Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/81



this point the form of the angel was revealed to Simeon and his wife. It was all in white, and about it shone a light so bright that it was impossible to look at it. And the angel spoke again. The voice became louder and louder and seemed not as if it proceeded from him, but from heaven, and the shining angel said:

"I learned that man lives not for himself alone, but for the love of humankind. It was not revealed to the mother what was necessary for the life of her children. It was not revealed to the rich man what was most necessary for him. It is not revealed to any one what he or she will most need—boots or slippers—before the sun sets.

"When I was a man my life was saved, but