ake
it, of course. I will not decline. They kill us out by the tens and
hundreds. That gives me the right to raise my hand and level it
against one of the enemy, against that one of their number who comes
closest to me, and makes himself more directly noxious to the work of
my life than the others. This is logic; but I go against logic for
once. I do not need your logic now. I know that their blood can bring
no results, I know that their blood is barren, fruitless! Truth grows
well only on the soil irrigated with the copious rain of our own blood,
and their putrid blood goes to waste, without a trace left. I know it!
But I take the sin upon myself. I'll kill, if I see a need for it! I
speak only for myself, mind you. My crime dies with me. It will not
remain a blot upon the future. It will sully no one but myself--no one
but myself."

He walked to and fro in the room, waving his hands in front of him, as
if he were cutting something in the air out of his way. The mother
looked at him with an expression of melancholy and alarm. She felt as
though something had hit him; and that he was pained. The dangerous
thoughts about murder left her. If Vyesovshchikov had not killed Isay,
none of Pavel's comrades could have done the deed. Pavel listened to
the Little Russian with drooping head, and Andrey stubbornly continued
in a forceful tone:

"In your forward march it sometimes chances that you must go against
your very own self. You must be able to give up everything--your heart
and all. To give your life, to die for the cause--that's simple. Give
more! Give that which is dearer to you than your life! Then you will
see that grow with a vigorous growth which is dearest to you--your
truth!"

He stopped in the middle of the room, his face grown pale and his eyes
half closed. Raising his hand and shaking it, he began slowly in a
solemn tone of assurance with faith and with strength:

"There will come a time, I know, when people will take delight in one
another, when each will be like a star to the other, and when each will
listen to his fellow as to music. The free men will walk upon the
earth, men great in their freedom. They will walk with open hearts,
and the heart of each will be pure of envy and greed, and therefore all
mankind will be without malice, and there will be nothing to divorce
the heart from reason. Then life will be one great service to man!
His figure will be raised to lofty heights--f