Why Do Men Stupefy Themselves? - Leo Tolstoy (Complete Audiobook) — Transcript

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1. 0:01Why Do Men Stupefy Themselves?
2. 0:03By Leo Tolstoy
3. 0:06Translated by Aylmer Maude
4. 0:10Chapter I
5. 0:12What is the explanation of the fact that people  use things that stupefy them: vódka, wine, beer,
6. 0:20hashish, opium, tobacco, and other things  less common: ether, morphia, fly-agaric,
7. 0:27etc.? Why did the practice begin? Why has  it spread so rapidly, and why is it still
8. 0:34spreading among all sorts of people, savage and  civilized? How is it that where there is no vódka,
9. 0:42wine or beer, we find opium, hashish, fly-agaric,  and the like, and that tobacco is used everywhere?
10. 0:52Why do people wish to stupefy themselves?
11. 0:56Ask anyone why he began drinking wine and why  he now drinks it. He will reply, “Oh, I like it,
12. 1:04and everybody drinks,” and he may add, “it cheers  me up.” Some—those who have never once taken the
13. 1:14trouble to consider whether they do well or ill  to drink wine—may add that wine is good for the
14. 1:20health and adds to one's strength; that is to say,  will make a statement long since proved baseless.
15. 1:30Ask a smoker why he began to use  tobacco and why he now smokes,
16. 1:35and he also will reply: “To while  away the time; everybody smokes.”
17. 1:42Similar answers would probably be given by those  who use opium, hashish, morphia, or fly-agaric.
18. 1:50'To while away time, to cheer oneself up;  everybody does it.' But it might be excusable
19. 1:58to twiddle one's thumbs, to whistle, to hum tunes,  to play a fife or to do something of that sort 'to
20. 2:07while away the time,' 'to cheer oneself up,' or  'because everybody does it' — that is to say,
21. 2:14it might be excusable to do something which does  not involve wasting Nature's wealth, or spending
22. 2:21what has cost great labor to produce, or doing  what brings evident harm to oneself and to others.
23. 2:30But to produce tobacco, wine, hashish, and  opium, the labor of millions of men is spent,
24. 2:37and millions and millions of acres of  the best land (often amid a population
25. 2:42that is short of land) are employed to grow  potatoes, hemp, poppies, vines, and tobacco.
26. 2:51Moreover, the use of these evidently  harmful things produces terrible evils
27. 2:57known and admitted by everyone, and destroys  more people than all the wars and contagious
28. 3:04diseases added together. And people know this,  so that they cannot really use these things 'to
29. 3:13while away time,' 'to cheer themselves  up,' or because 'everybody does it.'
30. 3:20There must be some other reason. Continually  and everywhere one meets people who love
31. 3:26their children and are ready to make  all kinds of sacrifices for them,
32. 3:31but who yet spend on vódka, wine and beer,  or on opium, hashish, or even tobacco,
33. 3:38as much as would quite suffice to feed  their hungry and poverty-stricken children,
34. 3:44or at least as much as would  suffice to save them from misery.
35. 3:50Evidently if a man who has to choose between  the want and sufferings of a family he loves
36. 3:56on the one hand, and abstinence from stupefying  things on the other, chooses the former — he
37. 4:04must be induced thereto by something more potent  than the consideration that everybody does it,
38. 4:11or that it is pleasant. Evidently it  is done not 'to while away time,' nor
39. 4:18merely 'to cheer himself up.' He is  actuated by some more powerful cause.
40. 4:26This cause — as far as I have detected  it by reading about this subject and by
41. 4:32observing other people, and particularly by  observing my own case when I used to drink
42. 4:38wine and smoke tobacco — this cause,  I think, may be explained as follows:
43. 4:46When observing his own life, a man may often  notice in himself two different beings:
44. 4:53the one is blind and physical, the other sees  and is spiritual. The blind animal being eats,
45. 5:03drinks, rests, sleeps, propagates,  and moves, like a wound-up machine.
46. 5:11The seeing, spiritual being that is bound  up with the animal does nothing of itself,
47. 5:17but only appraises the activity of  the animal being; coinciding with
48. 5:22it when approving its activity, and  diverging from it when disapproving.
49. 5:29This observing being may be compared to  the needle of a compass, pointing with one
50. 5:35end to the north and with the other to the  south, but screened along its whole length
51. 5:41by something not noticeable so long as it  and the needle both point the same way;
52. 5:48but which becomes obvious as soon  as they point different ways.
53. 5:53In the same manner the seeing, spiritual being,  whose manifestation we commonly call conscience,
54. 6:01always points with one end towards right and  with the other towards wrong, and we do not
55. 6:07notice it while we follow the course it shows: the  course from wrong to right. But one need only do
56. 6:15something contrary to the indication of conscience  to become aware of this spiritual being, which
57. 6:21then shows how the animal activity has diverged  from the direction indicated by conscience.
