Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Section 4) ~ Full Audiobook [romance]

[00:00:00] Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle Chapter 1 almost two months had passed by half the hot summer was gone. But Sergey Ivanovitch had only just made up his mind to leave Moscow. [00:00:17] An important event for him had just occurred. [00:00:20] The year before he had finished his book, entitled An Essay on the Principles and Forms of Government in Europe and in Russia the Fruit of Six Years of Labor. The introduction, as well as some fragments from the book, had already appeared in the reviews, and certain parts had been read by the author to the people of his circle, so that the ideas contained in this treatise could not be a perfect novelty for the public. [00:00:46] But nevertheless, Sergey Ivanovitch expected that the book, on its appearance, would attract serious attention and produce, if not a revolution in science, at least a powerful sensation in the learned world. [00:00:59] This book, after careful revision, had been published the year before and distributed among the booksellers. [00:01:06] Though Sergey Ivanovitch answered reluctantly and with pretended indifference the questions of his friends who asked how the book was going, and though he refrained from inquiring of the booksellers how it was selling, nevertheless he followed eagerly and with strained attention every sign of the impression which his book was producing on society and literature. [00:01:28] But a week passed, a second, a third, and there was not a sign of any impression. [00:01:34] His friends, specialists, and savants, evidently out of politeness, spoke to him about it, but the rest of his acquaintances, not being interested in a book of scientific purport, did not speak about it at all. [00:01:48] Society also, which just at that time was preoccupied with entirely different matters, showed utter unconcern in literary circles. Also, during the lapse of a month there was not a word about his book. [00:02:02] Sergei Ivanovitch carefully calculated the time necessary for preparing critical reviews. But months passed by, and there also was absolute silence only in the Northern beetle, in a facetious Frilleton regarding the singer Drabonti, who had lost his voice. A few scornful words were said in regard to Koznisheff's book, showing that it had already been criticized by all and was given over to universal ridicule. [00:02:29] At length, after three months, a critical article appeared in a journal of importance. Sergey Ivanovitch knew who the author was. He had met him once at Galuptsoff's. He was a very young and feeble critic, very clever as a writer, but perfectly uneducated and cowardly in his private relations. [00:02:50] Notwithstanding Sergey Ivanovitch's contempt of the author, he began to read the article with extraordinary interest. [00:02:56] It proved to be abominable. [00:02:59] Evidently the critic understood the whole book just exactly as he should not have understood it. But he had so cleverly put together a section of extracts that for those who had not read the book, and apparently almost no one had read it, it was perfectly clear that the entire book, in spite of its high pretensions, was nothing but a tissue of pompous phrases, and these not always intelligible, as the critics frequent interrogation points testified, and that the author of the work was a perfect ignoramus, and it was done in such a witty way that Sergey Ivanovitch himself could not deny the wit of it. [00:03:34] But after all, it was abominable. [00:03:38] Sergey Ivanovitch, in spite of the unusual conscientiousness with which he examined into the justice of these remarks contrary to, did not for a moment think of answering the ridiculous errors and blunders. [00:03:50] But he could not help instantly remembering all the least details of his meeting and conversation with the author of the article. [00:03:57] Did I say anything to affront him? Said Sergey Ivanovitch, and remembering how, when he met the young author of the article, he had shown up his ignorance in conversation, he therefore understood the animus of the criticism. [00:04:13] The appearance of this article was followed by a silence unbroken by either voice or journal, and Sergey Ivanovitch saw that his six years labor, into which he had put so much of his heart and soul, had been wasted, and his position was made all the more trying, because now that his book was off his hands, he had nothing especial to occupy the larger part of his time. [00:04:36] He was bright, well educated, in perfect health, and very active, and he did not know how to employ his industry. [00:04:44] Conversations with callers, visits to the club and the meetings of committees where there was a chance for him to talk took some of his time, but he, a man long wanted to life in the city, did not permit himself to talk with every one as his inexperienced brother did when he was in Moscow, so that he had much leisure and a superfluity of intellectual energy to his joy, just at this time, which was so trying to him. Because of the failure of his book, and after his interest in dissenters, American subjects, the famine in Samara, Expositions, Spiritualism, was exhausted. The Slavic question began to engross public attention, and Sergey Ivanovitch, who had been one of its earliest advocates, gave himself up to it with enthusiasm. [00:05:33] Among Sergey Ivanovitch's friends nothing else was thought about or talked about except the Serbian war. [00:05:40] All the things that lazy people are accustomed to do was done for the help of these brother Slavs. [00:05:46] Balls, concerts, dinners, matches, ladies, finery, beer drinking, saloons, everything bore witness of sympathy for the Slavs with much that was said and written on this subject. So Sergey Ivanovitch could not agree. [00:06:02] He saw that the Slav question was one of those fashionable movements that always carry people to extremes. He saw that many people with very petty personal ends in view took part in it. [00:06:13] He recognized that the newspapers made many useless and exaggerated statements in order to attract attention to themselves and belittle their rivals. [00:06:22] He saw that in this common impulse of society, upstarts put themselves forward and and outdid one another in making a noise, commanders in chief without an army, ministers without a ministry, journalists without a journal, party leaders without partisans. [00:06:39] He saw much that was childish and absurd, but he also saw and admired the enthusiasm which united all classes and which it was impossible not to share. [00:06:50] The massacre of the Serbians, who professed the same faith and spoke almost the same language, aroused sympathy for their sufferings and indignation against their persecutors. And the heroism of the Serbs and Montenegrins, who were fighting for a great cause, aroused a universal desire to help their brethren, not only in word, but indeed. [00:07:11] But there was another phenomenon which delighted Sergey Ivanovitch especially. [00:07:16] This was the manifestation of public opinion. [00:07:20] Society actually spoke out its desires. [00:07:23] The national soul received expression as Sergey Ivanovitch expressed it. And the more he studied this movement as a whole, the more evidently it seemed to him that it was destined to grow to enormous proportions and to constitute an epoch. [00:07:37] He devoted himself to the service of this great cause and forgot to think about his book all his time was now so occupied that he could scarcely reply to the letters and demands made upon him. [00:07:49] He had worked all the spring and a part of the summer, and only in the month of July could he tear himself away to go to his brother in the country. [00:07:57] He went for a fortnight's vacation and rejoiced to find, even in the depths of the country, in the very holy of holies of the peasantry, the same awakening of the national spirit in which he himself and all the inhabitants of the capital and the large cities of the empire firmly believed. Katavasoff seized the opportunity to fulfill a promise he had made to visit Levin and and the two friends left town together. [00:08:23] End of Chapter one. [00:08:30] Part 8 Chapter 2 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle Sergey Ivanovitch and Katavasov had just reached the station of the Kursk Railway, which was especially crowded that day, and leaving their carriage they were looking at a lackey who had followed them laden with various articles, when four cabs filled with Volunteers also drove up. [00:08:54] Ladies carrying bouquets met them, and accompanied by a crowd, they entered the station. [00:09:00] One of the ladies who had come to meet the volunteers came out of the waiting room and addressed Sergey Ivanovitch. [00:09:06] Did you also come to see them off? She asked, speaking in French. [00:09:11] No, I am going myself, Princess, to have a little rest at my brother's. But are you still on escort duty? He added, with a scarcely perceptible smile of amusement. [00:09:21] I have to be, replied the Princess. But tell me, is it true that we have sent off 800 already? [00:09:28] Malvinsky told me so. [00:09:30] More than 800? We've sent off more than a thousand, if we could count those not immediately from Moscow, said Sergey Ivanovitch. [00:09:38] There, I said so. Cried the lady, delighted. And is it true that the subscriptions amount to nearly a million? [00:09:46] More than that, Princess, have you read the news? They have beaten the Turks again. [00:09:52] Yes, I read about it, replied Sergey Ivanovitch. She referred to a recent dispatch which confirmed the report that three days before the Turks had been beaten at every point and had fled, and that the next day a decisive battle was expected. [00:10:07] Oh, by the way, do you know a splendid young fellow is petitioning to go? I don't see why they put obstacles in his way. I wanted to ask you to put your signature on his petition. I know him. He comes from the Countess Lidia Ivanovna. [00:10:22] After asking some particulars in regard to the young man, Sergey Ivanovitch went into the waiting room, affixed his signature to the document, and handed it back to the Princess. [00:10:32] Do you know, Count Vronsky? The famous is going on this train? Said the Princess with a triumphant and significant smile, as he rejoined her and handed her the petition. [00:10:43] I heard that he was going, but I did not know when on this train. I just saw him. He is here. His mother is the only one with him. All things considered, I do not think he could do any better. [00:10:56] Ohyes, of course. [00:10:59] During the conversation, the crowd had rushed into the restaurant of the station, where a man with a glass in his hand was making an address to the volunteers for the service of our faith and humanity and our brethren, he said, raising his voice. Matushka Moskva, Mother, Moscow gives you her blessing in this noble cause. [00:11:20] May it prosper, he concluded with tears in his eyes. [00:11:24] The crowd responded with cheers, and a fresh throng poured into the waiting room, nearly overwhelming the Princess. [00:11:31] Ah, Princess, what do you say to this? Cried Stefan Arkadyevitch, who with a radiant smile of joy, suddenly appeared in the midst of the throng. [00:11:40] Didn't he speak Gloriously. Bravo. And here's Sergey Ivanovich. You ought to speak. Just a few words, you know, of encouragement. You do it so well, added Oblonsky, touching Koznuishev's arm with an expression of suave flattering deference. [00:11:56] Oh, no, I am leaving immediately. [00:12:00] Where? [00:12:01] To the country? [00:12:02] To my brother's, replied Sergey Ivanovitch. [00:12:05] Then you'll see my wife. I've written her. But you'll see her before she gets my letter. Please tell her that you met me and that everything is all right. She will understand and be so good as to tell her, too, that I got my place as a member of the commission of. [00:12:21] Well, she knows what that is, you know. Les petites misery de la vie humanee, said he, turning to the princess as if in apology. [00:12:30] My Kaya, not Liza, but Bipchi sends a thousand guns and 12 hospital nurses. Did I tell you? [00:12:39] Yes, I heard about it, answered Koznuichev coldly. [00:12:43] But what a pity you are going away, replied Stefan Arkadievich. We give a farewell dinner tomorrow to two volunteers at Diemers Bartnyetsky of Petersburg and our Veselavsky Grisha. Both are going. Veselavski is just married. He is a fine lad. Isn't it so, Princess? He added, addressing the lady. [00:13:04] The princess did not reply, but looked at Kashnuachev. The fact that the princess and Sergey Ivanovich evidently wanted to get rid of him did not in the least disconcert Stefan Arkadyevich. [00:13:15] Smiling, he glanced now at the princess's hat plume, now off to one side or the other, as if searching for a new subject. [00:13:23] And as he saw a lady going by with a subscription box, he beckoned to her and handed her a five ruble note. [00:13:30] I can't bear to see the subscription boxes pass by me now that I have ready money, he said. What splendid news there is. Hurrah for the Montenegrins. [00:13:41] What is that you say? He cried when the princess told him that Vronsky was going by the first train. [00:13:46] For an instant Stepan Arkadyevitch's face grew sad, but the next moment, slightly limping with both feet and stroking his side whiskers, he went off to the room where Vronsky was. [00:13:57] He had already entirely forgotten the tears he had shed over his sister's grave, and saw in Vronsky only a hero and an old friend. [00:14:05] One must do him justice in in spite of his faults, said the princess to Sergey Ivanovitch when Oblonsky was gone. He has the true Russian, the Slavic nature. But I am afraid it will be disagreeable to the count to see him, whatever people may say. I pity that unhappy man. [00:14:24] Try to talk with him a little on the journey, said the princess. [00:14:27] Certainly, if I have a chance. [00:14:30] I never liked him, but what he is doing now makes up for much. [00:14:34] He's not only going himself, but he's taking out a squadron of cavalry at his own expense. [00:14:40] Yes, so I have heard. [00:14:43] The bell rang and the crowd pressed toward the doors. [00:14:46] There he is, said the princess, pointing out Vronsky, who was dressed in a long coat and broad brimmed black hat. His mother was leaning on his arm. Oblonsky followed them, talking vivaciously. [00:14:59] Vronsky was frowning and and looked straight ahead, as if not listening to what Stefan Arkadyevitch said. [00:15:05] Apparently at Oblonsky's suggestion, he looked in the direction where Sergey Ivanovitch and the Princess were standing and raised his hat silently. [00:15:14] His face, which had grown old and worn, was like stone. [00:15:18] Going out on the platform, Vronsky, silently quitting his mother's side, vanished from sight. In his compartment on the platform, men were singing the national hymn. Then hurrahs and vivas resounded. [00:15:32] One of the volunteers, a tall, very young man with stooping shoulders, ostentatiously responded to the public, waving above his head a felt hat and a bouquet, while behind him