Sanine by Mikhail Artsybashev (ebook pdf reader for pc .TXT) 📕

itself to be’?” exclaimed Von Deitz angrily. “To Christianity belongs the future, and to suggest that it is obsolete⁠ ⁠…”

“There is no future for Christianity,” broke in Yourii vehemently. “If at the zenith of its development Christianity could not triumph, but became the tool of a shameless gang of impostors, it would be nothing short of absurd to expect a miracle nowadays, when even the word Christianity sounds grotesque. History is inexorable; what has once disappeared from the scene can never return.”

“Do you mean to say that Christianity has disappeared from the scene?” shrieked Von Deitz.

“Certainly, I do,” continued Yourii obstinately. “You seem as surprised as if such an idea were utterly impossible. Just as the law of Moses has passed away, just as Buddha and the gods of Greece are dead, so, too, Christ is dead. It is but the law of evolution. Why should you be so amazed? You don’t believe in the divinity of his doctrine, do you?”

“No, of course not,” retorted Von Deitz, less irritated at the question than at Yourii’s offensive tone.

“Then how can you maintain that a man is able to create eternal laws?”

“Idiot!” thought Yourii, agreeably convinced that the other was infinitely less intelligent than he, and would never be able to comprehend what was as plain and clear as noonday.

“Supposing it were so,” rejoined Von Deitz, nettled, in his turn. “The future will nevertheless have Christianity as its basis. It has not perished, but, like seed in the soil⁠ ⁠…”

“I was not talking about that,” said Yourii, confused somewhat, and thus the more vexed, “what I meant to say⁠ ⁠…”

“No, excuse me, but that’s what you said.⁠ ⁠…”

“If I said no, then I meant no! How absurd you are!” interrupted Yourii, rendered more furious by the thought that this stupid Von Deitz should for a moment presume to think himself the cleverer. “I meant to say⁠ ⁠…”

“That may be. I am sorry if I misunderstood you.” Von Deitz shrugged his narrow shoulders, with an air of condescension, as much as to say that he had got the best of the argument.

This was not lost upon Yourii, whose fury almost choked him.

“I do not deny that Christianity has played an enormous part⁠ ⁠…”

“Ah! now you contradict yourself,” exclaimed Von Deitz, more triumphant than ever, being intensely pleased to feel how incomparably superior he was to Yourii, who obviously had not the remotest conception of what was so neatly and definitely set out in his own brain.

“To you it may seem that I am contradicting myself,” said Yourii bitterly, “but, as a matter of fact, my contention is a perfectly logical one, and it is not my fault if you don’t wish to understand me. I said before, and I say again, that Christianity is played out, and it is vain to look to it for salvation.”

“Yes, yes; but do you mean to deny the salutary influence of Christianity, that is to say, as the basis of social order?⁠ ⁠…”

“No, I don’t deny that.”

“But I do,” interposed Sanine, who till now had walked behind them in silence. His voice sounded calm and pleasant, in strange contrast to the harsh accent of the disputants.

Yourii was silent. This good-tempered, mocking tone of voice annoyed him, yet he had no answer ready. He was not fond of arguing with Sanine, for his usual vocabulary proved useless in such an encounter. Every time it seemed as if he were trying to break down a wall while standing on smooth ice.

Von Deitz, however, stumbling along and rattling his spurs, exclaimed irritably:

“May I ask why?”

“Because I do,” replied Sanine coolly.

“Because you do! If one asserts a thing, one ought to prove it.”

“Why must I prove it? There is no need to prove anything. It is my own personal conviction, but I have not the slightest wish to convince you. Besides, it would be useless.”

“According to your line of reasoning,” observed Yourii cautiously, “one had better make a bonfire of all literature.”

“Oh no! Why do that?” replied Sanine. “Literature is a very great, and a very interesting thing. Real literature, such as I mean, is not polemical after the manner of some prig who, having nothing to do, endeavours to convince everybody that he is extremely intelligent. Literature reconstructs life, and penetrates even to the very lifeblood of humanity, from generation to generation. To destroy literature would be to take away all colour from life and make it insipid.”

Von Deitz stopped short, letting Yourii pass him, and then he aske Sanine:

“Oh! pray tell me more! What you were saying just now interests me immensely.”

Sanine laughed.

“What I said was simple enough. I can explain my point at greater length, if you wish. In my opinion Christianity has played a sorry part in the life of humanity. At the very moment when human beings felt that their lot was unbearable, and when the downtrodden and oppressed, coming to their senses, had determined to upset the monstrously unjust order of things, and to destroy all human parasites⁠—then, I say, Christianity made its appearance, gentle, humble, and promising much. It condemned strife, held out visions of eternal bliss, lulled mankind to sweet slumber, and preached a religion of nonresistance to ill-treatment; in short, it acted as a safety-valve for all this pent-up wrath. Those of powerful character, nurtured amid a spirit of revolt, and longing to shake off the yoke of centuries, lost all their fire. Like imbeciles, they walked into the arena and, with courage worthy of a better aim, courted destruction. Naturally, their enemies wished for nothing better. And now it will need centuries of infamous oppression before the flame of revolt shall again be lighted. Christianity has clothed human individuality, too obstinate ever to accept slavery, with a garb of penitence, hiding under it all the colours of liberty. It deceived the strong who today could have captured fortune and happiness, transferring life’s centre of gravity to the future, to a dreamland that does not exist, and that none of them will ever see. And thus all the charm