白痴 英文版 The Idiot
陀思妥耶夫斯基 Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Idiot VII. Page 1
WHILE he feasted his eyes upon Aglaya, as she talked merrily withEvgenie and Prince N., suddenly the old anglomaniac, who wastalking to the dignitary in another corner of the room,apparently telling him a story about something or other--suddenlythis gentleman pronounced the name of "Nicolai AndreevitchPavlicheff" aloud. The prince quickly turned towards him, andlistened.
The conversation had been on the subject of land, and the presentdisorders, and there must have been something amusing said, forthe old man had begun to laugh at his companion's heatedexpressions.
The latter was describing in eloquent words how, in consequenceof recent legislation, he was obliged to sell a beautiful estatein the N. province, not because he wanted ready money--infact, he was obliged to sell it at half its value. "To avoidanother lawsuit about the Pavlicheff estate, I ran away," hesaid. "With a few more inheritances of that kind I should soon beruined!"
At this point General Epanchin, noticing how interested Muishkinhad become in the conversation, said to him, in a low tone:
"That gentleman--Ivan Petrovitch--is a relation of your latefriend, Mr. Pavlicheff. You wanted to find some of his relations,did you not?"
The general, who had been talking to his chief up to this moment,had observed the prince's solitude and silence, and was anxiousto draw him into the conversation, and so introduce him again tothe notice of some of the important personages.
"Lef Nicolaievitch was a ward of Nicolai Andreevitch Pavlicheff,after the death of his own parents," he remarked, meeting IvanPetrovitch's eye.
"Very happy to meet him, I'm sure," remarked the latter. "Iremember Lef Nicolaievitch well. When General Epanchin introducedus just now, I recognized you at once, prince. You are verylittle changed, though I saw you last as a child of some ten oreleven years old. There was something in your features, Isuppose, that--"
"You saw me as a child!" exclaimed the prince, with surprise.
"Oh! yes, long ago," continued Ivan Petrovitch, "while you wereliving with my cousin at Zlatoverhoff. You don't remember me? No,I dare say you don't; you had some malady at the time, Iremember. It was so serious that I was surprised--"
"No; I remember nothing!" said the prince. A few more words ofexplanation followed, words which were spoken without thesmallest excitement by his companion, but which evoked thegreatest agitation in the prince; and it was discovered that twoold ladies to whose care the prince had been left by Pavlicheff,and who lived at Zlatoverhoff, were also relations of IvanPetrovitch.
The latter had no idea and could give no information as to whyPavlicheff had taken so great an interest in the little prince,his ward.
"In point of fact I don't think I thought much about it," saidthe old fellow. He seemed to have a wonderfully good memory,however, for he told the prince all about the two old ladies,Pavlicheff's cousins, who had taken care of him, and whom, hedeclared, he had taken to task for being too severe with theprince as a small sickly boy--the elder sister, at least; theyounger had been kind, he recollected. They both now lived inanother province, on a small estate left to them by Pavlicheff.The prince listened to all this with eyes sparkling with emotionand delight.
He declared with unusual warmth that he would never forgivehimself for having travelled about in the central provincesduring these last six months without having hunted up his two oldfriends.
He declared, further, that he had intended to go every day, buthad always been prevented by circumstances; but that now he wouldpromise himself the pleasure--however far it was, he would findthem out. And so Ivan Petrovitch REALLY knew Natalia Nikitishna!--what a saintly nature was hers!--and Martha Nikitishna! IvanPetrovitch must excuse him, but really he was not quite fair ondear old Martha. She was severe, perhaps; but then what elsecould she be with such a little idiot as he was then? (Ha, ha.)He really was an idiot then, Ivan Petrovitch must know, though hemight not believe it. (Ha, ha.) So he had really seen him there!Good heavens! And was he really and truly and actually a cousinof Pavlicheff's?
"I assure you of it," laughed Ivan Petrovitch, gazing amusedly atthe prince.
"Oh! I didn't say it because I DOUBT the fact, you know. (Ha,ha.) How could I doubt such a thing? (Ha, ha, ha.) I made theremark because--because Nicolai Andreevitch Pavlicheff was such asplendid man, don't you see! Such a high-souled man, he reallywas, I assure you."
