Page 526 - the-brothers-karamazov

It is different with the upper classes. They, following sci-
ence, want to base justice on reason alone, but not with
Christ, as before, and they have already proclaimed that
there is no crime, that there is no sin. And that’s consistent,
for if you have no God what is the meaning of crime? In Eu-
rope the people are already rising up against the rich with
violence, and the leaders of the people are everywhere lead-
ing them to bloodshed, and teaching them that their wrath
is righteous. But their ‘wrath is accursed, for it is cruel.’ But
God will save Russia as He has saved her many times. Sal-
vation will come from the people, from their faith and their
meekness.
Fathers and teachers, watch over the people’s faith and
this will not be a dream. I’ve been struck all my life in our
great people by their dignity, their true and seemly dig-
nity. I’ve seen it myself, I can testify to it, I’ve seen it and
marvelled at it, I’ve seen it in spite of the degraded sins and
poverty-stricken appearance of our peasantry. They are not
servile, and even after two centuries of serfdom they are
free in manner and bearing, yet without insolence, and not
revengeful and not envious. ‘You are rich and noble, you are
clever and talented, well, be so, God bless you. I respect you,
but I know that I too am a man. By the very fact that I re-
spect you without envy I prove my dignity as a man.’
In truth if they don’t say this (for they don’t know how
to say this yet), that is how they act. I have seen it myself, I
have known it myself, and, would you believe it, the poorer
our Russian peasant is, the more noticeable is that serene
goodness, for the rich among them are for the most part cor-