Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - III. Tolstoi on the Famine
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them took a handful of hay from under the seat of the
carriage, jumped down, and ran alongside of the horse, holding
out the hay to it. But this was uncomfortable. He jumped
back into the carriage, and the children devised other means.
They took a long stick, fastened the hay to one end, and,
sitting in the carriage, offered the hay to the horse. They
thought of numberless ways, except what ought, above all, to
have entered their minds: step out of the carriage, wait, and,
if they really pitied the horse, unharness it.
“Do not the well-to-do classes, in their relation to the
labourers, in all times and in all countries, act just as those
children in urging on the horse which carried them? Are not
the governing classes doing the very thing that these children
did, in trying to feed the horse without stepping out of the
carriage, when they are trying, now that it has spent its
strength and must refuse to carry them further, to find means
of saving the people, of feeding it without changing their
relation to the people? They devise all kinds of means
except the one that appeals to the mind and heart: cease to
gallop, and step down from the horse, which they pity.
“The people are suffering from hunger, and we, the governing
classes, are very anxious, and desire to help them. For this
purpose we form committees, hold meetings, collect money,
buy flour and bread, and distribute it among the people. But
why do the people hunger? Is it possible that this should
be so hard to understand? Is it absolutely necessary to
calumniate them, as some arrogantly do, saying that the
people are poor because they are lazy and drunk? Or must
we deceive ourselves by saying that the people are poor only
because they have not assimilated our civilisation, but that
from to-morrow we will set ourselves to the task of initiating
them into all our science, hiding nothing from them, so that
then they will doubtless cease to be poor? Therefore we do
not need to be ashamed of living at their expense, because it
is simply for their own good!
“Must we hunt for the sun by candle-light, when everything
is so clear and simple, especially clear and simple to the people
at whose expense we live and eat? It may be allowable for
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