The prince did not exactly pant for breath, but he "seemed almostto CHOKE out of pure simplicity and goodness of heart," asAdelaida expressed it, on talking the party over with her fiance,the Prince S., next morning.
"But, my goodness me," laughed Ivan Petrovitch, "why can't I becousin to even a splendid man?"
"Oh, dear!" cried the prince, confused, trying to hurry his wordsout, and growing more and more eager every moment: "I've gone andsaid another stupid thing. I don't know what to say. I--I didn'tmean that, you know--I--I--he really was such a splendid man,wasn't he?"
The prince trembled all over. Why was he so agitated? Why had heflown into such transports of delight without any apparentreason? He had far outshot the measure of joy and emotionconsistent with the occasion. Why this was it would be difficultto say.
He seemed to feel warmly and deeply grateful to someone forsomething or other--perhaps to Ivan Petrovitch; but likely enoughto all the guests, individually, and collectively. He was muchtoo happy.
Ivan Petrovitch began to stare at him with some surprise; thedignitary, too, looked at him with considerable attention;Princess Bielokonski glared at him angrily, and compressed herlips. Prince N., Evgenie, Prince S., and the girls, all broke offtheir own conversations and listened. Aglaya seemed a littlestartled; as for Lizabetha Prokofievna, her heart sank withinher.
This was odd of Lizabetha Prokofievna and her daughters. They hadthemselves decided that it would be better if the prince did nottalk all the evening. Yet seeing him sitting silent and alone,but perfectly happy, they had been on the point of exertingthemselves to draw him into one of the groups of talkers aroundthe room. Now that he was in the midst of a talk they became morethan ever anxious and perturbed.
"That he was a splendid man is perfectly true; you are quiteright," repeated Ivan Petrovitch, but seriously this time. "Hewas a fine and a worthy fellow--worthy, one may say, of thehighest respect," he added, more and more seriously at eachpause; " and it is agreeable to see, on your part, such--"
"Wasn't it this same Pavlicheff about whom there was a strangestory in connection with some abbot? I don't remember who theabbot was, but I remember at one time everybody was talking aboutit," remarked the old dignitary.
"Yes--Abbot Gurot, a Jesuit," said Ivan Petrovitch. "Yes, that'sthe sort of thing our best men are apt to do. A man of rank, too,and rich--a man who, if he had continued to serve, might havedone anything; and then to throw up the service and everythingelse in order to go over to Roman Catholicism and turn Jesuit--openly, too--almost triumphantly. By Jove! it was positively amercy that he died when he did--it was indeed--everyone said soat the time."
The prince was beside himself.
"Pavlicheff?--Pavlicheff turned Roman Catholic? Impossible!" hecried, in horror.
"H'm! impossible is rather a strong word," said Ivan Petrovitch."You must allow, my dear prince... However, of course youvalue the memory of the deceased so very highly; and he certainlywas the kindest of men; to which fact, by the way, I ascribe,more than to anything else, the success of the abbot ininfluencing his religious convictions. But you may ask me, if youplease, how much trouble and worry I, personally, had over thatbusiness, and especially with this same Gurot! Would you believeit," he continued, addressing the dignitary, "they actually triedto put in a claim under the deceased's will, and I had to resortto the very strongest measures in order to bring them to theirsenses? I assure you they knew their cue, did these gentlemen--wonderful! Thank goodness all this was in Moscow, and I got theCourt, you know, to help me, and we soon brought them to theirsenses.
"You wouldn't believe how you have pained and astonished me,"cried the prince.
"Very sorry; but in point of fact, you know, it was all nonsenseand would have ended in smoke, as usual--I'm sure of that. Lastyear,"--he turned to the old man again,--"Countess K. joined someRoman Convent abroad. Our people never seem to be able to offerany resistance so soon as they get into the hands of these--intriguers--especially abroad."
"That is all thanks to our lassitude, I think," replied the oldman, with authority. "And then their way of preaching; they havea skilful manner of doing it! And they know how to startle one,too. I got quite a fright myself in '32, in Vienna, I assure you;but I didn't cave in to them, I ran away instead, ha, ha!"
"Come, come, I've always heard that you ran away with thebeautiful Countess Levitsky that time--throwing up everything inorder to do it--and not from the Jesuits at all," said PrincessBielokonski, suddenly.
