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“What are you looking at there?” he said to Levin, who was stand-
ing at the round table looking through the reviews.
“Oh, yes, there’s a very interesting article here,” said Sviazhsky of
the review Levin was holding in his hand. “It appears,” he went on,
with eager interest, “that Friedrich was not, after all, the person chiefly
responsible for the partition of Poland. It is proved...”
And with his characteristic clearness, he summed up those new,
very important, and interesting revelations. Although Levin was en-
grossed at the moment by his ideas about the problem of the land, he
wondered, as he heard Sviazhsky: “What is there inside of him? And
why, why is he interested in the partition of Poland?” When Sviazhsky
had finished, Levin could not help asking: “Well, and what then?” But
there was nothing to follow. It was simply interesting that it had been
proved to be so and so. But Sviazhsky did not explain, and saw no
need to explain why it was interesting to him.
“Yes, but I was very much interested by your irritable neighbor,”
said Levin, sighing. “He’s a clever fellow, and said a lot that was true.”
“Oh, get along with you! An inveterate supporter of serfdom at
heart, like all of them!” said Sviazhsky.
“Whose marshal you are.”
“Yes, only I marshal them in the other direction,” said Sviazhsky,
laughing.
“I’ll tell you what interests me very much,” said Levin. “He’s right
that our system, that’s to say of rational farming, doesn’t answer, that
the only thing that answers is the money-lender system, like that meek-
looking gentleman’s, or else the very simplest.... Whose fault is it?”
“Our own, of course. Besides, it’s not true that it doesn’t answer. It
answers with Vassiltchikov.”
“A factory...”
“But I really don’t know what it is you are surprised at. The people
are at such a low stage of rational and moral development, that it’s
obvious they’re bound to oppose everything that’s strange to them. In
Europe, a rational system answers because the people are educated; it
follows that we must educate the people—that’s all.”
“But how are we to educate the people?”
“To educate the people three things are needed: schools, and
schools, and schools.
“But you said yourself the people are at such a low stage of mate-
rial development: what help are schools for that?”
“Do you know, you remind me of the story of the advice given to
the sick man—You should try purgative medicine. Taken: worse. Try
leeches. Tried them: worse. Well, then, there’s nothing left but to pray
to God. Tried it: worse. That’s just how it is with us. I say political
economy; you say—worse. I say socialism: worse. Education: worse.”
“But how do schools help matters?”
“They give the peasant fresh wants.”
“Well, that’s a thing I’ve never understood,” Levin replied with
heat. “In what way are schools going to help the people to improve
their material position? You say schools, education, will give them
fresh wants. So much the worse, since they won’t be capable of satisfy-
ing them. And in what way a knowledge of addition and subtraction
and the catechism is going to improve their material condition, I never
could make out. The day before yesterday, I met a peasant woman in
the evening with a little baby, and asked her where she was going. She
said she was going to the wise woman; her boy had screaming fits, so
she was taking him to be doctored. I asked, ‘Why, how does the wise
woman cure screaming fits?’ ‘She puts the child on the hen-roost and
repeats some charm....’ “