IN THE EVENING Prince Andrey and Pierre got into the coach and drove to Bleak Hills. Prince Andrey watched Pierre and broke the silence from time to time with speeches that showed he was in a good humour.

Pointing to the fields, he told him of the improvements he was making in the management of his land.

Pierre preserved a gloomy silence, replying only by monosyllables, and apparently plunged in his own thoughts.

Pierre was reflecting that Prince Andrey was unhappy, that he was in error, that he did not know the true light, and that he ought to come to his aid; enlighten him and lift him up. But as soon as he began to deliberate on what he would say, he foresaw that Prince Andrey with one word, one argument, would annihilate everything in his doctrine; and he was afraid to begin, afraid of exposing his most cherished and holiest ideas to possible ridicule.

“No, what makes you think so?” Pierre began all at once, lowering his head and looking like a butting bull; “what makes you think so? You ought not to think so.”

“Think so, about what?” asked Prince Andrey in surprise.

“About life. About the destination of man. It can't be so. I used to think like that, and I have been saved, do you know by what?—freemasonry. No, you must not smile. Freemasonry is not a religious sect, nor mere ceremonial rites, as I used to suppose; freemasonry is the best, the only expression of the highest, eternal aspects of humanity.” And he began expounding to Prince Andrey freemasonry, as he understood it.

He said that freemasonry is the teaching of Christianity, freed from its political and religious fetters; the teaching of equality, fraternity, and love.

“Our holy brotherhood is the only thing that has real meaning in life; all the rest is a dream,” said Pierre. “You understand, my dear fellow, that outside this brotherhood all is filled with lying and falsehood, and I agree with you that there's nothing left for an intelligent and good-hearted man but, like you, to get through his life, only trying not to hurt others. But make our fundamental convictions your own, enter into our brotherhood, give yourself up to us, let us guide you, and you will at once feel yourself, as I felt, a part of a vast, unseen chain, the origin of which is lost in the skies,” said Pierre, looking straight before him.

Prince Andrey listened to Pierre's words in silence. Several times he did not catch words from the noise of the wheels, and he asked Pierre to repeat what he had missed. From the peculiar light that glowed in Prince Andrey's eyes, and from his silence, Pierre saw that his words were not in vain, that Prince Andrey would not interrupt him nor laugh at what he said.

They reached a river that had overflowed its banks, and had to cross it by a ferry. While the coach and horses waited they crossed on the ferry. Prince Andrey with his elbow on the rail gazed mutely over the stretch of water shining in the setting sun.

“Well, what do you think about it?” asked Pierre. “Why are you silent?”

“What do I think? I have heard what you say. That's all right,” said Prince Andrey. “But you say, enter into our brotherhood, and we will show you the object of life and the destination of man, and the laws that govern the universe. But who are we?—men? How do you know it all? Why is it I alone don't see what you see? You see on earth the dominion of good and truth, but I don't see it.”

Pierre interrupted him. “Do you believe in a future life?” he asked.

“In a future life?” repeated Prince Andrey.

But Pierre did not give him time to answer, and took this repetition as a negative reply, the more readily as he knew Prince Andrey's atheistic views in the past. “You say that you can't see the dominion of good and truth on the earth. I have not seen it either, and it cannot be seen if one looks upon our life as the end of everything. On earth, this earth here” (Pierre pointed to the open country), “there is no truth—all is deception and wickedness. But in the world, the whole world, there is a dominion of truth, and we are now the children of earth, but eternally the children of the whole universe. Don't I feel in my soul that I am a part of that vast, harmonious whole? Don't I feel that in that vast, innumerable multitude of beings, in which is made manifest the Godhead, the higher power—what you choose to call it—I constitute one grain, one step upward from lower beings to higher ones? If I see, see clearly that ladder that rises up from the vegetable to man, why should I suppose that ladder breaks off with me and does not go on further and further? I feel that I cannot disappear as nothing does disappear in the universe, that indeed I always shall be and always have been. I feel that beside me, above me, there are spirits, and that in their world there is truth.”

“Yes, that's Herder's theory,” said Prince Andrey. “But it's not that, my dear boy, convinces me; but life and death are what have convinced me. What convinces me is seeing a creature dear to me, and bound up with me, to whom one has done wrong, and hoped to make it right” (Prince Andrey's voice shook and he turned away), “and all at once that creature suffers, is in agony, and ceases to be.… What for? It cannot be that there is no answer! And I believe there is.… That's what convinces, that's what has convinced me,” said Prince Andrey.

“Just so, just so,” said Pierre; “isn't that the very thing I'm saying?”

“No. I only say that one is convinced of the necessity of a future life, not by argument, but when one goes hand-in-hand with some one, and all at once that some one slips away yonder into nowhere, and you are left facing that abyss and looking down into it. And I have looked into it …”

“Well, that's it then! You know there is a yonder and there is some one. Yonder is the future life; Some One is God.”

