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 AN ArrERWORD 127

together with them obtaining those blessings of government^ science, and civilization, which we now, without consulting their wish, seek to supply them with from outside.

W'e stand at the parting of the ways, and a choice must be made.

'I'he first path involves condemning one's self to per- petual falsehood, to continual fear that our lies may be exposed, and to the consciousness that, sooner or later, we shall inevitably be ousted from the position to which we have so obstinately clung.

The second path involves the voluntary acceptance and practice of what we already profess and of what is demanded by our heart and our reason — of what sooner or later will be accomplished, if not by us, then by others — for in this renunciation of their power by the powerful lies the only jmssible escape from the ills our pseudo-Christian world is enduring. Escape lies only through the renunciation of a false and the confession of a true Christianity.

[Octo^r28, O.S., 1893.]

This Afterword, written by Tolstoy as a conclusion to his Account relating to the famine of 1891 and 1892, was suppressed in Russia, and is not contained in the Moscow editions of his works, where the rest of the Account is given.