Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/1051

Rh As he recalled the muzhik's words, how "Fokanuitch lived for his soul, according to God .... according to truth," confused but weighty thoughts arose within him from some hidden source, and filled his soul with their brilliant light.

with long steps, strode along the highway, filled, not so much with his thoughts,—he could not as yet get rid of them,—as with a spiritual impulse, such as he had never known before.

The peasant's words had had in his soul the effect of an electric spark, suddenly condensing the cloud of dim, incoherent thoughts, which had not ceased to fill his mind, even while he was talking about the letting of his field.

He felt that some new impulse, inexplicable as yet, filled his heart with joy.

"Not to live for one's self, but for God! What God? Could he have said anything more meaningless than what he said? He said that we must live, not for ourselves, that is, for what interests and pleases us, but for something incomprehensible, for God, whom no one knows or can define. Still, call it nonsense, did I understand Feodor? Did n't I also feel convinced of its truth? Did I find it either false or absurd?

"Nay; I understood it, and find in it the same meaning as he finds, and understood it more completely and clearly than anything else in life. And not alone I, but all, all the world, perfectly understand this and have no doubt of it, and are unanimous in its favor.

"And I was seeking for miracles, and regretting that I could not see one which might fill me with amazement. A material miracle would have seduced me. But the real miracle, the only one possibly existing, surrounds me on all sides—and I have not remarked it.

"Feodor says Kirillof, the dvornik, lives for his belly. I know what he means by that. No rational being,