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【分类】双语小说
-[作者: 陀思妥耶夫斯基]
阅读：[7385]
PART I:Book I. The History Of A Family:Chapter V. Elders
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也许有的读者认为，我说的这位年轻人生来就有病态的、狂热的、不够健全的天性，是个平庸的幻想家，无精打采、羸弱委琐的人。实际情况恰恰相反，阿廖沙当时还是个十九岁的青年，身材匀称，脸色红润，目光炯炯。那时候他甚至非常英俊，个儿不高不矮，体态端庄，深褐色的头发，一张略长却又不失端正的鹅蛋脸，一双分得很开但很明亮的深灰色眼睛，神态深沉而安详。也许有人会说，红润的脸颊并不妨碍他成为狂热分子或神秘主义者，但我觉得阿廖沙甚至比任何一个现实主义者更清醒。当然喽，他在修道院里完全相信各种奇迹，不过依我看来，奇迹永远不会使现实主义者感到不安，也并非奇迹才能使现实主义者接受信仰。真正的现实主义者，即使没有信仰，也始终会在自己身上找到不相信奇迹的力量和能力，而如果奇迹出现在他面前，成为无法否认的事实，那么他宁愿不相信自己的感觉，也不会承认事实。即使承认事实，也只是把它看作一种自然的事实，只是在此之前他不知道罢了。现实主义者身上的信仰并非来自奇迹，相反，倒是信仰产生奇迹。现实主义者一旦有了信仰，那么根据自己的现实主义，他势必要承认奇迹。使徒多马说，在没有亲眼看见之前他是决不会相信的，但是他看到之后便说：“我的主，我的上帝！”是不是奇迹使他有了信仰呢？很可能不是，他之所以相信仅仅是因为他愿意相信，而且也许在说“没有看到之前决不相信”这话的时候内心深处就已经完全相信了。
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有人也许会说，阿廖沙生性迟钝，缺乏教养，连中学也没毕业，如此等等。他中学没毕业，那倒是事实，可是说他迟钝或者愚蠢，那就太不公道了。我把上面说过的话再说一遍：他之所以走上这条道路，仅仅是因为当时只有这条路才能打动他，在他看来这是他的心灵摆脱黑暗走向光明的必由之路。此外，还请诸位考虑以下情况，即他已经多少有点我们这个时代青年的特征了，也就是说，他本性诚实，向往真理，探索真理，信仰真理，而一旦信仰了真理，就要身体力行，要迅速建立功勋，甘愿为此牺牲一切，即使献出生命也在所不惜。不幸的是，这些青年往往不明白，在许多情况下牺牲生命也许是最容易不过的事情，而从自己青春勃发的生命中牺牲五六年时间去从事艰苦的学习，钻研科学，其目的哪怕只是为了大大增强自身的力量，以便服务于真理，服务于自己所钟爱并打算建立的功勋，那么对他们许多人来说要作出这样的牺牲几乎是绝对办不到的。阿廖沙无非是选择了一条与大家截然相反的道路而已，只不过内心怀着那种尽快完成功勋的渴望罢了。他经过一番认真的思索之后，立即对灵魂不朽和上帝产生了坚定的信念，自然而然地对自己说：“我要为了灵魂不朽而活着，决不采取模棱两可的态度。”同样，假如他认为不存在上帝和灵魂不朽，那他也会毫不犹豫地立即成为一名无神论者或社会主义者（因为社会主义不仅仅是工人阶级的问题，或者所谓的第四等级的问题，而首先是无神论的问题，无神论在当代具体化的问题，是巴比伦塔的问题——建筑这座高塔不需要依靠上帝，也不是将人间变成天堂，而是要把天堂搬到人间）。阿廖沙甚至觉得再像从前那样生活是荒诞和不可能的了。《圣经》上说：“你若愿意做个完人，可去变卖你所有的，分给穷人……你还要来跟从我。”阿廖沙则对自己说：“我不能只拿出两个卢布以代替‘一切’，也不能够只做弥撒以代替‘跟从我’。”他幼年的回忆中，也许还保留着我们城外那座修道院的影子，当初他母亲经常带他到那儿去做弥撒，也许圣像前夕阳的斜辉对他产生了影响——他那患癫痫病的母亲往往把他举到神像面前。他这一次心事重重地到我们这儿来，也许就是为了看一看：这里是否舍弃了“一切”或者仅仅舍弃了两个卢布，——于是他在修道院里遇到了这位长老……
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这位长老，我在上面已经交代过，就是佐西马长老。但是这里还得略为谈一谈我们修道院里的“长老”究竟是怎么回事，可惜我对这些事情并不十分通晓，没有太大把握。尽管如此，我还想尝试一下用三言两语作些肤浅的介绍。首先，据一些行家说，长老和长老制度出现在我们俄罗斯的修道院里为时不久，还不到一百年，可是在整个信奉正教的东方，尤其在西奈和阿索斯，却已存在一千多年了。他们肯定地说，古时候，我们俄罗斯也有过长老制，或者说照理应该存在过，可是俄罗斯发生了种种灾难，由于鞑靼人的入侵，由于一次次战乱，由于君士坦丁堡被征服后中断了跟东方原有的联系，这种制度便在我们这儿被遗弃了，长老也绝迹了。但从上世纪末起，一位叫做“伟大的苦行者”的巴伊西·维里契科夫斯基及其门徒又重新恢复了这个制度，但是直到如今，甚至过了将近一百年之后，尚未在多数修道院内实行，有时候甚至作为一件俄罗斯从未听说过的新鲜事而遭到压制。在我们俄罗斯，只有在一个非常偏僻但又非常著名的科泽尔县奥普基纳修道院里，这个制度才特别兴旺发达。至于我们城外那个修道院里的长老制，是什么时候、由谁建立的，那我就说不清了，可是已经传到第三代，而佐西马长老则是第三代的最后一人，但他衰弱多病，气数也快尽了。