRINCE (paying no attention). Granting that in 
 your specially-thought-out instance to kill is better 
 than not to kill as a matter of fact I, of course, do 
 not admit such a thing, but supposing you are right, 
 
16 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 supposing also that your instance is not one specially 
 thought out for argument but is something which is 
 real, though, as you would agree, most rare and 
 exceptional. We are talking of war, are we not ? 
 A general and universal phenomenon. And you will 
 not dare to affirm that Napoleon or Moltke or 
 Skobelef were to be found in any position in the 
 remotest degree resembling that of a father obliged 
 to protect his daughter from a savage. 
 
 LADY. Ah, that's better. Bravo, mon Prince ! 
 
 MR. Z. Certainly. A clever extrication from an 
 unpleasant question. But allow me, however, to 
 state the logical and historical link between the two 
 phenomena, murder and war. For that purpose let 
 us take up our example without, however, those par- 
 ticulars which seem to strengthen it, but which, as a 
 matter of fact, really weaken its significance. The 
 fact that he who murdered was a father and she 
 whom he protected was his daughter is not necessary 
 to us, in that the question loses its ethical significance 
 in the domain of natural moral feelings : parental 
 love would, of course, force the father to strike the 
 evil-doer without waiting to decide the question had 
 he or had he not the right to do it from the highest 
 moral standpoint. So let us abandon the father and 
 take a childless moralist before whose eyes some 
 weak fellow-creature, altogether unknown to him, 
 is suddenly subjected to the furious assault of a wild 
 miscreant. According to you, this moralist should 
 fold his arms and preach virtue whilst the monster is 
 tearing his victim ; is that not it ? According to 
 you, this moralist would not feel in himself any moral 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 17 
 
 impulse to stop the monster by material force with 
 the possibility and even probability of killing. And 
 if the crime is committed to the accompaniment of 
 his fine words, do you mean to say that his con- 
 science will not reproach him, and that he will not be 
 ashamed of himself and disgusted with himself ? 
 
 PRINCE. It is possible that a moralist who did 
 not believe in the reality of moral order, or who 
 forgot that God was not in violence but in truth, 
 might feel so. 
 
 LADY. Ah, that's very well said. Now you 
 answer something. 
 
 MR. Z. I answer that I should have liked it to be 
 said still better, more directly and more simply. I 
 suppose you wished to say that a moralist who 
 actually believed in God's truth should have turned 
 to God with prayer that the evil deed be not com- 
 mitted, or asking for a moral miracle, the sudden 
 turning of the evil-doer to the way of truth, or asking 
 for a material miracle, the sudden paralysis of the 
 man . . . 
 
 LADY. It could be done without paralysis. The 
 murderer might take fright at something or be in 
 some other way diverted from his evil intention. 
 
 MR. Z. That's all the same, because the miracle 
 is not in the actual happening, but in the expediency 
 of the happening, be it in physical paralysis or in 
 some sort of mental agitation. In any case, the 
 Prince's means of preventing evil-doing lies either in 
 prayer or in miracle. 
 
 PRINCE. What do you mean ? Why prayer, 
 why miracle ? 
 
 w.c. c 
 
i8 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 MR. Z. If not, what then ? 
 
 PRINCE. Once I believe that the world is 
 governed on good and reasonable principles I believe 
 nothing that is contrary to the will of God can 
 happen. 
 
 MR. Z. Beg pardon ! How old are you ? 
 
 PRINCE. What do you mean by that ques- 
 tion ? 
 
 MR. Z. Nothing offensive, I assure you. Thirty ? 
 
 PRINCE. Over thirty. 
 
 MR. Z. Then you certainly must have seen, or, if 
 you have not seen, must have heard, or, if you have 
 not heard, must have read in the newspapers, that 
 evil and immoral deeds do, however, take place upon 
 this world. 
 
 PRINCE. Well ? 
 
 MR. Z. Well, that means that moral order or 
 truth or the will of God is not absolutely realised 
 upon the world . . . 
 
 POLITICIAN. At last to business. If evil exists, 
 then the gods either cannot or do not wish to prevent 
 it. Gods in the sense of all-powerful or blessed 
 forces do not exist. Old, but true. 
 
 LADY. Oh, you ! 
 
 GENERAL. We have talked ourselves to that 
 point. Philosophise and your head goes round. 
 
 PRINCE. But that's bad philosophy ! As if God's 
 will were connected with our vague conceptions of 
 good and evil. 
 
 MR. Z. With certain vague conceptions it is not 
 connected, but with the true understanding of good 
 it is connected in the closest way. Otherwise, if 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 19 
 
 good and evil are indifferent to the Godhead, you 
 have refuted your own argument, Prince. 
 
 PRINCE. How is that ? 
 
 MR. Z. Because if it's all the same for the God- 
 head whether a savage under the influence of brutal 
 passion destroys a weak and delicate being, then 
 long since the Godhead must have found nothing 
 objectionable in the man who, under the influence 
 of compassion, destroys the savage. You will cer- 
 tainly not set yourself to defend anything so absurd 
 as that the murder of a weak and innocent being is 
 not evil before God, but that the murder of a strong 
 and evil one is. 
 
 PRINCE. That seems to you absurd because you 
 lay the emphasis in the wrong place. What is 
 morally important is not who is killed, but who kills. 
 You yourself called the evil-doer a savage, that is, a 
 being without conscience or reason ; and how could 
 there be moral evil, therefore, in his actions ? 
 
 LADY. Oh, oh I What question is there of a 
 savage in the literal sense ? It's all the same as if 
 I said to my daughter, " What stupidities you are 
 saying, my angel ! " and you began to take me to 
 task and say " Can angels say stupidities ? " What 
 a poor argument this is ! 
 
 PRINCE. Excuse me. I know, of course, that the 
 savage is also a man, but all the same, it is not 
 possible that a man with reason and conscience 
 should commit such a crime. 
 
 MR. Z. Of course a man acting like a beast loses 
 reason and conscience in the sense that he ceases to 
 listen to their voice, but that the man is without 
 
 c 2 
 
20 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 reason or conscience altogether remains to be shown, 
 and meanwhile I shall continue of opinion that the 
 brutal man is distinguished from us, not by the 
 absence of reason and conscience, but only by his 
 own determination to act contrary to them at the 
 enticement of the beast in himself, but the beast is 
 in us also, only we commonly keep him in durance. 
 The man of whom we are speaking had loosed the 
 beast from his fetters ; but fetters were there 
 though not being used. In general, that's it, and if 
 the Prince doesn't agree with you quickly, hoist him 
 with his own petard. If the evil-doer were only a 
 beast, one absolutely without reason or conscience, 
 then to kill him would be all the same as to kill a 
 wolf or a tiger who had been attacking a man even 
 the society for the protection of animals does not 
 forbid that. 
 
 PRINCE. But you again forget that whatever the 
 state of that man's mind, whether reason and 
 conscience were in complete atrophy or whether he 
 acted with conscious immorality, the question is not 
 about him, but about you yourselves : your reason 
 and conscience are not atrophied, and therefore you 
 would not consciously disregard what they demand 
 of you you would not have killed that man, what- 
 ever sort of man he were. 
 
 MR. Z. Of course I shouldn't have killed him if 
 reason and conscience had unconditionally for- 
 bidden it. But put it to yourself that my reason 
 and conscience advise me to act another way, and 
 that way seems to me more reasonable and con- 
 scientious. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 21 
 
 PRINCE. Let us hear an example. It would be 
 curious. 
 
 MR. Z. And first of all let us admit that reason 
 and conscience can count at least to three . . , 
 
 GENERAL. Oh-ho ; oh-ho ! 
 
 MR. Z. And therefore reason and conscience, 
 since they do not wish to give false verdicts, 
 will not say to me two, when the answer is 
 three. 
 
 GENERAL (impatiently). Ts-s I 
 
 PRINCE. This is all beyond me ! 
 
 MR. Z. Well, according to you, reason and con- 
 science tell me only about myself and about the 
 evil-doer, but the whole matter, according to you, 
 is in that I do not lay a finger upon him. But we 
 must not forget the third person, and he appears to 
 me to be the most important, the victim of the 
 outrage, the man demanding my support. You 
 always forget about him, but conscience speaks of 
 him, and speaks, I think, first of all. The will of 
 God is that I save this victim, according to possi- 
 bility, sparing the evil-doer, but in any case, I must 
 give the help which is in my power ; admonition if 
 that will do, if not, then material force, and only in 
 the event of my arms being tied need I turn to the 
 last means, seeking aid from above by prayer, that 
 is, by the highest exercise of good-will, whence as 
 a matter of fact I am convinced a miracle would 
 derive when necessary. But which of these means 
 of giving help to the victim it is necessary to employ 
 depends on the spiritual and phenomenal conditions 
 of the event. There is only one unconditional thing 
 
22 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 here, and that is, that I help him who is suffering ; 
 that is what my conscience says. 
 
 GENERAL. Hurrah ! The centre is broken. 
 
 PRINCE. I do not look so widely. My conscience 
 in such a case is more definite, and expresses itself 
 more shortly : Thou shalt not kill that is the 
 whole answer. Moreover, I do not see that we have 
 yet advanced an iota in this argument. If I again 
 agreed with you, that in the position which you 
 imagine, any man, even one morally developed and 
 deeply conscientious, could under the influence of 
 sympathy, not having time to obtain mentally a 
 clear notion of the moral quality of his act, commit 
 a murder, what follows with regard to the funda- 
 mental issue ? Are we to suppose that Tamerlane 
 or Alexander of Macedon or Lord Kitchener killed 
 or forced others to kill for the protection of weak 
 and delicate beings who were in danger of assault at 
 the hand of evil-doers ? 
 
 MR. Z. This juxtaposition of Tamerlane and 
 Alexander of Macedon promises poorly for our his- 
 torical sense, but since you, for the second time, turn 
 impatiently to this general domain of activity, then 
 permit me to quote an historical event which may 
 help us to connect the question of personal protection 
 with the question of governmental protection. It 
 was in the twelfth century at Kiev. The appanaged 
 princes were even then apparently of your opinion 
 with regard to war, and holding that quarrelling 
 and fighting should be confined to home, they would 
 not agree to go out to fight the Poloftsi, saying that 
 they would be sorry to cause people the calamity 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 23 
 
 of war. To that the Grand Duke Vladimir Mono- 
 makh made the following reply : " You are sorry for 
 these rascals, but you forget that Spring is coming. 
 . . . The peasant will go out with his horse to plough . 
 The Poloftsi will come, kill the peasant, and lead 
 off his horse ; they will come in great numbers, 
 massacre all the peasants, carry off all the women 
 and children, drive off the cattle and burn the village. 
 Aren't you sorry for these people ? I am sorry for 
 them, and for that reason call you against the 
 Poloftsi/' On that occasion the princes were put 
 to shame, and the land had protection under the 
 rule of Vladimir. But they afterwards returned to 
 their peace-loving state, avoided exterior wars, and 
 quarrelled at home and made scandals, and it ended 
 for Russia with the advance of the Mongol hordes, 
 and for the actual descendants of these princes, it 
 ended with the kind of entertainment which history 
 brought them in the shape of Ivan IV. 
 
 PRINCE. This is all beyond me. You cite an 
 event which never occurred to any of us, and cer- 
 tainly never will occur, and call up some Vladimir 
 Monomakh, who perhaps never existed at all, and 
 with whom, in any case, we have nothing whatever 
 to do ... 
 
 LADY. Parlez pour vous, monsieur. 
 
 MR. Z. Why, you, Prince, are one of those who 
 came to us with Rurik. 
 
 PRINCE. They say so, but what interest to me, 
 do you think, are Rurik, Sinius, and Truvor ? 
 
 LADY. I think that not to know about one's 
 own forefathers is to be like children who think 
 
 
24 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 they were found in a kitchen garden and beneath a 
 cabbage. 
 
 PRINCE. And what about those unfortunates 
 who don't happen to have any forefathers ? 
 
 MR. Z. Every one has at his disposal very cir- 
 cumstantial and instructive memoirs left him by his 
 forefathers I mean, national and universal history. 
 
 PRINCE. But these memoirs cannot determine 
 for us the question what are we to be now, what ought 
 we to do now. Admit that Vladimir Monomakh did 
 exist, and was not simply the imagination of some 
 monk ; admit even that he was an excellent man 
 and was sincerely sorry for the peasants, in any case 
 he was right to fight with the Poloftsi, because in 
 those wild times moral conscience had not triumphed 
 over the coarse Byzantine understanding of Chris- 
 tianity, and it did permit people to kill those whom 
 they deemed evil-doers ; but how can we act so, once 
 that we have understood that murder is an evil, 
 something contrary to the will of God, forbidden from 
 of old by God's commandment, when we know that 
 it cannot be permitted us under any guise, under any 
 name, and cannot cease to be evil when instead of 
 being the killing of one it becomes the killing of 
 thousands under the name of war ? It is first of all 
 a question of personal conscience. 
 
 GENERAL. Well, if it is a matter of personal con- 
 science, permit me to make the following personal 
 report. I am a man who in the moral sense, as of 
 course in most other senses, am altogether mediocre 
 neither black nor white, but grey. I have not 
 evinced either special virtue or special sin. But in 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 25 
 
 all good acts there is always a difficulty in weighing 
 their merit ; you can never be sure whether your 
 conscience had been obeyed, whether your con- 
 science stands for real good or only for a kind of 
 mental softness, a habit of life, or an impulse of 
 vanity. Good acts always seem to be in a small way. 
 In the whole of my life I only remember one good 
 occasion which it would be impossible to name 
 small, but I know absolutely that then there was 
 no doubt whatever about my impulse ; I acted 
 solely at the dictates of a good power. It was the 
 one occasion in life when I experienced a complete 
 moral satisfaction, where I fell even into a sort of 
 ecstasy because I had acted without reflection or 
 hesitation. My act remains till now, and will of 
 course remain for ever, my purest memory. Well, 
 and that one good act of mine was a murder, and 
 not by any means a small murder, for in a quarter of 
 an hour I killed considerably more than a thousand 
 men. 
 
 LADY. Quelles blagues ! And I thought that 
 you were serious. 
 
 GENERAL. Altogether serious ; I could bring 
 witnesses. Certainly I did not kill with my hands, 
 with these sinful hands, but with the aid of six pure, 
 sinless, steel cannon, with the most virtuous and 
 beneficial shrapnel. 
 
 LADY. What good was there in that ? 
 
 GENERAL. Well, of course, although I am a 
 military man, and, even according to our present 
 style, a militarist, I should not call the simple 
 destruction of a few thousands of ordinary people 
 
26 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 something good, be they Germans or Hungarians or 
 Englishmen or Turks. This was something quite 
 special. I cannot even now speak about it with 
 equanimity. It stirred up my soul so much. 
 
 LADY. Well, tell us it quickly. 
 
 GENERAL. Since I mentioned the cannon, you no 
 doubt guess that it was in the last Turkish war. I 
 was in the Third Caucasian Army. After the third 
 of October . . . 
 
 LADY. What third of October ? 
 
 GENERAL. That was when the fight on the 
 heights of Aladzhin took place, when we for the first 
 time broke up the flanks of the " invincible " Gazi- 
 Mukhtar Pasha. . . . Well, after the third of 
 October we began our advance. I was commander 
 of the advance reconnoitring division ; I had the 
 Nizhni Novgorod dragoons, three hundred Kubantsi 
 and a battery of horse artillery. It was a dreary 
 country, not bad up in the mountains, beautiful, but 
 in the hollows nothing but empty, burnt-down 
 villages and trampled earth. On the twenty-eighth 
 of October we descended to a valley where, by the 
 map, there should have been a large Armenian 
 village. Of course, there was no village left what- 
 ever, but there had been a fairly large one, and not 
 long ago. The smoke of it was seen for many versts. 
 I concentrated my detachment because, according 
 to rumour, there was a powerful band of cavalry 
 with whom we might quite possibly come into 
 collision. I rode with the dragoons, the Cossacks 
 going ahead. Quite close to the village the road had 
 a sharp turn. The Cossacks galloped round and 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 27 
 
 then came to a full stop, as if rooted to the earth. 
 I galloped up to them, but before I saw with my own 
 eyes I guessed from the smell what was the matter. 
 The Bashi-Bazouks had left their kitchen behind. 
 An immense waggon of fugitive Armenians had been 
 overtaken by the ravaging enemy. The Bashi- 
 Bazouks had made a fire under the waggon and 
 burnt the people slowly to death. Before doing so 
 they had bound many of the victims so that they 
 should not escape, and had committed barbarous 
 assaults upon them, there being many women with 
 mutilated breasts and bodies. I could not mention 
 all the details. One picture is clear in my eyes at 
 this moment a woman lying on her back on the 
 ground, her neck and shoulders tied to the cart- 
 wheel in such a way that she could not turn her head, 
 and she lay there neither burnt nor broken, but with 
 a ghastly twisted expression on her face she had 
 evidently died from terror. In front of her was a 
 high pole stuck into the ground, and a naked baby 
 was tied to it probably her own son all black with 
 fire and its eyes protruding. Such a mortal sorrow 
 overcame me that I looked upon God's earth with 
 loathing and I acted as if I had been a machine. I 
 gave the order for advance, and we came up to the 
 ravaged village. It was literally razed from the earth ; 
 there was not one stone left upon another. Suddenly 
 we saw what seemed like a scarecrow emerging from 
 a dry well ... all muddy and torn, he came up to 
 us, fell flat on the ground, and began reciting some- 
 thing in Armenian. We made him get up, cross- 
 questioned him, and found out that he was an 
 
28 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Armenian from another village. He was a little, 
 intelligent fellow ; he had just arrived at this village 
 when the inhabitants were beginning to flee. The 
 fugitives had only just started on their way when the 
 Bashi-Bazouks overtook them, a multitude of them 
 forty thousand, he said, but of course he didn't 
 count them on an abacus. He concealed himself in 
 a well. He heard the cries and so knew what was 
 happening. Then he heard the Bashi-Bazouks turn 
 about and gallop off. ' They have probably gone 
 to our village to do the same with our folk," said he. 
 
 When I heard that it was as if a light had suddenly 
 shone in my soul. My heart melted, and God's 
 world again smiled before me. " Have they long 
 gone ? " I said to the Armenian. He reckoned 
 three hours. 
 
 " And is it far to your village for mounted men ? " 
 
 " About five hours." 
 
 Well, we couldn't make up three hours' difference 
 in so short a space, that was certain. " Oh, Lord ! " 
 said I, " isn't there another road, a shorter one ? " 
 
 ' There is, there is ! There's a road through the 
 gorge ; quite a short one. Very few people know it. " 
 
 " Possible for cavalry ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And for artillery ? " 
 
 " It would be possible, but difficult." 
 
 We gave the Armenian a horse, and with the 
 whole detachment followed him through the gorge. 
 How we climbed among the mountains I hardly 
 remember. Once more I felt like a machine, though 
 there was in my soul a lightness as if I lay on feathers. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 29 
 
 I had complete assurance. I knew what was neces- 
 sary to do, and I felt what would be done. 
 
 We were just issuing from the last neck of the 
 gorge when suddenly our Armenian gallops back, 
 waving his arms and crying, " There they are ; 
 there they are ! " I went ahead to a point where 
 they were visible, and distinguished them with my 
 glasses, a great stretch of cavalry, perhaps not forty 
 thousand, but certainly three or four if not five 
 thousand. The devils saw our Cossacks and turned 
 towards us as our left flank issued from the gorge. 
 And they began to fire on us. A gun in the hand of 
 an Asiatic monster is pretty well as deadly as in the 
 hands of ordinary people. We began to fall ; here 
 and there a Cossack rolled over. The eldest of our 
 centurions came up to me and said : 
 
 " Order us to attack, your Excellency 1 Other- 
 wise anathema will fall upon us before we get the 
 artillery into position. Let us sweep them away ! " 
 
 " Be patient, darlings, just for a little," said I. 
 " I know you can scatter them, but what sweetness 
 is there in that ? God orders me to make an end of 
 them, not to scatter them/' 
 
 Well, I ordered an advance of part of our men in 
 open formation, and they engaged the enemy, 
 exchanging some volleys with them. We kept a 
 hundred of the men back to mask the artillery, and 
 placed the Nizhni Novgorods in the recesses to the 
 left of the battery. I myself trembled all the while 
 with impatience. The face of that burnt child with 
 the protruding eyes was constantly before me, and 
 our Cossacks kept falling. Oh, Lord ! 
 
30 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 LADY. How did it end ? 
 
 GENERAL.' It ended in the best way possible. 
 The Cossacks began to retreat, crying their Cossack 
 cries the while. The devil's brood came after them, 
 they had got excited and had already ceased shooting. 
 The whole crowd came galloping at us. The Cos- 
 sacks rode up to within two hundred sazhens of us 
 and then scattered, all in different directions. I 
 saw that the hour of God's will had arrived. I 
 ordered the dispersal of the hundred masking the 
 battery. " All is in order ; God give us His blessing ! " 
 said I to myself, and I gave the word to the artillery. 
 
 And God blessed all my six cannon. The first 
 round put them in confusion, the whole horde turned 
 to flight, and after the third round such a disorder 
 arose as would take place on an ant-heap if you threw 
 several lighted matches upon it. They went off with 
 a rush in all directions, in many cases trampling one 
 another down. Then our Cossacks and dragoons of 
 the left flank went after them and cut them up like 
 cabbage. Those who escaped the artillery perished 
 on their swords. Many threw down their arms, 
 leapt from their saddles, and offered themselves as 
 hostages. But I did not interfere ; they themselves 
 knew that this was not a matter of taking hostages, 
 and our Cossacks and Nizhni Novgorods cut them 
 all up. 
 
 And if only these brainless devils had not taken 
 fright at our fire, and instead of running away when 
 they were between twenty and thirty sazhens from 
 us had flung themselves upon us and taken the 
 cannon, we had never given them a third round. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 31 
 
 Well, God was with us ! The business was done, 
 and it was Easter-day in my soul, the bright day 
 of the resurrection of Christ. We gathered our 
 dead, thirty-seven men who had given their souls 
 to God. We placed them on a level stretch of land 
 in several rows, and closed their eyes. There was 
 among us in the third hundred an old policeman, 
 Odarchenko, a well-read man of remarkable capacity. 
 In England he would have become Prime Minister. 
 Now he's in Siberia for personal opposition to the 
 authorities when they were closing some monastery 
 of the Old Believers and destroying the grave of a 
 much venerated elder of the sect. I called him : 
 
 " Now, Odarchenko," said I, " this is a matter of 
 the road, and no place for deciding the right alle- 
 luias ; be our priest and sing the requiem for our 
 dead/' For him that was a pleasure of the first order. 
 
 " I shall be glad to try, your Excellency," says 
 he, his face all shining. We also found our singers 
 for the service. We sang the departing souls away 
 with full rites. It was impossible to get priestly 
 permission to do such a thing, but it was not neces- 
 sary : what permitted us was the word of Christ for 
 those who lay down their life for their friends. 
 That's how that funeral service strikes me now. 
 The day had been a cloudy autumn one, but before 
 sunset the heavy clouds disappeared. The gorge was 
 black beneath us, but in the sky the light cloudlets 
 were of many colours, as if the regiments of God 
 were gathering. The bright festival in my soul 
 remained. A sort of calm and incomprehensible 
 happiness possessed me, as if all earthly impurity 
 
32 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 had been washed away, as if earthly burdens had 
 slipped from me. I was as if in heaven. I felt the 
 presence of God, and that only. And as Odar- 
 chenko called out the names of the newly departed 
 warriors who had sacrificed their lives on the field 
 of battle for faith and Tsar and fatherland, I felt 
 that the official title given them was not merely an 
 official verbosity, but they were indeed a Christ- 
 serving army, and that War, as it was, so it is and 
 will be to the end of the world, a great honourable 
 and holy doing . . . 
 
 PRINCE (after some silence). Well, and when you 
 buried your people in this serene way, is it possible, 
 however, you did not remember the enemy whom 
 you had killed in such great numbers ? 
 
 GENERAL. No, glory be to God ! We managed 
 to move a little further back so that that carrion 
 did not remind us of its presence. 
 
 LADY. Ah, now you've spoilt the whole impres- 
 sion. How could you ? 
 
 GENERAL (turning to the Prince). And what 
 would you personally have wished of me ? That I 
 should give Christian burial to these jackals who were 
 neither Christian nor Mussulmen, but devil knows 
 what ? If I had gone out of my mind, and had 
 indeed ordered that they be buried together with 
 our Cossacks in one funeral service, you would 
 very probably have convicted me of religious 
 assault. How, man ? You actually subject these 
 dear unfortunates, who in their lifetime worshipped 
 the devil, to a superstitious and coarse pseudo- 
 Christian ritual ! No, I had something else to do, 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 33 
 
 I gave orders and made a manifesto to the effect 
 that none of the people approach within three 
 sazhens of this devil's carrion, for I saw that my 
 Cossacks' fingers had long since been itching to feel 
 their pockets according to custom. And who knew 
 what plague might have been let loose on us ! It 
 might have been the death of us all. 
 
 PRINCE. Have I then understood you aright ? 
 You were afraid, lest the Cossacks going to rob 
 the bodies of the Bashi-Bazouks should carry 
 infection into your camp ? 
 
 GENERAL. Yes, that's just what I was afraid of. 
 It seems clear. 
 
 PRINCE. There's your Christ-serving army ! 
 
 GENERAL. The Cossacks, eh ? ... Robbers in 
 spirit ! Always were and always will be. 
 
 PRINCE. Are we talking in our sleep ? 
 
 GENERAL. Yes, it seems to me as if something 
 didn't fit. I never seem to catch your drift. What 
 were you wishing to ask ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. The Prince is probably astonished 
 that your ideal, almost holy Cossacks, suddenly 
 appear to be, in your own words, robbers. 
 
 PRINCE. Yes, and I ask in what way can war be 
 a great, honourable and holy doing when all it comes 
 to, even by your own showing, is a struggle of one 
 set of robbers with another. 
 
 GENERAL. Eh ! So that's what you were after 
 "A struggle of one set of robbers with another." 
 Yes, there is something in what you say. I agree 
 that it is with another set of robbers, with an 
 altogether other set. Or do you in sober reality 
 
 w.c. D 
 
34 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 think that to steal when you have the chance is the 
 same sort of thing as to roast a baby in the eyes of 
 its mother ? Now this is what I say to you. My 
 conscience is so clear about this affair that I some- 
 times am sorry from the depths of my heart that I 
 did not die at the moment when I gave the order 
 for the last volley. I have not the slightest doubt 
 that dying then I should have gone straight with my 
 thirty-seven Cossacks to the Almighty, and we should 
 have taken our places in Paradise side by side with 
 the repentant thief of the Gospel. The story of the 
 penitent thief is not given by chance in the Gospel. 
 
 PRINCE. I agree ; only you will certainly not 
 find it said in the Gospel that repentant thieves are 
 only found among people of our own nation and our 
 own faith. 
 
 GENERAL. When did I make any distinction of 
 nationality or religion in this business ? Are the 
 Armenians my fellow-countrymen or fellow- Church- 
 men, or did I ask of what faith were this devil's brood 
 which I destroyed with our artillery ? 
 
 PRINCE. However, you do not seem to have been 
 able to recollect that this same devil's brood were 
 all the same, human beings, and that in every man 
 there is a sense of good and evil, and that every 
 robber, be he Cossack or Bashi-Bazouk, has the 
 chance of holding the position of the repentant thief 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 GENERAL. Have done with all that ! First you 
 say that an evil man is in nature like an irresponsible 
 beast, then you say that the Bashi-Bazouk roasting 
 a baby might turn out to be the penitent thief of the 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 35 
 
 Gospel ! And you put all this forward with the one 
 end that we should not oppose evil, even with a 
 finger. But according to my lights, what is impor- 
 tant is not that in every man are the roots of good 
 and evil, but which of the two prevails. It is not so 
 interesting that out of every kind of grape- juice it 
 is possible to make both wine and vinegar as to 
 know what actually is in that bottle there, wine or 
 vinegar. Because if it is vinegar and I begin to 
 drink it by tumblerfuls and to offer it to others under 
 the pretext that it is made from one and the same 
 material as wine, I shall certainly help no one by 
 that wisdom, unless spoiling their stomachs is any 
 help. All people are brothers. Splendid ! Very 
 glad ! Yes, but what further ? Brothers are of 
 different sorts. And why not be interested to know 
 which of my brothers is Cain and which Abel ? 
 And if before my eyes my brother Cain fall upon my 
 brother Abel, and I then through lack of equanimity 
 give brother Cain such a box on the ear that he's not 
 likely to do it again, you suddenly reproach me that 
 I have forgotten to be brotherly. I perfectly 
 remember why I interfered, and if I had not re- 
 membered I could quite calmly have passed by on 
 the other side. 
 
 PRINCE. Whence this dilemma : to pass by on 
 the other side, or to give a box on the ear ? 
 
 GENERAL. A third way you seldom find on such 
 occasions. You have proposed prayer to God for 
 His direct interference, that He should instantly, and 
 with His strong right arm, bring each devil's son to 
 reason though you yourself, it seems, renounce this 
 
 D 2 
 
36 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 means. But I hold that this means is good in any 
 business and that there is no substitute. Honest 
 folk say grace before dinner, but they chew with 
 their own jaws. It was not without prayer that I 
 gave the orders to the horse artillery. 
 
 PRINCE. Such a prayer is, of course, blasphemy. 
 It is necessary not so much to pray to God as to act 
 according to the will of God. 
 
 GENERAL. For instance ? 
 
 PRINCE. He who is filled with the true spirit of 
 the Gospel will find in himself, when necessary, the 
 power, with words and gestures and with his whole 
 appearance to act upon the mind of his unfortunate 
 dark brother who wishes to commit a murder or some 
 other evil, he will be able to make on him such a 
 staggering impression that he will at once under- 
 stand his mistake and turn away from the false road. 
 
 GENERAL. Holy martyrs ! Do you mean to say 
 that I should have gone forward to the Bashi- 
 Bazouks who murdered the babies, and made touch- 
 ing gestures and said touching words ? 
 
 MR. Z. Words, owing to the distance and to your 
 mutual ignorance of one another's language, would, 
 I imagine, have been completely out of place. And 
 as far as gestures go in making a staggering impres- 
 sion, as you will of course, but I should have thought 
 that under the given circumstances one couldn't 
 think of anything better than a volley or so. 
 
 LADY. But really, do tell us, Prince, in what 
 language and by the help of what instruments could 
 the General have explained himself to the Bashi- 
 Bazouks ? 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 37 
 
 PRINCE. I did not at all mean that they could 
 treat the Bashi-Bazouks according to the spirit of the 
 Gospel. I only said that a man filled with the true 
 spirit of the Gospel would have found the possibility 
 on that occasion, as indeed on any other occasion, to 
 awaken in their dark souls the good which lies hidden 
 in every human being. 
 
 MR. Z. You really think so ? 
 
 PRINCE. I do not doubt it in the least. 
 
