Page 1256 - the-brothers-karamazov

Chapter 13

A Corrupter of Thought

T’S not only the accumulation of facts that threatens my
‘Iclient with ruin, gentlemen of the jury,’ he began, ‘what
is really damning for my client is one fact — the dead body
of his father. Had it been an ordinary case of murder you
would have rejected the charge in view of the triviality, the
incompleteness, and the fantastic character of the evidence,
if you examine each part of it separately; or, at least, you
would have hesitated to ruin a man’s life simply from the
prejudice against him which he has, alas! only too well de-
served. But it’s not an ordinary case of murder, it’s a case of
parricide. That impresses men’s minds, and to such a degree
that the very triviality and incompleteness of the evidence
becomes less trivial and less incomplete even to an unpreju-
diced mind. How can such a prisoner be acquitted? What
if he committed the murder and gets off unpunished? That
is what everyone, almost involuntarily, instinctively, feels
at heart.
‘Yes, it’s a fearful thing to shed a father’s blood — the fa-
ther who has begotten me, loved me, not spared his life for
me, grieved over my illnesses from childhood up, troubled

1