n Christianity and a
certain masterful, moral, self-assertive energy, such as we feel the
presence of in England and America, might well tend to make it
difficult for us to understand his meaning. It is precisely this sort of
thing that makes it difficult for us to understand Russia and the
Russian religion.

But as one reads Dostoievsky it is impossible to escape a suspicion
that we Western nations have as yet only touched the fringe of what
the Christian Faith is capable of, whether considered as a cosmic
secret or as a Nepenthe for human suffering.

He saw, with clairvoyant distinctness, how large a part of the
impetus of life's movement proceeds from the mad struggle, always
going on, between the strong and the weak. It was his emphasis
upon this struggle that helped Nietzsche to those withering
exposures of "the tyranny of the weak" which cleared the path for
his terrific transvaluations. It was Dostoievsky's demonic insight
into the pathological sub-soil of the Religion of Pity which helped
Nietzsche to forge his flashing counterblasts, but though their vision
of the "general situation" thus coincided, their conclusions were
diametrically different. For Nietzsche the hope of humanity is found
in the strong; for Dostoievsky it is found in the weak. Their only
ground of agreement is that they both refute the insolent claims of
mediocrity and normality.

One of the most arresting "truths" that emerge, like silvery fish, at
the end of the line of this Fisher in the abysses is the "truth" that any
kind of departure from the Normal may become a means of mystic
illumination. The same perversion or contortion of mind which may,
in one direction, lead to crime may, in another direction, lead to
extraordinary spiritual clairvoyance. And this applies to _all_
deviations from the normal type, and to all moods and inclinations
in normal persons under unusual excitement or strain. The theory is,
as a matter of fact, as old as the oldest races. In Egypt and India, as
well as in Rome and Athens, the gods were always regarded as in
some especial way manifesting their will, and revealing their secrets,
to those thus stricken. The view that wisdom is attained along the
path of normal health and rational sanity has always been a
"philosophical" and never a "religious" view. Dostoievsky's
dominant idea has, indeed, many affinities with the Pauline one, and
is certainly a quite justifiable derivation from the Evangelical
doctrine.