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mism, or simply in fear of the censorship of the day. For
if the troika were drawn by his heroes, Sobakevitch, Noz-
dryov, Tchitchikov, it could reach no rational goal, whoever
might be driving it. And those were the heroes of an older
generation, ours are worse specimens still...’
* Gogol.
At this point Ippolit Kirillovitch’s speech was interrupt-
ed by applause. The liberal significance of this simile was
appreciated. The applause was, it’s true, of brief duration,
so that the President did not think it necessary to caution
the public, and only looked severely in the direction of the
offenders. But Ippolit Kirillovitch was encouraged; he had
never been applauded before! He had been all his life unable
to get a hearing, and now he suddenly had an opportunity
of securing the ear of all Russia.
‘What, after all, is this Karamazov family, which has
gained such an unenviable notoriety throughout Russia?’ he
continued. ‘Perhaps I am exaggerating, but it seems to me
that certain fundamental features of the educated class of
to-day are reflected in this family picture — only, of course,
in miniature, ‘like the sun in a drop of water.’ Think of that
unhappy, vicious, unbridled old man, who has met with
such a melancholy end, the head of a family! Beginning life
of noble birth, but in a poor dependent position, through an
unexpected marriage he came into a small fortune. A petty
knave, a toady and buffoon, of fairly good, though undevel-
oped, intelligence, he was, above all, a moneylender, who
grew bolder with growing prosperity. His abject and servile
characteristics disappeared, his, malicious and sarcastic

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