see. Why is this? You say you are surprised at Pavlicheff's action; you
ascribe it to madness, to kindness of heart, and what not, but it is not
so.

"Our Russian intensity not only astonishes ourselves; all Europe wonders
at our conduct in such cases! For, if one of us goes over to Roman
Catholicism, he is sure to become a Jesuit at once, and a rabid one into
the bargain. If one of us becomes an Atheist, he must needs begin to
insist on the prohibition of faith in God by force, that is, by the
sword. Why is this? Why does he then exceed all bounds at once? Because
he has found land at last, the fatherland that he sought in vain before;
and, because his soul is rejoiced to find it, he throws himself upon it
and kisses it! Oh, it is not from vanity alone, it is not from feelings
of vanity that Russians become Atheists and Jesuits! But from spiritual
thirst, from anguish of longing for higher things, for dry firm land,
for foothold on a fatherland which they never believed in because they
never knew it. It is easier for a Russian to become an Atheist, than for
any other nationality in the world. And not only does a Russian 'become
an Atheist,' but he actually BELIEVES IN Atheism, just as though he
had found a new faith, not perceiving that he has pinned his faith to
a negation. Such is our anguish of thirst! 'Whoso has no country has no
God.' That is not my own expression; it is the expression of a merchant,
one of the Old Believers, whom I once met while travelling. He did not
say exactly these words. I think his expression was:

"'Whoso forsakes his country forsakes his God.'

"But let these thirsty Russian souls find, like Columbus' discoverers, a
new world; let them find the Russian world, let them search and discover
all the gold and treasure that lies hid in the bosom of their own land!
Show them the restitution of lost humanity, in the future, by Russian
thought alone, and by means of the God and of the Christ of our Russian
faith, and you will see how mighty and just and wise and good a giant
will rise up before the eyes of the astonished and frightened world;
astonished because they expect nothing but the sword from us, because
they think they will get nothing out of us but barbarism. This has
been the case up to now, and the longer matters go on as they are now
proceeding, the more clear will be the truth of what I say; and I--"

But at this moment something happened which put a most unexpected end to
the o