Page:Leo Tolstoy - The Russian Revolution (1907).djvu/68

 Rh Christian, and to some extent in Mahommedan (Babiist) and is incompatible with subjection to human power.

Consciously to live an agricultural life, is to acknowledge it to be not an accidental and temporary condition, but the life which makes it easiest for man to fulfil the will of God, and which should therefore be preferred to any other.

For such a return to an agricultural life and to conscious disobedience to power, the Eastern nations (and among them the Russian nation) are most favourably situated.

The Western nations have already wandered so far on the false path of changing the organization of power, and exchanging agricultural for industrial work, that such a return is difficult and requires great efforts. But, sooner or later, the ever-increasing annoyance and instability of their position will force them to return to a reasonable and truly free life, supported by their own labour and not by the exploitation of other nations. However alluring the external success of manufacturing industry and the showy side of such a life may be, the most penetrating thinkers among the Western nations have long pointed out how disastrous is the path they are following, and how necessary it is to reconsider and change their way, and to return to that agricultural life which was the original form of life for all nations, and which is the ordained path making it possible for all men to live a reasonable and joyful life.

The majority of the Eastern peoples, including the Russian nation, will not have to alter their lives at all. They need only stop their advance along the false path they have just entered, and become clearly conscious of the negative attitude towards power and the affectionate attitude towards husbandry which was always natural to them.

We of the Eastern nations should be thankful to fate for placing us in a position in which we can benefit by the example of the Western nations: benefit by it, not in the sense of imitating it, but in the sense of avoiding their mistakes, not doing what they