Page 738 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Yes, but I was very much interested by your irritable
neighbor,’ said Levin, sighing. ‘He’s a clever fellow, and
said a lot that was true.’
‘Oh, get along with you! An inveterate supporter of

serfdom at heart, like all of them!’ said Sviazhsky.
‘Whose marshal you are.’
‘Yes, only I marshal them in the other direction,’ said
Sviazhsky, laughing.
‘I’ll tell you what interests me very much,’ said Levin.
‘He’s right that our system, that’s to say of rational
farming, doesn’t answer, that the only thing that answers is
the money-lender system, like that meek-looking
gentleman’s, or else the very simplest.... Whose fault is it?’
‘Our own, of course. Besides, it’s not true that it
doesn’t answer. It answers with Vassiltchikov.’
‘A factory..’
‘But I really don’t know what it is you are surprised at.
The people are at such a low stage of rational and moral
development, that it’s obvious they’re bound to oppose
everything that’s strange to them. In Europe, a rational
system answers because the people are educated; it follows
that we must educate the people—that’s all.’
‘But how are we to educate the people?’

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