WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:06.769
Chapter 3 of Bethink Yourselves by Leo Tolstoy, translated by V. Chertkov.
2
00:00:07.309 --> 00:00:12.609
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. It is
3
00:00:12.669 --> 00:00:16.910
as if there had never existed either Voltaire or Montaigne
4
00:00:17.609 --> 00:00:22.339
or Pascal or Swift or Kant or Spinoza or hundreds
5
00:00:22.379 --> 00:00:25.859
of other writers who have exposed with great force the
6
00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:30.179
madness and futility of war and have described its cruelty
7
00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:35.390
immorality and savagery, and, above all, it is as if
8
00:00:35.450 --> 00:00:39.030
there had never existed Jesus and his teaching of human
9
00:00:39.090 --> 00:00:44.390
brotherhood and love of God and of men. One recalls
10
00:00:44.549 --> 00:00:47.409
all this to mind, and looks around on what is
11
00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:52.039
now taking place, and one experiences horror less at the
12
00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:55.299
abominations of war than at that which is the most
13
00:00:55.420 --> 00:01:00.039
horrible of all horrors. the consciousness of the impotency of
14
00:01:00.119 --> 00:01:05.019
human reason. That which alone distinguishes man from the animal,
15
00:01:05.750 --> 00:01:10.049
that which constitutes his merit, his reason, is found to
16
00:01:10.090 --> 00:01:13.189
be an unnecessary and not only a useless but a
17
00:01:13.269 --> 00:01:18.790
pernicious addition, which simply impedes action, like a bridle fallen
18
00:01:18.829 --> 00:01:21.969
from a horse's head and entangled in his legs and
19
00:01:22.049 --> 00:01:27.969
only irritating him. It is comprehensible that a heathen, a Greek,
20
00:01:28.250 --> 00:01:32.540
a Roman, even a medieval Christian, ignorant of the gospel
21
00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:36.840
and blindly believing all the prescriptions of the church, might
22
00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:42.780
fight and, fighting, pride himself on his military achievements. But
23
00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:47.849
how can a believing Christian, or even a sceptic, involuntarily
24
00:01:47.950 --> 00:01:51.650
permeated by the Christian ideals of human brotherhood and love,
25
00:01:52.310 --> 00:01:55.769
which have inspired the works of the philosophers, moralists and
26
00:01:55.950 --> 00:02:00.329
artists of our time, How can such take a gun
27
00:02:00.950 --> 00:02:03.469
or stand by a cannon and aim at a crowd
28
00:02:03.530 --> 00:02:06.909
of his fellow men, desiring to kill as many of
29
00:02:06.969 --> 00:02:12.669
them as possible? The Assyrians, Romans or Greeks might be
30
00:02:12.729 --> 00:02:16.469
persuaded that in fighting they were acting not only according
31
00:02:16.509 --> 00:02:21.740
to their conscience, but even fulfilling a righteous deed. But
32
00:02:21.860 --> 00:02:25.870
whether we wish it or not, we are Christians. and
33
00:02:25.930 --> 00:02:31.169
however Christianity may have been distorted, its general spirit cannot
34
00:02:31.210 --> 00:02:34.539
but lift us to that higher plane of reason, whence
35
00:02:34.599 --> 00:02:37.960
we can no longer refrain from feeling, with our whole being,
36
00:02:38.740 --> 00:02:42.379
not only the senselessness and the cruelty of war, but
37
00:02:42.460 --> 00:02:46.409
its complete opposition to all that we regard as good
38
00:02:46.509 --> 00:02:52.050
and right. Therefore we cannot do as they did, with assurance,
39
00:02:52.169 --> 00:02:56.810
firmness and peace. and without a consciousness of our criminality,
40
00:02:57.629 --> 00:03:01.780
without the desperate feeling of a murderer, who, having begun
41
00:03:01.819 --> 00:03:04.819
to kill his victim, and feeling in the depths of
42
00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:08.240
his soul the guilt of his act, proceeds to try
43
00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:12.599
to stupefy or infuriate himself, to be able the better
44
00:03:12.650 --> 00:03:19.009
to complete his dreadful deed. All the unnatural, feverish, hot-headed,
45
00:03:19.509 --> 00:03:23.930
insane excitement, which has now seized the idle upper ranks
46
00:03:23.990 --> 00:03:28.090
of Russian society, is merely the symptom of their recognition
47
00:03:28.449 --> 00:03:30.889
of the criminality of the work which is being done.
