Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 11 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/563

Rh the usual current of life. He can do a bad action without disturbing this current, but not a good one.

A man accustomed to the life of our well-to-do classes cannot lead a righteous life without first coming out of those conditions of evil in which he is immersed,—he cannot begin to do good until he has ceased to do evil. It is impossible for a man living in luxury to lead a righteous life. All his efforts after goodness will be in vain, until he changes his life, until he performs that work which stands before him first in sequence. A good life according to the heathen view, and still more according to the Christian one, is measured solely, nor can it be measured in any other way, by the mathematical relation of love for self, and love for others. The less there is of love for self, with all the ensuing care about self and the selfish demands made upon the labor of others, and the more there is of love for others, with the resultant care for and labor bestowed upon others, the better is the life.

Thus has righteousness of life been understood by all the sages of the world and all true Christians, and in exactly the same way do all men understand it now. The more a man gives to others and the less he demands for himself, the better he is; the less he gives to others and the more he demands for himself, the worse he is.

If we move the fulcrum of a lever from the long end to the short one, this will not only elongate the long arm, but will also reduce the short one. So also if a man, possessing a certain faculty, love, augment his love and care for himself, he will thereby diminish his power of loving and caring for others, not only in proportion to the love he has transferred to himself, but in a much greater degree. Instead of feeding others a man eats too much himself; by so doing he not only diminishes the possibility of giving away the surplus, but, by overeating, he deprives himself of power to help others.

In order to love others in reality and not in word only, one must cease to love oneself also in reality and not in word. In most cases it happens thus: we think we love