The Brothers Karamazov
“Not a bit of it! He claims it as a merit for himself and his Church
that at last they have vanquished freedom and have done so to make men
happy. ‘For now’ (he is speaking of the Inquisition, of course) ‘for
the first time it has become possible to think of the happiness of men.
Man was created a rebel; and how can rebels be happy? Thou wast
warned,’ he says to Him. ‘Thou hast had no lack of admonitions and
warnings, but Thou didst not listen to those warnings; Thou didst
reject the only way by which men might be made happy. But, fortunately,
departing Thou didst hand on the work to us. Thou hast promised, Thou
hast established by Thy word, Thou hast given to us the right to bind
and to unbind, and now, of course, Thou canst not think of taking it
away. Why, then, hast Thou come to hinder us?’”
“And what’s the meaning of ‘no lack of admonitions and warnings’?”
asked Alyosha.
“Why, that’s the chief part of what the old man must say.
“‘The wise and dread spirit, the spirit of self-destruction and non-
existence,’ the old man goes on, ‘the great spirit talked with Thee in
the wilderness, and we are told in the books that he “tempted” Thee. Is
that so? And could anything truer be said than what he revealed to Thee
in three questions and what Thou didst reject, and what in the books is
called “the temptation”? And yet if there has ever been on earth a real
stupendous miracle, it took place on that day, on the day of the three
temptations. The statement of those three questions was itself the
miracle. If it were possible to imagine simply for the sake of argument
that those three questions of the dread spirit had perished utterly
from the books, and that we had to restore them and to invent them
anew, and to do so had gathered together all the wise men of the
earth—rulers, chief priests, learned men, philosophers, poets—and had
set them the task to invent three questions, such as would not only fit
the occasion, but express in three words, three human phrases, the
whole future history of the world and of humanity—dost Thou believe
that all the wisdom of the earth united could have invented anything in
depth and force equal to the three questions which were actually put to
Thee then by the wise and mighty spirit in the wilderness? From those
questions alone, from the miracle of their statement, we can see that
we have here to do not with the fleeting human intelligence, but with
the absolute and eternal. For in those three questions the whole
subsequent history of mankind is, as it were, brought together into one
whole, and foretold, and in them are united all the unsolved historical
contradictions of human nature. At the time it could not be so clear,
since the future was unknown; but now that fifteen hundred years have
passed, we see that everything in those three questions was so justly
divined and foretold, and has been so truly fulfilled, that nothing can
be added to them or taken from them.
“‘Judge Thyself who was right—Thou or he who questioned Thee then?
Remember the first question; its meaning, in other words, was this:
“Thou wouldst go into the world, and art going with empty hands, with
some promise of freedom which men in their simplicity and their natural
unruliness cannot even understand, which they fear and dread—for
nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society
than freedom. But seest Thou these stones in this parched and barren
wilderness? Turn them into bread, and mankind will run after Thee like
a flock of sheep, grateful and obedient, though for ever trembling,
lest Thou withdraw Thy hand and deny them Thy bread.” But Thou wouldst
not deprive man of freedom and didst reject the offer, thinking, what
is that freedom worth, if obedience is bought with bread? Thou didst
reply that man lives not by bread alone. But dost Thou know that for
the sake of that earthly bread the spirit of the earth will rise up
against Thee and will strive with Thee and overcome Thee, and all will
follow him, crying, “Who can compare with this beast? He has given us
fire from heaven!” Dost Thou know that the ages will pass, and humanity
will proclaim by the lips of their sages that there is no crime, and
therefore no sin; there is only hunger? “Feed men, and then ask of them
virtue!” that’s what they’ll write on the banner, which they will raise
against Thee, and with which they will destroy Thy temple. Where Thy
temple stood will rise a new building; the terrible tower of Babel will
be built again, and though, like the one of old, it will not be
finished, yet Thou mightest have prevented that new tower and have cut
short the sufferings of men for a thousand years; for they will come
back to us after a thousand years of agony with their tower. They will
seek us again, hidden underground in the catacombs, for we shall be
again persecuted and tortured. They will find us and cry to us, “Feed
us, for those who have promised us fire from heaven haven’t given it!”