48
00:03:32.169 --> 00:03:37.750
All these insolent, mendacious speeches about devotion to and worship
49
00:03:37.789 --> 00:03:42.330
of the monarch, about readiness to sacrifice life, or one
50
00:03:42.370 --> 00:03:46.580
should say other people's lives and not one's own, all
51
00:03:46.620 --> 00:03:50.080
these promises to defend with one's breast land which does
52
00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:54.430
not belong to one all these senseless benedictions of each
53
00:03:54.509 --> 00:03:59.789
other with various banners and monstrous icons, all these te deums,
54
00:04:00.569 --> 00:04:05.219
all these preparations of blankets and bandages, all these detachments
55
00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:09.180
of nurses, all these contributions to the fleet and to
56
00:04:09.219 --> 00:04:13.319
the Red Cross presented to the government, whose direct duty is,
57
00:04:13.900 --> 00:04:16.699
whilst it has the possibility of collecting from the people
58
00:04:16.750 --> 00:04:20.500
as much money as it requires— having declared war to
59
00:04:20.620 --> 00:04:25.259
organise the necessary fleet and necessary means for attending the wounded.
60
00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:32.230
All these Slavonic, pompous, senseless and blasphemous prayers, the utterance
61
00:04:32.269 --> 00:04:35.449
of which in various towns is communicated in the papers
62
00:04:35.730 --> 00:04:42.230
as important news, all these processions, calls for the national hymn, cheers,
63
00:04:43.129 --> 00:04:49.110
all this dreadful, desperate newspaper mendacity, which, being universal, does
64
00:04:49.170 --> 00:04:54.649
not fear exposure, all this stupefaction and brutalisation which has
65
00:04:54.689 --> 00:04:58.129
now taken hold of Russian society and which is being
66
00:04:58.189 --> 00:05:03.120
transmitted by degrees also to the masses, all this is
67
00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:07.000
only a symptom of the guilty consciousness of that dreadful
68
00:05:07.139 --> 00:05:13.329
act which is being accomplished. Spontaneous feeling tells men that
69
00:05:13.389 --> 00:05:17.240
what they are doing should not be, but as the
70
00:05:17.300 --> 00:05:21.100
murderer who has begun to assassinate his victim cannot stop,
71
00:05:22.120 --> 00:05:25.750
so also Russian people now imagine that the fact of
72
00:05:25.790 --> 00:05:30.189
the deadly work having been commenced is an unanswerable argument
73
00:05:30.269 --> 00:05:34.670
in favour of war. War has been begun, and therefore
74
00:05:34.709 --> 00:05:39.370
it should go on. Thus it seems to simple, benighted,
75
00:05:39.649 --> 00:05:43.870
unlearned men, acting under the influence of the petty passions
76
00:05:43.949 --> 00:05:48.759
and stupefactions, to which they have been subjected. In exactly
77
00:05:48.819 --> 00:05:52.160
the same way, the most educated men of our time
78
00:05:52.740 --> 00:05:55.759
argue to prove that man does not possess free will,
79
00:05:56.620 --> 00:06:00.449
and that therefore, even were he to understand that the
80
00:06:00.490 --> 00:06:03.810
work he has commenced is evil, he can no longer
81
00:06:03.910 --> 00:06:09.810
cease to do it, and dazed, brutalized men continue their
82
00:06:09.870 --> 00:06:14.620
dreadful work. End of chapter 3
1
00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:06.769
Chapter 3 of Bethink Yourselves by Leo Tolstoy, translated by V. Chertkov.