58. 6:30And as a navigator conscious that he is on the  wrong track cannot continue to work the oars,
59. 6:36engine, or sails, till he has adjusted  his course to the indications of
60. 6:40the compass, or has obliterated his  consciousness of this divergence—each
61. 6:46man who has felt the duality of his animal  activity and his conscience can continue his
62. 6:53activity only by adjusting that activity to  the demands of conscience, or by hiding from
63. 6:59himself the indications conscience gives  him of the wrongness of his animal life.
64. 7:06All human life, we may say, consists  solely of these two activities:
65. 7:131. bringing one's activities  into harmony with conscience, or
66. 7:192. hiding from oneself the  indications of conscience
67. 7:23in order to be able to continue to live as before.
68. 7:28Some do the first, others the second. To  attain the first there is but one means: moral
69. 7:37enlightenment — the increase of light in oneself  and attention to what it shows. To attain the
70. 7:45second — to hide from oneself the indications of  conscience—there are two means: one external and
71. 7:53the other internal. The external means consists  in occupations that divert one's attention from
72. 8:00the indications given by conscience; the internal  method consists in darkening conscience itself.
73. 8:09As a man has two ways of avoiding seeing  an object that is before him: either by
74. 8:15diverting his sight to other more striking  objects, or by obstructing the sight of his
75. 8:20own eyes—just so a man can hide from himself  the indications of conscience in two ways:
76. 8:29either by the external method of diverting  his attention to various occupations, cares,
77. 8:35amusements, or games; or by the internal method  of obstructing the organ of attention itself.
78. 8:44For people of dull, limited moral feeling,  the external diversions are often quite
79. 8:50sufficient to enable them not to perceive the  indications conscience gives of the wrongness
80. 8:56of their lives. But for morally sensitive  people those means are often insufficient.
81. 9:05The external means do not quite divert attention  from the consciousness of discord between one's
82. 9:11life and the demands of conscience. This  consciousness hampers one's life; and in
83. 9:18order to be able to go on living as before, people  have recourse to the reliable, internal method,
84. 9:25which is that of darkening conscience itself by  poisoning the brain with stupefying substances.
85. 9:34One is not living as conscience demands, yet  lacks the strength to reshape one's life in
86. 9:40accord with its demands. The diversions which  might distract attention from the consciousness
87. 9:48of this discord are insufficient, or have become  stale, and so—in order to be able to live on,
88. 9:56disregarding the indications conscience gives of  the wrongness of their life—people (by poisoning
89. 10:03it temporarily) stop the activity of the organ  [the brain] through which conscience manifests
90. 10:10itself, as a man by covering his eyes hides  from himself what he does not wish to see.
91. 10:22Chapter II
92. 10:25The cause of the world-wide consumption  of hashish, opium, wine, and tobacco,
93. 10:31lies not in the taste, nor  in any pleasure, recreation,
94. 10:35or mirth they afford, but simply in man's need  to hide from himself the demands of conscience.
95. 10:45I was going along the street one day,  and passing some cabmen who were talking,
96. 10:50I heard one of them say: 'Of course when  a man's sober he's ashamed to do it!'
97. 10:58When a man is sober he is ashamed of what seems  all right when he is drunk. In these words we
98. 11:05have the essential underlying cause prompting men  to resort to stupefiers. People resort to them
99. 11:13either to escape feeling ashamed after having  done something contrary to their consciences,
100. 11:19or to bring themselves beforehand  into a state in which they can commit
101. 11:24actions contrary to conscience, but to  which their animal nature prompts them.
102. 11:31A man when sober is ashamed to go  after a prostitute, ashamed to steal,
103. 11:37ashamed to kill. A drunken man is  ashamed of none of these things,
104. 11:43and therefore if a man wishes to do something  his conscience condemns he stupefies himself.
105. 11:52I remember being struck by the evidence of a cook  who was tried for murdering a relation of mine,
106. 11:58an old lady in whose service he lived. He  related that when he had sent away his paramour,
107. 12:05the servant-girl, and the time had come to act,  he wished to go into the bedroom with a knife,
108. 12:12but felt that while sober he could not  commit the deed he had planned...'when
109. 12:18a man's sober he's ashamed.' He turned  back, drank two tumblers of vódka he had
110. 12:26prepared beforehand, and only then felt  himself ready, and committed the crime.
111. 12:34Nine-tenths of the crimes are committed in  that way: 'Drink to keep up your courage.'
