Resurrection
By Leo Tolstoy
(In this novel the greatest of modern religious teachers has
presented his indictment of the government and church of his
country. The hero is a Russian prince who in early youth seduces
a peasant girl, and in after life meets her, a prostitute on trial for
murder. He follows her to Siberia, in an effort to reclaim her.
Near the end of his story Tolstoi introduces this scene. The Englishman
may be said to represent modern science, which asks questions
and accumulates futile statistics; while the old man voices the
peculiar Christian Anarchism of the author, who at the age of
eighty-two left his home and wandered out into the steppes to die)
In one of the exiles' wards, Nehlúdof [the prince]
recognized the strange old man he had seen crossing
the ferry that morning. This tattered and wrinkled old
man was sitting on the floor by the beds, barefooted,
wearing only a dirty cinder-colored shirt, torn on one
shoulder, and similar trousers. He looked severely and
inquiringly at the new-comers. His emaciated body,
visible through the holes in his dirty shirt, looked miserably
weak, but in his face was more concentrated seriousness
and animation than even when Nehlúdof saw him
crossing the ferry. As in all the other wards, so here also
the prisoners jumped up and stood erect when the official
entered; but the old man remained sitting. His eyes
glittered and his brow frowned wrathfully.
"Get up!" the inspector called out to him.
The old man did not rise, but only smiled contemptuously.
"Thy servants are standing before thee, I am not thy servant. Thou bearest the seal. . . ." said the old man, pointing to the inspector's forehead.
