No More Learning

PRINCE. Very well. I will come, with pleasure. (AfterthePrincehadleftthecompany. ) GENERAL
(laughing). 1
" The cat knows whose meat he's eaten
up. "
LADY. What, you think our Prince is an Anti-
Christ?
GENERAL. Well, not personally, not he per-
sonally ; as that.
it will be a long time before he gets as far But he is on the right track, all the same.
As
heard, my little ones, that Anti-Christ is coming, and there are many Anti-Christs now. " So, one of these "many . . . "
it is said in the Gospel of St. John :
LADY. One
against one's wish. God will not punish him for that. He simply has been led astray. He knows that he will not discover his own gunpowder, whilst wearing a fashionable coat is an honour after all. It is only as if one were transferred from the Army to the Guards. For a big General it makes no difference, but for a small officer it is very flattering.
may
find oneself
amongst
POLITICIAN. The psychology is very sound. Yet I am unable to see why he should have become so angrywjienAnti-Christwasmentioned. Takeme, for instance. I have no faith whatever in things mystical, and so it does not annoy me. On the
1 ARussian
proverb. (Translator. )
" You have
the " " many
? THE END OF HISTORY 127
contrary, it rather excites my curiosity from a
general human standpoint : I know that for many it is something very serious ; it is clear, then, that in this matter some side of human nature has found
its expression, a side which is possibly atrophied in my consciousness, but which does not cease to pre-
serve its objective interest even for me. I, for
instance, am a very bad judge of paintings : I cannot draw even a straight line or a circle, nor am I able to perceive what is bad and what is good in the works of painters. Yet I am interested in the
art of painting from the standpoint of general education and general aesthetics.
LADY. It is difficult to be offended at such a harm- less thing as art. But religion, for instance, you hate with all your heart, and only just now you quoted some Latin curse against it.
gloomy-intolerant utterances of the companion who
has just left us. Still, religious ideas -per se interest
me very much amongst others this idea of the
"
Anti-Christ. " Unfortunately, all I have been able
to read on this subject is confined to the book by Renan, and he considers the question only in relation to historical evidence, which in his opinion pointsindubitablytoNero. Butthisisnotsufficient.
POLITICIAN. A curse !
Good gracious !
words of my favourite poet Lucretius, I merely blamed religion for its bloodstained altars and the criesofthehumanbeingssacrificeduponthem. I can hear an echo of this bloodthirstiness in the
In the
? 128 SOLOVIEV
We know that the idea of " Anti-Christ " was held bytheJewslongbeforethetimeofNero andwas
applied by them to the King Antiochus Epiphanes.
" It is still believed in by the Russian
old-believers," so there must be some truth in it, after all.
GENERAL. The leisure your Excellency enjoys affords you every opportunity for the discussion of
such high matters. But our poor Prince employs so much of his time in preaching evangelical morals
that he is naturally prevented from pondering on Christ or Anti-Christ : even for his whist he cannot
get more than three hours a day. LADY. Youareverysevereonhim,General. It
is true that all of his crowd seem unnatural, but then they look so miserable, too : you won't find in
them any joy, good humour, or placidity. Yet is it
not said in the Gospels that Christianity is the joy of the Holy Ghost?
GENERAL. The position is, indeed, very difficult :
to be lacking in Christian spirit, and yet to pass themselves off as true Christians.
MR. Z. As Christians par excellence without pos- sessing what constitutes the real excellence of
Christianity.
GENERAL. It seems to me that this pitiful position
is just the position of Anti-Christ, which for the more clever and sensitive is made more burdensome by the knowledge they have that no luck can help them.
MR. Z. In any case it is beyond doubt that the
? THE END OF HISTORY 129
Anti-Christianity which, according to the Bible, both in the Old and the New Testaments, marks the clos-
ing scene of the tragedy of history, will be not a
mere infidelity to or a denial of Christianity, or materialism or anything similar to it, but that it
will be a religious imposture, when the name of Christ will be arrogated by such forces in mankind which are in practice and in their very essence alien, and even inimical, to Christ and His Spirit.