112. 12:41Half the women who fall do so under the  influence of wine. Nearly all visits to
113. 12:48disorderly houses are paid by men who are  intoxicated. People know this capacity
114. 12:54of wine to stifle the voice of conscience,  and intentionally use it for that purpose.
115. 13:02Not only do people stupefy themselves to stifle  their own consciences, but, knowing how wine acts,
116. 13:10they intentionally stupefy others when they  wish to make them commit actions contrary
117. 13:15to conscience—that is, they arrange to stupefy  people in order to deprive them of conscience.
118. 13:24In war, soldiers are usually intoxicated before a
119. 13:28hand-to-hand fight. All the French soldiers  in the assaults on Sevastopol were drunk.
120. 13:37When a fortified place has been captured but
121. 13:40the soldiers do not sack it and slay  the defenseless old men and children,
122. 13:45orders are often given to make them drunk  and then they do what is expected of them.
123. 13:53Everyone knows people who have taken to  drink in consequence of some wrong-doing
124. 13:58that has tormented their conscience. Anyone can  notice that those who lead immoral lives are
125. 14:05more attracted than others by stupefying  substances. Bands of robbers or thieves,
126. 14:12and prostitutes, cannot live without intoxicants.
127. 14:17Everyone knows and admits that the use of  stupefying substances is a consequence of the
128. 14:24pangs of conscience, and that in certain immoral  ways of life stupefying substances are employed to
129. 14:32stifle conscience. Everyone knows and admits also  that the use of stupefiers does stifle conscience:
130. 14:42that a drunken man is capable of deeds of which  when sober he would not think for a moment.
131. 14:50Everyone agrees to this, but strange to say  when the use of stupefiers does not result
132. 14:57in such deeds as thefts, murders, violations,  and so forth — when stupefiers are taken not
133. 15:05after some terrible crimes, but by men following  professions which we do not consider criminal,
134. 15:12and when the substances are consumed not in large  quantities at once but continually in moderate
135. 15:19doses — then it is assumed that stupefying  substances have no tendency to stifle conscience.
136. 15:29Thus it is supposed that a well-to-do Russian's  glass of vódka before each meal and tumbler of
137. 15:36wine with the meal, or a Frenchman's absinthe,  or an Englishman's port wine and porter, or a
138. 15:44German's lager-beer, or a well-to-do Chinaman's  moderate dose of opium, and the smoking of tobacco
139. 15:51with them — is done only for pleasure and has no  effect whatever on these people's consciences.
140. 16:00It is supposed that if after this customary  stupefaction no crime is committed — no theft
141. 16:07or murder, but only customary bad and stupid  actions — then these actions have occurred of
142. 16:14themselves and are not evoked by the stupefaction.  It is supposed that if these people have not
143. 16:22committed offences against the criminal law they  have no need to stifle the voice of conscience,
144. 16:28and that the life led by people who habitually  stupefy themselves is quite a good life,
145. 16:35and would be precisely the same if they did  not stupefy themselves. It is supposed that
146. 16:42the constant use of stupefiers does not  in the least darken their consciences.
147. 16:50Though everybody knows by experience that a man's  frame of mind is altered by the use of wine or
148. 16:57tobacco, that he is not ashamed of things which  but for the stimulant he would be ashamed of,
149. 17:04that after each twinge of conscience, however  slight, he is inclined to have recourse to some
150. 17:11stupefier, and that under the influence  of stupefiers it is difficult to reflect
151. 17:17on his life and position, and that the  constant and regular use of stupefiers
152. 17:23produces the same physiological effect as  its occasional immoderate use does—yet in
153. 17:31spite of all this it seems to men who drink  and smoke moderately that they use stupefiers
154. 17:38not at all to stifle conscience, but  only for the flavor or for pleasure.
155. 17:45But one need only think of the matter seriously
156. 17:48and impartially — not trying to  excuse oneself — to understand,
157. 17:541. first, that if the use of stupefiers in  large occasional doses stifles man's conscience,
158. 18:03their regular use must have a like effect  (always first intensifying and then dulling
159. 18:09the activity of the brain) whether  they are taken in large or small doses.
160. 18:162. secondly, that all stupefiers have the quality  of stifling conscience, and have this always
161. 18:25[inherently]—both when under their influence  murders, robberies, and violations are committed,
162. 18:33and when under their influence words are  spoken which would not have been spoken,
163. 18:38or things are thought and felt which but for  them would not have been thought and felt; and,
164. 18:463. thirdly, that if the use  of stupefiers is needed to
165. 18:51pacify and stifle the consciences of  thieves, robbers, and prostitutes,
166. 18:57it is also wanted by people engaged  in occupations condemned by their own
167. 19:02consciences, even though these occupations may be  considered proper and honorable by other people.
