Page 845 - ANNA KARENINA
P. 845
Anna Karenina
Chapter 10
Pestsov liked thrashing an argument out to the end, and
was not satisfied with Sergey Ivanovitch’s words, especially
as he felt the injustice of his view.
‘I did not mean,’ he said over the soup, addressing
Alexey Alexandrovitch, ‘mere density of population alone,
but in conjunction with fundamental ideas, and not by
means of principles.’
‘It seems to me,’ Alexey Alexandrovitch said languidly,
and with no haste, ‘that that’s the same thing. In my
opinion, influence over another people is only possible to
the people which has the higher development, which..’
‘But that’s just the question,’ Pestsov broke in in his
bass.
He was always in a hurry to speak, and seemed always
to put his whole soul into what he was saying. ‘In what
are we to make higher development consist? The English,
the French, the Germans, which is at the highest stage of
development? Which of them will nationalize the other?
We see the Rhine provinces have been turned French, but
the Germans are not at a lower stage!’ he shouted. ‘There
is another law at work there.’
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