GENERAL. Naturally so. The Devil would not be what he is if he played an open game !
POLITICIAN. I am afraid, however, lest all the Christians should prove mere impostors, and there- fore, according to you, mere Anti-Christs. The
only exception will perhaps be the unconscious masses of the people, in so far as such are still exist-
ing, and a few originals like yourselves, ladies and gentlemen. In any case, there can be no doubt
that the name of "Anti-Christ" justly applies to those persons, who here in France, as well as in our
country, are particularly busy about Christianity, make of it their special occupation, and consider the
name of Christian some sort of monopoly or privi- lege of their own. In our time such people fall in
one of the two categories equally alien, I hope, to the spirit of Christ. They are either mad slaugh-
terers ready to revive forthwith the terrors of the
inquisition and to organise religious massacres after
the style of those "pious" abbes and "brave"
""
Catholic officers who recently gave vent to their
K
? 130 SOLOVIEV
feelings on the occasion of celebrating some de- tected swindler. 1 Or they may be the new ascetics and celibates who have discovered virtue and con- science as some new America, whilst losing at the same time their inner truthfulness and common sense. The first cause in one a moral repulsion. The second make one yawn for very boredom.
GENERAL. This is quite true. Even in the past,
Christianity was unintelligible to some and hateful to others. But it remained to our time to make it
either repulsive or so dull that it bores men to death. I can imagine how the Devil rubbed his hands and laughed until his stomach ached when he learned of this success. Good gracious me!
LADY. Well, is this Anti-Christ as you understand him?
Some signs indicating his nature
MR. Z. Oh, no !
are given here, but he himself is still to come.
1 The Politician obviously refers here to the public sub-
"" scription opened in commemoration of the suicide Henry,
in which one French officer stated that he subscribes in the hope of seeing a new St. Bartholomew massacre ; another officer wrote that he was looking forward to an early execu- tion of all Protestants, Freemasons, and Jews, whilst an abb6 confessed that he lived by anticipation of that glorious time when the skin stripped off the Huguenots, the Masons, and the Jews will be used for making cheap carpets, and when he will, as a good Christian, always tread such a carpet with his feet. These statements, amongst tens of thousands of others in a similar vein, were published in
the paper, La Libre Parole. (Author. )
? THE END OF HISTORY 131
LADY. Then will you explain in the simplest way possible what the matter really is?
MR. Z. As to simplicity, that cannot, I am afraid, be guaranteed. It is difficult to assume true sim-
plicity whenever you wish. But a sham, artificial, false simplicity nothing can be worse than that. There is an old saying which was often repeated by
a friend of mine, now dead :
"
Many a simplicity is
hurtful"
LADY. This is not so simple either.
GENERAL. I believe it is the same as the popular
"
Some simplicities are worse than thefts. " MR. Z. You've guessed it!
LADY. Now I understand it too.
MR. Z. It is a pity, though, that one cannot ex- plain all about Anti-Christ by proverbs.
LADY. Then explain as best you can.
MR. Z. Verywellthen. Inthefirstplace,tellme whether you recognise the existence and the power of evil in the world?
LADY. One would prefer not to recognise it, but one can hardly help doing so. Death alone would make one believe it : for death is an evil one cannot
"
the last enemy to be destroyed will be death but before it is de- stroyed, it is clear that evil is not only strong in
itself but even much stronger than good.
MR. Z. And what is your opinion?
GENERAL. I have never shut my eyes before
bullets and shells, and shall certainly not cto so K2
proverb :
escape. I verily believe that "
? 132 SOLOVIEV
when faced with subtle questions. Certainly, evil is as real as good. There is God, but there is the Devil also of course, so long as God tolerates him.
POLITICIAN. As for myself, I shall abstain from adefiniteanswerforatime. Myviewdoesnotgo deeply to the root of the matter, and that side of it which is clear to me I explained as best I could
yesterday.
