Page 1259 - the-brothers-karamazov

only they don’t express it. Don’t laugh, don’t laugh at my
idea! The talented prosecutor laughed mercilessly just now
at my client for loving Schiller- loving the sublime and
beautiful! I should not have laughed at that in his place. Yes,
such natures — oh, let me speak in defence of such natures,
so often and so cruelly misunderstood — these natures of-
ten thirst for tenderness, goodness, and justice, as it were,
in contrast to themselves, their unruliness, their ferocity
— they thirst for it unconsciously. Passionate and fierce on
the surface, they are painfully capable of loving woman, for
instance, and with a spiritual and elevated love. Again do
not laugh at me, this is very often the case in such natures.
But they cannot hide their passions- sometimes very coarse
— and that is conspicuous and is noticed, but the inner man
is unseen. Their passions are quickly exhausted; but, by the
side of a noble and lofty creature that seemingly coarse and
rough man seeks a new life, seeks to correct himself, to be
better, to become noble and honourable, ‘sublime and beau-
tiful,’ however much the expression has been ridiculed.
‘I said just now that I would not venture to touch upon
my client’s engagement. But I may say half a word. What we
heard just now was not evidence, but only the scream of a
frenzied and revengeful woman, and it was not for her — oh,
not for her! — to reproach him with treachery, for she has
betrayed him! If she had had but a little time for reflection
she would not have given such evidence. Oh, do not believe
her! No, my client is not a monster, as she called him!
‘The Lover of Mankind on the eve of His Crucifixion said:
‘I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his

1 The Brothers Karamazov