with devotions, love and pity for all the disheartened and unfortunate, yet diffident of itself, humbled and sad, often crushed by the consciousness of its helplessness in face of such overwhelming evils—the noblest and most unfortunate heart that ever beat in man's breast.
Two periods are to be distinguished in the literary career of Vsevolod Garshin. The first is closely connected with his military career, and some of his best works of this period are the reproduction of his own military experiences during the Turkish war of 1877, in which he took part as a volunteer.
The motives which impelled this most kind-hearted of men to embrace the profession of arms are very characteristic of him, and of the class to which he belonged. The thirst for 'heroic exploits,'
