Whether that God, or that natural law by virtue of which men exist in the world, has acted well or ill, yet the position of men in the world, ever since we have known it, has been such, that naked people, without any hair on their bodies, without lairs in which they could shelter themselves, without food which they could find in the fields,–like Robinson {34} on his island,–have all been reduced to the necessity of constantly and unweariedly contending with nature in order to cover their bodies, to make themselves clothing, to construct a roof over their heads, and to earn their bread, that two or three times a day they may satisfy their hunger and the hunger of their helpless children and of their old people who cannot work.
Wherever, at whatever time, in whatever numbers we may have observed people, whether in Europe, in America, in China, or in Russia, whether we regard all humanity, or any small portion of it, in ancient times, in a nomad state, or in our own times, with steam- engines and sewing-machines, perfected agriculture, and electric lighting, we behold always one and the same thing,–that man, toiling intensely and incessantly, is not able to earn for himself and his little ones and his old people clothing, shelter, and food; and that a considerable portion of mankind, as in former times, so at the present day, perish through insufficiency of the necessaries of life, and intolerable toil in the effort to obtain them.
Wherever we have, if we draw a circle round us of a hundred thousand, a thousand, or ten versts, or of one verst, and examine into the lives of the people comprehended within the limits of our circle, we shall see within that circle prematurely-born children, old men, old women, women in labor, sick and weak persons, who toil beyond their strength, and who have not sufficient food and rest for life, and who therefore die before their time. We shall see people in the flower of their age actually slain by dangerous and injurious work.
We see that people have been struggling, ever since the world has endured, with fearful effort, privation, and suffering, against this universal want, and that they cannot overcome it . . . {35}
The End
Footnotes:
{1} The fine, tall members of a regiment, selected and placed together to form a showy squad.
{2} [] Omitted by the Censor in the authorized edition printed in Russia, in the set of Count Tolstoi’s works.
{3} Reaumur.
{4} A drink made of water, honey, and laurel or salvia leaves, which is drunk as tea, especially by the poorer classes.
{5} [] Omitted by the censor from the authorized edition published in Russia in the set of count Tolstoi’s works. The omission is indicated thus . . .
{6} Kalatch, a kind of roll: baranki, cracknels of fine flour.
{7} An arshin is twenty-eight inches.
{8} A myeshchanin, or citizen, who pays only poll-tax and not a guild tax.
{9} Omitted in authorized edition.
{10} Omitted by the censor in the authorized edition.
{11} Omitted by the Censor in the authorized edition.
{12} Omitted by the Censor in the authorized edition.
{13} Omitted by the Censor in the authorized edition.
{14} Omitted by the Censor from the authorized edition.
{15} Omitted by the Censor in the authorized edition.
{16} Omitted by the Censor in the authorized edition
{17} Omitted by the Censor in the authorized edition.
{18} Omitted by the Censor in the authorized edition.
{19} A very complicated sort of whist.
{20} The whole of this chapter is omitted by the Censor in the authorized edition, and is there represented by the following sentence: “And I felt that in money, in money itself, in the possession of it, there was something immoral; and I asked myself, What is money?”
{21} Omitted by the Censor in the authorized edition.
{22} Omitted by the Censor in the authorized edition.
{23} The above passage is omitted in the authorized edition, and the following is added: “I came to the simple and natural conclusion, that, if I pity the tortured horse upon which I am riding, the first thing for me to do is to alight, and to walk on my own feet.”
{24} Omitted in the authorized edition.
{25} Omitted in the authorized edition.
{26} “Into a worse state,” in the authorized edition.
{27} Omitted in the authorized edition.
{28} Omitted in the authorized edition.
{29} Reaumur.
{30} In the Moscow edition (authorized by the Censor), the concluding paragraph is replaced by the following: –“They say: The action of a single man is but a drop in the sea. A drop in the sea!
“There is an Indian legend relating how a man dropped a pearl into the sea, and in order to recover it he took a bucket, and began to bail out, and to pour the water on the shore. Thus he toiled without intermission, and on the seventh day the spirit of the sea grew alarmed lest the man should dip the sea dry, and so he brought him his pearl. If our social evil of persecuting man were the sea, then that pearl which we have lost is equivalent to devoting our lives to bailing out the sea of that evil. The prince of this world will take fright, he will succumb more promptly than did the spirit of the sea; but this social evil is not the sea, but a foul cesspool, which we assiduously fill with our own uncleanness. All that is required is for us to come to our senses, and to comprehend what we are doing; to fall out of love with our own uncleanness,–in order that that imaginary sea should dry away, and that we should come into possession of that priceless pearl,–fraternal, humane life.”
{31} An arshin is twenty-eight inches.
{32} The fast extends from the 5th to the 30th of June, O.S. (June 27 to July 12, N.S.)
{33} A pood is thirty-six pounds.
{34} Robinson Crusoe.
{35} Here something has been omitted by the Censor, which I am unable to supply.–TRANS.
