Page:The Relations Tolstoy.pdf/74

 Men seldom understand what children mean to women, what place they occupy in their lives; and yet more rarely does woman understand what the duty of honor, special duty, religious duty, signify for man.

Man can understand, although he himself has neither borne nor given birth to children, that both to bear and to give birth are oppressive and painful, and that this is an important work; but only an exceptional woman can understand that to bear and give birth spiritually to a new life concept is a heavy and important work. They understand it for a moment but immediately forget it, and the instant their own concerns come forward, be it only domestic matters or dresses, they can no longer remember the reality of men's convictions, and it all appears to them unreal and imaginative in comparison with pies and calicoes.

I was struck by the idea that one of the chief reasons for the inimical feeling between husbands and wives is their rivalry in the conduct of the family. A woman cannot acknowledge that her husband is intelligent an practical, because otherwise his will would have to be fulfilled; and vice versa. If I were now writing The Kreutzer Sonata I should bring this to the front.

In the long run those rule over whom coercion has been exercised, i.e., those who fulfill the law of non-resistance. Thus-