The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Stories

“Of course, sir, more than once, but to no avail, since there are no records … they don’t believe me, as if I’ve brought a worldly lie into the monastery, and there I’m counted as a nobleman. But it’s all the same how I live my life out: I’m getting old.”

The story of the enchanted wanderer was obviously coming to an end; there remained only one thing we were curious about: what was it like in the monastery?

XX

Since our wanderer had sailed in his story to his life’s last haven—the monastery—which, in his deepest belief, had been his destination from birth, and since everything there seemed favorable to him, one might think that Ivan Severyanych no longer ran into any adversities there. However, it turned out quite otherwise. One of our fellow travelers recalled that, according to everything told about them, monks constantly suffered very much from the devil, and he asked:

“Tell us, please, has the devil not tempted you in the monastery? They say he constantly tempts monks.”

Ivan Severyanych cast a calm glance at the speaker from under his brows and replied:

“How could he not tempt me? Naturally, if Paul the Apostle himself didn’t escape him and writes in his epistle that ‘a messenger of Satan was given me in the flesh,’³⁹ how could I, a sinful and weak man, not suffer his torments?”

“What have you suffered from him?”

“Many things, sir.”

“Of what sort?”

“All kinds of dirty tricks, and at first, before I overcame him, there were even temptations.”

“But you also overcame him, the devil himself?”

“How could it be otherwise? That’s the monastic calling. But I’ll tell you in all conscience, I wouldn’t have been able to do it myself, but one perfect elder taught me how, because he was experienced and could deal with any temptation. When I confessed to him that Grusha kept appearing to me, as alive as if the air around me was breathing nothing but her, he at once cast about in his mind and said:

“ ‘In the apostle James it is told: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you”⁴⁰—so resist.’ And here he admonished me about what to do: ‘If you feel your heart softening and remember her,’ he says, ‘you should understand that it is the messenger of Satan accosting you, and you should prepare at once to act against him. Kneel, first of all. Man’s knees are the first instrument: as soon as you kneel, your soul at once soars up, and there, being thus elevated, you must bow down to the ground, as many times as you can, till you are exhausted, and wear yourself out with fasting, to mortify yourself, and when the devil sees you striving for a great deed, he will not endure it and will run away at once, for fear that with such a man his machinations will drive him still more directly to Christ, and he will think: “Better to leave him alone and not tempt him, perchance he will forget himself the sooner.” ’ I started doing that, and indeed everything went away.”

“Did you torment yourself like that for a long time before the messenger of Satan withdrew?”

“A long time, sir. And it was only by wearing him down that I got the better of such an enemy, because he’s not afraid of anything else: to begin with, I made up to a thousand bows and didn’t eat or drink water for four days, and then he realized that he wasn’t up to vying with me, and he grew timid and weak. As soon as he saw me throw my pot of food out the window and take up my beads so as to count the bows, he understood that I wasn’t joking and was setting out on my great deed, and he ran away. It’s terrible how afraid he is of bringing a man to the joy of hope.”

“All right, let’s suppose … he …

So you overcame him, but how much did you suffer from him yourself?”

“It’s nothing, sir; what of it? I oppressed the oppressor, and didn’t take any constraints on myself.”

“And now you’re completely rid of him?”

“Completely, sir.”

“And he no longer appears to you at all?”

“He never comes anymore in the seductive form of a woman, and if he still shows himself now and then somewhere in a corner of the cell, it’s in the most pitiful guise: he squeals like a little pig at his last gasp. I don’t even torment the scoundrel now, I just cross him once and make a bow, and he stops grunting.”

“Well, thank God you’ve dealt with it all like that.”

“Yes, sir, I’ve overcome the temptations of the big devil, but I’ll tell you—though it’s against our rule—I’m more bothered by the nasty tricks of the little devils.”

“So little devils pester you as well?”

“What else, sir? Granted they’re of the most insignificant rank, but they constantly get at you …”

“What is it they do to you?”

“You see, they’re children, and what’s more, there are a great many of them there in hell, and since the grub’s provided, they’ve got nothing to do, so they ask to learn how to cause trouble on earth, and they do mischief, and the more a man wants to stand firm, the more they vex him.”

“What, for instance, do they … How can they vex you?”