 MR. Z. And do you think that Christ was suffi- 
 ciently penetrated by the true spirit of the Gospel, 
 or no ? 
 
 PRINCE. What sort of a question is that ? 
 
 MR. Z. Well, this is what I'd like to know : why 
 did not Christ bring the evangelical spirit to bear in 
 such a way upon the souls of Judas, Herod, the 
 Jewish Sanhedrin, and the unrepentant thief, 
 whom commonly people forget when they speak of 
 his repentant companion ? Why did He not bring 
 out the good in them ? From a positive Christian 
 point there is no insurmountable difficulty in it. 
 But you have got to give up one of two things : 
 either your habit of taking refuge with Christ and 
 the Gospel as with the highest authority, or your 
 moral optimism, because the third way, the well- 
 worn way, of denying the evangelical fact itself as a 
 modern fiction or priestly interpretation, is in the 
 present instance completely closed to you. However 
 you ransack the four Gospels for texts, the principal 
 fact from the point of view of our question will 
 remain indisputable, and that is, that Christ Himself 
 suffered bitter persecution and death because of the 
 
38 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 malice of His enemies. That He Himself remained 
 morally higher than all that malice, that He did not 
 wish to offer any opposition, and that He forgave 
 His enemies, is as comprehensible from my point of 
 view as from yours. But why did He not, forgiving 
 His enemies, deliver their souls from that dreadful 
 darkness in which they then were ? Why did He 
 not overcome their malice by the force of His own 
 sweetness ? Why did He not awaken the sleeping 
 good in them ? Why did He not give them light 
 and new spiritual birth ? In a word, why did He 
 not act upon Judas, Herod, and the Jewish Sanhedrin 
 in the same way as He acted upon the one repentant 
 thief ? Either He could not or He would not. 
 In both instances it turns out, according to you, that 
 He was not sufficiently penetrated with the true 
 spirit of the Gospel, and as we are speaking, if I do 
 not mistake, of the Gospel of Christ and not of any 
 other gospel, it appears that Christ was not suffi- 
 ciently penetrated with the true spirit of Christ 
 upon which result I offer you my congratulations. 
 
 PRINCE. Oh, I am not going to enter into verbal 
 fencing with you any more than I am going to enter 
 into real fencing with the General, with " Christ- 
 serving " swords . . . 
 
 (At this point the Prince got up from his seat and 
 wished apparently to say something very powerful, 
 expecting with one blow, without any fencing, to over- 
 whelm his antagonist, but at that moment it began to 
 strike seven from a neighbouring belfry.) 
 
 LADY. Dinner-time ! What's more, we mustn't 
 finish such a discussion in a hurry. After dinner 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 39 
 
 we'll have our game of vint, but to-morrow we must, 
 we absolutely must, go on with this conversation. 
 (To the Politician) You agree ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. What, to continue this conver- 
 sation ? I was overjoyed that it had come to an 
 end ! The dispute had taken the rather unpleasant 
 complexion of a holy war ! It was too hot work 
 for this time of the year. My health I can tell you, 
 is dearer to me than any of these things. 
 
 LADY. Don't pretend ! You must, you abso- 
 lutely must, take part. It's no use your lounging 
 there stretched out on your deck chair like a 
 mysterious Mephistopheles. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Well, I might agree to take part 
 to-morrow, but only on condition that there be less 
 religion in it. I don't ask you to exclude it altogether, 
 as it seems that would be impossible. Only let there 
 be less, for God's sake, a little less 1 
 
 LADY. Your " for God's sake " is on this occa- 
 sion very sweet. 
 
 MR. Z. (to the Politician). The best means of 
 making sure that there shall be less religion would 
 be for you to speak much more, wouldn't it ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. I promise ! Only to listen is, all 
 the same, more pleasant than to talk, especially 
 in this fine air ; but for the salvation of our little 
 circle from mutual conflict, which might possibly 
 reflect itself in an unpleasant way in our vint, I am 
 ready to sacrifice myself for two hours. 
 
 LADY. Splendid ! And the day after to-morrow 
 then, we will finish this discussion about the Bible. 
 The Prince will get ready some absolutely irrefut- 
 
40 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 able argument. Only you also must be present at 
 
 the end. You need a little instruction in the 
 
 Scriptures. 
 POLITICIAN. What ! The day after to-morrow, 
 
 as well ? No, no ! My self-sacrifice won't go as 
 
 far as that. What's more, I must go to Nice the day 
 
 after to-morrow. 
 
 LADY. To Nice ? What naive diplomacy you 
 are practising upon us ! It's no good. We've long 
 
 since learnt to read your cypher, and now every- 
 body knows that when you say you're going to Nice 
 it means you're off to Monte Carlo for a spree. Never 
 mind, we'll manage somehow without you. Go and 
 wallow in material things, since you're not afraid 
 of the fact that you will have to join the world of 
 spirits later on. Go to Monte Carlo, and may Provi- 
 dence reward you according to your deserts ! 
 
 POLITICIAN. My deserts don't concern Provi- 
 dence, as it happens, but only a little business 
 which I have got to see through. I might try my 
 luck with a little small change at roulette, I admit, 
 but I shouldn't spend much. 
 
 LADY. Only to-morrow then, we must all be 
 present. 
 
SECOND CONVERSATION 
 
 " Audiatur et altera pars" 
 
 ON the following day, at the appointed hour, I 
 met the others at afternoon tea under the palm 
 trees. Only the Prince was absent. We had to wait 
 for him. As I did not play cards I wrote down the 
 whole of this conversation from the very beginning. 
 This time the Politician spoke so much and in such 
 a drawling way that to note down literally every- 
 thing he said would be impossible. I have men- 
 tioned a sufficient number of his remarks and have 
 endeavoured to preserve the general meaning. In 
 many instances I can merely convey in my own 
 words the substance of his discourses. 
 
 POLITICIAN. I have long observed a certain 
 peculiarity : people who have made a special hobby 
 of some kind of higher morality cannot master the 
 simplest and most indispensable, and according 
 to me, the most necessary virtue common polite- 
 ness. We must therefore be grateful to the Almighty 
 that in our midst there are comparatively few pos- 
 sessed of this idea of higher morality. I say idea 
 advisedly, because in reality I have never met with 
 it, nor do I believe in its existence. 
 
 LADY. Well, that is not new, but what you say 
 about politeness is true. Try, before you have 
 come to the sujet en question, to prove that polite- 
 ness is the only indispensable virtue ; try to prove 
 
42 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 it even superficially, as musical instruments are 
 tuned before the overture begins. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Yes, in such cases only separate 
 sounds are heard. Such monotony would also pre- 
 vail now, for scarcely anyone would care to defend 
 another opinion before the arrival of the Prince. 
 Besides, to speak of politeness to-day in his presence 
 would not be quite polite. 
 
 LADY. Certainly. And how about your 
 argument ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. This, I think you will agree that 
 one can exist quite well in a society where there 
 are no chaste, disinterested or unselfish persons. I, 
 at any rate, have got on very well in such company. 
 
 LADY. At Monte Carlo ! 
 
 POLITICIAN. At Monte Carlo and everywhere else. 
 In fact, nowhere is there felt to be a demand for even 
 a single representative of the higher virtues. But 
 try to live in a society where there is not a single 
 polite person. 
 
 GENERAL. I do not know to what society you 
 are good enough to refer, but during the campaigns 
 in Khiva and Turkey something more than polite- 
 ness was needed. 
 
 POLITICIAN. You might as well have added that 
 for travellers in Central Africa more than politeness 
 was required. I speak of well-organised daily life 
 in the cultured society of human beings, and that 
 requires none of the higher virtues or of Christianity 
 so-called. (Turning to Mr. Z.) You shake your head. 
 
 MR. Z. I recall to mind a painful incident which 
 was told me. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 43 
 
 LADY. And what was that ? 
 
 MR. Z. My friend N. died quite suddenly. 
 
 GENERAL. The well-known novelist ? 
 
 MR. Z. The same. 
 
 POLITICIAN. The newspapers wrote rather mys- 
 teriously about his death. 
 
 MR. Z. Precisely very mysteriously. 
 
 LADY. But what made you think of him just now ? 
 Did he die from somebody's lack of politeness ? 
 
 MR. Z. On the contrary, merely from his own 
 exaggerated politeness. 
 
 GENERAL. And even on this point we do not 
 appear to agree. 
 
 LADY. If possible, tell us all about it. 
 
 MR. Z. There is nothing to hide. My friend, 
 who also thought that politeness, although not the 
 only virtue, was, at all events, the most necessary 
 step in social morality, considered it his bounden 
 duty to fulfil all its dictates. Among the duties 
 which he imposed on himself was that of reading 
 all letters addressed to him, even from unknown 
 people, as well as books and pamphlets for re- 
 view. He read all the letters and noticed all the 
 books. He conscientiously carried out every request 
 addressed to him, and consequently was busy all day 
 with other people's affairs, while his own occupied 
 him at night. What is more, he accepted all invi- 
 tations and received all comers. While my friend 
 was young and could stand strong drinks the hard 
 labour imposed by politeness, although under- 
 mining his health, did not degenerate into tragedy. 
 Wine cheered his heart and saved him from despair. 
 
44 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Sometimes, when ready to seize a rope with which to 
 hang himself, he stretched out his hand for the bottle, 
 and that gave him courage. Constitutionally he was 
 weak, and at the age of forty-five he had to give up 
 strong drink. When sober, this slavery seemed hell 
 to him, and now, I am informed, he has committed 
 suicide. 
 
 LADY. What ! And simply from politeness ? 
 But he was mad ! 
 
 MR. Z. No doubt he lost his reason, but I venture 
 to think that word " simply " is not applicable to 
 this case. 
 
 GENERAL. I have also seen similar cases of in- 
 sanity, and if one tried to fathom them one might 
 also go mad. It is far from simple. 
 
 POLITICIAN. In every case it is clear that polite- 
 ness has nothing to do with the matter. The 
 Spanish throne was no more to blame for the madness 
 of the chinovnik Poprischin 1 than the necessity to 
 be polite was answerable for your friend's insanity. 
 
 MR. Z. Of course, I am not against politeness, 
 but only against making a law of politeness. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Absolute rules, as everything abso- 
 lute, are merely the inventions of people bereft of 
 common sense and of the feeling of living reality. I 
 do not admit any absolute rules, I only accept 
 indispensable rules. For instance, I am well aware 
 that if I do not adopt the rule of cleanliness the result 
 will be unpleasant to myself and to others. In order 
 not to experience unpleasant sensations, I adhere un- 
 alterably to the rule of washing myself every day, to 
 1 In Gogol's " Diary of a Madman." 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 45 
 
 putting on clean linen, etc., not because it is a gene- 
 rally received custom of other people or myself, or 
 because it is a sacred duty, or a sin to neglect it, but 
 merely because uncleanliness, ipso facto, is a material 
 inconvenience. Just the same applies to politeness, 
 of which cleanliness is a component part. For me 
 and for others it is much more convenient to perform 
 than to neglect the rules of politeness, and therefore 
 I adhere to them. Your friend imagined that 
 politeness meant answering all letters and executing 
 all requests without reference to convenience and 
 personal advantage ; that was not politeness, but 
 a kind of foolish self-sacrifice. 
 
 MR. Z. Morbid development of conscientiousness 
 became, in his case, a mania, which killed him. 
 
 LADY. But it is awful that a man should perish 
 through such nonsense. Could not you bring him to 
 reason ? 
 
 MR. Z. I did my best, and was even assisted by 
 a pilgrim from Mount Athos, who was half crazy, 
 but a very remarkable person. My friend greatly 
 respected him and often consulted him in spiritual 
 matters. That man struck at once at the root of 
 the trouble. I knew the pilgrim well and was often 
 present at the discussions. 
 
 When my friend began telling him about his moral 
 doubts, saying was he right in this or had he 
 sinned in that, Varsonophia sharply interrupted 
 him : " Eh, why are you grieving about your sins 
 don't ! Listen to me : sin five hundred and thirty- 
 nine times in a day, but don't grieve about it ; that's 
 the chief thing. If to sin is evil, then to remember 
 
46 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 sin is evil. There is nothing worse than to call to 
 mind one's own sins. Better think of the evil which 
 others do to you, there is some use in that ; for the 
 future you will beware of such persons. As for your 
 evil actions forget them, so that they may disap- 
 pear altogether. There is only one deadly sin and 
 that is despondency. From despondency comes 
 despair ; and that is more than sin, it is spiritual 
 death. Well, and what other sins are there ? How 
 about drunkenness ? A sensible man drinks when 
 he is thirsty ; he does not drink at random, but a 
 fool gorges himself even with plain water, therefore 
 the evil is not in the wine, but in the foolishness. 
 Some people in their foolishness burn their insides 
 with vodka, and even their outsides turn black and 
 sparks fly about. I have seen it with my own eyes. 
 It is something worse than sin when the fiery Gehenna 
 pierces through the skin. As regards all the various 
 violations of the seventh commandment, I will speak 
 according to my conscience : it is difficult to judge 
 and impossible to praise ! I do not recommend it ! 
 There is no denying it is a thrilling pleasure, but it 
 leads to sorrow and shortens life. If you don't believe 
 me, see here what a learned German doctor writes." 
 And Varsonophia took an antiquated-looking book 
 from the shelf and began turning over its leaves. 
 " Here is Hun 1 and. See page 176." And he read 
 sententiously how the German author warns against 
 the foolish waste of vital power. " Well, you see, 
 why should a reasonable man exhaust his strength ? 
 In early, reckless years evil is done and health is lost. 
 But to recall all the past and be distressed, saying 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 47 
 
 why did I lose my innocence, my purity of soul and 
 body, that is sheer nonsense ; it is simply playing 
 the buffoon to the devil. Of course it flatters the 
 devil that your soul should not rise higher, but 
 remain in the same dirty slum. Here is my advice : 
 When the devil begins to trouble about all this 
 repentance, just spit upon him and say ' Here are 
 all my heavy sins, they are not very important/ 
 I promise he will leave you in peace ! I speak from 
 experience. . . . And for what other infractions 
 of the law are you responsible ? You wouldn't 
 steal ? And if you did there is no great harm ; 
 nowadays everyone steals. It follows you mustn't 
 worry about these trifles, but only beware of 
 being despondent. When thoughts come about 
 sins have not I wronged or offended some one ? 
 go to the theatre, or to some merry friends, or read 
 some funny stories. And if a rule is wanted, here 
 it is : be firm in belief, not from fear of sin, but 
 because it is very pleasant for a wise man to live 
 with God, for without God life is bad. Study the 
 word of God, for if you read with attention every 
 line is worth a rouble ; pray earnestly once or twice 
 a day. Don't forget to wash yourself, and sin- 
 cere prayer is even better for the soul than soap 
 for the body. Fast for thy stomach's sake and thy 
 other internal organs ; doctors advise fasting after 
 forty. Don't think about other people's affairs or 
 trouble about philanthropy, if you have work to do ; 
 give money to beggars not counting it ; give dona- 
 tions to churches and monasteries without stint ; 
 it will be recorded in heaven, and you will be healthy 
 
48 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 in soul and body. Avoid bigots who like to pry 
 into other people's souls, because their own souls are 
 empty." 
 
 Such speeches produced a favourable influence on 
 my friend, but they could not drive away the ideas 
 which pressed on his mind, and latterly he seldom 
 saw Varsonophia. 
 
 POLITICIAN. The pilgrim says, in substance, 
 pretty much what I do. 
 
 LADY. So much the better. Really, what a 
 wonderful moralist ! Sin but don't repent I like 
 that very much. 
 
 GENERAL. I presume he does not say the same to 
 everybody. If it were a murderer or a blackguard 
 I suppose he would give some different teaching. 
 
 MR. Z. Well, of course. But when he meets 
 moral, scrupulous people he instantly becomes a 
 philosopher and even a fatalist. A very clever and 
 well-educated old lady was delighted with him. 
 Although of the Russian orthodox faith, she had 
 been educated abroad. She heard much about 
 Varsonophia and consulted him as though he were 
 a directeur de conscience, but he did not give her 
 a chance of saying much about such trash ! " Who 
 wants it ? " said he. " Why even I, a common mou- 
 jik, find it tedious tp listen to you, and do you think 
 that it can interest God Almighty ! And what is 
 there to talk about ! You are old and weak and 
 never will be any better ! " She told me this with 
 laughter and tears in her eyes. Still, she tried to 
 refute it, though he finally convinced her by a story 
 about an old hermit. Varsonophia also often spoke 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 49 
 
 to me and to N. about this hermit. Not a bad story, 
 but too long to relate at present. 
 
 LADY. But tell it to us in a few words. 
 
 MR. Z. I will try. In the desert of Nitria two 
 hermits were " working out " their salvation. Their 
 caves were not far from each other, but they never 
 conversed, only chanted psalms occasionally. Thus 
 they passed many years, and their fame began to 
 spread through Egypt and the neighbouring 
 countries. But in course of time the devil suc- 
 ceeded in poisoning their souls ; they packed their 
 belongings, their baskets and beds of palm leaves 
 and branches, and marched off to Alexandria. There 
 they sold their work, and on the money they got for 
 it they spent three days and three nights with 
 drunkards and sinners and then returned to their 
 desert. One of them lamented and cried most 
 bitterly : " I am lost and accursed ! Such madness 
 and evil doings can never be forgiven. All my 
 fastings, vigils and prayers are wasted." 
 
 The other pilgrim walked beside him and sang 
 psalms joyfully to himself. The first cried : 
 
 " Are you mad ? " 
 
 " Why ? " asked the joyful one. 
 
 " Aren't you sorry ? " 
 
 " About what should I be sorry ? " 
 
 " And about Alexandria ? " 
 
 " Glory be to the Almighty, who preserves the 
 famous and God-fearing city." 
 
 " And what did we do at Alexandria ? " 
 
 " Of course we sold our baskets, bowed low t<s 
 St. Mark and visited the other temples ; we waited 
 
 w.c. E 
 
50 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 on the pious protector of the city, we conversed with 
 the virtuous matron Leonilla ..." 
 
 " Did not we spend the night in a house of ill- 
 fame ? " 
 
 " God preserve us ! The evening and night we 
 passed in the patriarch's hostelry." 
 
 " Holy martyrs ! Why he is off his head. . . . 
 And was it not there that we were filled with wine ? ' ' 
 
 ' We tasted wine and food from the patriarch's 
 hospitable board on the occasion of the Presen- 
 tation of the Blessed Virgin in the Temple." 
 
 " Wretched man ! And who kissed us, to say 
 nothing worse ? . . ." 
 
 " And at parting we received a holy kiss from 
 that holy father of fathers, the blessed Archbishop 
 of Alexandria and of all Egypt ; yes, and of 
 Libya and of Pentapolis and of Kur-Timothee with 
 its spiritual court, and with all the fathers and 
 brothers of his divinely appointed clergy." 
 
 " But are you mocking me ? Or has the devil 
 possessed you after yesterday's evil deeds ? You, 
 cursed man, have embraced sinners ! " 
 
 " Well, I do not know into whom the devil has 
 entered : into me who rejoice in the gifts of God and 
 in the kindness extended to us by the heads of the 
 Church, and praise the Creator with all creation, or 
 into you, who rave and call the house of our blessed 
 father and pastor a house of ill-fame, and defame 
 the God-loving clergy, calling them sinners, as it 
 were ! " 
 
 " Oh, thou heretic ! Aryan offspring, cursed 
 lips of Apollonion ! " 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 51 
 
 The hermit, afflicted by his sinful transgressions, 
 threw himself on his companion and began beating 
 him with all his might. After this they went in 
 silence to their caves. 
 
 The despondent hermit filled the desert with 
 lamentations, groans and sobs, beating his head 
 against the stone floor. In the morning a new 
 idea occupied his mind : " By many years of good 
 deeds I earned the special blessing of the Holy 
 Ghost, which has already appeared in signs and 
 wonders. But after that, by lowering myself to 
 carnal lusts, I sinned against the Holy Ghost, and 
 that sin, according to the word of God, will not be 
 forgiven in this world or the next. I cast the pearl 
 of heavenly purity before swine, i.e., before devils, 
 who, treading on it, will turn and rend me. But 
 if in any case I am lost for ever, what have I to do 
 in the desert ? " 
 
 And he went to Alexandria and led a loose lite. 
 When in want of money he joined himself to other 
 dissolute revellers, killing and robbing a rich mer- 
 chant. The crime was discovered, he was taken to 
 the town court, condemned to death, and he died 
 without repentance. Meanwhile, his former com- 
 panion, continuing his asceticism, attained the 
 highest Church dignities and was renowned for 
 wonderful deeds. At his word even barren women 
 bore male children. When the day of his death 
 came his shrivelled and dried up body suddenly 
 became young and beautiful, it shone and per- 
 fumed the ambient air. A monastery was erected 
 over his wonder-working body, and his name passed 
 
 E 2 
 
52 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 from the Church in Alexandria to Byzantium, and 
 thence to the shrines of Kiev and Moscow. " The 
 lesson of this story," said Varsono, " is that all sins 
 are harmless except despondency. The two men 
 committed every iniquity conjointly, but only one 
 of them perished, namely, he who desponded." 
 
 GENERAL. You see, monks must have a coura- 
 geous spirit, but nowadays even soldiers are 
 discouraged. 
 
 MR. Z. It seems we have drifted from the ques- 
 tion of politeness, but have returned to our prin- 
 cipal subject. 
 
 LADY. And here comes the Prince. How are 
 you ? In your absence we have been speaking 
 about politeness. 
 
 PRINCE. Please excuse me, I could not get away 
 earlier. I received a lot of papers and printed matter 
 from our friends. I will show them to you later on. 
 
 LADY. And I will afterwards tell you a holy 
 anecdote, which entertained us in your absence. 
 It was about two monks. But now it is the turn 
 of our Monte Carloist to speak. Well, let us know 
 what he has to say about war after yesterday's 
 conversation. 
 
 POLITICIAN. From yesterday's conversation I 
 remember the reference to Vladimir Monomakh, 
 and the General's military story. Let this be the 
 starting point for the further discussion of the 
 question. It is impossible to deny that Vladimir 
 Monomakh did well when he defeated the Poloftsi, 
 and that the General did his duty when he destroyed 
 the Bashi-Bazouks. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 53 
 
 LADY. That means that you agree. 
 
 POLITICIAN. I agree with what I have had the 
 honour of telling you, namely, that Monomakh and 
 the General acted in the way they were bound to 
 do in the given situation ; but how are we to appre- 
 ciate that situation, or to justify the perpetuation 
 of war and militarism ? 
 
 PRINCE. That is precisely what I say. 
 
 LADY. And the United States ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. I thank you for the happy example. 
 I speak of the creation of a State. Of course, the 
 United States, as a European colony, was founded as 
 all other colonies, not by war, but by navigation. 
 However, as soon as that colony desired to be a 
 State, it had to obtain its political independence by 
 a lengthy war. 
 
 PRINCE. Because a State is created by war, 
 which certainly cannot be denied, you evidently 
 conclude that war is important, while I conclude 
 that it proves the unimportance of the State. I 
 mean, of course, for people who have refused to bow 
 down to brute force. 
 
 POLITICIAN. And why do you speak of wor- 
 shipping brute force ? Try to organise a sound 
 community of human beings without Government 
 control, then only can you discuss the non-impor- 
 tance of Governments. Until then, the State and all 
 that you and I owe it, remains an established fact, 
 while your attacks are mere insignificant words. 
 Therefore, I repeat : the great historical meaning of 
 war, as the principal condition in the foundation of a 
 State, is beside the question. But I ask : Must we 
 
54 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 not consider the great business of forming an Empire 
 as already accomplished in substance ? Details 
 can, of course, be arranged even without such 
 heroic measures as war. In ancient times and in the 
 Middle Ages, when the European world of culture 
 was but an island in the middle of an ocean of 
 barbarism, military organisation was necessary for 
 self-preservation. People had to be always in 
 readiness to drive away wild hordes, which came 
 from unknown regions to crush dawning civilisation. 
 And now only the non-European elements should be 
 termed islands, while European culture has become 
 the ocean which surrounds them. Our men of 
 science, our adventurers and missionaries have 
 scoured the whole terrestrial globe and have dis- 
 covered no serious danger to the culture of the 
 world. Wild tribes are very successfully destroying 
 themselves and are dying out ; warlike barbarians, 
 as, for instance, Turks and Japanese, are becom- 
 ing civilised and are losing their militarism. Mean- 
 while, the unification of European nations in general 
 cultural life . . . 
 
 LADY (under her breath). Monte Carlo. 
 
 POLITICIAN (continuing his oration). has been 
 so strengthened that fighting between those nations 
 assumes the character of civil war. It would 
 be unpardonable in every respect, since there is 
 a possibility of arranging international quarrels 
 peaceably. To settle disputes by fighting would 
 at the present time be as fantastic as to go from 
 Petersburg to Marseilles in a sailing vessel or in a 
 Russian tarantass drawn by three horses. I fully 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 55 
 
 admit, however, that the ancient modes of travel 
 described by Pushkin and Lermontof are much 
 more poetical than the whistle of a steamer or the 
 cry " en voiture, messieurs." I am equally prepared 
 to admit the aesthetic superiority of " bristling 
 steel " and of brilliant regiments over the negotiations 
 of diplomats and their peaceful congresses. But the 
 serious consideration of a question, treating of life 
 and death, must ignore aesthetic beauty, which has 
 nothing in common with war. I do assure you that 
 it is in no way beautiful, as represented by the fancy 
 of the poet or the artist. When it is understood that 
 war, with all its attractive interest for poets and 
 painters, is useless, because unprofitable, then the 
 military period of history must end. I, of course, 
 speak in general en grand. There cannot be a ques- 
 tion of immediate disarmament, but I am firmly 
 convinced that neither we nor our children will 
 ever witness great wars, real European wars. As for 
 our grandchildren, they will only read in historical 
 works of little wars somewhere in Asia and Africa. 
 My reply concerning Vladimir Monomakh is as 
 follows : When it became necessary to protect the 
 future of the newly-born Russian State from the 
 inroads of Poloftsi, Tartars, etc., war was the most 
 indispensable and important business. The same 
 may, to a certain extent, be said about the epoch of 
 Peter the Great, when it was necessary to guarantee 
 the future of Russia as a European power. But 
 after that the meaning of war becomes more and 
 more an exploded question, and at present, as 
 already stated, the military period in Russia, and 
 
56 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 elsewhere, is a thing of the past. What I have just 
 said about our own country is applicable certainly, 
 mutatis mutandis to other European States. 
 Formerly, war was everywhere the principal and 
 unavoidable means for the protection and security 
 of government and of national existence. When that 
 is once attained war will lose its raison d'etre and 
 cease to exist. 
 
 I may add that I am astonished at the way 
 some modern philosophers discuss the meaning 
 of war with reference to the times. Has war any 
 meaning ? C'est selon. Yesterday war had signifi- 
 cance everywhere ; to-day somewhere, perhaps in 
 Africa or Central Asia, where wild tribes still exist ; 
 to-morrow it will have no meaning anywhere. It 
 is remarkable that in proportion to losing its prac- 
 tical meaning, war also loses, slowly but surely, its 
 mystical aureole. It is even evident among the 
 masses of a nation as backward as our own. Judge 
 for yourselves : only the other day the General 
 triumphantly pointed out that our saints were 
 either monks or soldiers. But I ask you : to 
 what special historical epoch does all this military 
 sanctity or saintly militarism belong ? Does it not 
 form part of that period when war was really un- 
 avoidable, beneficial, and, if you will, holy doing ? 
 Our saintly warriors were all princes of the Kiev 
 and Tartar epoch. But among them I do not 
 remember any lieutenant-generals or other generals. 
 What does that mean ? Take two eminent warriors 
 with equal claims to sanctity : the one is considered 
 a saint and the other is not. Why, may I ask, is 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 57 
 
 Alexander Nevsky, who beat the Livonians and the 
 Swedes in the thirteenth century, a saint, and why 
 is Alexander Suvorof, who beat the French in the 
 eighteenth century, not a saint ? Suvorof could 
 not be reproached with want of sanctity. He was 
 sincerely religious, sang in choirs, read from the 
 ambon, and led an unblemished life. He had no 
 love intrigues, and even his religious naivete would 
 rather be an argument in favour of canonisation. 
 But the point is, that Alexander Nevsky fought for 
 the national-political future of his country, which 
 was already partly crushed by inroads from the 
 East, and could scarcely withstand the invasions 
 from the West. The instinctive common sense of 
 the people understood the vital importance of 
 the situation and conferred on their Prince the 
 highest recompense they could devise, canonisation. 
 Suvorofs exploits, although incomparably more 
 important in a military sense, especially his crossing 
 the Alps, which was worthy of Hannibal, were 
 absolutely necessary to save Russia from annihila- 
 tion. Therefore he is merely a military celebrity. 
 
 LADY. But the leaders of the army who fought 
 Napoleon in the year 1812 were not canonised, 
 although they did save Russia. 
 
 POLITICIAN. The expression saving Russia from 
 Napoleon is patriotic rhetoric. He would not have 
 devoured us, nor did he intend to do so. That we 
 finally overcame him certainly shows our national 
 Imperial power and raises our sentiments of patrio- 
 tism. But that the war of the year 1812 was called 
 forth by some unavoidable necessity that I can 
 
58 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 never admit ! It might have been quite possible to 
 come to terms with Napoleon instead of provoking 
 war. Although the venture turned out successfully 
 and the end of the war flattered our national vanity, 
 the result can scarcely be admitted to have been 
 beneficial. If two strong men fall out, without 
 rhyme or reason, and the one overpowers the other, 
 not without injuring their health, I might call the 
 victor a fine fellow ! But the necessity of having such 
 an exhibition remains a riddle for me. The glory 
 of the year 1812, and the display of national heroism 
 at that time, whatever might have been the cause 
 of the war, are inexplicable. A poet calls it a " holy 
 event." That is all very fine as far as poetry goes, 
 but I look at the outcome of this " event " and 
 behold the Archimandrite Photius, Magnitzky and 
 Arakcheef on the one hand, and on the other the 
 conspiracy of the Dekabrists i.e., thirty years of 
 the regime of belated militarism which brought 
 about the defeat at Sevastopol. 
 
 LADY. And Pushkin ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Pushkin ? . . . Why Pushkin ? 
 
 LADY. I read the other day in the newspapers 
 that the national poetry of Pushkin was created by 
 the military glory of the year 1812. 
 
