El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-03-11
Leo Iolstoy ON THE GREEN STAFF
Manuscript of the Late Russian IDOL First Instament

SSlan Idol; First lnSr2lment
, ways in this world. Why have 1
come into 1t? What am 1 to do in it?
What can I do in this, in time and
space endless world, 1 with my frail
body and short term of life?
The usual answer to this question,
the answer which suggests itself to
the one who lives an animal life be-
fore ne awakens to consciousness, is
you live to eat, drink, Sleep enjoy
yourself in one word to enjoy all the
| sensuous pleasures OF life. But you
only need to look about and think Of
what is awaiting you to come to the
conviction that the pleasure of the
senses is not the object Of life, because
a happiness of this kind is not for the
one who is destined to struggle
against poverty, sickness and inevi-
table death. What happiness is there
( then in life for being who is sub
iect to weakness, old age and death?
| The object of life cannot be either en-
joyment or evolution of your faculties,
or the performance of a great deed or
even work in the interest OF the COM
monWealth. 1t might be so If death
or the endless world did not exist. Be
cause of the brevity of my life in
world, unlimited in time and space the
object of my life cannot be in things
human Why should man endeavor to
improve the conditions of his life,
when his whole activity is only an
infinitely small point in the immeas
urable world, and his life only mo-
ment between two eternities? And
why should a person care to make
other peoples lives easier, when
death is sure and he will see neither
this easier life nor reap any graft
tude for what he has done for others?
Therefore, when 1 seriously ask and
answer myself, the replies to my Ques-
tions will be these:
l. What am /. Something that has
evidently begun short time ago, that
will last only brief time something
predestined to early destruction,
something that undoubtedly exists and
without which nothing exists Thus 1t
comes, that do not know what am.
and still am the one thing which I
know better than anything else.
II What is the world in which
find myself? Something which, be-
cause Of it's needlessness in time and
space has no sense, which surely be-
gan sometime and must end sometime
but which, on the other side, has never
begun and never will end, and at the
same time surely ends somewhere in
space and still can end nowhere. In
"
has no sense, or which 1 cannot I'M
derstand-that is: I am absolutely ig-
norant of what the world is, though I
am surrounded by it, live in it and must
work in It This is the answer of the
second question.
III. The answer of the third ques-
ton, what I should do, is: All that
I may do for the welfare of the be-
ing, which has begun in this world
nd IL he TUa1foro of
the being that I call my Ego, is idle
and useless. But the being which has
no beginning and no end and which
exists under the cover Of my body, that
being needs nothing. Therefore. my
life has no sense for me, that is, for
the part of me which I call my Ego,
and cannot possibly have any sense.
Neither can 1 have any sense for the
world in which I live and to do any
thing for myself or for the world is
unnecessary. cannot do anything
whatever that is of any use.
If you forget your position as car,
workingman, judge, manufacturer.
professor scientist, artist, member of
a family and become conscious only
of the fact that you are human be-
ing, that has come into this world,
which you do not understand. and very
soon must leave it again, life has no
thing. Everything is idle and useless
All that you may DO is Superfluous
and still you must do something as
long as you live. All human life is
activity in this world like the wor
of the horse hitched to a wagon And
man cannot help being active and
through this activity take part in
the movement of the world. So al
though. no matter how 1 put it, my
hoc 70 70
other people or to the world. I must
nevertheless be active. In the con-
seriousness of this lies the soul of re-
ligion.
This consciousness tells me that
there is Power which has put me
into this world. Herein lies the soul
Of true religion. And even this ac-
acknowledgement of the Power which has
sent me into this world and which Is
called God, solves the whole question
and gives human life sense. Taken
by itself my whole life and the lives of
all the world are without any sense.
1 live. however. and according to the
will of the higher Power I must be
active. And when my life is a puzzle
for me and all goals, which I may set
for myself in this world. seem to have
no object or sense my life and aim are
not and cannot be idle and without any
sent me. a poor creature. who does not
understand himself into this world
and that rules the life 1 do not under
stand mine and that of the world in
which I live.
You only need to recognize the exis-
tence of the Highest Power and every
thing is clear at once. The final OBJ
jects of my own life and that of the
world are hidden and inaccessible to
hau he
ing whose faculties are so limited as
mine. I and the whole world are
only tools made to reach goals that are
inaccessible to me, and the sense Of
my life no longer lies in the final
goals which I reach, but in fulfilling
a task which I do not know. for
which purpose 1 am here in recogniz-
ing the Highest Power and serving its
ends In belief in God and in fulfill
ing His will
(To be eontinued)