"
There are a number of other equally elementary truths which should
have long since sunk into the flesh and blood of Russian society, but
which have not as yet done so.
I repeat--it is a hard thing to assume the role of a preacher of
social proprieties and to keep reiterating to people: "It is not good,
it is unworthy of you to live such a dirty, careless, savage
life--wash yourselves!"
And in spite of all your love for men, in spite of your pity for them,
you are sometimes congealed in cold despair and you think with
animosity: "Where then is that celebrated, broad, beautiful Russian
soul? So much was and is being said about it, but wherein does its
breadth, might and beauty actively manifest itself? And is not our
soul broad because it is amorphous? And it is probably owing to its
amorphousness that we yield so readily to external pressure, which
disfigures us so rapidly and radically."
We are good-natured, as we ourselves express it. But when you look
closer at our good-naturedness, you find that it shows a strange
resemblance to Oriental indifference.
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