Page:Tolstoy - Essays and Letters.djvu/381

 XXVI

THOUGHTS SELECTED FROM PRIVATE LETTERS

Two Views of Life.

There are only two strictly logical views of life : one, a false one, which understands life to mean those visible phenomena that occur in our bodies from the time of birth to the time of death ; the other, a true one, which understands life to be the invisible con- sciousness which dwells within us. One view is false, the other true, but both are logical.

The first of these views, the false one, which under- stands life to mean the phenomena visible in our bodies from birth till death, is as old as the world. It is not, as many people suppose, a view of life produced by the materialistic science and philosophy of our day ; our science and philosophy have only carried that concep- tion to its furthest limits, making more obvious than ever the incompatibility of that view of life with the fundamental demands of human nature, but it is a very old and primitive view, held by men on the lowest level of development. It was expressed by Chinese, by Buddhists, and by Jews, and in the Book of Job.

Tliis view is now expressed as follows : Life is an accidental play of the forces in matter, showing itself in time and space. What we call our consciousness is not life, but is a delusion of the senses, which makes it seem as if life lay in that consciousness. Consciousness is a spark which, under certain conditions, is ignited in matter, burns up to a flame, dies down, and at last goes [ 365 ]