"'Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath,' the apostle writes, from a heart glowing with love.It's not for the sake of my client that I quote these sacred words, I mention them for all fathers.Who has authorised me to preach to fathers? No one.But as a man and a citizen I make my appeal- vivos voco! We are not long on earth, we do many evil deeds and say many evil words.So let us all catch a favourable moment when we are all together to say a good word to each other.That's what I am doing: while I am in this place Itake advantage of my opportunity.Not for nothing is this tribune given us by the highest authority- all Russia hears us! I am not speaking only for the fathers here present, I cry aloud to all fathers: 'Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.' Yes, let us first fulfil Christ's injunction ourselves and only then venture to expect it of our children.Otherwise we are not fathers, but enemies of our children, and they are not our children, but our enemies, and we have made them our enemies ourselves.'What measure ye mete it shall be measured unto you again'- it's not I who say that, it's the Gospel precept, measure to others according as they measure to you.
How can we blame children if they measure us according to our measure?
"Not long ago a servant girl in Finland was suspected of having secretly given birth to a child.She was watched, and a box of which no one knew anything was found in the corner of the loft, behind some bricks.It was opened and inside was found the body of a new-born child which she had killed.In the same box were found the skeletons of two other babies which, according to her own confession, she had killed at the moment of their birth.
"Gentlemen of the jury, was she a mother to her children? She gave birth to them, indeed; but was she a mother to them? Would anyone venture to give her the sacred name of mother? Let us be bold, gentlemen, let us be audacious even: it's our duty to be so at this moment and not to be afraid of certain words and ideas like the Moscow women in Ostrovsky's play, who are scared at the sound of certain words.No, let us prove that the progress of the last few years has touched even us, and let us say plainly, the father is not merely he who begets the child, but he who begets it and does his duty by it.
"Oh, of course, there is the other meaning, there is the other interpretation of the word 'father,' which insists that any father, even though he be a monster, even though he be the enemy of his children, still remains my father simply because he begot me.But this is, so to say, the mystical meaning which I cannot comprehend with my intellect, but can only accept by faith, or, better to say, on faith, like many other things which I do not understand, but which religion bids me believe.But in that case let it be kept outside the sphere of actual life.In the sphere of actual life, which has, indeed, its own rights, but also lays upon us great duties and obligations, in that sphere, if we want to be humane- Christian, in fact- we must, or ought to, act only upon convictions justified by reason and experience, which have been passed through the crucible of analysis; in a word, we must act rationally, and not as though in dream and delirium, that we may not do harm, that we may not ill-treat and ruin a man.Then it will be real Christian work, not only mystic, but rational and philanthropic...."There was violent applause at this passage from many parts of the court, but Fetyukovitch waved his hands as though imploring them to let him finish without interruption.The court relapsed into silence at once.The orator went on.
"Do you suppose, gentlemen, that our children as they grow up and begin to reason can avoid such questions? No, they cannot, and we will not impose on them an impossible restriction.The sight of an unworthy father involuntarily suggests tormenting questions to a young creature, especially when he compares him with the excellent fathers of his companions.The conventional answer to this question is: 'He begot you, and you are his flesh and blood, and therefore you are bound to love him.' The youth involuntarily reflects: 'But did he love me when he begot me?' he asks, wondering more and more.'Was it for my sake he begot me? He did not know me, not even my ***, at that moment, at the moment of passion, perhaps, inflamed by wine, and he has only transmitted to me a propensity to drunkenness-that's all he's done for me....Why am I bound to love him simply for begetting me when he has cared nothing for me all my life after?'
"Oh, perhaps those questions strike you as coarse and cruel, but do not expect an impossible restraint from a young mind.'Drive nature out of the door and it will fly in at the window,' and, above all, let us not be afraid of words, but decide the question according to the dictates of reason and humanity and not of mystic ideas.How shall it be decided? Why, like this.Let the son stand before his father and ask him, 'Father, tell me, why must I love you? Father, show me that Imust love you,' and if that father is able to answer him and show him good reason, we have a real, normal, parental relation, not resting on mystical prejudice, but on a rational, responsible and strictly humanitarian basis.But if he does not, there's an end to the family tie.He is not a father to him, and the son has a right to look upon him as a stranger, and even an enemy.Our tribune, gentlemen of the jury, ought to be a school of true and sound ideas."(Here the orator was interrupted by irrepressible and almost frantic applause.Of course, it was not the whole audience, but a good half of it applauded.The fathers and mothers present applauded.