two officers and an elderly man with a full beard and a greasy cap put out their heads, also bowing. [00:15:51] End of Chapter two. [00:15:59] Part 8 Chapter 3 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle After Sergey Ivanovitch had taken leave of the princess, he and Katavasov, who had joined him, entered their carriage, which was packed, and the train started. [00:16:16] When the train rolled into the station at Saraswino and it was met by a chorus of young men singing the Slavsa again the volunteers put out their heads and bowed, but Sergey Ivanovich paid no attention to them. [00:16:29] He had had so much to do with volunteers that he already knew this general type, and it did not interest him. [00:16:35] But Katavasov, who on account of his pedagogical occupations had not enjoyed any opportunity to observe the men who volunteered, was very much interested and asked his friend about them. [00:16:47] Sergey Ivanovich advised him to look into their carriage and talk with some of them at the next station. Katavasov followed this advice. As soon as the train stopped, he went into the second class carriage and made the acquaintance of the volunteers. [00:17:01] Some of them were seated in a corner of the carriage, talking noisily, aware that they were attracting the attention of the other passengers and of Kadavasof whom they saw come in. [00:17:12] The tall, sunken chested young man was talking louder than the others. He was evidently tipsy and was telling the story of something which had happened in their establishment. [00:17:22] Opposite him set an old officer in the Austrian military jacket of the guard uniform. He was listening with a smile to the narrator and occasionally prompting him. [00:17:32] A third volunteer in an artillery uniform was sitting on a box near them. [00:17:37] A fourth was asleep. [00:17:39] Katavasov entered into conversation with the youth and learned that he had been a rich merchant in Moscow who, before he was 22 years old, had succeeded in squandering a considerable fortune. [00:17:51] Katavasov did not like him because he was effeminate, conceited and sickly. [00:17:57] He evidently felt, especially now that he was drunk, that he was doing a heroic deed, and he boasted in the most disagreeable manner. [00:18:06] The second, a retired officer, also impressed Katavasov unpleasantly. He was a man who had apparently tried his hand at everything. He had worked on a railway and had been director of an estate and had established a factory, and he talked of everything without any necessity of doing so, and often used words which showed his ignorance. [00:18:27] The third, the artilleryman, on the contrary, pleased Katavasov very much. He was a modest gentleman. He was evidently disgusted by the affected knowledge of the retired officer and the young merchant's boasted heroism, and he would say nothing about himself. [00:18:43] When Katavasov asked him what induced him to go into Serbia, he answered modestly, I'm going because everyone else is going. [00:18:51] We must help the Serbians. It is too bad they have very few of our artillery men. I believe my service in the artillery was very short. I may be assigned to the infantry or the cavalry. [00:19:05] Why in the infantry when they need artillery men more than all? Asked Katavasov, gathering from the artillerist's age, that he must have already reached a considerable rank. [00:19:15] I did not serve very long in the artillery, but left the service when I was only a younger. [00:19:21] And he began to explain why he had not passed his examination. [00:19:25] All this together produced on Katavasov a generally unpleasant impression, and when the volunteers rushed out into one of the stations to get something to drink, Katavasov felt the desire to talk with someone so as to confirm his unfavorable impression. [00:19:40] One of his fellow travelers, a little old man in a military palatot, had been listening all the time to Katavasov's talk with the volunteers. [00:19:49] As the two were left alone together in the carriage, Katavasov addressed him. [00:19:54] What a diversity of condition of all these men that are going south. Said Katavasov, vaguely wishing to express his opinion, and at the same time draw out the old man's views. [00:20:05] The old man was a soldier who had fought in two campaigns, and he knew what it meant to go to war, and in the actions and words of these gentlemen, the bravery with which they kept applying themselves to the flask, he read their inferiority as soldiers. [00:20:21] Moreover, his residence was in a district city, and he wanted to relate how from that place a good for nothing fellow, a drunkard and a thief whom no one would hire as a workman, had gone as a soldier. [00:20:35] But knowing by experience that in the present state of excitement under which society was laboring, it was dangerous to express himself frankly against the general sentiment, and especially to criticize the volunteers, he merely looked at Katavasov. [00:20:49] Well, men are needed there, said he, smiling with his eyes. And they began to talk over the latest war news, and each of them concealed from the other his doubt whether a battle was to be expected on the next day, since, according to the latest report, the Turks had been defeated at all points. [00:21:07] And so they parted, without either of them having expressed what he really thought. [00:21:12] When Katavasov returned to his own carriage, he told Sergey Ivanovich with some twinges of conscience that he enjoyed talking with the volunteers, and he declared that they were excellent lads. [00:21:22] In the great station where they next stopped, the chorus, the cheers, the bouquets and the beggars again appeared, and again the ladies with bouquets conducted the volunteers into the restaurant. But there was so much less enthusiasm than there had been at Moscow. [00:21:38] End of Chapter three. [00:21:45] Part 8 Chapter 4 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle While the train stopped at a certain government capital, Sergey Ivanovitch did not go to the restaurant, but walked up and down the platform. [00:22:01] The first time he passed Vronsky's compartment, he noticed that the window was shaded. But when he passed the second time he saw the old countess at the window, she called him to her. [00:22:12] You see, I am going as far as Kursk with him. [00:22:16] Yes, I heard that he was going, answered Koznuishev, stopping at the window and looking in. [00:22:22] What a noble action on his part, he added, seeing that Vronsky was not in the carriage. [00:22:28] Well, what could he do after his misfortune? [00:22:32] What a horrible thing it was, said Sergey Ivanovitch. [00:22:35] Ach, what I have not been through. [00:22:38] Yes, do come in. Ah, what I have not been through, she repeated, as Sergey Ivanovitch came in and sat down on the seat beside her. [00:22:48] You could not imagine it. For six weeks he never said a word to anyone, and he only ate when I begged him to do so. [00:22:56] We dared not leave him alone a single instant. We took away everything with which he might kill himself with. [00:23:02] We lived on the first floor, but we had to be on the watch all the same. [00:23:06] You know, he shot himself once before for her sake, said the old Countess, her face clouding at this remembrance. [00:23:14] Yes, she died as was fit for such a woman to die. Even the death she chose was low and wretched. [00:23:22] It is not for us to judge her, Countess, replied Sergey Ivanovitch with a sigh, But I can imagine what you have suffered. [00:23:29] Ah, don't speak of it. My son was with me at my country place. A note was brought him. He answered immediately. We did not know at all that she was at the station that evening. I had just gone to my room, and my Mary told me that a lady had thrown herself under the train. [00:23:46] I felt something like a shock. [00:23:48] I understood instantly what had happened. I knew it was she. [00:23:52] My first words were, Let no one tell the Count. [00:23:55] But they had just told him his coachman was at the station when it happened, and saw it all. I ran to my son's room. He was beside himself. It was terrible to see him. [00:24:06] Without speaking one word, he left the house. And what he found, I do not know. But they brought him back like one, dead. [00:24:15] I should never have known him. [00:24:17] Prostration complete, the doctor said. [00:24:21] Then he became almost insane. [00:24:23] Oh, what can be said? Cried the Countess, waving her hands. It was a terrible time. [00:24:29] No, let people say what they will. [00:24:32] She was a bad woman. [00:24:34] Think what a desperate passion she was in. [00:24:38] She did it to make an extraordinary sensation. And she succeeded. [00:24:43] She has done irreparable injury to the lives of two men of rare merit, her husband and my son, and ruined herself. [00:24:52] How about her husband? [00:24:54] He has taken her little girl. At first Alasha consented to everything. [00:24:59] Now he is awfully sorry, having given up his daughter to a stranger. But he could not take back his word. Karenin went to the funeral. [00:25:07] We succeeded in preventing a meeting between him and Alyosha. For him, that is her husband, this death is a deliverance. [00:25:16] But my poor son gave up everything for her, sacrificed everything, me, his position, his career. [00:25:24] And she was not contented with that, but wanted to ruin him besides. [00:25:29] No, whatever you may say, her death is the death of a bad woman, a woman without religion. [00:25:36] May God forgive me. But when I think of the harm she has done my son, I cannot help cursing her memory. [00:25:44] How is he now? [00:25:46] This Serbian war is our salvation. [00:25:48] I am old and don't understand much about it. But God sent it for him, of course, for me as his mother. It is painful, and besides, they say Petersburg. But what can be done about it? This is the only thing that could save him. [00:26:07] Yashvin, his friend, gambled away all he had and enlisted. He came to Alaska and persuaded him to go to Serbia with him. Now this is occupying him. [00:26:18] Do talk with him, I beg of you. He is so sad. [00:26:22] And then, besides his other troubles, he has a toothache. [00:26:26] But he will be glad to see you. [00:26:28] Please talk with him. He is walking up and down on the other side of the track. [00:26:33] Sergey Ivanovitch said that he would be very glad to talk with the Count and went over to the side where vronsky was. [00:26:40] Chapter 4. [00:26:47] Part 8 Chapter 5 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle in the oblique evening shadow cast by heap of baggage piled on the platform, Vronsky, in his long palette and slouch hat, with his hands in his pockets, was walking like a wild beast in a cage up and down a narrow space where he could not take more than a score of steps. [00:27:14] It seemed to Sergey Ivanovich, as he drew near that Vronsky saw him but pretended not to recognize him. But to Sergey Ivanovitch this was all the same. He was above any petty susceptibility at this moment. Vronsky, in his eyes was an important actor in a grand event and deserved to be sustained and encouraged. He approached the count. [00:27:37] Vronsky stopped, looked at him, recognized him, and, taking a few steps to meet him, cordially held out his hand. [00:27:46] Perhaps you would prefer not to see me, said Sergey Ivanovitch, but can I be of any service to you? [00:27:52] No one could be less unpleasant for me to meet than you, answered Vronsky. Pardon me, there is nothing pleasant for me in life. [00:28:01] I understand, and I want to offer you my services, said Kaznuachev, struck by the deep suffering that was apparent in the count's face. [00:28:09] Might not a letter to Restich or Milan be of some use to you? [00:28:13] Oh no, answered Vronsky, making an effort to understand. [00:28:17] If it is all the same to you, we will walk a little. [00:28:21] It is so stifling in the train. A letter? [00:28:24] No, thank you. One needs no letter of introduction to get killed. In this case, one to the Turks, perhaps, added he with a smile. At the corners of his mouth his eyes kept the same expression of bitter sadness. [00:28:39] Well, it would make it easier for you to come into relations with men prepared for action. [00:28:44] Still as you please. [00:28:46] But I was very glad to learn of your decision. [00:28:48] The very fact that a man of your standing has joined the volunteers will raise them above all cavil in the public estimation. [00:28:56] My sole merit, replied Vronsky, is that life is of no value to me as to physical energy, I know it will not be wanting for any purpose, and I am glad enough to give my life, which is not only useless to me, but disgusting to be useful to somebody. [00:29:14] And he made an impatient motion with his jaw, caused by his unceasing toothache, which prevented him from talking with the expression he desired. [00:29:22] You will be regenerated. It is my prediction, said Sergey Ivanovich, feeling touched. The deliverance of one's oppressed brethren is an aim for which one might well live as die. [00:29:34] May God grant you full success and fill your soul with peace, he added, and held out his hand. [00:29:41] Vronsky pressed his hand cordially. [00:29:44] As a field piece I may be of use, but as a man I'm only a ruin, murmured the count, with intervals between the phrases. [00:29:54] The throbbing pain in his tooth, which filled his mouth with saliva, made it an effort for him to speak. [00:30:00] He stopped and fixed his eyes mechanically on the engine wheels, which advanced, revolving slowly and smoothly on the rails. [00:30:08] And suddenly a sense of intense spiritual anguish caused him for a moment to forget his toothache. At the sight of the engine and the rails, through the influence of his talk with an acquaintance with whom he had not seen since his misfortune, she suddenly appeared to him, or at least that which remained of her, as when he rushed like a madman into the barracks near the station where they had carried her, he saw, lying on a table, shamelessly exposed to the sight of all, her bleeding body, which had so lately been full of life. [00:30:42] Her head was uninjured with its heavy braids, and its light curls clustering around the temples, was leaning back with the eyes half closed, and in the lovely face hovered still a strange wild expression, while her rosy lips, slightly opened, seemed prepared to utter once again that terrible menace, to predict to him, as she had in their dispute, that he would repent. [00:31:07] And he tried to remember how she looked when he first met her also at a railroad station, with that mysterious, poetic, charming beauty, overflowing with life and gaiety, demanding and bestowing happiness, and not bitterly revengeful as he remembered her at their last interview. [00:31:25] He tried to remember the happy moments he had spent with her. But these moments were forever spoiled for him. He remembered only her face, haughtily expressing her threat of unnecessary but implacable vengeance he ceased to be conscious of his toothache, and sobs convulsed his face. [00:31:45] After walking up and down by the baggage once or twice