From a Letter

Before a human being lies a world that existed before him and will remain after him, and he knows that this world is eternal and that he would like to participate in this eternity. Once a person has been called to life, he demands his share in that eternal life which surrounds him, excites him, mocks him, and destroys him. He knows that he began, and he does not want to end. He loudly calls out, he quietly pleads for a certainty that constantly eludes him—and this is for his own happiness, because certain knowledge would mean immobility and death for him, since the strongest motive force of human energy is the unknown. A person cannot establish himself in certainty and is carried along in indefinite strivings toward perfection, and no matter how far he may stray into skepticism, into denial through pride, curiosity, malice, or fashion—he always returns to hope, without which he cannot live.

So there may sometimes be an eclipse, but there is never a complete disappearance of the human striving for perfection. Philosophical mists pass through it like clouds before the moon, but the white luminary continues its course and suddenly appears from behind them, untouched and brilliant. This irrepressible need for perfection in human beings explains why people have thrown themselves with such trust, with such rapture, without rational control, into various religious teachings which, promising them the infinite, offered it to them according to their nature and placed them within certain boundaries, always necessary even for perfection.

But for a long time now, at every station of humanity’s movement, new people have been emerging from the darkness in ever greater numbers—especially in the last hundred years—and these people, in the name of reason, science, and observation, deny what was considered truth, declare these truths to be relative, and wish to destroy the teachings that contain them.

And yet that force, whatever it may be, which created the world—since it seems to me that the world, after all, could not have created itself—having made us its instruments, has retained for itself the right to know why it made us and where it is leading us. This force, despite all the intentions attributed to it and all the demands made upon it—this force, it seems, wishes to keep its secret, and therefore (I will say here everything I think) it seems to me that humanity is beginning to give up the desire to penetrate it. Humanity turned to religions, which proved nothing to it because they were different from one another; it turned to philosophies, which explained no more because they contradicted one another; it will now try to manage with its simple instinct and common sense alone, and since it lives on earth without knowing why or how, it will try to be as happy as possible by the means that our planet provides.

There are people who propose labor as a remedy for all the difficulties of life. The medicine is well known, and for that reason it is no less good, but it has always been and remains insufficient. Let a person work with his muscles or with his mind—still his only concern can never be the acquisition of food, the accumulation of wealth, or the winning of fame. All those who limit themselves to these goals feel, even when they have achieved them, that they still lack something: the fact is that whatever a person produces, whatever he says, whatever is said to him, he consists not only of a body that must be fed and a mind that must be educated and developed—he undoubtedly also has a soul that makes its own demands. It is this soul that is in unceasing labor, in constant development and striving toward light and truth. Until it receives all the light and conquers all the truth, it will torment the person.

And so the soul has never so occupied, never with such force imposed its dominion upon humanity, as in our time. It is, so to speak, diffused throughout all the air that the world breathes.

Those few individual souls who separately desired social regeneration have little by little sought each other out, called to each other, drawn together, united, understood themselves, and formed a group, a center of attraction toward which other souls now strive from the four corners of the world, like larks flying to a mirror: they have thus formed a common soul, so that henceforth people may realize together, consciously and irresistibly, the coming unity and proper forward movement of peoples who until recently were hostile to one another. This new soul I find and recognize in phenomena that seem most to deny it.

These armaments of all nations, these threats that their rulers make to one another, these renewals of persecutions of certain peoples, these hostilities among fellow countrymen—these are phenomena of bad appearance but not of bad omen. These are the last convulsions of what must disappear. Illness in this case is only the energetic effort of a living being to free itself from a deadly element.

Those who have profited and hoped to profit for a long time still, and forever, from the errors of the past, are uniting with the aim of preventing any change. Hence these armaments, these threats, these persecutions; but if you look more closely, you will see that all this is only external. All this is enormous, but empty.

In all this there is no longer a soul: it has passed elsewhere. All these millions of armed men who drill every day in preparation for a general war of extermination no longer hate those against whom they must fight, and not one of their leaders dares to declare war. As for the reproaches, even contagious ones, heard from below, a great and true compassion that acknowledges their justice is already beginning to respond from above.

Mutual understanding will inevitably come at a definite time, and sooner than we suppose. I do not know whether this is because I will soon leave this world and the light coming from below the horizon that illuminates me is already dimming my sight, but I think that our world is entering an era of realizing the words “love one another”—without discussion of who said these words: God or man.

The spiritualistic movement, noticeable from all sides, which so many vain and naive people think they can control, will be unconditionally human. People, who do nothing in moderation, will be seized by a madness, a frenzy to love one another. This obviously will not happen by itself at first. There will be misunderstandings, perhaps bloody ones: we have been so raised and accustomed to hate one another, often by the very people who are called to teach us love. But since it is obvious that this great law of brotherhood must someday be fulfilled, I am convinced that the times are coming in which we will irresistibly wish for this to be accomplished.

—Alexandre Dumas

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Translator’s Notes:

• Alexandre Dumas (père) (1802-1870), the celebrated French novelist, also wrote philosophical and political essays. This letter, written toward the end of his life, shows a contemplative side quite different from his swashbuckling novels.
• The phrase “love one another” (любите друг друга) echoes John 13:34, Christ’s “new commandment.” Dumas’s deliberate agnosticism about whether God or man said these words reflects the letter’s theme of universal human values transcending sectarian religion.
• The image of larks flying to a mirror (зеркало) refers to a traditional hunting method where larks were attracted to and captured using mirrors; Dumas transforms this into a positive image of souls being drawn together by mutual recognition.
• Dumas’s prediction of the imminent realization of universal brotherhood, written in the context of European militarization before the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), proved tragically premature. Yet Tolstoy clearly valued this hopeful vision.
• The reference to “spiritualistic movement” (спиритуалистическое движение) likely refers to the various spiritual and utopian movements of the mid-19th century, including spiritualism, socialism, and various reform movements.
• Tolstoy’s selection of this passage aligns with his mature philosophy emphasizing universal love as the core teaching that transcends all religious denominations.