Latest / Timeless Drama - Full Books / Grand Inquisitor (dramatic reading) - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Transcript

Grand Inquisitor (dramatic reading) - Fyodor Dostoyevsky · Timeless Drama - Full Books

0:00
Speaker 1: Section one of The Grand Inquisitor. This is a LibriVox recording.
0:05
Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
0:10
Speaker 1: information or to find out how to volunteer, visit LibriVox
0:14
Speaker 1: dot org. The readers are Ruth Golding as the narrator.
0:21
Speaker 2: Roll of Ivan Karmochov read by Omadutrie.
0:24
Speaker 3: Alyosha, read by Martin Giesen.
0:28
Speaker 4: The Grand Inquisitor read by Denny Sayers.
0:33
Speaker 1: The Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translation by H. P. Blavatsky.
0:41
Speaker 1: Dedicated by the translator to those skeptics who clamors so loudly,
0:46
Speaker 1: both in print and private letters, show us the wonder
0:50
Speaker 1: working brothers. Let them come out publicly and we will
0:55
Speaker 1: believe in them. The following is an extract from the
1:00
Speaker 1: Dostaevsky's celebrated novel The Brothers Karamazov, the last publication from
1:07
Speaker 1: the pen of the great Russian novelist, who died a
1:10
Speaker 1: few months ago just as the concluding chapters appeared in print.
1:16
Speaker 1: Dostaevsky is beginning to be recognized as one of the
1:19
Speaker 1: ablest and profoundest among Russian writers. His characters are invariably
1:26
Speaker 1: typical portraits drawn from various classes of Russian society, strikingly
1:32
Speaker 1: lifelike and realistic to the highest degree. The following extract
1:38
Speaker 1: is a cutting satire on modern theology generally and the
1:42
Speaker 1: Roman Catholic religion in particular. The idea is that Christ
1:48
Speaker 1: revisits Earth coming to Spain at the period of the Inquisition,
1:54
Speaker 1: and is at once arrested as a heretic by the
1:57
Speaker 1: Grand Inquisitor the three brothers of the story. Yvonne, a
2:03
Speaker 1: rank materialist and an atheist of the New School, is
2:07
Speaker 1: supposed to throw this conception into the form of a poem,
2:12
Speaker 1: which he describes to Alyosha, the youngest of the brothers,
2:16
Speaker 1: a young Christianistic brought up by a saint in a monastery,
2:21
Speaker 1: as follows ed Theosophist November eighteen eighty one.
2:28
Speaker 2: Quite impossible, as you see, to start without an introduction,
2:32
Speaker 2: loved Yvonne. Well, then I mean to place the event
2:35
Speaker 2: described in the poem in the sixteenth century, an age
2:38
Speaker 2: that you must have been told at school, when it
2:41
Speaker 2: was the great fashion among poets to make the denycence
2:43
Speaker 2: and powers of high roles descend on art and mix
2:47
Speaker 2: freely with models. In France, all the notary's clerks and
2:51
Speaker 2: the monks in the cloisters as well, used to give
2:54
Speaker 2: grand performances, dramatic plays in which long scenes were enacted
2:58
Speaker 2: by the macdonal, the angels, the saints, Christ and even
3:02
Speaker 2: by God himself. In those days, everything was very artless
3:07
Speaker 2: and primitive. An instance of it may be found in
3:10
Speaker 2: Victor Hugo's drama not the Modapaghi, where at the municipal
3:14
Speaker 2: hall a play called Luke bon zuzu mo de la
3:17
Speaker 2: tre sante Edgracius Vigozo Maghi is enacted in honor of
3:22
Speaker 2: the eleven, in which the Virgin appears personally to pronounce
3:26
Speaker 2: her good judgment. In Moscow. During the prepation period, performances
3:31
Speaker 2: of nearly the same character, chosen especially from the Old Testament,
3:35
Speaker 2: were also in great favor. Apart from such place, the
3:39
Speaker 2: world was overflooded with mystical writings verses, the heroes of
3:43
Speaker 2: which are always selected from the ranks of anzels, saints,
3:46
Speaker 2: and other heavenly citizens. Answering to the devotional purposes of
3:50
Speaker 2: the age, the recluses of our monasteries, like the Roman
3:55
Speaker 2: Catholic monks, passed their time in translating copying and even
3:59
Speaker 2: producing original compositions upon such subjects and death remember during
4:04
Speaker 2: the Tata period. In this connection, I am reminded of
4:07
Speaker 2: a poem compiled in a convent a translation from the Greek,
4:10
Speaker 2: of course, called the Travels of the Murther of God
4:13
Speaker 2: among the Damned, with fitting illustrations and the boldness of
4:17
Speaker 2: conception in feared nowise to that of Dante. The Mother
4:21
Speaker 2: of God visits Hell in company with the archangel Michael
4:25
Speaker 2: as her cicero to guide her through the lesions of
4:28
Speaker 2: the damned. She sees them all, and this witness to
4:32
Speaker 2: their multiferous tortures. Among the many other exceedingly remarkably varieties
4:37
Speaker 2: of torments, every category of sinners having its own, there
4:41
Speaker 2: is one specific wordy of notice, namely, a class of
4:45
Speaker 2: the damned sentenced to gradually sink in a burning lake
4:48
Speaker 2: of brimstone and fire. Those whose scenes cause them to
4:52
Speaker 2: sink so low that they no longer can rise to
4:55
Speaker 2: the surface are forever forgotten by God. That is, they
5:00
Speaker 2: fade out from the omniscent memory, says the poem, an
5:03
Speaker 2: expression by the way of an extraordinary profundity of thought.
5:07
Speaker 2: When closely analyzed, the Virgin is terribly shocked, and falling
5:11
Speaker 2: down upon her knees in tears before the throne of God,
5:14
Speaker 2: begs that all she has seen in Hell, all all
5:18
Speaker 2: of that exception, should have their sentences remitted to them.
5:22
Speaker 2: Her dialog with God is colosally interesting. She supplicates she
5:27
Speaker 2: will not leave him, and when God, pointing to the
5:30
Speaker 2: pair's hands and fit of her son, cries how can
5:33
Speaker 2: I forgive his executioners, She then commands death. All the saints, martyrs, angels,
5:38
Speaker 2: and Arkansas should prostrate themselves with her before the immutable
5:43
Speaker 2: and changeless One and implore him to change his rat
5:46
Speaker 2: into mercy and forgive them all. The poem closes upon
5:51
Speaker 2: her obtaining from God a compromise, a kind of yellow
5:55
Speaker 2: spite of torches between Good Friday and Trinity. A chorus
5:59
Speaker 2: of the death singing loud praises to God from their
6:02
Speaker 2: bottomless pit, thanking and telling him, thou art right, O Lord,
6:07
Speaker 2: very right, Thou hast condemned us justly. My poem is
6:12
Speaker 2: of the same character. In it, it is Christ who
6:16
Speaker 2: appears on the scene. True, he says nothing, but only
6:19
Speaker 2: appears and passes out of sight. Fifteen centuries have left
6:24
Speaker 2: since he left the world with a distinct promise to
6:26
Speaker 2: return with power and with great glory, fifteen long centuries
6:31
Speaker 2: since his prophet cried, prepare ye the way of the Lord,
6:35
Speaker 2: since he himself had foretold. While yet on art of
6:38
Speaker 2: that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the
6:41
Speaker 2: angels of heaven, but my Father only. But christiandum expects him.
6:46
Speaker 2: Still it waits for him, with the same old faith
6:49
Speaker 2: and the same emotion. I would take far greater faith,
6:53
Speaker 2: For fifteen centuries have rolled away since the last sign
6:56
Speaker 2: from Heaven was sent to man and blind faith it
7:00
Speaker 2: remained alone to allull the trusting hearts, as Heaven would
7:03
Speaker 2: send a sign no more true Again, we have all
7:07
Speaker 2: heard of miracles being wrought ever since the age of
7:09
Speaker 2: miracles passed away to return no more. We had, and
7:13
Speaker 2: still have our saints credited with performing the most miraculous cures,
7:18
Speaker 2: And if we can believe their biographers, there have been
7:21
Speaker 2: those among them who have been personally visited by the
7:24
Speaker 2: Queen of Heaven. But Satan sleppeth not. And the first
7:29
Speaker 2: charms of doubt, and ever increase in unbelief in such
7:33
Speaker 2: wonders already had begun to sprout in Christian them as
7:36
Speaker 2: early as the sixteenth century. It was just at that
7:40
Speaker 2: time that a new and terrible heresy first made its appearance.
7:43
Speaker 2: In the north of Germany. A great star, shining as
7:47
Speaker 2: it were a lamp, fell upon the Bountein's waters, and
7:51
Speaker 2: they were made bitter. This heresy blasphemously denied miracles, but
7:56
Speaker 2: those who had remained faithful believed all the more ardently.
8:00
Speaker 2: The tears of mankind ascended to him as heretofar, and
8:03
Speaker 2: the Christian world was expecting him as confidently as ever.
