The Coffee-House of Surat / Leo Tolstoy

(After Bernardin de Saint-Pierre)

In the town of Surat, in India, was a coffee-house where many travellers

and foreigners from all parts of the world met and conversed.

One day a learned Persian theologian visited this coffee-house. He

was a man who had spent his life studying the nature of the Deity,

and reading and writing books upon the subject. He had thought,

read, and written so much about God, that eventually he lost his

wits, became quite confused, and ceased even to believe in the

existence of a God. The Shah, hearing of this, had banished him

from Persia.

After having argued all his life about the First Cause, this

unfortunate theologian had ended by quite perplexing himself, and

instead of understanding that he had lost his own reason, he began

to think that there was no higher Reason controlling the universe.

This man had an African slave who followed him everywhere. When the

theologian entered the coffee-house, the slave remained outside, near

the door, sitting on a stone in the glare of the sun, and driving

away the flies that buzzed around him. The Persian having settled

down on a divan in the coffee-house, ordered himself a cup of opium.

When he had drunk it and the opium had begun to quicken the workings

of his brain, he addressed his slave through the open door:

"Tell me, wretched slave," said he, "do you think there is a God, or not?"

"Of course there is," said the slave, and immediately drew from under

his girdle a small idol of wood.

"There," said he, "that is the God who has guarded me from the day

of my birth. Every one in our country worships the fetish tree,

from the wood of which this God was made."

This conversation between the theologian and his slave was listened

to with surprise by the other guests in the coffee-house. They

were astonished at the master's question, and yet more so at the

slave's reply.

One of them, a Brahmin, on hearing the words spoken by the slave,

turned to him and said:

"Miserable fool! Is it possible you believe that God can be carried

under a man's girdle? There is one God--Brahma, and he is greater

than the whole world, for he created it. Brahma is the One, the

mighty God, and in His honour are built the temples on the Ganges'

banks, where his true priests, the Brahmins, worship him. They know

the true God, and none but they. A thousand score of years have

passed, and yet through revolution after revolution these priests

have held their sway, because Brahma, the one true God, has

protected them."

So spoke the Brahmin, thinking to convince every one; but a Jewish

broker who was present replied to him, and said:

"No! the temple of the true God is not in India. Neither does God

protect the Brahmin caste. The true God is not the God of the

Brahmins, but of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. None does He protect

but His chosen people, the Israelites. From the commencement of the

world, our nation has been beloved of Him, and ours alone. If we

are now scattered over the whole earth, it is but to try us; for God

has promised that He will one day gather His people together in

Jerusalem. Then, with the Temple of Jerusalem--the wonder of the

ancient world--restored to its splendor, shall Israel be

established a ruler over all nations."

So spoke the Jew, and burst into tears. He wished to say more, but

an Italian missionary who was there interrupted him.

"What you are saying is untrue," said he to the Jew. "You attribute

injustice to God. He cannot love your nation above the rest. Nay

rather, even if it be true that of old He favored the Israelites, it

is now nineteen hundred years since they angered Him, and caused Him

to destroy their nation and scatter them over the earth, so that

their faith makes no converts and has died out except here and

there. God shows preference to no nation, but calls all who wish to

be saved to the bosom of the Catholic Church of Rome, the one outside

whose borders no salvation can be found."

So spoke the Italian. But a Protestant minister, who happened to be

present, growing pale, turned to the Catholic missionary and exclaimed:

"How can you say that salvation belongs to your religion? Those only

will be saved, who serve God according to the Gospel, in spirit and

in truth, as bidden by the word of Christ."

Then a Turk, an office-holder in the custom-house at Surat, who was

sitting in the coffee-house smoking a pipe, turned with an air of

superiority to both the Christians.

"Your belief in your Roman religion is vain," said he. "It was

superseded twelve hundred years ago by the true faith: that of

Mohammed! You cannot but observe how the true Mohammed faith

continues to spread both in Europe and Asia, and even in the

enlightened country of China. You say yourselves that God has

rejected the Jews; and, as a proof, you quote the fact that the Jews

are humiliated and their faith does not spread. Confess then the

truth of Mohammedanism, for it is triumphant and spreads far and

wide. None will be saved but the followers of Mohammed, God's

latest prophet; and of them, only the followers of Omar, and not of

Ali, for the latter are false to the faith."

