Anna Karenina - Part 8

Levin reddened with vexation, not at being defeated, but at

having failed to control himself and being drawn into argument.

"No, I can't argue with them," he thought; "they wear

impenetrable armor, while I'm naked."

He saw that it was impossible to convince his brother and

Katavasov, and he saw even less possibility of himself agreeing

with them. What they advocated was the very pride of intellect

that had almost been his ruin. He could not admit that some

dozens of men, among them his brother, had the right, on the

ground of what they were told by some hundreds of glib volunteers

swarming to the capital, to say that they and the newspapers were

expressing the will and feeling of the people, and a feeling

which was expressed in vengeance and murder. He could not admit

this, because he neither saw the expression of such feelings in

the people among whom he was living, nor found them in himself

(and he could not but consider himself one of the persons making

up the Russian people), and most of all because he, like the

people, did not know and could not know what is for the general

good, though he knew beyond a doubt that this general good could

be attained only by the strict observance of that law of right

and wrong which has been revealed to every man, and therefore he

could not wish for war or advocate war for any general objects

whatever. He said as Mihalitch did and the people, who had

expressed their feeling in the traditional invitations of the

Varyagi: "Be princes and rule over us. Gladly we promise

complete submission. All the labor, all humiliations, all

sacrifices we take upon ourselves; but we will not judge and

decide." And now, according to Sergey Ivanovitch's account, the

people had foregone this privilege they had bought at such a

costly price.

He wanted to say too that if public opinion were an infallible

guide, then why were not revolutions and the commune as lawful as

the movement in favor of the Slavonic peoples? But these were

merely thoughts that could settle nothing. One thing could be

seen beyond doubt--that was that at the actual moment the

discussion was irritating Sergey Ivanovitch, and so it was wrong

to continue it. And Levin ceased speaking and then called the

attention of his guests to the fact that the storm clouds were

gathering, and that they had better be going home before it

rained.