LIFE IN THE ARMY.
After that Nekhludoff did not see Katusha for more than three years. When he saw her again he had just been promoted to the rank of officer and was going to join his regiment. On the way he came to spend a few days with his aunts, being now a very different young man from the one who had spent the summer with them three years before. He then had been an honest, unselfish lad, ready to sacrifice himself for any good cause; now he was depraved and selfish, and thought only of his own enjoyment. Then God's world seemed a mystery which he tried enthusiastically and joyfully to solve; now everything in life seemed clear and simple, defined by the conditions of the life he was leading. Then he had felt the importance of, and had need of intercourse with, nature, and with those who had lived and thought and felt before him--philosophers and poets. What he now considered necessary and important were human institutions and intercourse with his comrades. Then women seemed mysterious and charming--charming by the very mystery that enveloped them; now the purpose of women, all women except those of his own family and the wives of his friends, was a very definite one: women were the best means towards an already experienced enjoyment. Then money was not needed, and he did not require even one-third of what his mother allowed him; but now this allowance of 1,500 roubles a month did not suffice, and he had already had some unpleasant talks about it with his mother.
Then he had looked on his spirit as the I; now it was his healthy strong animal I that he looked upon as himself.
And all this terrible change had come about because he had ceased to believe himself and had taken to believing others. This he had done because it was too difficult to live believing one's self; believing one's self, one had to decide every question not in favour of one's own animal life, which is always seeking for easy gratifications, but almost in every case against it. Believing others there was nothing to decide; everything had been decided already, and decided always in favour of the animal I and against the spiritual. Nor was this all. Believing in his own self he was always exposing himself to the censure of those around him; believing others he had their approval. So, when Nekhludoff had talked of the serious matters of life, of God, truth, riches, and poverty, all round him thought it out of place and even rather funny, and his mother and aunts called him, with kindly irony, notre cher philosophe. But when he read novels, told improper anecdotes, went to see funny vaudevilles in the French theatre and gaily repeated the jokes, everybody admired and encouraged him. When he considered it right to limit his needs, wore an old overcoat, took no wine, everybody thought it strange and looked upon it as a kind of showing off; but when he spent large sums on hunting, or on furnishing a peculiar and luxurious study for himself, everybody admired his taste and gave him expensive presents to encourage his hobby. While he kept pure and meant to remain so till he married his friends prayed for his health, and even his mother was not grieved but rather pleased when she found out that he had become a real man and had gained over some French woman from his friend. (As to the episode with Katusha, the princess could not without horror think that he might possibly have married her.) In the same way, when Nekhludoff came of age, and gave the small estate he had inherited from his father to the peasants because he considered the holding of private property in land wrong, this step filled his mother and relations with dismay and served as an excuse for making fun of him to all his relatives. He was continually told that these peasants, after they had received the land, got no richer, but, on the contrary, poorer, having opened three public-houses and left off doing any work. But when Nekhludoff entered the Guards and spent and gambled away so much with his aristocratic companions that Elena Ivanovna, his mother, had to draw on her capital, she was hardly pained, considering it quite natural and even good that wild oats should be sown at an early age and in good company, as her son was doing. At first Nekhludoff struggled, but all that he had considered good while he had faith in himself was considered bad by others, and what he had considered evil was looked upon as good by those among whom he lived, and the struggle grew too hard. And at last Nekhludoff gave in, i.e., left off believing himself and began believing others. At first this giving up of faith in himself was unpleasant, but it did not long continue to be so. At that time he acquired the habit of smoking, and drinking wine, and soon got over this unpleasant feeling and even felt great relief.
Nekhludoff, with his passionate nature, gave himself thoroughly to the new way of life so approved of by all those around, and he entirely stifled the inner voice which demanded something different. This began after he moved to St. Petersburg, and reached its highest point when he entered the army.
Military life in general depraves men. It places them in conditions of complete idleness, i.e., absence of all useful work; frees them of their common human duties, which it replaces by merely conventional ones to the honour of the regiment, the uniform, the flag; and, while giving them on the one hand absolute power over other men, also puts them into conditions of servile obedience to those of higher rank than themselves.