 MR. Z. Not without the special participation of 
 the artillery, as is apparent from the poet's name. 1 
 
 POLITICIAN. It may be so. But to continue. As 
 
 time advanced, the uselessness, the unprofitableness 
 
 of our wars become more clearly evident. The 
 
 Crimean War is thought much of among us, because 
 
 1 Pushka in Russian is a gun. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 59 
 
 it is supposed that its unsuccessful termination 
 occasioned the liberation of the serfs and other 
 reforms of Alexander II. If that is so, then the good 
 results of an unsuccessful war, precisely because it is 
 unsuccessful, do not exactly constitute an apology 
 for war in general. If I, for no good reason, jump off 
 a balcony and dislocate my hand, and should this 
 accident prevent me from signing a wasteful bill of 
 exchange, I should be pleased with what happened. 
 But I will not maintain that it is necessary to jump 
 off a balcony instead of walking down the stair- 
 case. If your head is not injured, it is not necessary 
 for you to get a damaged hand in order to prevent 
 you from attaching your signature to a ruinous 
 transaction. The same common sense that will 
 preserve you from jumping off balconies will also 
 preserve you from signing bills foolishly. I think 
 that without the Crimean War the reforms of the 
 Emperor Alexander II. would have probably been 
 introduced, and perhaps in a more comprehensive 
 and sounder manner. I shall not go on proving this 
 thesis any further, but will return to our subject. 
 In any case, political actions cannot be valued by 
 unforeseen consequences. The very beginning of the 
 Crimean War, i.e., the attack of our army on the 
 Danube in 1853, cannot be reasonably justified. I 
 cannot call a policy sound which one day protects 
 Turkey from the invasion of the Egyptian Pasha, 
 Mehmet Ali, contrary to our interests, and the next 
 day prepares the destruction of the same Turkey 
 which it has saved and strengthened, to say nothing 
 of having risked a quarrel with the Anglo-French 
 
60 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 coalition. This is no policy, but a kind of Don 
 Quixotism in connection with our last Turkish 
 campaign. I hope the General will pardon me. 
 
 LADY. And how about the Bashi-Bazouks, 
 whom the General destroyed with your full appro- 
 bation. 
 
 POLITICIAN. I crave pardon. I maintain that, 
 at the present time, war has become useless, and the 
 General's recent story is the best illustration of this 
 truth. I understand that when one is in duty 
 bound to participate in war and one meets ir- 
 regular Turkish troops, guilty of outrageous cruel- 
 ties against peaceful inhabitants (he looks at the 
 Prince], then every man not bound by " absolute 
 principles " must destroy the transgressors without 
 mercy, as the General has done. He cannot then 
 think about their moral regeneration as suggested by 
 the Prince. But I beg leave to ask, firstly, who was 
 the real cause of all these atrocities, and, secondly, 
 what has been accomplished by armed intervention ? 
 According to my conscience, I must reply to the first 
 question by merely exposing the bad military policy, 
 which, while exciting the passions and pretensions 
 of the Turkish rajas, mocked the Turks. It must 
 be admitted that the Bulgarian atrocities only 
 commenced when Bulgaria was infested with revolu- 
 tionary committees, and the Turks were alarmed by 
 the possibility of foreign intervention and the break- 
 ing up of Turkey. The same thing happened in 
 Armenia. As regards the second question, what was 
 achieved by intervention ? The answer is given by 
 the latest events and is so obvious that everyone can 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 61 
 
 see it. In 1877 our General destroys several thousand 
 Bashi-Bazouks, saving perhaps thereby several hun- 
 dred Armenians. In 1895 , in the same locality, similar 
 Bashi-Bazouks murder not hundreds but thousands 
 of the inhabitants. If we are to credit various corre- 
 spondents (although I do not advise you to believe 
 them) , nearly half a million of men were cut to pieces. 
 Well, this may be a fable. However, in any case 
 the Armenian murders were on a considerably 
 greater scale than the Bulgarian atrocities. And 
 these are the beneficent results of our patriotic and 
 philanthropic wars. 
 
 GENERAL. Who can understand this ? Here bad 
 politics are to blame and there a patriotic war. One 
 might suppose that Gorchakof and Giers were 
 soldiers, or that Disraeli and Bismarck were Russian 
 patriots and philanthropists ! 
 
 POLITICIAN. Is it possible that my statements are 
 not clear ? I have in view a definite connection, 
 not abstract or ideal, but an entirely real, pragmatic 
 connection between the war of 1877, which was 
 itself a result of our bad politics, and of the recent 
 atrocities in Armenia. You may perhaps be aware, 
 or, if not, it may be useful for you to know, what 
 happened after 1878. Turkey saw from the treaty 
 of San Stefano what awaited her in the future in 
 Europe and decided to guarantee its existence at 
 all events in Asia. First of all, Turkey made sure of 
 England's support at the Berlin Congress ; but to 
 be on the safe side, the Turkish Government set 
 about organising and strengthening its regular army 
 in Armenia, i.e., increasing the number of those 
 
62 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 " devils " with whom the General had to deal. 
 This proved to be a good move, because some fifteen 
 years after Disraeli had guaranteed to Turkey the 
 possession of its Asiatic dominions 1 in exchange 
 for the cession of Cyprus, circumstances changed. 
 English policy became anti-Turkish and pro- Arme- 
 nian ; English agitators appeared in Armenia, just 
 as formerly Slavophil agitators had penetrated into 
 Bulgaria. It was then that those " devils/' as the 
 General calls them, became the men of the situation 
 and devoured the lion's share of Christian flesh. 
 
 GENERAL. I cannot listen to you saying such 
 things ! What war was to blame in this case ? 
 Fear God, my friend. If in 1878 statesmen had 
 accomplished their work as satisfactorily as the 
 soldiers did theirs, there would have been no ques- 
 tion of strengthening and organising Turkish irregular 
 troops in Armenia, and consequently no atrocities 
 would have been perpetrated. 
 
 POLITICIAN. That means, you suggest, the final 
 destruction of the Turkish Empire ? 
 
 GENERAL. Yes ! Although I like and respect 
 the Turks with all my heart, especially when I com- 
 pare them with all the mongrel Ethiopians. At the 
 same time I think it is necessary to make an end 
 of the Turkish Empire. 
 
 POLITICIAN. I also should have nothing against 
 this, provided your so-called Ethiopians could 
 organise some kind of an empire of their own. The 
 fact is, they only know how to fight among them- 
 
 1 On the understanding that reforms should be introduced 
 in Armenia, which Turkey did not do. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 63 
 
 selves, and the Turkish Government is as indispen- 
 sable for them as the presence of Turkish troops is 
 necessary in Jerusalem for the maintenance of the 
 peace and well-being of the Christian sects. 
 
 LADY. I quite expected that you were prepared to 
 give Our Lord's Sepulchre to the Turks. 
 
 POLITICIAN. And you probably think that such 
 is the case in consequence of my being godless or 
 callous ? Meanwhile in reality I desire to retain the 
 Turks in Jerusalem in consequence of the small but 
 inextinguishable spark of religious sentiment which 
 remains in me from my childhood. I know to a 
 certainty that when the Turkish soldiers are re- 
 moved from Jerusalem, the Christians there will 
 murder each other even before the Holy Sanctuary 
 is destroyed. In case my impressions and con- 
 clusions strike you as suspicious, ask some pilgrims 
 whom you can trust, or, what is better still, go there 
 yourself and see things with your own eyes. 
 
 LADY. Go to Jerusalem ? Certainly not ! What 
 more could I see by going there myself ? No, I 
 am afraid ! 
 
 POLITICIAN. Now we have the reason. 
 
 LADY. How strange. You disagree with the 
 General, but both of you praise the Turks. 
 
 POLITICIAN. The General probably values them 
 as good soldiers, whereas I approve of them as the 
 guardians of peace and order in the East. 
 
 LADY. Fine peace and order to murder tens 
 of thousands of people ! Better tolerate dis- 
 order. 
 
 POLITICIAN. As I have already explained, the 
 
64 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 slaughter was provoked by revolutionary agitation. 
 Why should one demand from the Turks the ele- 
 vated Christian sentiments of charity and mercy 
 which are not demanded from any other nations, be it 
 even Christians ? Please name any country where 
 an armed rising has been quelled without cruel and 
 arbitrary measures. I am ready to admit that the 
 Turkish Government overdid it, like Ivan IV., when 
 he drowned ten thousand peaceful citizens of Nov- 
 gorod, or as the commissaries of the French Conven- 
 tion with their noyades and fusillades or as the Eng- 
 lish in India when they crushed the mutiny in 1857. 
 All the same, there is no doubt, if the various co- 
 religionaries and Ethiopians, as the General terms 
 them, were left to their own devices, there would be 
 more carnage than under Turkish rule. 
 
 GENERAL. But do I suggest to put the Ethio- 
 pians in the place of the Turks ? The matter is 
 simple : we should take Constantinople and Jeru- 
 salem and make them Russian provinces, under 
 military rule, as in Samarkand or Ashabad. The 
 Turks, when they lay down their arms, might be 
 satisfied and indemnified as regards their religion 
 and in other respects. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Well, I trust you are not speaking 
 seriously, otherwise I should have reason to doubt 
 . . . your patriotism. If we had begun the war 
 with similar radical intentions it would probably 
 have again provoked a European conflict. Ulti- 
 mately your Ethiopians would have joined the hostile 
 coalition in order to obtain their emancipation. 
 They understand very well that under Russian rule 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 65 
 
 they would not be very free to show " their national 
 physiognomy," as the Bulgarians say. Instead of 
 the destruction of Turkey another sack of Sevas- 
 topol, en grand, would be repeated. Although we 
 have often been guilty of political incompetence, I 
 am sure that such madness as a new war with Turkey 
 will not occur. But if it did happen, every patriot 
 would have to cry out in despair about Russia : 
 quern Deus vult perdere, prius dementat. 
 
 LADY. Evidently history is not made to your 
 liking. You are probably as much for Austria as 
 for Turkey ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. On that question it is needless for 
 me to expatiate, because more competent people 
 the national leaders of Bohemia have long ago 
 declared : "If Austria had not existed it would have 
 been necessary to invent her." The recent parlia- 
 mentary conflicts in Vienna serve as good illustra- 
 tions of this aphorism, and present a picture in 
 miniature of what would happen in those countries 
 on the disappearance of the Hapsburg dynasty. 
 
 LADY. And what have you to say about the 
 Franco-Russian alliance ? Somehow, you appear to 
 be reticent on that score. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Yes, I do not intend now to enter 
 into the details of that delicate question. In general 
 I may say that a rapprochement with a progressive 
 and wealthy nation like France is in every case to 
 our interest. Besides, this alliance is an alliance of 
 peace and a precaution thus, at least, it is con- 
 sidered in high quarters, where it was concluded and 
 is maintained. 
 
 w.c. F 
 
66 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 MR. Z. The question of moral and cultural ad- 
 vantages emanating from the rapprochement of the 
 two nations is a complicated matter and is not clear 
 to me. But in joining one of the two inimical camps 
 on the continent of Europe, do we not lose politi- 
 cally the advantage of our independent position as 
 possible arbiters ? By joining one side we equalise 
 the relative strength of both coalitions, but do we 
 not thereby create the possibility of a military colli- 
 sion ? France by herself could not fight against the 
 Triple Alliance, but with Russia's aid she might. 
 
 POLITICIAN. What you observe would be per- 
 fectly correct if somebody was interested to kindle a 
 European war, but nobody desires to do that. And 
 in any case it is much easier for Russia to confirm 
 France in the way of peace than it would be for 
 France to entice Russia into war. Both restraint of 
 France and temptation of us are undesirable. It 
 is, however, most satisfactory that contemporary 
 nations not only do not desire war, but are forget- 
 ting how to fight. 
 
 Take the latest collision, the Spanish-American 
 war. Well, what kind of a war was that ? A doll's 
 comedy, a fight in a Punch and Judy show ! " After 
 a protracted and murderous war the enemy fell back, 
 having had one man killed and two wounded. 
 We had no losses." Or again : " The whole of the 
 enemy's fleet, after desperate opposition, surrendered 
 unconditionally to our cruiser. ' Money enough.' 
 There were no casualties on either side." The whole 
 war appears to have been carried on on similar 
 lines. I am astonished that people are not more 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 67 
 
 struck by this new character of war, by its bloodless 
 nature. This transformation came about under 
 our very eyes. We all remember what bulletins 
 were issued in 1870 and 1877. 
 
 GENERAL. Don't anticipate events, for when two 
 really military nations come into collision you will 
 soon see what bulletins will be issued. 
 
 POLITICIAN. I don't think so. It is not long 
 since Spain was a first-class military nation. It 
 strikes me that in humanity, as in the human body, 
 organs which are not wanted become atrophied ; 
 military qualities are not wanted, so they begin to 
 disappear. And if they were to reappear, I should 
 be as much astonished as to see a bat with eagle's 
 eyes or men with tails. 
 
 LADY. And how is it that you have been praising 
 Turkish soldiers ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. I praised them as guardians of inter- 
 nal order in a State. In that sense military power or, 
 as it is styled, the " military hand," manus militaris, 
 will long be needed, but that is no impediment to 
 the disappearance of militarism. 
 
 The desire and means for carrying on . inter- 
 national wars, the outcome of national pugnacity, 
 is disappearing. It degenerates into parliamentary 
 wrangles. Such a state of things will probably 
 continue as long as opposing parties and opinions 
 exist. To control them the manus militaris is 
 indispensable, even when wars international or 
 internecine are merely an historical reminiscence. 
 
 GENERAL. What you say means that you com- 
 pare the police to the coccyx which remains in man 
 
 F 2 
 
68 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 after his legendary tail has disappeared. That may 
 be witty, but are you not too hasty in comparing 
 us soldiers to the vanished tail ? Because some 
 nations have degenerated and have lost their prowess, 
 is that a proof that military instincts have disap- 
 peared from the whole world ? Perhaps by some of 
 your " measures " and " systems " the Russian sol- 
 dier might be converted into a jelly, but I venture 
 to think that God Almighty will spare us. 
 
 LADY (turning to Politician). But you have not 
 explained by what means, without war, historical 
 questions, like the Eastern, are to be settled ! If 
 Eastern Christians seeking independence are slaugh- 
 tered by Turks, are we to look on with folded hands ? 
 Admitting that you justly criticised former wars, I 
 will repeat the words of the Prince, although not in 
 the same sense as he used them : What are we to do 
 if atrocities recommence ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. We must collect our wits before 
 these atrocities begin, and instead of our bad policy 
 adopt a good one, be it even German : not pro- 
 voking the Turks, and not shouting in an inebriated 
 condition that the Cross must be replaced on St. 
 Sophia. 
 
 For our mutual interest we should conciliate 
 Turkey in a quiet and friendly manner. It rests 
 with us to convince the Turks that slaughtering 
 the population is not only a bad but a very unprofit- 
 able operation. 
 
 MR. Z. In such admonitions, combined with 
 railway concessions and other commercial and indus- 
 trial enterprises, the Germans will be sure to antici- 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 69 
 
 pate us, and to vie with them would be hope- 
 less. 1 
 
 POLITICIAN. There is no question of vying ! If 
 some one else takes on heavy work instead of me, 
 surely it is only for me to rejoice and be grateful. 
 But if, on the contrary, I am angry because he did it 
 and not I, such anger would be unworthy of a true 
 man. It would be equally unworthy for a nation like 
 Russia to be the dog in the manger. If others can 
 accomplish the good work quicker and better than we 
 can, it would be to our advantage. I ask you, why 
 did we wage war against Turkey in the nineteenth 
 century if not to protect the rights of Turkish 
 Christians ? And what does it signify if the Ger- 
 mans attain the same object by peaceful means, by 
 culture ? If in 1895 the Germans had been as 
 firmly established in Asiatic Turkey as the English 
 in Egypt there would certainly have been no com- 
 plaints about Armenian atrocities. 
 
 LADY. So you also want to put an end to Tur- 
 key, but you somehow desire that it should be 
 Germany who should devour her ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. I admire the wisdom of German 
 policy, for the very reason that it does not want to 
 devour indigestible objects. Germany's policy is 
 more artful : to introduce Turkey into the concert of 
 civilised nations and to assist the Turks to educate 
 themselves. This modus operandi would enable them 
 
 1 These words, written by me in October, 1899, were con- 
 firmed a month later by the German-Turkish convention 
 concerning matters in Asia Minor and the Bagdad railway. 
 V. S. 
 
70 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 to govern justly and humanely those nationalities 
 which, in consequence of their mutual antagonism, 
 cannot manage their own affairs in a peaceful manner. 
 
 LADY. You are quite a story teller ! Is it pos- 
 sible to put a Christian nation under Turkish rule 
 for all time ? I admire the Turks in many respects ; 
 but all the same, they are barbarians, and their last 
 word will always be brute force. European civili- 
 sation will only make them worse. 
 
 POLITICIAN. The same and even more might have 
 been said about Russia under Peter the Great. We 
 remember " Turkish atrocities," but was it long 
 ago that in Russia and in other countries atrocities 
 disappeared ? " Miserable Christians groaning under 
 the Mussulman yoke." And is it long since Chris- 
 tians, not pagans, in Russia groaned under the yoke 
 of bad serf owners ? What about those who in 
 those days suffered cruel corporal punishment ? 
 Still, a fair answer to these groans of Russian 
 Christians was the abolition of serfdom and of bar- 
 barous corporal punishment, and not the destruction 
 of Russia. Why, therefore, should the reply to 
 Bulgarian and Armenian atrocities be necessarily 
 the destruction of Turkey, where these groans are 
 heard but may be prevented ? 
 
 LADY. It is not the same thing when disorders 
 take place in Christian countries, where they can 
 easily be set right, as when a Christian nation is 
 oppressed by non-Christians. 
 
 POLITICIAN.' The alleged impossibility of reor- 
 ganising Turkey is merely hostile prejudice, as the 
 Germans have proved. They also helped to dispel the 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 71 
 
 prejudice that the Russians were by nature barba- 
 rians. As regards your Christians and non-Christians 
 the victims of various brutalities la question manque 
 d'inter&t. If a man tries to murder me, I do not say, 
 my dear sir, what is your religion ? And it would 
 be no consolation to me if the murderers were Chris- 
 tians who broke God's laws. Is it not evident that 
 the Christianity of Ivan IV., or of the woman Solti- 
 kova, or of Arakcheef is no advantage, and that 
 their life is characterised by wickedness which in 
 other religions would be almost impossible ? Yester- 
 day the General spoke about the crimes of the wild 
 Kurds, and mentioned, in passing, their devil-wor- 
 ship. Certainly it is very wicked to roast infants and 
 grown-up persons on a slow fire, and I am prepared 
 to call such deeds devilish. It is, however, well 
 known that Ivan IV. had a partiality for roasting 
 people on slow fires, and that he even stirred the 
 coals with his staff. And he was not a barbarian nor 
 a devil-worshipper, but an intellectual and learned 
 man of his generation. What is more, he was versed 
 in Holy Writ and in the tenets of Orthodoxy. But 
 are not the Bulgarian Stambulov, or the Serbian 
 Milan, rather Turks than representatives of so-called 
 Christian nations ? It would appear that your 
 " Christianity " is an empty word. 
 
 LADY. Such judgment would come naturally 
 from the Prince. 
 
 POLITICIAN. When it is a question of a self- 
 evident truth I am not only in sympathy with our 
 highly-respected Prince but even with Balaam's ass. 
 
 MR. Z. Your Excellency in kindly taking a 
 
72 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 leading part in our conversation did not, I presume, 
 entertain the intention of discussing Christianity 
 or Biblical animals. Even at the present moment 
 there still sounds in my ear your heart's cry of yester- 
 day : " Only less religion, for God's sake ! " That 
 being so, would you kindly return to the subject 
 and solve my difficulty ? You justly observed that 
 we must not destroy the Turkish Empire, but 
 civilise it. You also stated that Germany is much 
 more fitted to civilise the Turks than we are. In 
 that case, what is our Russian function in the Eastern 
 Question ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. In what? I should have thought 
 it was clear, we have no function. Under the title 
 of a special function of Russian policy you, of course, 
 understand that Russia should herself solve the pro- 
 blem, in opposition to the aspirations of all the other 
 European nations. But I may tell you that such a 
 policy has never existed. We have deviated, for 
 instance, in the fifties and the seventies, from this 
 plan, but those sad deviations are precisely what I 
 term bad politics, unpleasant results. 
 
 Speaking in general, Russian policy in the 
 Eastern Question cannot be considered personal or 
 isolated. Her problem, from the sixteenth and even 
 to the end of the eighteenth century, consisted in 
 protecting the civilised world, conjointly with 
 Poland and Austria, from the threatened Turkish 
 invasion. This defensive measure (even without 
 a formal alliance) rendered it necessary to act 
 together with the Poles, the Austrians and the 
 Venetian Republic. It was a general policy and 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 73 
 
 not the policy of any single State. At the present 
 time this general agreement remains unchanged, 
 although the aim and means of action have had to 
 be altered. Now, it is not a question of protecting 
 Europe against Turkish barbarity, but of converting 
 Turkey into a European State. To attain the former 
 object military action was required, but now peaceful 
 measures are wanted. But in all cases the problem 
 remains the same. Formerly there was solidarity 
 among the European nations in military defence, 
 now there is solidarity in spreading civilisation and 
 culture. 
 
 GENERAL. However, the former military soli- 
 darity in Europe did not prevent Richelieu and 
 Louis XIV. from concluding an alliance with 
 Turkey against the Hapsburgs. 
 
 POLITICIAN. It was a bad Bourbon policy, 
 which, combined with their foolish internal politics, 
 was condemned, as it deserved, by history. 
 
 LADY. You call it history : I believe it used to 
 be termed regicide. 
 
 MR. Z. But that exactly means wicked history. 
 POLITICIAN (turning to the Lady). The fact is 
 that no political mistake remains unpunished. 
 Those who like may discover something mystical 
 in it, but I see nothing of the kind. If I were to give 
 up soured milk, which suits me now, and went in for 
 champagne as before, the ancien regime would kill 
 me as it did the Bourbons. 
 
 LADY. But you will agree that your soured milk 
 policy becomes as wearisome as the Bourbons. 
 POLITICIAN (offended). If I were not interrupted, 
 
74 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 I would long ago have exhausted the question and 
 made room for a more entertaining speaker. 
 
 LADY. Well, well, don't be offended. I was only 
 joking. On the contrary, in my opinion you are 
 very witty for your age and position. 
 
 POLITICIAN. I was saying, we are now in agree- 
 ment with the rest of Europe as regards the cul- 
 tural transformation of Turkey, and that we have 
 not, and need not have, any special policy of our 
 own. We must, however, admit that in consequence 
 of our general backwardness, the share of Russia in 
 civilising Turkey has so far not been considerable. 
 Our reputation as a first-class military Power cannot 
 exactly be maintained for the present. Things 
 cannot be got for nothing, they must be earned. 
 We attained our military importance, not by words 
 but by real campaigns and battles. In the same way 
 we must win our cultural importance by labours and 
 victories in peaceful pursuits. If the Turks sub- 
 mitted to our force of arms, they will certainly 
 submit, in the matter of civilisation, to those who are 
 most powerful in the art of culture. What ought we 
 to do ? That imaginary Cross on St. Sophia which 
 we raised in opposition to the real, substantial 
 labours of the Germans will scarcely give us the pre- 
 eminence at Constantinople. 
 
 GENERAL. The point is that the Cross should 
 not be imaginary. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Then what is to materialise the 
 Cross ? Until you discover such a medium the only 
 thing required to soothe our self-love is to increase 
 our efforts in order to reach the civilisation of more 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 75 
 
 cultured nations instead of wasting our time on 
 Slav committees and other pernicious nonsense. 
 Besides, if it is impossible in Turkey, we can still 
 play an important part in civilising Central Asia 
 and the Far East, whither, it would appear, uni- 
 versal history is transferring its centre of gravity. 
 In consequence of geographical and other conditions, 
 Russia can there achieve more than all the other 
 Powers, with the exception, of course, of England. 
 
 The object of our policy in that connection 
 should, therefore, consist in constant and friendly 
 agreements with the English, so that our 
 civilising co-operation with them should never 
 degenerate into senseless quarrels and unworthy 
 rivalry. 
 
 MR. Z. Unfortunately similar transformations 
 among men as well as in nations are only brought 
 about, as it were, by fate. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Yes, that is how it happens. How- 
 ever, neither in the life of men nor of nations do 
 I know a single example where enmity between 
 peoples engaged in the same work made any 
 one stronger, richer or happier. This universal 
 experience is taken into consideration by wise 
 people, and I think that quick-witted Russians 
 will not fail to avail themselves of it ultimately. To 
 quarrel with the English in the Far East would be 
 the height of foolishness, to say nothing of the 
 impropriety of exposing our own differences to 
 strangers. But perhaps we are more nearly related 
 to yellow-faced Chinamen than to the countrymen 
 of Shakespeare and Byron ? 
 
76 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 MR. Z. That is a delicate matter. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Let us put it aside for the present 
 and turn to another question. Will you adopt my 
 point of view and admit that at present the policy 
 of Russia can have only two objects ? First, the 
 maintenance of European peace, since every 
 European war in the present state of historical 
 development must be a useless and wicked civil war. 
 And second, the exercise of civilising authority 
 on barbarous nations which are in our sphere of 
 influence. 
 
 Both these objects, independently of their 
 intrinsic worth, support and guarantee each other's 
 existence. While working to civilise barbarous 
 countries, which is for the interest of all Europe, we 
 draw more closely the bonds of union between our- 
 selves and other European nations. 
 
 The confirmation of European unity, in its turn, 
 strengthens our influence on barbarous nations, de- 
 priving them of the thought of opposition. If the 
 yellow race knew that Russia was backed by Europe, 
 our progress in Asia would meet with no obstacles. 
 In the contrary case the yellow race might be inclined 
 to attack our frontier, and we would have to protect 
 ourselves on two fronts, extending to some ten 
 thousand versts. I do not believe in the bogey of 
 Mongolian invasion, because I do not admit the 
 possibility of European war, otherwise we might 
 fear the Mongols. 
 
 GENERAL. You consider a European war and an 
 invasion of Mongols improbable, yet I fear that 
 your " solidarity " of the European nations and 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 77 
 
 the advent of universal peace are also improbable. 
 It appears somehow unnatural and improbable. 
 There is good reason for singing in churches on 
 Christmas-day, " Peace on earth and goodwill 
 towards men." That means that there will be peace 
 on earth only when there is goodwill among men. 
 But when will that be ? Have you seen it ? To tell 
 the truth, the only State in Europe that you and I 
 feel friendly towards is the Principality of Monaco. 
 We are always at peace with that State. But close 
 friendship with the Germans and the English and 
 " solidarity" with them, as you call it, will never 
 be realised. 
 
 POLITICIAN. How do you mean it will never be 
 realised ; it is already realised, in the natural order 
 of things. We are in " solidarity " with Europeans 
 for the very simple reason that we are Europeans. 
 Since the eighteenth century it has been un fait 
 accompli, and neither the barbarity of the masses 
 of the Russian people nor the wild dreams of the 
 Slavophils can change it. 
 
 GENERAL. But is there solidarity among them- 
 selves, for instance between Germans, French and 
 English ? We learn that even the Swedes and 
 Norwegians have lost their solidarity. 
 
 POLITICIAN. The argument rests on a false basis, 
 for the historical situation has been lost sight of. 
 Did solidarity exist between Moscow and Novgorod 
 in the time of Ivan III. and Ivan IV. ? Why should 
 you then not admit the existence of the present 
 solidarity of the provinces of Moscow and Novgorod 
 in the general interests of Russia ? 
 
78 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 GENERAL. All I say is, delay proclaiming your- 
 selves Europeans until the European nations form a 
 family, welded together as are the component parts 
 of the Russian Empire. Are we to break up our own 
 solidarity and join the Europeans, who are at 
 daggers drawn among themselves ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. At daggers drawn is a strong ex- 
 pression. You may rest in hope. Not only Sweden 
 and Norway, but neither Germany nor France will 
 break up ; they will foresee and prevent rupture. 
 The small group of Russian adventurers who back 
 France against Germany ought to be shut up in a 
 fortress, to develop there their patriotism and to 
 preach war against Germany. 
 
 LADY. How fine it would be if all national 
 enmity could be locked up in a fortress ! But I 
 think you are mistaken. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Well, of course, I spoke cum grano 
 salis. No doubt Europe is not entirely united, but I 
 still maintain my historical analogy. 
 
 As it was in Russia in the sixteenth century, so it 
 is now in Europe. Separatism existed, but was then 
 at its last gasp ; Imperial unity was no more a 
 dream, but was being moulded into a definite form. 
 National antagonism was still extant, especially 
 among the uneducated masses and politicians, but it 
 lacked the power to act. A European war could not 
 be provoked. As regards the benevolent sentiments 
 to which the General referred, I have seldom seen 
 them among nations or peoples composing a nation, 
 or even in private families. Every one for himself. 
 What deductions are we therefore to make ? There 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 79 
 
 is no cause for civil wars and fratricide. It does not 
 matter if Germans and Frenchmen are not partial 
 to each other, provided there is no war. I am con- 
 vinced that there will be none. 
 
 MR. Z. That is very probable. But even if 
 we consider Europe as one and indivisible, it in 
 no wise follows that we are Europeans. You know 
 that for more than ten years there has been a 
 notion that the German-Romanic nations have 
 unity in their cultural historical type, but that we 
 Russians form a separate Greco-Slavonic type. 
 
 POLITICIAN. I have heard about this variety of 
 Slavophilism and have even conversed with its 
 votaries. What I then noticed enabled me to solve 
 this question. The fact of the matter is that not 
 all those gentlemen who cry out against Europe 
 and our European notions can adhere to the views 
 adopted by our Greco-Slavonic Church. They are 
 invariably carried away by the teaching of Con- 
 fucius, Buddha, Tibet Lamas and all manner of Indo- 
 Mongolian Orientalism. Their estrangement from 
 Europe is as great as their gravitation towards Asia. 
 What does that mean ? Let us admit that they are 
 right as regards Europe, that it is a great delusion. 
 But why are they so fatally carried away by the 
 other extreme by this Asiatic propaganda ? And 
 where have their Greco-Slavonic and Orthodox ideas 
 disappeared ? For in them was the pith of the 
 matter. Drive out Nature by the door and it 
 gets in by the window. In this instance Nature has 
 no self-existent Greco-Slavonic, cultural, historical 
 type, but was and is Russia, a great frontier 
 
8o WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 country between Europe and Asia. Being a border- 
 land, our country is naturally more influenced by the 
 Asiatic element than other European States. Herein 
 lies the imaginary idea of our Slav self-existence. 
 Even Byzantium has no inherent nationality of its 
 own, but appeared original merely from its Asiatic 
 admixture. In our case, from early days, and 
 especially from the time of Baty, the Asiatic element 
 became a second nature and animated the Russian 
 spirit, so much so that the Germans were able to say 
 about us, although not without a sigh : 
 
 " Zwei Seelen wohnen, Ach ! in ihrer Brust 
 Die eine will sich von der andern trennen." 
 
 To free ourselves from our Oriental spirit is im- 
 possible and unnecessary, but we must give the 
 preference to the better and higher spirit, which is 
 more favourable to progress and richer in possibilities. 
 That is what we did under Peter the Great. But 
 our relationship with Asia still gave rise in some 
 minds to chimerical notions advocating the sub- 
 version of a great historical question, which had been 
 finally settled. Hence Slavophilism, i.e., a theory 
 of our original, self -existent, historical culture, and 
 so forth. In reality we are unavoidably Europeans, 
 only with Asiatic characteristics of mind. This is, 
 so to speak, grammatically self-evident. What is 
 Russian in a grammatical sense ? It is an adjective ; 
 and what substantive does this adjective qualify ? 
 
