Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/275

Rh you would develop a capacity for action, and nobody would be able to turn you from it.'

'Afanasy Vassilyevitch! I tell you again, that's a different thing. In the first case I see anyway what I am doing. I tell you I am ready to go into a monastery, and I would perform the hardest tasks that could be laid upon me because I see for whom I am doing it. It is not for me to reason. In that case I am convinced that those who have set me the task will be called to account; in that case I am obeying, and I know that I am obeying God.'

'And why don't you reason in the same way in worldly affairs? You know in the world too we ought to serve God and no one else. If we serve any other it is only because we believe that it is God's will, and except for that we should not. What else are all the capacities and gifts which differ in every man? Why, they are the instruments of our prayer: in the one case in words, and the other in work. You cannot go into a monastery, you know: you are bound to the world, you have a family.'

Here Murazov paused. Hlobuev too was silent.

'So you think that if for instance you had two hundred thousand roubles your living would be secure and you could live more prudently in the future?'

'Yes, anyway I should occupy myself with what I should be able to do: I should look after the education of my children, I should have the possibility of getting them good teachers.'