And then we shall finish building their tower, for he finishes the
building who feeds them. And we alone shall feed them in Thy name,
declaring falsely that it is in Thy name. Oh, never, never can they
feed themselves without us! No science will give them bread so long as
they remain free. In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet,
and say to us, “Make us your slaves, but feed us.” They will understand
themselves, at last, that freedom and bread enough for all are
inconceivable together, for never, never will they be able to share
between them! They will be convinced, too, that they can never be free,
for they are weak, vicious, worthless and rebellious. Thou didst
promise them the bread of Heaven, but, I repeat again, can it compare
with earthly bread in the eyes of the weak, ever sinful and ignoble
race of man? And if for the sake of the bread of Heaven thousands shall
follow Thee, what is to become of the millions and tens of thousands of
millions of creatures who will not have the strength to forego the
earthly bread for the sake of the heavenly? Or dost Thou care only for
the tens of thousands of the great and strong, while the millions,
numerous as the sands of the sea, who are weak but love Thee, must
exist only for the sake of the great and strong? No, we care for the
weak too. They are sinful and rebellious, but in the end they too will
become obedient. They will marvel at us and look on us as gods, because
we are ready to endure the freedom which they have found so dreadful
and to rule over them—so awful it will seem to them to be free. But we
shall tell them that we are Thy servants and rule them in Thy name. We
shall deceive them again, for we will not let Thee come to us again.
That deception will be our suffering, for we shall be forced to lie.
“‘This is the significance of the first question in the wilderness,
and this is what Thou hast rejected for the sake of that freedom which
Thou hast exalted above everything. Yet in this question lies hid the
great secret of this world. Choosing “bread,” Thou wouldst have
satisfied the universal and everlasting craving of humanity—to find
some one to worship. So long as man remains free he strives for nothing
so incessantly and so painfully as to find some one to worship. But man
seeks to worship what is established beyond dispute, so that all men
would agree at once to worship it. For these pitiful creatures are
concerned not only to find what one or the other can worship, but to
find something that all would believe in and worship; what is essential
is that all may be _together_ in it. This craving for _community_ of
worship is the chief misery of every man individually and of all
humanity from the beginning of time. For the sake of common worship
they’ve slain each other with the sword. They have set up gods and
challenged one another, “Put away your gods and come and worship ours,
or we will kill you and your gods!” And so it will be to the end of the
world, even when gods disappear from the earth; they will fall down
before idols just the same. Thou didst know, Thou couldst not but have
known, this fundamental secret of human nature, but Thou didst reject
the one infallible banner which was offered Thee to make all men bow
down to Thee alone—the banner of earthly bread; and Thou hast rejected
it for the sake of freedom and the bread of Heaven. Behold what Thou
didst further. And all again in the name of freedom! I tell Thee that
man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find some one quickly to
whom he can hand over that gift of freedom with which the ill-fated
creature is born. But only one who can appease their conscience can
take over their freedom. In bread there was offered Thee an invincible
banner; give bread, and man will worship thee, for nothing is more
certain than bread. But if some one else gains possession of his
conscience—oh! then he will cast away Thy bread and follow after him
who has ensnared his conscience. In that Thou wast right. For the
secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live
for. Without a stable conception of the object of life, man would not
consent to go on living, and would rather destroy himself than remain
on earth, though he had bread in abundance. That is true. But what
happened? Instead of taking men’s freedom from them, Thou didst make it
greater than ever! Didst Thou forget that man prefers peace, and even
death, to freedom of choice in the knowledge of good and evil? Nothing
is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing
is a greater cause of suffering. And behold, instead of giving a firm
foundation for setting the conscience of man at rest for ever, Thou
didst choose all that is exceptional, vague and enigmatic; Thou didst
choose what was utterly beyond the strength of men, acting as though
Thou didst not love them at all—Thou who didst come to give Thy life
for them! Instead of taking possession of men’s freedom, Thou didst
increase it, and burdened the spiritual kingdom of mankind with its
sufferings for ever. Thou didst desire man’s free love, that he should
follow Thee freely, enticed and taken captive by Thee. In place of the
rigid ancient law, man must hereafter with free heart decide for
himself what is good and what is evil, having only Thy image before him
as his guide. But didst Thou not know that he would at last reject even
Thy image and Thy truth, if he is weighed down with the fearful burden
of free choice? They will cry aloud at last that the truth is not in
Thee, for they could not have been left in greater confusion and
suffering than Thou hast caused, laying upon them so many cares and
unanswerable problems.
“‘So that, in truth, Thou didst Thyself lay the foundation for the
destruction of Thy kingdom, and no one is more to blame for it. Yet
what was offered Thee? There are three powers, three powers alone, able
to conquer and to hold captive for ever the conscience of these
impotent rebels for their happiness—those forces are miracle, mystery
and authority. Thou hast rejected all three and hast set the example
for doing so. When the wise and dread spirit set Thee on the pinnacle
of the temple and said to Thee, “If Thou wouldst know whether Thou art
the Son of God then cast Thyself down, for it is written: the angels
shall hold him up lest he fall and bruise himself, and Thou shalt know
then whether Thou art the Son of God and shalt prove then how great is
Thy faith in Thy Father.” But Thou didst refuse and wouldst not cast
Thyself down. Oh, of course, Thou didst proudly and well, like God; but
the weak, unruly race of men, are they gods? Oh, Thou didst know then
that in taking one step, in making one movement to cast Thyself down,
Thou wouldst be tempting God and have lost all Thy faith in Him, and