Chapter 102 Part Two - Forty

The large compartment of the third-class car had been exposed to the sun all day, and it was packed with people, so hot that it was hard to breathe.Nekhludoff remained standing on the small platform at the rear of the carriage and did not return to the carriage.But even here there is no fresh air.It was not until the train pulled out from the surrounding houses that there was a draft in the carriage that Nekhludoff puffed up his chest and took a deep breath. "Yes, they were killed," he repeated to himself what he had said to his sister.His mind was full of images today, but at this moment the beautiful face of the second dead prisoner, with his smiling lips, stern forehead, blue-shaven skull and skull Small, strong ears. "The most terrible thing is that he was murdered, but no one knows who killed him. But he was killed. Like the other prisoners, he was killed on Maslennikov's order. Escorted. As for Maslennikov, he did business and signed his name in ugly cursive script on the printed official paper. Of course he would not think he should be responsible. The person who specially inspected the prisoners The prison doctor would not even think he was responsible. He performed his duties seriously and removed the weak prisoners. Crowded together. And what about the warden?... The warden is only carrying out orders, how many male and female convicts and exiles are sent on the road on a given day. The escort officer is also not responsible, because his duty is only to collect according to the list He took a number of prisoners and handed them over to a certain place. As usual, he escorted the group of prisoners on the road according to the regulations, but he never expected that, like the two strong men Nekhludoff had seen, To be unable to bear it and die. No one is responsible, but people are killed alive, and in the final analysis are killed by those who have no responsibility for the death of these people.

"That's why it happens," thought Nekhludoff, "because all these people—prefects, wardens, police officers, police—believe that there is such a system in the world, according to which , there is no need to maintain normal relations between people. To be honest, all these people, Maslennikov, the warden, and the escort officer, if they are not governors, wardens, and An officer will think over and over twenty times: Is it okay that people are crowded together on the road in such hot weather? Even if they are on the road, they will rest twenty times in the middle. If they see someone exhausted and short of breath, they will be removed from the team Take him out, let him drink some water in the shade, and rest. If something unfortunate happens, there will be sympathy for people. The reason why they don't do it, and don't let others do it, is because they didn't treat these people Treat them as human beings, and don't see their responsibilities to these people. They always put official positions and rules and regulations above the relationship between people and the obligations of people to people. The crux of the problem is here ,” thought Nekhludoff. "As long as you admit that there is something more important than love, even if only for an hour, or only on a special occasion, there is no crime that can't be committed, and when you do it, you don't think You are committing a crime."

Nekhludoff was so thoughtful that he did not even notice the change in the weather.The sun was obscured by low-hanging clouds ahead, and from the western horizon came a thick, light-gray rain cloud.Already a heavy slanting rain fell over the distant fields and woods.Rain clouds bring moist air.Lightning occasionally pierced the gray clouds, and rolling thunder echoed with the increasingly rapid rumble of the train.The rain cloud was getting closer and closer, and the slanting rain began to hit the small platform at the rear of the car and also hit Nekhludoff's thin coat.He walked to the other side of the small platform, inhaling the moist and cool air and the smell of crops from the dry land. black borders of dark green potatoes in bloom.Everything on the earth seemed to be covered with a varnish, and the green became greener, the yellow became yellower, and the black became blacker.

"More, more!" Nekhludoff said happily, looking at the fields, orchards, and vegetable gardens that were thriving under the good rain. It didn't take long for the heavy rain to fall.Part of the rain cloud becomes rain and falls, while part floats away.Now all that remained was the drizzle left over from the rainstorm, falling vertically onto the wet ground.The sun came out again, and everything on the earth was shining again.On the eastern horizon, a long rainbow appeared, its position was not high, its color was bright, the purple was very thick, but one end was blurred. "Oh, what was I thinking just now?" thought Nekhludoff, when all the changes in nature had come to an end, and the train had entered a ravine between high slopes. "Yeah, I'm thinking, all those people, whether it's the warden, the escort officer, or other officials, were originally gentle and kind. The reason why they became vicious is because they became officials."

He remembered Maslennikov's indifferent expression when he described various scenes in the prison, the severity of the warden and the cruelty of the escort officer, who refused to allow weak prisoners to ride in the cart, and did not care about those who were about to give birth. The female prisoner wailed in pain on the train. "These people are all hard-hearted, indifferent to the suffering of others, just because they are officials. Once they are officials, the feelings of lovers cannot penetrate into their hearts, just like the stone ground cannot penetrate rainwater. ’ thought Nekhludoff, looking at the slopes of mottled stones on both sides of the ravine.He saw that the rain did not seep into the ground, but merged into streams and flowed down. "Perhaps the slopes on either side of the ravine must be made of stone, but these lands, which could have grown crops, grass, shrubs, and woods like the land on the top of the slope, are now barren of grass. It is a sad sight to see. People are the same way, thought Nekhludoff, "the governors, the wardens, the police, perhaps they all have to be there, but I see people who have lost the main human nature, that is, friendship and compassion between people. , that's really scary!"

"The crux of the matter," thought Nekhludoff, "is that those who take for law what is not law, do not recognize as law the eternal and immutable law which God Himself has written in men's hearts. Precisely because It makes it hard for me to get along with those people," thought Nekhludoff. "I'm terrified of them. They are indeed. Worse than robbers. Robbers have compassion, and those people have no compassion. They have no more compassion than these stones have from plants and trees." That's why they're scary. People like Pugachev and Racine are said to be terrible. In fact, they're a thousand times more terrifying than Pugachev and Racine," he continued thinking. "If someone asks a psychological question: How can people in our time, Christians, humane people, and good people in general, be made to commit heinous crimes without feeling that they are committing crimes? Well, there is only one answer : The existing order must be maintained, and those people must be made provincial governors, wardens, military officers and policemen. That is to say, first, they must be convinced that there is a kind of job in the world called national public office, and they are engaged in this kind of job People can be treated as objects, no brotherhood between people is needed; second, those public officials of the country should form a gang so that no one person alone needs to bear the responsibility no matter what the consequences of their treatment of people Without these conditions, such terrible things as I have seen today will not be done. The crux of the problem is that people think that there is a rule in the world according to which people do not need to be loving to others, but In fact, there is no such rule. People can treat things without love, whether they cut down trees, make bricks, or forge iron. They don’t need love. This is determined by the nature of bees. If you are not careful with bees, you will hurt both bees and yourself. The same is true with people. And it must be the same, because the friendship between people is the essence of human life. It is true that people cannot force themselves to love like they force themselves to work, but it cannot be concluded from this that it is okay to treat people without love, especially when you want others. If you have no love for people, Then you stay in your place," Nekhludoff said to himself, "just take care of yourself, do your work, but don't mingle with people. Eating is only good when you're hungry, and it's the same. , dealing with people is only beneficial when you are loving. As long as you allow yourself to treat people without love, as you did to your brother-in-law yesterday, then the cruelty you witness today will proliferate There will be no end to the pain I have experienced in my life. Yes, yes, that's all," thought Nekhludoff. "It's so good, so good!" he repeated to himself, feeling a double pleasure: on the one hand, the cooling of the day after the heat, and, on the other hand, the sudden clarification of a long-held doubt.

-------- ①Russian peasant uprising leader in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.