将来由谁来代替他，目前还不知道。这个问题对我们这座修道院来说是至关紧要的，因为我们的修道院迄今为止还没有什么特别著名的地方，里面既没有圣徒的遗骸，也没有显灵的神像，甚至没有与俄国历史有关的光荣传说，也谈不上对我们的祖国作出过什么历史性的丰功伟绩。它的兴盛并且名闻全俄，完全是由于长老的缘故。为了亲眼目睹并聆听他们布道，人们不远千里，成群结队地从俄罗斯的四面八方拥到我们这里。那么，长老究竟是怎么回事呢？长老就是把你的灵魂和意志纳入到他的灵魂和意志中去的人。您选定了一位长老，就得放弃自己的意志，把自己的意志交给他，彻底放弃自己的意志。对于决心放弃自己意志的人来说，他要自觉自愿地经受这种考验，进入这种可怕的人生炼狱。他希望通过这种长期磨炼来战胜自己，把握自己，以便通过终生的修行最终获得完全的自由，即自我解脱，避免那些活了一辈子却未能在自己身上找到自我的人的命运。这种发明，也就是长老制——并非理论性的创造，而是来源于东方的实践，这种实践至今已有上千年了。对长老承担的义务不同于我们俄罗斯修道院中常见的那种“修炼”，这里规定所有跟随长老进行修炼的人必须永远向他忏悔，师徒之间应保持一种牢不可破的联系。据说有这么一个例子，有一次，那是在基督教的早期，有一位见习修士，他没有完成长老交给他的某项修炼任务，便离开修道院到了另一个国家，从叙利亚到了埃及，在那里经过长期而艰苦的修炼之后，终于熬尽磨难，殉道而死。教会尊他为圣者，为他举行葬礼。正当教堂执事大声喊着：“未曾受洗的人请离开！”的时候，那棺材连同躺在里面的殉难者突然离开原地，移出了教堂，这样接连重复了三次。后来终于发现，这位殉教的圣者破坏了修炼的规矩，擅自离开了长老，因此未经长老解除是无法获得宽恕的，即使他有伟大的功德也不行。直到把长老请来解除了他的修炼之后，他的葬礼才得以完成。当然，这仅仅是古代的传说，但是有一件前不久发生的事情：我们当今的一位修士在阿索斯修行，这地方他非常喜欢，把它当做栖隐之地。突然，他的长老命令他离开阿索斯，先到耶路撒冷朝拜圣地，然后返回俄国，回到北方的西伯利亚去：“那里才是你该去的地方，而不是这里。”那修道士听了十分震惊，也十分伤心，于是垂头丧气地到君士坦丁堡求见总主教，央求免除他的修炼。总主教回答说，不但他总主教无法解脱他，而且天底下没有也不可能有解除他修炼的权力。既然长老已经规定了他的修炼，那就只有长老本人拥有这样的权力。这样，在某些情况下长老被赋予了一种无限的不可思议的权力。这就是长老制在我国许多修道院里几乎受到压制的原因。不过，在老百姓中间，长老们备受尊敬。譬如说，不仅普通老百姓，就连那些最有地位的人也纷纷到我们修道院里向长老们顶礼膜拜，向他们忏悔自己的罪孽，倾诉自己的疑惑和痛苦，请他们给予忠告和谕示。反对长老制的人们看到这种情况后便进行种种责难，大叫大嚷说这样一来忏悔的圣礼被蛮横而轻率地贬低了。其实，见习修士和俗人向长老忏悔，他们并没有把它看作是一种圣礼。尽管如此，长老制最后还是站稳了脚跟，并且逐渐在俄国的修道院里盛行开来。至于这件使人只在道德上从奴役走向自由、走向自我完善又历经千年沧桑的武器，可能会变成一把双刃利剑，使某些人非但没有走向驯服和彻底的自我克制，恰恰相反，会导致他们恶魔般的狂傲，也就是说，不是获得自由，而是套上锁链，这种情况也许确实是存在的。
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佐西马长老已经六十五岁了，他出身于地主家庭，年轻时曾是一名军人，在高加索当过尉官。毫无疑问，他是以自己心灵上某种超凡的魅力使阿廖沙折服的。阿廖沙就住在长老的修道室里——长老十分喜欢他，让他住进自己的修道室。值得一提的是，当初阿廖沙住在修道院里的时候还不受任何约束，他可以随便外出，即使离开好几天也没有关系，他穿修道服也完全出于自愿，只是为了在修道院里不至于显得有什么特殊。当然，他自己也喜欢这样。也许是长老始终拥有的那种力量和声誉对阿廖沙年轻的思想产生了强烈的影响。许多人说佐西马长老多年来接待了所有前来向他忏悔自己心灵并渴望得到他忠告和解救的人——他内心容纳的剖白、痛悔是如此之多，以致于他最后具备了洞察一切的能力，他一眼就可以看出陌生人为什么要到他这儿来，有什么要求，甚至能猜到是什么痛苦在折磨着他的良心。前来求他的陌生人还没有开口，他就知道了对方内心的秘密，这使人惊讶、羞愧，有时候几乎使人害怕。可是阿廖沙几乎始终能够看到，许多人，几乎所有的人，第一次跟长老单独密谈，他们进去的时候怀着恐惧和不安，而从他那儿出来的时候，差不多一个个都变得开朗和舒畅，布满阴霾的脸也会洋溢着幸福。令阿廖沙特别惊讶的是长老的态度一点也不严厉，恰恰相反，他待人接物一向十分和善。修士们说他心里牵挂的就是那些罪孽比较深重的人，谁的孽债最深重，他就最爱谁。直到长老大限将近的时候，修士中间还有忌恨他的人，不过这种人已经不多，他们只能保持沉默，虽然其中也包括修道院里几位相当有名望的重要人物，例如那位以沉默和持斋著称的老修士。不过，大多数人毕竟拥戴佐西马长老，许多人甚至全心全意地、热烈而真诚地爱他，有些人简直成了他狂热的崇拜者。这些人虽然还不敢公开宣扬，但在私下里却直截了当说他是位圣人，说这是没有疑问的事。他们看到长老的生命行将结束，因此期待着很快会出现奇迹，而他所在的修道院在不久的将来也会获得巨大的声誉。对于长老会显示奇迹的能力，连阿廖沙都深信不疑，正如他完全相信棺材会从教堂里不翼而飞的故事一样。