Page 609 - the-idiot

because I do not wish to live out the fortnight allowed me?
I don’t believe it.
‘It is much simpler, and far more likely, to believe that my
death is needed—the death of an insignificant atom—in or-
der to fulfil the general harmony of the universe—in order
to make even some plus or minus in the sum of existence.
Just as every day the death of numbers of beings is neces-
sary because without their annihilation the rest cannot live
on—(although we must admit that the idea is not a particu-
larly grand one in itself!)
‘However—admit the fact! Admit that without such per-
petual devouring of one another the world cannot continue
to exist, or could never have been organized—I am ever
ready to confess that I cannot understand why this is so—
but I’ll tell you what I DO know, for certain. If I have once
been given to understand and realize that I AM—what does
it matter to me that the world is organized on a system full
of errors and that otherwise it cannot be organized at all?
Who will or can judge me after this? Say what you like—the
thing is impossible and unjust!
‘And meanwhile I have never been able, in spite of my
great desire to do so, to persuade myself that there is no fu-
ture existence, and no Providence.
‘The fact of the matter is that all this DOES exist, but that
we know absolutely nothing about the future life and its
laws!
‘But it is so difficult, and even impossible to understand,
that surely I am not to be blamed because I could not fath-
om the incomprehensible?

0 The Idiot