They have not met for two years and Pierre is struck by Andrey's lusterless gaze, which belies the smile and words of welcome. They exchange news and then discuss personal matters, Pierre talking of his marriage and his guilt feelings about the duel. Andrey shrugs at this."Men are for ever in error," he says,". . . and in nothing more than in what they regard as right and wrong." But doing good for others is the only source of happiness, Pierre insists, and Andrey differs because his war experience has taught him the emptiness of"glory.""My only aim is to live for myself"; he says,"living for others is a source of evil and error." For this reason he refuses to enter active service again.
As they drive to Bleak Hills that evening, Pierre tells his friend about freemasonry, that the"dominion of good and truth" is the universal expression of God. Even though mankind still exists in a state of darkness and deception, each man shares in the vast harmony of the universe. All forms of life, from inanimate to animate, occupy rungs of an endless ladder that continues further and further, into afterlife where nature is a unity with the free spirits of the air. All of life, of truth, is a manifestation of God. Yes, that's the theory of it, says Andrey, but it is life and death that has convinced me, especially, he bitterly adds, the death of a creature bound to me, to whom one has done wrong, and who suddenly ceases to be. What for? I believe there must be an answer! You feel the answer, Pierre says, there is a future life and God! We must live, we must love, we must believe"that we are not living only today on this clod of earth, but have lived and will live forever there (pointing at the sky) in everything." As he looks up, Andrey suddenly recalls, with the same joyful quickening, the lofty eternal sky he gazed at from the battlefield at Austerlitz. Though this feeling vanishes in his daily life after that, Prince Andrey has it within him, awaiting the moment of growth. Pierre's visit marks a new inner life for Bolkonsky.
Princess Marya is taking tea with her"God's folk" when Pierre and her brother arrive. She regularly receives these excessively devout pilgrims who tell her of fantastic visions and miracles, but Marya is now embarrassed because her brother always mocks these saints. Pierre remains at Bleak Hills for two days and they all remember his visit warmly.
