is my age, isn’t it?”
“When you are older, you’ll understand for yourself the influence of age on convictions. I fancied, too, that you were not expressing your own ideas,” Alyosha answered serenely and modestly, but Kolya interrupted him hotly:
“Come, you want obedience and mysticism. You must admit that the Christian religion, for instance, has only been of use to the rich and the powerful to keep the lower classes in slavery. That’s so, isn’t it?”
“Ah, I know where you read that, and I am sure someone told you so!” cried Alyosha.
“I say, what makes you think I read it? And certainly no one told me so. I can think for myself. … I am not opposed to Christ, if you like. He was a most humane person, and if He were alive today, He would be found in the ranks of