Page 540 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

though wishing to show that he had as much right as any
one else to talk of philosophy.
Sergey Ivanovitch smiled. ‘He too has a philosophy of
his own at the service of his natural tendencies,’ he

thought.
‘Come, you’d better let philosophy alone,’ he said.
‘The chief problem of the philosophy of all ages consists
just in finding the indispensable connection which exists
between individual and social interests. But that’s not to
the point; what is to the point is a correction I must make
in your comparison. The birches are not simply stuck in,
but some are sown and some are planted, and one must
deal carefully with them. It’s only those peoples that have
an intuitive sense of what’s of importance and significance
in their institutions, and know how to value them, that
have a future before them—it’s only those peoples that
one can truly call historical.’
And Sergey Ivanovitch carried the subject into the
regions of philosophical history where Konstantin Levin
could not follow him, and showed him all the
incorrectness of his view.
‘As for your dislike of it, excuse my saying so, that’s
simply our Russian sloth and old serf-owner’s ways, and

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