But when, to the usual depraving influence of military service with its honours, uniforms, flags, its permitted violence and murder, there is added the depraving influence of riches and nearness to and intercourse with members of the Imperial family, as is the case in the chosen regiment of the Guards in which all the officers are rich and of good family, then this depraving influence creates in the men who succumb to it a perfect mania of selfishness. And this mania of selfishness attacked Nekhludoff from the moment he entered the army and began living in the way his companions lived. He had no occupation whatever except to dress in a uniform, splendidly made and well brushed by other people, and, with arms also made and cleaned and handed to him by others, ride to reviews on a fine horse which had been bred, broken in and fed by others. There, with other men like himself, he had to wave a sword, shoot off guns, and teach others to do the same. He had no other work, and the highly-placed persons, young and old, the Tsar and those near him, not only sanctioned his occupation but praised and thanked him for it.
After this was done, it was thought important to eat, and particularly to drink, in officers' clubs or the salons of the best restaurants, squandering large sums of money, which came from some invisible source; then theatres, ballets, women, then again riding on horseback, waving of swords and shooting, and again the squandering of money, the wine, cards, and women. This kind of life acts on military men even more depravingly than on others, because if any other than a military man lead such a life he cannot help being ashamed of it in the depth of his heart. A military man is, on the contrary, proud of a life of this kind especially at war time, and Nekhludoff had entered the army just after war with the Turks had been declared. "We are prepared to sacrifice our lives at the wars, and therefore a gay, reckless life is not only pardonable, but absolutely necessary for us, and so we lead it."
Such were Nekhludoff's confused thoughts at this period of his existence, and he felt all the time the delight of being free of the moral barriers he had formerly set himself. And the state he lived in was that of a chronic mania of selfishness. He was in this state when, after three years' absence, he came again to visit his aunts.