 LADY. I suppose the noun man : Russian man, 
 Russian people. 
 
 POLITICIAN. No. It is too broad and indefinite, 
 for even Papuans and Esquimos are men, and have 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 81 
 
 I, as a man and a noun, anything in common with 
 Papuans and Esquimos ? 
 
 LADY. Nevertheless, some very important things 
 are common to all people ; for instance, love. 
 
 POLITICIAN. That is still wider. How can I 
 admit love as my specific attribute, when I know that 
 it is also natural to all animals and other living 
 creatures ? 
 
 MR. Z. It is a complicated affair. I, for one, am a 
 gentle man, and therefore in love affairs I am more 
 in solidarity with a white or a blue dove than with 
 the Moor, Othello, although he is also called a man. 
 
 GENERAL. Well, at a certain age every reason- 
 able man is in solidarity with the white pigeons. 1 
 
 LADY. What is that ? 
 
 GENERAL. It is a joke, not for you, but for His 
 Excellency and your humble servant. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Let us drop this. Treve de plai- 
 santeries. We are not on the stage of the French 
 theatre. I wished to say that the real substantive 
 for the adjective Russian is European. We are 
 Russian Europeans just as there are English, French, 
 or German Europeans. If I feel that I am a Euro- 
 pean, is it not foolish to try and prove that I am a 
 kind of Slavo-Russ or Greco-Slav ? I know that I 
 am a European as surely as I am a Russian. I can, 
 and perhaps I ought, to be kind and compassionate 
 towards every man as well as to every animal, 
 because blessed is the man who is merciful to his 
 beast. I cannot, however, consider myself in 
 solidarity or close friendship with Zulus or China- 
 
 1 A certain Russian sect. 
 W.C. G 
 
82 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 men, but only with nations and peoples who have 
 created and preserved the treasures of higher 
 culture, which contribute to my spiritual nourish- 
 ment and afford me supreme happiness. Originally 
 war was a sacred duty enabling chosen nations to 
 be formed and consolidated in order to withstand the 
 lower elements of humanity. Now they have been 
 formed and consolidated, and they have nothing to 
 fear except internecine quarrels. The epoch of 
 peace and the spread of peaceful European culture 
 is now everywhere on the increase. All must become 
 Europeans. The ideal European should be the ideal 
 of all humanity, and European culture, the aim of 
 all mankind. In this lies the meaning of history. 
 At first there were only Greek and Roman Europeans. 
 Next appeared others, some in the West, some in the 
 East. There were also Russian Europeans. On 
 the other side of the ocean appeared American 
 Europeans, and now we must expect Turkish, 
 Persian, Indian, Japanese, and perhaps Chinese 
 Europeans. A European is at present a definite 
 mental conception which is extending in every sense. 
 Observe, however, the difference. Every man is 
 like any other man. Therefore, if we accept this 
 abstract idea as our essential, we must admit entire 
 personal equality and value the nation of Newton 
 and Shakespeare no higher than we value a nation 
 of Papuans. But this is ridiculous and, in practice, 
 objectionable. If my mental conception is not a 
 man in general, but one who spreads culture i.e., 
 a European then the idea of equality is nonsense. 
 The idea conveyed by the term European is the same 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 83 
 
 as the idea conveyed by the word culture, which is a 
 sound standard or measurement for the definition 
 of comparative worth or value of different races, 
 nations and individuals. These different evalua- 
 tions must be taken into consideration by sound 
 politicians. Otherwise, if we place comparatively 
 cultured Austrians on the same platform with semi- 
 barbarous Herzegovinians, we shall come to the same 
 foolish and dangerous speculations which attract 
 the latest Mohicans of our Slavophilism. II y a 
 Europeen et Europeen. Even after the advent of 
 that desirable and, I trust, not far distant hour, 
 when Europe, or the cultured world, will really 
 embrace all the inhabitants of the terrestrial globe 
 in a united and peaceful humanity, there will still 
 remain those natural gradations and shades of 
 culture, canonised by history, which are to deter- 
 mine our relations with different nationalities. In 
 the glorious, all-comprising kingdom of higher cul- 
 ture, just as in the kingdom of heaven, there is one 
 glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another 
 glory of the stars, one star differeth from another ; 
 such is, I believe, the teaching of our catechism. 
 And now, although the goal is near, but not attained, 
 it is all the more necessary to beware of the error 
 of indiscriminate equality. At present the news- 
 papers have been writing about the quarrel between 
 England and the Transvaal, and that the African- 
 ders even threaten England with war. And I 
 foresee that some of our journalists and politicians, 
 and perhaps some on the Continent, will take the 
 side of these, so-called, down-trodden Africanders. 
 
 o 2 
 
84 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Why, it would be as if our highly-respected Mr. 
 Maartens 1 were to go into a grocer's shop and be 
 attacked and ill-treated by a vulgar clerk on the plea 
 that the shop was his and not Mr. Maartens'. One 
 might regret that Mr. Maartens got into this dilemma, 
 but when he was^once in it I, for one, would be 
 gratified if Mr. Maartens had the clerk taken up by 
 the police and relegated to a house of correction. 
 But, instead of that, various decently- attired 
 gentlemen commend the grocer's boy. " Such a 
 small chap, and had the pluck to attack a tall, fine 
 gentleman." If the Africander traders and carriers 
 had the sense to declare themselves Dutchmen their 
 blood relations, they might consider themselves a 
 special nationality calculated to found their own 
 African fatherland. Oh, the rascal ! 
 
 LADY. In the first place, don't be abusive ; and 
 secondly, explain to me what is this Transvaal. 
 What kind of people are the inhabitants ? 
 
 MR. Z. The inhabitants are a mixture of Euro- 
 peans and niggers. They are neither white nor 
 black, but they are Boers. 
 
 LADY. I presume that is also a joke. 
 
 POLITICIAN. And a poor one. 
 
 MR. Z. The jokes are as good as the Boers. 
 Besides, if you object to the colour, they have also 
 an Orange State. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Speaking seriously, I may say that 
 these Boers are certainly Europeans, but poor 
 specimens. Separated from their glorious metro- 
 
 1 The late eminent Russian jurisconsult of International 
 Law. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 85 
 
 polls, they have lost to a great extent their culture ; 
 surrounded by natives, they have become uncivilised. 
 To place them on a par with the English, and wish 
 them to be successful in the struggle with England 
 cela ria pas de nom. 
 
 LADY. But our Europeans sympathised with the 
 Circassian mountaineers when they fought with us 
 for their independence, and Russia is more cultured 
 than the Circassians. 
 
 POLITICIAN. In order not to expatiate on the 
 causes of this European sympathy with the Cir- 
 cassian barbarians, I will merely observe that we 
 should assimilate the general tendency of European 
 thought, and not the occasional foolishness of some 
 Europeans. I regret with all my heart that England 
 may have to resort to such superannuated and 
 objectionable means as war, to pacify the pug- 
 nacious people who have challenged her. Should 
 war, however, be unavoidable in consequence of the 
 savagery of these Zulus I meant to say Boers 
 encouraged by the jealousy of the Continent against 
 England, I should, of course, sincerely wish that this 
 war might end with the complete pacification of the 
 African roughs, so that their independence should 
 be destroyed once for all. On the other hand their 
 success, which is not impossible as Africa is far away, 
 would be the triumph of barbarity over civilisation, 
 and for me, as a Russian, i.e., a European, it would be 
 a day of deep national mourning. 
 
 MR. Z. (sotto voce). The statesman speaks elo- 
 quently, like that Frenchman : ce sabre d'honneur 
 est le plus beau jour de ma vie. 
 
86 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 LADY (to the Politician). No, I don't agree. And 
 why not sympathise with these Boers ? Did not we 
 sympathise with William Tell ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Yes, if they had created their own 
 poetical legend, inspired a home-bred Jean Jacques 
 Rousseau and produced authors and scientists, we 
 would speak differently of them. 
 
 LADY. But all this civilisation might come later. 
 To begin with, the Swiss were likewise shepherds. . . . 
 And the Americans, when they fought for their 
 independence against the English, were not bereft 
 of civilisation. Although not Boers, they tore off 
 the scalps of the Red Indians, as Mayne Reid tells 
 us. Lafayette also sympathised with them, and he 
 was right, because they have now joined all religions 
 together and made an exhibition of them at Chicago, 
 a thing which had never been done before. In Paris 
 the French wanted to do the same thing, but nothing 
 came of it. An abbe, called Victor Charbonnel, was 
 also very active about it. He wrote to me several 
 times : a very sympathetic man. But the various 
 religions could not agree. Even the Chief Rabbi 
 declared that " for religion we have the Bible, and 
 an exhibition was out of place." Poor Charbonnel 
 was in such despair that he abjured Christ and 
 announced in the newspapers that he had resigned 
 his living and greatly respected Renan. The end of 
 his career, I am told, was not satisfactory, for he 
 married, or took to drink or did something of the 
 kind. Next came our Nepluef, who finally lost 
 faith in all religions. He wrote to me that he only 
 believed in humanity. He is an idealist. But how 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 87 
 
 was humanity to be represented at the Paris Exhibi- 
 tion ? I think it is all too fantastic. The Americans 
 have, however, arranged matters very cleverly. 
 Ecclesiastics representing all religions joined them. 
 A Catholic bishop was elected president. He read 
 out the Lord's Prayer in English, while the Buddhist 
 and Chinese idolatrous priests responded very 
 politely : " Oh yes ! All right, sir ! * We wish no 
 one evil, and we only beg one thing, that your mis- 
 sionaries should keep away from us. Your religion 
 is very good for you, but you do not practise it. 
 That is not our fault, but our religions are the best 
 for us." And so everything finished satisfactorily, 
 there was no fighting, but much astonishment. 
 Who knows, perhaps these Africanders may become 
 Americans. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Certainly, all things are possible. 
 Even a garroche may become an eminent man of 
 science. But in the meantime, for his own good it 
 might be as well to give him a flogging. 
 
 LADY. What language ! Decidement vous vous 
 encanaillez? All this comes from Monte Carlo. 
 Qui est-ce que vous frequentez la bas ? Les families 
 des croupiers, sans doute ? However, that is your 
 business. I would only beg you to curtail your 
 political wisdom or we shall be late for dinner. It 
 is time to stop. 
 
 POLITICIAN. My wish was to sum up, to wind up 
 and to connect the end with the beginning. 
 
 LADY. You will never finish. I must assist to 
 
 1 " Oh yes 1 All right, sir 1" in English in the original 
 text. ED. 
 
88 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 explain your idea. You meant to say, formerly 
 there was a God and there was war, and that now 
 instead of God we have culture and peace. Is 
 that so ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Perhaps. Thereabouts. 
 LADY. That's all right. What is God ? Although 
 I do not know and cannot explain, I feel He exists. 
 But as regards your culture, I feel nothing. Explain 
 to me in two words what it is. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Of what culture consists and what 
 it contains, you know yourself. It is all the treasures 
 of thought and genius which have been created by 
 the greatest minds of chosen nations. 
 
 LADY. That is not one thing, but several dif- 
 ferent things. Here is Voltaire, Bossuet, also the 
 Madonna and Nana, and Alfred Musset and Philaret. 
 Are they to form one mass, and that mass to 
 replace God ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Yes, I meant to say that we need 
 not trouble about culture in the sense of an historical 
 depositary of treasures. It is created ; it exists, and 
 we thank God for it. We might hope that there 
 will be new Shakespeares and Newtons, but that is 
 not in our power and is of no practical interest. 
 There is, however, another practical or moral side 
 to culture. In private life we call it politeness or 
 courteousness. This may appear unimportant to a 
 superficial observer, but it has an immense and 
 exclusive meaning, because it may be universal and 
 obligatory. One cannot demand exalted virtues or 
 genius, but one can and must insist on politeness 
 from everybody. It is that minimum of considera- 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 89 
 
 tion for others and of morality, thanks to which 
 people can live together as human beings. Certainly, 
 politeness is not the whole of culture, just as reading 
 and writing does not exhaust mental development, 
 but politeness is one of its conditions. Politeness 
 is culture a I'usage de tout le monde. And we see that 
 from private relations it extends to all social classes, 
 political and international. We remember how in 
 our childhood people could be rude and unrefined, 
 but now obligatory and even coercive politeness has 
 extended its power, and is reaching all classes and 
 countries. 
 
 LADY. Pray be brief. You are trying to prove 
 that peaceful politics between States is the same 
 thing as politeness between people. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Certainly. In French, politesse and 
 politique are closely connected. And observe, that 
 no sentiments or special benevolence are required in 
 this case, as the gallant General needlessly observed. 
 If I do not assault a person, it does not follow that I 
 am benevolently inclined towards him. On the 
 contrary, I may harbour hostile sentiments in my 
 heart, but as a cultured man I scorn quarrels. I also 
 realise that no good can come of fighting. I there- 
 fore treat the man with politeness, thereby losing 
 nothing and gaining much. Just in the same way, 
 whatever antipathy may exist between two more 
 or less civilised nations, they will never resort to 
 des voies de fait i.e., to war, for the two following 
 reasons. Firstly, because war is not as repre- 
 sented in poetry and in pictures, but as it 
 exists in reality. Dead bodies, festering wounds, 
 
go WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 a collection of coarse and dirty people, the inter- 
 ruption of the natural course of life, the destruction 
 of useful edifices and institutions, of bridges, rail- 
 roads, telegraphs all this dismal medley is revolting 
 to a cultured nation just as mangled bodies disgust 
 us. Secondly, a nation which has attained a certain 
 degree of intellectual development comprehends 
 how advantageous it is to be polite towards other 
 nations, and how unprofitable it is to fight with 
 them. There are certainly various gradations : 
 hitting with the fist is more cultured than biting, 
 caning is more cultured than hitting, and a sym- 
 bolic slap on the face is still more civilised. Wars 
 can also be waged in a more or less barbarous 
 manner, and the European wars of the nineteenth 
 century are more like old-fashioned duels between 
 respectable men than a stand-up fight between two 
 drunken apprentices. But even this is a passing 
 phase. You may have observed that among 
 advanced nations even duels are going out of 
 fashion. While backward Russia is deploring the 
 death of her best poets killed in duels, in more 
 civilised France duels have become bloodless com- 
 bats, the remnants of a bad and defunct tradition. 
 " Quand on est mort c'est qu'on riest plus en vie," 
 said de la Palisse, famous for his truisms. And 
 believe me that you and I will see duels and wars 
 buried in the archives of history. Real culture 
 requires that all fighting between men as well as 
 nations should be abolished. In every case a peaceful 
 policy is the best criterion and evidence of progress 
 in civilisation. And, therefore, with every desire to 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 91 
 
 be agreeable to our gallant General, I still maintain 
 my statement that literary agitation against war is 
 of good augur. It not only prevents, but it also 
 hastens the final solution of the problem. With all 
 its strange enthusiasm, this propaganda is important 
 because it emphasises to the public mind the great 
 fact of historical progress. A peaceful, i.e., polite, 
 all-round profitable adjustment of all international 
 relations and differences is the stable form of sound 
 politics for civilised humanity. (Turning to Mr. Z.) 
 You wish to say something. 
 
 MR. Z. You lately said that a peaceful policy is a 
 symptom of progress. In that connection I remem- 
 ber that in Turgenyef s " Smoke " somebody very 
 justly observed : " Progress is a symptom." In 
 that case would it not follow that peaceful policy is a 
 symptom of a symptom ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Yes. And what then ? Certainly 
 everything is relative. But what is your idea ? 
 
 MR. Z. Merely this, that if peaceful politics are 
 only the shadow of a shadow, is it worth talking so 
 much about all this shadowy progress ? Would it 
 not be preferable to tell humanity what Father 
 Varsonovius said to the religious lady : " You are 
 old and weak, and will never be any better." 
 
 LADY. Now this comes too late. (To the Poli- 
 tician.) Observe how your own politique-politesse 
 mocks you. 
 
 POLITICIAN. How is that ? 
 
 LADY. Only that you will not go to-morrow to 
 Monte Carlo, euphemistically called Nice. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Why so ? 
 
92 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 LADY. Because these gentlemen wish to refute 
 you, but you were so prolix that no time is left for 
 them, and their arguments will have to be put off 
 till to-morrow. But is it possible that while cultured 
 people will be contradicting your theses you will be at 
 Monte Carlo enjoying more or less forbidden pleasures 
 with uneducated croupiers and their families ? That 
 would be the height of rudeness. Where, then, is 
 your " obligatory minimum " of virtue ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. If such is the case, I can put off 
 my trip to Nice for a day or two, as I am curious 
 to hear what can be said against my axioms. 
 
 LADY. That's right. And now I think we are 
 all very hungry. If it had not been for our culture 
 some of us would have escaped long ago to the 
 dining-room. 
 
 POLITICIAN. It appears to me that culture and 
 the culinary art are closely united. 
 
 LADY. Oh, dear, another joke ! 
 
 And thereupon, after exchanging some doubtful 
 witticisms, all followed the lady to her hospitable 
 board. 
 
THE THIRD CONVERSATION 
 
 " Audiatur et tertia pars." 
 ^<P 
 
 ON this occasion, by mutual consent, we assem- 
 bled in the garden earlier than usual, so as not to be 
 hurried at the end of the conversation. Consequently 
 all were in a more serious frame of mind than the 
 evening before. 
 
 POLITICIAN (to Mr. Z.). You, I believe, wished 
 to raise an objection to something or to make a 
 remark upon what I said recently ? 
 
 MR. Z. Yes ; with reference to your definition 
 that a peace policy is a symptom of progress, I 
 remembered at once the words of one of the charac- 
 ters in Turgenyef's " Smoke " that " progress is a 
 symptom." I do not know precisely what Turgen- 
 yef's character meant by this, but surely the natural 
 meaning of those words is quite accurate. Progress 
 is, in fact, a symptom. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Of what ? 
 
 MR. Z. It is a pleasure to be talking with intelli- 
 gent people. It was exactly to this question that I 
 was leading the conversation. I consider that pro- 
 gresS' that is, visible, rapid progress is always 
 a symptom of the end. 
 
 POLITICIAN. I understand that where there is 
 such progress as, for example, in a case of creeping 
 
94 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 paralysis, that is a symptom of the end. But in the 
 case of culture or civilisation, why must progress 
 infallibly be a symptom of the end ? 
 
 MR. Z. Well, it is not so apparent as in the case 
 of paralysis ; nevertheless, it is so. 
 
 POLITICIAN. You are convinced, that is clear 
 enough ; but to me it is not even clear what it is 
 of which you are convinced. In the first place, I am 
 encouraged by your praise to put again the simple 
 question, which you thought clever. You say, "a 
 symptom of the end." The end of what? I ask. 
 
 MR. Z. The end of that of which we were talking. 
 We were discussing the history of mankind ; that 
 historic " process " which certainly has begun to go 
 at an accelerated speed, and as I am convinced 
 draws near to its conclusion. 
 
 LADY. C'est la fin du monde, n'est ce pas ? This is 
 very curious. 
 
 " GENERAL. Well, at last we have reached the 
 most interesting point. 
 
 /" PRINCE^ I suppose, though, you will not be able 
 to leave out " Antichrist " ? 
 
 MR. Z. Certainly not, it has the first place. 
 
 PRINCE (to the Lady}. Please excuse me, I have a 
 terrible amount of very pressing business, so that 
 with every wish to listen to such interesting things, 
 I must go home. 
 
 GENERAL. What ? Then how about vint ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. I had a presentiment the day before 
 yesterday that there would be some unpleasantness. 
 When once religion comes in, expect trouble. 
 " Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum." 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 95 
 
 PRINCE. There will be no unpleasantness. I 
 shall endeavour to return at nine o'clock, but now I 
 really have no time. 
 
 LADY. But why such haste ? Why did you not 
 think about those important matters before ? I do 
 not believe you. You must admit that it is " Anti- 
 christ " that has suddenly frightened you away. 
 
 PRINCE. I heard so much yesterday about polite- 
 ness being the thing of first importance that, acting 
 under that suggestion, I decided to tell an untruth 
 for the sake of politeness. Now, I see, that this is 
 very wrong, and I will say frankly that, though I 
 have in fact important business, I am leaving this 
 conversation chiefly because I consider it useless to 
 waste my time in an argument about things such as 
 may have some meaning, possibly, for papooses. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Evidently you have now expiated 
 your serious sin of excessive politeness. 
 
 LADY. Why get angry ? If we are stupid, 
 enlighten us. Look at me, I certainly am not angry 
 because you called me a papoose. Even papooses 
 may have true understanding. God reveals his 
 wisdom to babes. But if you find it hard to listen 
 to conversation about Antichrist, very well, we will 
 make peace about that. Your villa is only a step or 
 two from here. Go away now, attend to your busi- 
 ness, but come back for the end of the conversation, 
 after Antichrist. 
 
 PRINCE. Very well, I will come back. 
 
 (When the Prince had gone the GENERAL remarked, 
 laughing). The cat knows whose meat she has 
 eaten. 
 
96 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 LADY. What ! Do you think, for instance, that 
 our Prince is Antichrist ? 
 
 GENERAL. No, not personally ; not he person- 
 ally : it's a long way from the caterpillar to the 
 butterfly ! All the same, he is in that line. As 
 St. John the Divine has already said in his epistle : 
 " You have heard, little children, that Antichrist shall 
 come ; even now are there many Antichrists." So, you 
 see, among those many ; among the many, I say . . . 
 
 LADY. You may, perchance, find yourself among 
 the " many." On him God will not be hard ; they 
 have led him astray. He knows that he will never 
 do anything remarkable, only walk about in a smart 
 uniform and set himself up as though he had got 
 into the guards from a line regiment. To a great 
 general all this does not matter, but it turns the head 
 of a little officer. 
 
 POLITICIAN. That is good psychology. All the 
 same, I do not understand why he became angry at 
 the mention of Antichrist. Here am I, for instance. 
 I do not believe in anything mystic, yet it does not 
 make me angry, but rather interests me from the 
 human point of view. I know that to many it is a 
 serious matter; that is to say, it gives expression 
 to a certain side of human nature which is some- 
 what atrophied in me, but it preserves its objective 
 interest for me too. For example, I am altogether 
 bad at painting and can draw nothing not even a 
 straight line or a circle so I do not discuss amongst 
 painters what is well drawn and what badly drawn. 
 But I am interested in questions of painting on 
 educational and aesthetic grounds. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 97 
 
 LADY. Oh such an inoffensive subject as that 
 one cannot gei\ angry ; but you yourself hate religion, 
 and just now emoted some Latin abuse against it. / 
 
 POLITICIAN. Well, was it abuse ? I, like my 
 favourite poet Lucretius, blame religion for bloody 
 altars and for the wailing of human victims. The 
 echo of this bloodthirstiness I hear in the gloomy, 
 intolerant statements of our friend who has just left 
 the discussion. But religious ideas in themselves 
 interest me very much, and, among others, this idea 
 of " Antichrist." Unfortunately, on this subject 
 I happen to have read only a book of Renan, and he 
 treats the matter merely on the side of historical 
 learning, and applies everything to Nero. But that 
 is nothing. Of course the idea of Antichrist existed 
 much earlier amongst the Hebrews than in the time 
 of Nero, arising out of King Antiochus Epiphanes, 
 and it has lasted on from that time, for example, 
 among our schismatics. It is a kind of general 
 idea. 
 
 GENERAL. Yes, it is all very well for your 
 Excellency to reflect on such things in your leisure 
 moments, but our poor Prince is so engrossed in 
 Evangelical propaganda that he is never able to 
 deliberate about Christ or Antichrist ; he has not 
 even got more than three hours in the day left for 
 playing vint. He is an honest man, and one must 
 give him his due. 
 
 LADY. No, you are too hard on him*. Of course 
 all such people are confused, but we must remember 
 that they are also unhappy, for there is no joy, ease, 
 or peace in their lives. And, you know, somewhere 
 
 w.c. ' H 
 
9 8 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 in the Scriptures it is said that Christianity is joy in 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 GENERAL. The position is indeed oppressive ; 
 not having the spirit of Christ and yet pretending to 
 be true Christians. 
 
 MR. Z. Particularly for Christians, not having 
 the very thing which is the particular feature of 
 Christianity. 
 
 GENERAL. But it seems to me that this sad 
 position is the precise position of Antichrist which 
 for the more wise or enlightened is overburdened with 
 the consciousness that in the long run deceit, of 
 course, will not pay. 
 
 MR. Z. At all events, it is certain that the idea of 
 Antichrist, which according to its Biblical inter- 
 pretation both of the Old and New Testaments 
 is the last act of the historic tragedy, will not be 
 simple unbelief or negation of Christianity, or 
 materialism and such like, but that it will be religious 
 imposture, when with the name of Christ will be 
 associated forces in human nature which are in fact 
 and in essence foreign, and plainly hostile to Christ 
 and His Spirit. 
 
 GENERAL. Well, of course the devil would not 
 be the devil if he were to play in the open ! 
 
 POLITICIAN. I fear, then, lest all Christians 
 should turn out to be impostors and therefore 
 according to you, Antichrists. The only possible 
 exceptions would be the unconscious masses of the 
 people, as far as such still exist in the Christian world, 
 together with a certain number of individual cranks, 
 like you, Sir. But in any case, one ought to regard 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 99 
 
 as Antichrists those people both here in France and 
 with us who particularly make a fuss about Chris- 
 tianity, who make of it their special occupation, 
 and make it the profession of a sort of monopoly or 
 privilege of their own. Such people at the present 
 time belong to one of two classes which are equally 
 foreign, I hope, to the spirit of Christ. Either some 
 sort of murderous shearers, who are ready at once 
 to restore the Inquisition and to arrange religious 
 massacres, like those pious abbots and " brave " 
 " Catholic " officers who not long ago expressed their 
 best sentiments on the occasion of the festival of a 
 certain depraved l rascal ; or that of the novel 
 fasters and celibates who discovered virtue and con- 
 science as a kind of America, and in other respects 
 have lost interior truthfulness and all common sense. 
 The first sort causes moral nausea and the second sort 
 induces physical yawning. 
 
 GENERAL. Yes, in former times Christianity was 
 incomprehensible to some and odious to others ; 
 but it is only now that it has become repulsive. I 
 can imagine how the devil rubbed his hands and 
 hugged himself at such a success. Gracious heavens ! 
 
 1 Evidently POLITICIAN alludes to the document drawn 
 up in memory of the suicide Henri, wherein one French 
 officer stated that he signed in the hope of a new St. Bar- 
 tholomew's Day, another that he hoped for a speedy 
 hanging of all Protestants, Freemasons, and Jews, and a 
 certain abbot that he lived in the hope of that bright future, 
 when the skins of flayed Huguenots, Masons, and Jews would 
 be made into cheap carpets, and he as a good Christian 
 would constantly trample upon such a carpet with his feet. 
 These statements out of some tens of thousands of others 
 of the same kind were printed in the newspaper Libre 
 Parole. 
 
 H2 
 
ioo WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 LADY. So that is Antichrist in your opinion ? 
 
 MR. Z. Well, no ; I have only given some ex- 
 planatory suggestions about its nature : the real 
 thing is still to come. 
 
 LADY. Is that the simplest explanation you can 
 give of what the thing i$ ? 
 
 MR. Z. Well, I cannot guarantee simplicity. You 
 do not light upon true simplicity all at once, and 
 so-called simplicity is artificial, false nothing is 
 worse than that. There jis an old proverb which a 
 friend of mine, now dead, loved to repeat; great 
 simplicity is easily misleading. 
 
 LADY. Well, that itself is not altogether simple. 
 
 GENERAL. It is apparently the same as the 
 popular proverb ; some simplicity is worse than 
 robbery. 
 
 MR. Z. It is the same. 
 
 LADY. Now even I can understand. 
 
 MR. Z. I am only sorry that you don't give your 
 whole explanation of Antichrist in proverbs. 
 
 LADY. Well, explain it as you know ii.^J 
 
 MR. Z. First of all, tell me, do you grant the 
 existence and power of evil in the world ? 
 
 LADY. I would rather not grant it, but there it 
 is inevitably. What do you make of death, for one 
 thing ? Anyhow, you can't escape that evil. I 
 believe that " the last enemy to be destroyed is 
 death " ; now so long as it is not destroyed, it is 
 evident that evil is not only strong, but is stronger 
 than good. 
 
 MR. Z. (to the General) . And what do you think ? 
 
 GENERAL. I never shut my eyes in face of bullets 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 101 
 
 and shot, so I shall not begin to flinch at more 
 slender questions. Certainly evil exists just as 
 really as good. God exists and the devil also exists 
 of course, only so long as God allows him. 
 
 POLITICIAN. For myself I answer nothing. My 
 opinion does not go to the root of things, but I 
 explained yesterday as well as I could, that side of 
 the matter which is clear to me. But I am anxious 
 to become acquainted with other views. The 
 Prince's line of thought is well known to me, that is 
 to say, I know that for me there is no actual meaning 
 in it at all,, only a mere pretence, qui na rime ni 
 raison. But the positive religious view is, of course, 
 more persistent and interests me more. Hitherto I 
 have only been acquainted with it in its official form, 
 which does not satisfy me. I should very much like 
 to hear, at last, not beautiful phrases about these 
 things, but a natural human account of them. 
 
 MR. Z. Of all the stars which rise in the intel- 
 lectual horizon of a man who reads attentively our 
 sacred books, there is none in my opinion more 
 brilliant and astonishing than that which shines in 
 the phrase of the Gospel, " Suppose ye that I am 
 come to give peace on earth ? I tell you, Nay ; but 
 rather divisions." He came to bring truth on earth, 
 but truth, like good, before all else divides. 
 
 LADY. This needs explanation. Why did Christ 
 call Himself prince de la paix, and why did He also 
 say that peacemakers are called sons of God ? 
 
 MR. Z. And are you really wishing me to obtain 
 that higher status by reconciling contradictory 
 texts ? 
 
102 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 LADY. Precisely. 
 
 MR. Z. Well, notice that the only way of recon- 
 ciling them is by making a distinction between good 
 or true peace and the peace which is bad or false. 
 This distinction is plainly pointed out by Him who 
 brought a true peace and a good enmity : " Peace I 
 leave with you, My peace I give unto you : not as 
 the world giveth, give I unto you." That is to say, 
 there is the good peace of Christ founded on this 
 division that Christ came to bring on earth, namely, 
 on the distinction between good and evil, between 
 truth and falsehood ; and there is the bad peace of 
 the world, founded on a confusion or merely exterior 
 unity of that which inwardly is at enmity with itself. 
 / LADY. How do you explain the difference 
 I between good and bad peace ? 
 
