The countenance of the unexpected visitor was not so much good-natured, as accommodating and ready to assume any amiable expression as occasion might arise. He had no watch, but he had a tortoise-shell lorgnette on a black ribbon. On the middle finger of his right hand was a massive gold ring with a cheap opal stone in it. Ivan was angrily silent and would not begin the conversation. The visitor waited and sat exactly like a poor relation who had come down from his room to keep his host company at tea, and was discreetly silent, seeing that his host was frowning and preoccupied. But he was ready for any affable conversation as soon as his host should begin it. All at once his face expressed a sudden solicitude.

‘I say,’ he began to Ivan, ‘excuse me, I only mention it to remind you. You went to Smerdyakov’s to find out about Katerina Ivanovna, but you came away without finding out anything about her, you probably forgot-.’ ‘Ah, yes.’ broke from Ivan and his face grew gloomy with uneasiness. ‘Yes, I’d forgotten... but it doesn’t matter now, never mind, till to-morrow,’ he muttered to himself, ‘and you,’ he added, addressing his visitor, ‘I should have remembered that myself in a minute, for that was just what was tormenting me! Why do you interfere, as if I should believe that you prompted me, and that I didn’t remember it of myself?’

‘Don’t believe it then,’ said the gentleman, smiling amicably, ‘what’s the good of believing against your will? Besides, proofs are no help to believing, specially material proofs. Thomas believed, not because he saw Christ risen, but because he wanted to believe, before he saw. Look at the spiritualists, for instance.... I am very fond of them... only fancy, they imagine that they are serving the cause of religion, because the devils show them their horns from the other world. That, they say, is a material proof, so to speak, of the existence of another world. The other world and material proofs, what next! And if you come to that, does proving there’s a devil prove that there’s a God? I want to join an idealist society, I’ll lead the opposition in it, I’ll say I am a realist, but not a materialist, he he!’ ‘Listen,’ Ivan suddenly got up from the table. ‘I seem to be delirious... I am delirious, in fact, talk any nonsense you like, I don’t care! You won’t drive me to fury, as you did last time. But I feel somehow ashamed... I want to walk about the room.... I sometimes don’t see you and don’t even hear your voice as I did last time, but I always guess what you are prating, for it’s I, I myself speaking, not you. Only I don’t know whether I was dreaming last time or whether I really saw you. I’ll wet a towel and put it on my head and perhaps you’ll vanish into air.’ Ivan went into the corner, took a towel, and did as he said, and with a wet towel on his head began walking up and down the room. ‘I am so glad you treat me so familiarly,’ the visitor began.

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J. M. - Baptist - Ontario, Canada - Feileadh Mor

I have The Brothers Karamazov sitting on my bookcase. I really should read it one of these days. Thanks for reminding me.

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T W Hopper
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church
Currently between churches since PRC closed here - attending Crossroads Christian Church.
Canberra, Australia.

I've never got through it. Should try again sometime.

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The man who is disposed to think of his sin as a great calamity, rather than as a heinous crime, is not likely either to reverence God or to respect His law. - John Kennedy, 1873
Meg
Blog
Member, Intown Presbyterian Church,PCA, Portland, OR

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

I had forgotten this. The chapter on The Grand Inquisitor is one of the most amazing things I've ever read. Thank you for posting the excerpt. I haven't read it in a long time, and have lost a lot of it from my memory. I will pull it out again soon. The problem with reading Dostoyevsky is that afterwards, so many other writers seem trivial. It's as if he wrote with a sledgehammer; he bashes away whole sections of your thinking.

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Heidi
Indianapolis, Indiana

After two days, he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.

I went hunting through my files-- it's longish and I don't know if anyone would be interested, but I wrote a review cross referencing 'The Grand Inquisitor', Bertrand Russel's 'Greek Exercises' and Brave New World --specifically regarding the idea of freedom and happiness cited in JM's signature quote -- a couple years ago. It's posted here: Happiness as Morality « revision

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Heidi
Indianapolis, Indiana

After two days, he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.