從那時(shí)起，聶赫留朵夫整整三年沒有同卡秋莎見面。直到三年后他升為軍官，動(dòng)身去部隊(duì)，路過姑媽家，這才又見到了她。但同三年前的夏天住在她們家里時(shí)相比，他已換了個(gè)人了。
那時(shí)他是個(gè)正派青年，富有自我犧牲精神，樂意為一切高尚事業(yè)獻(xiàn)身；如今他可成了一個(gè)徹頭徹尾的利己主義者，迷戀酒色，享樂成癖。那時(shí)，上帝創(chuàng)造的世界在他看來是個(gè)謎，他興致勃勃地企圖解開這個(gè)謎；現(xiàn)在呢，生活中的一切事情都簡(jiǎn)單明了，都是由他所處的生活環(huán)境安排的。那時(shí)，接觸大自然，接觸前人——在他以前生活、思想和感覺過的哲學(xué)家、詩人——是重要的；現(xiàn)在呢，重要的是社會(huì)制度和跟同事們的交際活動(dòng)。那時(shí)，他覺得女人是神秘而迷人的，正因?yàn)樯衩鼐透用匀?；現(xiàn)在呢，女人，除了親人和朋友的妻子，她們的作用都很清楚：女人是他領(lǐng)略過的的玩樂用具。那時(shí)他不需要錢，母親給他的錢連三分之一都花不掉，他可以放棄父親名下的地產(chǎn)，分贈(zèng)給他的佃戶；現(xiàn)在呢，母親按月給他一千五百盧布，他還不夠用，為了錢他跟母親拌過嘴。那時(shí)，他認(rèn)為精神的生命才是真正的我；現(xiàn)在呢，他以為精力充沛的強(qiáng)壯的獸性的我才是他自己。
他身上發(fā)生各種可怕的變化，只是由于他不再堅(jiān)持自己的信念而相信別人的理論。他不再堅(jiān)持自己的信念而相信別人的理論，因?yàn)橐菆?jiān)持自己的信念，日子就太不好過。要是堅(jiān)持自己的信念，處理一切事情就不利于追求輕浮享樂的獸性的我，而總會(huì)同它抵觸。相信別人的理論，就根本無須處理什么，一切問題都迎刃而解，而且總是同精神的我抵觸而有利于獸性的我。此外，他要是堅(jiān)持自己的信念，總會(huì)遭到人家的譴責(zé)；他要是相信別人的理論，就會(huì)獲得周圍人們的贊揚(yáng)。
譬如，聶赫留朵夫思索上帝、真理、財(cái)富、貧窮等問題，閱讀有關(guān)書籍并同人家談?wù)撨@些事，人家就會(huì)覺得不合時(shí)宜，簡(jiǎn)直有點(diǎn)可笑，他的母親和姑媽就會(huì)好意地取笑他，戲稱他是我們親愛的哲學(xué)家。但他看愛情小說，講**笑話，到法國(guó)劇院看輕松喜劇，并且津津樂道，大家就稱贊他，鼓勵(lì)他。他省吃儉用，穿舊大衣，不喝酒，大家就覺得他脾氣古怪，有意標(biāo)新立異。他在打獵上揮金如土，在布置書房上窮奢極侈，大家就吹捧他風(fēng)雅脫俗，還送給他貴重禮品。他原來童貞無瑕，并且想保持到結(jié)婚，但他的親人都為他擔(dān)憂，以為他有病，后來他母親知道他從同事手里奪了一個(gè)法國(guó)女人，成了真正的男子漢，不僅不難過，反而感到高興。但公爵夫人一想到兒子同卡秋莎的關(guān)系，而且可能同她結(jié)婚，就感到憂心忡忡。
同樣，聶赫留朵夫成年以后，他把父親遺留給他的一塊面積不大的地產(chǎn)分贈(zèng)給農(nóng)民，因?yàn)樗J(rèn)為地主擁有土地是不合理的。不料他這種行為卻使他的母親和親戚大為吃驚，并且從此成為大家嘲弄的話題。人家多次告訴他，獲得土地的農(nóng)民不僅沒有發(fā)財(cái)，反而更窮了，因?yàn)樗麄冮_了三家小酒店，索性不干農(nóng)活。等聶赫留朵夫進(jìn)了近衛(wèi)軍，跟門第高貴的同僚們一起花天酒地，輸去許多錢，弄得葉蓮娜·伊凡諾夫娜不得不動(dòng)用存款，她卻滿不在乎，反而認(rèn)為這是理所當(dāng)然的，甚至覺得年輕時(shí)在上流社會(huì)種些痘苗以增加免疫力，還是件好事。
聶赫留朵夫起初作過反抗，但十分困難，因?yàn)榉彩撬麘{自己的信念認(rèn)為好的，別人卻認(rèn)為壞的；反之，他憑自己的信念認(rèn)為壞的，別人卻認(rèn)為好的。最后聶赫留朵夫屈服了，不再堅(jiān)持自己的信念而相信別人的話。開頭這樣的自我否定是很不愉快的，但這種不愉快的感覺并沒有持續(xù)多久。就在這時(shí)聶赫留朵夫開始吸煙喝酒，他不再感到不愉快，甚至覺得輕松自在了。
聶赫留朵夫天生熱情好動(dòng)，不久就沉湎于這種受親友稱道的新生活中，把內(nèi)心的其他要求一概排斥了。這種變化開始于他來到彼得堡以后，而在他進(jìn)入軍界后徹底完成。
軍官生活本來就容易使人墮落。一個(gè)人一旦進(jìn)入軍界，就終日無所事事，也就是說脫離合理的有益勞動(dòng)，逃避人們共同負(fù)擔(dān)的義務(wù)。換來的則是軍隊(duì)、軍服、軍旗的榮譽(yù)。再有，一方面是頤指氣使，對(duì)別人享有無限權(quán)力；另一方面，在長(zhǎng)官面前卻又奴顏婢膝，唯命是從。
不過，除了進(jìn)軍隊(duì)服務(wù)以及軍服、軍旗和合法的暴行屠殺所造成的一般性墮落外，在有錢有勢(shì)的軍官才能進(jìn)入的近衛(wèi)軍團(tuán)里，軍官們因?yàn)楦辉：徒咏适叶裢鈮櫬?。這批人很容易發(fā)展成為瘋狂的利己主義者。聶赫留朵夫自從擔(dān)任軍職，開始象同僚們那樣生活以來，他就落入了這種瘋狂的利己主義的泥沼之中。
