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5Decemberдекабря · 5-е декабря

Чем дольше живет человечество, тем больше освобождается оно от суеверий и тем проще представляются ему законы жизни.

The longer humanity lives, the more it frees itself from superstitions, and the simpler the laws of life appear to it.

  1. 1. Наш век — истинный век критики.

    Религия и законодательство обыкновенно думают ускользнуть от критики. Религия — с помощью своей святости, законодательство — с помощью своего внешнего величия.

    Но этим самым они возбуждают против себя подозрение и не могут рассчитывать на непритворное уважение, потому что разум относится с уважением только к тому, что в состоянии выдержать его свободное и публичное испытание.

    Кант.

    1. Our age is the true age of criticism.

    Religion and legislation commonly think to escape criticism. Religion by means of its holiness, legislation by means of its outward majesty.

    But by this very thing they arouse suspicion against themselves and cannot count on unfeigned respect, for reason respects only what is able to withstand its free and public examination.

    Kant.

    From Kritik der reinen Vernunft · close to the original .
    Original · German
    Unser Zeitalter ist das eigentliche Zeitalter der Kritik, der sich alles unterwerfen muß. Religion, durch ihre Heiligkeit, und Gesetzgebung, durch ihre Majestät, wollen sich gemeiniglich derselben entziehen. Aber alsdann erregen sie gerechten Verdacht wider sich und können auf unverstellte Achtung nicht Anspruch machen, die die Vernunft nur demjenigen bewilligt, was ihre freie und öffentliche Prüfung hat aushalten können.
    Source text: archive.org
    In English · J. M. D. Meiklejohn, 1855
    Our age is the age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected. The sacredness of religion, and the authority of legislation, are by many regarded as grounds of exemption from the examination of this tribunal. But, if they are exempted, they become the subjects of just suspicion, and cannot lay claim to sincere respect, which reason accords only to that which has stood the test of a free and public examination.
    Source text: gutenberg.org
    Details

    The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Kritik der reinen Vernunft (1781), preface to the first edition, footnote, as excerpted in Raoul Richter, Kant-Aussprüche (Leipzig, Insel, 1901), Kant-Aussprüche no. 106 ("Bedeutung der freien Kritik"); Richter's register: Kr. d. r. V., Hartenstein III, 7 Anm. (= KrV A xi note).

    A close translation of Richter no. 106, set as three paragraphs. Tolstoy drops "to which everything must submit", turns the "just suspicion" into plain suspicion, and gives legislation its "external grandeur" for Kant's "majesty"; the closing clause (reason respects only what can stand its free and public examination) is exact.

    Translation note. Испытание, “trial” elsewhere, is here Kant’s Prüfung, an examination.

  2. 2. Миссионеры старательно распространяют христианство в Индии. Но может ли церковное христианство дать Индии более завидный удел, чем тот, какой она имела в прошлом? Может ли оно дать ей более умственной и духовной силы, чем сколько есть у нее и сколько было со времен незапамятных? Есть ли у церковного христианства более высокое представление о вездесущем, всемогущем и всезнающем божестве, чем у последователей браминского учения? Неужели мысль о боге, который прогуливался по саду с Адамом и Евой и не слыхал того, что говорили они, потому что отошел от них на некоторое расстояние, который испугался нападения на его небесную твердыню со стороны строителей какой-то башни и ел жареных ягнят со стариками, который приходил в ярость из-за разных пустяков, и то и дело проклинал несчастных, созданных им людей за их ошибки, — может ли мысль о таком боге быть чем-либо высшим сравнительно с представлением о невидимом, всезнающем, всемогущем существе, которое проявляет свою волю всюду во вселенной? А вера в божественность Христа, в его воплощение, воскресение и искупительную жертву? Разве не есть это кощунство — впутывать высшее и величайшее существо в дела смертных? Если индусы должны верить в воплощение, то почему им не верить в воплощение Кришны или Рамы; почему они должны верить не в них, а в Христа? Однако бог, как это сказано в истинно-священном писании человечества, не имеет тела и не был рожден (Иоан. 4 гл.) и не может воплощаться. Учение о воскресении — не более как сказка: могила никогда не выдавала своих мертвецов, если они точно были мертвецами. Что же касается искупления, то учение это противоречит уже самым первобытным понятиям о справедливости.

    Люси Малори.

    2. Missionaries zealously spread Christianity in India. But can church Christianity give India a more enviable lot than the one she had in the past? Can it give her more intellectual and spiritual strength than she has, and has had from time immemorial? Has church Christianity a higher conception of the omnipresent, almighty and all-knowing Deity than the followers of the Brahmin teaching have? Can the thought of a God who walked in the garden with Adam and Eve and did not hear what they were saying because he had gone some distance away from them, who took fright at an assault on his heavenly stronghold by the builders of some tower, and ate roast lamb with old men, who flew into a rage over all kinds of trifles and every so often cursed the unhappy people he had created for their mistakes — can the thought of such a God be anything higher than the conception of an invisible, all-knowing, almighty being who shows his will everywhere in the universe? And belief in the divinity of Christ, in his incarnation, resurrection and atoning sacrifice? Is it not blasphemy to drag the highest and greatest being into the affairs of mortals? If the Hindus must believe in incarnation, why should they not believe in the incarnation of Krishna or Rama; why must they believe not in them but in Christ? Yet God, as is said in the truly sacred scripture of mankind, has no body, and was not born (John 4), and cannot become incarnate. The teaching of the resurrection is no more than a fairy tale: the grave has never given up its dead, if they were truly dead. As for the atonement, that teaching contradicts even the most primitive notions of justice.

