t of the cutlets, I will not and I can not eat any
more of them. I may, possibly, eat human flesh, when hunger compels me
to it; but I will not make a feast, and I will not take part in feasts,
of human flesh, and I will not seek out such feasts, and pride myself on
my share in them.

LIFE IN THE COUNTRY.

But what is to be done? Surely it is not we who have done this? And if
not we, who then?

We say: "We have not done this, this has done itself;" as the children
say, when they break any thing, that it broke itself. We say, that, so
long as there is a city already in existence, we, by living in it,
support the people, by purchasing their labor and services. But this is
not so. And this is why. We only need to look ourselves, at the way we
have in the country, and at the manner in which we support people there.

The winter passes in town. Easter Week passes. On the boulevards, in
the gardens in the parks, on the river, there is music. There are
theatres, water-trips, walks, all sorts of illuminations and fireworks.
But in the country there is something even better,--there are better air,
trees and meadows, and the flowers are fresher. One should go thither
where all these things have unfolded and blossomed forth. And the
majority of wealthy people do go to the country to breathe the superior
air, to survey these superior forests and meadows. And there the wealthy
settle down in the country, and the gray peasants, who nourish themselves
on bread and onions, who toil eighteen hours a day, who get no sound
sleep by night, and who are clad in blouses. Here no one has led these
people astray. There have been no factories nor industrial
establishments, and there are none of those idle hands, of which there
are so many in the city. Here the whole population never succeeds, all
summer long, in completing all their tasks in season; and not only are
there no idle hands, but a vast quantity of property is ruined for the
lack of hands, and a throng of people, children, old men, and women, will
perish through overstraining their powers in work which is beyond their
strength. How do the rich order their lives there? In this fashion:--

If there is an old-fashioned house, built under the serf _regime_, that
house is repaired and embellished; if there is none, then a new one is
erected, of two or three stories. The rooms, of which there are from
twelve to twenty, and even more, are all six arshins in height.