1 The Brothers Karamazov
at the moment of passion, perhaps, inflamed by wine, and
he has only transmitted to me a propensity to drunkenness-
that’s all he’s done for me.... Why am I bound to love him
simply for begetting me when he has cared nothing for me
all my life after?’
‘Oh, perhaps those questions strike you as coarse and
cruel, but do not expect an impossible restraint from a
young mind. ‘Drive nature out of the door and it will fly in
at the window,’ and, above all, let us not be afraid of words,
but decide the question according to the dictates of reason
and humanity and not of mystic ideas. How shall it be de-
cided? Why, like this. Let the son stand before his father and
ask him, ‘Father, tell me, why must I love you? Father, show
me that I must love you,’ and if that father is able to answer
him and show him good reason, we have a real, normal, pa-
rental relation, not resting on mystical prejudice, but on a
rational, responsible and strictly humanitarian basis. But if
he does not, there’s an end to the family tie. He is not a fa-
ther to him, and the son has a right to look upon him as a
stranger, and even an enemy. Our tribune, gentlemen of the
jury, ought to be a school of true and sound ideas.’
(Here the orator was interrupted by irrepressible and
almost frantic applause. Of course, it was not the whole
audience, but a good half of it applauded. The fathers and
mothers present applauded. Shrieks and exclamations were
heard from the gallery, where the ladies were sitting. Hand-
kerchiefs were waved. The President began ringing his bell
with all his might. He was obviously irritated by the behav-
iour of the audience, but did not venture to clear the court