8:08
Speaker 2: They loved him and hoped in him, thirsted and hungered
8:12
Speaker 2: to suffer and die for him, just as many of
8:14
Speaker 2: them had done before. So many centuries had weit. Trusting
8:18
Speaker 2: humanity implored him, crying with ardent fate and fervor. How long,
8:23
Speaker 2: o Lord, Holy and true, dost thou not come? So
8:28
Speaker 2: many long centuries had it vainly appealed to him that
8:31
Speaker 2: at last, in his inaccessible compassion, he consented to answer
8:36
Speaker 2: the prayer. He decided that once more, if it were
8:40
Speaker 2: but for one short hour, the people, his long suffering, tortured,
8:44
Speaker 2: fatally sinful, his loving and childlike, trusting people should behold
8:49
Speaker 2: him again the scene of action is placed by me
8:52
Speaker 2: in Spain, at Seville, during that terrible period of the Inquisition,
8:56
Speaker 2: when for a greater glory of God, stakes were flaming
9:00
Speaker 2: all over the country, burning wicked heretics in grand or
9:04
Speaker 2: thoat affairs. This particular visit has, of course, nothing to
9:08
Speaker 2: do with the promised advant when, according to the program,
9:12
Speaker 2: after the tribulation of those days, he will appear, coming
9:15
Speaker 2: in the clouds of heaven. For that coming of the
9:19
Speaker 2: sun of Man, as we are informed, will take place
9:22
Speaker 2: as suddenly as the lightning cometh out of the east
9:25
Speaker 2: and shine it up and under the waist. No, this
9:30
Speaker 2: once he desired to come unknown and appear among his children,
9:34
Speaker 2: just to the bones of the heretics, sentenced to be
9:36
Speaker 2: bound alive, had commenced crackling at her flaming stakes. Owing
9:41
Speaker 2: to his limitless mercy, he mixes once more outmortals, and
9:44
Speaker 2: in the same form in which he was wont to
9:47
Speaker 2: appear fifteen centuries ago. He discends, just at the very
9:51
Speaker 2: moment when before King, courteous knights, cardinals, and the fairest
9:56
Speaker 2: dames of Court, before the whole population of Seville, up
10:00
Speaker 2: words of a hundred wicked heretics are being roasted in
10:03
Speaker 2: a magnificent auto de fey at missourium de glorium, by
10:07
Speaker 2: the order of the powerful Cardinal Grant Inquisitor. He comes
10:11
Speaker 2: silently and unannounced, yet all how strange yeah all recognize
10:16
Speaker 2: him at once. The population rushes towards him, as if
10:19
Speaker 2: propelled by some irresistible force. It surrounds trons and presses
10:24
Speaker 2: around it follows him silently and at a smile of
10:29
Speaker 2: boundless compassion upon his lips, he crossed the dense crowd
10:33
Speaker 2: and moves softly on the sun of love burns in
10:37
Speaker 2: his heart, and warm rays of light, wisdom and power
10:41
Speaker 2: being fought from his eyes and pour down their waves
10:44
Speaker 2: upon the swimming multitude of the rebel assembled around, making
10:49
Speaker 2: their hearts vibrate with returning love. He extends his hands
10:54
Speaker 2: over their heads, blesses them, and from mere contact with him,
10:58
Speaker 2: I even with is comes a healing power goes forth,
11:03
Speaker 2: and old men blind from his bard cries, Lord, heal
11:06
Speaker 2: me that I may see thee and the scales falling
11:10
Speaker 2: off the closed eyes. The blind man beholds him. The
11:14
Speaker 2: crowd wishes for joy and kisses the ground upon which
11:17
Speaker 2: he treads. Children drew flowers along his path and sing
11:20
Speaker 2: to him, Hosenna, it is he, It is himself, They
11:25
Speaker 2: say to each other. It must be he. It can
11:29
Speaker 2: be none other but he. He pauses at the portal
11:32
Speaker 2: of the old cathedral, just as we white coffin is
11:35
Speaker 2: carried in with tears and great lamentations. The lid is off,
11:40
Speaker 2: and in the coffin lies the body of a fair
11:42
Speaker 2: child seven years old, the only child of an eminent
11:46
Speaker 2: citizen of the city. The little copse lies buried in flowers.
11:51
Speaker 2: He will raise the child to life, confidently, shouts the
11:54
Speaker 2: crowd to the weeping mother. The of icitting priest, who
11:58
Speaker 2: had come to meet the funeral procession, looks perplexed and frowns.
12:02
Speaker 2: A loud cry is suddenly hard, and the bread mother
12:06
Speaker 2: prostrates herself at his feet. If it be dull, then
12:10
Speaker 2: bring back my child to life, she cries pceasingly. The
12:14
Speaker 2: procession halts, and the little coffin is gently lowered at
12:18
Speaker 2: his feet. Divine compassion beams forth from his eyes, and
12:22
Speaker 2: as he looks at the child, his leaves are hard
12:25
Speaker 2: to his power. Once more, talitha comi and straightway the
12:29
Speaker 2: damosel arose. The child rises in her Coffin her little
12:34
Speaker 2: hands steel hold the nosesey of white roses, which after
12:38
Speaker 2: death was placed in them, and looking round with lows
12:41
Speaker 2: astonished eyes, she smiles sweetly. The crowd is violently excited.
12:47
Speaker 2: A terrible commotion raises among them. The populace shouts and
12:51
Speaker 2: loudly weeps, when suddenly, before the cathedral door appears the
12:56
Speaker 2: Cardinal Grand Inquisitor himself. He is tall, gaunt looking old
13:00
Speaker 2: man of nearly four score years and ten, with his
13:04
Speaker 2: tarn wittered face and deeply sunken eyes from the caveaty
13:08
Speaker 2: of which glittered two fiery sparks. He has laid aside
13:12
Speaker 2: his gorgeous gardulence robes in which he had appeared before
13:16
Speaker 2: the people at the ottoed fey of the enemies of
13:18
Speaker 2: the Romish Church, and is now clad in his old,
13:22
Speaker 2: rough monkey's cashork. His sullen assistance and slaves of the
13:26
Speaker 2: Holy God are following at a distance. He pauses before
13:30
Speaker 2: the crowd and observes he has seen all. He has witnessed,
13:35
Speaker 2: the placing up the little coffin at his feet, the
13:37
Speaker 2: calling back to life, and now his dark green face
13:42
Speaker 2: has grown still darker, his bushy gray eyebrows nearly made,
13:47
Speaker 2: and his sunken eye flashes with sinister life. Slowly raising
13:51
Speaker 2: his finger, he commands his minions to arrest him. Such
13:55
Speaker 2: is his power among the well disciplined, submissive, and now
13:58
Speaker 2: trembling people, that the tea outs immediately give way and
14:02
Speaker 2: scattering before the guard, amid dead silence, and without one
14:05
Speaker 2: breath of protest, allow them to lay their sacrilegious hands
14:09
Speaker 2: upon the stranger and lead him away. That same purpolis,
14:13
Speaker 2: like one man, now bows its head to the ground
14:16
Speaker 2: before the Old Inquisitor, who blesses it and slowly moves onward.
14:21
Speaker 2: The gods conduct their prisoner to the ancient building of
14:24
Speaker 2: the Holy Tribunal, pushing him into a narrow, gloomy vaulted
14:28
Speaker 2: prison cell. The lock him in and retire. The day wanes.
14:35
Speaker 2: At night, a dark, hot, breathless Spanish knight crieves on
14:39
Speaker 2: and settles upon the city of Savior. The air smells
14:42
Speaker 2: of laurels and orange blossoms in the Symrian darkness of
14:46
Speaker 2: the old Tribunal hall. The iron door of the cell
14:49
Speaker 2: is suddenly thrown open, and the Grand Inquisitor, holding a
14:53
Speaker 2: dark lantern slowly stalks into the dungeon. He is alone,
14:58
Speaker 2: and as the heavy door closes behind and him, he
15:00
Speaker 2: pauses at the threshold, and for a minute or two,
15:04
Speaker 2: silently and gloomily scrutinizes the face before him. At last,
15:09
Speaker 2: approaching utimediates steps, he sets his lantern down upon the
15:13
Speaker 2: table and addresses him in these words, it is thou thou.
15:19
Speaker 2: Receiving no reply, he rapidly continues, nay.
15:23
Speaker 4: Answer not be silent? And what couldst thou say? I know,
15:29
Speaker 4: but too well thy answer. Besides, thou hast no right
15:33
Speaker 4: to add one syllable to that which was already uttered
15:37
Speaker 4: by THEE before? Why shouldst thou now return to impede
15:42
Speaker 4: us in our work? For thou hast come but for
15:46
Speaker 4: that only? And thou know'st it well. But art thou
15:51
Speaker 4: as well aware of what awaits THEE in the morning.
15:56
Speaker 4: I do not know, nor do I care to know,
15:58
Speaker 4: who thou mayst be, be it thou or only thine image.
16:04
Speaker 4: Tomorrow I will condemn and burn THEE on the stake
16:08
Speaker 4: as the most wicked of all the heretics, And that
16:12
Speaker 4: same people who to day were kissing thy feet Tomorrow
16:17
Speaker 4: at one bent of my finger will rush to add
16:22
Speaker 4: fuel to thy funeral pile. Wert thou aware of this?
16:28
Speaker 2: He adds, speaking as if in solemn thought, and never
16:32
Speaker 2: for one instant, taking his piercing glance of the meek
16:35
Speaker 2: face before him.