他亲眼看到许多人带着有病的孩子或者成年的亲属来央求长老抚摸他们的额头，为他们祈祷，过了不久这些人又回来了，有的甚至头天刚走，第二天就又回来了，跪在长老面前，泪流满面地感谢他的救治。至于是否真的治好了毛病或者病情有些好转，这个问题对阿廖沙来说根本不存在，因为他完全相信自己的师父具有这种精神力量，师父的声望似乎成了他自己的胜利。每当长老出来接待那些恭候在修道院大门口的朝拜者的时候，他心情特别激动，特别兴奋。这些朝拜者都是平民百姓，他们从俄国各地专程赶到这儿来想见一见这位长老并且求他赐福；他们匍匐在他面前哭泣，吻他的脚，吻他脚下的土地，大声喊叫，女人们把自己的孩子举到他面前，把害癫痫病的女人领到他面前。长老和他们说话，简短地为他们祈祷，为他们祝福，然后让他们回去。近来长老经常发病，身体日渐虚弱，有时候连走出自己修道室的力气也没有，于是朝拜的人在修道院要接连等好几天才能见到他。至于他们为什么这样爱长老，他们为什么跪在他面前，为什么见到他就感动得流下眼泪，阿廖沙简直不会提出这样的问题。啊，他太了解俄国的普通老百姓了！他们温顺的灵魂被劳累和悲伤，更主要的是被普遍存在的不公和罪孽（自身的和普天下的）折磨得痛苦不堪，他们最大的要求和安慰莫过于找到一处圣地或一位圣人，向他顶礼膜拜。“尽管我们这儿有罪孽、有谎言、有诱惑，但是在世界的某个地方毕竟还有圣人，还有高人；他有真理，他知道真理；这样看来，真理并没有在世界上消亡，也许什么时候还会来到我们身边并会像给我们许诺的那样降临到全世界。”阿廖沙知道，老百姓正是这样感觉的，甚至是这样考虑的，他明白这一点。而在老百姓眼里，长老正是这样一位圣人，正是上帝和真理的捍卫者。对此他没有丝毫的怀疑，如同那些哭泣的农夫，那些把自己的孩子捧到长老面前的患病的女人一样。关于长老死后会给修道院带来无上荣光的信念主宰着阿廖沙的心，这信念也许比修道院里的任何人更牢固。总之，近来有一种深刻而热烈的喜悦之情如火焰一般在他内心越烧越旺。至于眼前这位长老是否是绝无仅有的个别现象的问题，并没有使他感到丝毫的不安：“不管怎么说，他是圣人，他心里蕴藏着能使所有人获得新生的秘密，他是一种能使真理最终在全世界确立的力量，到那时候大家都会成为圣徒，相互友爱，再也不分贫富，没有贵贱，大家都是上帝之子，真正的基督的天国将会降临人间。”这就是阿廖沙梦寐以求的理想。
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两位兄长的到来似乎给阿廖沙留下了极其深刻的印象——在此之前他根本不认识他们。他跟德米特里·费奥多罗维奇的关系要比同母所生的胞兄伊凡·费奥多罗维奇更亲密些，虽然德米特里·费奥多罗维奇回来得最晚。他很想跟二哥伊凡亲近，二哥回来已经两个月了，他们也经常见面，可就是怎么也合不来；阿廖沙本来就寡言少语，他似乎在期待着什么，似乎有点腼腆，而伊凡呢，尽管阿廖沙起初也觉察到二哥好奇的目光长时间地注视着他，然而过了不久似乎就不把他放在心上了。阿廖沙发现了这种情况之后，不免有些困惑。他认为二哥对他冷淡是由于年龄上的差异，尤其是文化程度不同。阿廖沙也有过另外的想法：伊凡对他如此冷漠也许出于某种阿廖沙根本不知道的原因。不知为什么，他总觉得伊凡有什么重要的心事，在努力追求某种目的，也许是很难达到的目的，因此顾不上他，这就是他对阿廖沙心不在焉的唯一原因。阿廖沙还想过：这位满肚子学问的无神论者是不是瞧不起他这个傻乎乎的见习修士？他完全知道他二哥是位无神论者。如果二哥确实瞧不起他，那他也不会因此而感到难过的。不过他还是怀着一种连他自己也说不清的不安和惶惑期待着二哥来亲近他。大哥德米特里·费奥多罗维奇说起二哥伊凡的时候总是怀着极大的尊敬和特殊的激情。正是从他那儿阿廖沙才知道了近来使两位兄长关系密切起来的那件重要事情的来龙去脉。德米特里如此称赞二哥，这使阿廖沙更加觉得大哥德米特里跟二哥伊凡相比简直是个毫无教养的人。如果把他们俩放在一起，那么无论是个性还是禀赋，都成了鲜明的对照，也许再也无法想象比他们两人之间的差异更加悬殊的了。
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就在这时候，这个混乱家庭的全体成员在长老的修道室里团聚了，或者说得更准确些，召开了一次家庭会议。这次家庭会议对阿廖沙产生了异乎寻常的影响。召开这次家庭会议的借口，实际上是硬想出来的。当时德米特里·费奥多罗维奇和父亲费奥多尔·巴夫洛维奇之间正在为遗产和财务闹纠纷，显然到了不可开交的地步。两人关系紧张，一触即发。好像是费奥多尔·巴夫洛维奇半开玩笑似的首先提出了全家到佐西马长老修道室里聚会的想法，即使不用长老直接出面调解，总还可以用比较体面的方式达成一致，更何况长老的职务和面子也可能起点促进和解的作用。德米特里·费奥多罗维奇从来没到过长老那儿，甚至没有见过他的面，当然认为他们无非是想用长老来吓唬他。但是他近来跟父亲的争吵中有过许多特别出格的举动，他为此而感到内疚，于是他也接受了这个建议。顺便要指出的是，他不像伊凡·费奥多罗维奇那样住在父亲家里，而是单独住在城市的另一头。正巧当时住在我们城里的彼得·亚历山德罗维奇·米乌索夫特别赞成费奥多尔·巴夫洛维奇这个主意。他这位四五十年代的自由派、自由思想分子和无神论者，也许出于无聊，也许为了取乐，非常积极地参与了这件事情。他突然心血来潮，要想看一看修道院和“圣人”。因为他跟修道院之间旷日持久的争执还在继续，涉及双方划分地界、砍伐树林、河里捕鱼之类的诉讼尚未了结，所以他想抓紧时间利用这个机会，借口说他很想独自跟修道院院长进行谈判，看看是否能用友好的方式来结束他们的争执。怀着这样良好的愿望前去拜访修道院的人，比起普通的好奇的游客，当然会受到更加周到殷勤的接待。基于这些考虑，修道院内部也许对近来病得几乎一直没有离开过修道室，甚至拒绝接见一般来访者的长老施加了某种影响。最后长老竟同意了，还确定了具体日期。“是谁让我去替他们分割财产的？”他只是微笑着这样问阿廖沙。
