e's guessed the truth at last! Can you, Kirillov, with your sense,
have failed to see till now that all men are alike, that there are none
better or worse, only some are stupider, than others, and that if all
are scoundrels (which is nonsense, though) there oughtn't to be any
people that are not?"

"Ah! Why, you are really in earnest?" Kirillov looked at him with some
wonder. "You speak with heat and simply.... Can it be that even fellows
like you have convictions?"

"Kirillov, I've never been able to understand why you mean to kill
yourself. I only know it's from conviction... strong conviction. But
if you feel a yearning to express yourself, so to say, I am at your
service.... Only you must think of the time."

"What time is it?"

"Oh oh, just two." Pyotr Stepanovitch looked at his watch and lighted a
cigarette.

"It seems we can come to terms after all," he reflected.

"I've nothing to say to you," muttered Kirillov.

"I remember that something about God comes into it... you explained it
to me once--twice, in fact. If you stopped yourself, you become God;
that's it, isn't it?"

"Yes, I become God."

Pyotr Stepanovitch did not even smile; he waited. Kirillov looked at him
subtly.

"You are a political impostor and intriguer. You want to lead me on into
philosophy and enthusiasm and to bring about a reconciliation so as to
disperse my anger, and then, when I am reconciled with you, beg from me
a note to say I killed Shatov."

Pyotr Stepanovitch answered with almost natural frankness.

"Well, supposing I am such a scoundrel. But at the last moments does
that matter to you, Kirillov? What are we quarrelling about? Tell me,
please. You are one sort of man and I am another--what of it? And what's
more, we are both of us..."

"Scoundrels."

"Yes, scoundrels if you like. But you know that that's only words."

"All my life I wanted it not to be only words. I lived because I did not
want it to be. Even now every day I want it to be not words."

"Well, every one seeks to be where he is best off. The fish... that is,
every one seeks his own comfort, that's all. That's been a commonplace
for ages and ages."

"Comfort, do you say?"

"Oh, it's not worth while quarrelling over words."

"No, you were right in what you said; let it be comfort. God is
necessary and so must exist."

"Well, that's all right, then."

"But I know He doesn't and can't."

"That's more likely."

"Surely you must understand that