16:37
Speaker 3: I can hardly realize the situation described. What is all this?
16:43
Speaker 1: Ivan suddenly interrupted Alyosha, who had remained silently listening to
16:50
Speaker 1: his brother.
16:51
Speaker 3: Is this an extravagant fancy or some mistake of the
16:55
Speaker 3: old man, an impossible quid pro quo?
17:00
Speaker 2: Let it be the letter if you like, laughed, Ivan,
17:03
Speaker 2: since modern realism has so perverted your taste that you
17:06
Speaker 2: feel unable to realize anything from the world of fancy.
17:11
Speaker 2: Let it be a quit procuo if you so choose
17:14
Speaker 2: it Again, the inquisitor is ninety years old, and he
17:18
Speaker 2: might have easily gone mad with his one ide, fixie
17:21
Speaker 2: or power. Or it might have as well been a
17:23
Speaker 2: delirious vision called forth by a dying fancy, over it
17:28
Speaker 2: by the auto da fay of the hundred heretics in
17:30
Speaker 2: the forenoon. But what matters for the poem whether it
17:35
Speaker 2: was a quit procuo or an uncontrollable fancy. The question
17:39
Speaker 2: is that the old man has to open his heart,
17:42
Speaker 2: that he must give out his thought at last, and
17:45
Speaker 2: that the hour has come when he does pick it
17:48
Speaker 2: out and says loudly that which for ninety years he
17:52
Speaker 2: has kept secret within his own breast.
17:56
Speaker 1: End of section one, Section two of The Grand Inquisitor.
18:06
Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
18:10
Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to find out
18:14
Speaker 1: how to volunteer, visit LibriVox dot org. The Grand Inquisitor
18:21
Speaker 1: by Fyodor Dostaevsky, translation by H. P. Blavatsky. Section two.
18:30
Speaker 3: And his prisoner, does he never reply? Does he keep silent,
18:36
Speaker 3: looking at him without saying a word.
18:39
Speaker 2: Of course, and it could not well be otherwise.
18:42
Speaker 1: Again, retorted Ivan.
18:44
Speaker 2: The Grand Inquisitor begins from his very first words by
18:47
Speaker 2: telling him that he has no right to add one
18:50
Speaker 2: syllable to that which he had said before. To make
18:54
Speaker 2: the situation clear at once, The ever preliminary molve is
18:58
Speaker 2: intended to convey to the reader the very fundamental idea
19:01
Speaker 2: which analyies Roman Catholicism, as well as I can convey it.
19:06
Speaker 2: His words mean, in short, everything was given over by
19:09
Speaker 2: thee to the Pope, and everything now rests with him alone.
19:13
Speaker 2: Thou hast no business to return, and does hinder us
19:16
Speaker 2: in our work. In this sense, the Zizuits not only talk,
19:20
Speaker 2: but right likewise.
19:22
Speaker 4: Hast thou the right to divulge to us a single
19:27
Speaker 4: one of the mysteries of that world. Whence thou comest.
19:31
Speaker 2: And queers of him, my old inquisitor, unforto it answers
19:35
Speaker 2: for him.
19:36
Speaker 4: Nay, thou hast no such right, for that would be
19:40
Speaker 4: adding to that which was already said by thee before,
19:44
Speaker 4: hence depriving people of that freedom for which thou hast
19:48
Speaker 4: so stoutly stood up a while Yet on earth, anything
19:53
Speaker 4: knew that Thou would now proclaim would have to be
19:56
Speaker 4: regarded as an attempt to interfere with that that freedom
20:00
Speaker 4: of choice, as it would come as a new and
20:03
Speaker 4: a miraculous revelation, superseding the old revelation of fifteen hundred
20:09
Speaker 4: years ago. When thou didst so repeatedly tell the people
20:14
Speaker 4: the truth shall make you free. Behold then thy free people.
20:21
Speaker 2: Now, adds the old man with somber irony.
20:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, it has cost us dearly.
20:28
Speaker 2: He continues Charley, looking at his victim.
20:31
Speaker 4: But we have at last accomplished our task and thy name.
20:39
Speaker 4: For fifteen long centuries we had to toil and suffer
20:44
Speaker 4: owing to that freedom. But now we have prevailed, and
20:48
Speaker 4: our work is done, and well and strongly it is done.
20:53
Speaker 4: Believest not thou, it is so very strong. And why
20:59
Speaker 4: should thou look at me so meekly, as if I
21:02
Speaker 4: were not worthy even of thy indignation? Know then, that now,
21:08
Speaker 4: and only now, thy people feel fully sure and satisfied
21:13
Speaker 4: of their freedom, And that only since they have themselves
21:17
Speaker 4: and of their own free will, delivered that freedom unto
21:22
Speaker 4: our hands by placing it submissively at our feet. But
21:27
Speaker 4: then that is what we have done. Is it that
21:30
Speaker 4: which thou hast striven for? Is this the kind of
21:34
Speaker 4: freedom thou hast promised them?
21:37
Speaker 3: Now?
21:38
Speaker 1: Again, I do not understand interrupted Alyosha.
21:43
Speaker 3: Does the old man mock and love not in the least.
21:48
Speaker 2: He seriously regards it as a great service done by himself,
21:52
Speaker 2: his brother monks and deserts to humanity, to have conquered
21:55
Speaker 2: and subjected, unto their authority, that freedom, and boasts that
22:00
Speaker 2: it was done but for a good of the world.
22:02
Speaker 2: For only now, he says, speaking of that inquisition, has.
22:07
Speaker 4: It become possible to us for the first time to
22:10
Speaker 4: give a serious thought to human happiness. Man is born
22:15
Speaker 4: a rebel, and can rebels be ever happy? Thou hast
22:20
Speaker 4: been fairly warned of it, but evidently to no use,
22:24
Speaker 4: since thou hast rejected the only means which could make
22:28
Speaker 4: mankind happy. Fortunately, at thy departure, thou hast delivered the
22:33
Speaker 4: task to us. Thou hast promised ratifying the pledge by
22:39
Speaker 4: thy own words, in words, giving us the right to
22:42
Speaker 4: bind and unbind. And surely thou couldst not think of
22:48
Speaker 4: depriving us of it now.
22:50
Speaker 3: But what can he mean by the words thou hast
22:54
Speaker 3: been fairly warned?
22:56
Speaker 1: Asked Alexis.
22:58
Speaker 2: These words give the key to what the old man
23:00
Speaker 2: has to say for his justification.
23:03
Speaker 4: But listen, the terrible and wise spirit, the spirit of
23:08
Speaker 4: self annihilation.
23:10
Speaker 2: And non being, goes on the equisito.
23:14
Speaker 4: The great spirit of negation, conversed with thee in the wilderness,
23:19
Speaker 4: and we are told that he tempted thee.
23:24
Speaker 2: Was it so?
23:25
Speaker 4: And if it were so, then it is impossible to
23:29
Speaker 4: utter anything more truthful than what is contained in his
23:33
Speaker 4: three offers, which thou didst reject, and which are usually
23:38
Speaker 4: called temptations. Yea, if ever there was on earth a genuine,
23:45
Speaker 4: striking wonder produced, it was on that day of thy
23:49
Speaker 4: three temptations. And it is precisely in these three short
23:55
Speaker 4: sentences that the marvelous miracle is contained. If it were
24:00
Speaker 4: possible that they should vanish and disappear forever without leaving
24:05
Speaker 4: any trace from the record and from the memory of man,
24:09
Speaker 4: and that it should become necessary again to devise, invent,
24:14
Speaker 4: and make them reappear in thy history once more, thinkest
24:19
Speaker 4: thou that all the world's sages, all the legislators, initiates,
24:25
Speaker 4: philosophers and thinkers, if called upon to frame three questions,
24:30
Speaker 4: which should, like these, besides answering the magnitude of the event,
24:36
Speaker 4: express in three short sentences, the whole future history of
24:42
Speaker 4: this our world and of mankind. Dost thou believe? I
24:47
Speaker 4: ask THEE that all their combined efforts could ever create
24:52
Speaker 4: anything equal in power and depth of thought to the
24:56
Speaker 4: three propositions offered THEE by the powerful and all wise
25:02
Speaker 4: spirit in the wilderness. Judging of them by their remarkable
25:07
Speaker 4: aptness alone, one can at once perceive that they emanated
25:13
Speaker 4: not from a finite terrestrial intellect, but indeed from the
25:20
Speaker 4: eternal and the absolute. In these three offers we find
25:28
Speaker 4: blended into one, and foretold to us the complete subsequent
25:33
Speaker 4: history of man. We are shown three images, so to say,
25:40
Speaker 4: uniting in them all the future, axiomatic, insoluble problems and
25:46
Speaker 4: contradictions of human nature the world over, and those days,
25:51
Speaker 4: the wondrous wisdom contained in them was not made so
25:56
Speaker 4: apparent as it is now. Uturity remained still veiled. But now,
26:04
Speaker 4: when fifteen centuries have elapsed, we see that everything in
26:08
Speaker 4: these three questions is so marvelously foreseen and foretold, that
26:15
Speaker 4: to add to or to take away from the prophecy
26:19
Speaker 4: one jot would be absolutely impossible. Decide then, thyself, Stanley,
26:30
Speaker 4: which of ye twain was right, Thou who didst reject,
26:36
Speaker 4: or he who offered? Remember the subtle meaning of question
26:41
Speaker 4: the first which runs thus, wouldst thou go into the
26:48
Speaker 4: world empty handed? With thou venture thither with thy vague
26:55
Speaker 4: and undefined promise of freedom, which men dull and unrule
27:00
Speaker 4: as they are by nature, are unable so much as
27:04
Speaker 4: to understand, which they avoid and fear. For never was
27:09
Speaker 4: there anything more unbearable to the human race than personal freedom.
