Page:The way of Martha and the way of Mary (1915).djvu/125

Rh acknowledges the God whose service is perfect freedom.

Instead of the simplification of life, a love of its complexity. The Russian says "yes" to the multiplicity of doctrines; he does not wish personal destinies to be unravelled and straightened out by the State, standardised and guaranteed by the State. He will not reduce the chess of life to the draughts of life. A religious belief in pure democracy; no belief in Socialism.

Instead of belief in the Future, belief in an eternal Present.

Instead of life understood as a march, life understood as a ballet.

Instead of life understood as Evolution, life understood as a marvellous phantasmagoria.

Instead of Time understood as a passage or corridor, Time as a labyrinth.

Instead of the world-ideal of garden cities and carefully planned parks and squares, a belief in the maze of the world.

Instead of a belief in the coming of universal peace, a belief in the recurrence of wars. No belief in the "making virtuous of the world and all people."

No belief in any explanation as sufficient.

No prejudice against impossibilities; a cheerful acceptance of miracles, infractions of the "laws of Nature," of the significance of dreams and visions, of the design of destiny hidden in apparent accident; a predisposition towards superstition.