the count controlled himself and spoke calmly with Sergey Ivanovich. [00:31:53] Have you seen the latest telegrams? [00:31:55] Yes, they have fought three times, and another battle is expected tomorrow. [00:32:01] And after a few words about King Milan's proclamation and the immense effect which it might have, the two men separated at the ringing of the second bell and went to their respective compartments. [00:32:13] End of Chapter five. [00:32:21] Part 8 Chapter 6 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle as Sergey Ivanovitch had not known just when it would be possible for him to leave Moscow, he did not telegraph his brother to send for him. Levin was not at home when he and Katavasov, black as Negroes with smoke and dust, reached Pokrovskoye about noon in a tarantis which they had hired at the station. [00:32:48] Kitty was sitting on the balcony with her father and sister when she saw her brother in law approaching, and she ran to meet him. [00:32:55] Your conscience ought to prick you for not letting us know, said she, shaking hands with Sergey Ivanovitch and offering her brow to be kissed. [00:33:04] We got on splendidly, and we did not have to bother you. I I am so dusty that I fear to touch you. I was so busy that I did not know when I could leave. And you look the same as ever, said he, smiling, enjoying the gentle current of your softly flowing happiness. [00:33:20] And here is our friend Fyodor Vasilyevich, who has come at last. [00:33:26] But I am not a negro. When I have washed I shall look like a human being, said Katavasov, with his usual pleasantry, offering his hand and laughing so that his white teeth gleamed out from his dusty face. [00:33:39] Kasia will be very glad he is out on the farm, but he ought to be back by this time, always occupied with his estate, said Katavasov. The rest of us can think of nothing but the Serbian war. How does my friend regard this subject? He is sure not to think as other people do. [00:33:56] Yes, he does, but perhaps not like everybody, said Kitty, a little confused, looking at Sergey Ivanovich. [00:34:05] I will send some one to find him. We have Papa with us just now. He has recently come back from abroad. [00:34:11] And Kitty, while making her arrangements to send for Leaven and to furnish her guests a chance to wash off the dust, the one in the library, the other in the room assigned to Dolly, and then to have luncheon ready for them, enjoy the full power of quick motion which, before her baby was born she had been so long deprived of. [00:34:30] And then she went to the balcony where her father was. [00:34:33] It's Sergey Ivanovich and Professor Katavasov. [00:34:37] Ugh. In this heat it will be a bore. [00:34:40] Not at all, Papa. He is very nice, and Costia loves him dearly, said Kitty, laughing at the expression of consternation on her father's face. [00:34:50] Go entertain them to Shanka, she said to her sister. They saw Stiva at the station. He was well, and I am going to the baby for a little while. I actually have not nursed him since morning. He will be crying if I don't go. And she, feeling the pressure of milk, hastened to the nursery. [00:35:07] In reality, it had not been guesswork with her. The tie that bound her to the child was still unbroken. She actually knew by the flow of milk that he needed something to eat. Even before she reached the nursery, she knew that he would be crying. And indeed he was. [00:35:23] She heard his voice and quickened her steps. But the more she hurried, the louder he cried. It was a fine, healthy scream, a scream of hunger and impatience. [00:35:34] Am I late, nurse? Late? Asked Kitty, sitting down and getting ready to suckle the child. [00:35:40] There. Give him to me. Give him to me. Quick. Oh, nurse, how stupid. Take off his cap afterward, said she, quite as impatient as her baby. [00:35:51] The baby screamed as if it were famished. [00:35:54] Now, now, it can't be helped, little mother, said Agafia Michaelovna, who could not keep out of the nursery. You must do things in order. [00:36:02] Hagu agoo. She chuckled to the infant, not heeding Kitty's impatience. [00:36:08] The nurse gave the child to his mother. Agafia Mihalovna followed the child, her face all aglow with tenderness. [00:36:15] He knows me. [00:36:16] He knows me. God is my witness, he knew me. Matushka Katerina Alexandrovna, she cried. [00:36:22] But Kitty did not hear what she said. Her impatience was as great as the baby's. It hindered the very thing that they both desired. The baby, in his haste to suckle, could not manage to take hold and was vexed. At last, after one final shriek of despair, the arrangements were perfected, and mother and child, simultaneously, breathing a sigh of content, became calm. [00:36:46] The poor little thing is all in a perspiration, whispered Kitty. Do you really think he knew you? She added, looking down into the child's eyes, which seemed to her to peep out roguishly from under his cap, as his little cheeks sucked in and out, while his little hand, with rosy palm, flourished around his head. [00:37:06] It cannot be, for if he knew you, he would surely Know me, continued Kitty with a smile. When Agafia Michalovna persisted in her belief that he knew her, she smiled because she said that he could not recognize her. Yet she knew in her heart that he not only recognized Agafia Mikhailovna, but that he knew and understood all things, and knew and understood what no one else understood, and things which she, his mother, was now beginning to understand only through his teaching. [00:37:36] For Agafia Mikhailovna, for the nurse, for his grandfather, even for his father, Mitya was just a little human being who needed nothing but physical care. [00:37:47] For his mother he was a being endowed with moral faculties who already had a whole history of spiritual relationships. [00:37:55] You will see if he doesn't when he wakes up. When I do. This way his face will light up, the little dove. It will light up like a bright day, said Agafya Mikhailovna. [00:38:05] There. Very well, very well. We shall see, whispered Kitty. Now go away. He is going to sleep. [00:38:14] End of Chapter Six. [00:38:21] Part 8 Chapter 7 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle Agafia Mikhailovna went away on tiptoe. The nurse closed the blinds, chased away the flies which were hidden under the muslin curtain of the cradle. Then she sat down and began to wave a little withered branch over the mother and child. [00:38:42] It is hot, hot. [00:38:45] Pray God he may send me a little shower, she said, was the mother's reply, as she rocked gently to and fro and pressed Mitya to her breast. [00:38:57] His eyelids now opened and now closed, and he languidly moved his chubby arm. [00:39:03] This little arm disturbed Kitty. She felt a strong inclination to kiss it, but she feared to do so, lest she should wake him. At last the arm began to droop and the eyes closed more and more. [00:39:15] Only rarely now would he raise his long lashes and gaze at his mother with his dark, dewy eyes. [00:39:22] The nurse began to nod and and dropped off into a nap. [00:39:25] Overhead she could hear the old prince's voice and Katavasov's sonorous laugh. [00:39:31] Evidently they don't need me to help in the conversation, thought Kitty. But it's too bad that Kostya is not there. He must have gone to his bees. [00:39:40] Sometimes it disturbs me to have him spend so much time over them, but then, on the whole I am glad it diverts him. And he is certainly more cheerful than he was in the spring. [00:39:51] Then he was so gloomy and so unhappy. [00:39:54] What a strange man he is. [00:39:57] Kitty knew what caused her husband's disquiet. It was his doubting spirit. And although if she had been asked if she believed that in the world to come he would fail of salvation owing to his want of faith, she would have been compelled to say yes. Yet his skepticism did not make her unhappy. And she who believed that there was no salvation for the unbelieving and loved more than all else in the world. Her husband's soul smiled as she thought of his skepticism and called him a strange man. [00:40:27] Why does he spend all his time reading those philosophical books? [00:40:32] If all this is written in those books, then he can understand them. [00:40:36] But if it is not true, why does he read them? [00:40:40] He himself says that he longs for faith. [00:40:43] Why doesn't he believe? [00:40:45] Probably he thinks too much. And he thinks too much because he is lonely. He is always alone. [00:40:52] He can't speak out all his thoughts to us. [00:40:55] I think he will be glad that these guests have come, especially Katavasoff. He likes to discuss with him. [00:41:03] And immediately Kitty's thoughts were diverted by the question where it would be best for Katavasov to sleep. [00:41:08] Ought he and Sergey Ivanovitch to have a room together or apart? [00:41:13] And here a sudden thought made her start so that she disturbed Mitya, who opened his eyes and looked at her reproachfully. [00:41:19] The washerwoman hasn't brought back the linen. [00:41:22] I hope Agafia Mihalovna hasn't given out all we had. And the color rushed to Kitty's forehead. [00:41:29] There I must find out myself, thought she, and reverting to her former thoughts, she remembered that she had not finished the important train of spiritual thoughts which she had begun. [00:41:39] And she once more repeated, yes, Kostya is an unbeliever. [00:41:45] And as she did so, she smiled. [00:41:48] Yes, he is an unbeliever, but I'd far liever he should be one than a person like Madame Stahl, or as I wanted to be when I was abroad. [00:41:57] At any rate, he will never be hypocritical. [00:42:00] And a recent example of his goodness recurred vividly to her memory. [00:42:05] Several weeks before, Stefan Arkadievich had written to Dolly a letter of repentance. He begged her to save his honor by selling her property to pay his debts. [00:42:14] Dolly was in despair. She hated her husband, despised him, and at first she made up her mind to refuse his request to apply for a divorce. But afterward she decided to sell a part of her estate. [00:42:27] Kitty, with an involuntary smile of emotion, recalled her husband's confusion, his various awkward attempts to find a way of helping Dolly, and how at last he came to the conclusion that the only way to accomplish it without wounding her was to make over to Dolly their part of this estate. [00:42:45] How can he be without faith when he has such a warm heart and is afraid to grieve even a child? [00:42:51] He never thinks of himself, always of others. [00:42:55] Sergey Ivanovitch finds it perfectly natural to consider him his business manager. [00:43:00] So does his sister Dolly and her children have no one else but him to lean upon. [00:43:05] He is always sacrificing his time to the peasants who come to consult him every day. [00:43:10] Yes, you cannot do better than to try to be like your father, she murmured, touching her lips to her son's cheek before laying him in the nurse's arms. [00:43:21] End of Chapter seven. [00:43:29] Part 8 Chapter 8 of Anna Karenina By Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle Ever since that moment when, as he sat beside his dying brother, Levin had examined the problem of life and death in the light of the new convictions, as he called them, which from the age of 20 to 34 years had taken the place of his childhood beliefs. He was terrified not only at death but at life, because it seemed to him that he had not the slightest knowledge of its origin, its purpose, its reason, its nature, our organism and its destruction, the indestructibility of matter, the laws of the conservation and development of forces, were words which were substituted for the terms of his early faith. [00:44:17] These words, and the scientific theories connected with them, were doubtless interesting from an intellectual point of view, but they stood for nothing in the face of real life, and Levin suddenly felt in the position of a man who in cold weather had exchanged his warm shuba for a muslin garment, and who for the first time should indubitably, not with his reason but with his whole being, become persuaded that he was absolutely naked and inevitably destined to perish miserably from that time, without the least changing his outward life. And though he did not like to confess it even to himself, Leaven never ceased to feel a terror of his ignorance. [00:45:01] Moreover, he vaguely felt that what he called his convictions not only came from his ignorance, but were idle for helping him to a clearer knowledge of what he needed at first. His marriage, with its new joys and its new duties, completely blotted out these thoughts, but they came back to him with increasing persistence, demanding an answer. After his wife's confinement, when he lived in Moscow without any serious occupation, the question presented itself to him in this if I did not accept the explanations offered me by Christianity on the problem of my existence, then what answer shall I find? [00:45:41] And he scrutinized the whole arsenal of his scientific convictions, and found no answer whatever to his questions, and nothing like an answer. [00:45:50] He was in the position of a man who seeks to find food in a toy store or a gun shop. [00:45:56] Involuntarily and unconsciously. He sought now in every book, in every conversation, and in every person whom he met, some sympathy with these questions and their solution. [00:46:09] More than anything else, he was surprised and puzzled by the fact that the men of his class, who for the most part had like himself, substituted science for religion, seemed to experience not the least moral suffering, but to live entirely satisfied and content. [00:46:26] Thus, in addition to the main question, there were others which tormented him. [00:46:31] Were these men sincere? [00:46:33] Were they not hypocrites? [00:46:35] Or did they understand more clearly than he did the answer science gave to these troublesome questions? [00:46:41] Again he took to studying these men and books which might contain the solutions which he so desired. [00:46:48] One thing which he had discovered, however, since these questions had begun to occupy him, was that he had made a gross error in taking up with the ideas of his early university friends, that religion had outlived its day and no longer existed. [00:47:03] The best people whom he knew were believers. The old prince Lvov, of whom he was so fond, Sergey Ivanovitch, and all women had faith, and his wife believed just as he had believed when he was a child. And nine tenths of the Russian people, all the people whose lives inspired the greatest respect were believers. [00:47:25] Another strange thing was that as he read many books and he became convinced that the men whose opinions he shared did not attach to them any importance, and that without explaining anything, they simply ignored these questions without an answer, to which life seemed to him impossible, and took up others which were to him utterly uninteresting, such, for example, as the development of the organism, the mechanical explanation of the soul, and others. [00:47:55] Moreover, at the time of his wife's illness, he had what to him seemed a most