ough the grave,
and we stood at God's feet, equal--as we are!" These words, spoken by
Charlotte Bronte's _Jane Eyre_, express what Dostoyevsky's books do.
His spirit addresses our spirit. "Be no man's judge; humble love is a
terrible power which effects more than violence. Only active love can
bring out faith. Love men, and do not be afraid of their sins; love
man in his sin; love all the creatures of God, and pray God to make
you cheerful. Be cheerful as children and as the birds." This was
Father Zosima's advice to Alyosha. And that is the gist of
Dostoyevsky's message to mankind. "Life," Father Zosima also says to
Alyosha, "will bring you many misfortunes, but you will be happy on
account of them, and you will bless life and cause others to bless
it." Here we have the whole secret of Dostoyevsky's greatness. He
blessed life, and he caused others to bless it.

It is objected that his characters are abnormal; that he deals with
the diseased, with epileptics, neurasthenics, criminals, sensualists,
madmen; but it is just this very fact which gives so much strength and
value to the blessing he gave to life; it is owing to this fact that
he causes others to bless life; because he was cast in the nethermost
circle of life's inferno; he was thrown together with the refuse of
humanity, with the worst of men and with the most unfortunate; he saw
the human soul on the rack, and he saw the vilest diseases that
afflict the human soul; he faced the evil without fear or blinkers;
and there, in the inferno, in the dust and ashes, he recognized the
print of divine footsteps and the fragrance of goodness; he cried from
the abyss: "Hosanna to the Lord, for He is just!" and he blessed life.
It is true that his characters are taken almost entirely from the
_Despised and Rejected_, as one of his books was called, and often
from the ranks of the abnormal; but when a great writer wishes to
reveal the greatest adventures and the deepest experiences which the
soul of man can undergo, it is in vain for him to take the normal
type; it has no adventures. The adventures of the soul of Fortinbras
would be of no help to mankind; but the adventures of Hamlet are of
help to mankind, and the adventures of Don Quixote; and neither Don
Quixote nor Hamlet are normal types.

Dostoyevsky wrote the tragedy of life and of the soul, and to do this
he chose circumstances as terrific as those which unhinged the reason
of King Lear, shook that of Hamlet, and m