Page 803 - the-idiot

country it is only among the upper classes that you find
unbelievers; men who have lost the root or spirit of their
faith; but abroad whole masses of the people are beginning
to profess unbelief—at first because of the darkness and lies
by which they were surrounded; but now out of fanaticism,
out of loathing for the Church and Christianity!’
The prince paused to get breath. He had spoken with ex-
traordinary rapidity, and was very pale.
All present interchanged glances, but at last the old dig-
nitary burst out laughing frankly. Prince N. took out his
eye-glass to have a good look at the speaker. The German
poet came out of his corner and crept nearer to the table,
with a spiteful smile.
‘You exaggerate the matter very much,’ said Ivan Petro-
vitch, with rather a bored air. ‘There are, in the foreign
Churches, many representatives of their faith who are wor-
thy of respect and esteem.’
‘Oh, but I did not speak of individual representatives.
I was merely talking about Roman Catholicism, and its
essence—of Rome itself. A Church can never entirely dis-
appear; I never hinted at that!’
‘Agreed that all this may be true; but we need not discuss
a subject which belongs to the domain of theology.’
‘Oh, no; oh, no! Not to theology alone, I assure you! Why,
Socialism is the progeny of Romanism and of the Romanis-
tic spirit. It and its brother Atheism proceed from Despair
in opposition to Catholicism. It seeks to replace in itself the
moral power of religion, in order to appease the spiritual
thirst of parched humanity and save it; not by Christ, but

0 The Idiot