Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/279

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What Men Live by

XII.

And the body of the Angel was revealed, and it was clothed with light so that no eye could bear to look upon him, and he began to speak more terribly, just as if his voice did not come from him, but from Heaven. And the Angel said:

"I learnt that man does not live by anxious care of himself, but by love. It was not given the mother to know what was necessary for the life of her children; it was not given to the rich man to know what was necessary for himself; and it is given to no single man to know whether by the evening he will want boots to wear or bosoviki to be put upon the feet of his corpse. While I lived the life of man I lived not by care for mine own self, but by the love that was in the hearts of a wayfaring man and his wife, and they were kind and merciful to me. The orphans lived not by any care they had for themselves, but they lived through the love that was in the heart of a strange woman who was kind and merciful to them. And all these people lived not by reason of any care they had for themselves, but by the love for them that was in other people. I knew before that God gave life unto men, and desires them to live; but now I know other things also. I know that God does not desire men to live away from each other, and therefore has not revealed to them that it is necessary for them to live to themselves, but that He wishes them to live together, and therefore has revealed to them that they are needful to each other's happiness. I

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