As soon as she arrived in Rome, Irene sent for Gzhatski.

“Are you not ashamed of yourself?” she asked him reproachfully, “for having given me such a horrible book? What was your object? Of what benefit could such a book be to anybody?”

“I only wanted to open your eyes to convent life,” he answered, “you seemed to know nothing but its outer, or decorative side, so I thought I would show you what is hidden under that charming exterior.”

“But Saint Amulfia lived in the seventeenth century! Surely everything has changed since then?” protested Irene weakly.

“Not in convents!” replied Gzhatski with emphasis. “Nothing can ever change where the very fundamental conditions are abnormal.[155] Human beings were created to live in the world, to work together, to be happy together, and thankfully to accept and enjoy all that life can give. Only in complying with these conditions can they retain their moral and mental equilibrium. The moment they leave the world and become possessed by some monomania, such as the saving of their own souls, they are unbalanced, and there soon follow all the hallucinations, visions, temptations of the devil, and what not, so common in convents. Convents are now being closed in France, not, as is popularly supposed, through the influence of Freemasons, but by science and enlightenment, two forces that always hold high their torch in France, and always have the last word. No one doubts that in their time convents were of great use to humanity. With the exception of the comparatively rare cases in which inexperienced souls were forcibly or artificially lured into taking the veil and so ruining their healthy, normal natures, most of the people who became nuns were such as felt the renunciation of normal life to be[156] their vocation, in other words, entirely unbalanced characters. Convents, therefore, rendered an enormous service to society by imprisoning within their walls erotic and hysterical women, and all sorts of maniacs, whose presence in the world might have been highly detrimental to their fellows. Whenever some sort of power fell accidentally into their hands, they managed to do harm even after having renounced life. One need only take the one great instance of the Spanish Inquisition, and of all the subtle refinement of torture in which, during its sway, the cruel voluptuousness of these diseased natures found its outlet.

“Science tells us that rest and silence and a regular life, free from all disquieting influences, work wonders for sufferers from nervous diseases. In monasteries and convents, such patients were not only kept, but they also underwent cures, for in addition to everything else, these religious institutions were generally situated amid the loveliest and healthiest natural surroundings, and almost all the modern German and Swiss sanatoria and[157] ‘Rest or Air Cure’ Establishments have been built on or near the ruins of some ancient monastery or convent. The founders of the latter well knew with what kind of subjects they would have to deal, and what exactly these subjects needed. I repeat: Monasteries and convents have in the past rendered humanity a great service, by taking the place of asylums and sanatoria for mental and nervous sufferers. Now that institutions for the cure or care of such sufferers abound everywhere, convents have become useless, and are being suppressed.

“In Russia, they still exist, and will long continue to exist and be needed, because they provide for our peasantry that change and relaxation which the upper classes find in their travels abroad. A certain amount of change is essential to all human beings, but most particularly to inhabitants of the gloomy North, with its cold cheerless climate. The English, for instance, have long ago realized that it is necessary for the maintenance of their health and strength to travel at least once a year. Whither would our Russian[158] peasant and his hapless ‘old woman’ betake themselves, if there existed no monastery where one can go for a ‘prayer week’? For them, convents represent the new places, new people, new impressions, which are so necessary for jaded nerves, and which have such a reviving influence on body and soul. Our monasteries are perfectly aware of this, and willingly receive, feed, and maintain pilgrim visitors. The most hospitable of all is, perhaps, the Valamski Monastery, and our silly Petrograd does not even suspect how much of its moral and mental good health it owes to this institution. While various charitable societies are only just beginning to organize picnics and excursions, the Valamski Brothers have long had their own private steamers, which, modestly and without any advertisement or flourish of trumpets, bring visitors to Valam, at a fare cheap enough to be within the means of the most limited purse. Once there, all travellers are received alike by the monks, with kindness and courtesy, are regaled with simple, wholesome food, and provided with distractions[159] in the shape of rowing and sailing. How many delightful impressions have been brought back from these excursions by the poor of Petrograd, during those glorious summer months, when all nature rejoices! But for the Valamski Monastery, many a puny Petrograd slum child would never have known how beautiful God’s world is. All honour to the modest brotherhood of Valam! These are true Christians, since they share with others God’s most glorious gift to man—nature!

“Russian monasteries also render a service to the people by their beautiful singing. The desire for music is not, as many people wrongly suppose, the privilege of the cultured circles. There are indeed many clever and well-educated people who do not care about music at all, while there are ignorant peasants who delight in it. You have only to go to the big Cathedral of the Alexander-Nevsky Lavra, at Christmas or Easter. At no concert will you see such beaming, happy faces. The people will stand for two or three hours, forgetting everything in the[160] world but the delight of the soft dulcet tones of the choir.

“In all poor countries, where general culture is not very advanced, monasteries give to the masses the silence, poetry and music, for which their souls unconsciously yearn. As soon, however, as a people grows prosperous, educates itself and finds its own distractions, the need for convents or monasteries disappears. Simple-minded folk imagine that the suppression of the religious orders means the decay of Christianity—but they forget that monasteries existed in India and in China, long before the birth of Christ. Christianity did not invent them, but the monasteries of the time gradually adopted the new faith. Actually, all such institutions are quite contrary to Christian ideals, for Christ’s teaching, above all else, enjoins activity. Much more in conformity with the Gospel are the modern religious working associations, with their hospitals, schools, and refuges, which are springing up everywhere now in place of the old convents. Their introduction into modern life is perfectly comprehensible. In addition[161] to the nervous wrecks, there were also some healthy people who used to enter convents; people, indeed, whose superior spiritual health, so to speak, prompted them to consider the happiness of others, before their own. Such monks and nuns as these were not content to do nothing but fast and pray, but invented occupations for themselves. Some founded schools and colleges, others nursed the sick, others again became missionaries in foreign lands. They wore the prescribed attire of their orders, but in all other respects they lived in the world as before, loving and helping their neighbours, and sharing the interests and joys and sorrows of their fellow-creatures. It is this healthy class of monastics, that is now, after the suppression of the old institutions, hastening to found new ones, more in keeping with the needs of our times. Such charitable associations have sprung up in large numbers also in Russia—God speed them! But institutions of that kind will never attract people like you, Irene Pavlovna!”

