capital in argument, but his ideas did not come from his own
brain; he borrowed them from others, especially from Pokorsky. Pokorsky
was quiet and soft--even weak in appearance--and he was fond of women to
distraction, and fond of dissipation, and he would never take an insult
from any one. Rudin seemed full of fire, and courage, and life, but at
heart he was cold and almost a coward, until his vanity was touched,
then he would not stop at anything. He always tried to get an ascendency
over people, but he got it in the name of general principles and ideas,
and certainly had a great influence over many. To tell the truth, no one
loved him; I was the only one, perhaps, who was attached to him. They
submitted to his yoke, but all were devoted to Pokorsky. Rudin never
refused to argue and discuss with any one he met. He did not read very
much, though far more anyway than Pokorsky and all the rest of us;
besides, he had a well-arranged intellect, and a prodigious memory, and
what an effect that has on young people! They must have generalisations,
conclusions, incorrect if you like, perhaps, but still conclusions! A
perfectly sincere man never suits them. Try to tell young people that
you cannot give them the whole truth, and they will not listen to you.
But you mustn't deceive them either. You want to half believe yourself
that you are in possession of the truth. That was why Rudin had such a
powerful effect on all of us. I told you just now, you know, that he
had not read much, but he read philosophical books, and his brain was
so constructed that he extracted at once from what he had read all the
general principles, penetrated to the very root of the thing, and then
made deductions from it in all directions--consecutive, brilliant,
sound ideas, throwing up a wide horizon to the soul. Our set consisted
then--it's only fair to say--of boys, and not well-informed boys.
Philosophy, art, science, and even life itself were all mere words
to us--ideas if you like, fascinating and magnificent ideas, but
disconnected and isolated. The general connection of those ideas, the
general principle of the universe we knew nothing of, and had had no
contact with, though we discussed it vaguely, and tried to form an idea
of it for ourselves. As we listened to Rudin, we felt for the first time
as if we had grasped it at last, this general connection, as if a veil
had been lifted at last! Even admitting he was not uttering an original
thought--