Talk:The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1894)/Chapter 1
I have read all that book several times, and found it quite brilliant. Henry Troyat, who has written a biography of 800 pages about its author, said that Tolstoï intended this book to be, in French, "son édifice moral," which I would render in english by, "the sum of his moral philosophy or character" - litteraly his "moral building," - maybe one would say in english, "his moral build-up" (...). Troyat also said that Tolstoï confessed to his secretary that this book was the one that gave him the greatest difficulty to write - despite the fact it took three years to write whereas War and Peace which is much longer had taken five - and noteworthily, that it was inspired by the book of the american Adin Ballou, "Christian non-resistance." May I add that accordingly to a professor of Russian studies in Montreal, E. Lowozy, who as published some works of Tolstoi in French, the philosophy of Tolstoï may not have considerably changed after the "Kingdom," together with "Confession," something which my readings fully confirmed until now.
Now, may somebody explain to me: "The spirit of Jacobinism is the spirit of retaliation, violence, and murder. It neither fears God nor regards man. We would be filled with the spirit of Christ."Is there a mistake when I read "we would be filled with..."; should not we rather read "we would NOT be filled." English is not my native tongue, and it does not make sense to me because I understand "we would have the spirit or Christ," which is obviously not the case when one resorts to violence as a "Jacobin". Could you please give me a synonym of "filled with," or if needed, explain to me how "would" completely modifies the meaning, or just say to me that the negation is indeed present but il follows from the previous sentence "neither...nor..." I Thank you very much for your help - Andre, Quebec, 08:19, 22 February 2008
- Salut Andre,
- In older English texts, "would" is often used to mean "would rather" - so the translator and Tolstoi are saying "The spirit of Jacobinism is [bad]. We would [rather] be filled with the spirit of Christ" as an alternative to Jacobinism. Does that make sense? Sherurcij Collaboration of the Week: Author:Augustus John Cuthbert Hare 22:41, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
Yes it does perfectly. I thank you very much ! Andre, Quebec —unsigned comment by 69.70.86.242 (talk) 07:52, 23 February 2008.