Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/278

Tales from Tolstoi this Angel, but I knew him, and I knew also that before the going down of the sun he would take the soul of the rich man; and I thought to myself, 'The man makes provision for a year, and he knows not that he will not be alive by the evening;' and I remembered the second word of God: 'Thou shalt know what is not given to men.'

"What was in mankind I knew already, now I knew what is not given to mankind. It is not given to mankind to know what is necessary for their bodies. And I smiled the second time. And I rejoiced that I had seen my companion Angel, and that God had revealed to me the second word.

"But I was not yet able to understand everything. I was not able to understand yet whereby people live; and I lived on and waited if haply God might reveal to me the last word. And in the sixth year came the twin children and the woman, and I knew the children, and I knew that they had been kept alive. I knew it, and I thought, 'The mother begged me to spare her for her children, and I believed the mother; I thought that without father or mother it was impossible to bring up children, and lo! a strange woman has nourished and brought them up.' And when the woman wept with joy over the strange children, I saw in her the living God, and knew whereby mankind live, and I knew that God had revealed to me the last word, and had forgiven me, and I smiled for the third time." 228