Anna Karenina - Part 8

Levin strode along the highroad, absorbed not so much in his

thoughts (he could not yet disentangle them) as in his spiritual

condition, unlike anything he had experienced before.

The words uttered by the peasant had acted on his soul like an

electric shock, suddenly transforming and combining into a single

whole the whole swarm of disjointed, impotent, separate thoughts

that incessantly occupied his mind. These thoughts had

unconsciously been in his mind even when he was talking about the

land.

He was aware of something new in his soul, and joyfully tested

this new thing, not yet knowing what it was.

"Not living for his own wants, but for God? For what God? And

could one say anything more senseless than what he said? He said

that one must not live for one's own wants, that is, that one

must not live for what we understand, what we are attracted by,

what we desire, but must live for something incomprehensible, for

God, whom no one can understand nor even define. What of it?

Didn't I understand those senseless words of Fyodor's? And

understanding them, did I doubt of their truth? Did I think them

stupid, obscure, inexact? No, I understood him, and exactly as

he understands the words. I understood them more fully and

clearly than I understand anything in life, and never in my life

have I doubted nor can I doubt about it. And not only I, but

everyone, the whole world understands nothing fully but this, and

about this only they have no doubt and are always agreed.

"And I looked out for miracles, complained that I did not see a

miracle which would convince me. A material miracle would have

persuaded me. And here is a miracle, the sole miracle possible,

continually existing, surrounding me on all sides, and I never

noticed it!

"Fyodor says that Kirillov lives for his belly. That's

comprehensible and rational. All of us as rational beings can't

do anything else but live for our belly. And all of a sudden the

same Fyodor says that one mustn't live for one's belly, but must

live for truth, for God, and at a hint I understand him! And I

and millions of men, men who lived ages ago and men living now--

peasants, the poor in spirit and the learned, who have thought

and written about it, in their obscure words saying the same

thing--we are all agreed about this one thing: what we must live

for and what is good. I and all men have only one firm,

incontestable, clear knowledge, and that knowledge cannot be

explained by the reason--it is outside it, and has no causes and

can have no effects.