Prince Andrey did not answer. The coach and horses had long been taken across to the other bank, and had been put back into the shafts, and the sun had half sunk below the horizon, and the frost of evening was starring the pools at the fording-place; but Pierre and Andrey, to the astonishment of the footmen, coachmen, and ferrymen, still stood in the ferry and were still talking.

“If there is God and there is a future life, then there is truth and there is goodness; and the highest happiness of man consists in striving for their attainment. We must live, we must love, we must believe,” said Pierre, “that we are not only living to-day on this clod of earth, but have lived and will live for ever there in everything” (he pointed to the sky). Prince Andrey stood with his elbow on the rail of the ferry, and as he listened to Pierre he kept his eyes fixed on the red reflection of the sun on the bluish stretch of water. Pierre ceased speaking. There was perfect stillness. The ferry had long since come to a standstill, and only the eddies of the current flapped with a faint sound on the bottom of the ferry boat. It seemed to Prince Andrey that the lapping of the water kept up a refrain to Pierre's words: “It's the truth, believe it.”

Prince Andrey sighed, and with a radiant, childlike, tender look in his eyes glanced at the face of Pierre—flushed and triumphant, though still timidly conscious of his friend's superiority.

“Yes, if only it were so!” he said. “Let us go and get in, though,” added Prince Andrey, and as he got out of the ferry he looked up at the sky, to which Pierre had pointed him, and for the first time since Austerlitz he saw the lofty, eternal sky, as he had seen it lying on the field of Austerlitz, and something that had long been slumbering, something better that had been in him, suddenly awoke with a joyful, youthful feeling in his soul. That feeling vanished as soon as Prince Andrey returned again to the habitual conditions of life, but he knew that that feeling—though he knew not how to develop it—was still within him. Pierre's visit was for Prince Andrey an epoch, from which there began, though outwardly unchanged, a new life in his inner world.

夜间，安德烈公爵和皮埃尔乘坐四轮马车前往童山。安德烈公爵不时地观察皮埃尔，有时候说几句话来，打破沉默藉以证明一下他的心绪甚佳。

他指着一片田野，向皮埃尔讲述他在经营方面的改善。皮埃尔一声不响，面露忧愁的神色，简短地回答他的话，仿佛陷入了沉思状态。

皮埃尔心中想到，安德烈公爵是很不幸福的，他正误入迷途了，不熟知真理的光明，皮埃尔必须帮助他，启迪他，使他振作起来。但是皮埃尔心里一想到他将要怎样开口说话，说些什么话的时候，他就预感到，安德烈公爵只消说一句话，摆出一个论据，就会贬低他的教义中的一切，因此他害怕开腔，害怕他所喜爱的神圣教义受到嘲弄。

“不，您干嘛会这样想呢，”皮埃尔低着头，忽然开口说话，装出一副牴牛的样子，“您干嘛会这样想呢？您不应当这样想。”

“我想什么呀？”安德烈公爵诧异地问。

“想的是生活、人的使命。并非如此。我曾经也是这么想，您知道是什么拯救我吗？是共济会。不，您甭发笑。共济会不是我过去想象中的那种拘于仪式的教派；共济会是人类永恒的美德的唯一表现者。”于是他开始向安德烈公爵叙述他所了解的共济会。

他说，共济会的观点是从国家和宗教桎梏中解放出来的基督的教理，是关于平等、兄弟情谊、仁爱的教理。

“只有我们神圣的兄弟情谊才有真正的人生的意义，其余一切都是幻梦，”皮埃尔说，“我的朋友，您会弄清楚，在共济会以外的一切充满着虚伪和谎言，我赞同您的意见，聪明而善良的人，只有尽可能像您一样不妨碍别人过他自己的日子，并无其他途径可循。但是您得接受我们的基本信念，加入我们的兄弟会，把您自己交给我们，让我们来引导您前进，这样，您马上就会像我从前那样觉得自己是这根巨大的看不见的链条的一部分，链条的头一端隐藏在天国之中。”皮埃尔说。

安德烈公爵注视着前面，不吭一声地倾听皮埃尔发言。由于马车辚辚的响声，他有几回没有听清楚，于是向皮埃尔重问没有听清的词。从安德烈公爵眼睛里闪耀的特殊的光辉、从他的缄默当中，皮埃尔看出他说的话不是毫无裨益的，安德烈公爵不会再打断他的话，不会再嘲笑他的言论了。

他们驶近洪水泛滥的河边，在安置马车和马匹的当儿，他们登上渡船。

安德烈公爵把臂肘撑在栏杆上，向那夕阳映照得闪闪发亮的泛出河岸的水面一声不响地张望。

“喂，您对这桩事是怎么想的？”皮埃尔问，“您为什么不吭一声啊？”