27:15
Speaker 4: Dost Thou see these stones in the desolate and glaring wilderness,
27:21
Speaker 4: command that these stones be made bread, and mankind will
27:26
Speaker 4: run after thee obedient and grateful, like a herd of cattle.
27:32
Speaker 4: But even then it will be ever diffident and trembling,
27:37
Speaker 4: lest thou should take away thy hand, and they lose
27:41
Speaker 4: thereby their bread. Thou didst refuse to accept the offer,
27:47
Speaker 4: for fear of depriving men of their free choice. For
27:50
Speaker 4: where is their freedom of choice? When men are bribed
27:55
Speaker 4: with bread? Man shall not live by bread alone? Was
28:01
Speaker 4: thine answer? Thou knewest not? It seems that it was
28:06
Speaker 4: precisely in the name of that earthly bread, that the
28:10
Speaker 4: terrestrial spirit would one day rise against, struggle with, and
28:15
Speaker 4: finally conquer thee, followed by the hungry multitudes shouting, who
28:22
Speaker 4: is like unto that beast who maketh fire come down
28:26
Speaker 4: from Heaven upon the earth? Knowest thou not but a
28:31
Speaker 4: few centuries hence, and the whole of mankind will have
28:35
Speaker 4: proclaimed in its wisdom and through its mouthpiece science, that
28:41
Speaker 4: there is no more crime, hence no more sin on earth,
28:46
Speaker 4: but only hungry people. Feed us first, and then command
28:52
Speaker 4: us to be virtuous, will be the words written upon
28:55
Speaker 4: the banner lifted against thee, the banner which shall destroy
29:01
Speaker 4: thy church to its very foundations, and in the place
29:06
Speaker 4: of thy temple shall raise once more the terrible Tower
29:10
Speaker 4: of Babel. And though its building be left unfinished, as
29:16
Speaker 4: was that of the first one, yet the fact will
29:19
Speaker 4: remain recorded that thou couldst, but wouldst not prevent the
29:26
Speaker 4: attempt to build that new tower, by accepting the offer,
29:30
Speaker 4: and thus saving mankind a millennium of useless suffering on earth.
29:38
Speaker 4: And it is to us that the people will return again.
29:43
Speaker 4: They will search for us in catacombs, as we shall
29:47
Speaker 4: once more be persecuted and martyred, and they will begin
29:51
Speaker 4: crying unto us. Feed us, for they who promised us
29:55
Speaker 4: the fire from heaven have deceived us. It is then
30:00
Speaker 4: that we will finish building their tower for them, for
30:04
Speaker 4: they alone, who feed them, shall finish it. And we
30:09
Speaker 4: shall feed them in thy name, and lying to them
30:13
Speaker 4: that it is in that name. Oh, never, never will
30:19
Speaker 4: they learn to feed themselves without our help. No science
30:25
Speaker 4: will ever give them bread so long as they remain free,
30:29
Speaker 4: so long as they refuse to lay that freedom at
30:33
Speaker 4: our feet, and say, enslave, but feed us that they
30:40
Speaker 4: must come when men will understand that freedom and daily
30:45
Speaker 4: bread enough to satisfy all are unthinkable and can never
30:51
Speaker 4: be had together, as men will never be able to
30:54
Speaker 4: fairly divide the two among themselves. And they will also
30:59
Speaker 4: learn that they can never be free, for they are weak, vicious,
31:05
Speaker 4: miserable non entities, born, wicked and rebellious. Thou hast promised
31:13
Speaker 4: to them the bread of life, the bread of heaven.
31:18
Speaker 4: But I ask THEE again, can that bread ever equal
31:23
Speaker 4: in the sight of the weak and the vicious, the
31:26
Speaker 4: ever ungrateful human race their daily bread on earth? And
31:32
Speaker 4: even supposing that thousands and tens of thousands follow THEE
31:36
Speaker 4: in the name of and for the sake of Thy
31:40
Speaker 4: heavenly bread, what will become of the millions and hundreds
31:45
Speaker 4: of millions of human beings too weak to scorn the
31:49
Speaker 4: earthly for the sake of Thy heavenly bread. Or is
31:54
Speaker 4: it but those tens of thousands chosen among the great
31:57
Speaker 4: and the mighty, that are so dear to THEE, While
32:01
Speaker 4: the remaining millions, innumerable as the grains of sand in
32:06
Speaker 4: the seas, the weak and the loving have to be
32:10
Speaker 4: used as material for the former. No, No, in our
32:16
Speaker 4: sight and for our purpose. The weak and the lowly
32:20
Speaker 4: are the more dear to us. True, they are vicious
32:25
Speaker 4: and rebellious, but we will force them into obedience, and
32:30
Speaker 4: it is they who will admire us most. They will
32:35
Speaker 4: regard us as gods, and feel grateful to those who
32:39
Speaker 4: have consented to lead the masses and bear their burden
32:44
Speaker 4: of freedom by ruling over them. So terrible will that
32:48
Speaker 4: freedom at last appear to men. Then we will tell
32:53
Speaker 4: them that it is in obedience to Thy will and
32:57
Speaker 4: in thy name that we rule over them. We will
33:03
Speaker 4: deceive them once more and lie to them once again,
33:07
Speaker 4: for never, never more will we allow thee to come
33:11
Speaker 4: among us. In this deception we will find our suffering,
33:17
Speaker 4: for we must needs lie eternally and never cease to lie.
33:25
Speaker 4: Such is the secret meaning of temptation the first, and
33:30
Speaker 4: that is what thou didst reject in the wilderness, for
33:34
Speaker 4: the sake of that freedom which thou didst prize above all. Meanwhile,
33:41
Speaker 4: thy tempter's offer contained another great world mystery. By accepting
33:48
Speaker 4: the bread, thou wouldst have satisfied and answer'd a universal craving,
33:55
Speaker 4: a ceaseless longing alive in the heart of every individual
33:59
Speaker 4: human being be lurking in the breast of collective mankind
34:04
Speaker 4: that most perplexing problem, whom or what shall we worship?
34:11
Speaker 4: There exists no greater or more painful anxiety for a
34:16
Speaker 4: man who has freed himself from all religious bias, than
34:20
Speaker 4: how he shall soonest find a new object or idea
34:24
Speaker 4: to worship. But man seeks to bow before that only
34:30
Speaker 4: which is recognized by the greater majority, if not by
34:35
Speaker 4: all his fellow men, as having a right to be worshiped,
34:39
Speaker 4: whose rights are so unquestionable that men agree unanimously to
34:45
Speaker 4: bow down to it. For the chief concern of these
34:50
Speaker 4: miserable creatures is not to find and worship the idol
34:54
Speaker 4: of their own choice, but to discover that which all
34:58
Speaker 4: others will believe and consent to bow down to in
35:03
Speaker 4: a mass. It is that instinctive need of having a
35:08
Speaker 4: worship in common that is the chief suffering of every man,
35:13
Speaker 4: the chief concern of mankind from the beginning of times.
35:18
Speaker 4: It is for that universality of religious worship that people
35:22
Speaker 4: destroyed each other by sword, creating gods unto themselves. They
35:28
Speaker 4: forthwith began appealing to each other. Abandon your deities, come
35:34
Speaker 4: and bow down to ours, or death to ye and
35:39
Speaker 4: your idols. And so will they do till the end
35:43
Speaker 4: of this world. They will do so even then when
35:47
Speaker 4: all the gods themselves have disappeared, For then men will
35:51
Speaker 4: prostrate themselves before and worship some idea. Thou didst know,
35:59
Speaker 4: Thou couldst not be ignorant of that mysterious fundamental principle
36:05
Speaker 4: in human nature. And still thou hast rejected the only
36:10
Speaker 4: absolute banner offered THEE to which all the nations would
36:14
Speaker 4: remain true, and before which all would have bout, the
36:19
Speaker 4: banner of earthly bread, rejected in the name of freedom
36:25
Speaker 4: and of bread in the Kingdom of God. Behold, then
36:30
Speaker 4: what thou hast done furthermore for that freedom's sake? I
36:35
Speaker 4: repeat to THEE. Man has no greater anxiety in life
36:41
Speaker 4: than to find someone to whom he can make over
36:45
Speaker 4: that gift of freedom with which the unfortunate creature is born.
36:51
Speaker 4: But he alone will prove capable of silencing and quivering
36:56
Speaker 4: their consciences, that shall succeed in possessing himself of the
37:01
Speaker 4: freedom of men. With daily bread, an irresistible power was
37:07
Speaker 4: offer'd THEE. Show a man bread, and he will follow thee,
37:13
Speaker 4: for what can he resist less than the attraction of bread?