“Why not?”

[162]

“Because you are ill, and your illness makes the old convents, with their mysticism and their mysteries and their sleeping existence somewhere between earth and heaven, far more attractive to you.”

“But what is this disease?” asked Irene, with a mistrustful smile.

“The disease from which you are suffering is disgust for all activity and contempt for all mankind. This disease usually attacks the children or grand-children of writers, scientists, artists, sometimes also of State officials, the kind that have spent all their lives in pouring over State archives or other papers. Their mental overwork, at the expense of physical strength, leaves indelible traces, and has to be paid for by their children, who always have morbid desires for some fantastic existence invented by their own imaginations, and find real life dull and colourless. As soon as they are over the borders of childhood, they begin, like ancient Israel, to dispute and struggle with God. They refuse to accept the humanity He has created, with all its faults and failings; they invent their own fanciful[163] heroes, and demand of God that He should give these imaginary creatures life. It is principally women in whom this morbid contempt for human nature manifests itself. The girl, indeed, is rare who does not, on getting married, attempt to remodel her husband according to her own ideas. She tries to turn a passionate worldling into a monk, prepares to metamorphose a pensive lover of solitude into a brilliant society dandy, or forces a pleasure-loving social lion into the narrow circle of her domestic interests. And the poor deluded creature never for a moment doubts the success of her efforts. ‘I shall only have to be insistent, and to give him no peace,’ she thinks, ‘and all will be as I wish.’

“Some women, indeed, shatter their happiness in this way, and to the end of their lives never realize their mistake. Of course, this ridiculous feature of their characters proves the profound depths of ignorance in which women are still groping, in spite of their superficial, if sometimes apparently brilliant, intellectual attainments. Were their mental development less shallow, they would understand[164] that God cannot for their pleasure entirely remodel a completed creation. This seems, indeed, a very simple fact, but it is surprising how few women can grasp it. Most of my morbid types try to escape from the prose of life by means of operas, novels, dreams, and in this way they only broaden the gulf that separates them from their more reasonable fellow-creatures. They feel that happiness is their birthright, and they torment themselves because they cannot attain it. Time passes, and brings disillusionment, since the world refuses to conform itself to vain fancies. And then begins the quarrel with God.

“‘Send me a man after my own heart,’ cry the poor deluded ones to the Almighty, often with bitter tears. ‘Then I shall be happy, will believe in Thy might, and will bless and praise Thy name. I despise the low, sinful people by whom I am surrounded, and I suffer through this very fact. I long to bow my head before some nobler being, some man who has only virtues, and to whom I could all my life look up in adoration.’

[165]

“What answer can God give to such prayers, however sincere and agonized they may be? They remain ungranted, and little by little they turn into murmurs, discontent, and finally, unbelief.

“‘Were there a God,’ think these unfortunates, with a burning sense of injustice, ‘He would pay attention to my sufferings. Once He remains silent, this proves that He does not exist.’

“The only result is a wrecked life, void of happiness, and without benefit to anybody.

“Such diseased characters ought to be treated and cured in childhood. Their interest in life should be artificially educated. Novels and operas should be strictly forbidden. They should be taught history and medical science, and they should be made to work in hospitals, in order to overcome that unnatural disgust for mere physical life, which is one of their chief characteristics. They should be trained to observe their surroundings, even to express in writing their impressions of people with whom they come in contact, and to make logical deductions on[166] the subject of the probable futures of these people. In a word, to attach these sick creatures to earth, one must convince them that there exists nothing so interesting as humanity. Only when observation and interest in their fellow-creatures becomes a habit, will they understand the object of life. Instead of contempt, their hearts will be filled with profound pity. It is themselves, indeed, that one cannot at present regard without pity, these hapless sufferers from a deep-seated moral disease. Rancour, greed, envy, voluptuousness, cruelty, these are all spiritual ailments, needing special doctors and special medicines.”

“But—” stammered Irene, “these are sins, and not diseases. You are preaching some entirely new theory.”

“No; it only seems new to you, but it is actually as old as the hills. Shakespeare already described, in Othello, the symptoms of the disease of jealousy, and in Hamlet, again, he showed us a soul paralyzed by excessive self-analysis. Read the monologue of Pouschkin’s ‘Avaricious Knight,’ and you will agree that this is the monologue of a madman. Compare[167] him with Molière’s ‘Miser,’ and you will notice that both the writers have emphasized the characteristic feature of all misers: hatred of their children. Ask any doctor, and he will tell you that mental patients, in almost every case, lose the capacity to love or take an interest in their relations and friends, sometimes, indeed, manifesting a violent animosity towards them.

“It is not, indeed, only Shakespeare, or Pushkin, or Molière, it is all the science and literature of centuries, that has prepared the way for this (as you call it) ‘new theory.’ In our hearts, we have already long ago accepted it; we are only hesitating to proclaim it loudly, because it destroys all our laws and a............