Page 741 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

become richer, will have more leisure—and then there
will be schools.’
‘Still, all over Europe now schools are obligatory.’
‘And how far do you agree with Spencer yourself about

it?’ asked Levin.
But there was a gleam of alarm in Sviazhsky’s eyes, and
he said smiling:
‘No; that screaming story is positively capital! Did you
really hear it yourself?’
Levin saw that he was not to discover the connection
between this man’s life and his thoughts. Obviously he did
not care in the least what his reasoning led him to; all he
wanted was the process of reasoning. And he did not like
it when the process of reasoning brought him into a blind
alley. That was the only thing he disliked, and avoided by
changing the conversation to something agreeable and
amusing.
All the impressions of the day, beginning with the
impression made by the old peasant, which served, as it
were, as the fundamental basis of all the conceptions and
ideas of the day, threw Levin into violent excitement. This
dear good Sviazhsky, keeping a stock of ideas simply for
social purposes, and obviously having some other
principles hidden from Levin, while with the crowd,

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