Page:The Relations Tolstoy.pdf/32

 this may be indicated by me and you, Jesus did not and could not point to anything else than chastity.

To struggle is very life, and in it is life alone. There is no repose. The ideal is always in front, and I am never at peace while, I will not say I have not attained it, but while -I am not advancing towards it. Take for instance the ideal of celibacy. It is not the satisfaction of the physical which, by abating temporarily the lustful feeling, will satisfy one in this direction, any more than deeding all the hungry around us will satisfy us in the economic sphere. What alone will satisfy us is the clear contemplation of the ideal in all its height, an equally clear contemplation of our weakness and remoteness form that ideal, and the effort to approach it. This alone can satisfy one. Not the placing of ourselves in a position where by shutting up our eyes we can lose sight of the difference between the demands of the ideal and our lives.

The struggle with sexual lust is the most difficult struggle of all, and there is no position or period except early childhood and extreme old age when man is free from it. Therefore one should not be discouraged by the struggle nor expect the attainment of a condition in which it will be absent. One should not for one moment weaken, but recall and utilize all the measures which disarm the enemy, avoid what excites the body and the mind, and try to be occupied. That is one way. Another is that if you cannot overcome in the struggle, then marry, -that is to say, choose a woman who would consent to marriage, and say to yourself that if you cannot help falling you will fall only with this woman, and with her educate your children should there be any, and with her, supporting her, attain