The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories

tion-The misconception of Christianity by scientists who study its outward manifestations due to the fact that they consider it from the standpoint of the social life-conception-Opinion resulting ther

the possibility of life only when the indication of the ideal is taken for the rule-An ideal cannot be belittled-According to the doctrine of Christ, life is movement-The ideal and the commandments-The second misapprehension arises from the attempt to replace the love of God and His service by the love and service of humanity-Scientists believe that Christianity and their doctrine concerning the service of humanity are identical-The doctrine of love toward humanity has for i

conception of Christianity, which is antagonistic

ey have evolved for themselves, and which they believe

Christianity, and assuming that these dogmas embody an exhaustive definit

each individual must possess certain impressions in regard to the meaning of his life, and, though often unconsciously, conform his conduct thereunto, so mankind in the aggregate, or groups of men living under the same conditions, must likewise possess a conception of the meaning of their common life and its consequent

iod of life upon which he is about to enter, may avail himself of the advice of his predecessors who have already passed that stage, mankind can have no such advantage, because it is advancing along an

ensity of the population, the constant intercourse of nations, the perfected means of combating the forces of nature, and the increase of knowledge generally,-to view the life of the present

e for producing men able to impart a new significance to human

s place when mankind enters upon new conditions and

been left behind; on the contrary, it is a phenomenon inherent to human existence itself, and never more distinctly manifested than at the present day. In the second place,

the miraculous and its outward manifestations, as the scientists suppose. The essence of religion lies in the power of man to fore

ved by all men, thus instituting a new life-conception from which is to flow an unwonted activity, whose results will endure for centuries to come. Thus far there have been three of these life-conceptions; two of them belong to a bygone era, while the third is of our own time and is called Christia

individual or animal; secondly, the social o

nality; it includes the sum and continuity of many personalities,-of the family, of the race, and of the State, and his life's object is to gratify the will of the communities of individuals. And

ns serve as the basis for

d is the full satisfaction of his own passions. The incentive of his life is personal enjoyment. His religion consists of atte

the nation, the State, and is ready to sacrifice himself for the aggregate. The incentive of his life is glory. His religion consists in honoring the chiefs of his ra

, nation, or State; but rather does he conceive of it as taking its rise in the eternal life of God, and to fulfil His will he is ready to sacrifice his personal, famil

ancients for thousands of centuries, culminating in that of Rome, is the history of the evolution from the animal life-conception of the individual to that of society and th

ped, and our activities, both practical and scientific, are quickened, is regarded by the pseudo-scient

h and its sacraments, etc., and is only one of the many religions which have arisen during the progress of human histor

of a higher order, instead of trying to rise to the higher plane from which these phenomena may be fitly regarded, and making an effort to und

the Stoics and Neo-Platonists, and of vague anti-social dreams, devoid of all serious meaning in these latter days; they simply see its outward manifestation in the form of dogmas in Catholicism, in Protestantism, and in

mical to Christianity, utterly deny the sense of the doctrine; but if they are leniently inclined, then, from the height of their superior wisdom, they amend it, taking for granted that Christ would have said what they think He meant, had He known how to express himself. They treat His

f life, should be discarded. "A doctrine which requires so much that is impracticable is more hurtful than one which demands of men only what is in proportion to their strength." Thus

d thousands of years ago, seems far better suited to the court of contemporary scientists than the la

morality that are in accord with human nature, and that the very doctrine which Christ repudiated, and for which he substituted a dogma of his own, is far better suited to us. The scientist considers the commandment of non-resistance to evil by violence an exaggeration, and even an act of folly. It would be far better, in his opinion, to reject it, never dreaming that it is not the doctrine of Christ which he is controverting, but something which he assumes to be the doctrine in question. He does not realize when he says that the commandment of non-resistance in the doctrine of Christ is an exaggeration, that he is like one wh

e new phase of existence upon which the world entered 1800 years ago, and a definition of the new activity to which it gave birth. Either they do not believe that Christ s

fe, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what

er do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenl

ing thought can add one

onsider the lilies of the field, how they

even Solomon in all his glory w

which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven,

What shall we eat? or, What shall we dr

tiles seek:) for your heavenly Father know

God, and his righteousness; and all

the morrow shall take thought for the things of it

ourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that

reasure is, there wi

and give to the poor, and thou shalt have

after me, let him deny himself, an

do the will of him that sent

Not my will, but

as I wish, but as Thou wishest. Life consists

al reference to daily life. And yet these doctrines are no less the natural outcome of the Christian life-conception than is the idea of

nto him who believes in a social life-conception of the community: "Repent, μετανοετα, that is, arouse yourself, consider your ways, else shall you perish. Know you that this bodily, animal life is born to-day and dies to-morrow; nothing can assure its permanence, no outward expedients, no system whatsoever can give it stability. Consider your ways and learn that the life you live is not the real life, that neither family, so

sible is it to judge a lofty subject from a low standpoint, to pronounce upon the belfry from a knowledge of the foundation. Yet this is precisely what is done by contemporary scientists. And this is because they are laboring under an error similar to that of

elievers and so-called scientists, by whose opinions the great majority of unbelievers, the so-called educated classes, are guided. All the errors of the scientis

may then be modified to suit the exigencies of our social life. The second misapprehension is that the Christian doctrine of love of God, and therefore of the service due to Him, is a mystical requiremen

f life, believe and declare that it is impossible to follow the teaching of Christ, because implicit obedience to this doctrine would end by destroying life. "If man were to fulfil the precepts of Christ, he would destroy his life; and if all the world were to fulfil them, the human race would soon become extinct.