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阿廖沙听说了聚会的事，心里非常不安。如果说诉讼和争执双方有谁认真看待这次聚会的话，那无疑只有大哥德米特里一个人；其他人全部抱着轻率的，对长老来说也许是带侮辱性的目的——这就是阿廖沙的想法。如果二哥伊凡和米乌索夫要来参加的话，那是出于好奇，也许是出于极不礼貌的好奇，至于他的父亲，也许是为了表演一下小丑的角色，制造一个滑稽的场面。阿廖沙尽管嘴里不说，但对父亲的了解却是全面而深刻的。我要重复一遍，这孩子完全不像大家认为的那样单纯。他怀着沉重的心情等待着约定的这一天。毫无疑问，他内心非常希望所有这些家庭纠纷能够早日结束。但他最关心的还是长老：他一直在为长老、为长老的名誉而提心吊胆，生怕长老受到侮辱，尤其害怕米乌索夫巧妙而有礼貌的嘲笑，以及学问高深的伊凡居高临下、阴阳怪气的话语。这一切他都想到了。他甚至想冒昧地预先提醒长老，向他介绍一下这些可能前来参加聚会的人，但他考虑了一下，还是打消了这个念头。直到在约定的那一天的前夕，他才通过一位熟人转告大哥德米特里，说他很爱他，并且期待着他信守自己的诺言。德米特里想了好久，怎么也记不起向他许下了什么诺言，于是给他回了一封信，说他面对“卑鄙行为”一定尽最大努力克制自己，还说他虽然深深敬仰长老和伊凡兄弟，但还是坚信这里为他设置了一个圈套，或者是一场卑劣的闹剧。“但是我宁愿咬破自己的舌头，也决不冒犯你如此敬仰的圣人。”德米特里在信的末尾这样写道。这封信并没有使阿廖沙受到很大的鼓舞。
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Some of my readers may imagine that my young man was a sickly, ecstatic, poorly developed creature, a pale, consumptive dreamer. On the contrary, Alyosha was at this time a well‐grown, red‐cheeked, clear‐eyed lad of nineteen, radiant with health. He was very handsome, too, graceful, moderately tall, with hair of a dark brown, with a regular, rather long, oval‐shaped face, and wide‐set dark gray, shining eyes; he was very thoughtful, and apparently very serene. I shall be told, perhaps, that red cheeks are not incompatible with fanaticism and mysticism; but I fancy that Alyosha was more of a realist than any one. Oh! no doubt, in the monastery he fully believed in miracles, but, to my thinking, miracles are never a stumbling‐block to the realist. It is not miracles that dispose realists to belief. The genuine realist, if he is an unbeliever, will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the miraculous, and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the fact. Even if he admits it, he admits it as a fact of nature till then unrecognized by him. Faith does not, in the realist, spring from the miracle but the miracle from faith. If the realist once believes, then he is bound by his very realism to admit the miraculous also. The Apostle Thomas said that he would not believe till he saw, but when he did see he said, “My Lord and my God!” Was it the miracle forced him to believe? Most likely not, but he believed solely because he desired to believe and possibly he fully believed in his secret heart even when he said, “I do not believe till I see.”