"Well, yes--but we call it from the Jesuits, you know; it comesto the same thing," laughed the old fellow, delighted with thepleasant recollection.
"You seem to be very religious," he continued, kindly, addressingthe prince," which is a thing one meets so seldom nowadays amongyoung people."
The prince was listening open-mouthed, and still in a conditionof excited agitation. The old man was evidently interested inhim, and anxious to study him more closely.
"Pavlicheff was a man of bright intellect and a good Christian, asincere Christian," said the prince, suddenly. "How could hepossibly embrace a faith which is unchristian? Roman Catholicismis, so to speak, simply the same thing as unchristianity," headded with flashing eyes, which seemed to take in everybody inthe room.
"Come, that's a little TOO strong, isn't it?" murmured the oldman, glancing at General Epanchin in surprise.
"How do you make out that the Roman Catholic religion isUNCHRISTIAN? What is it, then?" asked Ivan Petrovitch, turning tothe prince.
"It is not a Christian religion, in the first place," said thelatter, in extreme agitation, quite out of proportion to thenecessity of the moment. "And in the second place, RomanCatholicism is, in my opinion, worse than Atheism itself. Yes--that is my opinion. Atheism only preaches a negation, butRomanism goes further; it preaches a disfigured, distortedChrist--it preaches Anti-Christ--I assure you, I swear it! Thisis my own personal conviction, and it has long distressed me. TheRoman Catholic believes that the Church on earth cannot standwithout universal temporal Power. He cries 'non possumus!' In myopinion the Roman Catholic religion is not a faith at all, butsimply a continuation of the Roman Empire, and everything issubordinated to this idea--beginning with faith. The Pope hasseized territories and an earthly throne, and has held them withthe sword. And so the thing has gone on, only that to the swordthey have added lying, intrigue, deceit, fanaticism,superstition, swindling;--they have played fast and loose withthe most sacred and sincere feelings of men;--they have exchangedeverything--everything for money, for base earthly POWER! And isthis not the teaching of Anti-Christ? How could the upshot of allthis be other than Atheism? Atheism is the child of RomanCatholicism--it proceeded from these Romans themselves, thoughperhaps they would not believe it. It grew and fattened on hatredof its parents; it is the progeny of their lies and spiritualfeebleness. Atheism! In our country it is only among the upperclasses that you find unbelievers; men who have lost the root orspirit of their faith; but abroad whole masses of the people arebeginning to profess unbelief--at first because of the darknessand lies by which they were surrounded; but now out offanaticism, out of loathing for the Church and Christianity!"
The prince paused to get breath. He had spoken with extraordinaryrapidity, and was very pale.
All present interchanged glances, but at last the old dignitaryburst out laughing frankly. Prince N. took out his eye-glass tohave a good look at the speaker. The German poet came out of hiscorner and crept nearer to the table, with a spiteful smile.
"You exaggerate the matter very much," said Ivan Petrovitch, withrather a bored air. "There are, in the foreign Churches, manyrepresentatives of their faith who are worthy of respect andesteem."
"Oh, but I did not speak of individual representatives. I wasmerely talking about Roman Catholicism, and its essence--of Romeitself. A Church can never entirely disappear; I never hinted atthat!"
"Agreed that all this may be true; but we need not discuss asubject which belongs to the domain of theology."
that I was surprised--" from the Jesuits, you know; it comesto the same thing," laughed.
"Oh, no; oh, no! Not to theology alone, I assure you! Why,Socialism is the progeny of Romanism and of the Romanisticspirit. It and its brother Atheism proceed from Despair inopposition to Catholicism. It seeks to replace in itself themoral power of religion, in order to appease the spiritual thirstof parched humanity and save it; not by Christ, but by force.'Don't dare to believe in God, don't dare to possess anyindividuality, any property! Fraternite ou la Mort; two millionheads. 'By their works ye shall know them'--we are told. And wemust not suppose that all this is harmless and without danger toourselves. Oh, no; we must resist, and quickly, quickly! We mustlet out Christ shine forth upon the Western nations, our Christwhom we have preserved intact, and whom they have never known.Not as slaves, allowing ourselves to be caught by the hooks ofthe Jesuits, but carrying our Russian civilization to THEM, wemust stand before them, not letting it be said among us thattheir preaching is 'skilful,' as someone expressed it just now."
