Page 1696 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

them, and that they gave no explanation of the questions
which he felt he could not live without answering, but
simply ignored their existence and attempted to explain
other questions of no possible interest to him, such as the

evolution of organisms, the materialistic theory of
consciousness, and so forth.
Moreover, during his wife’s confinement, something
had happened that seemed extraordinary to him. He, an
unbeliever, had fallen into praying, and at the moment he
prayed, he believed. But that moment had passed, and he
could not make his state of mind at that moment fit into
the rest of his life.
He could not admit that at that moment he knew the
truth, and that now he was wrong; for as soon as he began
thinking calmly about it, it all fell to pieces. He could not
admit that he was mistaken then, for his spiritual condition
then was precious to him, and to admit that it was a proof
of weakness would have been to desecrate those moments.
He was miserably divided against himself, and strained all
his spiritual forces to the utmost to escape from this
condition.

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