0 The Brothers Karamazovhe still cherished at heart a greater reverence for Father Fe-
rapont than for Father Zossima. He was strongly in favour
of fasting, and it was not strange that one who kept so rigid
a fast as Father Ferapont should ‘see marvels.’ His words
seemed certainly queer, but God only could tell what was
hidden in those words, and were not worse words and acts
commonly seen in those who have sacrificed their intel-
lects for the glory of God? The pinching of the devil’s tail he
was ready and eager to believe, and not only in the figura-
tive sense. Besides he had, before visiting the monastery, a
strong prejudice against the institution of ‘elders,’ which he
only knew of by hearsay and believed to be a pernicious in-
novation. Before he had been long at the monastery, he had
detected the secret murmurings of some shallow brothers
who disliked the institution. He was, besides, a meddle-
some, inquisitive man, who poked his nose into everything.
This was why the news of the fresh ‘miracle’ performed by
Father Zossima reduced him to extreme perplexity. Alyosha
remembered afterwards how their inquisitive guest from
Obdorsk had been continually flitting to and fro from one
group to another, listening and asking questions among the
monks that were crowding within and without the elder’s
cell. But he did not pay much attention to him at the time,
and only recollected it afterwards.
He had no thought to spare for it indeed, for when Fa-
ther Zossima, feeling tired again, had gone back to bed, he
thought of Alyosha as he was closing his eyes, and sent for
him. Alyosha ran at once. There was no one else in the cell
but Father Paissy, Father Iosif, and the novice Porfiry. The