Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/232

206 take place in the human soul. Changes are inevitable. Most probably they will reduce to naught all the transformations of the past. They will change radically the conditions of the life of man, raise human life to a height before unknown. Yet the transformation that will take place in the soul of man will be a thousand-fold more significant. It will create a new earth and a new heaven.

It becomes clearer and clearer that changes in the life of man are inevitable, but they will be brought about not as a result of any military operations, but by virtue of the internal changes in man that are bound to take place after the War. They will elevate his intellectual level. The beginnings of the new order are already in evidence. Is not the general frame of national mind already different? Is not the atmosphere about us charged with the energy of new life? We are bothered by the black spots upon the cinematographic ribbon of the events that are flashing by. But when we examine them more carefully, we realize that the black spots are only upon the ribbon. The rich soil, caressed by the bright rays of noon-day sun, produces useful vegetation side by side with the weeds. The high and the low exist together in nature, but under the influence of civilization, the higher displaces the lower. So, in human life, the lower forms always prove to be merely the degenerating and deformed sides of real life.

The highest possible tension of the spiritual forces of mankind will put an end to the horrors of war, will bring the strife to a victorious close. And if the end of the great struggle lies outside the sphere of war, if it is rooted deep in the consciousness of man, then the responsibility for it must be borne not by the external forces, but by the conscience of every one of us. We must all strain to the utmost all our spiritual powers, and direct them towards the creation of a new consciousness, a new conscience, a new life.

Let the conscience of each one of us flare up within us. As a powerful star dominates the midnight sky, let our conscience dominate our soul, let it rule over all our cares and interests, over all our life, over all our actions and deeds. Let us not be satisfied with merely discharging our duty; let us not shift the responsibility to others. There is something more lofty and sacred than duty and responsibility. Let there dwell in our hearts, throughout the coming years, the feeling of an uplifting joy in anticipation of the new, bright life.