But I am interested to know what other
people think of it. I can understand perfectly well
the Prince's mode of thought. In other words, I
understand that there is no real thought in his case
at all, but only a naked pretension qui ria ni rime ni
raison. The positive religious view, however, is
much more intelligent and more interesting. Only
up to the present all my acquaintance with it was
confined to its official form, which affords me very littlesatisfactionindeed. Ishouldbeverypleased
to hear, instead of the vapourings of mealy-mouthed parsons, the natural human word.
MR. Z. Of all the stars that rise on the mental horizon of a man who carefully reads our Sacred Books, I think there is none so clear, illuminating,
" andstartlingasthatshininginthewords, Thinkest
thou that I come to bring peace on Earth? I come not to bring peace, but a sword. " He came to bring truth to the earth, and truth, like good, before everything else divides.
LADY. This needs to be explained. If you are right, why is it that Christ is called the Prince of
? THE END OF HISTORY 133
Peace, and why did He say that peacemakers will be called the children of God?
MR. Z. And you are so kind that you wish me also to obtain that higher distinction by making
peace between contradictory texts? LADY. I do wish it.
MR. Z. Then, please note that the only way of
making peace between them is by distinguishing between the good or true peace and the bad or wrong
peace. Thisdistinctionwasclearlypointedoutby Him who brought to us the true peace and the good
"
enmity :
My peace I leave with you, My peace I
give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. " There is therefore the good peace the
peace of Christ, resting on the division which Christ came to bring to the world, namely, the division be- tween good and evil, between truth and untruth. Thereisalsothebadpeace thepeaceoftheworld which endeavours to blend or to unite together ex- ternally elements which internally are at war with one another.
LADY. But how can you show the difference be- tween the good and the bad peace ?
MR. Z. InverymuchthesamewayastheGeneral
did when, the other day, he remarked in a jocular
way that one may have a good peace like that, for instance, concluded by the treaties of Nistadt and
Kuchuk-Kainardji. Beneath this joke lies hidden aseriousandsignificantmeaning. Asinthepolitical struggle, so in the spiritual one; the good peace is
? 134 SOLOVIEV
that concluded when the object of the war is
accomplished.
LADY. And what is the object of the war between
good and evil ? I am not sure if it is even necessary
for them to wage a war with each other, or if such
a thing as an actual conflict is possible between
them corps a corps! In the ordinary war, when one side becomes the stronger, the opposing side
also looks for reinforcements, and the struggle has to be decided by pitched battles, with guns and bayonets. You will find nothing like this in the
struggle between good and evil. In this struggle, when the good side becomes stronger, the bad side
immediately weakens, and the struggle never leads on to a real battle. So that all this must be taken onlyinametaphoricalsense. Thusitisone'sduty tofosterthegrowthofgoodinman. Evilwillthen diminish as a matter of course.
MR. Z. In other words, you believe that it is
enough for kind people to grow still kinder, and that then wicked people would go on losing their malice until finally they become as kind as the others.
LADY. I believe that is so.
MR. Z. But do you know of any case when the kindness of a kind man made the wicked man also kind, or at least less wicked?
LADY. No, candidly I do not. Neither have I seen or heard of such cases. . . . But, pardon me, is not what you have said just now similar to what
? THE END OF HISTORY 135
you were discussing with the Prince the other day? That even Christ, however kind He was, could not convert the souls of Judas and the impenitent thief ? You will not forget that the Prince has still to answer this, will you?
MR. Z.
Well, since I don't believe the Prince to be Anti-Christ, I have little faith in his coming, and still less in his theological presence of mind. How- ever, in order to relieve our discussion from the burden of this unsolved question, I will state the objection which the Prince should make from his
standpoint. "Why did not Christ regenerate the wicked souls of Judas and Co. by the power of His
goodness? " For the simple reason, the answer
would run, that it was a dark time, and only a few
choice souls reached that degree of moral develop-
ment which allows of an adequate response to the
inner power of truth. And Judas and Co. were too
""
backward for that. Furthermore, Jesus Himself
"
said to His disciples :
do also, and even more than this you will do" It follows that at a higher stage of moral progress in mankind, such as is reached at the present time, the true disciples of Christ are able by the power of their kindness, and by forcibly refusing to resist evil, to perform moral miracles surpassing even those which were possible eighteen centuries ago. . . .
