Page 755 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

servant to whose hut he had gone to get dry evidently
approved of Levin’s plan, and of his own accord proposed
to enter the partnership by the purchase of cattle.
‘I have only to go stubbornly on towards my aim, and I

shall attain my end,’ thought Levin; ‘and it’s something to
work and take trouble for. This is not a matter of myself
individually; the question of the public welfare comes into
it. The whole system of culture, the chief element in the
condition of the people, must be completely transformed.
Instead of poverty, general prosperity and content; instead
of hostility, harmony and unity of interests. In short, a
bloodless revolution, but a revolution of the greatest
magnitude, beginning in the little circle of our district,
then the province, then Russia, the whole world. Because
a just idea cannot but be fruitful. Yes, it’s an aim worth
working for. And it’s being me, Kostya Levin, who went
to a ball in a black tie, and was refused by the
Shtcherbatskaya girl, and who was intrinsically such a
pitiful, worthless creature—that proves nothing; I feel sure
Franklin felt just as worthless, and he too had no faith in
himself, thinking of himself as a whole. That means
nothing. And he too, most likely, had an Agafea
Mihalovna to whom he confided his secrets.’

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