extraordinary experience. [00:48:02] He, the unbeliever, had prayed and prayed with sincere faith. But as soon as the danger was over, he felt that he could not give that temporary disposition any abiding place in his life. [00:48:15] He could not avow that the truth appeared to him then, but that he was mistaken now, because, as he began calmly to analyze his feelings, they eluded him. [00:48:26] He could not avow that he had been deceived then, because he had experienced a temporary spiritual condition, and if he pretended that he had succumbed to a moment of weakness, he would sully a sacred moment. [00:48:39] He was in a state of internal conflict, and he strove with all the strength of his nature to free himself from it. [00:48:47] End of Chapter eight. [00:48:54] Part 8 Chapter 9 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle these thoughts tormented him with varying intensity, but he could not free himself from them. [00:49:07] He read and meditated, but the more he read and meditated, the end desired seemed to grow more and more remote. [00:49:15] During the latter part of his stay in Moscow and after he reached the country, he became convinced of the uselessness of seeking immaterialism, an answer to his doubts, and he read over the philosophers whose explanations of life were opposed to materialism, Plato and Spinoza and Kant and Schelling and Hegel and Schopenhauer. [00:49:37] These thoughts seemed to him fruitful while he was reading, or was contrasting their doctrines with those of others, especially with those of a materialistic tendency. [00:49:47] But just as soon as he attempted independently to apply these guides to some doubtful point, he fell back into the same perplexities as before. [00:49:57] The terms mind, will, freedom, essence had a certain meaning to his intellect as long as he followed the clue and established by the deductions of these philosophers, and allowed himself to be caught in the snare of their subtle distinctions. [00:50:15] But when practical life asserted its point of view, this artistic structure fell like a house built of cards, and it became evident that the edifice was built only of beautiful words, having no more connection than logic with the serious side of life. [00:50:32] Once, as he was reading Schopenhauer, he substituted the term love for that which this philosopher calls will, and this new philosophy consoled him for a few days while he clung to it, but it also proved unsatisfactory when he regarded it from the standpoint of practical life. [00:50:51] Then it seemed to be the thin muslin without warmth as address. [00:50:56] Sergey Ivanovitch advised him to read Komyakov's theological writings, and though he was at first repelled by the excessive affectation of the author's style and his strong polemic tendency, he was struck by their teachings regarding the Church. He was struck also by the development of the following thought. [00:51:15] Man, when alone cannot attain the knowledge of theological truths. [00:51:20] The true light is kept for a communion of souls who are filled with the same love that is for the Church. [00:51:28] He was delighted with the thought. How much easier it is to accept the Church, which united with it all believing people, and was endowed with holiness and infallibility, since it had God for its head, to accept its teaching as to creation, the fall, and redemption, and through it to reach God. [00:51:47] Then to begin with God afar off, mysterious God, the creation, and the rest of it. [00:51:54] But as he Read after Komyeakoff A History of the Church by a Catholic writer and the History of the Church by an Orthodox writer, and perceived that the Orthodox Greek Church and the Roman Catholic Church, both of them in their very essence infallible, were antagonistic. He saw that he had been deluded by Komyakov's Church teachings, and this edifice also fell into dust, like the constructions of philosophy. [00:52:21] During this whole spring he was not himself and passed hours of misery. [00:52:26] I cannot live without knowing what I am and why I exist, since I cannot reach this knowledge. Life is impossible, said Lavin to himself. [00:52:37] In the infinitude of time, in the infinitude of matter, in the infinitude of space, an organic cell is formed, exists for a moment, and bursts that cell is I. [00:52:55] This was a cruel lie, but it was the sole, the supreme result of the labor of the human mind for centuries. [00:53:03] It was the final creed on which were founded, the latest researches of the scientific spirit. It was the dominant conviction. And Leaven, without knowing exactly why, simply because this theory seemed to him the clearest, was involuntarily held by it. [00:53:21] But this conclusion was not merely a lie. It was the cruel jest of some evil spirit, cruel, inimical, to which it was impossible to submit. [00:53:32] To get away from it was a duty. [00:53:34] Deliverance from it was in the power of every one, and the one means of deliverance was death. [00:53:42] And Leaven, the happy father of a family, a man in perfect health, was sometimes so tempted to commit suicide that he hid ropes from sight lest he should hang himself, and feared to go out with his gun lest he should shoot himself. [00:53:59] But Leaven did not hang himself or shoot himself, but lived and struggled on. [00:54:07] End of Chapter nine. [00:54:14] Part 8 Chapter 10 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle When Levin puzzled over what he was and why he was born, he found no answer and fell into despair. [00:54:29] But when he ceased to ask himself these questions, he seemed to know what he was and why he was alive. For the very reason that he resolutely and definitely lived and worked. [00:54:40] Even during the more recent months, he had lived far more strenuously and resolutely than ever before. [00:54:46] Toward the end of June he returned to the country and resumed his ordinary work in Prokovskoye. The superintendence of the estates of his brother and sister, his relations with his neighbors and his musics, his family cares, his new enterprise in bee culture, which he had taken up this year, occupied all his time. [00:55:06] These interests occupied him not because he carried them on with a view to their universal application, as he had done before. [00:55:13] But on the contrary, because, being now, on the one hand, disillusioned by the lack of success in his former undertakings for the common good, on the other, being too much engrossed by his own thoughts and and the very multitude of affairs calling for his attention, he entirely relinquished all his attempts of coperative advantage. And he occupied himself with his affairs simply because it seemed to him that he was irresistibly impelled to do what he did and could not do otherwise. [00:55:41] Formerly, almost from childhood till he reached manhood, when he began to do anything that would be good for all, for humanity, for Russia, he saw that the thought of it gave him in advance a pleasing sense of joy. [00:55:55] But the action in itself never realized his hopes, nor had he full conviction that the work was necessary, and the activity itself, which seemed at first so important, kept growing smaller and smaller and came to naught. [00:56:09] But now that since his marriage, he had become more and more restricted by life for its own sake, though he had no pleasure at the thought of his activity, he felt a conviction that his work was indispensable, and saw that the results gained were far more satisfactory than before. [00:56:26] Now, quite against his will, he cut deeper and deeper into the soil, like a plough that cannot choose its path or turn from its furrow. [00:56:35] To live, as his fathers and grandfathers had lived, to carry out their work so as to hand it on in turn to his children seemed to him a plain duty. [00:56:45] It was as necessary as the duty of eating when hungry, and he knew that to reach this end he was under obligation so to conduct the machinery of the estate at Pokrovskoye, that there might be profit in it as indubitably as a debt required to be paid. So it was incumbent on him to preserve his paternal estate in such a condition that his son, receiving it in turn, might say, thank you, my father. [00:57:11] Just as Levin himself was grateful to his ancestors for what they had cleared and tilled, he felt that he had no right to rent his land to the musics, but that he himself must keep everything under his own eye, maintain his cattle, fertilize his fields, set out trees. [00:57:28] It was impossible not to look out for the interests of Sergey Ivanovitch and his sister and all the peasants that came to consult him. As it was to abandon the child that had been given into his hands, he felt obliged to look after the interests of his sister in law, who, with her children was living at his house, and of his wife with her child, and he had to spend with them at least a small part of his time. [00:57:51] And all this, together with his hunting and his new occupation of bee culture, filled to overflowing his life, the meaning of which he could not understand when he reflected on it. [00:58:01] Not only did Levin see clearly what it was his duty to do, but he saw how he must fulfill it and what had paramount importance. [00:58:10] He knew that it was requisite to hire laborers as cheaply as possible, but to get them into his power by paying down money in advance and getting them at less than market price he would not do, although this was very advantageous. [00:58:25] It was permissible to sell fodder to the musics in time of scarcity, even though he felt sorry for those who were improvident, but he felt it his duty to do away with inns and drinking places, even though they brought in great profit. [00:58:39] On principle he punished as severely as he could thefts from his wood, but when he found cattle straying, he was not inclined to exact a fine, and though it annoyed the guards and brought the punishment into contempt, he always insisted on having the cattle driven out again. [00:58:55] He advanced money to Bulcher to save him from the claws of a money lender, who charged him 10 per cent a month. But he made no allowance for arrears in the Obruck, or money due him from negligent musics. He found it impossible to pardon an overseer because a small meadow was not mowed and the grass was wasted. But he would not let them mow a piece of land amounting to 80 desiatens, or 216 acres on which a young forest had been planted. [00:59:21] He would not excuse a moozhik who went home in working hours because his father had died, sorry as he was for him, and he had to pay him lower wages for the costly months of idleness. But he was bound to give board and lodging to old servants who were superannuated. [00:59:38] Levin felt that it was right, on returning home, to go first to his wife, who was not well, though some musics had been waiting for three hours to see him, and he knew, in spite of all the pleasure that he should have in seeing his bees hived. Nevertheless he felt in duty bound to deprive himself of this pleasure and and let his old beeman transfer the swarm without him, and go and talk with the musics who had come to the apiary for him. [01:00:03] Whether he did well or ill, he knew not, and he did not try to settle it. But moreover he avoided all thoughts and discussions on the subject reasoning led him to doubt and prevented him from seeing what was right to do or not to do. [01:00:19] When he ceased to consider but simply lived, he never failed to find in his soul the presence of an infallible judge, telling him which of two possible courses was the best to take and which was the worst and when he failed to follow this inner voice, he was instantly made aware of it. [01:00:38] Thus he lived, not knowing and not seeing the possibility of knowing what he was or why. He lived in the world and tortured by his ignorance to such a degree that he feared committing suicide, and yet resolutely pursuing the course of life traced out for him. [01:00:54] End of chapter 10. [01:01:01] Part 8 Chapter 11 of Anna Karenina By Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle the day on which Sergey Ivanovitch reached Pokrovskoye had been unusually full of torment for Levin. [01:01:15] It was at that hurried, busy season of the year, when all the peasantry are engaged in putting forth an extraordinary effort and showing an endurance which are quite unknown in the ordinary conditions of their lives, and which would be prized very highly if it were not repeated each year, and did not produce such very simple results. [01:01:34] Mowing and sowing rye and oats, reaping, harvesting, threshing, these are labors which seem simple and commonplace, but to accomplish them in the short time accorded by nature, everyone, old and young, must set to work for three or four weeks they must be content with the simplest fare, black bread, garlic, and kvass, must sleep only a few hours, and must not pause night or day. And every year this happens throughout all Russia. [01:02:04] Having lived the larger part of his life in the country and in the closest relations with the peasantry, Levin, always at harvest time, felt that this universal activity among the people embraced his own life. [01:02:15] In the early morning he had gone to the field of early rye, to the field where they were carrying off the oats in Ricks. Then he came back to breakfast with his wife and sister in law, and had afterward gone off on foot to the farm, where he was trying a new threshing machine this whole day. 11 as he talked with the overseer and the musics in the field, as he talked at the house with his wife and dolly and the children and his father in law thought of only one thing, and constantly the same questions pursued him. [01:02:46] What am I, and where am I, and why am I here? [01:02:51] As he stood in the cool shadow of his newly thatched barn, where the hazel wood timbers, still smelling of the fragrant leaves, held down the straw to freshly peeled aspen timbers that made the roof. Levin gazed now through the open doors where whirled and played the dry and choking dust thrown off by the threshing machine. [01:03:11] Now at the hot sunlight lying on the grass of the threshing floor and at the fresh straw just brought out of the barn, and now at the white breasted swallows with their spotted heads as they flew about, twittering and settling under the eaves or shaking their wings, darted through the open doors and then again at the peasantry bustling about in the dark and dusty barn. And strange ideas came into his mind. [01:03:38] Why is all this done? He asked himself. [01:03:41] Why am I standing here? [01:03:44] Why am I compelling them to work? And why are they working so hard? [01:03:49] Why are they doing their best in my presence? [01:03:52] Why is my old friend putting in so with all her might I cured her when a beam fell on her at the fire, he said to himself as he looked at a hideous old baba who was walking with bare sunburned feet across the hard uneven soil and was plying the rake vigorously. [01:04:10] She got well then. But if not today or tomorrow, then in 10 years she must be born to her grave and there will be nothing left of her, nor of that pretty girl in red who is husking