Page 116 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

And she laughed a mirthless laugh.
‘Oh, no, Masha, Konstantin Dmitrievitch said he could
not believe in it,’ said Kitty, blushing for Levin, and Levin
saw this, and, still more exasperated, would have

answered, but Vronsky with his bright frank smile rushed
to the support of the conversation, which was threatening
to become disagreeable.
‘You do not admit the conceivability at all?’ he
queried. ‘But why not? We admit the existence of
electricity, of which we know nothing. Why should there
not be some new force, still unknown to us, which..’
‘When electricity was discovered,’ Levin interrupted
hurriedly, ‘it was only the phenomenon that was
discovered, and it was unknown from what it proceeded
and what were its effects, and ages passed before its
applications were conceived. But the spiritualists have
begun with tables writing for them, and spirits appearing
to them, and have only later started saying that it is an
unknown force.’
Vronsky listened attentively to Levin, as he always did
listen, obviously interested in his words.
‘Yes, but the spiritualists say we don’t know at present
what this force is, but there is a force, and these are the
conditions in which it acts. Let the scientific men find out

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