168. 19:11In a word, it is impossible to avoid understanding  that that the use of stupefiers, in large or small
169. 19:19amounts, occasionally or regularly, in  the higher or lower circles of society,
170. 19:26is evoked by and the same cause, the need to  stifle the voice of conscience in order not
171. 19:32to be aware of the discord existing between one's  way of life and the demands of one's conscience.
172. 19:44Chapter III
173. 19:47In that alone lies the reason of the  widespread use of all stupefying substances,
174. 19:54and among the rest of tobacco—probably  the most generally used and most harmful.
175. 20:02It is supposed that tobacco cheers one up,  clears the thoughts, and attracts one merely
176. 20:09like any other habit—without at all producing  the deadening of conscience produced by wine.
177. 20:18But you need only observe attentively  the conditions under which a special
178. 20:22desire to smoke arises, and you  will be convinced that stupefying
179. 20:28with tobacco acts on the conscience as  wine does, and that people consciously
180. 20:33have recourse to this method of stupefaction  just when they require it for that purpose.
181. 20:42If tobacco merely cleared the  thoughts and cheered one up,
182. 20:46there would not be such a passionate craving  for it, a craving showing itself just on
183. 20:51certain definite occasions. People would not  say, as they do, that they would rather go
184. 20:58without bread than without tobacco, and would  not often actually prefer tobacco to food.
185. 21:06That cook who murdered his mistress said that  when he entered the bedroom and had gashed her
186. 21:11throat with his knife and she had fallen with  a rattle in her throat and the blood had gushed
187. 21:17out in a torrent—he lost his courage. “I could  not finish her off,” he said, “but I went back
188. 21:25from the bedroom to the sitting-room and  sat down there and smoked a cigarette.”
189. 21:32Only after stupefying himself with tobacco  was he able to return to the bedroom,
190. 21:38finish cutting the old lady's throat,  and begin examining her things.
191. 21:45Evidently the desire to smoke at  that moment was evoked in him,
192. 21:51not by a wish to clear his thoughts or be merry,
193. 21:54but by the need to stifle something that prevented  him from completing what he had planned to do.
194. 22:02Any smoker may detect in himself the same definite
195. 22:06desire to stupefy himself with tobacco  at certain specially difficult moments.
196. 22:14I look back at the days when I used to  smoke: when was it that I felt a special
197. 22:20need of tobacco? It was always at moments when  I did not wish to remember certain things that
198. 22:26presented themselves to my recollection,  when I wished to forget—not to think.
199. 22:341. I sit by myself doing nothing  and know I ought to set to work,
200. 22:40but I don't feel inclined to,  so I smoke and go on sitting.
201. 22:472. I have promised to be at someone's
202. 22:50house by five o'clock, but I have  stayed too long somewhere else.
203. 22:55I remember that I have missed the appointment,  but I do not like to remember it, so I smoke.
204. 23:033. I get vexed and say  unpleasant things to someone,
205. 23:09and know I am doing wrong and see  that I ought to stop, but I want
206. 23:13to give vent to my irritability—so I  smoke and continue to be irritable.
207. 23:214. I play at cards and lose more  than I intended to risk — so I smoke.
208. 23:315. I have placed myself in an  awkward position, have acted badly,
209. 23:38have made a mistake, and ought to acknowledge  the mess I am in and thus escape from it,
210. 23:44but I do not like to acknowledge  it, so I accuse others — and smoke.
211. 23:506. I write something and am not quite  satisfied with what I have written. I
212. 23:57ought to abandon it, but I wish to finish  what I have planned to do —so I smoke.
213. 24:047. I dispute, and see that my opponent and I do  not understand and cannot understand one another,
214. 24:13but I wish to express my opinion,  so I continue to talk — and I smoke.
215. 24:21What distinguishes tobacco from most other  stupefiers, besides the ease with which
216. 24:26one can stupefy oneself with it and its  apparent harmlessness, is its portability
217. 24:33and the possibility of applying it to meet  small, isolated occurrences that disturb one.
218. 24:41Not to mention that the use of opium, wine, and  hashish involves the use of certain appliances not
219. 24:48always at hand, while one can always carry  tobacco and paper with one; and that the
220. 24:55opium-smoker and the drunkard evoke horror while a  tobacco-smoker does not seem at all repulsive—the
221. 25:04advantage of tobacco over other stupefiers is,  that the stupefaction of opium, hashish, or wine
222. 25:12extends to all the sensations and acts received or  produced during a certain somewhat extended period
223. 25:19of time—while the stupefaction from tobacco  can be directed to any separate occurrence.
