Page 334 - ANNA KARENINA
P. 334

Anna Karenina


                                  special attention in spring,  and in addition to reading,
                                  Levin had begun that winter a work on agriculture, the
                                  plan of which turned on taking into account the character
                                  of the laborer on the land as one of the unalterable data of

                                  the question, like the climate and the soil, and
                                  consequently deducing all the principles of scientific
                                  culture, not simply from the data of soil and climate, but
                                  from the data of soil, climate, and a certain unalterable
                                  character of the laborer. Thus, in spite of his solitude, or in
                                  consequence of his solitude, his life was exceedingly full.
                                  Only rarely he suffered from an unsatisfied desire to
                                  communicate his stray ideas  to someone besides Agafea
                                  Mihalovna. With her indeed he not infrequently fell into
                                  discussion upon physics, the theory of agriculture, and
                                  especially philosophy; philosophy was Agafea Mihalovna’s
                                  favorite subject.
                                     Spring was slow in unfolding. For the last few weeks it
                                  had been steadily fine frosty weather. In the daytime it
                                  thawed in the sun, but at night there were even seven
                                  degrees of frost. There was such a frozen surface on the
                                  snow that they drove the wagons anywhere off the roads.
                                  Easter came in the snow. Then all of a sudden, on Easter
                                  Monday, a warm wind sprang up, storm clouds swooped
                                  down, and for three days  and three nights the warm,



                                                         333 of 1759
   329   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   338   339