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I shall be told, perhaps, that Alyosha was stupid, undeveloped, had not finished his studies, and so on. That he did not finish his studies is true, but to say that he was stupid or dull would be a great injustice. I’ll simply repeat what I have said above. He entered upon this path only because, at that time, it alone struck his imagination and presented itself to him as offering an ideal means of escape for his soul from darkness to light. Add to that that he was to some extent a youth of our last epoch—that is, honest in nature, desiring the truth, seeking for it and believing in it, and seeking to serve it at once with all the strength of his soul, seeking for immediate action, and ready to sacrifice everything, life itself, for it. Though these young men unhappily fail to understand that the sacrifice of life is, in many cases, the easiest of all sacrifices, and that to sacrifice, for instance, five or six years of their seething youth to hard and tedious study, if only to multiply tenfold their powers of serving the truth and the cause they have set before them as their goal—such a sacrifice is utterly beyond the strength of many of them. The path Alyosha chose was a path going in the opposite direction, but he chose it with the same thirst for swift achievement. As soon as he reflected seriously he was convinced of the existence of God and immortality, and at once he instinctively said to himself: “I want to live for immortality, and I will accept no compromise.” In the same way, if he had decided that God and immortality did not exist, he would at once have become an atheist and a socialist. For socialism is not merely the labor question, it is before all things the atheistic question, the question of the form taken by atheism to‐day, the question of the tower of Babel built without God, not to mount to heaven from earth but to set up heaven on earth. Alyosha would have found it strange and impossible to go on living as before. It is written: “Give all that thou hast to the poor and follow Me, if thou wouldst be perfect.”
