Anna Karenina (Dole)/Part Eight/Chapter 16
CHAPTER XVI
Sergyeï Ivanovitch was skilled in dialectics, and without replying he took up another side of the question.
"Yes, if you want to get at the mind of the nation by an arithmetical process, of course it will be very hard work. We have not the proper gifts, and cannot reckon it that way. But there are other means of learning it besides arithmetic. It is felt in the air, it is felt in the heart, not to speak of those submarine currents which flow through the stagnant ocean of the people and which are evident to every unprejudiced person. Take society in a narrower sense. Take the intelligent classes, and see how on this point even the most hostile parties combine. There is no longer a difference of opinions; all the organs of society express the same thing. They have all become aware of an elemental force which fills the nation with its own motive power."
"Yes; the newspapers all say the same thing, that is true," said the old prince, "but then, so do all the frogs croak before a storm. That does n't signify much."
"Whether frogs or not,—I don't edit newspapers, and I don't set up to defend them. I am talking of the unanimity of opinion among intelligent people," said Sergyeï Ivanovitch, turning to his brother.
Levin was about to reply, but the old prince took the words from his mouth:—.
"Well, something else may be said in regard to that unanimity. Here 's my son-in-law, Stepan Arkadyevitch, you know. He has just been appointed member of some committee, commission, or other,—I don't know what,—with a salary of eight thousand a year, and nothing to do.—Now, Dolly, that's not a secret.—Ask him if his office is useful; he will tell you that it is indispensable. And he is an upright man; but you could not make him cease to believe in his full eight thousand salary."
"Oh, yes! he told me to tell Darya Aleksandrovna that he had got that place," said Sergyeï Ivanovitch, angrily, considering that the prince's remark was not à propos.
"Of course the newspapers are unanimous. That is easily explained. War will double their circulation. How can they help supporting the Slavic question and the national instinct?"
"I don't like many of the papers, but you are unjust," said Sergyeï Ivanovitch.
"I will only add one more suggestion," said the old prince. "Alphonse Karr wrote a clever thing just before the Franco-Prussian war, when he said, 'You say this war is absolutely necessary? very good; go to the front, then, and be under the first fire, and lead the first onslaught.'"
"Good editors would be glad to do that," said Katavasof, with a loud laugh, and trying to imagine certain editorial friends of his in this chosen legion.
"Yes; but when they ran away," said Dolly, "they'd bother the others."
"Just as soon as they begin to run put a mitrailleuse behind them, or some Cossacks with whips," said the prince.
"Well, that 's a joke, but not a very good joke; excuse me, prince," said Sergyeï Ivanovitch.
"I don't think it was a joke," said Levin; "it was ...."
But his brother interrupted him.
"Every member of society is called upon to do his duty," said he, "and thoughtful men perform theirs by giving expression to public opinion; and the unanimous and full expression of public opinion is creditable to the press, and at the same time a good symptom. Twenty years ago we should have kept quiet; to-day we hear the voice of the Russian people, which is ready to rise like one man, and ready to sacrifice itself for its oppressed brethren. It is a great step taken,—a proof of power."
"Yes, not only to avenge their brethren, but to kill the Turks," said Levin, timidly. "The people will sacrifice itself and be ready to sacrifice itself for the salvation of their souls, but not for murder," he added, involuntarily connecting this conversation with the thoughts of the morning.
"What do you mean by soul? That, to a naturalist, you must remember, is a very puzzling expression. What is the soul?" demanded Katavasof, with a smile.
"Oh, you know."
"'Pon my word,[1] I haven't the least idea," and the professor broke into a burst of laughter.
"Christ said, 'I am come not to bring peace, but a sword'," remarked Sergyeï Ivanovitch, quoting as simply as if it were something comprehensible, a passage from the Gospel which had always troubled Levin.
"That's just so," repeated the old bee-keeper, who had been standing near them, in response to a chance look directed to him.
"Come, batyushka, you're beaten, you're beaten,—wholly beaten!" cried Katavasof, gayly.
Levin reddened with vexation, not because he was beaten, but because he had been drawn into discussion again.
"No; it is impossible for me to dispute with them," he thought; "their armor is impenetrable, and I am defenseless."
He saw that he could not defeat his brother and Katavasof, and it was equally impossible to agree with them. Their arguments were the fruit of that same pride of the intellect which had almost ruined him. He could not admit that a handful of men, his brother among them, had the right, on the ground of what was told them by a few hundred eloquent volunteers who came to the capital, to claim that they and the newspapers expressed the will and sentiment of the people, especially when this sentiment expressed itself in vengeance and butchery.
He could not agree with this because he did not discover the expression of these thoughts among the people in whose midst he lived, and he did not find them in himself—and he could not consider himself as anything else than one of the men constituting the Russian nation—but principally because he did not, any more than the rest of men, know—nor could he know—what constituted the general good; but he firmly believed that the attainment of this general good was brought about only by the strenuous fulfilment of that law of right which is revealed to every one, and therefore he could not desire war, or preach it as a means of attaining any general end whatever.
He and Mikhaïlovitch, and the people in general, expressed themselves in somewhat the same language as was used when the early Russians invited the Variags to come from Scandinavia:—
"Come and rule over us, we gladly promise absolute submission. We are enduring all trials, all humiliations, all sacrifices, but we do not judge and we do not decide."
And now, according to Sergyeï Ivanovitch, the people were ready to turn their backs on a right which they had purchased at such a price!
He wanted to say in addition that if the general opinion is an infallible judge, then why should not the Revolution, the Commune, be as useful to the Slavs as lawful means?
But all these were thoughts which could not decide anything. The only thing that he could clearly see was that at the present moment the discussion was exasperating to Sergyeï Ivanovitch, and therefore it was wrong to discuss it. So Levin held his peace, and turned the attention of his guests to the clouds that were rolling up, and he advised them to hurry home if they did not want to get wet.
- ↑ Vot yeï Bogu, literally, "Here by God".