37:18
Speaker 4: But if at the same time another succeed in possessing
37:22
Speaker 4: himself of his conscience, oh a, even then thy bread
37:29
Speaker 4: will be forgotten, and man will follow him who seduced
37:34
Speaker 4: his conscience. So far thou wert right, For the mystery
37:39
Speaker 4: of human being does not solely rest in thee desire
37:43
Speaker 4: to live, but in the problem for what should one
37:47
Speaker 4: live at all? Without a clear perception of his reasons
37:52
Speaker 4: for living, man will never consent to live, and will
37:57
Speaker 4: rather destroy himself than tarry on earth, though he be
38:02
Speaker 4: surrounded with bread. This is the truth. But what has happened.
38:08
Speaker 4: Instead of getting hold of man's freedom, thou hast enlarged
38:13
Speaker 4: it still more. Hast thou again forgotten that to man,
38:19
Speaker 4: rest and even death are preferable to a free choice
38:23
Speaker 4: between the knowledge of good and evil. Nothing seems more
38:28
Speaker 4: seductive in his eyes than freedom of conscience. Nothing proves
38:33
Speaker 4: more painful. And behold, instead of laying a firm foundation
38:39
Speaker 4: whereon to rest once for all man's conscience, thou hast
38:44
Speaker 4: chosen to stir up in him all that is abnormal, mysterious,
38:50
Speaker 4: and indefinite, all that is beyond human strength, and has
38:56
Speaker 4: acted as if thou never hadst any love of him.
39:01
Speaker 4: And yet thou wert he who came to lay down
39:05
Speaker 4: his life for his friends. Thou hast burdened man's soul
39:11
Speaker 4: with anxieties hitherto unknown to him, thirsting for human love,
39:16
Speaker 4: freely given, seeking to enable man seduced and charmed by THEE,
39:23
Speaker 4: to follow Thy path of his own free will instead
39:27
Speaker 4: of the old and wise law which held him in subjection.
39:31
Speaker 4: Thou hast given him the right henceforth to choose and
39:35
Speaker 4: freely decide what is good and bad for him, guided
39:40
Speaker 4: by Thine image in his heart. But hast thou never
39:45
Speaker 4: dreamt of thee probability of the certainty of that same
39:51
Speaker 4: man rejected finally and controverting even Thine image and thy truth.
39:59
Speaker 4: Once he would find himself laden with such a terrible
40:03
Speaker 4: burden as freedom of choice, that a time would surely
40:08
Speaker 4: come when men would exclaim that truth and light cannot
40:13
Speaker 4: be in THEE. For no one could have left them
40:17
Speaker 4: in a greater perplexity and mental suffering than thou hast done,
40:23
Speaker 4: leading them with so many cares and insoluble problems. Thus
40:28
Speaker 4: it is thyself who has laid the foundation for the
40:31
Speaker 4: destruction of thine own kingdom, and no one but thou
40:37
Speaker 4: is to be blamed for it. Meantime, every chance of
40:43
Speaker 4: success was offered THEE. There are three powers, three unique
40:48
Speaker 4: forces upon earth, capable of conquering forever by charming the
40:53
Speaker 4: conscience of these weak rebels men for their own good.
40:59
Speaker 4: And these are miracle, mystery, and authority. Thou hast rejected
41:08
Speaker 4: all the three, and thus wert the first to set
41:12
Speaker 4: them an example. When the terrible and all wise Spirit
41:17
Speaker 4: placed THEE on a pinnacle of the temple and said,
41:20
Speaker 4: unto THEE, if thou be the son of God, cast
41:24
Speaker 4: thyself down, For it is written he shall give his
41:28
Speaker 4: angels charge concerning THEE, and in their hands they shall
41:33
Speaker 4: bear THEE up less than any time thou dash thy
41:36
Speaker 4: foot against a stone. For thus thy faith in thy
41:42
Speaker 4: Father should have been made evident. Thou didst refuse to
41:47
Speaker 4: accept his suggestion, and didst not follow it. Oh, undoubtedly
41:53
Speaker 4: thou didst act in this with all the magnificent pride
41:57
Speaker 4: of a god. But then men that weak and rebel
42:02
Speaker 4: race are they also gods? To understand thy refusal. Of course,
42:09
Speaker 4: thou didst well know that by taking one single step forward,
42:13
Speaker 4: by making the slightest motion to throw thyself down, thou
42:18
Speaker 4: wouldst have tempted the Lord, thy God, lost suddenly all
42:23
Speaker 4: faith in him, and dash thyself to atoms against that
42:26
Speaker 4: same earth which thou camest to save. And thus wouldst
42:32
Speaker 4: have allowed the wise spirit which tempted THEE to triumph
42:37
Speaker 4: and rejoice. But then, how many such as THEE are
42:42
Speaker 4: to be found on this globe? I asked THEE. Couldst thou,
42:47
Speaker 4: ever for a moment, imagine that men would have the
42:50
Speaker 4: same strength to resist such a temptation? Is human nature
42:55
Speaker 4: calculated to reject miracle and trust in the most terrible
43:01
Speaker 4: moments in life, when the most momentous, painful and perplexing
43:06
Speaker 4: problems struggle within man's soul to the free decisions of
43:11
Speaker 4: his heart for the true solution. Oh, thou knewest well
43:18
Speaker 4: that that action of thine would remain recorded in books
43:22
Speaker 4: for ages to come, reaching to the confines of the globe.
43:28
Speaker 4: And thy hope was that following thy example, man would
43:33
Speaker 4: remain true to his God without needing any miracle to
43:37
Speaker 4: keep his faith alive. But thou newest not it seems
43:43
Speaker 4: that no sooner would man reject miracle than he would
43:47
Speaker 4: reject God. Likewise, for he seeketh less God than a
43:54
Speaker 4: sign from him. And thus, as it is beyond the
43:58
Speaker 4: power of man to remain without miracles, so rather than
44:03
Speaker 4: live without, he will create for himself new wonders of
44:08
Speaker 4: his own making, and he will bow to and worship
44:14
Speaker 4: the soothsayer's miracles the old witch's sorcery. Were he a rebel,
44:20
Speaker 4: a heretic, and an atheist, one hundred times over, thy
44:26
Speaker 4: refusal to come down from the cross, when people mocking
44:31
Speaker 4: and wagging their heads were saying, to THEE, save thyself,
44:35
Speaker 4: if thou be the son of God, and we will
44:38
Speaker 4: believe in THEE, was due to the same determination, not
44:43
Speaker 4: to enslave man through miracle, but to obtain faith in
44:48
Speaker 4: THEE freely and apart from any miraculous influence. Thou thirstest
44:55
Speaker 4: for free and uninfluenced love. He uses the passionate adoration
45:02
Speaker 4: of the slave before a potency which would have subjected
45:06
Speaker 4: his will once forever, Thou judgest of men too highly.
45:13
Speaker 4: Here again, for though rebels they be, they are born slaves,
45:20
Speaker 4: and nothing more. Behold and judge of them once more,
45:26
Speaker 4: Now that fifteen centuries have elapsed since that moment. Look
45:30
Speaker 4: at them, whom thou didst try to elevate unto thee,
45:35
Speaker 4: I swear man is weaker and lower than thou hast
45:40
Speaker 4: ever imagined him to be. Can he ever do that
45:44
Speaker 4: which thou art said to have accomplished by valuing him
45:49
Speaker 4: so highly? Thou hast acted as if there were no
45:53
Speaker 4: love for him in thine heart. For thou hast demanded
45:57
Speaker 4: of him more than he could ever give, Thou, who
46:01
Speaker 4: lovest him more than thyself. Hadst thou esteemed him less,
46:07
Speaker 4: less wouldst thou have demanded of him, And that would
46:11
Speaker 4: have been more like love, for his burden would have
46:15
Speaker 4: been made thereby lighter man is weak and cowardly. What
46:22
Speaker 4: matters it? If he now riots and rebels throughout the
46:27
Speaker 4: world against our will and power, and prides himself upon
46:31
Speaker 4: that rebellion, it is but the petty pride and vanity
46:36
Speaker 4: of a schoolboy. It is the rioting of little children
46:40
Speaker 4: getting up a mutiny in the class room and driving
46:44
Speaker 4: their schoolmaster out of it. But it will not last long,
46:49
Speaker 4: and when the day of their triumph is over, they
46:52
Speaker 4: will have to pay dearly for it. They will destroy
46:56
Speaker 4: the temples and raise them to the ground, flooding the
47:00
Speaker 4: earth with blood. But the foolish children will have to
47:04
Speaker 4: learn some day. Rebels, though they be and riotous from nature,
47:10
Speaker 4: they are too weak to maintain the spirit of mutiny
47:14
Speaker 4: for any length of time. Suffused with idiotic tears, they
47:21
Speaker 4: will confess that he who created them rebellious undoubtedly did so.
47:27
Speaker 4: But to mock them, they will pronounce these words in despair,
47:32
Speaker 4: and such blasphemous utterances will but add to their misery,
47:38
Speaker 4: For human nature cannot endure blasphemy and takes her own revenge.