他沒有什么正經(jīng)事要做，只須穿上不是他自己而是別人精心縫制、洗刷干凈的軍服，戴上頭盔，拿起別人鑄造、擦亮并交到他手里的武器，跨上一匹由別人飼養(yǎng)和訓(xùn)練的駿馬，跟著那些同他一樣的人去參加練兵或者檢閱，也就是縱馬奔馳，揮舞馬刀，開槍射擊，并把這一套教給別人就行了。他們沒有別的事做，但那些達(dá)官貴人，不論老少，連沙皇和他的親信都贊同他們的活動(dòng)，甚至因此夸獎(jiǎng)他們，感謝他們。這些活動(dòng)結(jié)束以后，他們認(rèn)為正當(dāng)和重要的是到軍官俱樂部或者豪華的飯店里去吃吃喝喝，縱情揮霍不知從哪里弄來的金錢；然后就是劇場(chǎng)，舞會(huì)，女人，然后又是騎馬，舞刀，奔馳，然后又是揮金如土，喝酒，打牌，玩女人。
這樣的生活對(duì)軍人的腐蝕特別厲害，因?yàn)橐且粋€(gè)平民過這樣的生活，他內(nèi)心深處就會(huì)感到害臊。軍人過這樣的生活卻心安理得，并且自吹自擂，引以為榮，特別是在戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)時(shí)期。聶赫留朵夫正好是在向土耳其宣戰(zhàn)后進(jìn)入軍隊(duì)的?！拔覀儨?zhǔn)備為國(guó)捐軀，因此這種花天酒地的生活不僅可以原諒，而且在我們是必要的。所以我們才這樣過日子?！?BR> 聶赫留朵夫在生命的這個(gè)階段也隱隱約約有這樣的想法。他由于沖破了以前給自己定下的種種道德藩籬，一直感到輕松愉快，并且經(jīng)常處于利己主義的瘋狂狀態(tài)中。
三年后他到姑媽家去的時(shí)候，正處在這樣的精神狀態(tài)中。
After that Nekhludoff did not see Katusha for more than three years. When he saw her again he had just been promoted to the rank of officer and was going to join his regiment. On the way he came to spend a few days with his aunts, being now a very different young man from the one who had spent the summer with them three years before. He then had been an honest, unselfish lad, ready to sacrifice himself for any good cause; now he was depraved and selfish, and thought only of his own enjoyment. Then God's world seemed a mystery which he tried enthusiastically and joyfully to solve; now everything in life seemed clear and simple, defined by the conditions of the life he was leading. Then he had felt the importance of, and had need of intercourse with, nature, and with those who had lived and thought and felt before him--philosophers and poets. What he now considered necessary and important were human institutions and intercourse with his comrades. Then women seemed mysterious and charming--charming by the very mystery that enveloped them; now the purpose of women, all women except those of his own family and the wives of his friends, was a very definite one: women were the best means towards an already experienced enjoyment. Then money was not needed, and he did not require even one-third of what his mother allowed him; but now this allowance of 1,500 roubles a month did not suffice, and he had already had some unpleasant talks about it with his mother.
Then he had looked on his spirit as the I; now it was his healthy strong animal I that he looked upon as himself.