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Alyosha said to himself: “I can’t give two roubles instead of ‘all,’ and only go to mass instead of ‘following Him.’ ” Perhaps his memories of childhood brought back our Monastery, to which his mother may have taken him to mass. Perhaps the slanting sunlight and the holy image to which his poor “crazy” mother had held him up still acted upon his imagination. Brooding on these things he may have come to us perhaps only to see whether here he could sacrifice all or only “two roubles,” and in the monastery he met this elder. I must digress to explain what an “elder” is in Russian monasteries, and I am sorry that I do not feel very competent to do so. I will try, however, to give a superficial account of it in a few words. Authorities on the subject assert that the institution of “elders” is of recent date, not more than a hundred years old in our monasteries, though in the orthodox East, especially in Sinai and Athos, it has existed over a thousand years. It is maintained that it existed in ancient times in Russia also, but through the calamities which overtook Russia—the Tartars, civil war, the interruption of relations with the East after the destruction of Constantinople—this institution fell into oblivion. It was revived among us towards the end of last century by one of the great “ascetics,” as they called him, Païssy Velitchkovsky, and his disciples. But to this day it exists in few monasteries only, and has sometimes been almost persecuted as an innovation in Russia. It flourished especially in the celebrated Kozelski Optin Monastery. When and how it was introduced into our monastery I cannot say. There had already been three such elders and Zossima was the last of them. But he was almost dying of weakness and disease, and they had no one to take his place. The question for our monastery was an important one, for it had not been distinguished by anything in particular till then: they had neither relics of saints, nor wonder‐working ikons, nor glorious traditions, nor historical exploits. It had flourished and been glorious all over Russia through its elders, to see and hear whom pilgrims had flocked for thousands of miles from all parts.
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What was such an elder? An elder was one who took your soul, your will, into his soul and his will. When you choose an elder, you renounce your own will and yield it to him in complete submission, complete self‐ abnegation. This novitiate, this terrible school of abnegation, is undertaken voluntarily, in the hope of self‐conquest, of self‐mastery, in order, after a life of obedience, to attain perfect freedom, that is, from self; to escape the lot of those who have lived their whole life without finding their true selves in themselves. This institution of elders is not founded on theory, but was established in the East from the practice of a thousand years. The obligations due to an elder are not the ordinary “obedience” which has always existed in our Russian monasteries. The obligation involves confession to the elder by all who have submitted themselves to him, and to the indissoluble bond between him and them.
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The story is told, for instance, that in the early days of Christianity one such novice, failing to fulfill some command laid upon him by his elder, left his monastery in Syria and went to Egypt. There, after great exploits, he was found worthy at last to suffer torture and a martyr’s death for the faith. When the Church, regarding him as a saint, was burying him, suddenly, at the deacon’s exhortation, “Depart all ye unbaptized,” the coffin containing the martyr’s body left its place and was cast forth from the church, and this took place three times. And only at last they learnt that this holy man had broken his vow of obedience and left his elder, and, therefore, could not be forgiven without the elder’s absolution in spite of his great deeds. Only after this could the funeral take place. This, of course, is only an old legend. But here is a recent instance.
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A monk was suddenly commanded by his elder to quit Athos, which he loved as a sacred place and a haven of refuge, and to go first to Jerusalem to do homage to the Holy Places and then to go to the north to Siberia: “There is the place for thee and not here.” The monk, overwhelmed with sorrow, went to the Œcumenical Patriarch at Constantinople and besought him to release him from his obedience. But the Patriarch replied that not only was he unable to release him, but there was not and could not be on earth a power which could release him except the elder who had himself laid that duty upon him. In this way the elders are endowed in certain cases with unbounded and inexplicable authority. That is why in many of our monasteries the institution was at first resisted almost to persecution. Meantime the elders immediately began to be highly esteemed among the people. Masses of the ignorant people as well as men of distinction flocked, for instance, to the elders of our monastery to confess their doubts, their sins, and their sufferings, and ask for counsel and admonition. Seeing this, the opponents of the elders declared that the sacrament of confession was being arbitrarily and frivolously degraded, though the continual opening of the heart to the elder by the monk or the layman had nothing of the character of the sacrament. In the end, however, the institution of elders has been retained and is becoming established in Russian monasteries. It is true, perhaps, that this instrument which had stood the test of a thousand years for the moral regeneration of a man from slavery to freedom and to moral perfectibility may be a two‐edged weapon and it may lead some not to humility and complete self‐control but to the most Satanic pride, that is, to bondage and not to freedom.
