Brothers Karamazov, The

<SPAN name="toc39" id="toc39"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf40" id="pdf40"></SPAN> <h3 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.40em; margin-top: 2.40em"><span style="font-size: 120%">Chapter III. The Confession Of A Passionate Heart—In Verse</span></h3> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> Alyosha remained for some time irresolute after hearing the command his father shouted to him from the carriage. But in spite of his uneasiness he did not stand still. That was not his way. He went at once to the kitchen to find out what his father had been doing above. Then he set off, trusting that on the way he would find some answer to the doubt tormenting him. I hasten to add that his father's shouts, commanding him to return home <span class="tei tei-q">“with his mattress and pillow”</span> did not frighten him in the least. He understood perfectly that those peremptory shouts were merely <span class="tei tei-q">“a flourish”</span> to produce an effect. In the same way a tradesman in our town who was celebrating his name-day with a party of friends, getting angry at being refused more vodka, smashed up his own crockery and furniture and tore his own and his wife's clothes, and finally broke his windows, all for the sake of effect. Next day, of course, when he was sober, he regretted the broken cups and saucers. Alyosha knew that his father would let him go back to the monastery <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page107"></span><SPAN name="Pg107" id="Pg107" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> next day, possibly even that evening. Moreover, he was fully persuaded that his father might hurt any one else, but would not hurt him. Alyosha was certain that no one in the whole world ever would want to hurt him, and, what is more, he knew that no one could hurt him. This was for him an axiom, assumed once for all without question, and he went his way without hesitation, relying on it.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> But at that moment an anxiety of a different sort disturbed him, and worried him the more because he could not formulate it. It was the fear of a woman, of Katerina Ivanovna, who had so urgently entreated him in the note handed to him by Madame Hohlakov to come and see her about something. This request and the necessity of going had at once aroused an uneasy feeling in his heart, and this feeling had grown more and more painful all the morning in spite of the scenes at the hermitage and at the Father Superior's. He was not uneasy because he did not know what she would speak of and what he must answer. And he was not afraid of her simply as a woman. Though he knew little of women, he had spent his life, from early childhood till he entered the monastery, entirely with women. He was afraid of that woman, Katerina Ivanovna. He had been afraid of her from the first time he saw her. He had only seen her two or three times, and had only chanced to say a few words to her. He thought of her as a beautiful, proud, imperious girl. It was not her beauty which troubled him, but something else. And the vagueness of his apprehension increased the apprehension itself. The girl's aims were of the noblest, he knew that. She was trying to save his brother Dmitri simply through generosity, though he had already behaved badly to her. Yet, although Alyosha recognized and did justice to all these fine and generous sentiments, a shiver began to run down his back as soon as he drew near her house.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> He reflected that he would not find Ivan, who was so intimate a friend, with her, for Ivan was certainly now with his father. Dmitri he was even more certain not to find there, and he had a foreboding of the reason. And so his conversation would be with her alone. He had a great longing to run and see his brother Dmitri before that fateful interview. Without showing him the letter, he could talk to him about it. But Dmitri lived a long way off, and he was sure to be away from home too. Standing still for a minute, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page108"></span><SPAN name="Pg108" id="Pg108" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> he reached a final decision. Crossing himself with a rapid and accustomed gesture, and at once smiling, he turned resolutely in the direction of his terrible lady.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> He knew her house. If he went by the High Street and then across the market-place, it was a long way round. Though our town is small, it is scattered, and the houses are far apart. And meanwhile his father was expecting him, and perhaps had not yet forgotten his command. He might be unreasonable, and so he had to make haste to get there and back. So he decided to take a short cut by the back-way, for he knew every inch of the ground. This meant skirting fences, climbing over hurdles, and crossing other people's back-yards, where every one he met knew him and greeted him. In this way he could reach the High Street in half the time.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> He had to pass the garden adjoining his father's, and belonging to a little tumbledown house with four windows. The owner of this house, as Alyosha knew, was a bedridden old woman, living with her daughter, who had been a genteel maid-servant in generals' families in Petersburg. Now she had been at home a year, looking after her sick mother. She always dressed up in fine clothes, though her old mother and she had sunk into such poverty that they went every day to Fyodor Pavlovitch's kitchen for soup and bread, which Marfa gave readily. Yet, though the young woman came up for soup, she had never sold any of her dresses, and one of these even had a long train—a fact which Alyosha had learned from Rakitin, who always knew everything that was going on in the town. He had forgotten it as soon as he heard it, but now, on reaching the garden, he remembered the dress with the train, raised his head, which had been bowed in thought, and came upon something quite unexpected.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> Over the hurdle in the garden, Dmitri, mounted on something, was leaning forward, gesticulating violently, beckoning to him, obviously afraid to utter a word for fear of being overheard. Alyosha ran up to the hurdle.