登陆注册
19593600000019

第19章

"What do I care for your faith?" Miusov was on the point of shouting, but he suddenly checked himself, and said with contempt, "You defile everything you touch."The elder suddenly rose from his seat."Excuse me, gentlemen, for leaving you a few minutes," he said, addressing all his guests."Ihave visitors awaiting me who arrived before you.But don't you tell lies all the same," he added, turning to Fyodor Pavlovitch with a good-humoured face.He went out of the cell.Alyosha and the novice flew to escort him down the steps.Alyosha was breathless: he was glad to get away, but he was glad, too, that the elder was good-humoured and not offended.Father Zossima was going towards the portico to bless the people waiting for him there.But Fyodor Pavlovitch persisted, in stopping him at the door of the cell.

"Blessed man!" he cried, with feeling."Allow me to kiss your hand once more.Yes, with you I could still talk, I could still get on.

Do you think I always lie and play the fool like this? Believe me, Ihave been acting like this all the time on purpose to try you.Ihave been testing you all the time to see whether I could get on with you.Is there room for my humility beside your pride? I am ready to give you a testimonial that one can get on with you! But now, I'll be quiet; I will keep quiet all the time.I'll sit in a chair and hold my tongue.Now it is for you to speak, Pyotr Alexandrovitch.

You are the principal person left now- for ten minutes."Chapter 3

Peasant Women Who Have FaithNEAR the wooden portico below, built on to the outer wall of the precinct, there was a crowd of about twenty peasant women.They had been told that the elder was at last coming out, and they had gathered together in anticipation.Two ladies, Madame Hohlakov and her daughter, had also come out into the portico to wait for the elder, but in a separate part of it set aside for women of rank.

Madame Hohlakov was a wealthy lady, still young and attractive, and always dressed with taste.She was rather pale, and had lively black eyes.She was not more than thirty-three, and had been five years a widow.Her daughter, a girl of fourteen, was partially paralysed.The poor child had not been able to walk for the last six months, and was wheeled about in a long reclining chair.She had a charming little face, rather thin from illness, but full of gaiety.

There was a gleam of mischief in her big dark eyes with their long lashes.Her mother had been intending to take her abroad ever since the spring, but they had been detained all the summer by business connected with their estate.They had been staying a week in our town, where they had come more for purposes of business than devotion, but had visited Father Zossima once already, three days before.Though they knew that the elder scarcely saw anyone, they had now suddenly turned up again, and urgently entreated "the happiness of looking once again on the great healer."The mother was sitting on a chair by the side of her daughter's invalid carriage, and two paces from her stood an old monk, not one of our monastery, but a visitor from an obscure religious house in the far north.He too sought the elder's blessing.

But Father Zossima, on entering the portico, went first straight to the peasants who were crowded at the foot of the three steps that led up into the portico.Father Zossima stood on the top step, put on his stole, and began blessing the women who thronged about him.One crazy woman was led up to him.As soon as she caught sight of the elder she began shrieking and writhing as though in the pains of childbirth.Laying the stole on her forehead, he read a short prayer over her, and she was at once soothed and quieted.

I do not know how it may be now, but in my childhood I often happened to see and hear these "possessed" women in the villages and monasteries.They used to be brought to mass; they would squeal and bark like a dog so that they were heard all over the church.But when the sacrament was carried in and they were led up to it, at once the "possession" ceased, and the sick women were always soothed for a time.I was greatly impressed and amazed at this as a child; but then I heard from country neighbours and from my town teachers that the whole illness was simulated to avoid work, and that it could always be cured by suitable severity; various anecdotes were told to confirm this.But later on I learnt with astonishment from medical specialists that there is no pretence about it, that it is a terrible illness to which women are subject, especially prevalent among us in Russia, and that it is due to the hard lot of the peasant women.It is a disease, I was told, arising from exhausting toil too soon after hard, abnormal and unassisted labour in childbirth, and from the hopeless misery, from beatings, and so on, which some women were not able to endure like others.The strange and instant healing of the frantic and struggling woman as soon as she was led up to the holy sacrament, which had been explained to me as due to malingering and the trickery of the "clericals," arose probably in the most natural manner.Both the women who supported her and the invalid herself fully believed as a truth beyond question that the evil spirit in possession of her could not hold if the sick woman were brought to the sacrament and made to bow down before it.And so, with a nervous and psychically deranged woman, a sort of convulsion of the whole organism always took place, and was bound to take place, at the moment of bowing down to the sacrament, aroused by the expectation of the miracle of healing and the implicit belief that it would come to pass; and it did come to pass, though only for a moment.It was exactly the same now as soon as the elder touched the sick woman with the stole.

