VIII
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND PATRIOTISM—CONCLUSION
Our young priest came yesterday to pay a visit to me, and was kind enough to bring the lithographed exegesis of the Old Testament, used in the lessons at the seminary in Rome. It is in Latin, composed by a Jesuit, rather intelligent, not without acuteness, but of course quite unscientific, as its demonstration always tends to justify orthodoxy. It is not in the market, and it was interesting to me to ascertain on what principles instruction is carried on. However young Father Usmanowicz may be, he has suffered several disappointments. He considers it an injustice and an insult that he has been appointed parish priest here. His ambition was a professorship at the priestly school in Warsaw, and most likely he will manage to get it. He is refined and intelligent enough, if not too intelligent.
We had a good talk on many topics. Firstly, on the papers. Yesterday we had read aloud the last literary articles by Casimir Zalewski and Boguslawski, the first suggested by the panegyric upon Sardou, in the Figaro, by Henry Becques, the second by a feuilleton on the utility of criticism by Sarcey. The quantity of abstract out of date aesthetics in the papers is certainly caused by the oppression of the censorship. We spoke about the insane administration in this part of the country: to think that we are daily obliged to send for our letters to B⸺, and that the messenger may never bring a registered letter, only a notice that one is lying at the post-office for me. I am obliged to fetch it myself, and I mentioned the postmaster's answer to my complaint: "But no one from Krolewice has ever been here to make my acquaintance." Then we spoke of the price we pay for the delivery of telegrams; two rubles and twenty
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