"Tranquility...the sign of power"

Today’s passage blog is from Mikhail Lermontov’s “Princess Mary” an 1840 novella contained in his novel “A Hero of Our Time.” The story is told through diary entries of the character Gregory Alexandrovich Pechorin. As a soldier and nobleman Pechorin feels that at 25 years of age the joys of being young have disappeared and that he has already experienced all that society and life have to offer.  Read deeply to extract every drop of meaning from a passage.

“Passions are merely ideas in their initial stage. They are the property of youth, and anyone who expects to feel their thrill throughout his life is a fool. Tranquil rivers often begin as roaring waterfalls, but no river leaps and forms all the way to the sea. Tranquillity, however, is often a sign of great, if hidden, power. Intensity and depth of feeling and thought preclude wild outbursts of passion; in sorrow and joy the soul takes careful stock of every situation, and sees that so it must be. It knows that without storms the constant heat of the sun would dry it up. It gets steeped in its own existence, coddles and chides itself like a loved child. Only this higher state of self-knowledge can give man a true appreciation of divine justice.”

                                                    Literary Apparel for the Enlightened