Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/473

Rh — and where is Mary? George admits that the man is happy who believes in Christ, who believes in socialism, who believes in anything at all, and his chief longing is for religious faith: "I would pray if I could!" But George is a sceptic through and through, and his path therefore does not lead towards any goal; he is a rudderless ship; life is to him nothing more than a puppet show at a fair. "What is my law?" he asks, and replies, "I am on the boundary line between life and death, and there, where death rules, there is no law, for law relates to life alone."

If he could think like his comrade Vanja, he would not kill. But since his mission is to kill, he cannot think like Vanja. Besides, Vanja, the Tolstoian, is none the less prepared to kill.

George accepts Nietzsche's superman, more especially since an anticipatory sketch of the superman was given by Dostoevskii. The superman of Nietzsche and Dostoevskii loves no one, not even himself. "I am alone. If there is none to protect me, I am my own protector. If I have no God, I am my own God." George's reasoning recalls Feuerbach's "Homo homini deus"; and since the days of Herzen, Feuerbach's teaching has inspired revolutionary philosophy with atheism. Dostoevskii counterposed the God-Man to Feuerbach's man-god. George knows this, but follows Feuerbach and Ivan, not Aliosha. In Ivan's company he follows the first steps of Faust. Just as Faust is preserved from the sinister phial by the sound of the Easter bells, so is George's mood softened at Eastertide, and he philosophises upon Christ's resurrection. It then seems to him that he can and must believe in miracle, seeing that for one who believes in miracle there are no difficulties, and violence is therefore needless.

Like Ivan, George craves for life, for a full life. He would like to live "as the grass grows," without questionings, without pangs of conscience, without thought. That is why he loves to read ancient authors, to read the works of those who did not seek for the truth, but simply lived. Similarly in Siberia, after his escape from prison, he recovered his delight in life. During the first days after his escape there was dead indifference in his heart. He did mechanically all that was necessary to avoid being recaptured, but why he did it he could not tell. A day came, however, when he was walking alone in