Page 848 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

favor of classical education, as you expressed it just now,
its moral—disons le mot—anti-nihilist influence.’
‘Undoubtedly.’
‘If it had not been for the distinctive property of anti-

nihilistic influence on the side of classical studies, we
should have considered the subject more, have weighed
the arguments on both sides,’ said Sergey Ivanovitch with
a subtle smile, ‘we should have given elbow-room to both
tendencies. But now we know that these little pills of
classical learning possess the medicinal property of anti-
nihilism, and we boldly prescribe them to our patients....
But what if they had no such medicinal property?’ he
wound up humorously.
At Sergey Ivanovitch’s little pills, everyone laughed;
Turovtsin in especial roared loudly and jovially, glad at last
to have found something to laugh at, all he ever looked
for in listening to conversation.
Stepan Arkadyevitch had not made a mistake in
inviting Pestsov. With Pestsov intellectual conversation
never flagged for an instant. Directly Sergey Ivanovitch
had concluded the conversation with his jest, Pestsov
promptly started a new one.
‘I can’t agree even,’ said he, ‘that the government had
that aim. The government obviously is guided by abstract

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