4Juneиюня · 4-е июня
Благодаря извращению христианства, жизнь наша стала хуже языческой.
Owing to the perversion of Christianity, our life has become worse than the life of the pagans.
1. Человек должен быть рабом. Выбор для него только в том, чьим: если своих страстей, то непременно и людей; если же своего духовного начала, то только бога.
Всякому лестно иметь высшего хозяина.
1. We must be slaves. Our only choice is whose: if of our passions, then without fail of men as well; if of our spiritual principle, then of God alone.
Everyone finds it flattering to have the highest master.
2. Жестокость в наше время еще больше развивается вследствие тонкого поощрения себялюбия учением о том, что всё то, что считается злом, приводит все-таки к благу. Учение это практически ведет к тому, что мы, хотя и употребляем те же серьезные усилия, чтобы избежать всего для нас неприятного, однако самодовольно и спокойно следим за действием того зла, которое испытывают другие.
2. In our time cruelty is developed still further by the subtle encouragement given to self-love by the teaching that everything considered evil leads, after all, to good. In practice this teaching brings us to the point where, though we make the same serious efforts to avoid everything unpleasant to ourselves, we watch complacently and calmly the working of the evil that others suffer.
From Sesame and Lilies, Preface of 1871 · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changed“Our remaining satisfied in the contemplation of its ultimate objects, when it is inflicted on others” becomes “we watch complacently and calmly the working of the evil that others suffer,” and “the religious doctrine” loses “religious.” †
† An intermediate translation may have made this change.
John Ruskin’s own wordsCruel, partly through want of imagination, (a far rarer and weaker faculty in women than men,) and yet more, at the present day, through the subtle encouragement of your selfishness by the religious doctrine that all which we now suppose to be evil will be brought to a good end; …
… doctrine practically issuing, not in less earnest efforts that the immediate unpleasantness may be averted from ourselves, but in our remaining satisfied in the contemplation of its ultimate objects, when it is inflicted on others.
Source text: gutenberg.orgRelated · Мысли мудрых людей на каждый деньЕсли вы сознательно не добры ко всем, то будете часто бессознательно жестоки ко многим, и это происходит отчасти вследствие недостатка живости воображения.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Sesame and Lilies, Preface of 1871, The counsel to young women, 'Then, secondly, I said, you are not to be cruel'; the preface dated Denmark Hill, 1 January 1871, printed as 'Preface to the Later Editions'.
Ruskin's second counsel to girls: unless they are deliberately kind they will be cruel, 'partly through want of imagination', and more 'through the subtle encouragement of your selfishness by the religious doctrine' that all evil comes to good. Tolstoy takes the second cause and makes it a statement about cruelty in his time. He drops 'religious' before 'doctrine' and 'your' before 'selfishness'; 'will be brought to a good end' becomes 'leads after all to good' (приводит все-таки к благу); 'not in less earnest efforts that the immediate unpleasantness may be averted from ourselves' becomes 'although we use the same earnest efforts to avoid all that is unpleasant to us'; and 'our remaining satisfied in the contemplation of its ultimate objects, when it is inflicted on others' becomes 'we complacently and calmly watch the action of the evil that others suffer' (самодовольно и спокойно следим за действием того зла, которое испытывают другие). The words 'complacently and calmly' and the 'action of the evil' are not Ruskin's, whose point is the comfort of thinking about evil's final ends. Thoughts of Wise Men (1903, 18 June) has Tolstoy's version of the sentence just before it (Related). The Jubilee list names L. P. Nikiforov's Russian selections from Ruskin (Posrednik, 1902 and 1904), not online; the changes may be Nikiforov's. No printable, for the changes.
3. «Нищих вы всегда имеете с собой». Никакие слова писания не перетолковывались с такими дьявольскими целями, как именно эти слова. Если, несмотря на все наши успехи, мы до сего времени еще имеем у себя нищих людей, которые не по своей вине не могут встать в здоровые и нормальные жизненные условия, то совершается это по нашей вине и к нашему стыду. Всякий, кто посмотрит вокруг себя, увидит, что только неправда, отнимающая естественные удобства у трудящихся и лишающая их плодов их трудов, что только она мешает нам всем быть богатыми.
