Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 11 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/548

524 direct indications that he is not striving seriously, but is only making a pretense; for, not only are the results of a right life not always evident to those around, but very often they even appear to be pernicious. Respect for a man's activity and the acknowledgment of its utility and pleasantness for those around furnish no proof that his life is really good.

Therefore, for the distinguishing of a really good life from the mere appearance of one, this indication is especially valuable, namely, a regular order of succession in the acquirement of the qualities essential to a righteous life. And this indication is valuable, not so much for the discovery of the seriousness of other men's strivings after goodness, but for the testing of this sincerity in ourselves, as in this respect we are liable to deceive ourselves even more than others.

A correct order of succession in the attainment of virtues is an inevitable condition of advance toward a righteous life, consequently the teachers of mankind have always prescribed a certain invariable order for their attainment.

All moral teachings set up a ladder, as Chinese wisdom puts it, reaching from earth to heaven, the ascent of which can only be accomplished by starting from the lowest step. As in the teaching of the Brahmans, Buddhists, Confucians, so also in the teaching of the Greek sages, steps were fixed, and a higher step could not be attained without the lower one having been previously taken. All the moral teachers of mankind, religious and non-religious alike, have admitted the necessity of a definite order of succession in the attainment of the qualities essential to a righteous life. The necessity for this lies in the very essence of things, and therefore, it would seem, ought to be recognized by all.

But, strange to say, from the time Christianity spread widely, the consciousness of this necessary order appears to have been more and more lost, and is now retained only in the region of asceticism and monasticism. Secular Christians suppose and admit the possibility of the acquirement of the superior qualities of a righteous life,