 MR. Z. Almost in the same way as the General 
 did three days ago, when he jokingly observed that 
 there is such a thing as a good peace, for example, 
 the peace of Nishstadt or of Kutchuk-Kainardzh. 
 Underlying this joke there is a more general and 
 important idea. In spiritual strife as in political, 
 a good peace is one which is concluded only on 
 obtaining the object of the war. .J 
 
 LADY. But in the last resort whence arises the 
 war between good and evil ? Is it absolutely neces- 
 sary for them to fight one against the other ? And 
 can there be between them a real collision corps a 
 corps ? Of course in an ordinary war, when one 
 side begins to be reinforced and then the other 
 opposing side seeks reinforcements, the quarrel 
 must be settled by actual battles, with guns and 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 103 
 
 bayonets. But in the struggle between good and 
 evil this is not so, and when the good side is re- 
 inforced, the bad side at once becomes enfeebled and 
 it never comes to an actual pitting of one against 
 the other, so that all this is only in a figurative sense. 
 That is, it is only necessary to make sure that the 
 good in people is the greater, then the evil at once 
 will be the less. 
 
 MR. Z. That is, you think that if only good 
 people themselves would become still better, then 
 the bad people would lose their badness till finally 
 they also become good ? 
 
 LADY. It seems to me that is so. 
 
 MR. Z. Well, are any occasions known to you 
 when the goodness of a good man made the bad man 
 good or at least less evil ? 
 
 LADY. No ; to tell the truth, I have neither seen 
 such occasions nor heard but stop, what you said 
 just now corresponds, I think, with the subject of 
 your conversation with the Prince the day before 
 yesterday concerning the fact that even Christ with 
 all His goodness could do no good to the soul of 
 Judas Iscariot or the wicked thief. As the answer 
 to this was left for the Prince, do not forget about it 
 when he comes. 
 
 MR. Z. Well, since I do not take him for Anti- 
 christ, I do not believe in his coming, still less in 
 his theological readiness. But not wishing that this 
 undecided question should clog our conversation, I 
 offer meanwhile this answer, which the Prince ought 
 to work out from his own point of view, " Why did 
 not Christ in His goodness regenerate the evil souls 
 
104 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 of Judas and Co. ? " Simply because men were then 
 too much in the dark and only very few souls had 
 reached the stage of moral development in which 
 the inward strength of truth can be perceptible. 
 Judas and Co. were still too " undeveloped.'* Now 
 Christ Himself said to His disciples : " The works 
 that I do, shall ye do also and greater than these 
 shall ye do " ; which means that, in the higher degree 
 of moral progress to which mankind has attained in 
 our days, the true disciples of Christ are able, in the 
 strength of their gentleness and non-resistance to 
 evil, to do moral wonders greater than those which 
 were possible eighteen centuries ago. . . . 
 
 GENERAL. Excuse me ! If they are able to do so 
 why don't they do so ? Have you seen these new 
 wonders ? Why, look at our Prince, even now, 
 " after eighteen centuries of the moral development 
 of the Christian conscience," he is in no way able to 
 enlighten my dark soul ; I remain the same savage 
 that I was before I met him, and still, as formerly, 
 after God and Russia, I love most of all in the world 
 the work of the army in general and of the artillery 
 in particular. And, moreover, our Prince is not the 
 only one I have encountered, I have met many other 
 non-resisters mightier than he. 
 
 MR. Z. Now, why get on to such personal 
 grounds ? and what do you want of me ? I put 
 before you on behalf of our absent opponent a 
 passage of the Gospel which he had forgotten, and 
 beyond that 
 
 " Whether it reason or unreason seem 
 I do not answer for another's dream." 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 105 
 
 LADY. Henceforward I too shall take the part 
 of the poor Prince. If he wished to be wise he would 
 answer the General thus : "I and others like me, 
 whom you have met, count ourselves true disciples 
 of Christ only in regard to our thoughts and con- 
 duct, not on the grounds that we have greater 
 powers. But, in fact, there do exist somewhere, or 
 soon will, Christians more perfect than we are 
 they may penetrate your stronghold of darkness." 
 
 MR. Z. This answer, of course, would be of prac- 
 tical utility were it not that it made its appeal to 
 unknown instances. But as it is, it is not serious. 
 They, let us suppose, say, indeed they must say we 
 can do nothing either greater than that which 
 Christ did, nor equal to His works nor even less than 
 them, but only something which approximates to 
 them. What in sound logic must be deduced from 
 such an avowal ? 
 
 GENERAL. Apparently, only this, that the words 
 of Christ : "Ye shall do what I have done and greater 
 works than these " were said not to these men, but 
 to some other person altogether unlike them. 
 
 LADY.< Still, one can imagine that some man 
 might observe to the end the commandment of 
 Christ about love towards enemies and forgiveness 
 of injuries, and that then he would receive through 
 that same Christ, the power to convert by his gentle- 
 ness evil souls into good ones. 
 f MR. Z. An experiment of this kind Was made not 
 so long ago ; not only did it fail, but it proved the 
 direct opposite of ^hat you propound. There was 
 a man who knew no limits to his gentleness, and who 
 - 
 
106 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 not only forgave every injury, but met every new 
 injury with new and increasing acts of kindness. 
 Well, what happened ? Did he awaken the soul of 
 his enemy ; did he regenerate him morally ? Alas ! 
 he only hardened the heart of the evil-doer, and fell 
 by his hand in a piteous manner. 
 
 LADY. What are you talking about ? Who is 
 this man ? Where and when did he live ? 
 
 MR. Z. Not so long ago, and in Petersburg. I 
 thought you knew him. He was the chamberlain 
 Delario. 
 
 LADY. I have never heard of him, and I thought 
 I could tell off the whole of Petersburg on my fingers. 
 
 POLITICIAN. I, also, do not remember him. 
 But what is the history of this chamberlain ? 
 
 MR. Z. It is excellently set forth in an unpub- 
 lished poem of Alexis Tolstoy. 
 
 LADY. Unpublished ? Then, of course, it is a 
 mere farce. What has this got to do with serious 
 matters ? 
 
 MR. Z. I assure you that, though a farce in form, 
 yet it has a real content which is very serious and 
 essentially true. At any rate, the actual relation 
 between good and evil in human life is expressed in 
 these playful verses far better than I could explain 
 it with my serious prose. Of one thing I have not 
 the least doubt. When the heroes of some world- 
 renowned novels, in which the black soil of psycho- 
 logy is skilfully and seriously ploughed up, become 
 mere literary reminiscences for bookmen, this farce 
 will retain all its artistic and philosophical truth, 
 because, though proceeding on comic and wildly 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 107 
 
 caricaturing lines, it has touched the subsoil depth 
 of the moral question. 
 
 LADY. Well, I do not believe in your paradoxes. 
 You are afflicted with the spirit of contradiction, 
 and you always defy public opinion on purpose. 
 
 MR. Z. I should probably defy it if it existed. 
 But all the same, I will tell you the story of the 
 chamberlain Delario as you do not know it, and I 
 remember it by heart. 
 
 The wicked robber plunged his dagger 
 
 In the breast of Delario ; 
 And he, for his part, lifted his hat and said, 
 
 " Dear Sir, I thank you." 
 Then in the left side the robber struck again 
 
 His dreadful dagger, 
 And Delario said, " What a splendid dagger 
 
 That is of yours." 
 Then also the right side this cruel robber 
 
 Pierced as before, 
 But Delario with a gentle smile 
 
 Barely reproved him. 
 The miscreant then raised his dagger up 
 
 And struck him in a hundred places ; 
 Said Delario, " I pray you, Sir, 
 
 To come to tea at three o'clock to-morrow." 
 The wicked man in tears then fell upon the ground 
 
 And trembled like a leaf. 
 But Delario said, " Oh, oh, dear Sir, get up, 
 
 The floor is dirty " ; 
 But the robber would not be comforted 
 
 And wept the more. 
 Then Delario said, " How strange is this ! 
 
 I could not have expected it ; 
 To weep in such a way for such a little thing 
 
 Isn't possible ! 
 
io8 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 I'll let you have a nice estate to farm, 
 
 The order of Stanislas 
 I'll pin upon your breast, friend, 
 
 For an example. 
 A word from me to the authorities procures it 
 
 I'm chamberlain. 
 My daughter Dunia in marriage 
 
 I will give, 
 And a hundred thousand roubles, Sir, 
 
 My daughter's dowry. 
 Meanwhile do take this little portrait of myself 
 
 In memory. 
 I'm sorry it is not framed, but take it so 
 
 From me." 
 The murderer got up, but bitterer than pepper 
 
 Was his mood ; 
 The portrait gift he could forgive, 
 
 But not the offers. 
 He hardly had the Stanlislavsky order 
 
 Upon his breast 
 Than a godless rage possessed him, and his dagger 
 
 Dipped he in poison, 
 And he laid in wait for Delano 
 
 And stabbed him once again. 
 Down fell Delario to the ground, being unable 
 
 To remain in his armchair, 
 And the other rushed upstairs and in the entresol 
 
 Seduced his daughter, 
 And then fled to Tambof, where, as Governor, 
 
 He was by all beloved. 
 Afterward he lived in Moscow, a senator 
 
 By all esteemed. 
 Then our House of Lords he joined 
 
 For a short season. 
 What an example was he to us all, 
 
 And what a lesson ! 
 
 LADY. How charming, and I did not expect it. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 109 
 
 POLITICIAN. Really excellent. "My daughter's 
 dowry "admirable. " Not the offers ! " and M Then 
 fled to Tambof ! " deux vrais coups de maitre! 
 
 MR. Z. But what uprightness, you notice. 
 Delario was not that polished benefactor who is 
 never met with in real life. He was a living man 
 with all the human failings both boastful (I am a 
 chamberlain) and covetous (a hundred thousand 
 laid by) and his fantastic impenetrability to the 
 assassin's dagger is only a sign of his boundless good 
 nature, invincible and almost insensible to all 
 affronts, such as does exist, though very rarely. 
 Delario is no't the personification of virtue, but a 
 naturally good man whose goodness of heart has 
 overcome the bad qualities and thrust them out 
 on to the soul's surface in the form of inoffensive 
 weaknesses. Likewise, the villain is in no sense 
 merely a walking extract of vice, but an ordinary 
 mixture of good and bad qualities ; but in him the 
 evil of envy was seated in the lowest depths of his 
 soul and thrust out all good on to the epidermis of 
 the soul, so to speak, where goodness took the form 
 of a very living but superficial sensitiveness. When 
 to a list of cruel injuries Delario answered with 
 polite words and an invitation to a cup of tea, the 
 sensitiveness of the " villain's " moral epidermis 
 was strongly touched by these manifestations of 
 good feeling, and he gave himself up to the most 
 expansive regret. When also the politeness of the 
 chamberlain passed into the heartfelt sympathy of a 
 truly good man, who repays his foe for evil not only 
 by showing the goodness oif polite words and actions, 
 
no WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 but by real and living goodness of practical aid- 
 when Delario entered into the condition of life of 
 his villain, ready to share with him his means, 
 make arrangements for his official affairs and even 
 his domestic happiness then this real goodness, 
 penetrating the deepest moral stratum of the villain, 
 discloses his interior moral worthlessness, and reach- 
 ing at length the bottom of his soul, rouses up there 
 a crocodile of envy. The villain is not envious of 
 the goodness of Delario ; he himself, of course, 
 might be good, only he did not feel his goodness 
 when he " wept in heartfelt pain." No, he is, in fact, 
 envious of the unfathomable depth and absolute 
 seriousness of this goodness. Is not this real ; does 
 it not happen in real life ? From one and the same 
 moisture of fertilising rain there spring both the 
 beneficial forces of wholesome herbs and the poison 
 of the poisonous. Likewise also a real good deed in 
 the last resort increases the good in the good and the 
 evil in the evil. Ought we, then have we the right 
 to give free scope, always and without discrimina- 
 tion, to our good feelings ? Ought we to praise 
 parents who zealously water poisonous herbs with 
 a good watering-can in a garden where their children 
 are walking ? What about the betrayal of Dunia, 
 I ask you ? 
 
 GENERAL. That is evident ! If only Delario 
 had moderately hit his villain on the head and driven 
 him out of the house, then, of course, he would not 
 have got so far as the entresol. 
 
 MR. Z. In fact, allow him to have the right to 
 sacrifice himself to his goodness ; allow that, as in 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY in 
 
 times of yore, there ^vere martyrs of the faith, so 
 now there must be martyrs of goodness. But about 
 Dunia ; what is to be done, I ask you ? You see, 
 she is simple and young, and to argue anything for 
 herself she is neither able nor willing. So must we 
 not be sorry for her ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. I agree we must be sorry. But 
 I, myself, am still more sorry that Antichrist, 
 apparently, has run away from us together with 
 the villain to Tambol^ 
 
 MR. Z. We- will catch him, your Excellency ; 
 we will catch him ! Yesterday you were pleased to 
 interpret history as meaning that primitive mankind 
 consisting originally of a multitude of more or less 
 savage peoples, different from each other, in part 
 unknown to one another and, in part, at enmity 
 with one another by degrees evolves out of itself 
 the best educated part, the civilised or European 
 world, which gradually increases and spreads, and 
 finally must embrace all the peoples that are left 
 behind in this historic movement, including them all 
 in one solid and peaceful international unity. The 
 establishment of a lasting international peace 
 that is your formula, is it not ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Yes, and that formula, when it 
 attains to the realisation which awaits it even in the 
 near future, will accomplish many more substantial 
 triumphs of civilisation than can now appear. 
 Only reflect how much bad will of necessity be 
 atrophied, and how much good, in the very nature 
 of things, will break forth and unfold, how much 
 force will be set free for productive occupations, 
 
H2 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 how science and the arts will flourish, and trade, and 
 commerce . . . 
 
 MR. Z. Well, but the abolition of disease and 
 death, do you include that in the number of the 
 future triumphs of civilisation ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Of course, to some extent. Now, 
 already, much has been done in the direction 
 of sanitation, hygiene, antiseptics, organothera- 
 peutics . . . 
 
 MR. Z. But do these undoubted triumphs on the 
 positive side really balance the undoubted increase 
 of the symptoms of degeneracy in the spheres of 
 neuropathology and psychopathology, symptoms 
 which accompany the advance of civilisation ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Well, in what sort of scales is that 
 to be weighed ? 
 
 MR. Z. At any rate, it is incontestable that the 
 plus increases and the minus increases, and the result 
 is something not far from nought. That is the 
 balance-sheet as regards diseases. Now with refer- 
 ence to death, the advance of civilisation, appa- 
 rently, is represented simply by nought. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Indeed, does the advance of civilisa- 
 tion set itself such a problem as the abolition of 
 death ? 
 
 MR. Z. I know that it does not set this, but, 
 of course, for that very reason it cannot itself be set 
 very high. Now, in fact, if I knew for certain that 
 both I myself and all that is dear to me must for 
 ever disappear, would it not be all the same to me 
 whether various people, somewhere or other, were 
 fighting amongst themselves or living in peace, 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 113 
 
 whether they were civilised or savage, polite or 
 impolite ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Yes, from a personal, egoistical 
 point of view, certainly it would be all the 
 same. 
 
 MR. Z. From an egoistical ? Excuse me, from 
 every point of view. Death equalises all, and in 
 face of it egoism and altruism, in like manner, are 
 foolish. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Be it so, but you know the foolish- 
 ness of egoism does not prevent us from being egoists, 
 and in the same way altruism (as far as it is in general 
 possible) is really achieved without any reasonable 
 motives, and the question of death has no signi- 
 ficance. I know that my children and grandchildren 
 will die, but this does not hinder me from looking 
 after their welfare as if it were eternal. I labour 
 for them chiefly because I love them, and to give my 
 life up to them gives me satisfaction. " I find a 
 certain gusto in it." C'est simple comme bonjour. 
 
 LADY. Yes, so long as all goes well though 
 even then the thought of death comes in all the same. 
 Now, how about the time when various misfor- 
 tunes begin with the children and grandchildren ? 
 What satisfaction and what gusto then ? It is just 
 like the water-lily in the swamp you grasp, and 
 fall in. 
 
 MR. Z. Yes, and besides this, in the case of chil- 
 dren and grandchildren, it is of the very nature of 
 things that you take care of them quand meme, not 
 waiting to solve or even consider the question as 
 to whether your care can afford them real and final 
 
 w.c. i 
 
H4 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 good. You take trouble about them not for some 
 end, but because you have a living affection for them ; 
 but it is impossible to have such affection for man- 
 kind of the future which is as yet non-existent ; 
 and here comes in, with all its insistence, the question 
 of our conception of the final meaning or purpose 
 of our care, and if this question in the last resort is 
 resolved by death, if, that is to say, the final result 
 of your progress and your culture is in any case 
 death for each and all, then it is clear that every 
 progressive activity of civilisation is in vain it is 
 aimless and senseless. 
 
 (Here the speaker suddenly stopped^ and the others 
 turned their heads at the sound of thJb bell ringing at 
 I the door, and for several moments remained in astonish- 
 ment. There entered into the garden, approaching the 
 speakers with unsteady gait the Prince.) 
 
 LADY. Oh ! But we have not yet even begun 
 about Antichrist. 
 
 PRINCE. That does not matter. I have changed 
 my mind, and I am convinced that I ought not 
 to have expressed disapprobation of the errors 
 of my friends without having listened to their 
 justification. 
 
 LADY (in a triumphant tone to the General). Well, 
 you see. What now ? 
 
 GENERAL (dryly). Humph. 
 
 MR. Z. (to the Prince). You have come very 
 opportunely. The conversation now turns on this : 
 is it worth while to care about progress if we know 
 that its end is always death for every man, whether 
 he be a savage or the furthest advanced European of 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 115 
 
 the future ? What would you say to that according 
 to your theory ? 
 
 PRINCE. True Christian teaching does not even 
 allow such a stating of the question. The Gospel 
 solution of it is expressed with particular clearness 
 and force in the parable of the husbandmen. The 
 husbandmen imagined that the garden into which 
 they were sent to work for the proprietor was their 
 own property, that everything in the garden was 
 made for them and that their business was only to 
 enjoy themselves in that garden for life, forgetting 
 about the owner and slaying those who reminded 
 them of him and of their obligations to him. Now, 
 nearly all people are like those husbandmen, and live 
 in the foolish assurance that they themselves are 
 masters of their life and that it is given to them for 
 their enjoyment. But this is obviously foolish. Of 
 course if we are sent here, it is at the will of someone 
 and to some end. Now we people, we have decided 
 that we are like mushrooms ; we were born and we 
 live only for our own pleasure ; it is evident, however, 
 that we are wrong, just as the workman would be 
 wrong who did not carry out his master's will. Now 
 the will of the master is expressed in the teaching of 
 Christ. Only let people carry out this teaching, and 
 the Kingdom of God will be established on earth and 
 people will receive the greatest good accessible to 
 them. Everything lies in this. Seek ye the Kingdom 
 of God and His Righteousness, and the rest of things will 
 be added unto you. We seek the rest of things and do 
 not find them, and so far from establishing the 
 Kingdom of God, we destroy it with our various 
 
 12 
 
n6 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 governments, armies, law courts, universities, manu- 
 factories . . . 
 
 GENERAL (aside). Well, you have set up a 
 machine ! 
 
 POLITICIAN (to the Prince) . Have you finished ? 
 
 PRINCE. Yes. 
 
 POLITICIAN. I must say that your solution of the 
 question seems to me simply incomprehensible. 
 You speak as though you were demonstrating and 
 explaining something that you wished to press home, 
 but meanwhile all that you say is a series of arbitrary 
 assertions which have no connection with each other. 
 For instance, you say : " If we are sent here it is at 
 the will of someone and for some end." This, 
 apparently, is your main idea, but what is there in it ? 
 Whence did you get the idea that we are sent here by 
 someone for something ? Who told you this ? It 
 is true that we exist here on the earth, but to say that 
 our existence here is the result of being sent is simply 
 an unproved assertion. When, for example, I was in 
 my youth sent as an envoy, I knew it for certain, 
 and I also knew by whom and for what I was sent. 
 I knew, in the first place, because I had incontestable 
 documents about it ; in the second place, because I 
 had both a personal audience with the late Emperor 
 Alexander Nicholaevich, and personally received his 
 Imperial instructions ; and in the third place, because 
 I received three times a year ten thousand roubles 
 in gold. Now, if instead of all this, a strange man 
 had come up to me in the street and announced to 
 me that I was an envoy and was sent somewhere for 
 some thing, I should have only begun to look round 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 117 
 
 me to see whether there was not a policeman in the 
 vicinity, to defend me from this maniac, who might 
 if you please make an attempt on my life. But 
 with regard to the case in question, when you hold no 
 incontestable documents from your supposed master, 
 when you have had no personal /audience with him, 
 and are receiving no salary froni him, in what sense 
 are you an envoy ? Now, besides, you set down not 
 only yourself, but all the rest as well, not only as 
 envoys, but also as working men. By what right ? 
 I don't understand your grpunds. It seems to me 
 that this 'is a rhetorical improvisation trls mal 
 inspiree d'ailleurs. 
 
 LADY. Now you are pretending again. You 
 understand quite well that the Prince was not trying 
 at all to refute your unbelief, but was stating the 
 general Christian view that we are all dependent upon 
 God and are bound to serve Him. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Well, I don't understand service 
 without salary, and if it is proved that the salary 
 alike in all cases is death, je presente mes compli- 
 ments . 
 
 LADY. But, of course, you will die anyhow, no 
 one will question that. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Anyhow ! Yes, and that proves 
 that life is not service, and if my assent is not required 
 for my death any more than for my birth, then I 
 prefer to look upon death, as also life, as being merely 
 a necessity of Nature and not to bring in the idea of 
 some sort of service to some kind of master. But 
 my conclusion is this : Live while you can, and 
 strive to live as wisely and well as possible, but the 
 
n8 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 condition of a wise and good life is peaceful culture. 
 As for the rest, I assert that the so-called solution of 
 the question which the Prince propounded on the 
 ground of Christian teaching will not stand criticism ; 
 but as to that let others speak who are more com- 
 petent than I. 
 
 GENERAL. What sort of a decision, indeed, have 
 we here ? Neither solution nor statement, but only 
 a verbal evasion of the question. It is just as though 
 I were to invest a hostile fortress shown on a map 
 with certain shown battalions of mine, and were 
 then to imagine that I had captured it. This is just 
 what happened, you know, in the famous soldiers' 
 song : 
 
 " The Devil carried off a quarter of us 
 As we were taking the heights. 
 
 The princes and the counts came, 
 The surveyors made their maps 
 On great sheets of foolscap. 
 It all looked smooth on paper, 
 But they forgot the precipices, 
 And how to get across them." 
 
 The result of which is well known. 
 
 " At the heights of Thediuchin 
 But two companies of us arrived, 
 The regiments disappeared." 
 
 PRINCE. This is all beyond me ! Is this all 
 that you can reply to what I said ? 
 
 GENERAL. But the point which seemed to me 
 particularly unintelligible in what you said, was the 
 matter of the mushrooms, as though they live for 
 their own pleasure. I have always supposed that 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 119 
 
 they live for the pleasure of those who like mush- 
 rooms in sour cream, or a mushroom pie. Now, if 
 your Kingdom of God on earth leaves death un- 
 touched, then it follows that people will have no 
 choice about living, and in your Kingdom of God 
 they will live precisely as mushrooms not the 
 joyful mushrooms that you suppose, but real mush- 
 rooms which are fried in a frying pan. Similarly 
 for people in your earthly Kingdom of God, every- 
 thing will end one way, namely, death will devour 
 them. 
 
 LADY. The Prince did not say that. 
 
 GENERAL.- Not that nor anything else. What 
 reason is there for this silence about the most 
 important point ? 
 
 MR. Z. Before taking up this question, I should 
 like to know what was the source of the parable 
 in which you, Prince, expressed your view ? Or is it 
 your own composition ? 
 
 PRINCE. Composition, indeed ! You know it 
 comes from the Gospel. 
 
 MR. Z. No, not so ! There is no such parable 
 found in any of the Gospels. 
 
 LADY. Heaven help you ! Why do you distort 
 the Prince's meaning ? You know it is the parable 
 of the husbandmen in the Gospel. 
 
 MR. Z. Superficially it is somewhat like it, but 
 altogether different both in tenor and meaning. 
 
 LADY. What do you mean ? Hold hard. It 
 seems to me to be entirely the same parable. As you 
 reason so subtly, I don't trust a word of what you 
 say. 
 
120 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 MR. Z. You needn't ; I have the book m my 
 
 pocket. (Here he took out a small copy of the New 
 
 Testament and began to turn over the leaves.} The 
 
 parable of the husbandmen is found in three Gospels : 
 
 Matthew, Mark, and Luke ; there is no material 
 
 difference between the three texts. So it will do to 
 
 read it over in one Gospel the most detailed Luke. 
 
 It is in the twentieth chapter, which contains the last 
 
 and final discourse of Christ to the people. Things 
 
 were drawing to a close, and here it is related (end 
 
 of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth 
 
 chapter) how the adversaries of Christ the parties 
 
 of the High Priests and the Scribes made decided 
 
 attacks on Him, publicly requesting that He should 
 
 show the full extent of His activity, and say by what 
 
 right and by what authority He was acting. But, 
 
 excuse me, I had better read it (reading) : " And He 
 
 taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests 
 
 and the scribes and the chief of the people sought 
 
 to destroy Him, and could not find what they might 
 
 do : for all the people were very attentive to hear 
 
 Him. And it came to pass that on one of those days, 
 
 as He taught the people in the temple, and preached 
 
 the Gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came 
 
 upon Him, with the elders, and spake unto Him, 
 
 saying, Tell us by what authority doest Thou these 
 
 things ? or who is He that gave Thee this authority ? 
 
 And He answered and said unto them, I will also 
 
 ask you one thing ; and answer Me : The baptism 
 
 of John, was it from heaven, or of men ? And they 
 
 reasoned with themselves, saying, if we shall say, 
 
 From Heaven ; He will say, Why then believed you 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 121 
 
 him not ? But and if we say, Of men ; all the 
 people will stone us : for they be persuaded that 
 John was a prophet. And they answered, that they 
 could not tell whence it was. And Jesus said unto 
 them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do 
 these things." 
 
 LADY. Why do you read this ? It is good that 
 Christ did not answer when they questioned Him ; 
 but what has this to do with the husbandmen ? 
 
 MR. Z. Wait ; it is all one thing. You were 
 wrong in saying that Christ did not answer. He 
 answered quite definitely and twice over ; He pointed 
 to His activities as a witness which His questioners 
 could not reject, and besides, He proved that they 
 themselves had no power or right over Him, since 
 they acted only from dread of the people and con- 
 formed to the opinions of the crowd only from fear 
 of their lives. But, of course, a real power is one 
 which does not follow after others, but leads others 
 after itself. In fearing and listening to the people, 
 these men showed that the real power had left them 
 and become the property of the people. Christ now 
 turns to them in order to accuse them before the 
 people of opposition to Himself. The whole purport 
 of the Gosepl parable of the husbandmen, as you 
 yourselves will see directly, is to show up the national 
 leaders of the Jews as unfit because of their resistance 
 to the Messiah. (He reads :) " Then began He to 
 speak to the people this parable : A certain man 
 planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, 
 and went into a far country for a long time. And at 
 the season, he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that 
 
 I 
 
122 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard ; but 
 the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty. 
 And again he sent another servant : and they beat 
 him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him 
 away empty. And again he sent a third : and they 
 wounded him also, and cast him out. Then said the 
 lord of the vineyard, What shall I do ? I will send 
 my beloved son : it may be they will reverence him, 
 when they see him. But when the husbandmen 
 saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, 
 ' This is the heir ; come, let us kill him, that the 
 inheritance may be ours.' So they cast him out of 
 the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall 
 the lord of the vineyard do unto them ? He shall 
 come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give 
 the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, 
 they said, God forbid. And He beheld them, and 
 said, What is this then that is written, The stone 
 which the builders rejected, the same is become the 
 head of the corner ? Whosoever shall fall upon 
 that stone shall be broken ; but on whomsoever it 
 shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And the chief 
 priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay 
 hands on Him ; and they feared the people ; for they 
 perceived that He had spoken this parable against 
 them." Now, I ask, about whom and what was the 
 parable of the husbandmen spoken ? 
 
 PRINCE. I do not understand what is your objec- 
 tion here ? The Jewish Chief Priests and Scribes 
 were offended because they were and acknowledged 
 themselves to be, counterparts of those bad worldly 
 people mentioned in the parable. 
 
 I 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 123 
 
 MR. Z. But of what, in particular, were they 
 convicted here ? 
 
 PRINCE. Of not fulfilling the true teaching. 
 
 POLITICIAN. It is clear the scoundrels lived like 
 mushrooms for their own pleasure, they smoked 
 tobacco, drank vodka, ate carrion and also offered of 
 it to their God, they married, presided in law courts 
 and took part in wars. 
 
 LADY. Do you think that it is worthy of your age 
 and position to mock in this way ? Do not listen to 
 him, Prince. We want to speak seriously with you. 
 Tell me this.; in the Gospel parable, you know, the 
 husbandmen perish because they murdered the 
 owner's son and heir and this is the main 
 thing according to the Gospel why do you pass 
 over it ? 
 
 PRINCE. I let it pass because it refers to the 
 personal fate of Christ, which no doubt has its own 
 importance and interest, but all the same is not 
 essential for the one thing necessary. 
 
 LADY. That is ? 
 
 PRINCE. That is, for the fulfilment of the Gospel 
 teaching, by which the Kingdom of God and His 
 Righteousness are attained. 
 
 LADY. Wait a moment ; I have something all 
 confused in my head what exactly is it ? Yes (to 
 Mr. Z.), you have the Gospel in your hands, so tell 
 us, please, what comes in this chapter after the 
 parable ? 
 
 MR. Z. (turning over the leaves of the little book). 
 There comes the bit about rendering to Caesar what 
 is due to him, next about the resurrection of the dead, 
 
124 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 that the dead will rise because God is not the God of 
 the dead but of the living, and after that, it is proved 
 that Christ is not the son of David but the Son of 
 God well, and the two last verses are against the 
 hypocrisy and boasting of the Scribes. 
 X* LADY. There, you see, Prince ! And this also is 
 ;> Gospel teaching ; that we must acknowledge the 
 state in worldly matters, we must believe in the 
 resurrection of the dead, and also that Christ is not 
 a mere man but the Son of God. 
 
 PRINCE. But how can it be possible to conclude 
 this from one chapter of uncertain authorship and 
 date? 
 
 LADY.- Ah, no ! I know at once, and without 
 looking, that it is not only one chapter, but in all four 
 Gospels there is a great deal both about the resur- 
 rection and about the Divinity of Christ especially 
 in St. John, and they read it at funerals. 
 
 MR. Z. But about that, though it is of uncertain 
 authorship and date, still free German criticism has 
 now acknowledged that all four Gospels are of 
 apostolic origin, of the first century. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Yes, and in the thirteenth edition 
 of " Vie de Jesus " I noticed a recantation with 
 regard to the fourth Gospel. 
 
