The way in which the change required by love is to take place, according to Tolstoi, is that those men who have learned to know the truth are to convince as many others as possible how necessary the change is for love's sake, and that they, with the help of the refusal of obedience, are to abolish law, the State, and property, and bring about the new condition.
I. The prime necessity is that the men who have learned to know the truth should convince as many others as possible that love demands the change.
1. "That an order of life corresponding to our knowledge may take the place of the order contrary to it, the present antiquated public opinion must first be replaced by a new and living one."[1120]
It is not deeds of all sorts that bring to pass the grandest and most significant changes in the life of humanity, "neither the fitting out of armies a million strong nor the construction of roads and engines, neither the organization of expositions nor the formation of trade-unions, neither revolutions, barricades, and explosions nor inventions in aerial navigation—but the changes of public opinion, and these alone."[1121] Liberation is possible only "by a change in our conception of life";[1122] "everything depends on the force with which each individual man becomes conscious of Christian truth";[1123] "know the truth and the truth shall make you free."[1124] Our liberation must necessarily take place by "the Christian's recognizing the law of love, which his Master has revealed to him, as entirely sufficient for all human relations, and his perceiving the superfluousness and illegitimateness of all violence."[1125]
The bringing about of this revolution in public opinion is in the hands of the men who have learned to know the truth.[1126] "A public opinion does not need hundreds and thousands of years to arise and spread; it has the quality of working by contagion and swiftly seizing a great number of men."[1127] "As a jarring touch is enough to change a fluid saturated with salts to crystals in a moment, so now the slightest effort may perhaps suffice to cause the unveiled truth to seize upon hundreds, thousands, millions of men so that a public opinion corresponding to knowledge shall be established and that hereby the whole order of life shall become other than it is. It is in our hands to make this effort."[1128]
2. The best means for bringing about the necessary revolution in public opinion is that the men who have learned to know the truth should testify to it by deed.
"The Christian knows the truth only in order to testify to it before those who do not know it,"[1129] and that "by deed."[1130] "The truth is imparted to men by deeds of truth, deeds of truth illuminate every man's conscience, and thus destroy the force of deceit."[1131] Hence you ought properly, "if you are a landlord, to give your land at once to the poor, and, if you are a capitalist, to give your money or your factory to the workingmen; if you are a prince, a cabinet minister, an official, a judge, or a general, you ought at once to resign your position, and, if you are a soldier, you ought to refuse obedience without regard to any danger."[1132] But, to be sure, "it is very probable that you are not strong enough to do this; you have connections, dependents, subordinates, superiors, the temptations are powerful, and your force gives out."[1133]
3. But there is still another means, though a less effective one, for bringing about the necessary revolution in public opinion, and this "you can always"[1134] employ. It is that the men who have learned to know the truth should "speak it out frankly."[1135]
"If men—yes, if even a few men—would do this, the antiquated public opinion would at once fall of itself, and a new, living, present-day one would arise."[1136] "Not billions of rubles, not millions of soldiers, no institutions, wars, or revolutions, have so much power as the simple declaration of a free man that he considers something to be right or wrong. If a free man speaks out honestly what he thinks and feels, in the midst of thousands who in word and act stand for the very contrary, one might think he must remain isolated. But usually it is otherwise; all, or most, have long been privately thinking and feeling in the same way; and then what to-day is still an individual's new opinion will perhaps to-morrow be already the general opinion of the majority."[1137] "If we would only stop lying and acting as if we did not see the truth, if we would only testify to the truth that summons us and boldly confess it, it would at once turn out that there are hundreds, thousands, millions, of men in the same situation as ourselves, that they see the truth like us, are afraid like us of remaining isolated if they confess it, and are only waiting, like us, for the rest to testify to it."[1138]
II. To bring about the change and put the new condition in the place of law, the State, and property, it is further requisite that the men who have learned to know the truth should conform their lives to their knowledge, and, in particular, that they should refuse obedience to the State.