Volume II, Book III, Chapter VII

So I lost the thread there a little over the Memorial Day weekend. A little over-subscribed. Every time I say it's not going to happen, and then it happens. Fun with friends and lots of things, but skipped a few days with the Russians.

So, after Pierre is reprimanded in the last chapter for his speech at the masons “with ill will and irony”, he sits for three days on the sofa with no visitors.

A letter comes from his wife saying she will be in Petersburg to visit, and at the same time a fellow mason who he doesn’t respect very much comes and tells him that he should forgive his wife. At the same time his mother-in-law sends for him to visit with her about something important. This time Pierre sees what’s happening.

In his masonhood, though, he uses the “no one is right and no one is wrong” argument to convince himself it doesn’t matter either way. Since he was thinking of other things, would it matter whether he lived with her or not?

He leaves to visit Moscow, and his friend Iosef Alexeevich. The rest of the chapter is two journal entries in Pierre’s voice. The first is from November 17^th, describing his visit to Ioseff. Ioseff counsels him to worry about himself, since purifying himself to accept the mystery is the most important thing he can control – not the mystery itself or other people. He also tells Pierre he can’t worry about bringing a message he is himself unfit to receive. There’s the whole thing in here about loving death, which is very important to the masons, and something he needs to cultivate. And then he reminds him that three and seven are the basis of everything.

I’m boiling it down here.

The second diary entry is from November 23^rd, and he’s back with his wife, forgiving her for his own virtue. He also asks her to forgive him for his past sins. And now they’re living together again.

I’m not so into that, as I’m not a fan of Helene or of Vassily and their ilk. Pierre seems just as feckless in some ways again, only now he’s stuck in using philosophy to back it up. It’s a bleak philosophy in some ways. We’ll see what happens, right?