"But excuse me, excuse me;" cried Ivan Petrovitch considerablydisturbed, and looking around uneasily. "Your ideas are, ofcourse, most praiseworthy, and in the highest degree patriotic;but you exaggerate the matter terribly. It would be better if wedropped the subject."
"No, sir, I do not exaggerate, I understate the matter, ifanything, undoubtedly understate it; simply because I cannotexpress myself as I should like, but--"
"Allow me!"
The prince was silent. He sat straight up in his chair and gazedfervently at Ivan Petrovitch.
"It seems to me that you have been too painfully impressed by thenews of what happened to your good benefactor," said the olddignitary, kindly, and with the utmost calmness of demeanour."You are excitable, perhaps as the result of your solitary life.If you would make up your mind to live more among your fellows insociety, I trust, I am sure, that the world would be glad towelcome you, as a remarkable young man; and you would soon findyourself able to look at things more calmly. You would see thatall these things are much simpler than you think; and, besides,these rare cases come about, in my opinion, from ennui and fromsatiety."
"Exactly, exactly! That is a true thought!" cried the prince."From ennui, from our ennui but not from satiety! Oh, no, you arewrong there! Say from THIRST if you like; the thirst of fever!And please do not suppose that this is so small a matter that wemay have a laugh at it and dismiss it; we must be able to foreseeour disasters and arm against them. We Russians no sooner arriveat the brink of the water, and realize that we are really at thebrink, than we are so delighted with the outlook that in weplunge and swim to the farthest point we can see. Why is this?You say you are surprised at Pavlicheff's action; you ascribe itto madness, to kindness of heart, and what not, but it is not so.
"Our Russian intensity not only astonishes ourselves; all Europewonders at our conduct in such cases! For, if one of us goes overto Roman Catholicism, he is sure to become a Jesuit at once, anda rabid one into the bargain. If one of us becomes an Atheist, hemust needs begin to insist on the prohibition of faith in God byforce, that is, by the sword. Why is this? Why does he thenexceed all bounds at once? Because he has found land at last, thefatherland that he sought in vain before; and, because his soulis rejoiced to find it, he throws himself upon it and kisses it!Oh, it is not from vanity alone, it is not from feelings ofvanity that Russians become Atheists and Jesuits! But fromspiritual thirst, from anguish of longing for higher things, fordry firm land, for foothold on a fatherland which they neverbelieved in because they never knew it. It is easier for aRussian to become an Atheist, than for any other nationality inthe world. And not only does a Russian 'become an Atheist,' buthe actually BELIEVES IN Atheism, just as though he had found anew faith, not perceiving that he has pinned his faith to anegation. Such is our anguish of thirst! 'Whoso has no countryhas no God.' That is not my own expression; it is the expressionof a merchant, one of the Old Believers, whom I once met whiletravelling. He did not say exactly these words. I think hisexpression was:
"'Whoso forsakes his country forsakes his God.'
"But let these thirsty Russian souls find, like Columbus'discoverers, a new world; let them find the Russian world, letthem search and discover all the gold and treasure that lies hidin the bosom of their own land! Show them the restitution of losthumanity, in the future, by Russian thought alone, and by meansof the God and of the Christ of our Russian faith, and you willsee how mighty and just and wise and good a giant will rise upbefore the eyes of the astonished and frightened world;astonished because they expect nothing but the sword from us,because they think they will get nothing out of us but barbarism.This has been the case up to now, and the longer matters go on asthey are now proceeding, the more clear will be the truth of whatI say; and I--"
But at this moment something happened which put a most unexpectedend to the orator's speech. All this heated tirade, this outflowof passionate words and ecstatic ideas which seemed to hustle andtumble over each other as they fell from his lips, bore evidenceof some unusually disturbed mental condition in the young fellowwho had "boiled over" in such a remarkable manner, without anyapparent reason.
Of those who were present, such as knew the prince listened tohis outburst in a state of alarm, some with a feeling ofmortification. It was so unlike his usual timid self-constraint;so inconsistent with his usual taste and tact, and with hisinstinctive feeling for the higher proprieties. They could notunderstand the origin of the outburst; it could not be simply thenews of Pavlicheff's perversion. By the ladies the prince wasregarded as little better than a lunatic, and PrincessBielokonski admitted afterwards that "in another minute she wouldhave bolted."