And all this terrible change had come about because he had ceased to believe himself and had taken to believing others. This he had done because it was too difficult to live believing one's self; believing one's self, one had to decide every question not in favour of one's own animal life, which is always seeking for easy gratifications, but almost in every case against it. Believing others there was nothing to decide; everything had been decided already, and decided always in favour of the animal I and against the spiritual. Nor was this all. Believing in his own self he was always exposing himself to the censure of those around him; believing others he had their approval. So, when Nekhludoff had talked of the serious matters of life, of God, truth, riches, and poverty, all round him thought it out of place and even rather funny, and his mother and aunts called him, with kindly irony, notre cher philosophe. But when he read novels, told improper anecdotes, went to see funny vaudevilles in the French theatre and gaily repeated the jokes, everybody admired and encouraged him. When he considered it right to limit his needs, wore an old overcoat, took no wine, everybody thought it strange and looked upon it as a kind of showing off; but when he spent large sums on hunting, or on furnishing a peculiar and luxurious study for himself, everybody admired his taste and gave him expensive presents to encourage his hobby. While he kept pure and meant to remain so till he married his friends prayed for his health, and even his mother was not grieved but rather pleased when she found out that he had become a real man and had gained over some French woman from his friend. (As to the episode with Katusha, the princess could not without horror think that he might possibly have married her.) In the same way, when Nekhludoff came of age, and gave the small estate he had inherited from his father to the peasants because he considered the holding of private property in land wrong, this step filled his mother and relations with dismay and served as an excuse for making fun of him to all his relatives. He was continually told that these peasants, after they had received the land, got no richer, but, on the contrary, poorer, having opened three public-houses and left off doing any work. But when Nekhludoff entered the Guards and spent and gambled away so much with his aristocratic companions that Elena Ivanovna, his mother, had to draw on her capital, she was hardly pained, considering it quite natural and even good that wild oats should be sown at an early age and in good company, as her son was doing. At first Nekhludoff struggled, but all that he had considered good while he had faith in himself was considered bad by others, and what he had considered evil was looked upon as good by those among whom he lived, and the struggle grew too hard. And at last Nekhludoff gave in, i.e., left off believing himself and began believing others. At first this giving up of faith in himself was unpleasant, but it did not long continue to be so. At that time he acquired the habit of smoking, and drinking wine, and soon got over this unpleasant feeling and even felt great relief.
Nekhludoff, with his passionate nature, gave himself thoroughly to the new way of life so approved of by all those around, and he entirely stifled the inner voice which demanded something different. This began after he moved to St. Petersburg, and reached its highest point when he entered the army.
Military life in general depraves men. It places them in conditions of complete idleness, i.e., absence of all useful work; frees them of their common human duties, which it replaces by merely conventional ones to the honour of the regiment, the uniform, the flag; and, while giving them on the one hand absolute power over other men, also puts them into conditions of servile obedience to those of higher rank than themselves.
But when, to the usual depraving influence of military service with its honours, uniforms, flags, its permitted violence and murder, there is added the depraving influence of riches and nearness to and intercourse with members of the Imperial family, as is the case in the chosen regiment of the Guards in which all the officers are rich and of good family, then this depraving influence creates in the men who succumb to it a perfect mania of selfishness. And this mania of selfishness attacked Nekhludoff from the moment he entered the army and began living in the way his companions lived. He had no occupation whatever except to dress in a uniform, splendidly made and well brushed by other people, and, with arms also made and cleaned and handed to him by others, ride to reviews on a fine horse which had been bred, broken in and fed by others. There, with other men like himself, he had to wave a sword, shoot off guns, and teach others to do the same. He had no other work, and the highly-placed persons, young and old, the Tsar and those near him, not only sanctioned his occupation but praised and thanked him for it.
After this was done, it was thought important to eat, and particularly to drink, in officers' clubs or the salons of the best restaurants, squandering large sums of money, which came from some invisible source; then theatres, ballets, women, then again riding on horseback, waving of swords and shooting, and again the squandering of money, the wine, cards, and women. This kind of life acts on military men even more depravingly than on others, because if any other than a military man lead such a life he cannot help being ashamed of it in the depth of his heart. A military man is, on the contrary, proud of a life of this kind especially at war time, and Nekhludoff had entered the army just after war with the Turks had been declared. "We are prepared to sacrifice our lives at the wars, and therefore a gay, reckless life is not only pardonable, but absolutely necessary for us, and so we lead it."
Such were Nekhludoff's confused thoughts at this period of his existence, and he felt all the time the delight of being free of the moral barriers he had formerly set himself. And the state he lived in was that of a chronic mania of selfishness. He was in this state when, after three years' absence, he came again to visit his aunts.
