Page:The Relations Tolstoy.pdf/71

 But the point is precisely that they should be able to fulfill this, that they should be so educated that they become not hindrances to the work of God, but His laborers; that if I cannot serve the ideal which was before me, I should do my best so that my children can. And this establishes a complete programme and the whole character of education, it gives to education a religious meaning; and this it is that chemically unites into one the best, most self, sacrificing aspirations of youth, with regard for one's family.

I greet the new-arrived Ivan 6. From whence is he? Why? Where to? And who is he? it is well for those for whom "protoplasm" affords a sufficient answer to these questions; but those whom "protoplasm" does not satisfy must necessarily believe that there is a deep meaning in the apparition and life of a newborn child; and this meaning we shall understand just so far as we do our duty in relation to the child.

... Married men should either desert their wives and children and this is inadmissible, or else settle down in one place. This wandering from one place to another must be very painful to the wives, who nearly always (may they pardon me), when they lead Christian life do so at best, not for God but for their husbands. (And it is very difficult for them poor things.) And, therefore, I think, one should spare and pity them. Husband and wife have, perhaps, only just succeeded in attaining a certain mutual equilibrium, in feeling firm ground under their feet, and then, suddenly, all the difficulty of a new [removal] and establishment! This is beyond their strength and the edifice erected with such labor collapses. I know you will say that 6

Alluding to a birth in a friend's household. -Trans