Page:Tolstoy - Demands of Love and Reason.djvu/36

 AND REASON, 33

In this transference of one's ego from the animal to the spiritual being lies the ^essence of Christ's teaching. The details of this teaching (begun by Christ and further developed by the true progress ol mankind) consist in the unveiling and abolition of those snares by which men of the animal life seek, through the inertia of tradition, to conceal from man his ruin in the animal life, and to main- tain him in this false way. The unveil- ing of these snares is the lifework of man — is that which God requires of him.

Such, in its most essential outline, is Christ's teaching — that teaching which establishes man's relation to the uni- verse. And this teaching is not an exclusive, but a universal one, the most lofty, and accessible to all ; and not only does it not contradict other teach- ings and modern knowledge, but it illuminates and elucidates them.

And now, in place of this, are we to return to an understanding of life of 5,000 years ago, that gives us sacrifices, redemptions, sacraments, and a vengeful punishing and rewarding God? God preserve us from this, dear friend !

What you and many others are doing seems to me something like a man who, riding on a motor car, and not knowing the road, or simply tired of moving fast, wishes to diminish the pace, and so begins to stick branches in the wheel?, lie has stuck in one branch ; the wheel