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Chapter 12 - Pierre and Prince Andrey talk on the ferry raft
In the evening Andrey and Pierre got into the open carriage and drove to Bald Hills. Prince Andrey, glancing at Pierre, broke the silence now and then with remarks which showed that he was in a good temper.
Pierre remained gloomily silent, answering in monosyllables and apparently2 immersed in his own thoughts.
He was thinking that Prince Andrey was unhappy, had gone astray, did not see the true light, and that he, Pierre, ought to aid, enlighten, and raise him. But as soon as he thought of what he should say, he felt that Prince Andrey with one word, one argument, would upset all his teaching, and he shrank from beginning, afraid of exposing to possible ridicule3 what to him was precious and sacred.
“No, but why do you think so?” Pierre suddenly began, lowering his head and looking like a bull about to charge, “why do you think so? You should not think so.”
“Think? What about?” asked Prince Andrey with surprise.
“About life, about man’s destiny. It can’t be so. I myself thought like that, and do you know what saved me? Freemasonry! No, don’t smile. Freemasonry is not a religious ceremonial sect4, as I thought it was: Freemasonry is the best expression of the best, the eternal, aspects of humanity.”
And he began to explain Freemasonry as he understood it to Prince Andrey. He said that Freemasonry is the teaching of Christianity freed from the bonds of State and Church, a teaching of equality, brotherhood5, and love.
“Only our holy brotherhood has the real meaning of life, all the rest is a dream,” said Pierre. “Understand, my dear fellow, that outside this union all is filled with deceit and falsehood and I agree with you that nothing is left for an intelligent and good man but to live out his life, like you, merely trying not to harm others. But make our fundamental convictions your own, join our brotherhood, give yourself up to us, let yourself be guided, and you will at once feel yourself, as I have felt myself, a part of that vast invisible chain the beginning of which is hidden in heaven,” said Pierre.
Prince Andrey, looking straight in front of him, listened in silence to Pierre’s words. More than once, when the noise of the wheels prevented his catching6 what Pierre said, he asked him to repeat it, and by the peculiar7 glow that came into Prince Andrey’s eyes and by his silence, Pierre saw that his words were not in vain and that Prince Andrey would not interrupt him or laugh at what he said.
They reached a river that had overflowed8 its banks and which they had to cross by ferry. While the carriage and horses were being placed on it, they also stepped on the raft.
Prince Andrey, leaning his arms on the raft railing, gazed silently at the flooding waters glittering in the setting sun.
“Well, what do you think about it?” Pierre asked. “Why are you silent?”
“What do I think about it? I am listening to you. It’s all very well. . . . You say: join our brotherhood and we will show you the aim of life, the destiny of man, and the laws which govern the world. But who are we? Men. How is it you know everything? Why do I alone not see what you see? You see a reign9 of goodness and truth on earth, but I don’t see it.”
Pierre interrupted him.
“Do you believe in a future life?” he asked.
“A future life?” Prince Andrey repeated, but Pierre, giving him no time to reply, took the repetition for a denial, the more readily as he knew Prince Andrey’s former atheistic10 convictions.
“You say you can’t see a reign of goodness and truth on earth. Nor could I, and it cannot be seen if one looks on our life here as the end of everything. On earth, here on this earth” (Pierre pointed11 to the fields), “there is no truth, all is false and evil; but in the universe, in the whole universe there is a kingdom of truth, and we who are now the children of earth are — eternally — children of the whole universe. Don’t I feel in my soul that I am part of this vast harmonious12 whole? Don’t I feel that I form one link, one step, between the lower and higher beings, in this vast harmonious multitude of beings in whom the Deity13 — the Supreme14 Power if you prefer the term — is manifest? If I see, clearly see, that ladder leading from plant to man, why should I suppose it breaks off at me and does not go farther and farther? I feel that I cannot vanish, since nothing vanishes in this world, but that I shall always exist and always have existed. I feel that beyond me and above me there are spirits, and that in this world there is truth.”
“Yes, that is Herder’s theory,” said Prince Andrey, “but it is not that which can convince me, dear friend — life and death are what convince. What convinces is when one sees a being dear to one, bound up with one’s own life, before whom one was to blame and had hoped to make it right” (Prince Andrey’s voice trembled and he turned away), “and suddenly that being is seized with pain, suffers, and ceases to exist. . . . Why? It cannot be that there is no answer. And I believe there is. . . . That’s what convinces, that is what has convinced me,” said Prince Andrey.
“Yes, yes, of course,” said Pierre, “isn’t that what I’m saying?”
“No. All I say is that it is not argument that convinces me of the necessity of a future life, but this: when you go hand in hand with someone and all at once that person vanishes there, into nowhere, and you yourself are left facing that abyss, and look in. And I have looked in. . . . ”
“Well, that’s it then! You know that there is a there and there is a Someone? There is the future life. The Someone is — God.”
Prince Andrey did not reply. The carriage and horses had long since been taken off, onto the farther bank, and reharnessed. The sun had sunk half below the horizon and an evening frost was starring the puddles15 near the ferry, but Pierre and Andrey, to the astonishment16 of the footmen, coachmen, and ferrymen, still stood on the raft and talked.
“If there is a God and future life, there is truth and good, and man’s highest happiness consists in striving to attain17 them. We must live, we must love, and we must believe that we live not only today on this scrap18 of earth, but have lived and shall live forever, there, in the Whole,” said Pierre, and he pointed to the sky.
Prince Andrey stood leaning on the railing of the raft listening to Pierre, and he gazed with his eyes fixed19 on the red reflection of the sun gleaming on the blue waters. There was perfect stillness. Pierre became silent. The raft had long since stopped and only the waves of the current beat softly against it below. Prince Andrey felt as if the sound of the waves kept up a refrain to Pierre’s words, whispering:
“It is true, believe it.”
He sighed, and glanced with a radiant, childlike, tender look at Pierre’s face, flushed and rapturous, but yet shy before his superior friend.
“Yes, if it only were so!” said Prince Andrey. “However, it is time to get on,” he added, and, stepping off the raft, he looked up at the sky to which Pierre had pointed, and for the first time since Austerlitz saw that high, everlasting20 sky he had seen while lying on that battlefield; and something that had long been slumbering21, something that was best within him, suddenly awoke, joyful22 and youthful, in his soul. It vanished as soon as he returned to the custoMarya conditions of his life, but he knew that this feeling which he did not know how to develop existed within him. His meeting with Pierre formed an epoch23 in Prince Andrey’s life. Though outwardly he continued to live in the same old way, inwardly he began a new life.
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1
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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2
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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3
ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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4
sect
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| n.派别，宗教，学派，派系 | |
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5
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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6
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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7
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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8
overflowed
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| 溢出的 | |
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9
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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10
atheistic
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| adj.无神论者的 | |
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11
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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12
harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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13
deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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14
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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15
puddles
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| n.水坑， （尤指道路上的）雨水坑( puddle的名词复数 ) | |
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16
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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17
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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18
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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19
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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20
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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21
slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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22
joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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23
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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