Page 529 - the-brothers-karamazov

loving kiss with softened hearts, there was a great human
bond between us. I have thought a great deal about that,
and now what I think is this: Is it so inconceivable that that
grand and simple-hearted unity might in due time become
universal among the Russian people? I believe that it will
come to pass and that the time is at hand.
And of servants I will add this: In old days when I was
young I was often angry with servants; ‘the cook had served
something too hot, the orderly had not brushed my clothes.’
But what taught me better then was a thought of my dear
brother’s, which I had heard from him in childhood: ‘Am I
worth it, that another should serve me and be ordered about
by me in his poverty and ignorance?’ And I wondered at the
time that such simple and self-evident ideas should be so
slow to occur to our minds.
It is impossible that there should be no servants in the
world, but act so that your servant may be freer in spirit
than if he were not a servant. And why cannot I be a servant
to my servant and even let him see it, and that without any
pride on my part or any mistrust on his? Why should not
my servant be like my own kindred, so that I may take him
into my family and rejoice in doing so? Even now this can
be done, but it will lead to the grand unity of men in the
future, when a man will not seek servants for himself, or
desire to turn his fellow creatures into servants as he does
now, but on the contrary, will long with his whole heart to
be the servant of all, as the Gospel teaches.
And can it be a dream, that in the end man will find his
joy only in deeds of light and mercy, and not in cruel plea-

The Brothers Karamazov