Page:Tolstoy - Christianity and Patriotism.djvu/95

 that they are doing something good and elevated—a conviction in which they are constantly supported by the sympathy and approval of all around them. It is true that they are unconsciously drawn to this deception by a vague feeling that their power and advantageous position rest upon it; they do not act because they want to deceive the people, but because they think that the work they do is a benefit to the people.

In the same way Emperors, Kings, and their Ministers, going through their coronations, their manoeuvres, their reviews, their visits to one another, during which, dressed up in different uniforms and moving from place to place, they take counsel together with grave faces how to keep the peace between enemy peoples (into whose heads it would never enter to make war on each other), are fully convinced that all they are doing is very sensible and useful work.

In precisely the same way all the Ministers, diplomats, and officials of all sorts, dressing themselves up in their uniforms with all kinds of little ribbons and crosses, and anxiously writing on fine paper, all carefully docketed, their obscure, involved, useless communications, reports, instructions, and programmes, are fully convinced that but for this activity of theirs the whole life of the people would stand still or be upset. In the same way, too, the