Page:Tolstoy - Christianity and Patriotism.djvu/15



USSIANS and Frenchmen have lived for many centuries, knowing one another and entering at times into friendly, but more often, unhappily, into very hostile relations provoked by their Governments. And now all at once, because two years ago a French squadron visited Cronstadt, and the officers of the squadron going ashore ate a great deal in various places, and drank many kinds of wine, listening to and uttering many foolish and lying words, and because in 1893 a similar Russian squadron visited Toulon, and the officers of the Russian squadron ate and drank a great deal in Paris, listening to and uttering still more lying and foolish words as they did so, it has come to pass that not only those men who ate, drank, and talked, but also all those who were present on the occasion, and even all those who where not present but merely heard of it or read of it in the newspapers, all these millions of Russians and Frenchmen suddenly imagine that they love one another in a special way—that is, that all Frenchmen love all Russians and all Russians all Frenchmen.