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The elder Zossima was sixty‐five. He came of a family of landowners, had been in the army in early youth, and served in the Caucasus as an officer. He had, no doubt, impressed Alyosha by some peculiar quality of his soul. Alyosha lived in the cell of the elder, who was very fond of him and let him wait upon him. It must be noted that Alyosha was bound by no obligation and could go where he pleased and be absent for whole days. Though he wore the monastic dress it was voluntarily, not to be different from others. No doubt he liked to do so. Possibly his youthful imagination was deeply stirred by the power and fame of his elder. It was said that so many people had for years past come to confess their sins to Father Zossima and to entreat him for words of advice and healing, that he had acquired the keenest intuition and could tell from an unknown face what a new‐comer wanted, and what was the suffering on his conscience. He sometimes astounded and almost alarmed his visitors by his knowledge of their secrets before they had spoken a word.
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Alyosha noticed that many, almost all, went in to the elder for the first time with apprehension and uneasiness, but came out with bright and happy faces. Alyosha was particularly struck by the fact that Father Zossima was not at all stern. On the contrary, he was always almost gay. The monks used to say that he was more drawn to those who were more sinful, and the greater the sinner the more he loved him. There were, no doubt, up to the end of his life, among the monks some who hated and envied him, but they were few in number and they were silent, though among them were some of great dignity in the monastery, one, for instance, of the older monks distinguished for his strict keeping of fasts and vows of silence. But the majority were on Father Zossima’s side and very many of them loved him with all their hearts, warmly and sincerely. Some were almost fanatically devoted to him, and declared, though not quite aloud, that he was a saint, that there could be no doubt of it, and, seeing that his end was near, they anticipated miracles and great glory to the monastery in the immediate future from his relics. Alyosha had unquestioning faith in the miraculous power of the elder, just as he had unquestioning faith in the story of the coffin that flew out of the church. He saw many who came with sick children or relatives and besought the elder to lay hands on them and to pray over them, return shortly after—some the next day—and, falling in tears at the elder’s feet, thank him for healing their sick.
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Whether they had really been healed or were simply better in the natural course of the disease was a question which did not exist for Alyosha, for he fully believed in the spiritual power of his teacher and rejoiced in his fame, in his glory, as though it were his own triumph. His heart throbbed, and he beamed, as it were, all over when the elder came out to the gates of the hermitage into the waiting crowd of pilgrims of the humbler class who had flocked from all parts of Russia on purpose to see the elder and obtain his blessing. They fell down before him, wept, kissed his feet, kissed the earth on which he stood, and wailed, while the women held up their children to him and brought him the sick “possessed with devils.” The elder spoke to them, read a brief prayer over them, blessed them, and dismissed them. Of late he had become so weak through attacks of illness that he was sometimes unable to leave his cell, and the pilgrims waited for him to come out for several days. Alyosha did not wonder why they loved him so, why they fell down before him and wept with emotion merely at seeing his face. Oh! he understood that for the humble soul of the Russian peasant, worn out by grief and toil, and still more by the everlasting injustice and everlasting sin, his own and the world’s, it was the greatest need and comfort to find some one or something holy to fall down before and worship.
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“Among us there is sin, injustice, and temptation, but yet, somewhere on earth there is some one holy and exalted. He has the truth; he knows the truth; so it is not dead upon the earth; so it will come one day to us, too, and rule over all the earth according to the promise.”
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Alyosha knew that this was just how the people felt and even reasoned. He understood it, but that the elder Zossima was this saint and custodian of God’s truth—of that he had no more doubt than the weeping peasants and the sick women who held out their children to the elder. The conviction that after his death the elder would bring extraordinary glory to the monastery was even stronger in Alyosha than in any one there, and, of late, a kind of deep flame of inner ecstasy burnt more and more strongly in his heart. He was not at all troubled at this elder’s standing as a solitary example before him.
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“No matter. He is holy. He carries in his heart the secret of renewal for all: that power which will, at last, establish truth on the earth, and all men will be holy and love one another, and there will be no more rich nor poor, no exalted nor humbled, but all will be as the children of God, and the true Kingdom of Christ will come.” That was the dream in Alyosha’s heart.
