Let one man approach the Lyapinsky house in the dusk, when a thousand
persons, naked and hungry, are waiting in the bitter cold for
admission, and let that one man attempt to help, and his heart will
ache till it bleeds, and he will flee thence with despair and anger
against men; but let a thousand men approach that other thousand with
a desire to help, and the task will prove easy and delightful. Let
the mechanicians invent a machine for lifting the weight that is
crushing us--that is a good thing; but until they shall have invented
it, let us bear down upon the people, like fools, like muzhiki, like
peasants, like Christians, and see whether we cannot raise them.

And now, brothers, all together, and away it goes!




Footnotes:

{1} The fine, tall members of a regiment, selected and placed
together to form a showy squad.

{2} [] Omitted by the Censor in the authorized edition printed in
Russia, in the set of Count Tolstoi's works.

{3} Reaumur.

{4} A drink made of water, honey, and laurel or salvia leaves, which
is drunk as tea, especially by the poorer classes.