people have imposed upon him and tortured him
all his life and have never fed him, no, not even with oats.

"Who imposed upon you and tortured you?" asks old Tayon, moved by
compassion.

"Everybody! The men who demanded taxes, the heat and the cold, rain
and dryness, the pitiless earth, and the forest."

The beam of the balance wavers; the wooden dish, filled with sins,
rises, while the golden one sinks.

Makar continues: "You have everything written down, have you? Well,
look and see whether Makar has ever had any kindness shown to him.
He is here before his judges, dirty, his hair disordered, and his
clothes in rags. He is ashamed. However, he realizes that he was
born just like the others, with clear eyes in which both heaven and
earth were reflected, and with a heart ready to open and receive all
the beauty of the world."

Makar thus passes in review his miserable life. Old Tayon is moved.

"Makar, you are no longer on earth, and you shall receive justice."

Makar begins to weep, and Tayon weeps too.... And the young gods and
the angels, they also shed tears.

Again the balance moves. But this time it is in the opposite
direction.

Makar has received justice from the hands of Tayon.

* * * * *

Korolenko does not try to reconcile us to reality, but to mankind.
In all of the catastrophes in his books, in the most sombre
descriptions, he comforts us with a consolation, an ideal, a "little
fire" that burns in the distance and attracts us. But to get to that
fire we have to fight against evil. And it is perhaps in answer to
Tolstoy's doctrine of passive resistance that Korolenko wrote that
beautiful story called, "The Legend of Florus," the subject of which
was probably taken from "The War of the Jews," by Flavius Josephus.

This work takes us back to the time when Judaea was bowed down under
Roman rule. The Jews bear their lot without a murmur, and this
resignation encourages Florus, the governor of Judaea, to oppress
them more.

Soon there are two parties formed: the "pacifics" want to rid
themselves of Roman cruelty by humble submission, while the others
advise opposing this cruelty to the utmost. The chief of the latter
party is Menahem, the son of a famous warrior who has inherited from
his father his generous passions and his hatred of oppression.
Menahem's words inspire respect even in his enemies. But he does not
succeed in making peace among his people. In vain he