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“It's a good thing you looked up. I was nearly shouting to you,”</span> Mitya said in a joyful, hurried whisper. <span class="tei tei-q">“Climb in here quickly! How splendid that you've come! I was just thinking of you!”</span></p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> Alyosha was delighted too, but he did not know how to get over <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page109"></span><SPAN name="Pg109" id="Pg109" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> the hurdle. Mitya put his powerful hand under his elbow to help him jump. Tucking up his cassock, Alyosha leapt over the hurdle with the agility of a bare-legged street urchin.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“Well done! Now come along,”</span> said Mitya in an enthusiastic whisper.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“Where?”</span> whispered Alyosha, looking about him and finding himself in a deserted garden with no one near but themselves. The garden was small, but the house was at least fifty paces away.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“There's no one here. Why do you whisper?”</span> asked Alyosha.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“Why do I whisper? Deuce take it!”</span> cried Dmitri at the top of his voice. <span class="tei tei-q">“You see what silly tricks nature plays one. I am here in secret, and on the watch. I'll explain later on, but, knowing it's a secret, I began whispering like a fool, when there's no need. Let us go. Over there. Till then be quiet. I want to kiss you.</span></p> <div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Glory to God in the world,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Glory to God in me ...</span></div> </div></div> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">I was just repeating that, sitting here, before you came.”</span></p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> The garden was about three acres in extent, and planted with trees only along the fence at the four sides. There were apple-trees, maples, limes and birch-trees. The middle of the garden was an empty grass space, from which several hundredweight of hay was carried in the summer. The garden was let out for a few roubles for the summer. There were also plantations of raspberries and currants and gooseberries laid out along the sides; a kitchen garden had been planted lately near the house.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> Dmitri led his brother to the most secluded corner of the garden. There, in a thicket of lime-trees and old bushes of black currant, elder, snowball-tree, and lilac, there stood a tumble-down green summer-house, blackened with age. Its walls were of lattice-work, but there was still a roof which could give shelter. God knows when this summer-house was built. There was a tradition that it had been put up some fifty years before by a retired colonel called von Schmidt, who owned the house at that time. It was all in decay, the floor was rotting, the planks were loose, the woodwork smelled musty. In the summer-house there was a green wooden table fixed in the ground, and round it were some green benches upon which it was still possible to sit. Alyosha had at once observed his <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page110"></span><SPAN name="Pg110" id="Pg110" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> brother's exhilarated condition, and on entering the arbor he saw half a bottle of brandy and a wineglass on the table.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“That's brandy,”</span> Mitya laughed. <span class="tei tei-q">“I see your look: <span class="tei tei-q">‘He's drinking again!’</span> Distrust the apparition.</span></p> <div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Distrust the worthless, lying crowd,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">And lay aside thy doubts.</span></div> </div></div> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">I'm not drinking, I'm only <span class="tei tei-q">‘indulging,’</span> as that pig, your Rakitin, says. He'll be a civil councilor one day, but he'll always talk about <span class="tei tei-q">‘indulging.’</span> Sit down. I could take you in my arms, Alyosha, and press you to my bosom till I crush you, for in the whole world—in reality—in re-al-i-ty—(can you take it in?) I love no one but you!”</span></p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> He uttered the last words in a sort of exaltation.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“No one but you and one <span class="tei tei-q">‘jade’</span> I have fallen in love with, to my ruin. But being in love doesn't mean loving. You may be in love with a woman and yet hate her. Remember that! I can talk about it gayly still. Sit down here by the table and I'll sit beside you and look at you, and go on talking. You shall keep quiet and I'll go on talking, for the time has come. But on reflection, you know, I'd better speak quietly, for here—here—you can never tell what ears are listening. I will explain everything; as they say, <span class="tei tei-q">‘the story will be continued.’</span> Why have I been longing for you? Why have I been thirsting for you all these days, and just now? (It's five days since I've cast anchor here.) Because it's only to you I can tell everything; because I must, because I need you, because to-morrow I shall fly from the clouds, because to-morrow life is ending and beginning. Have you ever felt, have you ever dreamt of falling down a precipice into a pit? That's just how I'm falling, but not in a dream. And I'm not afraid, and don't you be afraid. At least, I am afraid, but I enjoy it. It's not enjoyment though, but ecstasy. Damn it all, whatever it is! A strong spirit, a weak spirit, a womanish spirit—whatever it is! Let us praise nature: you see what sunshine, how clear the sky is, the leaves are all green, it's still summer; four o'clock in the afternoon and the stillness! Where were you going?”</span></p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“I was going to father's, but I meant to go to Katerina Ivanovna's first.”