GENERAL. Just a moment ! If they are able to perform miracles, why don't they ? Or have you seen
Deeds which I do, you will
? 136 SOLOVIEV
some of these new miracles? Even now, after "eighteen centuries of moral progress in Christian consciousness," our Prince is still unable to en- lighten my dark soul. Just as I was a barbarian before I met him, so I remain. I am just what I have always been. After God and Russia, what I love most is military work in general, and
the artillery in particular. And in my lifetime I have met not only our Prince, but other non-
resisters as well, and some perhaps even stronger than he.
MR. Z. Why assume such a personal attitude?
And why hold me responsible ? I only produced on behalf of your absent opponent a text from the
Gospels which he forgot.
LADY. Now I think I must defend our poor
Prince. Ifhewantedtobereallyclever,hewould "
say to the General
:
I and those whom have you
found to hold my views consider ourselves to be true
disciples of Christ, but only in the sense of a general
trend of thought and action, and not of having any
greater power of doing good. But we are certain
that there are, or will shortly be somewhere, Chris- tians-more perfect than we, and they will be able
to enlighten even your obscurity. "
MR. Z. This answer would, no doubt, be very
ingenious, as it would introduce an unknown quan- tity. But it can hardly be called serious. Suppose
" We can do
or should
than what Christ did, nothing even equal to it,
they say,
say :
nothing greater
? words of Christ
:
Alas !
THE END OF HISTORY 137
nothing even which falls little short of it"? What conclusion could be drawn from this according to the rules of sound logic?
GENERAL. Only one, it seems, namely, that the
" You will do what I did, and even more than this," were addressed not to these gentle- men, but to other persons who do not resemble them
in the least.
LADY. Yet it is possible to imagine that some man
will carry out Christ's commandment about loving his enemies and forgiving those who do wrong to him. And then he will, with the help of Christ Himself, acquire the power to convert wicked souls into good ones.
MR. Z. Not so long ago an experiment was tried in this direction, and not only did it not realise
its object, but it actually proved the very opposite towhatyouaresupposingnow. Therelive'daman
whose kindness knew no bounds. He not only
forgave every wrong done to him, but for every evil returned deeds of kindness. Now what do you
suppose happened? Do you think he stirred the soul of his enemy and regenerated him morally?
LADY. What case are you talking about? What manwashe? Whereandwhendidhelive?
MR. Z. Not so long ago, and in St. Petersburg. I fancy I knew him. His name is M. Delarue, a
court chamberlain.
he only exasperated the evil spirit of the villain, and died miserably by his hand.
? 138 SOLOVIEV
LADY. I have never heard of him, though I think
I can count on my fingers all the leading people of
the city.
POLITICIAN. Neither can I recollect him. But
what is the story about this chamberlain?
MR. Z. Ithasbeensplendidlytoldinanunpub-
lished poem by Count Alexis Tolstoy.
LADY. Unpublished? Then it is sure to be a
farce. What can it have to do with the serious
problems we are discussing?
MR. Z. I can assure you, madame, that, farcical
though it is in its form, it contains a very serious
story, and, what is more to the point, one true to
life. At any rate, the actual relationship between
kindness and wickedness in human life is portrayed
in these amusing verses with a much greater skill
thanIcouldevershowinmyseriousprose. More-
over, I have not the slightest doubt that when the
heroes of some world-wide popular novels, skilfully
and seriously tilling the psychological mould, have become a mere literary recollection for book-lovers,
this farce, which in an exaggerated and wildly cari- catured form plumbs the very depth of the moral problem, will retain all its artistic and philosophic truth.
LADY. I don't believe in your paradoxes. You are seized with the spirit of contradiction, and wil-
fully brave public opinion.
