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nounce Christ, for I’ve nothing then to renounce. Who will
hold an unclean Tatar responsible, Grigory Vassilyevitch,
even in heaven, for not having been born a Christian? And
who would punish him for that, considering that you can’t
take two skins off one ox? For God Almighty Himself, even
if He did make the Tatar responsible, when he dies would
give him the smallest possible punishment, I imagine (since
he must be punished), judging that he is not to blame if he
has come into the world an unclean heathen, from heathen
parents. The Lord God can’t surely take a Tatar and say he
was a Christian? That would mean that the Almighty would
tell a real untruth. And can the Lord of Heaven and earth
tell a lie, even in one word?’
Grigory was thunderstruck and looked at the orator,
his eyes nearly starting out of his head. Though he did not
clearly understand what was said, he had caught something
in this rigmarole, and stood, looking like a man who has
just hit his head against a wall. Fyodor Pavlovitch emptied
his glass and went off into his shrill laugh.
‘Alyosha! Alyosha! What do you say to that! Ah, you ca-
suist! He must have been with the Jesuits, somewhere, Ivan.
Oh, you stinking Jesuit,who taught you? But you’re talk-
ing nonsense, you casuist, nonsense, nonsense, nonsense.
Don’t cry, Grigory, we’ll reduce him to smoke and ashes in
a moment. Tell me this, O ass; you may be right before your
enemies, but you have renounced your faith all the same in
your own heart, and you say yourself that in that very hour
you became anathema accursed. And if once you’re anath-
ema they won’t pat you on the head for it in hell. What do