To this the Persian theologian, who was of the sect of Ali, wished

to reply; but by this time a great dispute had arisen among all the

strangers of different faiths and creeds present. There were

Abyssinian Christians, Llamas from Thibet, Ismailians and

Fireworshippers. They all argued about the nature of God, and how

He should be worshipped. Each of them asserted that in his country

alone was the true God known and rightly worshipped.

Every one argued and shouted, except a Chinaman, a student of

Confucius, who sat quietly in one corner of the coffee-house, not

joining in the dispute. He sat there drinking tea and listening to

what the others said, but did not speak himself.

The Turk noticed him sitting there, and appealed to him, saying:

"You can confirm what I say, my good Chinaman. You hold your peace, but

if you spoke I know you would uphold my opinion. Traders from your

country, who come to me for assistance, tell me that though many religions

have been introduced into China, you Chinese consider Mohammedanism the

best of all, and adopt it willingly. Confirm, then, my words, and tell

us your opinion of the true God and of His prophet."

"Yes, yes," said the rest, turning to the Chinaman, "let us hear what

you think on the subject."

The Chinaman, the student of Confucius, closed his eyes, and thought

a while. Then he opened them again, and drawing his hands out of

the wide sleeves of his garment, and folding them on his breast, he

spoke as follows, in a calm and quiet voice.

Sirs, it seems to me that it is chiefly pride that prevents men

agreeing with one another on matters of faith. If you care to

listen to me, I will tell you a story which will explain this by an

example.

I came here from China on an English steamer which had been round the

world. We stopped for fresh water, and landed on the east coast of the

island of Sumatra. It was midday, and some of us, having landed, sat

in the shade of some cocoanut palms by the seashore, not far from a

native village. We were a party of men of different nationalities.

As we sat there, a blind man approached us. We learned afterwards

that he had gone blind from gazing too long and too persistently at

the sun, trying to find out what it is, in order to seize its light.

He strove a long time to accomplish this, constantly looking at the

sun; but the only result was that his eyes were injured by its

brightness, and he became blind.

Then he said to himself:

"The light of the sun is not a liquid; for if it were a liquid it

would be possible to pour it from one vessel into another, and it

would be moved, like water, by the wind. Neither is it fire; for if

it were fire, water would extinguish it. Neither is light a spirit,

for it is seen by the eye; nor is it matter, for it cannot be moved.

Therefore, as the light of the sun is neither liquid, nor fire, nor

spirit, nor matter, it is--nothing!"

So he argued, and, as a result of always looking at the sun and

always thinking about it, he lost both his sight and his reason.

And when he went quite blind, he became fully convinced that the sun

did not exist.

With this blind man came a slave, who after placing his master in

the shade of a cocoanut tree, picked up a cocoanut from the ground,

and began making it into a night-light. He twisted a wick from the

fibre of the cocoanut: squeezed oil from the nut in the shell, and

soaked the wick in it.

As the slave sat doing this, the blind man sighed and said to him:

"Well, slave, was I not right when I told you there is no sun? Do

you not see how dark it is? Yet people say there is a sun. . . . But

if so, what is it?"

"I do not know what the sun is," said the slave. "That is no

business of mine. But I know what light is. Here I have made a

night-light, by the help of which I can serve you and find anything

I want in the hut."

And the slave picked up the cocoanut shell, saying:

"This is my sun."

A lame man with crutches, who was sitting near by, heard these

words, and laughed:

"You have evidently been blind all your life," said he to the blind

man, "not to know what the sun is. I will tell you what it is. The

sun is a ball of fire, which rises every morning out of the sea and

goes down again among the mountains of our island each evening. We

have all seen this, and if you had had your eyesight you too would

have seen it."

A fisherman, who had been listening to the conversation said:

"It is plain enough that you have never been beyond your own island.

If you were not lame, and if you had been out as I have in a

fishing-boat, you would know that the sun does not set among the

mountains of our island, but as it rises from the ocean every

morning so it sets again in the sea every night. What I am telling

you is true, for I see it every day with my own eyes."

Then an Indian who was of our party, interrupted him by saying:

"I am astonished that a reasonable man should talk such nonsense.

