Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow by Irina Reyfman (top 10 novels of all time .txt) 📕

the immoderateness of passion. As we are talking about love, it would be natural to speak as well about marriage, about this holy social union whose rules nature did not outline in the heart, but whose sanctity flows from the fundamental condition of society. To your reason, scarcely embarked on this path, this would not be clear; to your heart, as yet not having experienced in society the egotistical passion of love, a story about it would be imperceptible to you, and therefore useless. If you should wish to have an idea about marriage, recall her who gave birth to you. Remember me with her and with you, revive in your hearing our words and mutual kisses, and clasp this picture to your heart. You will then feel in it some sort of pleasant shudder. What is it? With time you will recognize, but for now be contented with its sensation.

“Let us now briefly consider the rules of civic life. They cannot be prescribed accurately since their arrangement often takes shape according to momentary circumstances. But to avoid mistakes as much as possible, interrogate your heart in every initiative; it is good and can in no way betray you. What it tells you that is what you should do. By following your heart in youth you will not be mistaken if you have a good heart. But anyone is truly a madman who thinks he can follow reason even before they have hairs on their chin signifying experience.

“The rules of civic society relate to the fulfilment of customs and popular mores, or to the fulfilment of the law, or to the performance of virtue. If in society mores and customs are not contrary to the law, if the law does not present obstacles to virtue on its path, then adherence to the rules of civil society is easy. But where does a society of this type exist? All those known to us are full of many contradictions in mores and customs, the laws and virtues. This is why the fulfilment of one’s duty as a human being and citizen becomes difficult, since they frequently occur in complete contradiction.

“Inasmuch as virtue is the acme of human actions, its accomplishment, therefore, must not be hindered in any way. Disregard the mores and customs, disregard civil and sacred law, things held in such respect in society, when their accomplishment separates you from virtue. Do not attempt, above all, to cover up the failure of virtue with cowardly prudence. Without virtue you will be superficially fortunate but never blessed.

“In following what customs and mores require of us, we acquire the goodwill of those with whom we live. By implementing the prescription of the law, we may acquire the name of an honest person. By observing virtue, we acquire general trust, respect, and admiration even among those who otherwise have no wish to feel these in their soul. When giving a cup of poison to Socrates, the treacherous Athenian Senate trembled inwardly before his virtue.

“Never dare to observe customs contrary to the law. The law, however bad, is the connecting principle of society. And even if the ruler himself were to bid you to violate the law do not obey him, since he is mistaken to his own detriment and that of society. Should he abolish the law whose violation he orders, then obey it since the ruler is the source of laws in Russia.

“But if the law, or ruler, or some other earthly power incited you to a lie and the ruin of virtue, remain steadfast. Fear not mockery nor torment nor illness nor prison nor even death. Remain resolute in your soul like a stone surrounded by rioting but powerless waves. The fury of your tormentors will be smashed on your firmness; and if you are consigned to death they will be mocked, while you will live on in the memory of noble souls to the end of time. Be careful in advance about calling weakness in affairs prudence: weakness is the first enemy of virtue. Today you will infringe virtue for some sort of deference, tomorrow its ruin will seem to be virtue itself; and thus it is that vice will come to reign in your heart and distort the features of innocence in your soul and on your face.

“The virtues are private or civil. Motivations for the first are a good heart, gentleness, compassion, and their roots are always good. Motivations for civic virtues often have their origin in vanity and ambition. But one should not stop in their implementation. The purpose that moves them gives them importance. In the figure of Curtius who saved his fatherland from a fatal plague nobody sees a person who was vain or gloomy or desperate but rather a hero. If, however, the motivations to our civil virtues have their origin in a philanthropic firmness of soul, then their brilliance will be that much the greater. Always test yourself in the private virtues in order to be worthy of the implementation of the civic virtues.

“I shall propound to you also several rules of life to follow.—More than anything try in all your actions to earn your self-respect so that when in moments of solitude you turn your gaze inward you shall not only have nothing to regret in what you have done but will look upon yourself with reverence.

“Consistent with this rule, stay aloof insofar as possible from even the appearance of obsequiousness. When you enter the world, you will quickly learn that there is custom in society. The custom of visiting important figures in the mornings on celebratory days is miserable, meaningless, displaying in the visitors the spirit of timidity and in the visited a spirit of arrogance and feeble reason. The Romans had a similar practice, which they called ambition, that is ‘aspiration’ or ‘cultivation,’ which is why the love of honor is called ambition since the young through their visits to distinguished people sought for a path for themselves to ranks and