Excerpts from Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot :
'And by the way...I 've long meant to ask you, do you believe in God ?' said Rogozhin suddenly, after having gone on a few steps.
'What?' Myshkin stopped short, ' What do you mean?'I was almost joking, and you are so serious! And why do you ask me ?'
'Oh, nothing. I meant to ask you before. Many people don't believe nowadays.'
Rogozhin smiled bitterly. When he had asked his question, he suddenly opened the door and holding the handle, waited for Myshkin to go out. Myshkin was surprised but he went out. Rogozhin followed him on the landing and closed the door behind him. They stood facing one another, as though neither knew where they were and what to do next.
'Good-bye,then' said Myshkin , holding out his hand.'Good-bye,' said Rogozhin , pressing tightly though mechanically the hand that was held out to him.
Myshkin went down a step and turned round.
As to the question of faith,' he began , smiling (he evidently did not want to leave Rogozhin like that) and brightening up at a sudden reminiscence, 'as to the question of faith, I had four different conversations in two days last week. I came in the morning by the new railway and talked for four hours with a man in the train; he made friends on the spot. I had heard a great deal about him beforehand and had heard he was an atheist,among other things. He really is a learned man, and I was delighted at the prospect of talking to a really learned man. What's more, he is a most unusually well-bred man, so that he talked to me quite as if I were his equal in ideas and attainments. He does n't believe in God. Only, one thing struck me : that he seemed not to be talking about that at all.the whole time; and it struck me because whenever I met unbelievers before, or read their books, it always seemed to me that they were speaking and writing in their books about something quite different, although it seemed to be about that on the surface. I said so to him at the time, but I suppose I didn't say so clearly, or didnot know how to express it, for he did n't understand.
In the evening I stopped for the night at a provincial hotel, and a murder had just been committed there the night before, so that every one was talking about it when I arrived. Two peasants, middle-aged men, friends who had known each other for long time and were not drunk , had had tea and were meaning to go to bed in the same room. But one had noticed during those last two days that the other was wearing a silver watch on a yellow bead chain, which he seems not to have seen on him before. The man was not a theif; he was an honest man, in fact, and by a peasant's standard by no means poor. But he was so taken with that watch and so fascinated by it that at last he could not restrain himself. He took a knife, and when his friend had turned away, he approached him cautiously from behind, took aim, and turned his eyes heavenwards, crossed himself, and praying fervently , " God forgive me for Christ's sake!" he cut his friend's throat at one stroke like a sheep and took his watch.'
Rogozhin went off into peals of laughter; he laughed as though he were in a sort of fit. It was positively strange to see such laughter after the gloomy mood that had preceded it.
'I do like that!Yes, that beats everything!' he cried convulsively, gasping for breath. 'One man doesn't believe in God at all, while the other believes in Him so thoroughly that he prays as he murders men!... You could never have invented that, brother!Ha-ha-ha! That beats everything.'
'And by the way...I 've long meant to ask you, do you believe in God ?' said Rogozhin suddenly, after having gone on a few steps.
'What?' Myshkin stopped short, ' What do you mean?'I was almost joking, and you are so serious! And why do you ask me ?'
'Oh, nothing. I meant to ask you before. Many people don't believe nowadays.'
Rogozhin smiled bitterly. When he had asked his question, he suddenly opened the door and holding the handle, waited for Myshkin to go out. Myshkin was surprised but he went out. Rogozhin followed him on the landing and closed the door behind him. They stood facing one another, as though neither knew where they were and what to do next.
'Good-bye,then' said Myshkin , holding out his hand.'Good-bye,' said Rogozhin , pressing tightly though mechanically the hand that was held out to him.
Myshkin went down a step and turned round.
As to the question of faith,' he began , smiling (he evidently did not want to leave Rogozhin like that) and brightening up at a sudden reminiscence, 'as to the question of faith, I had four different conversations in two days last week. I came in the morning by the new railway and talked for four hours with a man in the train; he made friends on the spot. I had heard a great deal about him beforehand and had heard he was an atheist,among other things. He really is a learned man, and I was delighted at the prospect of talking to a really learned man. What's more, he is a most unusually well-bred man, so that he talked to me quite as if I were his equal in ideas and attainments. He does n't believe in God. Only, one thing struck me : that he seemed not to be talking about that at all.the whole time; and it struck me because whenever I met unbelievers before, or read their books, it always seemed to me that they were speaking and writing in their books about something quite different, although it seemed to be about that on the surface. I said so to him at the time, but I suppose I didn't say so clearly, or didnot know how to express it, for he did n't understand.
In the evening I stopped for the night at a provincial hotel, and a murder had just been committed there the night before, so that every one was talking about it when I arrived. Two peasants, middle-aged men, friends who had known each other for long time and were not drunk , had had tea and were meaning to go to bed in the same room. But one had noticed during those last two days that the other was wearing a silver watch on a yellow bead chain, which he seems not to have seen on him before. The man was not a theif; he was an honest man, in fact, and by a peasant's standard by no means poor. But he was so taken with that watch and so fascinated by it that at last he could not restrain himself. He took a knife, and when his friend had turned away, he approached him cautiously from behind, took aim, and turned his eyes heavenwards, crossed himself, and praying fervently , " God forgive me for Christ's sake!" he cut his friend's throat at one stroke like a sheep and took his watch.'
Rogozhin went off into peals of laughter; he laughed as though he were in a sort of fit. It was positively strange to see such laughter after the gloomy mood that had preceded it.
'I do like that!Yes, that beats everything!' he cried convulsively, gasping for breath. 'One man doesn't believe in God at all, while the other believes in Him so thoroughly that he prays as he murders men!... You could never have invented that, brother!Ha-ha-ha! That beats everything.'
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