corn. With such graceful swift motions they will bury her. [01:04:27] And that dappled gelding will soon die, he thought as he looked at the horse, breathing painfully with distended nostrils and heavily sagging belly as it struggled up the ever descending treadmill. [01:04:39] They will carry him off. And Fyodor, the machine tender, with his curling beard full of chaff and his white shoulder showing through a tear in his shirt, they will carry him off too. [01:04:52] But now he gathers up the sheaves and gives his commands and shouts to the women, and with quick motions arranges the belt on the machine. [01:05:01] And it will be the same with me. [01:05:03] They will carry me away, and nothing of me will be left. [01:05:08] Why? [01:05:10] And in the midst of his meditations he he mechanically took out his watch to calculate how much they threshed in an hour. [01:05:17] It was his duty to do this so that he could pay the men fairly for their day's work. [01:05:23] So far only three ricks, he said to himself, and he went to the machine tender and trying to make his voice heard above the racket, told him to work faster. [01:05:33] You've put in too much at once, Fyodor. You see, it stops so it wastes time. [01:05:39] Do it more regularly. [01:05:41] Fyodor, his face black with dust and sweat, shouted back some unintelligible reply, but entirely failed to carry out Levin's directions. [01:05:49] He mounted the drum and took Fyodor's place and began to do the feeding. [01:05:54] He worked thus till it was the music's dinner hour, not a very long time. And then, in company with Fyodor, he left the barn and talked with him, leaning against a beautifully stacked pile of yellow rye saved for planting. [01:06:08] Fyodor was from a distant village, the very one where Levin had formerly let the association have some land. [01:06:15] Now it was rented to Dvornik. [01:06:17] Levin talked with Fyodor about this land and asked him if it were not possible that Platon, a rich and trustworthy music of his village, would take it for the next year. [01:06:27] Price too high won't catch platinum, Constantine, Dmitri, replied the music, wiping the chaff off from his woody chest. [01:06:35] Yes, but how does Kirillov make money out of it, Mituich? By this contemptuous, diminutive Fryoder called the Dvornik. [01:06:44] What doesn't he make money out of? He puts on the screws and gets the last drop. He has no pity on the peasants. But Uncle Fokanuich. So he called the old man Platin. Does he try to fleece a man? And he gives credit when anyone owes him, he does not try to squeeze it out of them. He's that kind of a man. [01:07:05] Yes, but why does he give them credit? [01:07:09] Well, of course men differ. One lives for his belly, like Mittuitch. But Fokanuich, he's an honest man. He lives for his soul. He remembers God. [01:07:20] How does he remember God and live for his soul? Exclaimed Levin eagerly. [01:07:25] Why the that's plain enough. It's to live according to God, according to the truth. [01:07:31] People differ. [01:07:33] Take you, Constantine Dmitryk, for example. You couldn't wrong a man. [01:07:39] Yes, yes, Prussia. Goodbye. Exclaimed Levin, deeply moved and taking his cane, he turned toward the house as he recalled the music's words. How Fokanuich lived for his soul according to God, according to truth. Confused, but weighty thoughts arose within him from some hidden source and filled his soul with their brilliant light. [01:08:04] Chapter 11. [01:08:11] Part 8 Chapter 12 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle with long steps strode along the highway, filled not so much with his thoughts, he could not as yet get rid of them, as with a spiritual impulse such as he had never known before. [01:08:31] The peasant's words had had in his soul the effect of an electric spark suddenly condensing the cloud of dim, incoherent thoughts, which had not ceased to fill his mind even while he was talking about the letting of his field. [01:08:44] He felt that some new impulse, inexplicable as yet, filled his heart with joy. [01:08:51] Not to live for oneself, but for God. [01:08:54] What God? [01:08:56] Could he have said anything more meaningless than what he said? [01:09:00] He said that we must live not for ourselves, that is, for what interests and pleases us, but for something incomprehensible for God, whom no one knows or can define. [01:09:15] Still, call it nonsense. Did I understand Feodor? [01:09:20] Didn't I also feel convinced of its truth? [01:09:23] Did I find it either false or absurd? [01:09:27] Nay, I understood it and find in it the same meaning as he finds and understood it more completely and clearly than anything else in life. [01:09:37] And not alone I, but all, all the world, perfectly understand this and have no doubt of it, and are unanimous in its favor. [01:09:48] And I was seeking for miracles and regretting that I could not see one which might fill me with amazement. [01:09:55] A material miracle would have seduced me. But the real miracle, the only one possibly existing, surrounds me on all sides, and I have not remarked it. [01:10:07] Fyodor says Kirillov, the Dvornik, lives for his belly. I know what he means by that. [01:10:13] No rational being, none of us, can live in any other way. But Fyodor says, too, that it is wrong to live for the belly, but that we should live for the truth, for God. [01:10:26] And I know what that means as well. [01:10:30] I and millions of men, musics and sages, who have thought and written on the subject or in their obscure language, have talked about it in the past and in the present. [01:10:42] We are in accord on one point, and that is that we should live for the good. [01:10:49] The only knowledge that I in all men possess that is clear, indubitable, absolute, is here. [01:10:58] We have not reached it by reason. [01:11:00] Reason excludes it, for it has neither cause nor effect. [01:11:05] The good, if it had a cause, would cease to be the good. [01:11:09] If it had an effect, a reward, it would cease to be the good. [01:11:14] The good must be outside of the chain of cause and effect. [01:11:18] And I know this, and we all know it. [01:11:21] Can there be greater miracle than this? [01:11:25] Have I really found the solution of my doubts? [01:11:29] Shall I cease to suffer? [01:11:31] Levin asked himself as he followed the dusty road, insensible to weariness and heat, and feeling that his long travail was at an end. [01:11:40] The sensation was so delightful that he could not believe that it was true. [01:11:44] He choked with emotion. His strength failed him, and he left the high road and went into the woods and sat down under the shadow of an aspen on the unmown grass. [01:11:55] He uncovered his moist forehead and stretched himself out on the succulent wood grass, and leaned his head on his hand. [01:12:04] Yes, I must reflect and consider, he thought, looking attentively at the untrodden grass in front of him and watching the movements of an earth beetle crawling up the stalk of couch grass and stopped by a leaf. [01:12:19] What discovery have I made? He said to himself, removing the leaf from the beetle's way and bending down another stalk of couch grass to help the beetle on. [01:12:30] What made me so happy? [01:12:33] What discovery have I made? [01:12:35] I have made no discovery. I have only opened my eyes to what I already know. [01:12:41] I have learned to recognize that power which formerly gave me life and gives me life again today. [01:12:48] I have freed myself from error. [01:12:50] I have come to know my master. [01:12:53] I used to say there was going on in my body, in the body of this grass, in the body of this beetle. [01:13:00] The beetle did not want to go to the other stalk, but spread its wings and flew away. [01:13:05] Incessant change of matter, in conformity to certain physical, chemical, and physiological laws. [01:13:12] And in all of us, together with the aspens and the clouds and the nebulae, there was evolution. [01:13:19] Evolution from what? [01:13:21] Into what? [01:13:23] Endless evolution and conflict. [01:13:26] But was conflict with the infinite possible. [01:13:29] And I was surprised to find nothing along this line, in spite of my best efforts, which could reveal to me the meaning of my life, my motives, my longings. [01:13:40] But the consciousness that there is a meaning is nevertheless so strong and clear that it forms the very foundation of my existence. [01:13:50] And I marveled and rejoiced when the music said to live for God, for the soul. [01:13:58] Now I can say that I know the meaning of life. [01:14:01] It is to live for God, for my own soul. [01:14:05] And this meaning, in spite of its clearness, is mysterious and miraculous. [01:14:11] And such is the meaning of all existence. [01:14:14] Yes, there is pride, said he to himself, turning over on his stomach and beginning to tie into a knot the stalks of grass, while trying not to break them. [01:14:25] Not only pride of intellect, but the stupidity of intellectual yes, it is the wickedness of intellect, he repeated. [01:14:34] He succinctly went over in memory the course of his thought for the last two years, from the day when the idea of death struck him. On seeing his beloved brother hopelessly sick, then he had clearly resolved that since man had no other prospect than suffering death and eternal oblivion, he must either commit suicide or find the explanation of the problem of existence, and in such manner as to see in it something more than the cruel irony of a malevolent spirit. [01:15:03] But he had not done either, but continued to live, to think and to feel. [01:15:09] He had married and had experienced new joys which made him happy when he did not ponder on the meaning of life. [01:15:16] What did this mean? [01:15:17] It meant that he was thinking badly and living well without knowing it. He had been sustained by those spiritual verities which. Which he had sucked in with his mother's milk. And he indulged in thought, not only now not recognizing those truths, but even strenuously avoiding them. [01:15:35] Now it was clear to him that he could live only through the blessed influence of the faith in which he had been taught. [01:15:43] What should I have been? [01:15:45] How should I have lived if I had not absorbed these beliefs, if I had not known that I must live for God and not for the satisfaction of my desires? [01:15:55] I should have been a thief, a liar, a murderer. [01:16:00] Nothing of what seems the chief joy of my life would have had any existence for me. [01:16:06] And though he made the most strenuous efforts of his imagination, he could not picture to himself what kind of a wild creature he might have been if he had not really known the aim of his existence. [01:16:18] I was in search of an answer to my question. [01:16:21] Thought I could not give it, for the problem was too lofty. [01:16:25] A life itself, with the innate knowledge of good and evil alone could give me an answer. And this knowledge I did not acquire. [01:16:34] It was given me like all the rest given. [01:16:38] I could not know where to get it. [01:16:40] Did I get it from reason? [01:16:43] But would reason ever have proved to me that I ought to love my neighbour instead of choking him? [01:16:48] I was taught it in my childhood, but I believed it gladly because it was already existent in my soul. [01:16:55] Reason discovered the struggle for existence, that law which demands the overthrow of every obstacle in the way of our desires, that is the result of reason. [01:17:05] But reason has nothing to do with loving our neighbour. [01:17:10] Chapter 12. [01:17:17] Part 8 Chapter 13 of Anna Kurbinina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle Levin remembered a recent scene between Dolly and her children. [01:17:28] The children had been left alone and had amused themselves by making raspberry jam over a candle and throwing milk into each other's faces. [01:17:37] Their mother, catching them in the actual scolded them in their uncle's presence and sought to make them understand how much work was involved in what they were destroying, that the labor was performed for their benefit, that if they broke the cups they couldn't have anything to drink from, and if they wasted the milk they wouldn't have any more and would starve to death. [01:17:57] Eleven was struck by the indifference and skepticism with which the children heard their mother's words. [01:18:03] They were only sorry to have their interesting sport interrupted. And they did not believe a word of what she said. [01:18:10] They did not believe because they did not know the value of what they were playing with and did not understand that they were destroying their own means of subsistence. [01:18:20] That is all very well, they thought, but there is nothing interesting or worth while in it, because it is always the same and always will be, and it is monotonous. We don't have to think about it. It is done for us. [01:18:34] But we would like to do something new and original. And here we are making jam in a cup over the candle and squirting the milk in each other's faces. It's fun, it's new, and not half so stupid as to drink milk out of a cup. [01:18:48] Is it not thus that we act? [01:18:51] Is it not the way I have acted in trying to penetrate by reasoning the subjects of nature and the problem of human life? [01:18:58] Is it not the same that all the philosophers have done with their theories which lead by a course of reasoning strange and unnatural to man, to the knowledge of what he long has known and known so surely that without it he could not live? [01:19:14] Do we not see clearly in the development of the theory of each, that the real meaning of human existence is as indubitably known as it is known to Feodor the music? [01:19:25] And do they see any more clearly than he does the principal meaning of life? [01:19:30] Do they not all come back to this, even though it may be by a route which is often equivocal? [01:19:37] If we were to leave the children to get their own living, make their own utensils, do the milking instead of playing pranks, they would die of hunger there. Now give us over to our own ideas and passions, with no knowledge of our Creator, without the consciousness of moral good and evil. And what would be the result? [01:19:58] We reason because we are spiritually satiated. We are children. [01:20:03] Whence comes this joyous knowledge which I share with the music and which alone gives me serenity of spirit? [01:20:11] Where did I get it? [01:20:13] Here am I, a Christian, brought up in the faith, surrounded by the blessings of Christianity, living upon these spiritual blessings without being conscious of them. [01:20:23] And like children I have been reasoning, or at least trying to reason out the meaning of life. [01:20:29] But in the serious moments of life, in the hour of suffering, just as when children are cold and hungry, I turn to him. And like these same children whom their mother reprimands for their childish faults, I feel that my childish efforts to get out of the mad circle of reasoning have done me no good. [01:20:49] Yes, reason has taught Me nothing what I know has been given revealed to me through the heart and especially through faith in