224. 25:28You wish to do what you ought not to, so you smoke  a cigarette and stupefy yourself sufficiently to
225. 25:35enable you to do what should not be done, and  then you are [supposedly] all right again,
226. 25:42and can think and speak clearly; or you feel  you have done what you should not—again you
227. 25:49smoke a cigarette and the unpleasant  consciousness of the wrong or awkward
228. 25:54action is obliterated, and you can occupy  yourself with other things and forget it.
229. 26:02But apart from individual cases in which  every smoker has recourse to smoking,
230. 26:08not to satisfy a habit or while away time,  but as a means of stifling his conscience with
231. 26:15reference to acts he is about to commit or has  already committed, is it not quite evident that
232. 26:22there is a strict and definite relation between  men's way of life and their passion for smoking?
233. 26:31When do lads begin to smoke? Usually when they  lose their childish innocence. How is it that
234. 26:39smokers can abandon smoking when they come among  more moral conditions of life, and again start
235. 26:45smoking as soon as they fall among a depraved  set? Why do gamblers almost all smoke? Why among
236. 26:54women do those who lead a regular life smoke  least? Why do prostitutes and madmen all smoke?
237. 27:05Habit is habit, but evidently smoking  stands in some definite connection
238. 27:11with the craving to stifle conscience,  and achieves the end required of it.
239. 27:18One may observe in the case of almost every  smoker to what an extent smoking drowns the
240. 27:24voice of conscience. Every smoker  when yielding to his desire forgets,
241. 27:31or sets at naught, the very first demands of  social life—demands he expects others to observe,
242. 27:39and which he observes in all other cases  until his conscience is stifled by tobacco.
243. 27:46Everyone of average education  considers it inadmissible,
244. 27:50ill-bred, and inhumane to infringe the peace,  comfort, and still more the health of others for
245. 27:57his own pleasure. No one would allow himself  to wet a room in which people are sitting,
246. 28:04or to make a noise, shout, let in  cold, hot, or ill-smelling air,
247. 28:10or commit acts that incommode or harm others. But  out of a thousand smokers not one will shrink from
248. 28:18producing unwholesome smoke in a room where the  air is breathed by non-smoking women and children.
249. 28:27If smokers do usually say to those present:
250. 28:30“You don't object?” everyone knows that  the customary answer is: “Not at all”
251. 28:38(although it cannot be pleasant to a  non-smoker to breathe tainted air, and
252. 28:43to find stinking cigar ends in glasses and cups or  on plates and candlesticks, or even in ashpans).
253. 28:52But even if non-smoking adults did not object  to tobacco smoke, it could not be pleasant or
254. 28:59good for the children whose consent no  one asks. Yet people who are honorable
255. 29:05and humane in all other respects smoke in the  presence of children at dinner in small rooms,
256. 29:12vitiating the air with tobacco smoke, without  feeling the slightest twinge of conscience.
257. 29:19It is usually said (and I used to say) that  smoking facilitates mental work. And that
258. 29:27is undoubtedly true if one considers only  the quantity of one's mental output. To a
259. 29:35man who smokes, and who consequently ceases  strictly to appraise and weigh his thoughts,
260. 29:42it seems as if he suddenly had many thoughts. But  this is not because he really has many thoughts,
261. 29:49but only because he has lost  control of his thoughts.
262. 29:54When a man works he is always conscious  of two beings in himself: the one works,
263. 30:00the other appraises the work. The stricter  the appraisement the slower and the better
264. 30:06is the work; and vice versa, when the  appraiser is under the influence of
265. 30:12something that stupefies him, more work  gets done, but its quality is poorer.
266. 30:20“If I do not smoke I cannot write. I cannot  get on; I begin and cannot continue,” is what
267. 30:28is usually said, and what I used to say. What  does it really mean? It means either that you
268. 30:37have nothing to write, or that what you wish to  write has not yet matured in your consciousness
269. 30:43but is only beginning dimly to present itself  to you, and the appraising critic within,
270. 30:49when not stupefied with tobacco, tells you so.  If you did not smoke, you would either abandon
271. 30:57what you have begun, or you would wait until  your thought has cleared itself in your mind;
272. 31:03you would try to penetrate into what presents  itself dimly to you, would consider the objections
273. 31:10that offer themselves, and would turn all your  attention to the elucidation of the thought.
274. 31:17But you smoke, the critic within you is  stupefied, and the hindrance to your work
275. 31:23is removed. What seemed insignificant to you when  not inebriated by tobacco, again seems important;
276. 31:33what seemed obscure no longer seems  so; the objections that presented
277. 31:38themselves vanish and you continue  to write, and write much and rapidly.
278. 31:48Chapter IV
279. 31:51But can such a small—such a trifling—alteration  as the slight intoxication produced by the
280. 31:59moderate use of wine or tobacco  produce important consequences?