 MR. Z. It -is impossible to go back upon our 
 teachers. But the great misfortune, Prince, is that, 
 whatever our four Gospels may be, when and by 
 whom they may have been put together, there does 
 not exist another gospel which you would find 
 more worthy of credit and more harmonious with 
 your teaching. 
 
 I 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 125 
 
 GENERAL. What ! There is not another ? But 
 there is a fifth in which there is nothing about Christ 
 and only a teaching with reference to slaughter and 
 warfare. 
 
 LADY. Are you at it too ? Shame on you ! You 
 know that the more you and your ally, the official, 
 tease the Prince, the more I shall take his part. I 
 am sure, Prince, that you wish to take Christianity 
 on its very best side, and that your Gospel, though it 
 is not the same as ours, aims at that also; just as 
 in old days they wrote books called " L' Esprit de M. 
 de Montesquieu/' " L'Esprit de Fenelon," so you 
 or your teachers have wished to write " L'Esprit de 
 1'fivangile." The pity is that no one of your way of 
 thinking has written any book which could be called 
 " The Spirit of Christianity according to the teaching 
 of So and So." It is essential for you to have some- 
 thing in the way of a catechism in order that we 
 simple people may not lose the thread in all these 
 intricacies. At one time we hear that the main 
 point is in the Sermon on the Mount, at another time 
 they suddenly tell us that before all things it is 
 necessary to labour in the sweat of one's brow at 
 agriculture though there is nothing about that 
 in the Gospel, but it's in Genesis, in the same place 
 as "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children " 
 but this is not a commandment, it is only an unhappy 
 destiny ; at another time they say that it is necessary 
 to give all to the poor, and again to give nothing to 
 anybody, because money is evil and it is not good to 
 do evil to others, but only to one's self and one's 
 family, and that for others it is only necessary to 
 
126 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 labour ; then again they say : do nothing but only 
 meditate ; again they say : the vocation of woman 
 is to bear as many healthy children as possible but 
 then suddenly nothing of that is at all necessary ; 
 next, not to eat meat is the first step, but why the first 
 nobody knows ; next, no vodka or tobacco ; next, 
 pancakes ; and then it is military service that is the 
 chief evil, and the chief duty of the Christian is to 
 refuse it, and anyone who is not carried off for a 
 soldier is, of course, for that reason a saint. Perhaps 
 I am talking nonsense, but it's not my fault. It is 
 impossible to make all this out../ 
 
 PRINCE. I also think it is essential for us to have 
 an intelligent summing up of the true teaching. I 
 fancy it is being actually prepared. 
 
 LADY. Well, and while it is being prepared, tell 
 us now in two words what is the essential point of the 
 Gospel in your opinion. 
 
 PRINCE. It seems clearly, that it is the great 
 principle of not opposing evil by force. 
 
 POLITICIAN. And how then will you get rid of 
 tobacco ? 
 
 PRINCE. Get rid of tobacco ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Oh ! Good heavens ! What con- 
 nection is there, I ask, between the principle of non- 
 resistance to evil and the demand of abstinence from 
 tobacco, wine, meat, and sexual intercourse ? 
 
 PRINCE. The connection, I think, is clear : all 
 these vicious habits stupefy a man they overpower 
 in him the demands of his reason or conscience. 
 This is why soldiers generally go off drunk to 
 war. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 127 
 
 MR. Z. Particularly to an unsuccessful war. But 
 we can leave that. The principle of non-resistance 
 to evil is important in itself 7 does it justify or not 
 ascetic demands ? According to you, if we cease to 
 resist evil by force, then evil will at once disappear. 
 That means, it subsists only through our resistance, 
 or in consequence of the means we take against it, 
 but it has no real strength of its own. In reality 
 there is no evil, it appears only in consequence of our 
 false theory in supposing that evil exists and in acting 
 on that supposition. Is it not so ? 
 
 PRINCE. Of course it is. 
 
 MR. Z. But if in reality there is no evil how 
 do you explain the surprising failure of the work of 
 Christ in history ? From your point of view, it has 
 not altogether succeeded, as after all nothing came 
 of it, or rather there came of it in every case much 
 more harm than good. 
 
 PRINCE. How so ? 
 
 MR. Z. What a strange question ! Well, if this 
 is unintelligible to you, we will go into it in detail. 
 Christ, even according to you, preached true good 
 more clearly, forcibly and consistently than anyone. 
 Is it so ? 
 
 PRINCE. Yes. 
 
 MR. Z. And true good consists in not opposing 
 evil with force, that is, so-called evil, since there is 
 no actual evil. 
 
 PRINCE. Yes. 
 
 MR. Z. Christ not only preached, but Himself 
 fulfilled to the end the demands of this good, 
 undergoing without resistance a death of torment. 
 
128 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Christ, according to you, died and did not rise again. 
 Very well. After His example many thousands of 
 His followers endured the same. Very well. And 
 what, in your opinion, was the result of all this ? 
 
 PRINCE. Would you wish that some shining 
 angels should set garlands on these martyrs and 
 place them somewhere in tents in the gardens of 
 Paradise as a reward for their heroism ? 
 
 MR. Z. No, why do you ask that ? Of course, 
 both you and I, I dare say, would wish for all our 
 dear ones, both living and dead, the very best and 
 most pleasant thing possible. But we are not con- 
 cerned with our own desires, but with what you 
 think actually resulted from the preaching and 
 heroic acts of Christ and His followers. 
 
 PRINCE. Resulted for whom ? For them ? 
 
 MR. Z. Well, for them doubtless the result was a 
 death of torment ; but they, of course, in their moral 
 heroism, submitted to it willingly and not in order 
 to receive shining crowns for themselves, but in order 
 to remit real good to others, to all mankind. So this 
 is what I ask you, what good did the heroic martyr- 
 dom of these people do to others, to all mankind ? 
 According to an old saying, the blood of the martyrs 
 is the seed of the Church. This is true to fact, but 
 in your opinion the Church brought about such a 
 distortion of true Christianity that it was forthwith 
 quite forgotten among men, and after eighteen 
 centuries it all had to be recovered from the begin- 
 ning without any guarantee of better success, that is, 
 in an altogether hopeless way. 
 
 PRINCE. Why hopeless ? 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 129 
 
 MR. Z. Well, I suppose you do not deny that 
 Christ and the first generations of Christians put all 
 their whole soul into the thing and gave up their 
 lives for it, and if, nevertheless, there was no result, 
 as you suppose, then on what can you base any 
 hopes of a different outcome ? There is only one 
 undoubted and permanent end of all this matter, 
 which is absolutely the same whether for those who 
 originate it, or for those who distort and ruin it, 
 or for those who recover it ; they all, according 
 to you, died in the past, they die in the present, 
 they will die in the future, and out of good 
 actions, out of true preaching, nothing except death 
 ever did happen, does happen, or promises to 
 happen. What then does it all come to ? What 
 an eccentricity ; evil which is non-existent always 
 triumphs, and good always relapses into nothing- 
 ness. 
 
 LADY. Do the bad people then not die ? 
 MR. Z. Very much so, but the point is, that by 
 the kingdom of death the strength of evil only is 
 confirmed, while the strength of good, on the con- 
 trary, is disproved. And, indeed, evil is obviously 
 stronger than good, and if the obvious counts as the 
 only real thing, then one must reckon the world as a 
 fundamentally evil affair. But how people can grow 
 wise while standing exclusively on the ground of 
 obvious and current reality, and consequently 
 acknowledging the obvious preponderance of evil 
 over good, and at the same time assert that there is 
 no evil, and that consequently there is no need to 
 struggle with it that is a thing that I with my 
 
 w.c. K 
 
I 3 o WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 intellect do not understand, and I am looking for 
 help from the side of the Prince. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Well, to begin with, tell us your way 
 out of the difficulty. 
 
 MR. Z. It seems to me simple. Evil in fact 
 exists, and it is expressed not in a mere absence of 
 good, but in a positive opposition and preponderance 
 of lower qualities over high in all the provinces of 
 existence. There is individual evil it expresses 
 itself in the fact that the lower side of man, the 
 bestial and brutal passions, resist the better ten- 
 dencies of the soul, and overcome them in an enormous 
 majority of people. There is general evil consist- 
 ing in the fact that the popular crowd, being as 
 individuals enslaved by evil, opposes the salutary 
 efforts of the few better people and overcomes them. 
 There is, lastly, physical evil in man in that the 
 lower material elements of his body oppose the vital 
 and living force that joins them together in the 
 beautiful form of the organism, and break up 
 this form by destroying the effective foundation of 
 everything higher. This is the extreme evil called 
 death ; and if it were necessary to acknowledge the 
 victory of this extreme physical evil as final and 
 absolute, then it would be impossible to count as 
 serious progress any so-called victories of good in the 
 province of personal or general morality. Even if 
 we suppose that a man of good, Socrates, let us say, 
 triumphed not only over his inward enemies the 
 bad passions but that he also succeeded in con- 
 vincing and reforming his public enemies, and in 
 transforming Greek politics what advantage is this 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 131 
 
 ephemeral and superficial victory over evil, if evil 
 triumphs finally in the deepest stratum of existence 
 over the very foundations of life ? Both to the 
 reformer and to the reformed there is one and the 
 same end death. How could one logically put a 
 high value on the moral victories of the So era tic 
 good over the moral microbes of bad passions in his 
 own breast, and over the public microbes of the 
 market place of Athens, if the real victory was found 
 to lie with the far worse, lower, coarser microbes of 
 physical decomposition ? Then no moral formula 
 could protect us against extreme pessimism and 
 despair. 
 
 POLITICIAN. We have already heard that. But, 
 for you, what is there to rely on against despair ? 
 
 MR. Z. We have one thing to rely on an actual 
 resurrection. We know that the struggle of good 
 with evil takes place not only in the soul and in 
 society, but lower down in the physical world. As 
 to that we already know up to now of one victory 
 gained by the good element in life in the personal 
 resurrection of One, and we look for future victories 
 in the collective resurrection of all. So even evil 
 finds its explanation, or the final exposition of its 
 existence in the fact that it wholly conduces to 
 greater and greater triumph, realisation, and rein- 
 forcement of good ; if death is stronger than mortal 
 life, then the resurrection to eternal life is stronger 
 than the one or the other. The Kingdom of God is 
 the kingdom of life, triumphing through resurrection 
 over life, wherein is actual, realised and final good. 
 In that Kingdom is all the power and all the work of 
 
 K 2 
 
132 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Christ, in it is His effective love to us and ours to 
 Him. Everything else is merely conditions, ways, 
 methods. If there is no belief in the accomplished 
 resurrection of One, and no hope of a future resur- 
 rection of all, you can only talk in word about any 
 sort of Kingdom of God, but in fact there stands out 
 only a kingdom of death. 
 
 PRINCE. How is that ? 
 
 MR. Z. Well, you not only admit (as everyone 
 does), the fact of death, i.e., the fact that people in 
 general have died, do die, and still will die but you 
 further exalt this into an absolute law, to which 
 there is no single exception, and you hold that this 
 is the world in which death is for ever an absolute 
 law. Then how can you call this world anything 
 except a kingdom of death ? And what is your 
 Kingdom of God on earth except an arbitrary and 
 vain euphemism for the kingdom of death ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. I also think it is vain, because you 
 must not change a known magnitude into an un- 
 known. No one has ever seen God, and what kind 
 of a Kingdom His may be is unknown to anyone ; 
 but the death of people and animals we have all 
 seen and we know it as the supreme power in the 
 world from which no one can escape. So what is the 
 good of putting instead of this a, some sort of an x ? 
 You will accomplish nothing by this, except it be 
 the confusing and deluding of your " small people." 
 
 PRINCE. I do not understand what we are now 
 discussing. Death is a phenomenon, certainly very 
 interesting, you can if you like call it a law, as being 
 a phenomenon constant amongst earthly creatures 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 133 
 
 
 
 and unavoidable by any of them ; you can also 
 speak of the absoluteness of that law, since, hitherto, 
 there has been no clearly established exception ; 
 but what real or vital importance can all that have 
 for the true Christian teaching, which speaks to us 
 through our conscience only about one thing : 
 namely, what we ought and what we ought not to do 
 here and now ? It is clear that the voice of conscience 
 can refer only to that which it is in our power to do 
 or not to do. Therefore, conscience not only says 
 nothing to us about death, but cannot say any- 
 thing. With all its immense importance for our 
 human earthly feelings and desires, death is not 
 subject to our will and therefore it cannot have any 
 moral importance for us. In that respect and that 
 is the only thing of importance at the moment 
 death is a purely indifferent fact, just as much as 
 bad weather, for example. Because I acknowledge 
 the inevitable periodical occurrence of bad weather 
 and more or less suffer from it, am I therefore bound 
 to say, instead of the Kingdom of God, the kingdom 
 of bad weather ? 
 
 MR. Z. No, you are not ; in the first place, 
 because bad weather has its kingdom only in 
 Petersburg and we have come here with you to the 
 Mediterranean and laugh at its kingdom ; and 
 secondly, your simile does not fit because one can 
 praise God even in bad weather and feel one's self in 
 His Kingdom, while the dead, as is said in the Scrip- 
 tures, praise not God ; also because, as his Excellency 
 remarked, it is more suitable to call this sorrowful 
 world the kingdom of death than the Kingdom of God 
 
134 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 LADY. Well, now you are all on names this is 
 tedious. Is it then a matter of names ? Tell us 
 instead, please, what you really understand by the 
 Kingdom of God and His Righteousness ? 
 7 PRINCE. I understand a condition of people in 
 { which they act cjnly with a clear conscience and so 
 fulfil the will of -God, which enjoins on them only 
 one clear good, j 
 
 MR. Z. But ^further, the voice of conscience, 
 according to yoi|, speaks only about the fulfilment 
 of duty now and here. 
 
 PRINCE. Of cjourse. 
 
 MR. Z. Wellj but is it the case that your con- 
 science is entirety silent about a breach of duty that 
 you were guilty' of, let us say in your youth, with 
 regard to people} now long dead ? 
 
 PRINCE. In that case, the point of these re- 
 minders is in this : that I should not do anything of 
 that sort now. 
 
 MR. Z. Well, that's not quite so, but it's not worth 
 while quarrelling about. I only want to remind you 
 of another and more incontestable sphere of con- 
 science. Long ago the moralists compared the voice 
 of conscience to that genius or demon which accom- 
 panied Socrates, warning him against undutiful 
 conduct, but never pointing out positively what he 
 ought to do. Exactly the same thing may be said 
 of conscience. 
 
 PRINCE. How is that so ? Does not conscience 
 then suggest to iie, for example, that I should help 
 my neighbour when I know he is in a position of 
 want or danger ?, 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 135 
 
 MR. Z. It is vety pleasant to hear this from you. 
 But, if you analyse carefully such a position you will 
 see that the role of conscience, even here, proves to 
 be entirely negative ; it demands of you merely 
 that you should not remain inactive or indifferent 
 in face of someone else's need, but how precisely you 
 ought to act on his behalf, conscience itself does not 
 tell you. 
 
 PRINCE. Just/ so, because this depends on the 
 circumstances of the case, on my position and on 
 that of the man 1 ought to help. 
 
 MR. Z. Of course, but the estimate and con- 
 sideration of these circumstances and conditions is 
 not the business of the conscience but of the mind. 
 
 PRINCE. But how is it possible to separate 
 reason from conscience ? 
 
 MR. Z. To separate them is not necessary ; but 
 you must distinguish, and for this reason, because 
 in reality there sometimes arises not only separation, 
 but opposition between the mind and the conscience. 
 If they were one and the same, then in what way 
 would the intellect be able to be of service in 
 matters not only foreign to morality, but directly 
 immoral ? But you know this happens. Of course, 
 it is possible to give help, acting from the mind and 
 not from the conscience ; for example, supposing I 
 give food and drink and show every kindness to a 
 necessitous man in order to make him an accomplice 
 such as I require for the successful execution of some 
 sort of swindle or other bad deed. 
 
 PRINCE. Well, yes, this is elementary. But what 
 do you deduce therefrom ? 
 
136 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 MR. Z. -Why this. If t 
 
 with all its proper significant as a warner and re- 
 
 proacher, does not give positi 
 directions for our action, an 
 
 e voice of conscience, 
 
 e practical and definite 
 our free will stands in 
 
 need of the mind as an assisting instrument, and if 
 meanwhile the mind shows itself to be a doubtful 
 servant for it, since it is capable and ready to 
 serve two masters good and evil then for the 
 fulfilment of the will of God and the attaining of the 
 Kingdom of God, besides the conscience and the 
 mind, yet a certain third thing is necessary. 
 
 PRINCE. What is that in your opinion ? 
 
 MR. Z. To put it shortly, it is the inspiration of 
 good, or a direct and positive action of the best 
 principle upon us and in us. In such a joint action, 
 both mind and conscience become trusty helpers 
 of the good itself, and morality, instead of being 
 a good behaviour, which is always questionable, 
 becomes an unquestionable life lived in the good 
 itself becomes the organic development and com- 
 pletion of the whole of man within and without, 
 individual and society, people and mankind, so as to 
 come to its climax in a living unity formed of the 
 revived past together with the evolving future in the 
 eternal present of the Kingdom of God, which will 
 indeed be on earth, but only on a new earth which is 
 lovingly united to a new heaven. 
 
 PRINCE. I have nothing against such poetical 
 metaphors, but why do you suppose that people who 
 are fulfilling the will of God according to the Gospel 
 commandments lack what you call the inspiration 
 of good ? 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 137 
 
 MR. Z. Partly because I do not see in them any 
 active signs of that inspiration, any free, excessive 
 transports of love because, you know, God giveth 
 not the spirit by measure also, I do not see a joyful 
 and contented repose arfeing from a sense of possess- 
 ing these gifts, though 4>nly in an elementary form ; 
 but chiefly I presuppose in you a lack of the religious 
 inspiration, because in I your opinion it is unneces- 
 sary. If the good corisists solely in the fulfilment 
 of " a will " where is tljere any room left for inspira- 
 tion ? A rule when orfce for all laid down is definite 
 and identical for all. I He who gave the rule died 
 long ago, and according to you did not rise, and 
 for us He has no personal living existence ; but an 
 absolute primordial g6od presents itself to you, not 
 as the father of lights and spirits, who can directly 
 enlighten and inspire you, but as a calculating master 
 who has sent you, a hireling, to work in his vine- 
 yard, while he himself lives somewhere away and 
 sends to you from there for his fruits. 
 
 PRINCE. You seem to think that we invented this 
 figure arbitrarily. 
 
 MR. Z. No, but you arbitrarily see in it the highest 
 force of the relation between man and God in arbi- 
 trarily excluding from the Gospel text the very 
 substance of it. Which is to point to the son and 
 heir in whom is found the true living type of the 
 relation between GocJ and man. It is a case of a 
 master, obligations tb a master, and the will of a 
 master. But this is what I have to say to you in 
 reply : As long as your master only lays obligations 
 upon you, and claims from you the fulfilment of 
 
138 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 his will, I do not see how you can prove to me that 
 this master is a real master and n/bt an impostor. 
 
 PRINCE. That's very nice, and supposing I know, 
 both in conscience and reason, that the demands of 
 the master are simply expressive of the purest form 
 of good. 
 
 MR. Z. I am sorry ; I am not speaking of that. 
 I do not dispute that the master demands good of 
 you ; but does it follow that he is himself geod ? 
 
 PRINCE. Why, how's that ? 
 
 MR. Z. How strange. I always thought that 
 the quality of goodness in anybody is not shown by 
 what he demands of others but by what he does him- 
 self. If this is not clear to you logically, then here's 
 an actual historical example for you. The Muscovite 
 Tsar Ivan IV., in his well-known letter, demanded 
 of Prince Andrew Kurbscki that he should display 
 the greatest good and highest moral heroism by 
 refusing resistance to evil and simply submitting 
 himself to a martyr's death for the truth. This 
 will of the master was good in what it demanded of 
 another, only it did not in any way prove that the 
 master who demanded such good was himself good. 
 It is clear that, although martyrdom for the truth 
 is the highest moral good, yet this does not imply 
 anything in defence of^Ikan IV., seeing that he 
 was in this instance not the martyr but the cause of 
 martyrdom. 
 
 PRINCE. What do yoAi mean by this ? 
 
 MR. Z. I mean, that [so long as you do not show 
 me the good quality of ybur master in his own deeds, 
 but only in his verbal instructions to his workmen, 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 139 
 
 i 
 
 I remain of my opinion that this fr-away master of 
 yours, demanding good of others, put doing nothing 
 good himself, imposing obligations, but showing no 
 love, never appearing for you to see, but living some- 
 where away incognito that he is none other than 
 the God of this world . . . 
 
 GENERAL. What an accursed incognito ! 
 
 LADY. Ah, do not say so ! How terrible ! The 
 Power of the Cross defend us. (She crosses her- 
 self.) 
 
 PRINCE. It was possible earlier on to foresee 
 something of this kind. 
 
 MR. Z. I have no doubt, Prince, that you, 
 through an honest mistake, accept a clever impostor 
 as the true God. The cleverness of the impostor is, 
 for you, a great extenuating circumstance ; I myself 
 have not analysed how the matter stands ; but at 
 present I have no doubt whatever, and you will 
 understand with what feelings I must regard what I 
 consider to be a deceitful and seductive personal 
 good. 
 
 LADY. This, you know, is rather insulting. 
 
 PRINCE. I assure you I am not in the least 
 offended. A general and very interesting question 
 
 was put, and it is strange to n 
 
 apparently imagines that tnis question has to do 
 
 with me only, and not with 
 demand of me that I should s 
 deeds of my master, which 2 
 
 e that my interlocutor 
 
 himself as well. You 
 ow you the really good 
 e witnesses of the fact 
 
 that he is the origin of goo and not evil. Well, 
 will you yourselves show me $ny good deed of your 
 master which I would not be able to ascribe to mine ? 
 
140 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 GENERAL. You know, one deed has already been 
 shown upon which all the others rest. 
 
 PRINCE. What exactly ? 
 
 MR. Z. The real victory over evil in a real resur- 
 rection. Only by this, I repeat, is revealed the true 
 Kingdom of God. For without that there is only the 
 kingdom of death and sin, and of their creator, the 
 devil. The resurrection only not in a figurative sense, 
 but in a real one that is the proof of the true God. 
 
 PRINCE. Yes, if it pleases you to believe in such 
 mythology. I, you know, ask you for facts which are 
 capable of proof and not for your beliefs. 
 
 MR. Z. Not so fast, Prince. We both start from 
 one faith, or, if you like, one mythology only I 
 pursue it to the end, while you, in spite of logic, 
 remain arbitrarily at the beginning of the way. You 
 admit the power of good and its ultimate triumph on 
 earth, don't you ? 
 
 PRINCE. I admit it. 
 
 MR. Z. What is it ; fact or belief ? 
 
 PRINCE. Reasonable belief. 
 
 MR. Z. Let us see. Reason, as we were taught 
 in the Seminary, demands, among other things, that 
 nothing is to be admitted without adequate founda- 
 tion. Tell me, then, please, upon what adequate 
 foundation, having admitted the power of good in 
 moral improvement and in the perfecting of man and 
 humanity, you admit that good is powerless against 
 death? 
 
 PRINCE. I think it is necessary for you to say why 
 you ascribe to good some sort of power beyond the 
 confines of the moral sphere. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 141 
 
 MR. Z. I will tell you. When once I believe in 
 good, and in its peculiar power, and that the very 
 conception of this good power implies its actual and 
 absolute superiority, then I logically admit such a 
 power as boundless, and nothing will prevent me 
 from believing in the truth of the resurrection which 
 has been attested historically. Besides, if you had 
 said frankly from the very beginning that the 
 Christian faith was nothing to you, that its matter 
 was mythological to you, then I, of course, should 
 have restrained myself from expressing that ani- 
 mosity to ypur manner of thought, which I was 
 not able to hide from you ; for bearing animosity 
 towards people for their theoretical errors means 
 acknowledging oneself to be small in mind, weak 
 in faith and bad at heart. Every one who really 
 believes and at the same time is free from an 
 excess of stupidity, faint-heartedness and heart- 
 lessness must look with sincere goodwill on any 
 adversary and denier of religious truth who is 
 frank, open and, in short, honest. At the present 
 time this is such a rarity that it is difficult for me to 
 tell you with what special pleasure I look upon a 
 declared enemy of Christianity. I am almost pre- 
 pared to see in every one of them a future Apostle 
 Paul, while in some zealots for Christianity I in- 
 voluntarily seem to see Judas the traitor. But 
 you, Prince, have so openly declared yourself that 
 I absolutely refuse to number you amongst the 
 present countless male and female Judases, and 
 already I foresee the moment in which I shall feel 
 towards you the same good disposition which many 
 
I 4 2 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 declared atheists and non-Christians have aroused 
 in me. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Well, since now it is so happily 
 explained that neither these atheists and non- 
 Christians nor such " true Christians " as the Prince 
 here represent Antichrist, the time has come at last 
 for you to show us his real portrait. 
 
 MR. Z. That's what you are after ! But are you 
 satisfied with even one of the many representations 
 of Christ which have been made at any time by 
 talented artists ? I do not know one representation 
 that is satisfactory. I suppose there cannot be one, 
 for the reason that Christ is individual and unique 
 in His way, and consequently an incarnation unlike 
 any other of His essential nature namely, good. 
 To represent this is unattainable by any artistic 
 genius. But the same thing must be said about 
 Antichrist. He is likewise individual and unique, a 
 full and complete embodiment of evil. It is impos- 
 sible to show his portrait. In Church literature we 
 find only his passport, with general and particular 
 remarks. 
 
 LADY. His portrait isn't necessary. God for- 
 bid ! You had better explain why he himself is 
 necessary in your opinion, what his work really is, 
 and if he will come soon. 
 
 MR. Z. Well, I am able to satisfy you better than 
 you think. Some years ago one of my fellow-students 
 in the Academy, who afterwards became a monk, 
 when he was dying, bequeathed to me a manuscript 
 of his which he valued highly, but was unwilling and 
 unable to print. He calls it, "A Short Narrative 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 143 
 
 about Antichrist/' Although it takes the form of 
 fiction, or the appearance of an historical picture, 
 imagined in advance, this work, in my opinion, 
 gives all that in the highest probability can be 
 said about this subject in accordance with the 
 Holy Scriptures, ecclesiastical tradition, and sound 
 reason. 
 
 POLITICIAN. I suppose it is not the production 
 of our acquaintance Varsonophia ? 
 
 MR. Z. No, his name was one of far more refine- 
 ment, Pansophia. 
 
 POLITICIAN. Pan Sophia. A Pole ? 
 
 MR. Z. Not at all ; one of the Russian clericals. 
 If you will permit me to go up to my room for a 
 moment I will bring this manuscript and read it 
 through. It isn't long. 
 
 LADY. Go by all means, only do not get lost. 
 (While Mr. Z. goes to his room for the manuscript all 
 get up and walk about the garden.) 
 
 POLITICIAN. I do not know what it is ; either my 
 eyesight is dimmed by old age, or something has 
 happened in nature. Only, I notice that there are 
 now no longer in any season, or in any place, any 
 more of those bright and quite clear days, which 
 formerly there were in all climates. Take to-day ; 
 not a cloud ; we are far enough from the sea, and 
 yet everything as it were, is covered with some- 
 thing something fine and intangible, and there 
 is no absolute clearness. Have you noticed it, 
 General ? 
 
 GENERAL. I have noticed it for many years. 
 
 LADY. And I, for this past year, have begun to 
 
144 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 notice it also. Not only in the air but in the soul : 
 for here there is no " absolute clearness," as you say. 
 Everywhere there is some sort of alarm, as if it were 
 a foreboding of some evil. I am sure that you, 
 Prince, feel the same thing. 
 
 PRINCE. No, I have noticed nothing special. The 
 air seems as usual. 
 
 GENERAL. But you are too young to notice any 
 difference. You have no means of comparison. 
 How can you remember ? But when you look back 
 over fifty years you feel something. 
 
 PRINCE. I think the first supposition is correct. 
 It is a phenomenon of weak eyesight. 
 
 POLITICIAN. We are growing old undoubtedly ; 
 but neither is the earth growing younger ; a double 
 weariness is felt. 
 
 GENERAL. More probably it is the devil driving 
 a mist with his tail across God's light. Also a sign 
 of Antichrist. 
 
 LADY (pointing out Mr. Z., who was descending the 
 terrace). We shall soon know all about it. 
 
 (They all sit down in their former places and Mr. Z. 
 begins to read the manuscript he has brought with him.) 
 
 SHORT NARRATIVE ABOUT ANTICHRIST. 
 
 Pan-mongolism ! Although the name is wild, 
 I find some consolation in the sound, 
 A mystical premonition, as it were, 
 Of the glorious providence of God. 
 
 LADY. Where does this heading come from? 
 Whence this epigraph ? 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 145 
 
 MR. Z. I think, the author wrote it himself. 
 
 LADY. Well, read on. 
 
 MR. Z. (reads).- The twentieth century after the 
 birth of Christ was the period of the last great wars, 
 civil dissension and revolutions. The very greatest 
 of foreign wars had as its remote cause, the intel- 
 lectual movement of Pan-mongolism which arose in 
 Japan towards the end of the nineteenth century. 
 The imitative Japanese, with astonishing rapidity 
 and success copied the material forms of European 
 culture and adopted certain European ideas of a 
 lower order. Having learned from newspapers and 
 historical text-books about the existence in the 
 West of Pan-hellenism, Pan-germanism, Pan-slavism, 
 Pan-islamism, they proclaimed the great idea of 
 Pan-mongolism, which was the gathering into one, 
 under their leadership, of all the peoples of Eastern 
 Asia with the object of making a resolute struggle 
 against foreigners, that is to say, Europeans. Taking 
 advantage of the fact that Europe was engaged in a 
 final and decisive struggle with the Moslem world 
 in the beginning of the twentieth century, they 
 began the realisation of a great plan first, the 
 occupation of Korea, then that of Peking, where, 
 with the help of the progressive party in China they 
 would depose the ancient Manchurian dynasty 
 and put the Japanese in its place. The Chinese 
 Conservatives soon came to an agreement with 
 them. They saw that of two evils it was 
 better to choose the lesser and therefore, blood 
 being thicker than water, they necessarily chose 
 their brothers the Japanese. 
 