</span></p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“To her, and to father! Oo! what a coincidence! Why was I <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page111"></span><SPAN name="Pg111" id="Pg111" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> waiting for you? Hungering and thirsting for you in every cranny of my soul and even in my ribs? Why, to send you to father and to her, Katerina Ivanovna, so as to have done with her and with father. To send an angel. I might have sent any one, but I wanted to send an angel. And here you are on your way to see father and her.”</span></p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“Did you really mean to send me?”</span> cried Alyosha with a distressed expression.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“Stay! You knew it! And I see you understand it all at once. But be quiet, be quiet for a time. Don't be sorry, and don't cry.”</span></p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> Dmitri stood up, thought a moment, and put his finger to his forehead.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“She's asked you, written to you a letter or something, that's why you're going to her? You wouldn't be going except for that?”</span></p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“Here is her note.”</span> Alyosha took it out of his pocket. Mitya looked through it quickly.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“And you were going the back-way! Oh, gods, I thank you for sending him by the back-way, and he came to me like the golden fish to the silly old fishermen in the fable! Listen, Alyosha, listen, brother! Now I mean to tell you everything, for I must tell some one. An angel in heaven I've told already; but I want to tell an angel on earth. You are an angel on earth. You will hear and judge and forgive. And that's what I need, that some one above me should forgive. Listen! If two people break away from everything on earth and fly off into the unknown, or at least one of them, and before flying off or going to ruin he comes to some one else and says, <span class="tei tei-q">‘Do this for me’</span>—some favor never asked before that could only be asked on one's deathbed—would that other refuse, if he were a friend or a brother?”</span></p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“I will do it, but tell me what it is, and make haste,”</span> said Alyosha.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“Make haste! H'm!... Don't be in a hurry, Alyosha, you hurry and worry yourself. There's no need to hurry now. Now the world has taken a new turning. Ah, Alyosha, what a pity you can't understand ecstasy. But what am I saying to him? As though you didn't understand it. What an ass I am! What am I saying? <span class="tei tei-q">‘Be noble, O man!’</span>—who says that?”</span></p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> Alyosha made up his mind to wait. He felt that, perhaps, indeed, his work lay here. Mitya sank into thought for a moment, <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page112"></span><SPAN name="Pg112" id="Pg112" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> with his elbow on the table and his head in his hand. Both were silent.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“Alyosha,”</span> said Mitya, <span class="tei tei-q">“you're the only one who won't laugh. I should like to begin—my confession—with Schiller's <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Hymn to Joy</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">An die Freude</span></span>! I don't know German, I only know it's called that. Don't think I'm talking nonsense because I'm drunk. I'm not a bit drunk. Brandy's all very well, but I need two bottles to make me drunk:</span></p> <div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Silenus with his rosy phiz</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Upon his stumbling ass.</span></div> </div></div> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">But I've not drunk a quarter of a bottle, and I'm not Silenus. I'm not Silenus, though I am strong,<SPAN id="noteref_1" name="noteref_1" href="#note_1"><span class="tei tei-noteref"><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">1</span></span></SPAN> for I've made a decision once for all. Forgive me the pun; you'll have to forgive me a lot more than puns to-day. Don't be uneasy. I'm not spinning it out. I'm talking sense, and I'll come to the point in a minute. I won't keep you in suspense. Stay, how does it go?”</span></p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> He raised his head, thought a minute, and began with enthusiasm:</p> <div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Wild and fearful in his cavern</span></span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Hid the naked troglodyte,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">And the homeless nomad wandered</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Laying waste the fertile plain.</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Menacing with spear and arrow</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">In the woods the hunter strayed....</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Woe to all poor wretches stranded</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">On those cruel and hostile shores!</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">From the peak of high Olympus</span></span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Came the mother Ceres down,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Seeking in those savage regions</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Her lost daughter Proserpine.</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">But the Goddess found no refuge,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Found no kindly welcome there,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">And no temple bearing witness</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">To the worship of the gods.