Page:Tolstoy - Christianity and Patriotism.djvu/53

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VII.

AND, therefore, when there are such patriotic demonstrations as the Toulon celebrations, which bind men's freedom for the future, though apparently only for the distant future, and pledge them to the usual iniquities which are always the outcome of patriotism, no man who understands the significance of those celebrations can refrain from protesting against all that is tacitly implied in them. And, therefore, when the journalists print in the papers that every Russian sympathizes with what is being done at Cronstadt, Toulon, and Paris and that this alliance for life and for death is confirmed by the will of the whole people; and when the Russian Minister of Education assures the French Ministers that all his staff, as well as the children, the learned men, and the writers of Russia share his feelings; and when the Admiral of the Russian squadron assures the French that all Russia will be grateful for their reception; and when the head priests speak for their flocks and declare that the prayers of the French for the life of the Russian imperial family rouse joyful echoes in

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