 W.C. ' L 
 
146 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 The government of China had not the power 
 to hold its ground and would have unavoidably 
 become subject either to the Europeans or to the 
 Japanese. But it was clear that the Japanese 
 sovereignty, abolishing the external forms of 
 Chinese dominion which seemed eminently trivial, 
 would not affect the intimate foundations of 
 national life, whilst on the other hand the pre- 
 dominance of the European powers, who supported, 
 for political reasons, the Christian missionaries, 
 would threaten the deepest spiritual foundations 
 of China. The former national hatred of the 
 Chinese for the Japanese had arisen at a time 
 when neither the one nor the other had 
 known Europeans, in the presence of whom this 
 enmity of two related peoples became mere civil 
 dissension, and lost any significance. Europeans 
 were entirely foreigners, merely enemies, and their 
 domination could in no way be flattering to race 
 pride, whilst in the hands of Japan, the Chinese saw 
 the delightful lure of Pan-mongolism, which, more- 
 over, in their eyes did away with the sad inevit- 
 ability of European influence. " You see, O obsti- 
 nate brothers," said the Japanese, " that we take 
 the arms of the Western dogs, not from any infatua- 
 tion for them, but simply to beat them with their 
 own weapons. If you join us and accept our prac- 
 tical guidance we shall not only quickly drive the 
 white devils our of our Asia, but we shall fight them 
 in their own countries and found a real middle 
 kingdom over the whole world. You are right in 
 your national pride and contempt of Europeans, 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 147 
 
 but it is vain to nourish these feelings on dreams 
 alone without intelligent activity. In this we have 
 surpassed you and we must show you the way of 
 our common welfare. Otherwise, see for yourselves 
 what your policy of self-assurance and distrust of 
 us, your natural friends and defenders, has given 
 you : Russia and England, Germany and France 
 have almost shared you between them, leaving you 
 nothing, and all your tigerish plots show only 
 the weak end of a serpent's tail." Reasonable 
 Chinamen found this sound, and the Japanese 
 dynasty pronounced it well founded. Its first 
 care, of course, was the creation of a powerful 
 army and navy. A great part of the fighting forces 
 of Japan was brought to China, where it composed 
 the staff of an enormous new army. Japanese 
 officers speaking Chinese acted as instructors far 
 more successfully than the Europeans who had been 
 dismissed, and in the countless populations of China, 
 Manchuria, Mongolia and Tibet was found a suffi- 
 ciency of excellent military material. Already the 
 first Chinese Emperor of the Japanese dynasty was 
 able to make a successful trial of the arms of the 
 revived empire, driving out the French from Tonkin 
 and Siam, the English from Burma, and including 
 in the Middle Empire all of Indo-China. His heir, 
 Chinese on his mother's side, thus uniting in him- 
 self both the cunning and elasticity of the Chinese 
 with the energy, mobility and enterprise of the 
 Japanese, mobilised in Chinese Turkestan an army 
 of four millions, and at the time that the Tsun-li- 
 Yamin confidently informed the Russian Ambassador 
 
 L 2 
 
148 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 that this force was intended for the conquest of India, 
 the Emperor appears in our Central Asia, and having 
 collected there all the inhabitants, moves swiftly 
 across the Urals and swamps with his armies all 
 Eastern and Central Russia, whilst the Russian 
 forces, hastily mobilised in various parts, hurry 
 from Poland, from Lithuania, from Kiev, Volhynia, 
 Petersburg and Finland. Owing to the absence of a 
 prearranged plan of campaign and the enormous 
 numerical superiority of the enemy, the fighting 
 qualities of the Russian forces allow them only to 
 perish with honour. The swiftness of the invasion 
 left no time for the necessary concentration, and 
 army corps after army corps was exterminated in 
 hard and hopeless conflicts. The Mongols did not 
 come off cheaply, but they easily replaced their 
 losses, having control of all the Asiatic railways, 
 while a Russian army of two hundred thousand, 
 for a long time concentrated on the Manchurian 
 frontier, made an unsuccessful attempt to invade 
 a well-defended China. Having left a part of his 
 forces in Russia to prevent the forming of new 
 armies, and also for the pursuit of guerilla bands 
 which had increased in number, the Emperor with 
 three armies crossed the German frontier. Here 
 they had succeeded in making preparations, and one 
 of the Mongol armies was annihilated. At this time 
 the party of a belated revanche was in power in 
 France and a million hostile bayonets quickly 
 appeared at the Germans' back. Having fallen 
 between the anvil and the hammer, the German 
 army was forced to accept honourable conditions of 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 149 
 
 surrender proposed by the Emperor. The jubilant 
 French fraternising with the yellow faces were 
 scattered throughout Germany, and soon lost every 
 appearance of military discipline. The Emperor 
 commanded his soldiers to kill the more unnecessary 
 of his allies, which was accomplished with Chinese 
 accuracy. In Paris an uprising of working men sans 
 patrie took place, and the capital of western culture 
 opened its gates to the Conqueror of the East. 
 Having satisfied his curiosity, the Emperor set out 
 for Boulogne, where, under cover of the fleet which 
 had come from the Pacific, he got ready transports 
 to convey his army to Great Britain. But he was 
 in need of money, and the English bought their free- 
 dom for a milliard pounds. For a year all the 
 European Powers acknowledged themselves vassals 
 of the Emperor, who, having left a sufficient army of 
 occupation in Europe, returned to the East, where he 
 began preparations for a naval expedition against 
 America and Australia. For half a century Europe 
 lay under the Mongol yoke. In the domain of 
 thought this epoch was remarkable for a general 
 blending and mutual interchange of European and 
 Eastern ideas, a repetition en grand of the ancient 
 Alexandrian syncritism. In the practical domain of 
 life, three phenomena became in the highest degree 
 characteristic : the large influx into Europe of 
 Chinese and Japanese labour, and in consequence of 
 this the violent embitterment of the social-economic 
 question ; the series of palliative attempts to solve 
 this question, which were prolonged on the part of the 
 governing classes ; and the increasing international 
 
150 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 activity of secret social organisations which resulted in 
 a widespread European plot to drive out the Mongols 
 and to re-establish the independence of Europe. This 
 colossal plot, into which the local national govern- 
 ments entered so far as they were able, being under 
 the control of the Imperial viceroys, was prepared in 
 a masterly and succeeded in a brilliant manner. At 
 an appointed time began the slaughter of the Mongol 
 soldiers and the murder and expulsion of the work- 
 men. In all places secret staffs of the European 
 army appeared, and a general mobilisation took place 
 according to a long-prepared and circumstantial 
 plan. The new Emperor, the grandson of the 
 great Conqueror, hastened from China to Russia, but 
 here his numberless hordes were annihilated by 
 the all-European army. Their scattered remnants 
 returned to the depths of Asia, and Europe became 
 free. If the half century of subjugation to the 
 Asiatic barbarians was the result of the disunion 
 of the Powers, who thought only of their separate 
 national interests, a great and glorious liberation 
 was attained by the international organisation of the 
 united forces of all the peoples of Europe. 
 
 As a natural consequence of this obvious fact it 
 followed that the old traditional order of divided 
 nations everywhere lost its significance, and almost 
 everywhere the last traces of monarchical institu- 
 tions disappeared. Europe in the twenty-first 
 century presented a union of more or less demo- 
 cratic States the United States of Europe. The 
 progress of external culture, somewhat retarded by 
 the Mongol invasion and war of liberation, again 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 151 
 
 went forward. Matters of internal consciousness 
 questions of life and death, of the last judgment, of 
 the world and of mankind, complicated and confused 
 by a multitude of new physiological and psycho- 
 logical investigations and discoveries remained as 
 formerly, insoluble. Only one important negative 
 result was made clear the absolute fall of theoretical 
 materialism. The representation of the universe as 
 a system of floating atoms, and of life as the result 
 of a mechanical agglomeration of minute alterations 
 of matter such a statement no longer satisfied even 
 one thinking being. Mankind had for ever outgrown 
 this stage of philosophical youthfulness. But it was 
 clear on the other hand that it had also outgrown 
 the youthful capacity of a simple and unconscious 
 belief. The idea that God created the universe out 
 of nothing, etc., ceased to be taught even in the 
 primary schools. A certain general and higher level 
 of representing such matters had been worked out, 
 below which no dogmatism could fall. And if the 
 vast majority of thinking people remained entirely 
 unbelievers, the few who believed became of necessity 
 " thinkers," fulfilling the instructions of the apostle : 
 be children at heart but not in mind. 
 
 There was at this time among the few people 
 believing in spiritual things a remarkable man 
 called by many a superman who was, however, 
 as far from being intellectual as from being a child 
 at heart. He was still young, but, thanks to his 
 great talent, at thirty-three years of age was widely 
 proclaimed as a great thinker, writer, and social 
 worker. Being conscious within himself of great 
 
152 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 spiritual power he had been always a convinced 
 spiritualist, and his clear understanding always 
 showed him the truth of that in which one must 
 believe Good, God, the Messiah. In these he 
 believed, but he loved only himself. He believed 
 in God, but, in the depths of his soul, he involun- 
 tarily and unconsciously preferred himself to Him. 
 He believed in Good, but the All Seeing Eye of the 
 Eternal knew that this man bowed before the power 
 of evil when it offered him a bribe not by the snare 
 of the senses and lower passions, nor even by the 
 superior attraction of power, but through his im- 
 measurable self-love alone. Besides, this self-love 
 was neither an unconscious instinct nor a foolish 
 pretence. In view of his exceptional talent, his 
 beauty, nobility of character, his supreme display 
 of continence, his disinterestedness, and his active 
 beneficence, it seemed that his enormous self-love 
 was justifiable, and worthy of a great spiritualist, 
 ascetic, and philanthropist. Was he to blame ? a 
 man so plenteously endowed with divine gifts that 
 he saw in them special signs of an exceptional 
 affection from heaven for himself, and he counted 
 himself as second to God in his origin as the only 
 son of God. In a word, he avowed that he was, in 
 truth, Christ. But this consciousness of his super- 
 merit, in effect, defined itself in him not as any 
 moral obligation of his towards God and the world, 
 but as his right and prerogative to be before others, 
 and, more than all, before Christ. He had no 
 fundamental enmity towards Jesus. He recognised 
 His Messianic significance and merit, and he really 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 153 
 
 saw in Him his own august predecessor. The moral 
 grandeur and absolute oneness of Christ were not 
 understood by a mind clouded by self-love. He 
 argued thus : " Christ came before me ; I appeared 
 next, but that which appears later in time is, in 
 reality, first. I shall come last at the end of history 
 exactly because I am the absolute and final saviour. 
 The first Christ is my forerunner. His mission was 
 to prepare and make ready for my appearance." In 
 this sense the great man of the twenty-first century 
 applied to himself all that was said in the Gospel 
 about the Second Advent, proclaiming that this 
 advent is not a return of the same Christ but a sub- 
 stitution of the previous Christ which is final, that 
 is, he himself. 
 
 On this point the coming man does not yet offer 
 much that is characteristic or original. He regards 
 his relation to Christ in the same way as did, for 
 instance, Mahomet, an upright man, whom it is 
 impossible to accuse of any evil design. 
 
 The self-loving preference of himself to Christ was 
 justified by this man with such an argument as 
 follows : " Christ, preaching and proclaiming moral 
 welfare, was the reformer of humanity, but I am 
 called to be benefactor of humanity in part reformed, 
 in part unreformed. I shall give to everyone all that 
 is necessary for him. Christ as a moralist divided 
 all people into good and bad ; I shall unite them by 
 blessings which are necessary both to the good 
 and the bad. I shall be the real representative of 
 that God who causes the sun to shine upon the good 
 and the bad, and the rain to fall upon the just and 
 
154 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 unjust. Christ brought a sword ; I shall bring 
 peace. He threatened the earth with a dreadful 
 last judgment. But I shall be the final judge, and 
 my judgment will not be a judgment of right only, 
 but of mercy. There will be justice in my judgment ; 
 not a justice of reward, but a distributive justice. 
 I shall make a distinction for all, and to each one I 
 shall give what is needful for him." 
 
 And behold, in this beautiful frame of mind he 
 awaits some clear, divine call for a new salvation of 
 humanity ; for some clear and striking evidence 
 that he is the eldest and beloved firstborn Son of 
 God. He awaits and nourishes his being with the 
 consciousness of his superhuman beneficence and 
 abilities and this, as it has been said, is a man of 
 irreproachable morality and unusual talent. 
 
 The proud and just man waits for the highest 
 sanction in order to begin his salvation of humanity 
 but he waits in vain. He has passed his thirtieth 
 year and still another three years go by. Suddenly 
 the thought flashes into his mind and pierces to the 
 depths of his brain with a burning shudder, " But 
 if ? if it is not I, but that other the Galilean. 
 If He is not my forerunner, but the real first 
 and last ? But He must be alive where is He ? 
 . . . If He came to me now and here . . . What 
 shall I say to Him ? I must bend low before 
 Him, as the very simplest Christian, and as a 
 Russian mouzhik murmur stupidly, ' Lord Jesus 
 Christ, have mercy upon me a sinner/ or, like an old 
 Polish woman, prostrate myself before Him, flat on 
 the ground. I, the brilliant genius, the superman ! 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 155 
 
 No, never ! " And in the place of the former reason- 
 able and cold respect for God and Christ there is born 
 and grows up in his heart, at first a sort of horror 
 and then a burning envy and fury which seizes and 
 contracts all his being, a hatred which fills his soul. 
 " It is I, and not He. He is not alive and will not 
 be. He has not, He has not risen ! He is rotting 
 in the grave, rotting as the lost ..." With foam- 
 ing mouth and convulsive bounds he rushed from 
 the house and the garden, and in the heavy, black 
 night ran along the path on the cliffs. His fury had 
 abated and a despair, hard and heavy as the cliff, 
 gloomy as the night, had taken its place. He 
 stopped near a perpendicular break in the cliff and 
 listened to the troubled noise of the water among 
 the stones far below him. An unbearable sorrow 
 crushed his heart. Suddenly there was a movement 
 within him. " Shall I call upon Him shall I ask 
 Him what to do ? " And in the midst of the dark- 
 ness appeared a gentle and sad image. " He pities 
 me ! no, never ! He is not risen, He is not risen ! " 
 And he flung himself away from the brink. But 
 something as elastic as a waterspout carried him up 
 in the air, and he felt a vibration as from an electric 
 current when some power hurled him back. For an 
 instant he lost consciousness, and when he regained 
 his senses he found himself kneeling a few steps 
 away from the edge of the cliff. Before him was the 
 outline of a figure, bright with a phosphorescent 
 misty radiance, whose eyes with unbearably sharp 
 brilliancy pierced his soul. 
 
 He saw these two piercing eyes and heard, 
 
156 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 proceeding neither from within nor from without, a 
 strange voice, dull, as if smothered, and, at the same 
 time, precise and entirely soulless, as if it came from 
 a gramophone. This voice said to him : " My well- 
 beloved son, all my affection is in thee. Why hast 
 thou sought me ? Why honour that other, the wicked 
 One and His Father. I am god and thy father. The 
 other a beggar and crucified One is a stranger to 
 me and to thee. I have no other son but thee. Thou, 
 my only, only begotten, equal to me. I love thee 
 and ask nothing of thee. Thou art so beautiful, 
 great and powerful. Act in thine own name, not in 
 mine. I do not envy thee ; I love thee. I am in need 
 of nothing from thee. He, whom thou didst deem a 
 god, demanded of His Son obedience and boundless 
 subservience, even to the death of the cross, and He 
 was unable to help Him on the cross. I require 
 nothing of thee, and I shall help thee. For thine 
 own sake and the sake of thy special worthiness and 
 superiority and my pure, disinterested love to thee, 
 I shall help thee. Receive my spirit. As, formerly, 
 my spirit brought thee forth in beauty, so now let it 
 beget thee in strength." At these words of the 
 unknown the lips of the superman parted wide, two 
 piercing eyes approached closely to his face, and he 
 felt as if a sharp, icy current was entering into him, 
 filling all his being. Moreover, he felt a marvellous 
 strength, daring, lightness and ecstasy. At the 
 same instant the shining countenance and the two 
 piercing eyes suddenly disappeared, and something 
 lifted the superman from earth and dropped him 
 immediately in his garden near the door of his house. 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 157 
 
 On the following day not only the visitors of the 
 great man, but even his servants, were amazed at 
 his inspired appearance. But they would have been 
 still more astonished if they had been able to see 
 with what supernatural swiftness and easiness he, 
 having locked himself up in his own study, wrote 
 his remarkable work under the title of " The Open 
 Way to Universal Peace and Prosperity." 
 
 The previous books and general activities of the 
 superman had met with severe critics, although they 
 were for the most part especially religious people, 
 and for that reason had no authority of any kind 
 of course, I am speaking of the time of the coming 
 of Antichrist so that not many listened to them 
 when they pointed out, in everything that the 
 " coming man " wrote and said, the signs of an 
 absolutely exceptional, intense self-love and conceit, 
 with the absence of true simplicity, rectitude and 
 zeal. 
 
 But by his new work he attracted to himself 
 even some of his former critics and opponents. 
 This book, written after the adventure on the cliff, 
 showed in him an unprecedented power of genius. 
 It was something all-embracing and calculated to 
 reconcile all dispute. In it was united a noble 
 reverence for ancient traditions and symbols, with 
 a broad and daring radicalism in social-political 
 demands and requirements ; a boundless freedom 
 of thought with the deepest understanding of 
 all mysticism, unconditional individualism, with a 
 burning zeal for the common good, the most exalted 
 idealism in guiding principles, with the complete 
 
158 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 definiteness and vitality of practical solutions. 
 And all of it was united and connected with such 
 genius and art that it was easy for every one-sided 
 thinker and worker to see and accept the whole, even 
 from his personal angle of vision, in no way sacri- 
 ficing truth itself, not magnifying it effectively over 
 his " Ego," not disclaiming the practicability of 
 his one-sidedness nor correcting the faults of his 
 outlook and aims, nor yet completing their short- 
 comings. This wonderful book was at once trans- 
 lated into all the languages of the civilised and 
 some of the uncivilised nations. A thousand 
 newspapers in all parts of the world were filled for 
 a whole year with editorial articles and with the 
 raptures of the critics. Cheap editions, with por- 
 traits of the author, were sold in millions of copies, 
 and the whole of the cultured world which at that 
 period comprised almost the whole earth was filled 
 with the fame of the incomparable great and only 
 one ! No one made any objections to this book 
 it seemed to each the revelation of entire truth. In 
 it such full justice was done to all the past, all 
 the present was estimated so dispassionately and 
 broadly, and the best future was so clearly and 
 realistically described, that everyone said : " Here 
 is the very thing I need ; this is the ideal which is 
 not Utopian ; this is a project which is not chimeri- 
 cal." And the wonderful author not only attracted 
 everyone, but he was welcome to each, thus fulfilling 
 the words of Christ : 
 
 " I am come in My Father's name and ye receive 
 Me not ; if another shall come in his own name him 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 159 
 
 ye will receive." Of course, for the latter to be 
 received he must be welcome. 
 
 It is true, some pious people, while warmly 
 praising the book, began to ask why Christ 
 was not once mentioned in it ; but other Chris- 
 tians replied, " God be praised ! Already, in past 
 centuries, all holy things have been sufficiently 
 soiled by every sort of unacknowledged zealot, and 
 now a deeply religious writer must be very guarded. 
 And if the contents of a book are impregnated 
 with the truly Christian spirit of effective love and 
 universal benevolence, what is there left to wish for ?" 
 With this all' agreed. Soon after the appearance of 
 " The Open Way," which made its author the most 
 popular of all the people who had lived in the world, 
 the international constitutional assembly of the 
 Union of European States was to meet. This 
 Union, founded after the series of domestic and 
 foreign wars which were connected with the throwing 
 off of the Mongol yoke, and which considerably 
 changed the map of Europe, was faced with the 
 immediate danger of a collision not between the 
 nations, but between political and social parties. 
 The principal directors of general European policy 
 belonging to the powerful society of Freemasons 
 felt the lack of a common executive authority. 
 European unity, which had been attained with such 
 difficulty, was ready at any moment to fall to pieces. 
 The federated council, or universal committee 
 (comite permanent universel), was not in harmony, 
 since not all the places were occupied by real Masons 
 devoted to the matter. Independent members of 
 
i6o WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 the committee entered into a separate agreement 
 among themselves, and the matter threatened to 
 cause a new war. Then the " devoted ones " 
 resolved to institute a personal executive authority 
 of one man, with full and sufficient powers. The 
 principal candidate was a member of the Order, 
 " the coming man." 
 
 He was the only person with a great world-wide 
 reputation. Being by profession a clever officer of 
 artillery, and by his possessions a large capitalist, 
 he had friendly relations everywhere in financial 
 and military circles. In other and less enlightened 
 times the fact that his origin was obscured by a 
 heavy mist of the unknown would have militated 
 against him. His mother, a person of indulgent 
 conduct, was well known in both hemispheres, but 
 too many different people had good reason to believe 
 themselves his father. These circumstances naturally 
 could not have any significance in a century so 
 much in the van, that even to him it appeared to be 
 the last. The " coming man " was elected almost 
 unanimously as life president of the United States of 
 Europe. When he appeared in the Tribune, in all 
 the glory of his superhuman youthful beauty and 
 power, and in an inspired discourse of great elo- 
 quence expounded his universal programme, the 
 assembly, enchanted and carried away, decided, 
 in a burst of enthusiasm and without voting, to 
 pay him the highest honour by electing him as 
 Roman Emperor. The Congress was closed amid 
 the greatest rejoicing, and the great man who had 
 been chosen issued a manifesto which began thus : 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 161 
 
 " Peoples of the earth, my peace I give to you," 
 and ending with the words, " Peoples of the earth ! 
 The promises have been performed. An eternal, 
 universal peace has been secured. Every attempt 
 to destroy it will meet with invincible resistance. 
 For, from henceforth, there is one central authority 
 on earth, which is stronger than all other powers 
 taken separately and together. This invincible, 
 all-subduing authority, with all its power, belongs 
 to me, as chosen autocratic Emperor of Europe. 
 International law has, at last, a sanction hitherto 
 unattained by it. From henceforth no power will 
 dare to say ' War ' when I say it is ' Peace.' Peoples 
 of the earth, peace be to you ! " This manifesto 
 produced the desired effect. Everywhere outside 
 Europe, especially in America, strong imperialistic 
 parties were formed which forced their governments, 
 upon various conditions, to join the United States of 
 Europe under the supreme power of the Roman 
 Emperor. There still remained independent tribes 
 and smaller powers somewhere in Asia and Africa. 
 The Emperor, with a small army, but one chosen 
 from Russian, German, Polish, Hungarian and 
 Turkish regiments, accomplished a march from 
 Eastern Asia to Morocco, and without great blood- 
 shed brought into subjection all who were dis- 
 obedient. He established viceroys in all the 
 countries of both hemispheres, men of Euro- 
 pean education and native magnates devoted to 
 himself. The population of all pagan countries was 
 dumbfounded, but at the same time enchanted, 
 and proclaimed him a great god. In one year, in a 
 
 w.c. M 
 
162 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 real and accurate sense, he founded a universal mon- 
 archy. All tendencies to war were eradicated. The 
 League of Universal Peace met for the last time, 
 and having published an enthusiastic panegyric on 
 the great peace maker, abolished itself as unneces- 
 sary. In the second year of his reign the Roman 
 and Universal Emperor issued a new manifesto. 
 " Peoples of the earth, I promised you peace and I 
 have given it you. But peace is beautiful only 
 when coupled with prosperity. He who in time of 
 peace is threatened with the misfortune of poverty, 
 does not find peace a joy. Now, let all who are 
 cold and hungry come to me, so that I may warm 
 them and feed them.' Afterwards he announced 
 a simple and all-embracing social reform which, 
 already stated in his book, had there captivated all 
 noble and sober minds. At present, thanks to the 
 concentration in his hands of the world's finance and 
 of a colossal amount of landed property, he was able 
 to realise this reform according to the wishes of the 
 poor, and without sensibly offending the rich. Every- 
 one began to receive in proportion to his ability, 
 and every ability according to its labour and merit. 
 
 The new lord of the earth was, before all things, 
 a tender-hearted philanthropist, and not only a 
 philanthropist but a philosopher. He himself was 
 a vegetarian. He forbad vivisection, and instituted 
 a strict watch over slaughter-houses. The society 
 for the protection of animals was encouraged by 
 him in every way. But more important than all 
 these details was the solid establishment among all 
 mankind of the most fundamental equality an 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 163 
 
 equality of general repletion. This was accomplished 
 in the second year of his reign. The social-political 
 question was definitely settled. But if repletion be 
 the first interest of hungry people, such people, 
 when once replete, want something more. Even 
 animals, when replete, usually want not only to 
 sleep, but to play. Much more than they, do 
 human beings, who at all times, post panem, 
 have demanded cir censes. 
 
 The Emperor-superman understood what was 
 necessary for his people. At this time a great 
 magician from distant Orient came to him in Rome 
 wrapped in a thick cloud of strange happenings and 
 curious tales. It was generally believed among the 
 Neo-Buddhists that he was of divine origin a son 
 of the sun god Surga and of a water nymph. 
 
 This magician, Apollyon by name, was a man 
 undoubtedly talented, half Asiatic, half European, 
 a Catholic bishop in partibus infidelium, who, while he 
 was to an astonishing degree in possession of the 
 latest results of Western science and of its technical 
 application, also united with this the knowledge of all 
 that is really sound and significant in the traditional 
 mysticism of the Orient and the skill to make use of it. 
 The results of such a combination were astounding. 
 Apollyon had attained, amongst other things, the skill 
 at once, half scientific, half magical, of attracting 
 and directing atmospheric electricity, and told the 
 people he brought down fire from heaven. For the 
 rest, while striking the imagination of the crowd by 
 various unheard-of wonders, he had not up to now 
 made ill use of his power for any personal aims. So 
 
 M 2 
 
164 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 this man came to the great Emperor and bowing 
 before him as before a true son of God, declared that 
 in the secret books of the East he had found direct 
 prophecies about him, the Emperor, as the last 
 saviour and universal judge, and placed himself and 
 his art at his service. The Emperor, enchanted with 
 him, received him as a gift from heaven, and after 
 conferring upon him the highest titles, refused hence- 
 forth to be parted from him. The peoples of the 
 earth, loaded with the benefits of their lord, were to 
 have, besides general peace and repletion, the possi- 
 bility, moreover, of constant enjoyment of the most 
 varied and unexpected wonders and phenomena. 
 So ended the third year of the superman's reign. 
 
 After the happy solution of the political and social 
 questions, the religious question arose. It was 
 raised by the Emperor himself, particularly in its 
 relation to Christianity. At this time Christianity 
 found itself in the following position. In face of 
 a very considerable diminution in the number of its 
 members there were not more than 45,000,000 
 Christians left in all the world morally it had pulled 
 itself up and braced itself and had gained in quality 
 what it had lost in quantity. There were no longer 
 numbered among Christians any people who were not 
 concerned with some Christian spiritual interest. 
 The various confessions of faith diminished pro- 
 portionately in numbers, and consequently they 
 preserved approximately their former numerical 
 relation. As to their mutual feelings, although 
 enmity had not given place to complete reconcilia- 
 tion yet it was notably softened and opposition lost 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 165 
 
 its sharpness. The Papacy had already for some 
 time been driven out of Rome, and after many 
 wanderings had found an asylum in Petersburg, on 
 condition that it refrained from propaganda both in 
 that town and in the country. In Russia it became 
 noticeably simpler. While not changing the essen- 
 tially necessary composition of its college and 
 officers, it was obliged to spiritualise the character 
 of its activities and also to reduce to a minimum its 
 magnificent ritual and ceremonial. Many strange 
 and enticing customs, although not formally 
 abolished, went of themselves out of use. In all 
 other countries, especially in North America, the 
 Catholic hierarchy had many representatives, firm in 
 will, of indomitable energy and of independent 
 position, who, more strongly than ever, insisted on 
 the unity of the Catholic Church, and preserved for 
 her her international and cosmopolitan importance. 
 As to Protestantism, at the head of which Germany 
 continued to stand especially after the reunion of 
 a considerable part of the Anglican Church with 
 Catholicism it purged itself of its extreme negative 
 tendencies, and the supporters of those tendencies 
 openly descended to religious indifference and 
 unbelief. In the Evangelical churches there re- 
 mained only sincere believers, at whose head stood 
 persons who combined a wide knowledge with a deep 
 religious consciousness, and who tried with all the 
 more effort to revive in themselves a living image 
 of the ancient and original Christianity. Now that 
 political events had changed the official position 
 of the Church, Russian Orthodoxy, although it 
 
166 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 had lost many of its former nominal members, yet 
 experienced the joy of union with the best part 
 of the Old Believers, and even with many sects 
 of a definitely religious tendency. This revivified 
 Church, though it did not grow in numbers, did 
 grow in spiritual power, and this power it showed 
 especially in its domestic struggle with the extreme 
 sects which had increased amongst the people and 
 in society, sects which were not lacking in the 
 demoniac and satanic element. 
 
 During the first two years of the new reign the 
 Christians, frightened and depressed by the series of 
 revolutions and wars that had gone before, respected 
 the new ruler and his peaceful reforms, some from 
 a well-disposed expectation, others with absolute 
 sympathy and burning enthusiasm. But with the 
 appearance of the great magician in the third year, 
 serious apprehensions and antipathies began to arise 
 amongst many of the Orthodox, Catholics and 
 Evangelicals. The evangelistic and apostolic texts, 
 which spoke of the prince of this world and Anti- 
 christ, began to be read with more attention and 
 discussed with animation. From certain indications 
 the Emperor suspected a gathering storm and re- 
 solved to clear up the matter quickly. In the 
 beginning of the fourth year of his reign he issued 
 a manifesto to all his faithful Christians, without 
 distinction of creed, inviting them to choose or desig- 
 nate a representative, with full powers for a general 
 council under his presidency. His residence at this 
 time had been changed from Rome to Jerusalem. 
 Palestine was then an autonomous State inhabited 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 167 
 
 and governed principally by Jews. Jerusalem was a 
 free and had been made an imperial city. The 
 Christian holy places had remained inviolate, but 
 upon the spacious platform of Kharam-esh-Sherif, 
 from Berket-Israin and the present barracks on one 
 side to the mosque of El-Ak and " Solomon's 
 Stables " on the other, was erected an enormous 
 edifice including, besides the two ancient small 
 mosques, a spacious " imperial " temple for the 
 union of all cults, and two magnificent imperial 
 palaces with libraries, museums and special apart- 
 ments for magical experiments and practices. In 
 this half-temple, half-palace, the general council was 
 to be opened on the I4th of September. Since the 
 Evangelical religion had no priesthood in the true 
 sense, the Catholic and Orthodox hierarchy resolved 
 agreeably to the wish of the Emperor, and in order 
 to give a certain homogeneity to the representatives 
 of all forms of Christianity, to allow a certain 
 number of laymen, well known for their piety and 
 devoted to the interests of the Church, to have a part 
 in the council. Once laymen were allowed it was 
 impossible to exclude the lower clergy, both black 
 and white. In this way the number of members 
 of the council exceeded three thousand, and about 
 half a million of Christian pilgrims deluged Jeru- 
 salem and Palestine. Among the members of the 
 council there were three who especially stood out. 
 The first was Pope Peter II., by right at the head of 
 the Catholic part of the council. His predecessor 
 had died on the way to the council, and a conclave 
 having been convened at Damascus, Cardinal 
 
168 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Simone Barione was unanimously elected and took 
 the name of Peter. He was of humble origin, came 
 from the Neapolitan district, and had become known 
 as a preacher of the Carmelite Order who rendered 
 great service in the struggle against a Satanist sect 
 which was growing in strength in Petersburg and the 
 surrounding country, and which had led astray not 
 only Orthodox but Catholics. Made Archbishop of 
 Mogilef and then cardinal, he was early marked out 
 for the tiara. He was a man of fifty years of age, of 
 middle height and robust constitution, red-faced, 
 with a hooked nose and thick eyebrows. Impetuous 
 and full of ardour, he spoke fervently with bold 
 gestures, and attracted his auditors more than he 
 persuaded them. The new Pope expressed both 
 distrust and dislike of the universal sovereign ; 
 especially was this the case as the late Pope, when 
 leaving for the council, had yielded to the insistence 
 of the Emperor and appointed as a cardinal the 
 imperial chancellor and universal magician, the 
 esoteric Bishop Apollyon, whom Peter considered a 
 doubtful Catholic but undoubted impostor. The 
 actual, though unofficial, leader of the Orthodox was 
 the venerable John, very well known among the 
 Russian people. Although he was officially con- 
 sidered a bishop " in retirement/' he did not live 
 in any monastery, but constantly travelled in all 
 directions. There were various legends about him. 
 Some believed that he was Fedor Kouzmich brought 
 back to life, namely, the Emperor Alexander I., 
 who had been born about three centuries before that 
 time. Others went farther and affirmed that he was 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 169 
 
 the Apostle St. John the Divine, who, never having 
 died, now appeared openly in the latter days. He 
 himself said nothing about his origin or youth. He 
 was now very old, but hale and hearty, with yellowish, 
 even greenish white curls and beard, tall, thin in 
 body, with full, rosy cheeks and bright, sparkling eyes, 
 sympathetic both in the expression of his face and 
 in his conversation. He was always dressed in a white 
 cassock and cloak. At the head of the Evangelical 
 members of the council stood the learned German 
 theologian Professor Ernst Pauli. He was a dried- 
 up, little old man of medium height, with an enormous 
 brow, sharp nose and clean-shaven chin. His eyes 
 were distinguished by a certain ferociously kind- 
 hearted look. He constantly rubbed his hands, 
 shook his head, twitched his eyebrows in a strange 
 way and stuck out his lips, while at the same time 
 with flashing eyes he gruffly uttered broken sounds : 
 So ! nun ! ja ! so also ! He was dressed solemnly 
 with a white tie and long pastor's coat, and wore 
 the badges of certain Orders. 
 