Many of the women in the crowd were moved to tears of ecstasy by the effect of the moment: some strove to kiss the hem of his garment, others cried out in sing-song voices.

同类推荐
  • 佛说求欲经

    佛说求欲经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 西樵语业

    西樵语业

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 黄帝太乙八门入式秘诀

    黄帝太乙八门入式秘诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 小字录

    小字录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 道德真经注

    道德真经注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 刁蛮弃妃:本宫要休夫

    刁蛮弃妃:本宫要休夫

    一个现代的设计师竟然穿越到了古代,而且还成为了冷宫中的弃妃!
  • 公主世纪

    公主世纪

    爸爸的背叛,妈咪的去世,梦氏集团大小姐梦璃一朝从公主变为庶民。十年的苦练,当一代女皇执掌黑道与商业的半壁江山,她又岂是十年前前眼看着自己妈咪被活活烧死在大宅里的软弱大小姐。当年歉她的,歉她妈咪的,一个个拿命还回来!!!片段:“璃璃~”“滚开。”“宝贝~”“滚远点。”“老婆~”“滚。”“你怎么了?”“我想静静,你走开。”“那我改名叫静静可好?”【本文复仇女强丶结局一对一,男女身心干净(???_??)】
  • 师父,再爱我一次

    师父,再爱我一次

    当狡猾可爱的二十一世纪美少女碰见了腹黑闷骚的美男师父,请注意!游戏开始了~~
  • 平凡的水滴

    平凡的水滴

    “这个世界上,从来没有一个人出生就注定是天才。”张依晨慢慢说道:“当年女娲造人,用树枝沾着泥水挥洒向大地,那水滴并没有什么不同。只不过,有的水滴落在山川之巅,而有的水滴落在尘世的地面,便有了云泥之别。不过,那山川之巅的水滴也可能渗入大地消失不见,那在地面上的水滴也能在阳光的照耀下升华为天空中白云朵朵……”他最后说道,语气坚定:“我不是天才,我只不过是化为白云的那颗水滴。”
  • 梦落江湖

    梦落江湖

    失恋,失业,痛失亲友。她,遭遇其二。其三,辗转数年却不知爹娘是谁,失忆,还是因为某些原因,她与弟弟相依为命数载,却不知道自己的身世。因为一段巧合,踏入“江湖”。胆小,懦弱,不与人欢,不与人言谈,整日埋头工作的工作狂。彻彻底底的改变自己,重新开始,在那虚拟的“江湖”中找寻真正的自己“女王大人。”江湖如梦,梦落江湖,这一切,哪怕是梦,也要过的干脆,过的痛快,过的是自己所想的,只有那样,才会迈入自己的成功。无数的阻力,拦路虎,阻拦她的成长。女王不知君临天下,只愿天地不敢欺之。
  • 起灭纪元

    起灭纪元

    少年梦中得警示,游移不定之时天翻地覆,上京寻父顺势加入守卫组织,却在一步步走向巅峰的道路上发现新纪元的格局与自己迷雾重重的身世间诡异的联系,是寻根究底,还是视而不见?一个新的时代,一个洞察生死的纪元,人类与死魔间较量,“生”与“死”的斗争,上古物种的复仇,人类追求的新的未来,在时代洪流中浮沉的我们,如浮游于天地,只争朝暮,而朝暮之中,自有人物冠绝古今。
  • 网游之虚拟打游戏币

