Page:Tolstoy - Christianity and Patriotism.djvu/77

 those thousands, there are scarcely a few dozens who know what it is all about. And they would all shout and wave their caps just as readily if what were being celebrated were precisely the opposite of what it is. And in the fourth place, the police are on the spot, and at once silence and remove all who shout what is not required by the Government—a precaution vigorously carried out during the Franco-Russian celebrations.

In France the war with Russia under Napoleon I., and afterwards the visit of Alexander I., against whom that war was waged, and afterwards Napoleon again, and again the Allies and Bourbons, and the Orleans, and the Republic, and Napoleon III. and Boulanger, were welcomed with equal enthusiasm, while in Russia, to-day Peter, to-morrow Catherine, the day after, Paul, Alexander, Constantine, Nicholas, the Duke of Lichtenberg, our brother Slavs, the King of Prussia, and the French sailors, and everyone the Government wants to welcome, are welcomed with equal enthusiasm. Exactly the same thing happens in England, America, Germany, and Italy.

What is called patriotism in our day is merely, on one side, a certain attitude of mind, continually being excited and kept up by the schools, the Church, and a venal press, for the purposes of the Government; on the other side, a temporary excitement in the classes of the