MR. Z. I should probably have "braved" it had
it really existed. Still, I am going to tell you the
? THE END OF HISTORY 139
story of court chamberlain Delarue, since you do not know it, and I happen to remember it by heart :
The impious assassin struck with a dagger The great Delarue
In the breast: the other bowed, uncov'ring politely,
And said
:
" How d'you do "
!
The villain plunged again more deeply the dagger, Far as he could :
Andsmilingstillthestabbedmanmurmured "Yourweapon's
:
Remarkably good. "
The villain next the right of the other attacking,
Him wounds in the chest ;
Delarue at him a finger shaking in fun says,
"How a " naughty jest !
And now in frenzy wild the villain all over With wounds ill to see
: Disfigurestheother'sbody. Delarue "Howtime'sflying
!
Delarue cries.
The villain lies at his feet repentant and grieving,
Confessing his wrong :
Delarue the prostrate man upraises with arms that
Are loving and strong.
I see you weep. For what ? No use in bewailing
A trifle, my dear sir !
I'll speak the Tsar on your behalf. He'll on you
A pension confer.
The ribbon of Stanislaus shall deck your bosom soon
Does that make you vain?
I can secure these things, as having the Tsar's ear,
His chief Chamberlain.
Or would you care to wed my daughter, my Mary ? If that is your desire
Ten thousand pounds in notes I will on you settle, A gift from her sire.
"
The villain knelt and sobbed and cried, asking pardon,
Will you stay to tea?
Disliking the scene. ""
"
For God's sake, man, get up from the floor ! "It isn't too clean. "
? 140 SOLOVIEV
And now, I pray, accept from me this portrait here, If you'll be so kind :
A token, showing love for you. It isn't framed I know you won't mind. "
The villain's face grew evil now and sarcastic:
"
Is this then my fate,
Toowemylife andall I havetoamanwho With love repays hate ? "
The lofty spirit thus the base aye discovers, Reveals its disgrace.
Assassins may forgive the gift of a portrait ; Not pension and place.
The fires of envy smoulder in his vile heart's depths,
Dark altars of shame ;
And while as yet the ribbon's new on his shoulder, They burst into flame.
New filled with malice devilish he sets his dagger In venom to steep ;
And from behind the back of Delarue he deals him A blow sure and deep.
His pains forbidding him to sit, on the floor low Poor Delarue lies.
The villain flies upstairs, and here poor Mary falls Despoiled as his prize.
The villain Tambov fled to as Governor there Is justly esteemed ;
And later, in Moscow, as Senator, worthy honour high, Is by all men deemed ;
And soon he attains to an honourable membership In Council of State;
Oh ! what a good lesson this story teaches us ! Oh! what a fate!
LADY. Oh, how sweet it is, how sweet !
I never
anticipated anything so delightful ! POLITICIAN. Veryfineindeed. Someexpressions
are real metrical feats.
? THE END OF HISTORY 141
MR. Z. But note how true to life all this is.
"" Delarue is not a specimen of that purified virtue
whichonenevermeetsinnature. Heisarealman with all the human weaknesses. He is vain (" I am
a chamberlain," he says) and fond of money (he has
managed to save ten thousand pounds); whilst his
fantastic immunity from the stabs of the villain's
dagger is, of course, merely an obvious symbol of
his infinitely good humour, invincible, even insensi-
tive to all wrongs a trait also to be met with in
life, though comparatively seldom. Delarue is not
a personification of virtue, but a naturally kind- hearted man, in whom kindness overpowered all his
bad qualities, driving them to the surface of his soul and revealing them there in the form of inoffensive weaknesses. The "villain" also is not the conven- tional essence of vice, but the normal mixture of good and bad qualities. The evil of envy, however, rooted itself in the very depth of his soul and forced out all the good in him to the epidermis of the soul, so to speak, where the kindness became a sort of
very active but superficial sentimentality. When Delarue replies to a number of offensive actions with
polite words and with an invitation to tea, the
villain's sentimentality is greatly moved by these acts of gentleness, and he descends to a climax of
repentance.