the teachings of the Church. [01:21:01] The Church, the Church, repeated Leaven, turning over again, and as he rested his head on his hand, looking at a herd of cattle down by the river at a distance. [01:21:14] Can I really believe all that the Church teaches? Said he, to test himself and to bring up everything that might destroy his present feeling of security, he expressly called to mind the Church teachings, which more than all had seemed strange to him and disgusted him. [01:21:31] Creation, yes, but how did I myself explain existence, existence, the devil, sin? [01:21:43] How did I explain evil, redemption? [01:21:47] But I know nothing and can know nothing except what is told me and every one else. [01:21:53] And now it seemed to him that not one of these Church dogmas was inimical to the great objects of life, faith in God, in goodness. [01:22:03] On the contrary, all tended to produce that greatest of all miracles, that which consists in enabling the whole world with its millions of human beings, young and old, the music and Laboff and Kitty and peasants and czars, married and single, to comprehend the same great truths so as to live that life of the soul which alone is worth living and which is our only aim. [01:22:29] Lying on his back, he looked up into the high cloudless sky. [01:22:34] Do I not know, thought he, that that is infinity of space and not a vault of blue stretching above me? [01:22:42] But however I strain my sight, I can see only a vaulted dome, and in spite of my knowledge of infinite space, I have more satisfaction in looking at it as a blue vaulted dome than when I try to look beyond. [01:22:59] Levin stopped thinking. [01:23:01] He listened to the mysterious voices which seemed to wake joyfully in him. [01:23:07] Is it really faith he sought, fearing to believe in his happiness? [01:23:13] My God, I thank thee. He cried, and he swallowed down the sobs that arose and brushed away with both hands the tears that filled his eyes. [01:23:25] End of chapter 13. [01:23:32] Part 8 Chapter 14 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle Levin looked away and saw the herd and his one horse, Talyaga, and his coachman, who approached the herd of cattle and began talking to the herdsman. [01:23:49] Then he heard the sound of wheels and the neighing of the horse. But he was so occupied with his thoughts that he did not think why it was that his coachman was coming for him. [01:23:58] He only realized it when the coachman, while still some distance off, cried, the mistress sent for you. Your brother and another baron have come. [01:24:08] Levin got in at once and took the reins as if awakened from sleep. It was long before he could collect his thoughts. He looked at the well fed horse and at the spot on his neck where the harness rubbed, and he looked at Ivan the coachman sitting beside him, and he thought of how he had been expecting his brother, and that his wife was probably troubled because he was gone so long, and he tried to guess who the unknown guest who had come with his brother might be. [01:24:35] And his brother and his wife and the unknown guest now seemed to him different from what they had been before. [01:24:42] He felt that henceforth all his relations with these friends would be more pleasant than they had been. [01:24:48] Now there will be no more of that coldness such as there used to be between my brother and me, no more disputes, nor will Kitty and I quarrel any more. And whoever my guest is, I shall be polite to him and kind to the servants, and to Ivan all will be different. [01:25:07] And holding in his good horse, which was whinnying with impatience and pleading for permission to show his paces, Levin kept looking at Ivan, who was sitting next to him, not knowing what to do with his idle hands and constantly pulling down his shirt, which the wind tugged at. And in his attempt to find a pretext for beginning a conversation with the man, he thought of saying that the horse's girth was buckled up too tightly. But then this seemed like censuring him, and he wanted to say something pleasant. [01:25:36] You had better turn to the right and avoid that stump. So, said the coachman, taking hold of one of the reins. [01:25:43] Please not touch or try to give me lessons, said Levin, exasperated by his coachman's interference. [01:25:50] Just the same as always he was made angry by any interference with his affairs, and he immediately became conscious how mistaken he was in supposing for a moment that his new spiritual condition could keep its character unchanged on contact with the reality. [01:26:06] When they arrived within a quarter of a verst of the house, Levin saw Grisha and Tanya running to meet him. [01:26:12] Uncle Kostya, Mama is coming, and Grandpa and Sergey Ivanovich and someone else. They cried as they ran up to the cart. [01:26:20] Tell me, who is it? [01:26:23] Oh, he's an awful horrid man who does so with his arms, said Tanya, climbing up into the cart and mimicking Katavasov. [01:26:33] Tell me, is he young or old? Asked Levin, laughing, reminded of someone by Tanya's performance. [01:26:41] Ah, I only hope he is not a bore, said Levin to himself. [01:26:45] As soon as they reached a turn in the road and saw the party approaching, Levin recognized Katavasov, who was in a straw hat and gesticulating exactly as Tanya had represented it. [01:26:55] Katavasov was very fond of talking philosophy, and his conceptions were wholly drawn from the natural sciences, which had always been his specialty, and in Moscow Levin had frequently had discussions with him, and one of these discussions, in which Katavasov had evidently felt that he was victorious, occurred to Levin's mind as soon as he saw him. [01:27:16] Henceforth, he said to himself, I will not enter into discussions or express myself so flippantly. [01:27:24] Leaping from the cart and joining Katavasov and his brother, he asked where Kitty was. [01:27:29] She has taken Mitya to Kolok. Kolak was a piece of woodland near the house. She wanted to get him established there. It was so hot at the house, said Dolly. [01:27:39] Levin always advised his wife against taking the baby into the woods because he felt it was dangerous, so this news was not pleasant to him. [01:27:48] She carries that son of hers from one place to another, said the old prince. I told her she'd better try the ice house. [01:27:54] She wanted to go to the beehives. She thought you were there, added Dolly. That is where we were going. [01:28:00] Well, what have you been doing? That's good, said Sergey Ivanovitch, dropping behind the others and walking with his brother. [01:28:07] Oh, nothing particular, as usual. Busy with the farming. You'll stay with us a while now. We've been expecting you a long time. [01:28:16] Only a fortnight. I've a great deal to do at Moscow. [01:28:20] At these words the two brothers looked at one another, and Levin, in spite of his usual and now especially strong desire to have friendly and above all simple relations with his brother, felt that it was awkward for him to look at him. He dropped his eyes and was at a loss what to say, trying to select some topic of conversation which would be agreeable to Sergey Ivanovitch and avoiding the Serbian war and the Slavonic question, a hint at which Sergey Ivanovitch's remark about his occupation in Moscow gave, Levin began to talk about his brother's book. [01:28:52] Well, he asked, have there been many reviews of your book? [01:28:56] Sergey Ivanovitch smiled at the intention of the question. [01:29:00] No one thinks anything about it. I least of all, he said. [01:29:04] You see, Darya Alexandrovna, we're going to have a shower, he added, pointing with his umbrella to the white clouds which were piling up above the aspen tops. [01:29:13] It was evident by these words that the relationship between the brothers which Leaven wanted to overcome was just the same as of old, if not unfriendly, at least cool. [01:29:24] Leaven approached Katavasov. [01:29:27] How good it was of you to come to us, said he. [01:29:30] I've wanted to come for a long time now. We shall have time to talk. Have you read Spencer? [01:29:36] Not thoroughly. I don't get anything out of him. [01:29:40] How so? That is interesting. Why is that? [01:29:43] I have definitely made up my mind that the answers to certain questions which interest me are not to be found in him or his followers now. [01:29:52] But he was suddenly struck by the pleasant and serene expression of Katavasov's face, and he felt so sorry at having evidently disturbed his mental equilibrium by his remark that suddenly, remembering his resolution, he stopped short. [01:30:05] However, we will talk about that by and by, he added. [01:30:09] If we are going to the apiary, let us go this way. By this path, he said, turning to the others, passing through a narrow path along by an unknown field covered on one side with an abundance of those bright flowers called Ivan de Maria, and in the midst of which grew frequent patches of the tall, dark green hellebore. Levin led his guests, who were afraid of being stung, to the cool, dense shade of some young aspens, and established them on some benches and logs especially prepared for the purpose of receiving the beehives, and he himself went to the storehouse to fetch for the children and the grown people as may some bread, cucumbers, and fresh honey. [01:30:49] Trying to make as little disturbance as possible, and listening to the bees which came flying more and more thickly around him, he strode along the path that led to the izba. [01:30:59] At the very door a bee entangled in his beard and began to buzz, but he carefully freed himself from it. [01:31:06] Going into the cool entry, he took his wire mask down from the peg where it hung and put it on, and, thrusting his hands into his pockets, he went into the enclosure of the apiary, where, amid a smoothly shaven lawn stood in straight rows on linden stakes, all the old hives each having for him its own special history, while the newer ones, which had been set up that year, were ranged along the wall. [01:31:31] At the entrance of the hives he could see the young bees and the drones clustering together and tumbling over one another, while in their midst the working bees were industriously darting off in a straight line toward the forest where the linden trees were in bloom and quickly returning, laden with their pollen. [01:31:48] His ears were filled with the incessant monotonous humming made by the workers as they flew in with their burdens, by the drones enjoying their holiday, and by the guardian bees giving warning of the approach of an enemy and ready to sting. [01:32:02] On one side of the enclosure the old beekeeper was smoothing a hoop and did not see Leaven, and Leaven, without speaking to him, stood in the midst of his apiary, he was glad of the chance of being alone so as to collect himself in face of the reality which had so suddenly come into vivid contrast with his recent state of mind. [01:32:23] He remembered that he had already been angry with Ivan and shown coldness to his brother, and had spoken foolishly with Katavasov. [01:32:31] Can it be possible that my happiness was only a transitory feeling which will pass away and leave no trace behind? [01:32:40] But at the same moment as he analyzed his state of mind, he felt with joy that his experience had left new and important results. [01:32:48] Practical life had only temporarily disturbed the spiritual calm which he had found, but in his heart it was still intact. [01:32:56] Just as the bees buzzing around him threatened him and robbed him of his physical calm and compelled him to defend himself, so did the cares which surrounded him as he sat in his little cart disturb his spiritual calm. But this lasted only while he was in their midst. [01:33:14] Just as his physical strength was intact while he was defending himself against the bees, so his newly attained spiritual power was also unimpaired. [01:33:24] End of chapter 14. [01:33:32] Part 8 Chapter 15 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle do you know Kostya, whom Sergey Ivanovitch found on the train? Said Dolly after she had given her children their cucumbers and honey? Vronsky, he's going to Serbia. [01:33:50] Yes, and not alone either. He's taking out a squadron of cavalry at his own expense, said Katavasov. [01:33:57] That's like him, answered Levin. [01:34:00] But our volunteers still going off, he added, looking at Sergey Ivanovich. [01:34:04] Sergey Ivanovitch was busy with a knife blade, rescuing a live bee from the honey that had flowed out of the white honeycomb at the bottom of his cup. And he did not answer. [01:34:15] Indeed, I should say so, said Katavasov, biting into a cucumber. If you had only seen them at the station this morning. [01:34:23] Now what an idea this is. For Christ's sake, tell me, Sergey Ivanovitch, where all these volunteers are going and whom they are going to fight with? Asked the old prince, evidently pursuing a conversation which they had begun before. Levin joined them with the Turks, Answered Sergey Ivanovich, smiling quietly, as he at last rescued the helpless honey smeared bee on the point of his knife and set him on an aspen leaf. [01:34:48] But who has declared war on the Turks? Is it Ivan Ivanovich Ragozov and the Countess Lydia Ivanovna and Madame Stahl? [01:34:56] No one has declared war, but people sympathize with their oppressed brethren and want to help them, said Sergey Ivanovich. [01:35:05] The prince was not speaking here of Help. But of war, said Levin, coming to the assistance of his father in law, the prince means that private persons have no right to take part in a war without being authorized by the government. [01:35:17] Kostya, look out. There's a bee. Won't he sting? Cried Dolly, defending herself from a wasp. [01:35:25] That's not a bee, that's a wasp, said Levin. [01:35:29] Come now, give us your theory, demanded Katavasov, evidently provoking Levin into a discussion. Why shouldn't private persons have that right? [01:35:39] Well, my theory is this war, on the one hand, is such a terrible, such an atrocious thing, that no man, at least no Christian man, has the right to assume the responsibility of beginning it. But it belongs to government alone when it becomes inevitable. [01:35:56] On the other hand, both in law and in common sense, where there are state questions and above all matters concerning war, private citizens have no right to use their own wills. [01:36:08] Sergey Ivanovich and Katavasov were both ready at the same instant with answers. [01:36:13] That's where you're mistaken, Bayushka, said Katavasov. [01:36:17] There may be cases when government does not carry out the will of its citizens, and then society declares its own will. [01:36:24] But Sergey Ivanovitch did not approve of this reply. He frowned as Katavasov spoke. And put it another way, you state the question all wrong. Here there is no declaration of war, but simply an expression of human, of Christian sympathy. Our brethren, men of the same blood, the same faith, are butchered. [01:36:44] Now we do not merely regard them as brethren and as coreligionists, but as women, children, old men. [01:36:52] Our feelings are stirred, and the whole Russian people fly to help