Chương Chương 113 · 第113章

Nearly two years before this, in 1808, Pierre on returning to Petersburg

after visiting his estates had involuntarily found himself in a leading

position among the Petersburg Freemasons. He arranged dining and funeral

lodge meetings, enrolled new members, and busied himself uniting various

lodges and acquiring authentic charters. He gave money for the erection

of temples and supplemented as far as he could the collection of alms,

in regard to which the majority of members were stingy and irregular.

He supported almost singlehanded a poorhouse the order had founded in

Petersburg.

His life meanwhile continued as before, with the same infatuations and

dissipations. He liked to dine and drink well, and though he considered

it immoral and humiliating could not resist the temptations of the

bachelor circles in which he moved.

Amid the turmoil of his activities and distractions, however, Pierre at

the end of a year began to feel that the more firmly he tried to rest

upon it, the more Masonic ground on which he stood gave way under him.

At the same time he felt that the deeper the ground sank under him the

closer bound he involuntarily became to the order. When he had joined

the Freemasons he had experienced the feeling of one who confidently

steps onto the smooth surface of a bog. When he put his foot down it

sank in. To make quite sure of the firmness of the ground, he put

his other foot down and sank deeper still, became stuck in it, and

involuntarily waded knee-deep in the bog.

Joseph Alexéevich was not in Petersburg—he had of late stood aside

from the affairs of the Petersburg lodges, and lived almost entirely in

Moscow. All the members of the lodges were men Pierre knew in ordinary

life, and it was difficult for him to regard them merely as Brothers in

Freemasonry and not as Prince B. or Iván Vasílevich D., whom he knew

in society mostly as weak and insignificant men. Under the Masonic

aprons and insignia he saw the uniforms and decorations at which they

aimed in ordinary life. Often after collecting alms, and reckoning up

twenty to thirty rubles received for the most part in promises from a

dozen members, of whom half were as well able to pay as himself, Pierre

remembered the Masonic vow in which each Brother promised to devote

all his belongings to his neighbor, and doubts on which he tried not to

dwell arose in his soul.

He divided the Brothers he knew into four categories. In the first he

put those who did not take an active part in the affairs of the lodges

or in human affairs, but were exclusively occupied with the mystical

science of the order: with questions of the threefold designation of

God, the three primordial elements—sulphur, mercury, and salt—or

the meaning of the square and all the various figures of the temple of

Solomon. Pierre respected this class of Brothers to which the elder ones

chiefly belonged, including, Pierre thought, Joseph Alexéevich himself,

but he did not share their interests. His heart was not in the mystical

aspect of Freemasonry.

In the second category Pierre reckoned himself and others like him,

seeking and vacillating, who had not yet found in Freemasonry a straight

and comprehensible path, but hoped to do so.

In the third category he included those Brothers (the majority) who saw

nothing in Freemasonry but the external forms and ceremonies, and prized

the strict performance of these forms without troubling about their

purport or significance. Such were Willarski and even the Grand Master

of the principal lodge.

Finally, to the fourth category also a great many Brothers belonged,

particularly those who had lately joined. These according to Pierre’s

observations were men who had no belief in anything, nor desire for

anything, but joined the Freemasons merely to associate with the wealthy

young Brothers who were influential through their connections or rank,

and of whom there were very many in the lodge.

Pierre began to feel dissatisfied with what he was doing. Freemasonry,

at any rate as he saw it here, sometimes seemed to him based merely

on externals. He did not think of doubting Freemasonry itself, but

suspected that Russian Masonry had taken a wrong path and deviated

from its original principles. And so toward the end of the year he went

abroad to be initiated into the higher secrets of the order.

In the summer of 1809 Pierre returned to Petersburg. Our Freemasons knew

from correspondence with those abroad that Bezúkhov had obtained the

confidence of many highly placed persons, had been initiated into many

mysteries, had been raised to a higher grade, and was bringing back with

him much that might conduce to the advantage of the Masonic cause

in Russia. The Petersburg Freemasons all came to see him, tried to

ingratiate themselves with him, and it seemed to them all that he was

preparing something for them and concealing it.

A solemn meeting of the lodge of the second degree was convened, at

which Pierre promised to communicate to the Petersburg Brothers what

he had to deliver to them from the highest leaders of their order. The

meeting was a full one. After the usual ceremonies Pierre rose and began

his address.

“Dear Brothers,” he began, blushing and stammering, with a written

speech in his hand, “it is not sufficient to observe our mysteries in

the seclusion of our lodge—we must act—act! We are drowsing, but we

must act.” Pierre raised his notebook and began to read.

“For the dissemination of pure truth and to secure the triumph of

virtue,” he read, “we must cleanse men from prejudice, diffuse

principles in harmony with the spirit of the times, undertake the

education of the young, unite ourselves in indissoluble bonds with the

wisest men, boldly yet prudently overcome superstitions, infidelity, and

folly, and form of those devoted to us a body linked together by unity

of purpose and possessed of authority and power.

“To attain this end we must secure a preponderance of virtue over vice

and must endeavor to secure that the honest man may, even in this world,

receive a lasting reward for his virtue. But in these great endeavors we

are gravely hampered by the political institutions of today. What is

to be done in these circumstances? To favor revolutions, overthrow

everything, repel force by force?... No! We are very far from that.

Every violent reform deserves censure, for it quite fails to remedy

evil while men remain what they are, and also because wisdom needs no

violence.

“The whole plan of our order should be based on the idea of

preparing men of firmness and virtue bound together by unity of

conviction—aiming at the punishment of vice and folly, and patronizing

talent and virtue: raising worthy men from the dust and attaching

them to our Brotherhood. Only then will our order have the power

unobtrusively to bind the hands of the protectors of disorder and to

control them without their being aware of it. In a word, we must found a

form of government holding universal sway, which should be diffused over

the whole world without destroying the bonds of citizenship, and beside

which all other governments can continue in their customary course and

do everything except what impedes the great aim of our order, which

is to obtain for virtue the victory over vice. This aim was that of

Christianity itself. It taught men to be wise and good and for their

own benefit to follow the example and instruction of the best and wisest

men.

“At that time, when everything was plunged in darkness, preaching

alone was of course sufficient. The novelty of Truth endowed her with

special strength, but now we need much more powerful methods. It is

now necessary that man, governed by his senses, should find in virtue

a charm palpable to those senses. It is impossible to eradicate the

passions; but we must strive to direct them to a noble aim, and it is

therefore necessary that everyone should be able to satisfy his passions

within the limits of virtue. Our order should provide means to that end.

“As soon as we have a certain number of worthy men in every state,

each of them again training two others and all being closely united,

everything will be possible for our order, which has already in secret

accomplished much for the welfare of mankind.”

This speech not only made a strong impression, but created excitement in

the lodge. The majority of the Brothers, seeing in it dangerous designs

of Illuminism, * met it with a coldness that surprised Pierre. The Grand

Master began answering him, and Pierre began developing his views with

more and more warmth. It was long since there had been so stormy a

meeting. Parties were formed, some accusing Pierre of Illuminism, others

supporting him. At that meeting he was struck for the first time by

the endless variety of men’s minds, which prevents a truth from ever

presenting itself identically to two persons. Even those members

who seemed to be on his side understood him in their own way with

limitations and alterations he could not agree to, as what he always

wanted most was to convey his thought to others just as he himself

understood it.

* The Illuminati sought to substitute republican for

monarchical institutions.

At the end of the meeting the Grand Master with irony and ill-will

reproved Bezúkhov for his vehemence and said it was not love of virtue

alone, but also a love of strife that had moved him in the dispute.

Pierre did not answer him and asked briefly whether his proposal would

be accepted. He was told that it would not, and without waiting for the

usual formalities he left the lodge and went home.