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TOLSTOY

spoke of the men “who live not for self, but for God.” This was to him an illumination. He saw the antagonism between the reason and the heart. Reason preached the ferocious struggle for life; there is nothing reasonable in loving one’s neighbour:

“Reason has taught me nothing; all that I know has been given to me, revealed to me by the heart.”[1]

From this time peace returned. The word of the humble peasant, whose heart was his only guide, had led him back to God… To what God? He did not seek to know. His attitude toward the Church at this moment, as was Tolstoy’s for a long period, was humble, and in no wise defiant of her dogmas.

“There is a truth even in the illusion of the celestial vault and in the apparent movement of the stars.”[2]

  1. Anna Karenin. vol. ii.
  2. Ibid.