(^12141215)
Fortunately for him, at this period so difficult for him from the
failure of his book, the various public questions of the dissenting sects,
of the American alliance, of the Samara famine, of exhibitions, and of
spiritualism, were definitely replaced in public interest by the Slavonic
question, which had hitherto rather languidly interested society, and
Sergey Ivanovitch, who had been one of the first to raise this subject,
threw himself into it heart and soul.
In the circle to which Sergey Ivanovitch belonged, nothing was
talked of or written about just now but the Servian War. Everything
that the idle crowd usually does to kill time was done now for the
benefit of the Slavonic States. Balls, concerts, dinners, matchboxes,
ladies’ dresses, beer, restaurants— everything testified to sympathy
with the Slavonic peoples.
From much of what was spoken and written on the subject, Sergey
Ivanovitch differed on various points. He saw that the Slavonic ques-
tion had become one of those fashionable distractions which succeed
one another in providing society with an object and an occupation. He
saw, too, that a great many people were taking up the subject from
motives of self-interest and self-advertisement. He recognized that
the newspapers published a great deal that was superfluous and exag-
gerated, with the sole aim of attracting attention and outbidding one
another. He saw that in this general movement those who thrust
themselves most forward and shouted the loudest were men who had
failed and were smarting under a sense of injury—generals without
armies, ministers not in the ministry, journalists not on any paper, party
leaders without followers. He saw that there was a great deal in it that
was frivolous and absurd. But he saw and recognized an unmistakable
growing enthusiasm, uniting all classes, with which it was impossible
not to sympathize. The massacre of men who were fellow Christians,
and of the same Slavonic race, excited sympathy for the sufferers and
indignation against the oppressors. And the heroism of the Servians
and Montenegrins struggling for a great cause begot in the whole
people a longing to help their brothers not in word but in deed.
But in this there was another aspect that rejoiced Sergey Ivanovitch.
That was the manifestation of public opinion. The public had defi-
nitely expressed its desire. The soul of the people had, as Sergey
Ivanovitch said, found expression. And the more he worked in this
cause, the more incontestable it seemed to him that it was a cause
destined to assume vast dimensions, to create an epoch.
He threw himself heart and soul into the service of this great cause,
and forgot to think about his book. His whole time now was engrossed
by it, so that he could scarcely manage to answer all the letters and
appeals addressed to him. He worked the whole spring and part of the
summer, and it was only in July that he prepared to go away to his
brother’s in the country.
He was going both to rest for a fortnight, and in the very heart of
the people, in the farthest wilds of the country, to enjoy the sight of that
uplifting of the spirit of the people, of which, like all residents in the
capital and big towns, he was fully persuaded. Katavasov had long
been meaning to carry out his promise to stay with Levin, and so he
was going with him.
barré
(Barré)
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