Book 3 Chapter 4 Simonson

Mary Pavlovna's influence was one that Maslova submitted to
because she loved Mary Pavlovna. Simonson influenced her because
he loved her.

Everybody lives and acts partly according to his own, partly
according to other people's, ideas. This is what constitutes one
of the great differences among men. To some, thinking is a kind
of mental game; they treat their reason as if it were a fly-wheel
without a connecting strap, and are guided in their actions by
other people's ideas, by custom or laws; while others look upon
their own ideas as the chief motive power of all their actions,
and always listen to the dictates of their own reason and submit
to it, accepting other people's opinions only on rare occasions
and after weighing them critically. Simonson was a man of the
latter sort; he settled and verified everything according to his
own reason and acted on the decisions he arrived at. When a
schoolboy he made up his mind that his father's income, made as a
paymaster in government office was dishonestly gained, and he
told his father that it ought to be given to the people. When his
father, instead of listening to him, gave him a scolding, he left
his father's house and would not make use of his father's means.
Having come to the conclusion that all the existing misery was a
result of the people's ignorance, he joined the socialists, who
carried on propaganda among the people, as soon as he left the
university and got a place as a village schoolmaster. He taught
and explained to his pupils and to the peasants what he
considered to be just, and openly blamed what he thought unjust.
He was arrested and tried. During his trial he determined to tell
his judges that his was a just cause, for which he ought not to
be tried or punished. When the judges paid no heed to his words,
but went on with the trial, he decided not to answer them and
kept resolutely silent when they questioned him. He was exiled to
the Government of Archangel. There he formulated a religious
teaching which was founded on the theory that everything in the
world was alive, that nothing is lifeless, and that all the
objects we consider to be without life or inorganic are only
parts of an enormous organic body which we cannot compass. A
man's task is to sustain the life of that huge organism and all
its animate parts. Therefore he was against war, capital
punishment and every kind of killing, not only of human beings,
but also of animals. Concerning marriage, too, he had a peculiar
idea of his own; he thought that increase was a lower function of
man, the highest function being to serve the already existing
lives. He found a confirmation of his theory in the fact that
there were phacocytes in the blood. Celibates, according to his
opinion, were the same as phacocytes, their function being to
help the weak and the sickly particles of the organism. From the
moment he came to this conclusion he began to consider himself as
well as Mary Pavlovna as phacocytes, and to live accordingly,
though as a youth he had been addicted to vice. His love for
Katusha did not infringe this conception, because he loved her
platonically, and such love he considered could not hinder his
activity as a phacocytes, but acted, on the contrary, as an
inspiration.