2
00:00:07.309 --> 00:00:12.609
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. It is
3
00:00:12.669 --> 00:00:16.910
as if there had never existed either Voltaire or Montaigne
4
00:00:17.609 --> 00:00:22.339
or Pascal or Swift or Kant or Spinoza or hundreds
5
00:00:22.379 --> 00:00:25.859
of other writers who have exposed with great force the
6
00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:30.179
madness and futility of war and have described its cruelty
7
00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:35.390
immorality and savagery, and, above all, it is as if
8
00:00:35.450 --> 00:00:39.030
there had never existed Jesus and his teaching of human
9
00:00:39.090 --> 00:00:44.390
brotherhood and love of God and of men. One recalls
10
00:00:44.549 --> 00:00:47.409
all this to mind, and looks around on what is
11
00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:52.039
now taking place, and one experiences horror less at the
12
00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:55.299
abominations of war than at that which is the most
13
00:00:55.420 --> 00:01:00.039
horrible of all horrors. the consciousness of the impotency of
14
00:01:00.119 --> 00:01:05.019
human reason. That which alone distinguishes man from the animal,
15
00:01:05.750 --> 00:01:10.049
that which constitutes his merit, his reason, is found to
16
00:01:10.090 --> 00:01:13.189
be an unnecessary and not only a useless but a
17
00:01:13.269 --> 00:01:18.790
pernicious addition, which simply impedes action, like a bridle fallen
18
00:01:18.829 --> 00:01:21.969
from a horse's head and entangled in his legs and
19
00:01:22.049 --> 00:01:27.969
only irritating him. It is comprehensible that a heathen, a Greek,
20
00:01:28.250 --> 00:01:32.540
a Roman, even a medieval Christian, ignorant of the gospel
21
00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:36.840
and blindly believing all the prescriptions of the church, might
22
00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:42.780
fight and, fighting, pride himself on his military achievements. But
23
00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:47.849
how can a believing Christian, or even a sceptic, involuntarily
24
00:01:47.950 --> 00:01:51.650
permeated by the Christian ideals of human brotherhood and love,
25
00:01:52.310 --> 00:01:55.769
which have inspired the works of the philosophers, moralists and
26
00:01:55.950 --> 00:02:00.329
artists of our time, How can such take a gun
27
00:02:00.950 --> 00:02:03.469
or stand by a cannon and aim at a crowd
28
00:02:03.530 --> 00:02:06.909
of his fellow men, desiring to kill as many of
29
00:02:06.969 --> 00:02:12.669
them as possible? The Assyrians, Romans or Greeks might be
30
00:02:12.729 --> 00:02:16.469
persuaded that in fighting they were acting not only according
31
00:02:16.509 --> 00:02:21.740
to their conscience, but even fulfilling a righteous deed. But
32
00:02:21.860 --> 00:02:25.870
whether we wish it or not, we are Christians. and
33
00:02:25.930 --> 00:02:31.169
however Christianity may have been distorted, its general spirit cannot
34
00:02:31.210 --> 00:02:34.539
but lift us to that higher plane of reason, whence
35
00:02:34.599 --> 00:02:37.960
we can no longer refrain from feeling, with our whole being,
36
00:02:38.740 --> 00:02:42.379
not only the senselessness and the cruelty of war, but
37
00:02:42.460 --> 00:02:46.409
its complete opposition to all that we regard as good
38
00:02:46.509 --> 00:02:52.050
and right. Therefore we cannot do as they did, with assurance,
39
00:02:52.169 --> 00:02:56.810
firmness and peace. and without a consciousness of our criminality,
40
00:02:57.629 --> 00:03:01.780
without the desperate feeling of a murderer, who, having begun
41
00:03:01.819 --> 00:03:04.819
to kill his victim, and feeling in the depths of
42
00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:08.240
his soul the guilt of his act, proceeds to try
43
00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:12.599
to stupefy or infuriate himself, to be able the better
44
00:03:12.650 --> 00:03:19.009
to complete his dreadful deed. All the unnatural, feverish, hot-headed,
45
00:03:19.509 --> 00:03:23.930
insane excitement, which has now seized the idle upper ranks
46
00:03:23.990 --> 00:03:28.090
of Russian society, is merely the symptom of their recognition
47
00:03:28.449 --> 00:03:30.889
of the criminality of the work which is being done.