 The opening of the council was inspiring. Two- 
 thirds of the enormous temple consecrated to the 
 " union of all cults " was furnished with benches 
 and other seats for the members of the council, the 
 remaining third was occupied by a high dais, on which 
 behind the imperial throne and another, lower down, 
 for the great magician who was at the same time 
 cardinal and imperial chancellor there were rows 
 of armchairs for the ministers, courtiers and 
 secretaries of state, and on one side a still further 
 line of armchairs, the use of which was unknown. 
 
170 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 In the choir was an orchestra and, on a neighbouring 
 platform, two regiments of the guards were drawn 
 up and a battery for triumphant salvos. The 
 members of the council had already celebrated 
 religious services in their various churches, and the 
 opening of the council was to be entirely secular. 
 When the Emperor entered, accompanied by the 
 great magician and his suite, the orchestra played 
 the " March of United Humanity," which served as 
 the imperial international hymn, and all the mem- 
 bers of the council arose, and waving their hats 
 shouted three times, " Vivat ! Hurrah ! Hoch ! " 
 The Emperor, standing by the throne, stretching 
 forth his hand with majestic benevolence, said in a 
 resonant and pleasing voice : " Christians of all 
 cults ! My well-beloved subjects and brethren ! 
 From the beginning of my reign, which the Most 
 High has blessed with such wonderful and note- 
 worthy deeds, not once have I had cause to be dis- 
 pleased with you ; you have always fulfilled your duty 
 according to your belief and conscience. This con- 
 cerns me but little. My sincere love for you, dear 
 brothers, longs for some return. I desire that you, 
 not through any feeling of duty, but through a feel- 
 ing of zealous love, should recognise me as your true 
 guide in every matter which has been undertaken for 
 the welfare of humanity. But, besides that which I 
 am doing for everyone, I should like to show you 
 special favour. Christians ! what can I do to make 
 you happy ? What shall I give you, not as my 
 subjects, but as fellow-believers, as my brethren. 
 Christians ! tell me what is dearer to you than aught 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 171 
 
 else in Christianity, so that I may in this matter 
 direct your efforts. ' ' He stopped and waited. In the 
 temple a dull echo arose. The members of the council 
 whispered among themselves. Pope Peter, passion- 
 ately gesticulating, was explaining something to 
 those about him. Professor Pauli shook his head 
 and smacked his lips with exasperation. The vener- 
 able John, bending over the Eastern bishops and 
 monks, was quietly suggesting something to them. 
 Having waited several minutes, the Emperor turned 
 to the council and, with the same caressing tone, in 
 which nevertheless there sounded a scarcely per- 
 ceptible note of irony, said : " Dear Christians, I 
 understand how difficult it is for you to give a direct 
 answer. I desire to aid you in this matter. You, 
 from time immemorial, unhappily have been so 
 divided into various sects and parties that you have 
 not perhaps a common object to which you are all 
 attached. But if you are not able to agree among 
 yourselves, then I hope to bring all parties into agree- 
 ment, as I shall show to them all the same love and 
 the same readiness to satisfy the true aspirations of 
 each. Dear Christians, I know that for many, and 
 not the meanest of you, the thing that is dearer than 
 aught else in Christianity is that spiritual authority 
 which it gives to its lawful representatives, not for 
 their own profit, of course, but for the common good, 
 since upon this authority is founded a regular 
 spiritual order and moral discipline indispensable to 
 all. Dear brother Catholics ! O, how I understand 
 your point of view, and how I should like to rest my 
 empire on the authority of your spiritual head ! In 
 
172 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 order that you should not think that this is flattery 
 and empty phrases, we solemnly declare that it is 
 agreeable to our autocratic will that the supreme 
 bishop of all Catholics, the Pope of Rome, shall now 
 ascend his throne in Rome with all the former rights 
 and privileges of his position and chair, whensoever 
 granted by our predecessors, beginning with the 
 Emperor Const antine the Great. And from you, 
 brother Catholics, I desire, in return for this, only a 
 true and heartfelt acknowledgment of myself as your 
 sole protector and defender. If there is anyone here 
 who acknowledges me as such in his heart and in his 
 conscience, let him come hither to me." And he 
 pointed to the empty places on the dais. With joy- 
 ful shouts of " Gratias agimus Domine! Salvumfac 
 magnum imperatorem" almost all the princes of the 
 Catholic Church, the cardinals and bishops, a great 
 part of the believing laymen, and more than half of 
 the monks ascended the dais, and, after making low 
 bows in the direction of the Emperor, took their 
 places. But below in the middle of the assembly, 
 erect and immovable as a marble statue, sat in his 
 place the Pope, Peter II. All who had surrounded 
 him were on the dais. But the thinned ranks of 
 monks and laymen which were left below closed 
 around him, forming a tight ring, from whence was 
 heard suppressed whispering : " Non prcevalebunt, 
 non prcBvalebunt portce inferni." 
 
 Glancing in amazement at the motionless Pope, the 
 Emperor again raised his voice : " Dear brethren, I 
 know there are among you those to whom the holy 
 tradition of Christianity, with its old symbols, hymns 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 173 
 
 and prayers, icons and divine ritual is dearer than 
 aught else. What, indeed, can be dearer than this to 
 the devout soul ? Know, then, that to-day a decree 
 has been signed by me and large sums allotted for a 
 universal museum of Christian archaeology in our 
 glorious imperial city of Constantinople for the pur- 
 pose of collecting, studying and preserving all the 
 monuments of ecclesiastical antiquity, preferably 
 those of the East ; and I further ask you to choose 
 to-morrow from amongst yourselves a committee to 
 consider with me those measures which it is necessary 
 to take for the possible approximation of the tradi- 
 tions and institutions of the holy Orthodox Church to 
 modern conditions, morals and customs. Brothers 
 of the Orthodox faith, you who have my wishes at 
 heart, who feel in your hearts that you can call me 
 your true guide and lord, come up hither." A large 
 part of the hierarchy of the East and North, half of 
 the former Old Believers and more than half of the 
 Orthodox priests, monks and laymen with joyful 
 cries ascended the dais, glancing proudly at the 
 Catholics who were seated there. But the venerable 
 John did not move and gave a deep sigh. And when 
 the crowd round him were greatly thinned, he left his 
 bench and seated himself nearer to Pope Peter and 
 his circle. After him followed the others who had 
 not gone upon the dais. Again the Emperor began 
 to speak. " I know there are some of you dear 
 Christians to whom the personal assurance of 
 truth and free investigation of the Scriptures is of 
 all things the dearest in Christianity. I think 
 there is no need to expatiate upon the matter. 
 
174 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Possibly you know that in my early youth I wrote a 
 long treatise on Biblical criticism, which made at the 
 time a certain sensation and was the foundation 
 upon which my reputation was built. Probably, in 
 recognition of this, the university of Tubingen has 
 sent me, at this time, a request to accept from it the 
 honorary diploma of Doctor of Theology. I com- 
 manded an answer to be given that I accepted it 
 with pleasure and gratitude. And to-day, in addi- 
 tion to the museum of Christian archaeology, I have 
 allotted 1,500,000 marks from the yearly budget 
 for the foundation of a universal institute for the 
 free investigation of the Holy Scriptures from all 
 possible points of view and in all possible directions 
 and for instruction in all allied sciences. If there 
 are any of you to whom my sincere goodwill is 
 pleasing and who are able honestly to acknowledge 
 me as their sovereign leader, I ask them to come 
 hither to the new Doctor of Theology ; " and a strange 
 smile passed lightly over the beautiful lips of the 
 great man. More than half of the learned theologians 
 moved, though with a certain hesitation and waver- 
 ing, towards the dais. All looked round at Professor 
 Pauli, who remained as if rooted to his seat. The 
 learned theologians who had ascended the dais were 
 filled with confusion, and suddenly one, waving his 
 hand, leapt straight down past the steps and 
 ran to Professor Pauli and the minority which 
 remained beside him. The latter raised his head, 
 and rising with a somewhat vague movement, 
 went past the empty benches, accompanied by his 
 co-believers who had resisted, and sat down with 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 175 
 
 them near the venerable John and Pope Peter and 
 their circle. 
 
 The great majority of the council, among which 
 were included almost all the hierarchy of the East 
 and West, found themselves on the dais. Below 
 there remained only three groups, who were coming 
 together and pressing about John, Pope Peter and 
 Professor Pauli. 
 
 The Emperor turned to them and said in a sad 
 tone: "What more can I do for you? Strange 
 people ! What do you want of me ? I know not. 
 You yourselves, who are forsaken by the majority of 
 your brethren and leaders and are condemned by 
 popular sentiment, tell me what is dearer to you than 
 aught else in Christianity ? " Then, like a white 
 taper, the venerable John arose and gently answered : 
 " For us the dearest thing of all in Christianity is 
 Christ Himself He alone, all is from Him, for 
 we know that in Him dwells all the fulness of the 
 Godhead in the flesh. From thee, sire, we are 
 ready to accept every good thing, if only in thy 
 generous hand we recognise the holy hand of Christ. 
 And to thy question : ' What art thou able to do for 
 us ? ' here is our answer : ' Confess now before us, 
 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who came in the flesh, 
 Who rose from the dead, and Who will come again. 
 Confess Him, and we, with love will receive you as the 
 true forerunner of His glorious coming/ ' He was 
 silent and fixed his eyes on the face of the Emperor. 
 Something untoward had happened to the latter. 
 Within him arose a diabolical tempest, such as he had 
 experienced on that fatal night. He completely lost 
 
176 VVAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 all inner equilibrium, and all his thoughts were con- 
 centrated upon preventing himself from being de- 
 prived of his external self-possession or from betray- 
 ing himself inopportunely. He made a superhuman 
 effort not to throw himself with wild howls upon the 
 speaker, and tear him to pieces with his teeth. Sud- 
 denly he heard a known but unearthly voice : " Be 
 silent and fear not.'* He kept silent. Only his face, 
 which was dark and deathlike, became all distorted, 
 and sparks flew from his eyes. Whilst John had been 
 speaking the great magician, wrapped in his immense 
 tri-coloured mantle, which covered the cardinal's 
 crimson, seemed to be manipulating something under 
 it ; his eyes flashed in deep concentration and his lips 
 moved. Through the open windows of the temple an 
 enormous black cloud could be seen coming, and it 
 soon became dark. John did not turn his astonished 
 and frightened eyes from the face of the Emperor, till 
 suddenly he sprang back in horror, and looking round 
 cried out in a stifled voice : " Little children, it is 
 Antichrist." At this moment, simultaneously with 
 a deafening clap of thunder a great flash of lightning 
 enveloped the old man. For an instant all were 
 stunned, and when the dazed Christians came to 
 themselves, the venerable John lay dead. 
 
 The Emperor, pale but composed, turned to the 
 council : ' You have witnessed the judgment of 
 God. I desired not the death of anyone, but my 
 heavenly Father will avenge His well-beloved Son. 
 The matter is decided. Who will contend against 
 the Most High ? Secretaries, write : ' The General 
 Council of All Christians, after fire from heaven 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 177 
 
 destroyed the foolish opponent of divine majesty, 
 unanimously recognise the autocratic Emperor of 
 Rome and of all the World as its supreme guide and 
 lord/ ' Suddenly a loud and distinct word is heard 
 throughout the temple : " Contradicitur ! " Pope 
 Peter II. arose, and with flushed face, trembling with 
 anger, raised his staff in the direction of the Emperor. 
 " Our only Lord is Jesus Christ, Son of the Living 
 God. And thou hast heard who thou art. Away 
 from us ! Cain, fratricide ! Away, instrument of the 
 devil ! By the power of Christ, I, the servant of the 
 servants of God, cast thee out for ever, abominable 
 dog, from the city of God, and deliver thee up to thy 
 father Satan. Anathema! Anathema! Anathema!" 
 While he was speaking the great magician moved 
 uneasily under his mantle, and louder than the last 
 anathema the thunder rumbled, and the last Pope 
 fell lifeless. " Thus by the hand of my Father are 
 all my enemies destroyed," said the Emperor. 
 " Pereant, pereant," cried the trembling princes of 
 the Church. He turned and, leaning upon the 
 shoulder of the great magician, accompanied by all 
 the throng, went out slowly by a door behind the 
 dais. In the temple there remained the two dead 
 bodies and the narrow circle of Christians, half dead 
 with terror. The only one who was not confused was 
 Professor Pauli. It was as if the general horror 
 had aroused all the forces of his soul. He had changed 
 outwardly, he had an exalted and inspired look. 
 With a resolute step he ascended the dais, and 
 having taken a seat vacated by one of the secre- 
 taries of state, he took a sheet of paper and began to 
 w.c. ' N 
 
178 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 write something on it. Having finished, he got up 
 and read out in a loud voice : "To the glory of our 
 only Saviour, Jesus Christ. The General Council 
 of God's Church, gathered together in Jerusalem, 
 after our blessed brother John, representative of 
 Eastern Christianity, had detected in the great 
 deceiver and enemy of God the true Antichrist pre- 
 dicted in God's word, and after our blessed father, 
 Peter, the representative of Western Christianity, 
 had lawfully and rightfully consigned him to eternal 
 separation from the Church of God ; now, before 
 these two witnesses of Christ, who have been killed 
 for the truth, we decide to break off relations with 
 his cursed and abominable assembly, and to go 
 into the wilderness, there to await the imminent 
 coming of our true Lord, Jesus Christ." Animation 
 filled the crowd, and loud cries broke forth : " Ad- 
 venial ! adveniat cito. Komm, Herr Jesu, komm ! 
 Come, Lord Jesus ! " 
 
 Professor Pauli wrote and then read out : " Hav- 
 ing adopted this first and last act of the last general 
 council, we sign our names " and he made a sign of 
 invitation to the assembly. All went up on the 
 platform and signed. At the end, in large Gothic 
 script, was written " decorum defunctorum testium 
 locum tenens, Ernst Pauli." " Now let us go with 
 our ark of the last covenant," he said, pointing to 
 the two who had died. The bodies were raised on 
 stretchers. Slowly, with Latin chants, and with 
 German and Slavonic hymns, the Christians set 
 forth to the entrance of Kharam-esh-Sherif. Here 
 the procession was stopped by a secretary of state 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 179 
 
 sent by the Emperor and escorted by an officer, 
 with a platoon of guards. The soldiers stopped at 
 the entrance, and the secretary of state read out as 
 follows from an elevated position : " The command of 
 his divine majesty ! For the instruction of Christian 
 people and to protect them against wickedly-disposed 
 persons who are causing disturbances and seducing 
 the people, we have recognised it is for the public 
 good to exhibit publicly the bodies of the two agita- 
 tors, killed by fire from heaven, in Christian Street 
 (Kharet-an-Nasara), at the entrance of the great 
 temple of that religion, named The Holy Sepulchre 
 or The Resurrection, so that all may be persuaded of 
 the reality of their death. Their obstinate adherents, 
 wickedly refusing all our favours and madly closing 
 their eyes to the obvious signs of divinity, have, 
 by being obedient to those who were killed by fire 
 from heaven, put themselves outside our mercy and 
 protection in the face of the heavenly Father. 
 They shall be given full freedom with the single 
 prohibition, on account of the public weal, of not 
 being allowed to live in cities or other inhabited 
 places, so that they may not trouble or seduce 
 innocent and simple-minded people with their evil 
 inventions." When he had finished, eight soldiers 
 at the command of the officer approached the 
 stretchers bearing the bodies. 
 
 " What is written is being fulfilled/' said Professor 
 Pauli, and the Christians who bore the stretchers 
 handed them over in silence to the soldiers, who 
 withdrew through the north-west gates ; but the 
 Christians, issuing from the north-east gates, 
 
i8o WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 hurriedly set out from the city, and, passing the 
 Mount of Olives, went towards Jericho, along a road 
 which previously had been cleared of the mob by 
 gendarmes and two cavalry regiments. On the 
 barren hills near Jericho it was decided to wait for a 
 few days. The following morning Christian pilgrims 
 arrived from Jerusalem and related what had taken 
 place in Zion. After the court dinner, all the mem- 
 bers of the assembly were invited to the great throne 
 room (near the supposed place of Solomon's throne), 
 and the Emperor, turning to the representatives of 
 the Catholic hierarchy, declared that the welfare of 
 the Church evidently demanded from them a speedy 
 choice of a worthy successor of the Apostle Peter ; 
 that, according to the circumstances of the time, the 
 election would have to be summary ; that the pre- 
 sence of himself, the Emperor, as leader and repre- 
 sentative of the whole Christian world, abundantly 
 made up for any omissions of ritual ; and that he, 
 in the name of all Christians, proposed that the 
 Sacred College should elect his well-beloved friend 
 and brother Apollyon, thus making the close bond a 
 lasting one and the union between the Church and 
 the empire indissoluble for their common good. 
 The Sacred College withdrew to a special apartment 
 for the conclave, and returned in half an hour with 
 the new Pope Apollyon. Whilst the balloting was 
 taking place, the Emperor gently, wisely and 
 eloquently persuaded the Orthodox and Evangelical 
 representatives, in view of the great new era of 
 Christian history, to put an end to their divisions, 
 trusting to his word that Apollyon would be able to 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 181 
 
 abolish for ever all the historical abuses of the papal 
 power. Persuaded by this speech, the represen- 
 tatives of Orthodoxy and Protestantism drew up an 
 Act for the union of the Churches, and when Apollyon, 
 accompanied by the cardinals, appeared in the throne 
 room, amidst the joyful cries of the whole assembly, 
 a Greek bishop and an evangelical pastor tendered 
 him their document. "Accipio et approbo et Iceti- 
 ficatur cor meum," said Apollyon, signing the paper. 
 "I am as truly Orthodox and Evangelical as I am 
 Catholic," he added, and affectionately exchanged 
 kisses with the Greek and the German. Afterwards 
 he went to the Emperor, who embraced him and 
 held him a long time in his arms. At this time some 
 shining spots began to float about the palace and the 
 temple in all directions ; they grew and changed into 
 bright forms of strange things ; flowers unseen upon 
 earth showered down from above, filling the air with 
 an unknown perfume. From on high resounded 
 ravishing sounds of musical instruments, unheard 
 up to that time, which went straight to the soul and 
 transported the heart, and the angelic voices of an 
 invisible choir sang the praises of the new lord of 
 heaven and earth. Meanwhile a strange subter- 
 ranean rumbling was heard in the north-west corner 
 of the middle palace under kubet-el-aruakh 
 i.e., kupolom dush, where, according to Mussulman 
 tradition, was the entrance into hell. When the 
 assembly, by invitation of the Emperor, moved in 
 that direction, all clearly heard innumerable high 
 and piercing voices not childish, not devilish 
 which were crying out " The time has come, release 
 
182 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 us, our saviours. ' ' But when Apollyon, pressing close 
 against the wall, cried out something three times 
 in an unknown tongue, the voices were silent and the 
 rumbling ceased. Meanwhile an enormous multitude 
 of people from all quarters had surrounded Kharam- 
 esh-Sherif. At the approach of night the Emperor, 
 together with the new Pope, went out on the eastern 
 staircase, where his presence aroused a storm of 
 enthusiasm. He bowed affably on all sides, and then 
 Apollyon, from a large basket brought to him by the 
 cardinal deacons, repeatedly took and threw into 
 the air magnificent roman candles, rockets and 
 fountains of fire, which had been set alight by 
 contact with his hand, and which were sometimes 
 pearly phosphorescent, sometimes all the colours 
 of the rainbow. And all of them, when they 
 reached the earth, changed into numberless parti- 
 coloured leaves with full and unconditional indul- 
 gences for all sins, past, present and to come. The 
 popular joy passed all bounds. It is true that cer- 
 tain people affirmed that they saw with their own 
 eyes the indulgences change into most repulsive toads 
 and serpents. Nevertheless, the vast majority was 
 in ecstasies and the popular festival continued for 
 several days, during which time the new wonder- 
 working Pope attained to things so wonderful and 
 improbable that to mention them would be alto- 
 gether useless. Meanwhile on the deserted heights 
 of Jericho, the Christians gave themselves up to 
 prayer and fasting. On the evening of the fourth 
 day as it became dark, Professor Pauli and ten com- 
 panions, mounted on asses and taking with them a 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 183 
 
 cart, stole into Jerusalem and through side streets 
 past Kharam-esh-Sherif, came out on Kharet-en- 
 Nasar and approached the entrance to the Church of 
 the Resurrection, where on the pavement lay the 
 bodies of Pope Peter and the venerable John. The 
 street at this hour was empty, everybody had gone 
 to Kharam-esh-Sherif. The soldiers on guard had 
 fallen into a deep sleep. Those who came for the 
 bodies found them entirely untouched by corruption, 
 and not even stiff or heavy. Having raised them 
 upon the stretchers and having covered them with 
 the mantles they had brought, they returned by the 
 same roundabout way to their own people, but 
 scarcely had they lowered the stretchers on the 
 ground than the spirit of life entered into the dead. 
 They moved and attempted to throw off the cloaks 
 in which they were wrapped. All with joyful cries 
 began to assist them, and both having come to life, 
 stood up on their feet, whole and sound. And the 
 venerable John began to speak : " So, little children, 
 we have not parted, and now I say to you, it is time 
 to carry out Christ's last prayer about His followers, 
 that they should be one even as He with the Father 
 is one. So for the sake of this unity of Christ we 
 revere, little children, our well-beloved brother, 
 Peter. May he feed the last of Christ's sheep." 
 And he embraced Peter. Then Professor Pauli 
 went up to him. " Tu est Petrus," he said to the Pope, 
 " jetzt ist es ja griindlich erwiesen und ausser jedern 
 Zweifel gesetzt." He seized his hand firmly with his 
 own right hand and gave his left to the venerable 
 John with the words : "So also, Vdterchen, nun 
 
184 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 sind wir ja Bins in Christo." Thus was accomplished 
 the union of the churches in the darkness of the night 
 on a high and lonely place. But the darkness was 
 suddenly lightened by a bright splendour and there 
 appeared a great wonder in heaven : a woman clothed 
 in the sun with the moon under her feet and a 
 crown of twelve stars on her head. The apparition 
 remained for some time in one place and then moved 
 slowly towards the south. Pope Peter raised his 
 staff and cried out : " There is our banner, let us 
 follow it." And he went in the direction of the 
 vision, accompanied by both the old men and the 
 whole company of Christians, to the mountain of 
 of God to Sinai. 
 
 (Here the reader stopped.) 
 
 LADY. Why don't you continue ? 
 
 MR. Z. The manuscript doesn't continue. 
 Father Pansophia did not succeed in finishing his 
 tale. When he was already ill he told me what more 
 he wished to write " when I am better." But he did 
 not get well, and the end of the tale was buried with 
 him in the Danilof monastery. 
 
 LADY. But, of course, you remember what he 
 told you, so let us hear it. 
 
 MR. Z. I remember only the principal features. 
 After the spiritual leaders and representatives of 
 Christianity withdrew to the Arabian desert, where 
 crowds of believers jealous for the truth flocked to 
 them from all countries, the new Pope was able, 
 without any obstacle, to pervert by his wonders and 
 prodigies all the superficial Christians who had not 
 been disillusioned by Antichrist, and who remained 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 185 
 
 with him. He declared that, by the power of the 
 keys, he had opened the door between life on earth 
 and life beyond the grave, and in fact, communica- 
 tion between the living and dead, and also between 
 people and demons had been accomplished with the 
 usual manifestations, and new unheard-of scenes of 
 mystical debauchery and demonolatry took place. 
 But scarcely had the Emperor begun to feel himself 
 standing upon a -firm religious foundation, and 
 scarcely had he according to the persistent inspira- 
 tion of his mysterious " father's " voice, declared 
 himself the only true incarnation of supreme and 
 universal Divinity, than a new misfortune fell upon 
 him from an unexpected quarter : the revolt of 
 the Hebrews. This nation, whose numbers at that 
 time had reached thirty millions, was not entirely 
 ignorant of the preparations for and the consolida- 
 tion of the world-wide successes of the superman. 
 When he moved to Jerusalem, secretly spreading the 
 report in Hebrew circles that his principal problem 
 was to establish the world-wide dominion of 
 Israel, the Hebrews recognised him as the Messiah, 
 and their enthusiastic devotion to him knew no 
 bounds. But suddenly they rose in rebellion, 
 breathing anger and vengeance. This revolution, 
 undoubtedly predicted in the Scriptures and tra- 
 dition, is set forth by Father Pansophia with, it 
 may be, too much simplicity and realism. The 
 trouble was, that the Hebrews, deeming the Emperor 
 entirely Jewish by race, discovered by chance that 
 he was not even circumcised. That very day 
 Jerusalem, and the following day, all Palestine, was 
 
 w.c. ' o 
 
i86 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 in revolt. The boundless and fervent devotion to 
 the Saviour of Israel, to the promised Messiah, was 
 changed into equally boundless and fervent hatred 
 of the wily deceiver and brazen impostor. All Israel 
 rose as one man, and its enemies saw with amaze- 
 ment that the soul of Israel, in its depths, lived not 
 by calculations and the desires of Mammon, but by 
 the force of a concentrated feeling in the expecta- 
 tion of and passion for its eternal Messianic faith. 
 The Emperor, who had not expected such an out- 
 break, at once lost his self-possession and issued an 
 edict condemning to death all insubordinate Jews and 
 Christians. Many thousands and tens of thousands 
 who had not succeeded in arming themselves were 
 slaughtered without mercy. But soon an army of a 
 million Hebrews occupied Jerusalem, and locked up 
 Antichrist in Kharam-esh-Sherif. He had at his 
 disposal only a part of the guards, who were unable 
 to overcome the masses of the enemy. By the help 
 of the magic art of his Pope the Emperor succeeded 
 in passing through the lines of his besiegers, and 
 quickly appeared again in Syria with an innumerable 
 army of pagans of different races. The Hebrews 
 went forth to meet him with small hope of success. 
 But hardly had the vanguard of both armies come 
 together, when an earthquake of unprecedented 
 violence occurred, the crater of an enormous volcano 
 opened by the Dead Sea, about which lay the 
 imperial army, and streams of fire flowed together 
 in one flaming lake and swallowed up the Emperor 
 himself and his numberless forces, together with Pope 
 Apollyon, who always accompanied him, and for 
 
WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 187 
 
 whom all his magic was of no avail. Meanwhile, 
 the Hebrews hastened to Jerusalem in fear and 
 trembling, calling for salvation to the God of Israel. 
 When the holy city was already in sight, the heavens 
 were rent by vivid lightning, from the east to the 
 west, and they saw Christ coming towards them in 
 royal apparel, and with the wounds from the nails 
 in His outstretched hands. At the same time, from 
 Sinai to Zion, went the company of Christians, led 
 by Peter, John and Paul, and from various other 
 parts hurried more triumphant multitudes : these 
 consisted of all the Jews and Christians who had been 
 killed by Antichrist. They lived and reigned with 
 Christ for a thousand years. With this Father 
 Pansophia wished to end his narrative, which had 
 for its object, not a universal cataclysm of creation, 
 but the conclusion of our historical process, which 
 consists of the appearance, glorification and destruc- 
 tion of Antichrist. 
 
 POLITICIAN. And do you think that this conclu- 
 sion is so near ? 
 
 MR. Z. Well, there will still be much chatter and 
 fuss on the stage, but the whole drama is written to 
 the end, and neither the actors nor the audience will 
 be permitted to change anything in it. 
 
 LADY. But what is the absolute meaning of 
 this drama ? I still do not understand why Anti- 
 christ hates God so much, while he himself is 
 essentially good, not evil. 
 
 MR. Z. That's the point, he is not essentially so. 
 All the meaning is in that. I take back my pre- 
 vious worfls that " you cannot explain Antichrist by 
 
i88 WAR AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 proverbs alone." He can be explained by a simple 
 proverb, " All is not gold that glitters." You know 
 this glitter of counterfeit good ; take it away and 
 no real force remains none. 
 
 GENERAL. But you notice, too, upon what the 
 curtain falls in this historical drama upon war 
 the meeting of two armies. So the end of our 
 conversation has come back to where it was at the 
 beginning. How does this please you, Prince ? . . . 
 Good heavens ! where's the Prince ? 
 
 POLITICIAN. Didn't you see, then ? He went out 
 quietly in that pathetic passage where the venerable 
 John presses Antichrist to the wall. I did not wish 
 to interrupt at the time, and afterwards I forgot. 
 
 GENERAL. He has taken to flight, I swear it, 
 and that's for the second time. He mastered 
 himself the first time and came back. But this 
 last was too much for him. Well ! Well ! 
 
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