Page 1723 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘The church! the church!’ Levin repeated to himself.
He turned over on the other side, and leaning on his
elbow, fell to gazing into the distance at a herd of cattle
crossing over to the river.

‘But can I believe in all the church teaches?’ he
thought, trying himself, and thinking of everything that
could destroy his present peace of mind. Itentionally he
recalled all those doctrines of the church which had always
seemed most strange and had always been a stumbling
block to him.
‘The Creation? But how did I explain existence? By
existence? By nothing? The devil and sin. But how do I
explain evil?... The atonement?...
‘But I know nothing, nothing, and I can know nothing
but what has been told to me and all men.’
And it seemed to him that there was not a single article
of faith of the church which could destroy the chief
thing—faith in God, in goodness, as the one goal of man’s
destiny.
Under every article of faith of the church could be put
the faith in the service of truth instead of one’s desires.
And each doctrine did not simply leave that faith
unshaken, each doctrine seemed essential to complete that
great miracle, continually manifest upon earth, that made

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