48
00:03:32.169 --> 00:03:37.750
All these insolent, mendacious speeches about devotion to and worship
49
00:03:37.789 --> 00:03:42.330
of the monarch, about readiness to sacrifice life, or one
50
00:03:42.370 --> 00:03:46.580
should say other people's lives and not one's own, all
51
00:03:46.620 --> 00:03:50.080
these promises to defend with one's breast land which does
52
00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:54.430
not belong to one all these senseless benedictions of each
53
00:03:54.509 --> 00:03:59.789
other with various banners and monstrous icons, all these te deums,
54
00:04:00.569 --> 00:04:05.219
all these preparations of blankets and bandages, all these detachments
55
00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:09.180
of nurses, all these contributions to the fleet and to
56
00:04:09.219 --> 00:04:13.319
the Red Cross presented to the government, whose direct duty is,
57
00:04:13.900 --> 00:04:16.699
whilst it has the possibility of collecting from the people
58
00:04:16.750 --> 00:04:20.500
as much money as it requires— having declared war to
59
00:04:20.620 --> 00:04:25.259
organise the necessary fleet and necessary means for attending the wounded.
60
00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:32.230
All these Slavonic, pompous, senseless and blasphemous prayers, the utterance
61
00:04:32.269 --> 00:04:35.449
of which in various towns is communicated in the papers
62
00:04:35.730 --> 00:04:42.230
as important news, all these processions, calls for the national hymn, cheers,
63
00:04:43.129 --> 00:04:49.110
all this dreadful, desperate newspaper mendacity, which, being universal, does
64
00:04:49.170 --> 00:04:54.649
not fear exposure, all this stupefaction and brutalisation which has
65
00:04:54.689 --> 00:04:58.129
now taken hold of Russian society and which is being
66
00:04:58.189 --> 00:05:03.120
transmitted by degrees also to the masses, all this is
67
00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:07.000
only a symptom of the guilty consciousness of that dreadful
68
00:05:07.139 --> 00:05:13.329
act which is being accomplished. Spontaneous feeling tells men that
69
00:05:13.389 --> 00:05:17.240
what they are doing should not be, but as the
70
00:05:17.300 --> 00:05:21.100
murderer who has begun to assassinate his victim cannot stop,
71
00:05:22.120 --> 00:05:25.750
so also Russian people now imagine that the fact of
72
00:05:25.790 --> 00:05:30.189
the deadly work having been commenced is an unanswerable argument
73
00:05:30.269 --> 00:05:34.670
in favour of war. War has been begun, and therefore
74
00:05:34.709 --> 00:05:39.370
it should go on. Thus it seems to simple, benighted,
75
00:05:39.649 --> 00:05:43.870
unlearned men, acting under the influence of the petty passions
76
00:05:43.949 --> 00:05:48.759
and stupefactions, to which they have been subjected. In exactly
77
00:05:48.819 --> 00:05:52.160
the same way, the most educated men of our time
78
00:05:52.740 --> 00:05:55.759
argue to prove that man does not possess free will,
79
00:05:56.620 --> 00:06:00.449
and that therefore, even were he to understand that the
80
00:06:00.490 --> 00:06:03.810
work he has commenced is evil, he can no longer
81
00:06:03.910 --> 00:06:09.810
cease to do it, and dazed, brutalized men continue their
82
00:06:09.870 --> 00:06:14.620
dreadful work. End of chapter 3
