Russian Novelists (1887)/5
CHAPTER V.
THE RELIGION OF ENDURANCE. — DOSTOYEVSKI.
With Dostoyevski, that true Scythian, who will revolutionize all our previous habits of thought, we now enter into the heart of Moscow, with its giant cathedral of St. Basil, like a Chinese pagoda as to form and decoration, and built by Tartar architects; but dedicated to the worship of the Christian's God.
Turgenef and Dostoyevski, although contemporaries, belonging to the same school, and borne on by the same current of ideas, present in their respective works many sharply defined contrasts; still, they possess one quality in common, the outgrowth of the period in which they lived—sympathy for humanity. In Dostoyevski, this sympathy has developed into an intense pity for the humbler class, which regards him and believes in him as its master.
All contemporary forms of art have secret bonds in common. The same causes and sentiments which inclined these Russian authors to the study of real life attracted the great French landscape-painters of the same epoch to a closer Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/146 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/147 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/148 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/149 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/150 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/151 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/152 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/153 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/154 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/155 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/156 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/157 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/158 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/159 of ideas divided these circles. One embraced those of their predecessors, the revolutionists of December, 1825, who went no farther than to indulge in dreams of the emancipation and of a liberal government. The other set went far beyond their successors, the present nihilists, for they desired the total ruin of the entire social edifice.
Dostoyevski's character, as we have seen, made him an easy prey to radical ideas through his generosity as well as his hardships and his rebellious spirit. He has related how he was attracted toward socialism by the influence of his learned protector, Bielinski, who tried also to convert him to atheism.
Our author soon became an enthusiastic member of the reunions inspired by Petrachevski. He was, undoubtedly, among the more moderate, or rather one of the independent dreamers. Mysticism, sympathy for the unfortunate, these must have been what attracted him in any political doctrine; and his incapacity for action made this metaphysician altogether harmless. The sentence pronounced upon him charged him with very pardonable errors: participation in the reunions; also in the discussions on the severity of the press censure; the reading or listening to the reading of seditious pamphlets, etc. These crimes seem very slight when compared with the severe punishment they provoked. The police force was then so inefficient that it for Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/161 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/162 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/163 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/164 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/165 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/166 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/167 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/168 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/169 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/170 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/171 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/172 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/173 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/174 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/175 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/176 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/177 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/178 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/179 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/180 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/181 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/182 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/183 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/184 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/185 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/186 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/187 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/188 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/189 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/190 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/191 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/192 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/193 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/194 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/195 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/196 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/197 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/198 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/199 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/200 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/201 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/202 Page:Russian Novelists (1887).djvu/203 martyrdom. His eyelids, lips, and every fibre of his face quivered with nervous contractions. His features would grow fierce with anger when excited over some subject of discussion, and at another time would wear the gentle expression of sadness you so often see in the saints on the ancient Slavonic altar-pieces, so venerated by the Slav nation. The man's nature was wholly plebeian, with the curious mixture of roughness, sagacity, and mildness of the Russian peasant, together with something incongruous—possibly an effect of the concentration of thought illumining this beggar's mask. At first he rather repelled you, before his strange magnetism had begun to act upon you. He was generally taciturn, but when he spoke it was in a low tone, slow and deliberate, growing gradually more earnest, and defending his opinions without regard to any one. While sustaining his favorite theme of the superiority of the Russian lower classes, he often observed to ladies in the fashionable society he was drawn into, "You cannot pretend to compare with the most inferior peasant."
There was not much opportunity for literary discussion with Dostoyevski. He would stop you with one word of proud disdain. "We possess the best qualities of every other people, and our own peculiar ones in addition; therefore we can understand you, but you are not capable of understanding us."
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