    网游之虚拟打游戏币

    无聊打发时间,新手一枚勿喷。觉得可以的给个票票
  • 妖狐蛊

    妖狐蛊

    从小到大宠自己的哥哥,在一次出行后,一回到家族却灭了全门,唯留她一人。“哥哥,为什么?""我不是你的哥哥了,你不配。"那所谓的哥哥将她逐出了家门,让她独自背负着沉重的仇恨。她身为狐妖,拥有魅惑的容貌,她靠着这副皮囊魅惑了一个有一个有权有势有貌的富家子弟,但她拥有两个自己,一个与男人们谈笑风生,一个在心里冷冷的看着这一切。她恨那个人,她要杀了他。她恨他。“我是狐妖。”“我没有心。”“我不要哭。”“我要变强。”
  • 且为苍生

    且为苍生

    她,一身红衣,舞技非凡;一指止琴,仙姿卓卓;一技医术,能治百病;一跃轻功,快如疾风。纵有万千姿态面容,他却一眼认出:“那样一双灵动的眼睛这辈子也就见到一双而已。”抚琴感叹,这十八年的日子,一半在年幼中随意挥霍,一半在与莫大将军斗争。总算等到了喜欢的人,有了生活的目标,却又嫁了一个“玉神人”,跳进另一个麻烦洞中。她只是想要自由自在地生活,为何能惹一身的是非?四季温暖,不如亲情凉薄。乱世浮沉,人心飘渺。人生在世,且为心中的苍生罢了。——————————————精彩语段:十三岁的莫缓归。莫缓归:“下贱?或许更适合你那高高在上的爹爹和明知丈夫过错一再容忍欺瞒的娘亲。如果我是下三滥的野种,你也一样。不同的是,你将下三滥推至最高的尊崇。而我一辈子都不会。”莫彩衣划伤她的脸:“不准说爹娘的坏话!你这个坏人!”血如雨柱:“不是我不能杀你,而是不想。我要你记得,你们莫家所有人都欠我的。有朝一日,必定一同偿还。”“哇哇哇……”************十八岁的莫缓归。百里锦叶闪动琥珀色的眸子:“姑娘的眼睛生地灵秀,是否曾见过面?”莫缓归心中暗自一喜:“能与公子相识,不胜荣幸。姑娘喊得生疏,唤随心便是。”“随心人如其名,一切顺心而定。百里锦叶倒是冒昧了。”“公子唤我随心,我便唤你锦叶,这样才显得公平,听得也顺畅些。你说是不,锦叶?”“……”“是。”*************默璞调侃道:“缓儿这是在忏悔平日对我的不好?”“嗯。”转头嗓音阴阴,“你觉得我对你不好?”“哈哈,缓儿上当了!”……莫缓归问:“我这人是不是特自私?”“是,你是自私,谁人不自私。可六月不在乎这些,我也不在乎。”*************卫苍生温柔一笑:“这是夫人的钗么?平常不见你戴。”莫缓归:“我天天都戴,你十天不见一面的,还平常呢。你知道什么!”“夫人是在怪为夫平日太冷漠吗?那为夫需改过,日日伴夫人左右。”
  • 我听闻,你始终一个人

    我听闻,你始终一个人

    米兰,北京,维也纳。那几年玩得醉生梦死,那几年爱得惊心动魄。被第一个男人背叛,被第二个男人抛弃,被第三个男人欺骗。玖月的字典里,从来都是只有随遇而安。她的随性,让人惊诧,也让人心疼。颠沛流离的,在每一个城市里生存或是挥霍,其实不过是因为懦弱。她以为,她在他的心里,永远比不上他的未婚妻。他以为,他在她的心里,从来都没有刻骨铭心的存在过。他们痴痴缠缠,分分合合,淡漠的表象稀释了彼此的思念与眷恋。