e living outside this very world, amidst two or three friends,
jostling each other in our narrow little circle!

"Excuse me," Nejdanov put in. "I don't think that is quite true. We
certainly do not go amongst the enemy, but are constantly mixing with
our own kind, and with the masses."

"Just a minute!" Paklin interrupted, in his turn. "Talking of enemies
reminds me of Goethe's lines--

Wer den Dichter will versteh'n Muss im Dichter's lands geh'n.

and I say--

Wer den Feinde will versteh'n Muss im Feinde's lands geh'n.

To turn one's back on one's enemies, not to try and understand their
manner of life, is utterly stupid! Yes, utterly stu-pid! If I want to
shoot a wolf in the forest, I must first find out his haunts. You talked
of coming in contact with the people just now. My dear boy! In 1862 the
Poles formed their revolutionary bands in the forest; we are just about
to enter that same forest, I mean the people, where it is no less dark
and dense than in the other."

"Then what would you have us do?"

"The Hindus cast themselves under the wheels of the Juggernaut," Paklin
continued; "they were mangled to pieces and died in ecstasy. We, also,
have our Juggernaut--it crushes and mangles us, but there is no ecstasy
in it."

"Then what would you have us do?" Nejdanov almost screamed at him.
"Would you have us write preachy novels?"

Paklin folded his arms and put his head on one side.

"You, at any rate, could write novels. You have a decidedly literary
turn of mind. All right, I won't say anything about it. I know you don't
like it being mentioned. I know it is not very exciting to write the
sort of stuff wanted, and in the modern style too. '"Oh, I love you,"
she bounded--'"

"It's all the same to me," he replied, scratching himself.

"That is precisely why I advise you to get to know all sorts and
conditions, beginning from the very highest. We must not be entirely
dependent on people like Ostrodumov! They are very honest, worthy folk,
but so hopelessly stupid! You need only look at our friend. The very
soles of his boots are not like those worn by intelligent people. Why
did he hurry away just now? Only because he did not want to be in the
same room with an aristocrat, to breathe the same air--"

"Please don't talk like that about Ostrodumov before me!" Nejdanov burst
out. "He wears thick boots because they are cheaper!"

"I did not mean it in that sense," Paklin began.

"If he did not wish t