3. “The poor you always have with you.” No words of Scripture have been twisted to such devilish ends as these very words. If, in spite of all our successes, we still have among us to this day poor people who, through no fault of their own, cannot rise into healthy and normal conditions of life, then this happens through our fault and to our shame. Anyone who looks around him will see that it is injustice alone — which takes natural advantages away from those who labor and deprives them of the fruits of their labors — that prevents us all from being rich.
From Social Problems · shortened by Tolstoy .
Henry George’s own words"The poor ye have always with you." If ever a scripture has been wrested to the devil's service, this is that scripture.
That in spite of all our great advances we have yet with us the poor, those who, without fault of their own, cannot get healthful and wholesome conditions of life, is our fault and our shame.
Who that looks about him can fail to see that it is only the injustice that denies natural opportunities to labor, and robs the producer of the fruits of his toil, that prevents us all from being rich.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Social Problems (1883), ch. VIII, That We All Might Be Rich, pp. 112–113 (New York: Doubleday & McClure, 1898).
Shortened, the sentences kept close. Tolstoy takes George's first two sentences and his last two, and leaves out the passage between: how the words have been turned to make poverty God's decree, the coming of the Kingdom, and a rich Christian's thanks to Providence for cheap labor. 'If ever a scripture has been wrested to the devil's service, this is that scripture' becomes 'No words of scripture have been reinterpreted to such devilish ends as precisely these words'; 'healthful and wholesome conditions of life' becomes 'healthy and normal conditions of life'; 'natural opportunities' becomes 'natural conveniences' (естественные удобства); and 'the producer' becomes 'the working people' (трудящихся). The emphasis on 'our' (по _нашей_ вине и к _нашему_ стыду) is Tolstoy's. The Jubilee list names S. D. Nikolaev's Russian of Social Problems (Posrednik, 1906). No printable, for the cut.
4. Бóльшая часть преступлений и зла мира совершается по недоверию к разуму: «Верь, или будь проклят». В этом главная причина зла. Принимая без рассуждения то, что он должен бы был разбирать своим разумом, человек в конце концов отвыкает от рассуждения и действительно подпадает проклятию сам и вводит в грех своих ближних. Спасение людей лишь в том, чтобы научиться мыслить самостоятельно для того, чтобы верно направлять свою мысль.
4. The greater part of the crimes and evil of the world is done out of distrust of reason: “Believe, or be damned.” In this lies the chief cause of evil. Accepting without reflection what he ought to have examined with his reason, a man in the end loses the habit of reflection, and really does fall under the curse himself, and leads his neighbors into sin. The salvation of people lies only in learning to think independently, so as to direct their thought rightly.
Source not found yet .
Related · The World's Advance-ThoughtThe belief that one may, by believing in something, be saved from the consequences of his wrong-doing, is a curse to humanity, and the cause - of most of the evils that now afflict the world.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
Not found yet.
The English was not found, in Emerson or elsewhere. The nearest found is an editorial paragraph in Lucy Mallory's journal (1891–92, Related): belief in salvation by believing is 'the cause of most of the evils that now afflict the world', and the New Age 'will not say, "Believe or be damned"; but it will say, "Know thyself."' It shares Tolstoy's 'Believe, or be damned' and 'the chief cause of evil', and nothing of his distrust of reason, the habit of reasoning lost, or salvation in learning to think for oneself. Nothing ties it to this entry, and the signature Emerson is unconfirmed.
Searched: The saved Emerson texts (Essays I and II, Conduct of Life, Society and Solitude, Letters and Social Aims, Miscellanies, Lectures and Biographical Sketches) for 'damn', 'believe or', 'distrust', and 'think for himself'; the saved Channing, Parker, Thoreau, Carlyle, and Martineau texts, Coit, Southgate (both), Tileston, Unity's Church-Door Pulpit, The Coming Day for January–December 1898, and the saved issues of The World's Advance-Thought for 'be damned' and 'distrust of reason'; archive.org full text for 'believe or be damned' with 'distrust of reason', 'Emerson', 'the chief cause', and 'think for himself', and for 'crimes and evils of the world'; Jubilee vol. 40 (Thoughts of Wise Men).
5. Система, по которой действуют все народы мира, основана на самом грубом обмане, на самом глубоком невежестве или на соединении обоих; так что ни при каких видоизменениях тех основ, на которых держится эта система, она не может произвести добро для людей; напротив — практические последствия ее должны всегда быть зло.
