DEMANDS OF REASON.
(A short article on Reason and Religion
written by Tolstoy by request).
To those who ask my opinion whether it be desirable to endeavour by the aid of reason to attain complete consciousness in one’s inner spiritual life, and to express the truths thus attained in definite language, I would answer in the positive affirmative, that every man to achieve his destiny on earth and to attain true welfare—the two are synonymous—must continually exert all his mental faculties to solve for himself and clearly to express the religious foundations on which he lives—that is, the meaning of his life.
I have often found among illiterate labourers who have to deal with cubic measurements, an accepted conviction that mathematical calculations are fallacious, and not to be trusted. Whether it arises from their ignorance of arithmetic, or from the fact that those responsible for the calculations have often cheated them, with or without intent,