check these horrors. [01:36:58] Suppose you were walking in the street and saw a drunken man beating a woman or a child. [01:37:02] I think you would not stop to ask whether war had been declared or had not been declared on such a man before you attacked him and protected the object of his fury. [01:37:12] No, but I should not kill him. [01:37:15] Yes, you might even kill him. [01:37:18] I don't know. If I saw such a sight, I might yield to the immediate feeling. I cannot tell how it would be. But in the oppression of the Slavs there is not and cannot be such a powerful motive. [01:37:32] Perhaps not for you, but other people think differently, said Sergey Ivanovitch angrily. The people still keep the tradition of sympathy with brethren of the Orthodox faith who are groaning under the yoke of the unspeakable Turk. They have heard of their terrible sufferings and are aroused. [01:37:49] That may be, answered Levin in a conciliatory tone. Only I don't see it. I myself am one of the people And I don't feel it. [01:37:59] I can say the same. Put in the old prince. [01:38:02] I was living abroad. I read the newspapers and I learned about the Bulgarian atrocities. [01:38:08] But I could never understand why all Russia took such a sudden fancy for their Slavic brethren. I am sure I never felt the slightest love for them. I was greatly ashamed. I thought I must either be a monster or that Carlsbad had a bad effect on me. [01:38:23] But since I have come back, I don't feel stirred at all. And I find that I am not the only one who is not so much interested in the Slav brethren as in Russia. [01:38:32] Here is Constantine. [01:38:35] Private opinions are of no consequence. There is no meaning in private opinions when all Russia, when the whole people signified what they wished, said Sergey Ivanovitch. [01:38:46] Yes? Excuse me, I don't see this. The people don't know anything, said the prince. [01:38:53] But Papa, how about Sunday in church? Said Dolly, who had been listening to the conversation. [01:38:59] Give me a towel, please, she said in an aside to the old beekeeper, who was looking at the children with a friendly smile. It can't be that all. [01:39:08] Well, what about Sunday at church? They tell the priest to read a prayer. He reads it. Nobody understands one word. They snore just as they do during the whole sermon, continued the prince. Then they tell them that the salvation of their souls is in question. [01:39:23] They pull out their kopecks and give them. But why? They have not the least idea. [01:39:29] The people cannot know their destiny. They have an instinctive feeling, and at times like this they show it, said Sergey Ivanovitch, looking at the old beekeeper. [01:39:39] The handsome, tall old man with his black beard, wherein a few gray hairs were beginning to show, and with his thick silvery hair stood motionless holding a cup of honey in his hand, looking at the gentleman with a mild, placid air, evidently not understanding a word of the conversation, nor caring to understand. [01:39:59] He nodded his head with deliberation as he heard Sergey Ivanovich's words and said, that's certainly so. [01:40:06] Well, now ask him about it, said Levin. He doesn't know. He doesn't think. [01:40:12] Have you heard about the war? Michaeluich? Asked he of the old man. [01:40:18] You know what was read in Sunday at church, don't you? [01:40:21] What do you think? Ought we to fight for the Christians? [01:40:25] Why should we think our Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich will think for us? As in everything else, he knows what to do. Should you like some more bread? Shall I give some to the little lad? Asked he, turning to Daria Alexandravna and pointing to Grisha, who was munching a crust? [01:40:44] What's the use of asking him? Said Sergey Ivanovitch. [01:40:47] We have seen and still see hundreds and hundreds of men abandoning all they possess, giving their last penny, enlisting and trooping from every corner of Russia, all clearly and definitely expressing their thought and purpose. What does that signify? [01:41:03] It signifies, in my opinion, said Levin, beginning to get excited, that out of 80 millions of men there will always be found hundreds and even thousands who have lost their social position, are restless, and are ready to take up the first adventure that comes along, whether it is to follow Pugachev, or to go to Kiva, or to fight in Serbia. [01:41:26] I tell you they are not adventurers who devote themselves to this work. But they are the best representatives of the nation. Cried Sergey Ivanovich excitedly, as if he were defending his last position. [01:41:37] There are the contributions. [01:41:39] Isn't that a test of popular feeling? [01:41:42] The word people is so vague, said Levin. Long haired scribblers, professors, and perhaps one in a thousand among the peasants understand what it is all about. [01:41:53] But the rest of the 80 millions do, as Mikhailwich here does. They not only don't express their will, but they haven't the slightest idea that they have any will to express. [01:42:04] What right then, have we to say that this is the will of the people? [01:42:09] End of chapter 15. [01:42:16] Part 8 Chapter 16 of Anna Karenina By Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle Sergey Ivanovitch was skilled in dialectics, and without replying he took up another side of the question. [01:42:31] Yes, if you want to get at the mind of the nation by an arithmetical process, of course it will be very hard work. [01:42:38] We have not the proper gifts and cannot reckon it that way. [01:42:42] But there are other means of learning it besides arithmetic. It is felt in the air, it is felt in the heart. [01:42:49] Not to speak of those submarine currents which flow through the stagnant ocean of the people, and which are evident to every unprejudiced person. [01:42:57] Take society in a narrower sense, take the intelligent classes and and see how on this point even the most hostile parties combine. There is no longer a difference of opinions. [01:43:08] All the organs of society express the same thing. [01:43:11] They have all become aware of an elemental force which fills the nation with its own motive power. [01:43:17] Yes, the newspapers all say the same thing. That is true, said the old prince, but then so do all the frogs croak before a storm. That doesn't signify much, whether frogs or not. I don't edit newspapers, and I don't set up to defend them. I'm talking of the unanimity of opinion among Intelligent people, said Sergey Ivanovitch, turning to his brother. [01:43:42] 11 was about to reply, but the old prince took the words from his mouth. [01:43:46] Well, something else may be said in regard to that unanimity. [01:43:50] Here is my son in law, Stefan Arkadievich. You know he has just been appointed a member of some committee commission or other. I don't know what, with a salary of 8,000 a year and nothing to do. [01:44:04] Now, Dolly, that's not a secret. [01:44:06] Ask him if his office is useful. He will tell you that it is indispensable and he is an upright man. But you could not make him cease to believe in his full 8,000 salary. [01:44:18] Oh yes, he told me to tell Darya Alexandrovna that he had got that place, said Sergey Ivanovich angrily, considering that the prince's remark was not apropos. [01:44:29] Of course the newspapers are unanimous. That is easily explained. War will double their circulation. [01:44:35] How can they help supporting the Slavic question and the national instinct? [01:44:40] I don't like many of the papers, but you are unjust, said Sergey Ivanovitch. [01:44:45] I will only add one more suggestion, said the old prince. [01:44:49] Alphonse Carr wrote a clever thing just before the Franco Prussian War when he said, you say this war is absolutely necessary. Very good. Go to the front then, and be under the first fire and lead the first onslaught. [01:45:04] Good editors would be glad to do that, said Katavasov with a loud laugh, and trying to imagine certain editorial friends of his in this chosen legion. [01:45:13] Yes, but when they ran away, said Dolly, they'd bother the others just as soon as they begin to run. Put in the tarans behind them, or some Cossacks with whips, said the prince. [01:45:25] Well, that's a joke, but not a very good joke. Excuse me, Prince, said Sergey Ivanovich. [01:45:32] I don't think it was a joke, said Levin. It was, but his brother interrupted him. Every member of society is called upon to do his duty, said he. And thoughtful men perform theirs by giving expression to public opinion. And. And the unanimous and full expression of public opinion is creditable to the press and at the same time a good symptom. [01:45:53] Twenty years ago we should have kept quiet. Today we hear the voice of the Russian people, which is ready to rise like one man and ready to sacrifice itself for its oppressed brethren. [01:46:03] It is a great step taken, a proof of power. [01:46:08] Yes, not only to avenge their brethren, but. But to kill the Turks, said Levin timidly. [01:46:14] The people will sacrifice itself and be ready to sacrifice itself for the salvation of their souls. But not for murder, he added involuntarily, connecting this conversation with the thoughts of the morning. [01:46:27] What do you mean by soul? That, to a naturalist you must remember, is a very puzzling expression. [01:46:33] What is the soul? Demanded Katavasov with a smile. [01:46:37] Oh, you know, pon my word, I haven't the least idea. And the professor broke into a burst of laughter. [01:46:47] Christ said, I am not come to bring peace, but a sword, remarked Sergey Ivanovitch, quoting as simply as if it were something comprehensible, a passage from the Gospel which had always troubled Levin. [01:46:59] That's just so, replied the old bee keeper, who had been standing near them, and in response to a chance look directed to him, come. But Youka, you're beaten. You're beaten. Holy beaten. Cried Katavasov gaily. [01:47:14] Levin reddened with vexation, not because he was beaten, but because he had been drawn into discussion again. [01:47:22] No, it is impossible for me to dispute with them, he thought. Their armor is impenetrable, and I am defenseless. [01:47:31] He saw that he could not defeat his brother and Katavasov, and it was equally impossible to agree with them. Their arguments were the fruit of that same pride of the intellect which had almost ruined him. He could not admit that a handful of men, his brother among them, had the right on the ground of what was told them by a few hundred eloquent volunteers who came to the capital to claim that they and the newspapers expressed the will and sentiment of the people, especially when this sentiment expressed itself in vengeance and butchery. [01:48:01] He could not agree with this, because he did not discover the expression of these thoughts among the people in whose midst he lived, and he did not find them in himself. [01:48:10] And he could not consider himself as anything else than one of the men constituting the Russian nation, but principally because he did not any more than the rest of men know. [01:48:22] Nor could he know what constituted the general good. But he firmly believed that the attainment of this general good was brought about only by the strenuous fulfilment of that law of right which is revealed to every one. And therefore he could not desire war or preach it as a means of attaining any general end whatever. [01:48:41] He and Mikhailovitch and the people in general expressed themselves in somewhat the same language as was used when the early Russians invited the variags to come from Scandinavia. [01:48:54] Come and rule over us, we gladly promise absolute submission. We are enduring all trials, all humiliations, all sacrifices, but we do not judge and we do not decide. [01:49:07] And now, according to Sergey Ivanovitch, the people were ready to turn their backs on a right which they had purchased at such a price. [01:49:15] He wanted to say, in addition, that if the general opinion is an infallible judge, then why should not the Revolution, the Commune, be as useful to the Slavs as lawful means? [01:49:27] But all these were thoughts which could not decide anything. [01:49:31] The only thing that he could clearly see was that at the present moment the discussion was exasperating to Sergey Ivanovitch, and therefore it was wrong to discuss it. [01:49:41] So Levin held his peace and turned the attention of his guests to the clouds that were rolling up, and he advised them to hurry home if they did not want to get wet. [01:49:51] Chapter 16. [01:49:58] Part 8 Chapter 17 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle the Prince and Sergey Ivanovitch seated themselves in the cart and drove on. [01:50:10] The rest of the party, quickening their steps, started back on foot, but the thunderstorm, white on top, black underneath, came up so rapidly that they had to hurry so as to reach the house before the rain was on them. [01:50:24] The clouds coming on as the vanguard hung low were as black as soot and drove across the sky with extraordinary rapidity. [01:50:32] They had reached within 200ft of the house, and already the wind had begun to rise, and the downpour might be expected at any second. [01:50:41] The children ran on ahead, laughing and screaming with delight and terror. Darya Alexandravna, struggling with her skirts, which the wind blew round her legs, no longer walked but ran, not letting the children out of her sight. [01:50:55] The gentlemen, holding on their hats with difficulty, walked with long strides. [01:51:00] They had just reached the porch when the great drops began to strike and splash against the edge of the iron gutter. The children, and just behind them their elders with gay exclamations, ran under the shelter of the porch. [01:51:14] Where's Katerina Alexandrovna? Asked Levin of Agafia Mikhailovna, who was coming out of the door loaded with shawls and plaids. [01:51:22] We suppose she was with you and Mitya? [01:51:26] He must be in the kolak woods with his nurse. [01:51:29] Levin seized the plaids and started for kolak. In the few minutes that had elapsed the storm had reached beyond the sun, and it was as dark as if there was an eclipse. [01:51:38] The wind blew obstinately, as if insisting on its own way, tried to stop leaven and tearing off the leaves and flowers from the lindens, and rudely and strangely bearing the white branches of the birches, began bent everything to one side, acacias, flowers, burdocks, the grass, and the tree tops. The girls working in the garden ran squealing under the shelter of the servants quarters. [01:52:04] The white screen of the Pouring rain had already cut off the distant forest and half of the adjacent field and was rapidly advancing on Kolak. [01:52:13] The dampness of the shower was felt in the atmosphere like fine drops bending his head and fighting vigorously against the gale which tugged at his shawls. Leaven was already on his way to Kolak. [01:52:26] He thought he already saw white forms behind a well known oak, when suddenly a glare of light seemed to burst from the ground before him and the vault of the sky above him fall with a crash. [01:52:38] When he opened his dazzled eyes, he looked through the