47:46
Speaker 1: In the end end of section two Section three of
47:57
Speaker 1: The Grand Inquisitor. This is a Librivot recording. All LibriVox
48:02
Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
48:06
Speaker 1: to find out how to volunteer, visit LibriVox dot org.
48:12
Speaker 1: The Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translation by H. P. Blavatsky,
48:19
Speaker 1: Section three.
48:22
Speaker 4: And Thus, after all thou hast suffered for mankind and
48:27
Speaker 4: its freedom, the present fate of men may be summed
48:31
Speaker 4: up in three words, unrest, confusion, misery. Thy Great Prophet
48:39
Speaker 4: John records in his vision that he saw during the
48:44
Speaker 4: first resurrection of the chosen servants of God. The number
48:48
Speaker 4: of them which were sealed in their foreheads twelve thousand
48:53
Speaker 4: of every tribe. But were they indeed as many, then
48:58
Speaker 4: they must have been gods, not men. They had shared
49:03
Speaker 4: thy cross for long years, suffered scores of years, hunger
49:07
Speaker 4: and thirst in dreary wildernesses and deserts, feeding upon locusts
49:14
Speaker 4: and roots. And of these children of free love for
49:18
Speaker 4: THEE and self sacrifice in thy name, thou mayest well
49:24
Speaker 4: feel proud. But remember that these are but a few
49:28
Speaker 4: thousands of gods, not men. And how about all the others?
49:35
Speaker 4: And why should the weakest be held guilty for not
49:38
Speaker 4: being able to endure what the strongest have endured? Why
49:44
Speaker 4: should a soul incapable of containing such terrible gifts be
49:49
Speaker 4: punished for its weakness? Didst Thou really come to and
49:55
Speaker 4: for the elect alone? If so, then the mystery will
50:00
Speaker 4: remain forever mysterious to our finite minds. And if a mystery,
50:07
Speaker 4: then were we right to proclaim it as one and
50:10
Speaker 4: preach it, teaching them that neither their freely given love
50:15
Speaker 4: to THEE nor freedom of conscience were essential, but only
50:21
Speaker 4: that incomprehensible mystery, which they must blindly obey, even against
50:27
Speaker 4: the dictates of their conscience. Thus did we We corrected
50:33
Speaker 4: and improved thy teaching, and basted upon miracle, mystery and authority.
50:42
Speaker 4: And men rejoiced at finding themselves led once more like
50:47
Speaker 4: a herd of cattle, and at finding their hearts at
50:50
Speaker 4: last delivered of the terrible burden laid upon them by
50:55
Speaker 4: THEE which caused them so much suffering. Tell me were
51:01
Speaker 4: we right in doing as we did? Did not we
51:05
Speaker 4: show our great love for humanity by realizing in such
51:10
Speaker 4: a humble spirit its helplessness, by so mercifully lightening its
51:17
Speaker 4: great burden, and by permitting and remitting for its weak
51:23
Speaker 4: nature every sin, provided it be committed with our authorization.
51:30
Speaker 4: For what then hast thou come again to trouble us
51:34
Speaker 4: in our work? And why lookest thou at me so
51:39
Speaker 4: penetrating THEE with thy meek eyes and in such a silence.
51:48
Speaker 4: Rather shouldst thou feel wroth? For I need not thy love.
51:53
Speaker 4: I reject it, and love THEE not myself. Why should
51:58
Speaker 4: I conceal the truth from THEE I know but too
52:01
Speaker 4: well with whom I am now talking? What I had
52:06
Speaker 4: to say, was known to THEE before I read it
52:10
Speaker 4: in thine eye. How should I conceal from THEE our secret,
52:16
Speaker 4: if perchance thou wouldst hear it from my own lips?
52:21
Speaker 4: Then listen. We are not with THEE, but with Him,
52:28
Speaker 4: and that is our secret. For centuries have we abandoned
52:33
Speaker 4: THEE to follow him? Yes, eight centuries, eight hundred years now,
52:39
Speaker 4: since we accepted from him the gift rejected by THEE
52:44
Speaker 4: with indignation, that last gift which he offered THEE from
52:49
Speaker 4: the high mountain, when showing all the kingdoms of the
52:53
Speaker 4: world and the glory of them, he said, unto THEE,
52:58
Speaker 4: all these things will I give THEE if thou wilt
53:02
Speaker 4: fall down and worship me. We took Rome from him
53:08
Speaker 4: and the glave of Caesar, and declared ourselves alone the
53:13
Speaker 4: kings of this earth, its sole kings. Though our work
53:18
Speaker 4: is not yet fully accomplished, but who is to blame
53:22
Speaker 4: for it? Our work is but in its incipient stage,
53:28
Speaker 4: but it is nevertheless started. We may have long to
53:33
Speaker 4: wait until its culmination, and mankind have to suffer much,
53:38
Speaker 4: but we shall reach the goal some day and become
53:43
Speaker 4: soul Caesar's, and then will be the time to think
53:49
Speaker 4: of universal happiness for men. Thou couldst accept the glave
53:55
Speaker 4: of Caesar thyself? Why didst Thou reject the offer? By
54:01
Speaker 4: accepting from the powerful Spirit his third offer, thou would
54:06
Speaker 4: have realized every aspiration man seeketh for himself on earth.
54:11
Speaker 4: Man would have found a constant object for worship, one
54:15
Speaker 4: to deliver his conscience up to, and one that should
54:19
Speaker 4: unite altogether into one common and harmonious antill for an
54:26
Speaker 4: innate necessity for universal union constitutes the third and final
54:32
Speaker 4: affliction of mankind. Humanity as a whole has ever aspired
54:37
Speaker 4: to unite itself universally. Many were the great nations with
54:44
Speaker 4: great histories, but the greater they were, the more unhappy
54:49
Speaker 4: they felt as they felt the stronger necessity of a
54:53
Speaker 4: universal union among men. Great conquerors like Timur and Jiggas
54:59
Speaker 4: Khan passed like a cyclone upon the face of the
55:03
Speaker 4: earth in their efforts to conquer the universe, and even they,
55:08
Speaker 4: albeit unconsciously, expressed the same aspiration towards universal and common union.
55:17
Speaker 4: In accepting the kingdom of the World and Caesar's purple,
55:22
Speaker 4: one would found a universal kingdom and secure to mankind
55:27
Speaker 4: eternal peace, and who can rule mankind better than those
55:32
Speaker 4: who have possessed themselves of man's conscience and hold in
55:37
Speaker 4: their hand man's daily bread. Having accepted Caesar's glave and purple,
55:45
Speaker 4: we had, of course, but to deny thee to henceforth
55:51
Speaker 4: follow him alone. Oh, centuries of intellectual riot and rebellious
55:58
Speaker 4: free thought. Yet before us and their science will end
56:04
Speaker 4: by anthropophagy, for having begun to build their Babylonian tower
56:10
Speaker 4: without our help, they will have to end up by anthropophagy.
56:15
Speaker 4: But it is precisely at that time that the beast
56:19
Speaker 4: will crawl up to us in full submission, and lick
56:24
Speaker 4: the soles of our feet and sprinkle them with tears
56:28
Speaker 4: of blood. And we shall sit upon the scarlet colored beast,
56:33
Speaker 4: and lifting up high the golden cup full of abomination
56:38
Speaker 4: and filthiness, shall show written upon it the word mystery.
56:45
Speaker 4: But it is only then that men will see the
56:49
Speaker 4: beginning of a kingdom of peace and happiness. Thou art
56:53
Speaker 4: proud of thine own elect, but thou hast none other
56:58
Speaker 4: but these elect, And we we will give rest to all.
57:05
Speaker 4: But that is not the end. Many are those among
57:09
Speaker 4: thine elect and the laborers of thy vineyard, who tired
57:13
Speaker 4: of waiting for thy coming, already have carried, and will
57:18
Speaker 4: yet carry the great fervor of their hearts and their
57:22
Speaker 4: spiritual strength into another field, and will end by lifting
57:28
Speaker 4: up against thee thine own banner of freedom. But it
57:34
Speaker 4: is thyself thou hast to thank. Under our rule and sway,
57:41
Speaker 4: all will be happy, and will neither rebel nor destroy
57:46
Speaker 4: each other, as they did while under thy free banner. Oh,
57:52
Speaker 4: we will take good care to prove to them that
57:55
Speaker 4: they will become absolutely free only when they have abjured
58:01
Speaker 4: their freedom in our favor and submit to us absolutely.
58:07
Speaker 4: Thinkest thou we shall be right or still lying, They
58:12
Speaker 4: will convince themselves of our rightness, for they will see
58:16
Speaker 4: what a depth of degrading slavery and strife that liberty
58:21
Speaker 4: of thine has led them into. Liberty, freedom of thought,
58:26
Speaker 4: and conscience and science will lead them into such impassable chasms,
58:33
Speaker 4: place them face to face before such wonders and insoluble mysteries,
58:39
Speaker 4: that some of them, more rebellious and ferocious than the rest,
58:44
Speaker 4: will destroy themselves. Others rebellious but weak, will destroy each other,
58:53
Speaker 4: while the remainder, weak, helpless, and miserable, will crawl back
58:58
Speaker 4: to our feet and cry, yes, right were ye, o,
59:03
Speaker 4: fathers of Jesus? Ye alone are in possession of his mystery.
