Page 806 - the-idiot

from anguish of longing for higher things, for dry firm land,
for foothold on a fatherland which they never believed in be-
cause they never knew it. It is easier for a Russian to become
an Atheist, than for any other nationality in the world. And
not only does a Russian ‘become an Atheist,’ but he actually
BELIEVES IN Atheism, just as though he had found a new
faith, not perceiving that he has pinned his faith to a nega-
tion. Such is our anguish of thirst! ‘Whoso has no country
has no God.’ That is not my own expression; it is the expres-
sion of a merchant, one of the Old Believers, whom I once
met while travelling. He did not say exactly these words. I
think his expression was:
‘Whoso forsakes his country forsakes his God.’
‘But let these thirsty Russian souls find, like Columbus’
discoverers, a new world; let them find the Russian world,
let them search and discover all the gold and treasure that
lies hid in the bosom of their own land! Show them the res-
titution of lost humanity, in the future, by Russian thought
alone, and by means of the God and of the Christ of our
Russian faith, and you will see how mighty and just and
wise and good a giant will rise up before the eyes of the
astonished and frightened world; astonished because they
expect nothing but the sword from us, because they think
they will get nothing out of us but barbarism. This has been
the case up to now, and the longer matters go on as they are
now proceeding, the more clear will be the truth of what I
say; and I—‘
But at this moment something happened which put a
most unexpected end to the orator’s speech. All this heat-

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