8Augustавгуста · 8-е августа
Приписывание особенного, исключительного значения и важности писателям, признанным большинством великими, составляет большое препятствие для познания истины. Божественная истина может проявиться в лепете ребенка, в болтовне дурачка, в бреду сумасшедшего, не говоря уже о разговорах, письмах простых людей, и очень слабые и ложные мысли встречаются в книгах, считающихся великими или священными.
Ascribing a special, exceptional significance and importance to writers recognized as great by the majority is a major obstacle to the knowledge of truth. Divine truth can show itself in the babbling of a child, in the chatter of a simpleton, in the ravings of a madman, to say nothing of the conversations and letters of plain people; and very weak and false thoughts are met with in books considered great or sacred.
1. Есть много традиционных истин, которые кажутся нам вероятными только потому, что мы никогда серьезно не подумали о них.
1. There are many traditional truths that seem probable to us only because we have never seriously thought about them.
Rod.
Source not found yet .
Not found yet.
Not found. The Jubilee name index (vol. 42) identifies «Род» as Édouard Rod (1857–1910), French-Swiss novelist and moralist. The thought (many traditional truths seem probable to us only because we have never seriously thought about them) is not in Le Sens de la vie (1889), the source of July's Rod (7-6.1, through Grave's anthology). Rod's other saying in the Circle (April 11) came through Thoughts of Wise Men (1903) from the «Иллюстрированный настольный календарь т-ва «Просвещение» на 1902 год» (Jubilee vol. 40), which is not online; this one is not in Thoughts of Wise Men.
Searched: Le Sens de la vie (saved, 1897 printing) for 'traditionnel', 'vraisemblable', 'jamais réfléchi', and 'sérieusement'; Jubilee vols. 40, 42, 43, and 45; web searches for 'vérités traditionnelles' with Rod's name.
2. Надо считать Евангелие святым не потому, что его написали апостолы, а потому, что в нем истина. Истина, сказанная Буддой, Магометом, всяким человеком, так же важна, как и истина Евангелия.
2. We should consider the Gospel holy not because the apostles wrote it, but because there is truth in it. A truth spoken by Buddha, by Muhammad, by anyone at all, is just as important as the truth of the Gospel.
3. Настаивать на применении древних и устарелых законов, находящихся в наших уставах, всё равно, что заставлять людей нашего времени жить в домах и пользоваться орудиями наших предков, живших за несколько поколений до нас.
3. To insist on applying the ancient and outworn laws that stand in our statutes is the same as making the people of our time live in the houses and use the tools of our ancestors, who lived several generations before us.
Source not found yet .
Not found yet.
Not found. The thought, that enforcing the old and outworn laws in our statutes is like making people of today live in the houses and use the tools of their ancestors of several generations back, is in the manner of the journal's editorial paragraphs; the issues of 1892–1897 (vols. VII–X), 1900 (vol. XIII), and 1905 (vols. XVII–XVIII) are not online, and several numbers of the years searched are missing from IAPSOP's run.
Searched: For the text layers of IAPSOP's PDFs of 108 issues of The World's Advance-Thought (vols. III–VI, 1888–1892, and XI–XXI, March 1897 to December 1907: every issue IAPSOP holds for those years) and the saved archive.org scans of vols. II–VI, XIV–XVI and XIX–XXII: 'statute book(s)', 'obsolete', 'antiquated', 'outgrown', 'old laws', laws or statutes near 'ancestors', 'forefathers', 'grandfathers' or 'generations', 'generations ago', houses, implements or tools near ancestors; every saved source text for the same.
4. Для большей части человечества религия есть обычай, или, скорее, обычай есть религия. Как ни кажется это странным, но я убежден, что первый шаг к нравственному совершенствованию есть освобождение себя от религии, в которой вырос. Ни один человек не шел к совершенствованию иначе, как по этому пути.
4. For the greater part of mankind, religion is a custom, or rather, custom is religion. Strange as it may seem, I am convinced that the first step toward moral perfection is to free oneself from the religion one grew up in. No man has ever gone toward perfection by any path but this one.
From College essay of 1837, as quoted in F. B. Sanborn, Henry D. Thoreau · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changed“To reject religion” becomes “to free oneself from the religion one grew up in,” so rejecting religion as such becomes leaving an inherited one; “it appears to me” becomes “I am convinced,” and “at least no man ever attained to the highest degree of the latter by any other road” loses “at least” and “the highest degree.”
What Tolstoy read · Every Day with Thoreau, in The Coming DayWith by far the greater part of mankind, religion is a habit; or rather habit is religion.
However paradoxical it may seem, it appears to me that to reject religion is the first step towards moral excellence; at least no man ever attained to the highest degree of the latter by any other road.
Source text: archive.orgThoreau’s own wordsNone but the highest minds can attain to moral excellence.
With by far the greater part of mankind religion is a habit; or rather habit is religion.
However paradoxical it may seem, it appears to me that to reject religion is the first step towards moral excellence; at least no man ever attained to the highest degree of the latter by any other road.
Source text: gutenberg.orgTolstoy’s own version · На каждый деньДля большей части человечества религия есть обычай, или, скорее, обычай есть религия.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. College essay of 1837, as quoted in F. B. Sanborn, Henry D. Thoreau (American Men of Letters, 1882), ch. VI 'Early Essays in Authorship', Sanborn's quotation from 'another essay of 1837', after the sentence on duty.
Changed in its claim. Thoreau, aged nineteen, wrote 'to reject religion is the first step towards moral excellence'; Tolstoy writes 'the first step to moral perfection is freeing oneself from the religion in which one grew up' (освобождение себя от религии, в которой вырос): the rejection of religion as such becomes release from an inherited religion. 'At least no man ever attained to the highest degree of the latter by any other road' becomes 'No man ever went toward perfection otherwise than by this road' (Ни один человек не шел к совершенствованию иначе, как по этому пути): 'at least' and 'the highest degree' are left out. 'It appears to me' becomes 'I am convinced' (я убежден); 'habit' becomes 'custom' (обычай). The words are from a Harvard essay of 1837 that Sanborn quotes; Tolstoy's route was the calendar 'Every Day with Thoreau' in The Coming Day, which prints them for January 16 with the comma after 'mankind' and without Sanborn's italic 'religion'. The Jubilee list of the Circle's sources names 'Every day with Thoreau', bound sheets from an unidentified book. Tolstoy printed the same text again in На каждый день (May 1).
5. Мысль, выраженная в Евангелии, Библии, Коране, Упанишадах, не становится истинной потому, что она выражена в книгах, считающихся священными. Считать истинным всё то, что сказано в признанной священной книге, есть идолопоклонство книг, более вредное, чем всякое другое идолопоклонство.
5. A thought expressed in the Gospel, the Bible, the Koran, or the Upanishads does not become true because it is expressed in books considered sacred. To consider true everything that is said in a book recognized as sacred is idolatry of books, more harmful than any other idolatry.
Всякая мысль, от кого бы она ни исходила, подлежит обсуждению, и всякая мысль, от кого бы она ни исходила, заслуживает внимания.
Every thought, from whomever it may come, is open to discussion, and every thought, from whomever it may come, deserves attention.
Tolstoy TodayТолстой сегодня · tolstoytoday.org/august/8