從那時(shí)起，聶赫留朵夫整整三年沒有同卡秋莎見面。直到三年后他升為軍官，動(dòng)身去部隊(duì)，路過姑媽家，這才又見到了她。但同三年前的夏天住在她們家里時(shí)相比，他已換了個(gè)人了。
那時(shí)他是個(gè)正派青年，富有自我犧牲精神，樂意為一切高尚事業(yè)獻(xiàn)身；如今他可成了一個(gè)徹頭徹尾的利己主義者，迷戀酒色，享樂成癖。那時(shí)，上帝創(chuàng)造的世界在他看來是個(gè)謎，他興致勃勃地企圖解開這個(gè)謎；現(xiàn)在呢，生活中的一切事情都簡(jiǎn)單明了，都是由他所處的生活環(huán)境安排的。那時(shí)，接觸大自然，接觸前人——在他以前生活、思想和感覺過的哲學(xué)家、詩人——是重要的；現(xiàn)在呢，重要的是社會(huì)制度和跟同事們的交際活動(dòng)。那時(shí)，他覺得女人是神秘而迷人的，正因?yàn)樯衩鼐透用匀?；現(xiàn)在呢，女人，除了親人和朋友的妻子，她們的作用都很清楚：女人是他領(lǐng)略過的的玩樂用具。那時(shí)他不需要錢，母親給他的錢連三分之一都花不掉，他可以放棄父親名下的地產(chǎn)，分贈(zèng)給他的佃戶；現(xiàn)在呢，母親按月給他一千五百盧布，他還不夠用，為了錢他跟母親拌過嘴。那時(shí)，他認(rèn)為精神的生命才是真正的我；現(xiàn)在呢，他以為精力充沛的強(qiáng)壯的獸性的我才是他自己。
他身上發(fā)生各種可怕的變化，只是由于他不再堅(jiān)持自己的信念而相信別人的理論。他不再堅(jiān)持自己的信念而相信別人的理論，因?yàn)橐菆?jiān)持自己的信念，日子就太不好過。要是堅(jiān)持自己的信念，處理一切事情就不利于追求輕浮享樂的獸性的我，而總會(huì)同它抵觸。相信別人的理論，就根本無須處理什么，一切問題都迎刃而解，而且總是同精神的我抵觸而有利于獸性的我。此外，他要是堅(jiān)持自己的信念，總會(huì)遭到人家的譴責(zé)；他要是相信別人的理論，就會(huì)獲得周圍人們的贊揚(yáng)。
譬如，聶赫留朵夫思索上帝、真理、財(cái)富、貧窮等問題，閱讀有關(guān)書籍并同人家談?wù)撨@些事，人家就會(huì)覺得不合時(shí)宜，簡(jiǎn)直有點(diǎn)可笑，他的母親和姑媽就會(huì)好意地取笑他，戲稱他是我們親愛的哲學(xué)家。但他看愛情小說，講**笑話，到法國(guó)劇院看輕松喜劇，并且津津樂道，大家就稱贊他，鼓勵(lì)他。他省吃儉用，穿舊大衣，不喝酒，大家就覺得他脾氣古怪，有意標(biāo)新立異。他在打獵上揮金如土，在布置書房上窮奢極侈，大家就吹捧他風(fēng)雅脫俗，還送給他貴重禮品。他原來童貞無瑕，并且想保持到結(jié)婚，但他的親人都為他擔(dān)憂，以為他有病，后來他母親知道他從同事手里奪了一個(gè)法國(guó)女人，成了真正的男子漢，不僅不難過，反而感到高興。但公爵夫人一想到兒子同卡秋莎的關(guān)系，而且可能同她結(jié)婚，就感到憂心忡忡。
同樣，聶赫留朵夫成年以后，他把父親遺留給他的一塊面積不大的地產(chǎn)分贈(zèng)給農(nóng)民，因?yàn)樗J(rèn)為地主擁有土地是不合理的。不料他這種行為卻使他的母親和親戚大為吃驚，并且從此成為大家嘲弄的話題。人家多次告訴他，獲得土地的農(nóng)民不僅沒有發(fā)財(cái)，反而更窮了，因?yàn)樗麄冮_了三家小酒店，索性不干農(nóng)活。等聶赫留朵夫進(jìn)了近衛(wèi)軍，跟門第高貴的同僚們一起花天酒地，輸去許多錢，弄得葉蓮娜·伊凡諾夫娜不得不動(dòng)用存款，她卻滿不在乎，反而認(rèn)為這是理所當(dāng)然的，甚至覺得年輕時(shí)在上流社會(huì)種些痘苗以增加免疫力，還是件好事。