</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">From the fields and from the vineyards</span></span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Came no fruits to deck the feasts,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Only flesh of bloodstained victims</span></div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page113"></span><SPAN name="Pg113" id="Pg113" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Smoldered on the altar-fires,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">And where'er the grieving goddess</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Turns her melancholy gaze,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Sunk in vilest degradation</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.90em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Man his loathsomeness displays.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span></div> </div></div> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> Mitya broke into sobs and seized Alyosha's hand.</p> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">“My dear, my dear, in degradation, in degradation now, too. There's a terrible amount of suffering for man on earth, a terrible lot of trouble. Don't think I'm only a brute in an officer's uniform, wallowing in dirt and drink. I hardly think of anything but of that degraded man—if only I'm not lying. I pray God I'm not lying and showing off. I think about that man because I am that man myself.</span></p> <div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Would he purge his soul from vileness</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">And attain to light and worth,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">He must turn and cling for ever</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">To his ancient Mother Earth.</span></div> </div></div> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> But the difficulty is how am I to cling for ever to Mother Earth. I don't kiss her. I don't cleave to her bosom. Am I to become a peasant or a shepherd? I go on and I don't know whether I'm going to shame or to light and joy. That's the trouble, for everything in the world is a riddle! And whenever I've happened to sink into the vilest degradation (and it's always been happening) I always read that poem about Ceres and man. Has it reformed me? Never! For I'm a Karamazov. For when I do leap into the pit, I go headlong with my heels up, and am pleased to be falling in that degrading attitude, and pride myself upon it. And in the very depths of that degradation I begin a hymn of praise. Let me be accursed. Let me be vile and base, only let me kiss the hem of the veil in which my God is shrouded. Though I may be following the devil, I am Thy son, O Lord, and I love Thee, and I feel the joy without which the world cannot stand.</p> <div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Joy everlasting fostereth</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">The soul of all creation,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">It is her secret ferment fires</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">The cup of life with flame.</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">'Tis at her beck the grass hath turned</span></div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page114"></span><SPAN name="Pg114" id="Pg114" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Each blade towards the light</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">And solar systems have evolved</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">From chaos and dark night,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Filling the realms of boundless space</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Beyond the sage's sight.</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">At bounteous Nature's kindly breast,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">All things that breathe drink Joy,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">And birds and beasts and creeping things</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">All follow where She leads.</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Her gifts to man are friends in need,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">The wreath, the foaming must,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">To angels—vision of God's throne,</span></div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">To insects—sensual lust.</span></div> </div></div> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> But enough poetry! I am in tears; let me cry. It may be foolishness that every one would laugh at. But you won't laugh. Your eyes are shining, too. Enough poetry. I want to tell you now about the insects to whom God gave <span class="tei tei-q">“sensual lust.”</span></p> <div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">To insects—sensual lust.</span></div> </div></div> <p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> <span class="tei tei-q">I am that insect, brother, and it is said of me specially. All we Karamazovs are such insects, and, angel as you are, that insect lives in you, too, and will stir up a tempest in your blood. Tempests, because sensual lust is a tempest—worse than a tempest! Beauty is a terrible and awful thing! It is terrible because it has not been fathomed and never can be fathomed, for God sets us nothing but riddles. Here the boundaries meet and all contradictions exist side by side. I am not a cultivated man, brother, but I've thought a lot about this. It's terrible what mysteries there are! Too many riddles weigh men down on earth. We must solve them as we can, and try to keep a dry skin in the water. Beauty! I can't endure the thought that a man of lofty mind and heart begins with the ideal of the Madonna and ends with the ideal of Sodom. What's still more awful is that a man with the ideal of Sodom in his soul does not renounce the ideal of the Madonna, and his heart may be on fire with that ideal, genuinely on fire, just as in his days of youth and innocence. Yes, man is broad, too broad, indeed. I'd have him narrower. The devil only knows what to make of it! What to the mind is shameful is beauty and nothing else to the heart. Is there <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page115"></span><SPAN name="Pg115" id="Pg115" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> beauty in Sodom? Believe me, that for the immense mass of mankind beauty is found in Sodom. Did you know that secret? The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man. But a man always talks of his own ache. Listen, now to come to facts.”</span></p> </div> <div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />