Poor boy, he was very near tears.  He sat down suddenly, staring blankly in front of him, his hands clenched.

Rozanov answered him, Rozanov flushed, his fat body swollen with food and drink, a little unsteady on his legs, and the light of the true mystic in his pig-like eyes.  He came forward into the middle of the circle.

“That’s perhaps true what you say,” he cried; “it’s very English, very honest, and, if you will forgive me, young man, very simple.  You say that we Russians are conceited.  No, we are not conceited, but we see farther than the rest of the world.  Is that our curse?  Perhaps it is, but equally, perhaps, we may save the world by it.  Now look at me!  Am I a fine man?  No, I am not.  Every one knows I am not.  No man could look at my face and say that I am a fine man.  I have done disgraceful things all my life.  All present know some of the things I have done, and there are some worse things which nobody knows save myself.  Well, then....  Am I going to stop doing such things?  Am I now, at fifty-five, about to become instantly a saint?  Indeed not.  I shall continue to do the things that I have already done, and I shall drop into a beastly old age.  I know it.

“So, young man, I am a fair witness.  You may trust me to speak the truth as I see it.  I believe in Christ.  I believe in the Christ-life, the Christ-soul.  If I could, I would stop my beastliness and become Christlike.  I have tried on several occasions, and failed, because I have no character.  But does that mean that I do not believe in it when I see it?  Not at all.  I believe in it more than ever.  And so with Russia—­you don’t see far enough, young man, neither you nor any of your countrymen.  It is one of your greatest failings that you do not care for ideas.  How is this war going to end?  By the victory of Germany?  Perhaps....  Perhaps even it may be that Russia by her weakness will help to that victory.  But is that the end?  No....  If Russia has an Idea and because of her faith in that Idea, she will sacrifice everything, will be buffeted on both cheeks, will be led into slavery, will deliver up her land and her people, will be mocked at by all the world... perhaps that is her destiny....  She will endure all that in order that her Idea may persist.  And her Idea will persist.  Are not the Germans and Austrians human like ourselves?  Slowly, perhaps very slowly, they will say to themselves:  ’There is Russia who believes in the peace of the world, in the brotherhood of man, and she will sacrifice everything for it, she will go out, as Christ did, and be tortured and be crucified—­and then on the third day she will rise again.’  Is not that the history of every triumphant Idea?...  You say that meanwhile Germany will triumph.  Perhaps for a time she may, but our Idea will not die.

“The further Germany goes, the deeper will that Idea penetrate into her heart.  At the end she will die of it, and a new Germany will be born into a new world....  I tell you I am an evil man, but I believe in God and in the righteousness of God.”