of Christ as laws which each man must obey, just as, for instance, in the social ord

n very different ways. The doctrines of the social life-conception guide men in fulfilling the requirements of the law. The doctrine of Christ guides

s they would ask concerning some law of the State, what will happen when all this shall be fulfilled? This hypothesis is fallacious, because the perfection indicated by Christianity is infinite and can never be attained; and Christ

of an animal nature. And to this animal impulse Christ, so to speak, adds another force by communic

d by Christ would be like expecting the boatman, who, crossing a swift riv

consciousness of a filial relationship to God. Disregarding the factor of the animal life, which never looses its hold, and is beyond man's control, Christ

e life meant the fulfilment of the precepts of the law; but according to Christ, it means the closest approach to the divine perfection which has been manifested to every man, and wh

ard which it is forever aspiring and drawing nearer,

is a mistake to require too much," men usually say, when discussing the demands of the Christian religion. "One ought not to be required to take no thought for the morrow, as the Bible teaches, but of course one should not be over-anxious; one cannot gi

his boat against the current, that no one can cross a river by steering against the curre

it influences men, not by outward observances, but by the i

s of justice and philanthropy. It needs but the aspiration toward this divine perfection to i

t to destroy the ideal itself. The ideal that influences mankind is not an ingenious invention; it is something that dwells in the soul of each individual. It i

l, with the will of God, the union of the Son with the Father, that it has authority. It is only the emancipation of the Son of God, who dwells with

, which is guided only by the will of God, a human life. A true human life is composed of an animal and of a spiritual

the others. Any spiritual quickening, according to this doctrine, is simply an accelerated movement toward perfection. Therefore the impulse of Zacch?us the publican, of the adulteress, and the thief on the cross, show forth a higher order of life than does the passive righteousness of the Pharisee. Th

in the fold; the prodigal returned, the coin that was lost and is

laws for its movement. It may spring from any degree of perfection or of imperfection; the fulfilment of rules and

ce of which men are to be justified and made righteous, whereas the Christian precepts (the precept of love is not a commandment in the strict sense of the word, but the expression of the very essence of the doctrine), the five commandments of the Sermon on the Mount, are all negative, only meant to show m

ch mankind instinctively aspires, showing at the same time the point

ndment which forbids us to offend our neighbor is one which a man who is striving

h enjoins purity in married life, forbidding adultery, is one which every man who is str

mandment, the fulfilment of which is the point beneath which we must not fall, is a

rn good for evil, endure injuries with patience, and give up the c

spirit of this commandment one must at least refrain from injuring one's enemies, one must speak kindl

grees habits of self-restraint, until such habits become second nature. But these commandments, far from exhausting the doctrine, do not by any means cover it. Th

ed in the commandments, and not in the least decrease its demands, as they w

e of Christ's doctrine. And the substitution of the love of humanity for t

neighbor, there seems to the scientific mind a certain mysticism, something at once confused and arbitrary; and, believing that the doctrine o

his kind they discover the solution of the Christian doctrine, to which they reduce Christianity itself. Assuming their own doctri

unded on the utility of such a brotherhood, have nothing in common, and especially do they differ in that the doctrine of Christianity has a

humanity has for its basis

p. In its first steps, this is a simple and natural progression, as from the family to the tribe; from the family to the rac

tection; to love his wife, the delight and comfort of his daily life; the children, who are his consolation and his future hope; hi

d, Austria, Russia, is almost impossible, and notwithstanding the training given in that direction, it is only a fictitious semblance; it has no real existence. At this aggregate ceases man's power of transfusing his innermost consciousness; for such a fiction he can feel no direct sentiment. And yet the Positivists and all the preachers of the scientific fraternity, not taking into consideration the fact that this feeling is weakened

ically they

rife and disasters that result from the division of mankind into nations and states, to transfer their love to humanity at large. This would appear to be the logical outcome, and it has been offered as a theory

ing-Ann, Maria, John, or Peter. The man who loves his ancestors, and is proud of them, knows that he loves the Guelphs, for instance, or the Ghibellines; the man who loves his country knows that he loves France from the Rhine to the Pyrenees,

r representatives of the human race, where ought it to be drawn? Ought it to exclude the Negro, as they do in the United States, or the Hindoos, as some Englishmen do, or the Jews, as does another nation? B

rsonal; in a word, to make the whole world a mutual benefit society,-only that there are no motives to bring about such a result. The Positivists, communists, and all the exponents of the scientific fraternity exhort us to extend the love which men feel for themselves, their families, their fellow-countrymen, over humanity at large, forgetting that t

not also love mankind? It would seem such a happy consummation! And it so happens that Christianity inculcat

because love founded on a personal and social life-c

otism, is itself an individual love, and such a love, in its transference from a person to a family, a race, a natio

nd yet it is the very attempt to satisfy this requirement that destr

r as a prop to the humanitarianism that has proved its inefficiency, a Christian love, not in

hristian love comes only from a Christian life-conception

the social life-conception has brought men not to the consciousness of love for humanity,-which is illimitable-the unification of e

ut it is not to be restricted to humanity alone; it is to be given to every living creature; it recognizes the possibility of an indefinite expansion of the kingdom of love, but its object is not to be found outside itself, in the aggr

seekest by subjecting thine outward personality to visible laws. The Christian doctrine restores to man his original consciousness of self, not the animal self, but the godlike self, the spark of divinity, as the son of God, like unto the Father, but clothed in a human form. This consciousness of one's self as a son of God, whose essence is love, satisfies at once all those demands made by the man who professes the social life-conception f

, not to the fact that he loves this object or that one, but to the fact that he loves the principle of all t

an doctrine and that of the Positivists, and all oth

to the Christian doctrine, and from those most of

s are impracticable. The other, that the whole meaning of Christianity is contained in the doctrine of a co?perative union of mankind

of Christianity, that its life-teaching is not practicable, together with the general misapprehensions tha