'You think--Alexander Petrovitch--'[32] he began, in a broken voice, as he endeavored to look another way, 'that I serve you--for money--but I--I--e-e-ekh!' Here he turned again to the fence, so that he even banged his brow against it--and how he did begin to sob! It was the first time I had beheld a man weep in the prison.

With difficulty I comforted him, and although from that day forth, he began to serve me more zealously than ever, if that were possible, and to watch over me, yet I perceived, from almost imperceptible signs, that his heart could never pardon me for my reproach; and yet the others laughed at us, persecuted him at every convenient opportunity, sometimes cursed him violently--but he lived in concord and friendship with them and never took offense.

Yes, it is sometimes very difficult to know a man thoroughly, even after long years of acquaintance!" Dostoevsky, in all his important novels, has much to say about religion, and his personages all illustrate some phase of religious life.

This is nowhere more apparent than in his last novel, "The Karamazoff Brothers," wherein the religious note is more powerfully struck than in any of the others.

The ideal of the Orthodox Church of the East is embodied in Father Zosim, and in his gentle disciple, Alexyei (Alyosha) Karamazoff; the reconciling power of redemption is again set forth over the guilty soul of the principal hero, Dmitry Karamazoff, when he is overtaken by chastisement for a suspected crime.