? No, he knew how to keep up his
devotion. Sacrificing his life for others, Chekanhov begins to love
life again. He says to himself: "Life is good ... but will it be for
a long time?" We do not catch the answer.

Furious voices are heard, and a savage and cruel mob calls him a
poisoner and hurls itself upon him, beating and striking him.

Exhausted by the blows and jeered at by those whom he had considered
his brothers in need and for whom he had put himself in constant
peril, he lies stretched out on his bed, suffering severely; but he
nourishes no grudge against his tormentors; on the contrary, his
apostle-like character is moved with pity at the thought of these
uncultured and ignorant beings so unconscious of the evil that they
are doing. And several days before his death he writes the following
tragic words in his "Journal," almost terrifying in their
simplicity:

"They have beaten me! They have beaten me like a mad dog because I
came to help them and because I used all my knowledge and strength,
in one word, gave all that I had. I am not thinking now about how
much I loved these people and how badly I feel at the way they have
treated me. I simply did not succeed in gaining their confidence; I
did succeed in making them believe in me for a while, but soon a
mere trifle was enough to plunge them back among their dark shadows
and to awaken in them an elemental, brutal instinct. And now I have
to die. I am not afraid of death, but of a tarnished life full of
empty remorse. Why have I struggled? In the name of what am I going
to die? I am only a poor victim stripped of the strength of an ideal
and cared for by no one.... It had to be so, for we were always
strangers to them, beings belonging to another world; we scornfully
avoid them, without trying to know them, and a terrible abyss
separates us from them."

It is interesting to note how Chekanhov is regarded by the new
generation and especially by the woman he loves, his cousin Natasha.
She believes in him, she expects a gospel of life from him; but
Chekanhov cannot respond to her; he adheres to such vague
expressions as: "work," "idea," "duty towards the people." He says
to her: "You want an idea which will dominate you entirely and which
will lead you to a definite goal; you want me to give you a
standard and say: 'Fight and die for it.' I have read more than you,
I have had more experience than you, but like you, _I Do Not Know_,
and that is our torture." A