Page 1716 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

asked himself, bending aside the leaf of goat-weed out of
the beetle’s way and twisting another blade of grass above
for the beetle to cross over onto it. ‘What is it makes me
glad? What have I discovered?

‘I have discovered nothing. I have only found out what
I knew. I understand the force that in the past gave me
life, and now too gives me life. I have been set free from
falsity, I have found the Master.
‘Of old I used to say that in my body, that in the body
of this grass and of this beetle (there, she didn’t care for the
grass, she’s opened her wings and flown away), there was
going on a transformation of matter in accordance with
physical, chemical, and physiological laws. And in all of us,
as well as in the aspens and the clouds and the misty
patches, there was a process of evolution. Evolution from
what? into what?—Eternal evolution and struggle.... As
though there could be any sort of tendency and struggle in
the eternal! And I was astonished that in spite of the
utmost effort of thought along that road I could not
discover the meaning of life, the meaning of my impulses
and yearnings. Now I say that I know the meaning of my
life: ‘To live for God, for my soul.’ And this meaning, in
spite of its clearness, is mysterious and marvelous. Such,
indeed, is the meaning of everything existing. Yes, pride,’

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