Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 11 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/522

498 But there have appeared those who misinterpret this teaching so that it has become meaningless. And now people are placed in the dilemma of either accepting Christianity as interpreted by Orthodoxy,—"Lourdes," the Pope, the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and so forth,—or of going on with life according to the teachings of Renan and those like him; that is, living without any direction or understanding of life, addicting themselves only to their carnal desires while they are strong, and to their habits when these desires weaken.

People, ordinary people, choose one or the other, sometimes both—first dissoluteness, then orthodoxy. And whole generations live thus, shielding themselves with various theories, invented, not to disclose the truth, but to conceal it. And ordinary, and, more especially, dull people, are content.

But there are others—not many, they are rare—such as was De Maupassant, who themselves with their own eyes see things as they are, see their significance, see the contradictions in life concealed from others, vividly represent to themselves that to which these contradictions must inevitably lead them, and look around them for solutions. They seek these solutions everywhere except where they are to be found, namely, in Christianity; because Christianity appears to them to be an outlived absurdity, repelling them by its deformity. And vainly trying of themselves to discover these solutions, they come to the conviction that solutions do not exist; that it is inherent in life always to carry in oneself these insoluble contradictions. And having come to such a decision, if these people are feeble, unenergetic natures, they put up with such meaningless life; they are even proud of their position, counting their ignorance as a virtue, as a sign of culture. But if they are such energetic, truthful, and talented natures as was De Maupassant, they do not endure this, but in one way or another get out of this absurd life.

In a similar way, people athirst in the wilderness might search everywhere for water except near to those men, who, standing round the spring, defile it, and offer