281. 32:05“If a man smokes opium or hashish,  or intoxicates himself with wine
282. 32:11till he falls down and loses his senses, of  course the consequences may be very serious;
283. 32:18but it surely cannot have any serious  consequences if a man merely comes
284. 32:23slightly under the influence of hops  or tobacco,” is what is usually said.
285. 32:30It seems to people that a slight stupefaction,  a little darkening of the judgment, cannot have
286. 32:37any important influence. But to think so is  like supposing that it may harm a watch to
287. 32:45be struck against a stone, but that a little  dirt introduced into it cannot be harmful.
288. 32:53Remember, however, that the chief work actuating  man's whole life is not done by his hands,
289. 33:01his feet, or his back, but by his consciousness.  Before a man can do anything with his feet or
290. 33:10hands, a certain alteration has first  to take place in his consciousness.
291. 33:17And this alteration defines all the  subsequent movements of the man.
292. 33:22Yet these alterations are always  minute and almost imperceptible.
293. 33:30Bryullov one day corrected a pupil's study. The  pupil, having glanced at the altered drawing,
294. 33:38exclaimed: “Why, you only touched it a  tiny bit, but it is quite another thing.”
295. 33:46Bryullov replied: “Art begins  where the tiny bit begins.”
296. 33:53That saying is strikingly true not only  of art but of all life. One may say that
297. 34:02true life begins where the tiny bit begins —  where what seem to us minute and infinitely
298. 34:09small alterations take place. True life  is not lived where great external changes
299. 34:17take place — where people move about,  clash, fight, and slay one another — it
300. 34:24is lived only where these tiny, tiny,  infinitesimally small changes occur.
301. 34:33Raskólnikov did not live his true life when  he murdered the old woman or her sister. When
302. 34:40murdering the old woman herself, and  still more when murdering her sister,
303. 34:45he did not live his true life, but acted  like a machine, doing what he could not help
304. 34:51doing—discharging the cartridge with which he  had long been loaded. One old woman was killed,
305. 35:01another stood before him, the axe was in his hand.
306. 35:07Raskólnikov lived his true life not when he  met the old woman's sister, but at the time
307. 35:14when he had not yet killed any old woman, nor  entered a stranger's lodging with intent to kill,
308. 35:20nor held the axe in his hand, nor had the  loop in his overcoat by which the axe hung.
309. 35:29He lived his true life when he was lying  on the sofa in his room, deliberating not
310. 35:35at all about the old woman, nor even as to  whether it is or is not permissible at the
311. 35:41will of one man to wipe from the face of the  earth another, unnecessary and harmful, man,
312. 35:48but whether he ought to live in Petersburg or  not, whether he ought to accept money from his
313. 35:54mother or not, and on other questions  not at all relating to the old woman.
314. 36:01And then — in that region quite independent  of animal activities — the question whether
315. 36:08he would or would not kill  the old woman was decided.
316. 36:13That question was decided — not when, having  killed one old woman, he stood before another,
317. 36:20axe in hand — but when he was doing nothing and  was only thinking, when only his consciousness
318. 36:28was active: and in that consciousness  tiny, tiny alterations were taking place.
319. 36:37It is at such times that one needs the  greatest clearness [of mind] to decide
320. 36:43correctly the questions that have arisen,  and it is just then that one glass of beer,
321. 36:50or one cigarette, may prevent the solution  of the question, may postpone the decision,
322. 36:57stifle the voice of conscience and prompt a  decision of the question in favor of the lower,
323. 37:04animal nature — as was the case with Raskólnikov.
324. 37:10Tiny, tiny alterations — but on them depend  the most immense and terrible consequences.
325. 37:20Many material changes may result from what happens  when a man has taken a decision and begun to act:
326. 37:28houses, riches, and people's bodies may perish,  but nothing more important can happen than what
327. 37:36was hidden in the man's consciousness. The limits  of what can happen are set by consciousness.
328. 37:45And boundless results of unimaginable importance
329. 37:49may follow from most minute alterations  occurring in the domain of consciousness.
330. 37:57Do not let it be supposed that  what I am saying has anything to
331. 38:02do with the question of free will or determinism.
332. 38:07Discussion on that question is superfluous for  my purpose, or for any other for that matter.
333. 38:15Without deciding the question  whether a man can, or cannot,
334. 38:19act as he wishes (a question in my opinion  not correctly stated), I am merely saying
335. 38:27that since human activity is conditioned by  infinitesimal alterations in consciousness,
336. 38:34it follows (no matter whether we admit the  existence of free will or not) that we must
337. 38:40pay particular attention to the condition in which  these minute alterations take place, just as one
338. 38:48must be specially attentive to the condition of  scales on which other things are to be weighed.