5. The system on which all the nations of the world act is founded on the grossest deception, on the deepest ignorance, or on a union of the two; so that under no modification of the foundations on which this system rests can it produce good for people; on the contrary, its practical consequences must always be evil.
From The Legacy of Robert Owen to the Population of the World · close to the original .
What Tolstoy read · The Annals of Toil, by J. Morrison DavidsonTHE system on WHICH ALL THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD ARE ACTING IS FOUNDED IN GROSS DECEPTION, IN THE DEEPEST IGNORANCE, OR A MIXTURE OF BOTH : …
ThAT, UNDER NO POSSIBLE MODIFICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH IT IS BASED, CAN IT EVER PRODUCE GOOD TO MAN ; BUT THAT, ON THE CONTRARY, ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS MUST EVER BE TO PRODUCE EVIL CONTINUALLY.
Source text: archive.orgRobert Owen’s own wordsThis great truth which I have now to declare to you, is, that “the system on which all the nations of the world are acting is founded in gross deception, in the deepest ignorance or in a mixture of both.
That, under no possible modification of the principles on which it is based, can it ever produce good to man; but that, on the contrary, its practical results must ever be to produce evil continually …
Source text: archive.orgTolstoy’s own version · Рабство нашего времениСистема, по которой действуют все народы мира, основана на самом грубом обмане, на самом глубоком невежестве или на соединении обоих: так что ни при каких видоизменениях тех принципов, на которых держится эта система, она не может произвести добро для людей; напротив, — практические последствия ее должны быть и постоянно производить зло.
Source text: tolstoy.ruTolstoy’s own version · На каждый деньСистема, по которой действуют все народы мира, основана на самом грубом обмане, на самом глубоком невежестве или на соединении обоих, так что ни при каких видоизменениях тех основ, на которых держится эта система, она не может произвести добро для людей; напротив, практические последствия ее должны всегда быть и постоянно производить зло.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. The Legacy of Robert Owen to the Population of the World (The Crisis, 29 March 1834), the second paragraph; reprinted in R. W. Postgate, Revolution from 1789 to 1906 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921), document 45, p. 95.
A close translation, its end shortened. Tolstoy first used the sentence in 1900, as the epigraph of «Рабство нашего времени» (Tolstoy's own version), and took it, as he wrote to Aylmer Maude on 25 August 1900, from J. Morrison Davidson's The Annals of Toil (1899), where it heads ch. XV (What Tolstoy read; Jubilee vol. 34, commentary on p. 144). The words are Owen's 'Legacy of Robert Owen to the Population of the World', printed in his paper The Crisis on 29 March 1834 (Original, from Postgate's reprint; the Crisis volume's own scan, https://archive.org/details/letterpresscris00unkngoog, has the same words in a poor OCR, read, not saved). The Russian follows the English clause by clause. 'Gross deception' becomes 'the grossest deception' (на самом грубом обмане); 'the principles on which it is based' becomes 'those foundations on which this system rests' (тех основ, на которых держится эта система), where the 1900 epigraph has «принципов»; 'can it ever produce good to man' becomes 'it cannot produce good for people' ('ever' left out). The end is shortened: 'its practical results must ever be to produce evil continually' becomes 'its practical consequences must always be evil' (практические последствия ее должны всегда быть зло), where the 1900 epigraph has 'must be and constantly produce evil' (должны быть и постоянно производить зло) and «На каждый день» 'must always be and constantly produce evil' (Tolstoy's later version); the Circle's shorter wording may be a copying slip. No printable, because the end is shortened.
6. Чем большим уважением окружены предметы, обычаи, законы, тем внимательнее надо исследовать их право на уважение.
6. The greater the respect that surrounds things, customs, and laws, the more carefully we must examine their right to respect.
Translation note. The Russian italic is broken only at the commas; it is set here as one span.
Исправление существующего зла жизни не может начаться ни с чего другого, как только с обличения религиозной лжи и свободного установления религиозной истины в самом себе каждым отдельным человеком.
The correction of the existing evil of life can begin with nothing other than the exposure of religious falsehood and the free establishment of religious truth by each of us, individually, within ourselves.
Tolstoy TodayТолстой сегодня · tolstoytoday.org/june/4