59:10
Speaker 4: And we returned to you praying that ye shall save
59:13
Speaker 4: us from ourselves. Receiving their bread from us, they will
59:19
Speaker 4: clearly see that we take the bread from them, the
59:23
Speaker 4: bread made by their own hands, but to give it
59:26
Speaker 4: back to them in equal shares, and that without any miracle,
59:33
Speaker 4: and having ascertained that though we have not changed stones
59:38
Speaker 4: into bread, yet bread they have, while every other bread
59:44
Speaker 4: turn'd verily in their own hands into stones, They will
59:48
Speaker 4: be only too glad to have it. So until that
59:53
Speaker 4: day they will never be happy. And who is it
59:57
Speaker 4: that helped the most to blind them? Tell me who
1:00:00
Speaker 4: separated the flock and scattered it over ways unknown? If
1:00:05
Speaker 4: it be not thee, but we will gather the sheep
1:00:10
Speaker 4: once more and subject them to our will forever. We
1:00:15
Speaker 4: will prove to them their own weakness and make them
1:00:18
Speaker 4: humble again, whilst with THEE they have learnt but pride,
1:00:25
Speaker 4: for thou hast made more of them than they ever
1:00:28
Speaker 4: were worth. We will give them that quiet, humble happiness
1:00:34
Speaker 4: which alone benefits such weak foolish creatures as they are,
1:00:41
Speaker 4: and having once had proved to them their weakness, they
1:00:45
Speaker 4: will become timid and obedient, and gather around us as
1:00:49
Speaker 4: chickens around their hen. They will wonder at and feel
1:00:55
Speaker 4: a superstitious admiration for us, and feel proud to be
1:01:00
Speaker 4: led by men so powerful and wise that a handful
1:01:05
Speaker 4: of them can subject a flock a thousand millions strong. Gradually,
1:01:12
Speaker 4: men will begin to fear us. They will nervously dread
1:01:17
Speaker 4: our slightest anger. Their intellects will weaken, their eyes become
1:01:22
Speaker 4: as easily accessible to tears as those of children and women.
1:01:28
Speaker 4: But we will teach them an easy transition from grief
1:01:32
Speaker 4: and tears to laughter, childish joy, and mirthful song. Yes,
1:01:39
Speaker 4: we will make them work like slaves, but during their
1:01:42
Speaker 4: recreation hours they shall have an innocent, childlike life, full
1:01:48
Speaker 4: of play and merry laughter. We will even permit them
1:01:52
Speaker 4: sin for weekend Helpless, they will feel the more love
1:01:58
Speaker 4: for us for permitting them to indulge in it. We
1:02:02
Speaker 4: will tell them that every kind of sin will be
1:02:06
Speaker 4: remitted to them, so long as it is done with
1:02:09
Speaker 4: our permission, that we take all these sins upon ourselves
1:02:15
Speaker 4: For we so love the world that we are even
1:02:18
Speaker 4: willing to sacrifice our souls for its satisfaction, and appearing
1:02:25
Speaker 4: before them in the light of their scapegoats and redeemers,
1:02:29
Speaker 4: we shall be adored the more for it. They will
1:02:34
Speaker 4: have no secrets from us. It will rest with us
1:02:38
Speaker 4: to permit them to live with their wives and concubines,
1:02:42
Speaker 4: or to forbid them to have children or remain childless,
1:02:48
Speaker 4: either way depending on the degree of their obedience to us,
1:02:52
Speaker 4: And they will submit most joyfully to us the most
1:02:57
Speaker 4: agonizing secrets of their souls. All all will they lay
1:03:02
Speaker 4: down at our feet, and we will authorize and remit
1:03:06
Speaker 4: them all in Thy name. And they will believe us
1:03:11
Speaker 4: and accept our mediation with rapture, as it will deliver
1:03:16
Speaker 4: them from their greatest anxiety and torture, that of having
1:03:21
Speaker 4: to decide freely for themselves. And all will be happy,
1:03:27
Speaker 4: all except the one or two hundred thousands of their rulers.
1:03:32
Speaker 4: For it is but we we, the keepers of the
1:03:36
Speaker 4: great mystery, who will be miserable. There will be thousands
1:03:41
Speaker 4: of millions of happy infants and one hundred thousand martyrs
1:03:46
Speaker 4: who have taken upon themselves the curse of knowledge of
1:03:49
Speaker 4: good and evil. Peaceable will be their end, and peacefully
1:03:55
Speaker 4: will they die in Thy name, to find behind the
1:03:59
Speaker 4: portals the grave but death. But we will keep the
1:04:05
Speaker 4: secret inviolate and deceive them for their own good with
1:04:10
Speaker 4: the mirage of life eternal in Thy kingdom. For were
1:04:15
Speaker 4: there really anything like life beyond the grave, surely would
1:04:20
Speaker 4: never fall to the lot of such as they people
1:04:25
Speaker 4: tell us and prophesy of thy coming and triumphing once
1:04:29
Speaker 4: more on earth, of thy appearing with the army of
1:04:33
Speaker 4: thy elect, with thy proud and mighty ones. But we
1:04:39
Speaker 4: will answer THEE that they have saved but themselves, while
1:04:44
Speaker 4: we have saved all. We are also threatened with a
1:04:48
Speaker 4: great disgrace which awaits the whore Babylon the Great, the
1:04:53
Speaker 4: mother of Harlot's, who sits upon the beast, holding in
1:04:58
Speaker 4: her hands the mist the word written upon her forehead.
1:05:03
Speaker 4: And we are told that the weak ones the lambs,
1:05:06
Speaker 4: shall rebel against her and shall make her desolate and naked.
1:05:13
Speaker 4: But then will I arise and point out to THEE
1:05:17
Speaker 4: the thousands of millions of happy infants, free from any sin,
1:05:23
Speaker 4: And we who have taken their sins upon us for
1:05:26
Speaker 4: their own good, shall stand before THEE and say, judge us,
1:05:32
Speaker 4: if thou canst and dareest know then that I fear THEE.
1:05:38
Speaker 4: Not know that I too have lived in the dreary wilderness,
1:05:44
Speaker 4: where I fed upon locusts and roots, that I too
1:05:47
Speaker 4: have blest freedom with which thou hast blest men, and
1:05:53
Speaker 4: that I too have once prepared to join the ranks
1:05:57
Speaker 4: of thy elect, the proud and the mighty. But I
1:06:02
Speaker 4: awoke from my delusion, and refused since then to serve insanity.
1:06:09
Speaker 4: I returned to join the legion of those who corrected
1:06:13
Speaker 4: thy mistakes. I left the proud and returned to the
1:06:18
Speaker 4: really humble, and for their own happiness. What I now
1:06:23
Speaker 4: tell THEE will come to pass, and our kingdom shall
1:06:27
Speaker 4: be built. I tell THEE not later than tomorrow, thou
1:06:32
Speaker 4: shalt see that obedient flock, which, at one simple motion
1:06:36
Speaker 4: of my hand will rush to add burning coals to
1:06:40
Speaker 4: thy stake, on which I will burn THEE for having
1:06:45
Speaker 4: dared to come and trouble us in our work. For
1:06:50
Speaker 4: if there ever was one who deserved more than any
1:06:54
Speaker 4: of the others our inquisitorial fires, it is THEE. Tomorrow
1:07:05
Speaker 4: I will burn THEE.
1:07:08
Speaker 2: D she.
1:07:10
Speaker 1: Yvonne paused. He had entered into the situation and had
1:07:15
Speaker 1: spoken with great animation, but now he suddenly burst out laughing.
1:07:21
Speaker 1: But all that is absurd, suddenly exclaimed Alyosha, who had
1:07:26
Speaker 1: hitherto listened, perplexed and agitated, but in profound silence.
1:07:32
Speaker 3: Your poem is a glorification of Christ, not an accusation,
1:07:37
Speaker 3: as you perhaps meant it to be. And who will
1:07:41
Speaker 3: believe you when you speak of freedom? Is it thus
1:07:45
Speaker 3: that we Christians must understand it? It is Rome, not
1:07:52
Speaker 3: all Rome, for that would be unjust, But the worst
1:07:55
Speaker 3: of the Roman Catholics, the Inquisitors and Jesuit that you
1:08:00
Speaker 3: have been exposing. Your inquisitor is an impossible character. What
1:08:08
Speaker 3: are these sins they are taking upon themselves? Who are
1:08:12
Speaker 3: those keepers of mystery who took upon themselves a curse
1:08:17
Speaker 3: for the good of mankind? Who ever met them? We
1:08:22
Speaker 3: all know the Jesuits, and no one has a good
1:08:26
Speaker 3: word to say in their favor. But when were they
1:08:30
Speaker 3: as you depict them? Never? Never? The Jesuits are merely
1:08:36
Speaker 3: a Romish army making ready for their future temporal kingdom,
1:08:43
Speaker 3: with a mightd emperor, a Roman high priest at their head,
1:08:49
Speaker 3: that is their ideal and object, without any mystery or
1:08:55
Speaker 3: elevated suffering, the most prosaic thirsty for power for the
1:09:01
Speaker 3: sake of the mean and earthly pleasures of life, a
1:09:06
Speaker 3: desire to enslave their fellow men, something like our late
1:09:11
Speaker 3: system of serfs, with themselves at the head as landed proprietors.
