oken at one end, appeared in the eastern horizon.

"What was I thinking of?" Nekhludoff asked himself, when all these
changes of nature came to an end and the train descended into a vale.
"Yes, I was thinking that all those people--the inspector, the guard
and all those servants, for the most part gentle, kind people--have
become wicked."

He recalled the indifference of Maslenikoff when he told the latter of
what was going on in the prison, of the severity of the inspector, the
cruelty of the sergeant who refused the use of the wagons to the weak
convicts and paid no attention to the suffering of the woman in
child-birth. All those people were evidently proof against the feeling
of sympathy, "as is this paved ground against rain," he thought,
looking at the incline paved with multi-colored stone, from which the
water streamed off. "May be it is necessary to lay the stones on the
incline, but it is sad to see the soil deprived of vegetation when it
could be made to grow grain, grass, shrubs and trees like those seen
on those heights. It is the same with people," thought Nekhludoff.
"The whole trouble lies in that people think that there are conditions
excluding the necessity of love in their intercourse with man, but
such conditions do not exist. Things may be treated without love; one
may chop wood, make bricks, forge iron without love, but one can no
more deal with people without love than one can handle bees without
care. The nature of bees is such that if you handle them carelessly
you will harm them as well as yourself. It is the same with people.
And it cannot be different, because mutual love is the basic law of
human life. True, man cannot compel himself to love, as he can compel
himself to work, but it does not follow from this that in his dealings
with men he can leave love out of consideration, especially if he
wants something from them. If you feel no love for people, then keep
away from them," Nekhludoff said to himself. "Occupy yourself with
things, yourself--anything; only keep away from people. As it is
harmful to eat except when one is hungry, so is it harmful to have
intercourse with people when one does not love them. If one permits
himself to deal with people without having any love for them, as I did
yesterday with my brother-in-law, there is no limit to the cruelty and
brutality one is liable to display toward others, as I have seen
to-day, and there is no limit to one's own suffering, as I have