How can a ball of fire possibly descend into the water and not be

extinguished? The sun is not a ball of fire at all, it is the Deity

named Deva, who rides for ever in a chariot round the golden

mountain, Meru. Sometimes the evil serpents Ragu and Ketu attack

Deva and swallow him: and then the earth is dark. But our priests

pray that the Deity may be released, and then he is set free. Only

such ignorant men as you, who have never been beyond their own

island, can imagine that the sun shines for their country alone."

Then the master of an Egyptian vessel, who was present, spoke in his turn.

"No," said he, "you also are wrong. The sun is not a Deity, and does

not move only round India and its golden mountain. I have sailed much

on the Black Sea, and along the coasts of Arabia, and have been to

Madagascar and to the Philippines. The sun lights the whole earth,

and not India alone. It does not circle round one mountain, but rises

far in the East, beyond the Isles of Japan, and sets far, far away in

the West, beyond the islands of England. That is why the Japanese call

their country 'Nippon,' that is, 'the birth of the sun.' I know this

well, for I have myself seen much, and heard more from my grandfather,

who sailed to the very ends of the sea."

He would have gone on, but an English sailor from our ship

interrupted him.

"There is no country," he said "where people know so much about the

sun's movements as in England. The sun, as every one in England

knows, rises nowhere and sets nowhere. It is always moving round

the earth. We can be sure of this for we have just been round the

world ourselves, and nowhere knocked up against the sun. Wherever

we went, the sun showed itself in the morning and hid itself at

night, just as it does here."

And the Englishman took a stick and, drawing circles on the sand,

tried to explain how the sun moves in the heavens and goes round the

world. But he was unable to explain it clearly, and pointing to the

ship's pilot said:

"This man knows more about it than I do. He can explain it properly."

The pilot, who was an intelligent man, had listened in silence to

the talk till he was asked to speak. Now every one turned to him,

and he said:

"You are all misleading one another, and are yourselves deceived.

The sun does not go round the earth, but the earth goes round the

sun, revolving as it goes, and turning towards the sun in the course

of each twenty-four hours, not only Japan, and the Philippines, and

Sumatra where we now are, but Africa, and Europe, and America, and

many lands besides. The sun does not shine for some one mountain,

or for some one island, or for some one sea, nor even for one earth

alone, but for other planets as well as our earth. If you would

only look up at the heavens, instead of at the ground beneath your

own feet, you might all understand this, and would then no longer

suppose that the sun shines for you, or for your country alone."

Thus spoke the wise pilot, who had voyaged much about the world, and

had gazed much upon the heavens above.

"So on matters of faith," continued the Chinaman, the student of

Confucius, "it is pride that causes error and discord among men. As

with the sun, so it is with God. Each man wants to have a special

God of his own, or at least a special God for his native land. Each

nation wishes to confine in its own temples Him, whom the world

cannot contain.

"Can any temple compare with that which God Himself has built to

unite all men in one faith and one religion?

"All human temples are built on the model of this temple, which is

God's own world. Every temple has its fonts, its vaulted roof, its

lamps, its pictures or sculptures, its inscriptions, its books of

the law, its offerings, its altars and its priests. But in what

temple is there such a font as the ocean; such a vault as that of

the heavens; such lamps as the sun, moon, and stars; or any figures

to be compared with living, loving, mutually-helpful men? Where are

there any records of God's goodness so easy to understand as the

blessings which God has strewn abroad for man's happiness? Where is

there any book of the law so clear to each man as that written in

his heart? What sacrifices equal the self-denials which loving men

and women make for one another? And what altar can be compared with

the heart of a good man, on which God Himself accepts the sacrifice?

"The higher a man's conception of God, the better will he know Him.

And the better he knows God, the nearer will he draw to Him,

imitating His goodness, His mercy, and His love of man.

"Therefore, let him who sees the sun's whole light filling the world,

refrain from blaming or despising the superstitious man, who in his own

idol sees one ray of that same light. Let him not despise even the

unbeliever who is blind and cannot see the sun at all."

So spoke the Chinaman, the student of Confucius; and all who were

present in the coffee-house were silent, and disputed no more as to

whose faith was the best.