1:09:18
Speaker 3: That is all that they can be accused of. They
1:09:22
Speaker 3: may not believe in God, that is also possible. But
1:09:28
Speaker 3: your suffering, inquisitor, is simply a fancy.
1:09:33
Speaker 1: Oh Lord interrupted divan smiling.
1:09:37
Speaker 2: Do not be so excited in fancy, you say, be
1:09:40
Speaker 2: it so? Of course it is a fancy. But stop,
1:09:44
Speaker 2: Do you really meason that all this Catholic movement during
1:09:47
Speaker 2: the last centuries is not but a desire for power
1:09:50
Speaker 2: for a mere purpose of mean pleasures? Is this what
1:09:53
Speaker 2: your father Paisy taught you?
1:09:56
Speaker 3: No, No, quite the reverse, Oh father Paissy once told
1:10:02
Speaker 3: me something very similar to what you yourself say, though
1:10:08
Speaker 3: of course not that something quite different.
1:10:13
Speaker 1: Suddenly added, alexis blushing.
1:10:16
Speaker 2: A preciss piece of information. Notwithstanding you or not that,
1:10:20
Speaker 2: I ask you, why should the inquisitors and the jesuits
1:10:23
Speaker 2: of your imagination leave but for the attainment of mean
1:10:26
Speaker 2: material pleasures. Why should there not be found among them
1:10:30
Speaker 2: one single genuine martyr, suffering under a great and holy
1:10:34
Speaker 2: idea and loving humanity with all his heart. Now Lettle
1:10:39
Speaker 2: suppose that among all the Jesuits, thirsting and hungering, but
1:10:42
Speaker 2: after mean material pleasures, there may be one, just one
1:10:46
Speaker 2: like my old inquisitor, who had himself fade upon roots
1:10:49
Speaker 2: into wilderness, suffered the tortures of damnation while trying to
1:10:53
Speaker 2: conquer flesh in order to become free and perfect, but
1:10:58
Speaker 2: who had never ceased to love him, And who, when
1:11:01
Speaker 2: they prophetically beheld the truth, who saw, as plain as
1:11:05
Speaker 2: he could see, that the bulk of humanity could never
1:11:08
Speaker 2: be happy under the old system, that it was not
1:11:12
Speaker 2: for them that the great idealist had come and died
1:11:14
Speaker 2: and dripped of his universal harmony. Having realized that truth,
1:11:20
Speaker 2: he returned into the world and joined intelligent and practical people.
1:11:24
Speaker 2: Is this so impossible?
1:11:26
Speaker 3: Joined whom? What intelligent and practical people?
1:11:32
Speaker 1: Exclaimed Alyosha, quite excited.
1:11:35
Speaker 3: Why should they be more intelligent than other men? And
1:11:38
Speaker 3: what secrets and mysteries can they have? They have neither
1:11:44
Speaker 3: atheism and infidelity is all the secret they have? Your
1:11:50
Speaker 3: inquisitor does not believe in God, and that is all
1:11:55
Speaker 3: the mystery there is in it.
1:11:57
Speaker 2: It may be so, you have guessed rightly there, and
1:12:00
Speaker 2: it is so, and that is his whole secret. But
1:12:03
Speaker 2: is this not the cutest sufferings for such a man
1:12:06
Speaker 2: as he who killed all his young life in asceticism
1:12:09
Speaker 2: in the desert, and yet could not cure himself of
1:12:12
Speaker 2: his love towards his fellow man. Towards the end of
1:12:16
Speaker 2: his life, he becomes convinced that it is only by
1:12:18
Speaker 2: following the advice of the great and terrible Spirit that
1:12:21
Speaker 2: the fate of these millions of weak rebels, these half
1:12:25
Speaker 2: finny samples of humanity created in mockery, can be made tolerable.
1:12:31
Speaker 2: And once convinced by it, he sees as clearly that
1:12:34
Speaker 2: to achieve that object, one must follow blindly the guidance
1:12:37
Speaker 2: of the wise Spirit, the fearful spirit of death and destruction. Hence,
1:12:42
Speaker 2: except the system of lies and deception, and lead humanity
1:12:45
Speaker 2: consciously dis timed toward death and destruction, and moreover with deceiving,
1:12:50
Speaker 2: all the while in order to prevent them from realizing
1:12:53
Speaker 2: where they are being led. And so forced the miserable
1:12:56
Speaker 2: blind man to feel happy at least while here on art.
1:13:01
Speaker 2: And note this a wholestal deception in the name of
1:13:04
Speaker 2: him in whose ideal the old man had so passionately,
1:13:08
Speaker 2: so viervently believed during nearly his whole life. Is this
1:13:13
Speaker 2: no suffering? And were such a soldiery exception found a
1:13:16
Speaker 2: miast and at the head of that army that thrusts
1:13:19
Speaker 2: for power, but for the sake of main pleasures of life,
1:13:23
Speaker 2: think you one such man would not suffice to bring
1:13:25
Speaker 2: on a tragedy. Moreover, one single man like my inquisitor,
1:13:30
Speaker 2: as a principal leader, would prove sufficient to discover the
1:13:33
Speaker 2: real guiding idea of the Roman system, with all its
1:13:36
Speaker 2: armies of Jesuits. The greatest and chiefest conviction that the
1:13:40
Speaker 2: soldiery type described in my poem has at no time
1:13:43
Speaker 2: ever disappeared from among the chief leaders of that movement.
1:13:47
Speaker 2: Who knows but the terrible old man, loving humanity so
1:13:50
Speaker 2: stubbornly and in such an original way, exists even in
1:13:54
Speaker 2: our days, in the shape of a whole host of
1:13:57
Speaker 2: such soldiery exceptions, whose exists is not due to mere chance,
1:14:01
Speaker 2: but to a well defined association born of mutual consent
1:14:05
Speaker 2: to a secret league organized several centuries back, in order
1:14:09
Speaker 2: to guard the mystery from the indiscreet eyes of the
1:14:12
Speaker 2: miserable and weak people, and only in view of their
1:14:16
Speaker 2: own happiness. And so it is. It cannot be otherwise.
1:14:21
Speaker 2: I suspect that even Meissons have some such mystery underlying
1:14:24
Speaker 2: the basis of their organization, and that it is just
1:14:27
Speaker 2: the reason why the Roman Catholic clergy hate them so,
1:14:31
Speaker 2: dreading to find in them rivals, competition, the dismemberment of
1:14:35
Speaker 2: the unity of the idea for the realization of which
1:14:38
Speaker 2: one flock and one's sappherd are needed. However, in defending
1:14:42
Speaker 2: my idea, I look like an author whose production is
1:14:45
Speaker 2: unable to stand criticism enough all this.
1:14:49
Speaker 3: You are perhaps a mason yourself.
1:14:52
Speaker 1: Exclaimed Alyosha.
1:14:54
Speaker 3: You do not believe in God.
1:14:58
Speaker 1: He added, with a note of profound sadness in his voice,
1:15:03
Speaker 1: but suddenly remarking that his brother was looking at him
1:15:07
Speaker 1: with mockery.
1:15:08
Speaker 3: How do you mean, then, to bring your poem to
1:15:11
Speaker 3: a close.
1:15:12
Speaker 1: He unexpectedly inquired, casting his eyes downward.
1:15:16
Speaker 3: Or does it break off here?
1:15:19
Speaker 2: My intention is to end it with the following scene.
1:15:22
Speaker 2: Having disburdened his heart, the inquisitor waits for some time
1:15:26
Speaker 2: to hear his prisoner speak. In his tarn, his silence
1:15:30
Speaker 2: weighs upon him. He has seen that his captive has
1:15:33
Speaker 2: been attentively listening to him all the time, with his
1:15:37
Speaker 2: eyes fixed penetratingly and softly on the face of his jailure,
1:15:41
Speaker 2: and evidently bent upon not replying to him. The old
1:15:45
Speaker 2: man longs to hear his voice, to hear him reply
1:15:50
Speaker 2: better words of bitterness and scorn than his silence. Suddenly
1:15:55
Speaker 2: he rises, slowly and silently, approaching the inquisitor. He bands
1:15:59
Speaker 2: to words him and softly kisses the bloodless fourscore and
1:16:03
Speaker 2: ten year old lips. That is all the answer. The
1:16:07
Speaker 2: grand inquisitor shudders. There is a convulsive twitch at the
1:16:11
Speaker 2: corner of his mouth. He goes to the door, opens it,
1:16:16
Speaker 2: and addressing him, go, he says, go and return no more,
1:16:21
Speaker 2: do not come again, never, never, and he lets him
1:16:25
Speaker 2: out into the dark night. The prisoner vanishes and the
1:16:30
Speaker 2: old man the kiss burns his heart. But the old
1:16:34
Speaker 2: man remains, forming his own ideas and unbelief.
1:16:38
Speaker 3: And you, together with him, you.
1:16:42
Speaker 1: Too, despairingly, exclaimed Alyosha. Will Ifann burst into a still
1:16:50
Speaker 1: louder fit of laughter. End of the Grand Inquisitor by
1:16:57
Speaker 1: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Translation by H. P. Blavatsky,