339. 38:57We must, as far as it depends on us, try  to put ourselves and others in conditions
340. 39:04which will not disturb the clearness and  delicacy of thought necessary for the
341. 39:09correct working of conscience, and must not  act in the contrary manner—trying to hinder
342. 39:16and confuse the work of conscience  by the use of stupefying substances.
343. 39:23For man is a spiritual as well as an animal being.  He may be moved by things that influence his
344. 39:31spiritual nature, or by things that influence  his animal nature, as a clock may be moved by
345. 39:38its hands or by its main wheel. And just as it  is best to regulate the movement of a clock by
346. 39:48means of its inner mechanism, so a man—oneself  or another—is best regulated by means of his
347. 39:56consciousness. And as with a clock one has  to take special care of that part by means
348. 40:05of which one can best move the inner mechanism,  so with a man one must take special care of the
349. 40:13cleanness and clearness of consciousness which  is the thing that best moves the whole man.
350. 40:21To doubt this is impossible; everyone knows  it. But a need to deceive oneself arises.
351. 40:30People are not as anxious that consciousness  should work correctly as they are that it
352. 40:36should seem to them that what they are  doing is right, and they deliberately
353. 40:41make use of substances that disturb the  proper working of their consciousness.
354. 40:50Chapter V
355. 40:53People drink and smoke, not casually, not  from dullness, not to cheer themselves up,
356. 41:01not because it is pleasant, but in order to  drown the voice of conscience in themselves.
357. 41:09And in that case, how terrible  must be the consequences!
358. 41:16Think what a building would be like erected  by people who did not use a straight
359. 41:21plumb-rule to get the walls perpendicular, nor  right-angled squares to get the corners correct,
360. 41:29but used a soft rule which would bend  to suit all irregularities in the walls,
361. 41:35and a square that expanded to  fit any angle, acute or obtuse.
362. 41:42Yet, thanks to self-stupefaction, that  is just what is being done in life. Life
363. 41:49does not accord with conscience, so  conscience is made to bend to life.
364. 41:57This is done in the life of individuals, and  it is done in the life of humanity as a whole,
365. 42:04which consists of the lives of individuals.
366. 42:09To grasp the full significance of such stupefying  of one's consciousness, let each one carefully
367. 42:16recall the spiritual conditions he has passed  through at each period of his life. Everyone will
368. 42:25find that at each period of his life certain moral  questions confronted him which he ought to solve,
369. 42:33and on the solution of which the whole welfare  of his life depended. For the solution of these
370. 42:41questions great concentration of attention  was needful. Such concentration of attention
371. 42:48is a labor. In every labor, especially  at the beginning, there is a time when
372. 42:55the work seems difficult and painful, and when  human weakness prompts a desire to abandon it.
373. 43:04Physical work seems painful at first;  mental work still more so. As Lessing says:
374. 43:12people are inclined to cease to think at the  point at which thought begins to be difficult;
375. 43:18but it is just there, I would add,  that thinking begins to be fruitful.
376. 43:25A man feels that to decide the questions  confronting him needs labor—often painful
377. 43:32labor—and he wishes to evade this. If he had  no means of stupefying his faculties he could
378. 43:40not expel from his consciousness  the questions that confront him,
379. 43:45and the necessity of solving  them would be forced upon him.
380. 43:51But man finds that there exists a means to drive
381. 43:54off these questions whenever they  present themselves—and he uses it.
382. 44:02As soon as the questions awaiting  solution begin to torment him,
383. 44:07he has recourse to these means, and  avoids the disquietude evoked by the
384. 44:12troublesome questions. Consciousness  ceases to demand their solution,
385. 44:19and the unsolved questions remain unsolved  till his next period of enlightenment.
386. 44:27But when that period comes, the same thing is  repeated, and the man goes on for months, years,
387. 44:35or even for his whole life, standing before those  same moral questions and not moving a step towards
388. 44:42their solution. Yet it is in the solution of moral  questions that life's whole movement consists.
389. 44:52What occurs is as if a man who needs to see  to the bottom of some muddy water to obtain
390. 44:57a precious pearl, but who dislikes entering  the water, should stir it up each time it
391. 45:04begins to settle and become clear. Many a man  continues to stupefy himself all his life long,
392. 45:14and remains immovable at the same once-accepted,  obscure, self-contradictory view of life—pressing,
393. 45:24as each period of enlightenment approaches, ever  at one and the same wall against which he pressed
394. 45:31ten or twenty years ago, and which he cannot  break through because he intentionally blunts
395. 45:37that sharp point of thought  which alone could pierce it.
396. 45:43Let each man remember himself as he has been  during the years of his drinking or smoking,
397. 45:50and let him test the matter in his experience of  other people, and everyone will see a definite
398. 45:57constant line dividing those who are addicted  to stupefiers from those who are free from them.
