Page:Tolstoy - Christianity and Patriotism.djvu/44

  ici? If, indeed, it were necessary to make that inquiry, and it were not all too clear who is the unlucky deceived victim.

That victim is the everlastingly deceived, foolish working people—the people who with their blistered hands have built all those ships, and fortresses, and arsenals, and barracks, and cannons, and steamers, and harbours, and bridges, and all those palaces, halls, and platforms, and triumphal arches, and have printed all the newspapers, and pamphlets, and procured and brought all the pheasants and ortolans, and oysters, and wines eaten and drunk by all those men who are fed, educated, and kept by them, and who, deceiving them, are preparing the most fearful calamities for them; it is always the same good-natured foolish people who, showing their healthy white teeth as they smile, gape like children, naïvely delighted at the dressed-up admirals and presidents, at the flags weaving above them, and at the fireworks, and the playing bands; though before they have time to look about them, there will be neither admirals, nor presidents, nor flags, nor bands, but only the desolate wet plain, cold, hunger, misery—in front of them the slaughtering enemy, behind them the relentless government, blood, wounds, agonies, rotting corpses, and a senseless, useless death.

And men just like those who now are feasting