thick curtain formed by the rain which. Which cut him off from the colac woods and saw to his horror that the green top of a well known oak which stood in the forest had strangely changed its position. [01:52:54] Even before he could ask, can the lightning have struck it? He saw it bending over more and more rapidly and then disappeared behind the other trees. And he heard the crash the great oak made as it fell, carrying with it the neighboring trees. [01:53:09] The glare of the lightning, the crash of the thunder and the sensation of chill running over his whole body blended for Leaven in one impression of horror. [01:53:18] My God, my God, keep them safe. He exclaimed. And though he instantly felt the absurdity of the prayer, since the oak had already fallen, he nevertheless said it over and over, for he knew that, absurd as it was, he could not do anything else to help them. [01:53:36] He hastened toward the spot where they generally went, but he did not find them. They were in another part of the woods, under an old linden, and they called to him. [01:53:45] Two figures dressed in dark clothes they usually wore white, were bending over something under the trees. [01:53:52] It was Kitty and the nurse. The rain had stopped and it was beginning to grow lighter when Levin reached them. The bottom of the nurse's dress was dry, but Kitty's gown was wet through and clung to her. Though it was no longer raining, they were standing just as they had been when the shower began. [01:54:10] Both were leaning over the baby carriage with its green parasol. [01:54:15] Alive, safe. God be praised. He cried as, splashing through the puddles, he ran to them with his shoes full of water. [01:54:24] Kitty's glowing face, all wet, was turned to him, and she smiled timidly from under her hat, which had lost its shape in the rain. [01:54:33] There now, aren't you ashamed? I can't understand how you could do such a careless thing, he began in his vexation, scolding his wife. [01:54:42] Goodness, it was not my fault. We were just starting to go when he began to be restless. We had to change him. We were just. Kitty said trying to defend herself, Mitu was safe, dry, and still soundly sleeping. [01:54:57] Well, God be thanked, I don't know what I'm saying. [01:55:02] They hastily picked up the wet diapers, the nurse took the baby, and Leaven, ashamed of his vexation, gave his arm to his wife and led her away, pressing her hand gently. [01:55:14] End of chapter 17. [01:55:22] Part 8 Chapter 18 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle in the course of all that day, during the most varied conversations in which Levin took part, as it were only with the external side of his mind, and notwithstanding his disillusion at finding that the moral regeneration had not taken place in his nature after all, he did not cease to be pleasantly conscious that his heart was full. [01:55:49] After the shower it was too wet to go out for a walk, and moreover other threatening clouds were piling up on the horizon, and here and there reaching up high into the sky black and laden with thunder. [01:56:02] All the household spent the rest of the day within doors. Discussions were avoided, and after dinner all were in the gayest frame of mind. [01:56:10] Katavasoff at first kept the ladies laughing by his original turns of wit, which which always pleased people when they made his acquaintance. [01:56:18] Then, afterward, being drawn out by Sergey Ivanovitch, he related his very interesting observations on the different characteristics and features of male and female flies and their habits. [01:56:30] Sergey Ivanovitch also was very gay, and at tea he explained the future of the Eastern question so simply and well that all could follow him. [01:56:39] Kitty alone did not hear him she had been summoned to the nursery to give Mitya his bath. [01:56:45] A few moments after Kitty had left the room, Levin also was called to follow her, leaving his tea and feeling regretful at having an interesting conversation interrupted, and at the same time troubled because they had called him to the nursery, a thing which had hitherto happened only in cases of emergency. Levin followed his wife in spite of the fact that he was greatly interested in his brother's partly outlined scheme of making the newly enfranchised world a 40 million Slavs join with Russia in establishing a new epoch in history, for it was something entirely novel to him. In spite of his curiosity and anxiety at having been summoned to the nursery as soon as he had left the drawing room and was once more alone, he immediately remembered his thoughts of the morning, and all these theories as to the significance of the Slav element in the universal history seem to him so insignificant in comparison with what was taking place in his own soul, that for a moment he forgot all about it and returned to the moral state that had so delighted him at the beginning of the day. [01:57:49] This time he did not wholly retrace the course of thought which had led him to this state of mind. Nor was it necessary. [01:57:56] He was borne immediately back to that feeling which had guided him, which had been connected with those thoughts, and he now found the feeling stronger and more definite in his soul than ever before. [01:58:08] Now there was no longer what had always marked his previous imaginary attempts at gaining spiritual calmness, when he had been obliged to call a halt to the whole course of his thoughts in order to find the feeling now, on the contrary, the feeling of joy and calmness was more vivid than before. [01:58:26] But thought did not overtake the feeling. [01:58:29] He walked along the terrace and saw two stars glowing in the already darkening sky. And suddenly he remembered a course of reasoning. [01:58:37] Yes, he said to himself, as I looked at the heavens, I thought that the vault which I gaze at is not a lie. [01:58:45] But there was something that remained half thought out in my mind, something that I hid from myself. [01:58:51] Now what was it? [01:58:54] There cannot be an answer. [01:58:56] If one could think it out, all things would be explained. [01:59:01] Just as he entered the child's chamber, he remembered what it was that he hid from himself. It was this. [01:59:08] If the chief proof of the existence of God lies in the revelation of good, why should this revelation be limited to the Christian church? [01:59:16] How about those millions of Buddhists and Mohammedans who are also seeking for the truth and doing right? [01:59:23] It seemed to him that there must be an answer to this question, but he could not find and express it. Before entering the room, Kitty, with her sleeves rolled up, was bending over the bathtub in which she was washing the baby. [01:59:36] As she heard her husband's steps, she turned her face to him and with a smile called him to her. [01:59:42] With one hand she was supporting the head of the plump little fellow who was floating on his back in the water and kicking with his legs. With the other, she was squeezing the sponge on him. [01:59:53] Come here. Look, look, she said as her husband came up to her. Agafia Michalovna is right. He knows us. [02:00:01] The fact was that Mitya today for the first time, gave indubitable proof that he knew his friends. [02:00:08] As soon as Levin went to the bathtub, the experiment was tried, and it was wholly successful. A cook who was called for the purpose, bent over the tub. The baby frowned and shook his head. [02:00:20] Kitty bent over him, and he smiled radiantly and clung with his little hands to the sponge and sucked with his lips, producing such a strange and contented sound that not only the mother and nurse. But Levin himself were enchanted. [02:00:34] They took the baby from the water, wiped him, and after he had expressed his disapprobation with a piercing scream, they gave him to his mother. [02:00:44] Well, I am very glad to see that you begin to love him, said Kitty as she sat down in a comfortable seat with the child at her breast. [02:00:52] I am very glad. [02:00:53] It really troubled me when you said you hadn't any feelings for him. [02:00:58] No. Did I say that I had no feeling for him? [02:01:01] I only said that I was disappointed. [02:01:04] How are you disappointed? [02:01:06] I wasn't disappointed in him, but in the feeling that he would arouse. [02:01:11] I expected more. [02:01:12] I expected as a surprise some new and pleasant feeling, and instead of that it was pity, disgust. [02:01:21] She listened to him as she put on her slender fingers the rings which she had taken off while bathing the baby, and more of fear and pity than of satisfaction. [02:01:31] I never knew until to day after the storm how much I loved him. [02:01:36] Kitty smiled with radiant joy. [02:01:39] Were you very much afraid? She asked, and so was I. But it seems more terrible to me now. When the danger is all past, I shall go and look at the oak to Morrow. [02:01:50] How nice Katavasov is. [02:01:52] Well, the whole day has been so pleasant. You are so delightful with your brother. When you want to be well, go to them. It is always hot and stifling in here after the bath. [02:02:05] End of Chapter 18. [02:02:13] Part 8 Chapter 19 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Translated by Nathan Haskell Doyle Levin, on leaving the nursery and finding himself alone, began to follow out his line of thought in which there had been something obscure. [02:02:29] Instead of going back to the drawing room, where he heard the sound of voices, he remained on the terrace, and leaning over the balustrade of the terrace, he looked at the sky. [02:02:40] It had grown very dark, and there was not a cloud in the south where he was looking. [02:02:44] The clouds were all in the opposite quarter. [02:02:47] From time to time it would lighten and the distant thunder would be heard. [02:02:51] Leaven listened to the drops of rain falling rhythmically from the lindens and looked at the stars and then at the Milky Way. [02:02:59] Whenever the lightning flashed, then not only the Milky Way but also the bright stars would disappear from his vision, but by the time the thunder sounded, they would reappear in their places as if a careful hand had readjusted them in the firmament. [02:03:13] Well now, what is it that troubles me? Leaven asked himself, already beginning to feel that a resolution of his doubts, though it had not yet become a matter of knowledge, was ready in his soul. [02:03:26] Yes, there is one evident indubitable manifestation of the divinity, and that is the laws of right which are made known to the world through revelation, and of which I am conscious as existing in myself and in the recognition of them. I am, in spite of myself, willingly or unwillingly united with other men into one brotherhood of believers which is called the Church. [02:03:52] Yes, but are Hebrews, Confucians, Mohammedans, Buddhists in the same relation? [02:04:01] He asked himself, recurring to the dilemma which had seemed so portentous to him. [02:04:07] Can these hundreds of millions of men be deprived of the greatest of blessings of that which alone gives a meaning to life? [02:04:14] He paused, but immediately recovered his train of thought. [02:04:19] What am I asking myself? [02:04:22] I am questioning the revelation of the various forms of human belief to divinity. [02:04:27] I am questioning the revelation of God to the whole universe, with all its nebulae. [02:04:32] But what am I doing? [02:04:34] And at the moment when knowledge, sure, though inaccessible to reason, is revealed to me, shall I still persist in dragging in logic? [02:04:45] Do I not know that the stars do not move? Said he, noticing the change that had taken place in the position of the brilliant planet which he had seen rising over the Birches. [02:04:55] But seeing the stars change place and not being able to imagine the revolution of the Earth, then I should be right in saying that they moved. [02:05:05] Could the astronomers have made any calculations and gained any knowledge if they had taken into consideration the varied and complicated motions of the Earth? [02:05:14] Have not their marvellous conclusions as to the distances, the weight, the motions and revolutions of the celestial bodies all been based on the apparent movements of the stars around a motionless Earth? [02:05:26] These very movements, which I now witness as millions of men for centuries have witnessed them, and which can always be verified. [02:05:35] And just as the conclusion of the astronomers would have been inaccurate and false if they had not been based on their observations of the heavens, such as they appeared relatively to a single meridian and a single horizon. [02:05:48] So all my conclusions as to the knowledge of good and evil would be inaccurate and false if they were not founded on that comprehension of good and evil, which for all men always has been and always will be one and the same, and which Christianity has revealed to me, and which my soul can always verify. [02:06:07] The relations of human belief to God must for me remain unfathomable. To search them out belongs not to me. [02:06:16] Haven't you gone in yet? Said Kitty's voice Suddenly she was on her way to the drawing room by the way of the terrace. [02:06:24] There's nothing that troubles you, is there? She asked, looking wistfully up into her husband's face and trying to study its expression by the starlight, by the light of a flash of lightning on the horizon, she saw that he was calm and happy, and she smiled. [02:06:40] She understands me, thought he. [02:06:43] She knows what I am thinking. [02:06:45] Shall I tell her or not? [02:06:48] Yes, I will tell her. [02:06:51] But just as he was about to speak, Kitty broke in. Kostya, said she do be so kind and go to the corner room and see how they have arranged for Sergey Ivanovitch. [02:07:02] I don't like to see if they put in the new washstand properly. [02:07:07] Certainly I'll go, answered Levin, rising and kissing her. [02:07:12] No, better be silent, thought he, as she went past. [02:07:17] The secret has no importance save for me alone, and words could not explain it. [02:07:23] This new feeling has neither changed me nor suddenly enlightened me, nor made me happy as I imagined it would. [02:07:30] It is just like my feeling for my son. There is no element of surprise in it. [02:07:36] But it is faith. [02:07:38] No, not faith. [02:07:41] I know not what it is. [02:07:43] But the feeling stole into my soul through suffering, and there it is firmly established. [02:07:49] I shall continue to be vexed with Ivan the Coachman and get into useless discussions and express my thoughts blunderingly. I shall always be blaming my wife for what annoys me and repenting at once. [02:08:01] I shall always find a certain barrier between the holy of holies of my inmost soul and the souls of others, even my wife's. [02:08:10] I shall continue to pray without being able to explain to myself why, but my whole life, every moment of my life, independently of whatever may happen to me, will be not meaningless as before, but full of the deep meaning which I shall have the power to impress upon it. [02:08:30] End of chapter 19 ebook of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.