Page:Tolstoy - Essays and Letters.djvu/128

 112 ESSAYS AND LE'llERS

for all the ills of life. Labor improhus omnia vincit. The remedy is familiar, nor is it less good ou that account, but it is not, never has been, and never will be, sufficient. Whether he works with limbs or brain, man must have some other aim than that of gaining his bread, making a fortune, or becoming famous. Those who confine themselves to such aims feel, even when they have gained their object, that something is still lacking, for no matter what we may say, or what we may be told, nmu has not only a body to be nourislied, an intelligence to be cultivated and developed, but also, assuredly, a soul to be satisfied. That soul, too, is incessantly at work, ever evolving toward liglit and truth. And so long as it has not reached full light and conquered the whole truth, it will continue to torment man.

Well! The soul never so harassed man, never so dominated him, as it docs to-day. It is as though it were in the air we all breathe. The few isolated souls that liad sej^arately de- sired tlie regeneration of society have, little by little, sought one another out, beckoned one another, drawn nearer, united, comprehended one another, and formed a gioup, a centre of attraction, toward which others now fly from the four quarters of the globe, like larks toward a mirror. They have, as it were, formed one collective soul, so that men. in future, may realize together, consciously and iiresistibly, the approaching union and steady progress of nations that were but recently hostile one to another. Tliis new soul I find und recognise in events seemingly most calculated to deny it.

These armaments of all nations, these threats their repre- sentatives address to one another, this recrudescence of race persecutions, these hostilities among compatriots, and even these youthful escapades at the Sorbonne, are all things of evil aspect, but not of evil augury. They are the last con- vulsions of that which is about to disai)]>ear. The social body is like the liuman body. Disease is but a violent etfort of the organism to throw oil" a morbid and harmful element.

Those who have profited, and expect for long or for ever to continue to profit by the mistakes of the past, are uniting to prevent any modification of existing conditions. Hence these armaments, and threats, and persecutions ; but look carefully and you will see that all this is quite super- ficial. It is colossal, but hollow. There is no longer any