399. 46:06The more a man stupefies himself  the more he is morally immovable.
400. 46:15Chapter VI
401. 46:18Terrible, as they are described to us, are  the consequences of opium and hashish on
402. 46:24individuals; terrible, as we know them, are the  consequences of alcohol to flagrant drunkards;
403. 46:33but incomparably more terrible to our  whole society are the consequences of
404. 46:40what is considered the harmless, moderate  use of spirits, wine, beer, and tobacco,
405. 46:46to which the majority of men, and especially  our so-called cultured classes, are addicted.
406. 46:55The consequences must naturally be terrible,  admitting the fact, which must be admitted, that
407. 47:02the guiding activities of society - political,  official, scientific, literary, and artistic - are
408. 47:10carried on for the most part by people in  an abnormal state: by people who are drunk.
409. 47:18It is generally supposed that a man who, like most  people of our well-to-do classes, takes alcoholic
410. 47:26drink almost every time he eats, is in a perfectly  normal and sober condition next day, during
411. 47:32working hours. But this is quite an error. A man  who drank a bottle of wine, a glass of spirits, or
412. 47:42two glasses of ale, yesterday, is now in the usual  state of drowsiness or depression which follows
413. 47:49excitement, and is therefore in a condition of  mental prostration, which is increased by smoking.
414. 47:57For a man who habitually smokes  and drinks in moderation,
415. 48:01to bring his brain into a normal  condition would require at least
416. 48:05a week or more of abstinence from wine  and tobacco. But that hardly ever occurs.
417. 48:13So that most of what goes on among us, whether  done by people who rule and teach others,
418. 48:19or by those who are ruled and taught,  is done when the doers are not sober.
419. 48:27And let not this be taken as a joke  or an exaggeration. The confusion,
420. 48:32and above all the imbecility, of our lives,  arises chiefly from the constant state of
421. 48:39intoxication in which most people live. Could  people who are not drunk possibly do all that
422. 48:48is being done around us from building the  Eiffel Tower to accepting military service?
423. 48:56Without any need whatever, a company is  formed, capital collected, men labor,
424. 49:02make calculations, and draw plans; millions  of working days and thousands of tons of iron
425. 49:08are spent to build a tower; and millions of  people consider it their duty to climb up it,
426. 49:14stop awhile on it, and then climb down  again; and the building and visiting of
427. 49:20this tower evoke no other reflection than  a wish and intention to build other towers,
428. 49:26in other places, still bigger.  Could sober people act like that?
429. 49:34Or take another case. For dozens of years past all  the European peoples have been busy devising the
430. 49:43very best ways of killing people, and teaching  as many young men as possible, as soon as they
431. 49:49reach manhood, how to murder. Everyone knows  that there can be no invasion by barbarians,
432. 49:58but that these preparations made by the  different civilized and Christian nations
433. 50:03are directed against one another; everyone knows  that this is burdensome, painful, inconvenient,
434. 50:12ruinous, immoral, impious, and irrational, but  everyone continues to prepare for mutual murder.
435. 50:23Some devise political combinations to decide  who is to kill whom and with what allies, others
436. 50:30direct those who are being taught to murder,  and others again yield - against their will,
437. 50:36against their conscience, against their  reason - to these preparations for murder.
438. 50:44Could sober people do these things? Only  drunkards who never reach a state of sobriety
439. 50:51could do them and live on in the horrible state  of discord between life and conscience in which,
440. 50:59not only in this but in all other respects,  the people of our society are now living.
441. 51:06Never before, I suppose, have  people lived with the demands
442. 51:11of their conscience so evidently  in contradiction to their actions.
443. 51:18Humanity today is as it were stuck fast. It is  as though some external cause hindered it from
444. 51:26occupying a position in natural accord with its  perceptions. And the cause - if not the only one,
445. 51:34then certainly the greatest - is this physical  condition of stupefaction induced by wine and
446. 51:40tobacco to which the great majority of  people in our society reduce themselves.
447. 51:48Emancipation from this terrible evil  will be an epoch in the life of humanity;
448. 51:54and that epoch seems to be at hand. The evil  is recognized. An alteration has already
449. 52:01taken place in our perception concerning  the use of stupefying substances. People
450. 52:09have understood the terrible harm of these  things and are beginning to point them out,
451. 52:15and this almost unnoticed alteration in perception  will inevitably bring about the emancipation of
452. 52:21men from the use of stupefying things will enable  them to open their eyes to the demands of their
453. 52:28consciences, and they will begin to order  their lives in accord with their perceptions.
454. 52:36And this seems to be already beginning.  But as always it is beginning among the
455. 52:42upper classes only after all the lower  classes have already been infected.