聶赫留朵夫起初作過反抗，但十分困難，因?yàn)榉彩撬麘{自己的信念認(rèn)為好的，別人卻認(rèn)為壞的；反之，他憑自己的信念認(rèn)為壞的，別人卻認(rèn)為好的。最后聶赫留朵夫屈服了，不再堅(jiān)持自己的信念而相信別人的話。開頭這樣的自我否定是很不愉快的，但這種不愉快的感覺并沒有持續(xù)多久。就在這時(shí)聶赫留朵夫開始吸煙喝酒，他不再感到不愉快，甚至覺得輕松自在了。
聶赫留朵夫天生熱情好動(dòng)，不久就沉湎于這種受親友稱道的新生活中，把內(nèi)心的其他要求一概排斥了。這種變化開始于他來到彼得堡以后，而在他進(jìn)入軍界后徹底完成。
軍官生活本來就容易使人墮落。一個(gè)人一旦進(jìn)入軍界，就終日無所事事，也就是說脫離合理的有益勞動(dòng)，逃避人們共同負(fù)擔(dān)的義務(wù)。換來的則是軍隊(duì)、軍服、軍旗的榮譽(yù)。再有，一方面是頤指氣使，對(duì)別人享有無限權(quán)力；另一方面，在長(zhǎng)官面前卻又奴顏婢膝，唯命是從。
不過，除了進(jìn)軍隊(duì)服務(wù)以及軍服、軍旗和合法的暴行屠殺所造成的一般性墮落外，在有錢有勢(shì)的軍官才能進(jìn)入的近衛(wèi)軍團(tuán)里，軍官們因?yàn)楦辉：徒咏适叶裢鈮櫬?。這批人很容易發(fā)展成為瘋狂的利己主義者。聶赫留朵夫自從擔(dān)任軍職，開始象同僚們那樣生活以來，他就落入了這種瘋狂的利己主義的泥沼之中。
他沒有什么正經(jīng)事要做，只須穿上不是他自己而是別人精心縫制、洗刷干凈的軍服，戴上頭盔，拿起別人鑄造、擦亮并交到他手里的武器，跨上一匹由別人飼養(yǎng)和訓(xùn)練的駿馬，跟著那些同他一樣的人去參加練兵或者檢閱，也就是縱馬奔馳，揮舞馬刀，開槍射擊，并把這一套教給別人就行了。他們沒有別的事做，但那些達(dá)官貴人，不論老少，連沙皇和他的親信都贊同他們的活動(dòng)，甚至因此夸獎(jiǎng)他們，感謝他們。這些活動(dòng)結(jié)束以后，他們認(rèn)為正當(dāng)和重要的是到軍官俱樂部或者豪華的飯店里去吃吃喝喝，縱情揮霍不知從哪里弄來的金錢；然后就是劇場(chǎng)，舞會(huì)，女人，然后又是騎馬，舞刀，奔馳，然后又是揮金如土，喝酒，打牌，玩女人。
這樣的生活對(duì)軍人的腐蝕特別厲害，因?yàn)橐且粋€(gè)平民過這樣的生活，他內(nèi)心深處就會(huì)感到害臊。軍人過這樣的生活卻心安理得，并且自吹自擂，引以為榮，特別是在戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)時(shí)期。聶赫留朵夫正好是在向土耳其宣戰(zhàn)后進(jìn)入軍隊(duì)的?！拔覀儨?zhǔn)備為國(guó)捐軀，因此這種花天酒地的生活不僅可以原諒，而且在我們是必要的。所以我們才這樣過日子?！?BR> 聶赫留朵夫在生命的這個(gè)階段也隱隱約約有這樣的想法。他由于沖破了以前給自己定下的種種道德藩籬，一直感到輕松愉快，并且經(jīng)常處于利己主義的瘋狂狀態(tài)中。
三年后他到姑媽家去的時(shí)候，正處在這樣的精神狀態(tài)中。