    Lucy Mallory [Arya Patrika].

    From "Christianity from the Hindu's Point of View", clipped from the Arya Patrika · reworded by Tolstoy .
    What changed

    “Christianity” becomes “church Christianity.”

    Leo Tolstoy as Editor: A different point ›

    Lucy Mallory’s own words
    CHRISTIANITY FROM THE HINDU'S POINT OF VIEW.
    … clip, the following from the Arya Patrika, (Lahore, India).
    What higher destiny can Christianity give India than that it has had in the past? What grander intellectuality and spirituality can it bestow upon it than those which we possess and have had the high privilege of possessing from time immemorial? Has Christianity a higher conception of the all pervading, omnipotent and omniscient character of the Deity than the Arya Samaj?
    Is the God who used to walk about in gardens with a pair of human beings, who could not hear what was spoken when he happened to be standing at some distance from the pair, who was afraid of being assailed in his heavenly stronghold by' the builders of a high tower, who would partake of roast lamb with old women and decrepid old men, …
    … who day after dhy repented of his doings like erring mortals; is such a God superior to the formless All-knowing, Almighty Being who rules over countless worlds and whose will the universe obeys?
    … his incarnation, his resurrection, and his atoning and redeeming love. What can be a greater insult to the glory and majesty of the Supreme than that one of his humblest creatures be placed on the same level with Him?
    If the Hindus must believe in an incarnation, why should not they believe in Krishna or Rama, …
    But God, according to the real Scriptures of mankind, is formless and unborn (Yaju, Vide 4th Chapter) and He can have no incarnation. The doctrine of resurrection is a pure myth, the grave has never given up its dead, instinct with life, nor will, unless its occupant was or is not yet really dead. With regard to the doctrine of atonement and of redemption, they are an outrage upon justice and must always be discarded by unbiased minds.
    Source text: iapsop.com
    Details

    The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. "Christianity from the Hindu's Point of View", clipped from the Arya Patrika (Lahore, the Arya Samaj weekly), in The World's Advance-Thought (Portland, Oregon), vol. XV, New Series, no. 2, April 1902, The Arya Patrika's answer to the Rev. Dr. Weldon's proposal that the Bible be made compulsory in Indian schools.

    Not Mallory's: her journal introduces it, "We clip the following from the Arya Patrika, (Lahore, India)", and prints it in quotation marks; Tolstoy signed it with the editor's name. Changed and shortened: the opening sentence about missionaries is Tolstoy's own; he adds "church" to "Christianity" twice; the Arya Samaj becomes "the followers of the Brahmin teaching"; "a pair of human beings" become Adam and Eve; the God who "day after day repented of his doings like erring mortals" becomes one who "kept cursing the unhappy people he had made for their mistakes"; the "formless" Being who "rules over countless worlds" becomes "invisible" and "shows his will everywhere in the universe"; the "insult" of placing one of God's humblest creatures on his level becomes the "blasphemy" of entangling the Supreme in the affairs of mortals; the Arya Patrika's "(Yaju, Vide 4th Chapter)", a reference to the Yajur Veda, becomes "(Иоан. 4 гл.)", John 4 (God is a Spirit, v. 24); and the atonement, "an outrage upon justice", "contradicts the most primitive notions of justice". Left out between: the Vedas and Upanishads, prayer and communion, the ancient Aryas as thinkers, the Bible's moral precepts.

  3. 3. Всё исследуй, давай разуму первое место.

    Пифагор.

    3. Examine everything; give reason the first place.

    Pythagoras.

    From Golden Verses · shortened by Tolstoy .
    Original · Ancient Greek
    … καὶ ψράζευ ἕκαστα, …
    Ἠνίοχον γνώμην στήσας καθύπερθεν ἀρίστην.
    Source text: neonvagabond.xyz
    In English · Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, 1920
    And redemption of your soul; This all, oh, consider; …
    Let reason, the gift divine, be thy highest guide; …
    Source text: en.wikisource.org
    Details

    The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Golden Verses (Carmen aureum), Pythagorean, lines 68–69.

    The close of the Golden Verses: 'consider each thing, setting judgment (γνώμη) above as the best charioteer'. Tolstoy keeps only the maxim ('examine everything, give reason the first place') and drops its context (abstaining from the foods forbidden, the purifications and deliverance of the soul) and the promise that follows (freed from the body, you will be an immortal god). The Verses are a later Pythagorean poem traditionally ascribed to Pythagoras, so the signature is the customary one rather than wrong.

  4. 4. Жизнь состоит в том, чтобы добывать всё более и более истину о своем назначении и жить более и более согласно с этой истиной. Все же ложные религии говорят, что у них в писании или предании находится готовая, полная, совершенная истина (Веды, Библия, Коран) и есть средство жить сообразно с этой истиной (вера, жертвы, молитва, благодать). Так что ни искать истины не нужно, ни трудиться над улучшением своей жизни. Это ужасно.

    4. Life consists in winning ever more of the truth about our calling and living ever more in accordance with that truth. But all false religions say that they have, in their scripture or tradition, a ready-made, complete, perfect truth (the Vedas, the Bible, the Koran), and a means of living in accordance with that truth (faith, sacrifices, prayer, grace). So there is no need either to seek the truth or to labor at bettering our lives. This is terrible.

Не надо бояться тех разрушений, которые совершает разум в установленных людьми преданиях. Разум не может ничего уничтожать, не заменяя его истиной. Таково его свойство.

There is no need to fear the destruction that reason works among the traditions people have established. Reason cannot destroy anything without putting truth in its place. Such is its nature.