“我想什么啊？我听你说话。这一切都是对的，”安德烈公爵说，“但是你对我说：加入我们的兄弟会，我们就会给你指明生活的目的和人的使命以及统治世界的规律。我们究竟是谁呢？是人们。为什么你们洞悉一切呢？为什么我一个人看不见你们看见的东西？你们看见地球上的真与善的王国，而我却看不见它。”

皮埃尔打断他的话。

“您相信来生吗？”他问道。

“相信来生吗？”安德烈公爵重复地说，但是皮埃尔不让他有时间来回答，他把他重复这句话看成是否定的表示，况且他知道安德烈公爵以前就有无神论的见解。

“您说您没法看见地球上的真与善的王国，我也未曾看见它，如果把我们的生命看成是一切的终极，那是没法看见它的。在·地·球·上，正是在这个地球上（皮埃尔指着田野）没有真理——一切都是虚伪与邪恶，但是在宇宙中，在整个宇宙中却有真理的王国，现在我们是地球的儿女，就永恒而论，我们是整个宇宙的儿女。难道我心中感觉不到，我是这个庞大的和谐的整体的一部分吗？难道我感觉不到我是在这体现上帝的无数多的生物中（您可以随心所欲，认为上帝是至高无上的力量），从最低级生物转变为最高级生物中间的一个环节，一个梯级吗？如果我看见，清楚地看见植物向人演变的这个阶梯，为什么我还要假定这个阶梯从我处忽然中断，而不是通向更远更远的地方呢？我觉得，就像宇宙间没有什么会消逝一样，我不仅现在不会消失，而且在过去和未来也是永远存在的。我觉得，除我而外，神灵存在于我的上空，真理存在于这个宇宙之中。”

“是的，这就是赫尔德①的学说，”安德烈公爵说，“可是，我的心肝，不是这个能使我信服，而是生与死，这就是使我信服的事实。你看见一个你认为可贵的、与你联系在一起的人，你在他面前犯有过错，希望能够证实自己无罪（安德烈公爵的嗓音颤抖了一下，把脸转过去），这个人忽然感到痛苦，遭受折磨，不再存在了……为什么？得不到答案，这是不可能的！我深信，答案是存在的……就是这件事才使我信服，就是这件事使我信服了。”安德烈公爵说。

①约翰·戈特弗里德·赫尔德（1714～1803），18世纪德意志资产阶级启蒙运动时期的一大思想家。

“是啊，是啊，”皮埃尔说，“难道这不就是我所说的么？”

“不，我只是说，使我相信来生之必要性的，不是论据，而是如下的实例，当你和某人手牵手在生活领域里前进时，这个人忽然在那里消失了，在乌有之地消失了，而你自己却在这深渊前面停步了，然后你朝那里张望。我于是望了一眼……”

“啊，那又怎么样呢？您是否知道有一个那里，有某人存在？那里就是来生，某人就是上帝。”

安德烈公爵没有去回答。四轮马车和马匹早已登上了彼岸，把马套上车了，夕阳已经西沉了一半，薄暮的寒气袭来，摆渡口上的水洼覆盖着点缀有星星的薄冰，使仆人、马车夫、渡船夫觉得惊奇的是，皮埃尔和安德烈还站在渡船上聊天。

“假如有上帝，有来生，那么就会有真理和美德，人的至高无上的幸福乃在于竭力追求真理和美德。要活下去，要爱，要有信仰，”皮埃尔说，“我们不仅是今天在这一小片土地上生活，而且曾经生活过，将来要永恒地在那里，在一切领域里（他指指天上）生活。”

安德烈公爵用臂肘撑着渡船的栏杆，栖在那里，倾听皮埃尔讲话，目不转睛地望着一轮夕阳的红光映照在泛出河岸的湛蓝的水面。皮埃尔沉默不言。四下里一片寂然。渡船早已靠岸了，只有波浪拍打着船底，发出微弱的响声。安德烈公爵仿佛觉得，水浪的拍击声正在附和皮埃尔说话：“老实说，你相信这一点吧。”

安德烈公爵叹了一口气，用童稚的、温柔的、闪闪发亮的目光望了望皮埃尔的通红的面孔，他情绪激昂，但在那首屈一指的朋友面前还是觉得羞怯。

“是啊，惟愿是这样！”他说，“我们上岸去坐车吧。”安德烈公爵补充地说，于是他走下船来，向皮埃尔指给他看的天空扫了一眼，在奥斯特利茨战役后，他头一次看见他躺在奥斯特利茨战场上所看见的那个永恒的高高的天空，那种在他心中沉睡已久的美好的情思，忽然欣喜地、青春洋溢地在他心灵中复苏。一当安德烈公爵又进入他所习惯的生活环境，这种感情就消逝了，但是他知道，他不善于发挥的这种感情还保存在他心中。对于安德烈公爵来说，与皮埃尔的会面标志着一个时代，从表面看来他虽然过着原来的生活，但是在他的内心世界，新生活已从这个时代开始了。