But when later the chamberlain's
civility is changed into the sincere sympathy of a
deeply good-natured man, who retaliates upon his enemy for the evil done, not with the seeming kind-
? 142 SOLOVIEV
ness of nice words and gestures, but by the actual
goodofpracticalhelp when,Isay,Delarueshows interest in the life of his enemy, is willing to share with him his fortune, to secure for him an official
post, and even to provide him with family happi- ness, then this real kindness, penetrating into the deeper moral strata of the villain, reveals his inner moral emptiness, and when it reaches the very bottom of his soul it arouses the slumbering croco- dileofenvy. ItisnotthekindnessofDelaruethat excites the envy of the villain as you have seen,
he can also be kind, and when he cried, pitifully wringing his hands, he doubtless was conscious of this. What did excite his envy was the for him unattainable infinite vastness and simple seriousness of that kindness :
"Assassins may forgive the gift of a portrait; Not pension and place. "
Is it not realistic? Do we not see this in everyday life? One and the same moisture of vivifying rain
causes the development of healing powers in some herbs and of poison in others. In the same way, a
real act of kindness, after all, only helps to develop good in the good man and evil in the evil one. If so,howcanwe haveweeventherighttoletloose our kind sentiments without choice and distinction?
Can we praise the parents for zealously watering from the good can the poisonous flowers growing in
their garden, where their children play ? I ask you, why was Mary ruined?
? THE END OF HISTORY 143
GENERAL. With this I fully agree !
given a good drubbing to the villain and chucked him out afterwards, the fellow would not have had
time for fooling upstairs.
MR. Z. I am prepared to admit that he had the
righttosacrificehimselftohiskindness. Justasin the past there were martyrs of faith, so in our time Icanadmittheremustbemartyrsofkindness. But what, I ask you, should be done with Mary? You know, she is silly and young, and cannot, nor does she wish, to prove anything by her own example. Is it possible, then, not to pity her?
POLITICIAN. I suppose it is not. But I am even more sorry for the fact that Anti-Christ seems to have fled to Tambov with the villain.
MR. Z. Never mind, your Excellency, we'll catch
him right enough ! Yesterday you were pleased to
point out the meaning of history by reference to the fact that natural mankind, at first consisting of
a great number of more or less savage races, alien
to each other, partly ignorant of each other, partly actually engaged in mutual hostilities that this mankind gradually evolves from within itself its bestandmosteducatedpart thecivilisedorEuro- pean world, which ever grows and spreads until it embraces all other groups lagging behind in this historical development, and blends them into one peacefulandharmoniousinternationalwhole. Estab-
lishing a permanent international peace such is your formula is it not?
Had Delarue
? 144 SOLOV1EV
POLITICIAN. Yes, it is. And this formula, in its coming and not far distant realisation, will stand for a much greater achievement in the real progress ofculturethanitmayseemtodoatpresent. Merely reflect on what an amount of evil will die an inevit- able death, and what an amount of good will appear
andgrow,owingtotheverynatureofthings. What great powers will be released for productive work, what progress will be seen in science and art, industry and trade !
MR. Z. Anddoyouincludeinthecomingachieve- ments of culture a total extinction of diseases and death ?
POLITICIAN. Ofcourse . . . tosomeextent. Quite a good deal has already been done in the way of
sanitation, hygienics, antiseptics . . . organo-thera-
. . .
peutics
MR. Z. Don't you think that these undeniable
successes in the positive direction are fully counter- balanced by as little doubtful an increase of neuro-
pathic and psychopathic symptoms of the degenera- tion that accompanies the advance of culture ?
POLITICIAN. What criteria have we for estimating these ?
MR. Z. At any rate, it is absolutely certain that
though the plus may grow, the minus grows as well, and the result obtained is something very near to
nil. This is so far as diseases are concerned. And as to death, it seems nothing but nil has ever been obtained in the progress of culture.
? THE END OF HISTORY 145
POLITICIAN. But the progress of culture never sets before itself such an objective as the extinction of death.