pear attractive. And novelists try so to represent him. I also tried. And, strange to say! such a representation, i.e. of a fornicator, a murderer (duellist or soldier), an utterly useless, idly moving about, fashionable buffoon, who appears attractive, does not require much art or effort. The readers of novels are, for the most part, exactly such men, and therefore readily believe that these Childe Harolds, Onyegins,[1] Messieurs de Camors,nd the like, are very excellent people.
V
The fact that the men of our time do not admit heathen abstinence and Christian self-renunciation to be good and desirable qualities, but, on the contrary, regard the augmentation of wants as good and elevated, is clearly proved by the education given to the vast majority of children in our society. Instead of accustoming them to temperance, like heathens, or to the self-renunciation proper to Christians, they are deliberately inoculated with habits of effeminacy, physical idleness, and luxury.
I have long wished to write a fairy tale of this kind: A woman, wishing to avenge herself on one who has insulted her, carries off her enemy's child, and, going to a sorcerer, asks him to teach her how she can most cruelly avenge herself on the stolen infant. The sorcerer bids her carry the child to a place which he indicates, and assures her that a most terrible vengeance will be the result. The incensed woman follows his advice, but, keeping her eye upon the child, is astonished to find that it is found and adopted by a wealthy, childless man. She goes to the sorcerer and reproaches him, but he bids her wait. The child grows up in luxury and effeminacy. The woman is perplexed, but again the sorcerer bids her wait. And at length the time comes when the wicked woman is not only satisfied, but even feels compassion for her victim, He grows up in the
- ↑ The hero of a Russian poem by Pushkin.—Tr.