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The arrival of his two brothers, whom he had not known till then, seemed to make a great impression on Alyosha. He more quickly made friends with his half‐brother Dmitri (though he arrived later) than with his own brother Ivan. He was extremely interested in his brother Ivan, but when the latter had been two months in the town, though they had met fairly often, they were still not intimate. Alyosha was naturally silent, and he seemed to be expecting something, ashamed about something, while his brother Ivan, though Alyosha noticed at first that he looked long and curiously at him, seemed soon to have left off thinking of him. Alyosha noticed it with some embarrassment. He ascribed his brother’s indifference at first to the disparity of their age and education. But he also wondered whether the absence of curiosity and sympathy in Ivan might be due to some other cause entirely unknown to him. He kept fancying that Ivan was absorbed in something—something inward and important—that he was striving towards some goal, perhaps very hard to attain, and that that was why he had no thought for him. Alyosha wondered, too, whether there was not some contempt on the part of the learned atheist for him—a foolish novice. He knew for certain that his brother was an atheist. He could not take offense at this contempt, if it existed; yet, with an uneasy embarrassment which he did not himself understand, he waited for his brother to come nearer to him. Dmitri used to speak of Ivan with the deepest respect and with a peculiar earnestness. From him Alyosha learnt all the details of the important affair which had of late formed such a close and remarkable bond between the two elder brothers. Dmitri’s enthusiastic references to Ivan were the more striking in Alyosha’s eyes since Dmitri was, compared with Ivan, almost uneducated, and the two brothers were such a contrast in personality and character that it would be difficult to find two men more unlike.
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It was at this time that the meeting, or, rather gathering of the members of this inharmonious family took place in the cell of the elder who had such an extraordinary influence on Alyosha. The pretext for this gathering was a false one. It was at this time that the discord between Dmitri and his father seemed at its acutest stage and their relations had become insufferably strained. Fyodor Pavlovitch seems to have been the first to suggest, apparently in joke, that they should all meet in Father Zossima’s cell, and that, without appealing to his direct intervention, they might more decently come to an understanding under the conciliating influence of the elder’s presence. Dmitri, who had never seen the elder, naturally supposed that his father was trying to intimidate him, but, as he secretly blamed himself for his outbursts of temper with his father on several recent occasions, he accepted the challenge. It must be noted that he was not, like Ivan, staying with his father, but living apart at the other end of the town. It happened that Pyotr Alexandrovitch Miüsov, who was staying in the district at the time, caught eagerly at the idea. A Liberal of the forties and fifties, a freethinker and atheist, he may have been led on by boredom or the hope of frivolous diversion. He was suddenly seized with the desire to see the monastery and the holy man. As his lawsuit with the monastery still dragged on, he made it the pretext for seeing the Superior, in order to attempt to settle it amicably. A visitor coming with such laudable intentions might be received with more attention and consideration than if he came from simple curiosity. Influences from within the monastery were brought to bear on the elder, who of late had scarcely left his cell, and had been forced by illness to deny even his ordinary visitors. In the end he consented to see them, and the day was fixed.
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“Who has made me a judge over them?” was all he said, smilingly, to Alyosha.
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Alyosha was much perturbed when he heard of the proposed visit. Of all the wrangling, quarrelsome party, Dmitri was the only one who could regard the interview seriously. All the others would come from frivolous motives, perhaps insulting to the elder. Alyosha was well aware of that. Ivan and Miüsov would come from curiosity, perhaps of the coarsest kind, while his father might be contemplating some piece of buffoonery. Though he said nothing, Alyosha thoroughly understood his father. The boy, I repeat, was far from being so simple as every one thought him. He awaited the day with a heavy heart. No doubt he was always pondering in his mind how the family discord could be ended. But his chief anxiety concerned the elder. He trembled for him, for his glory, and dreaded any affront to him, especially the refined, courteous irony of Miüsov and the supercilious half‐utterances of the highly educated Ivan. He even wanted to venture on warning the elder, telling him something about them, but, on second thoughts, said nothing. He only sent word the day before, through a friend, to his brother Dmitri, that he loved him and expected him to keep his promise. Dmitri wondered, for he could not remember what he had promised, but he answered by letter that he would do his utmost not to let himself be provoked “by vileness,” but that, although he had a deep respect for the elder and for his brother Ivan, he was convinced that the meeting was either a trap for him or an unworthy farce.
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“Nevertheless I would rather bite out my tongue than be lacking in respect to the sainted man whom you reverence so highly,” he wrote in conclusion. Alyosha was not greatly cheered by the letter.
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