Page 928 - the-brothers-karamazov

the praise was very sweet to him. ‘I am fagging away at
Latin because I have to, because I promised my mother to
pass my examination, and I think that whatever you do, it’s
worth doing it well. But in my soul I have a profound con-
tempt for the classics and all that fraud.... You don’t agree,
Karamazov?’
‘Why ‘fraud’?’ Alyosha smiled again.
‘Well, all the classical authors have been translated into
all languages, so it was not for the sake of studying the clas-
sics they introduced Latin, but solely as a police measure,
to stupefy the intelligence. So what can one call it but a
fraud?’
‘Why, who taught you all this?’ cried Alyosha, surprised
at last.
‘In the first place I am capable of thinking for myself
without being taught. Besides, what I said just now about
the classics being translated our teacher Kolbasnikov has
said to the whole of the third class.’
‘The doctor has come!’ cried Nina, who had been silent
till then.
A carriage belonging to Madame Hohlakov drove up to
the gate. The captain, who had been expecting the doctor all
the morning, rushed headlong out to meet him. ‘Mamma’
pulled herself together and assumed a dignified air. Alyo-
sha went up to Ilusha and began setting his pillows straight.
Nina, from her invalid chair, anxiously watched him put-
ting the bed tidy. The boys hurriedly took leave. Some of
them promised to come again in the evening. Kolya called
Perezvon and the dog jumped off the bed.